The Wrong Choices

27. I'm hooked.

"Thank you," I reach up to hug her.

"Should we tell her?" Mum says, smirking deviously as I cut a slice of cake for an impatient Bella. ("I only got one slice of cake today.")

"What?" I say, taking a bite of the cake. It's sponge, with chocolate chips in it and a hint of mint because God knows that mint and chocolate is the best combination that the world has ever seen.

"Lil, we haven't given you any birthday presents in seven years because you just wouldn't take them," Dad explains and I nod, not really sure where this is going. "Well we- that is: your mother; Sandra; Theo; Uncle Jim and I- made a bank savings account in your name and every year, we each put money in it. Now we want to hand it over to you. It's yours and we'd like you to use it for college or whatever you want to do when you finish school next year."

"Wha- I.... How much is there?" I ask, my curiosity getting the better of me.

"In all? Well there's almost five thousand."

"I... I can't take it," I utter, looking down uncomfortably at my hand scrunching and un-scrunching a piece of my school skirt.

"You can and you will," Sandra states and I widen my eyes in alarm at her stern tone.

"What Sandra means," Mum says, eyeing Sandra strictly, "is that we want you to take this for the sake of your future. It's not selfish of you to take it, in fact, you'd be doing us a favour so we wouldn't have to worry about you." I open my mouth to say something but she cuts in. "You don't have to take it right now if you don't want to. You can leave it until you finish school but there's no way in hell that we're taking the money back."

I feel a smile creeping onto my face. "But how am I supposed to thank you guys?"

"Knowing that we've made a difference is enough thanks, love," Dad says.

"God, you lot are so soppy," I joke, earning a laugh. I'm getting that feeling again, that one of genuine happiness and I think maybe- just maybe- people aren't all that bad.

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"Ice skating?"

"Yes, ice skating," Hunter tells me. "C'mon, you really thought I was going to let you off with a measly hug?"

In hindsight, I should really have expected this. In all the time that I've known him, he has never been the sort of person to let things go just like that. Like the time he got really drunk and I got really angry. He wouldn't stop until I told him what was wrong.

"Seriously?" I say skeptically.

"Well, yeah. You'll love it. It's an hour away but we can get the bus. Come on," he says, seeing the incredulous look on my face, "we'll make a day of it. It'll be great!"

"Okay," I say, giving in to his pleading. "But I don't have ice skates."

"Yeah, neither do I," he says, grinning and I feel a smile creeping onto my own face, mirroring his.

I was eating my breakfast when Hunter rang the doorbell ten minutes ago. The first thing I noticed when I opened the door was Hunter's haircut. It's freshly cut so that it's tighter to his head at the sides and for some reason, it makes me notice his ears more. Not that there's anything wrong with Hunter's ears. There's nothing wrong with any part of Hunter.

"Oh yeah, I got it done this morning. What do you think?" He asked when I noticed his hair.

"It looks great."

The fact that he wanted to know what I thought puzzled me and I frowned, smiling at him. That was when he asked me to go ice skating with him and, eventually, I accepted. I then asked Mum, who was more than happy to let me go because there's too many people around the house anyway, what with Sandra moving in.