Day Twenty-Three
Hunter smiled as she pushed herself tighter against Toni, the black haired girl sniggering a little as she ran a hand through the girl's blonde locks. The sun had started to rise around an hour ago but the teenagers had no intention of moving just yet, especially as they still were soaking in the peacefulness that had been created by their night of activities.
"Sorry, that was like some fucking weird Chewbacca yawn," Toni laughed after her yawn shook her whole chest, Hunter sniggering against her as she tried to hold back laughter at how strange it had sounded.
Hunter was sure that it would be fairly obvious to everyone once they got back that the girls had been doing more than just gathering lychees, since the huge red hickey on her neck didn't seem to want to be going anywhere.
"Are you worried about what will happen once we finally get off this island?" Hunter eventually murmured, so quiet that Toni almost missed it at first. "That everything will change."
Toni sat up a little, looking down at her girlfriend with nothing but sincerity in her eyes. She could tell from the way that Hunter had been unusually silent while they had been lying there that there was something running through the girl's mind but she wasn't sure what it was until now.
"Hey, regardless of what happens, you know nothing will change how amazing you are. Right?" Toni reassured her, knowing that Hunter was more worried about what would happen between them than what would happen once they got back to their homes. "Heck, not even your little bigoted Texan town that I know literally nothing about."
Hunter giggled at that, lightly pushing at Toni as she also sat up. Looking up with a sigh as she allowed herself one more second to soak in the rays of the sun, she turned to the girl with a small shrug. There wasn't much to say about their small town.
"There's not much to know," Hunter admitted as she fiddled with the band on her wrist, thinking to Hudson who must be stuck there going insane at the thought of Hunter having been missing for three weeks now. "Most of the folk who graduate from Fort Travis High never really want to leave the place, I know my parents certainly didn't - nor did Dot's dad or Shelby's parents. Heck, my dad even went to prom with Shelby's mom, although I don't think Shelby knows that."
"But not you?"
"Yeah, not me," Hunter admitted. "Hudson doesn't want to stay either. It's why he tries so hard with football, he just wants to get a free ride to literally any college thats so far away that he'll never need to come back. Me? I just wanted to get out with him. That's always been our plan - he'd go and I'd follow him wherever."
They sat there in silence for a moment as Hunter fiddled with the bracelet at little more, knowing that Toni was giving her a moment to compose herself. It was obvious that the thought of getting to go home was a conflicting one for Hunter - it meant going back to her twin, but it also meant going back to a town where she was seen as a villain, where her abusive ex's family were in charge of the police force and the school board. It meant returning to somewhere that she was no longer wanted.
"That's changed now, I think," Hunter continued, Toni looking up at her in surprise as the girl rose to her feet with a big stretch. "I love Hudson, but I might honestly take up Fatin on that offer of moving to LA. Just a fresh start, yanno?"
The girls were silent after that, both lost in their thoughts as they began to gather the lychees. They'd left the overs for long enough now, and Hunter knew that Shelby and Martha would likely have gotten back to camp too before the night had fallen. Did Hunter feel a little bad for having sex instead of taking the starving girls food? A little, she would admit. But at the same time, it was a sacrifice she was willing to make on their behalf.
Hunter hadn't been fully honest with Toni just there, and it was eating her up a little. She had only mentioned moving to LA with Fatin to see what Toni would say, if Toni would move in with her or give her any form of suggestion that she saw a future for them outside of this island. But Toni had remained silent, something that was instantly triggering the overthinking portion of Hunter's brain.
And it wasn't Toni's fault. It wasn't really Hunter's either. It was Riley's.
Everything had changed for Riley and Hunter's relationship after they had sex for the first time. He was no longer gentle with her in their day to day life, and while he had never done anything to her in a sexual manner that wasn't consensual - thank god - his anger and abusive actions had all started after they'd shared that first night together.
Maybe she should have told Toni her fears, but the way the girl didn't seem to even mention a future in which they were together and fighting their home issues together. She simply just told Hunter that she was always going to be amazing - and while Hunter tried to tell herself she was overreacting she was just so fucking worried that once they got off this island that would be it.
That they'd all return to their average lives, doing their average day to day activities and getting stuck in their average towns. They were plane crash survivors, they were more than just nine basic teenagers who had suffered something horrible, they were more than just high school kids who met on a holiday trip. They were too changed to just go back to being average.
Her and Toni were more than just average. And Hunter was fucking terrified that going home was going to ruin the purest thing she'd experienced in a long time.
"Come on, let's grab a bunch of these and head back," Toni said, interrupting Hunter's thinking. "I'm thinking we're their only hope for a little sustenance."
Hunter nodded, her heart sinking further into her stomach with every small thought her brain sent thorough her.
___
Leah lay in the uncomfortable bed as she stared up at the cameras, waiting for the perfect moment to go into the bathroom and feel for the note that Shelby had slipped to her.
Standing up and moving into the bathroom, the girl stepped just out of view of the camera as she reached up finally, her hand tucking against the crumpled paper as she read the words with a rushing heart beat.
You were RIGHT.
Leah knew she was right about something now, for sure. Hunter had already alerted her to her own suspicions about the men that had been interrogating them and now Shelby being paranoid was another huge warning sign for her.
Her and Hunter had already agreed with their coded letters that they would act together - and Leah knew that had to be as soon as they could. Every minute now was a minute wasted.
She started writing, knowing that the agents would be around soon to see her. Knowing that they'd be around to see Hunter afterwards too - the perfect time for them to unknowingly deliver her the perfect coded note.
___
"Oh, and you guys thought you'd be saving the day!" Shelby called out as she noticed Hunter and Toni walking across the sand in silence with their arms full of what she instantly recognised as lychees.
"Yeah," Hunter joked, a smile on her face as she noticed the huge goat that was lying on the sand. Seemed like Martha had a change of heart after all - or Shelby had killed the goat without waiting for Martha's approval perhaps. But the fact that Shelby was spotless made Hunter assume that it had been poor, innocent Martha who had taken the animal's life. "Just had to upstage us, huh?"
"Where were you guys?" Dot asked before looking up at them, her eyes narrowing a little in disbelief as she noticed the large hickey on Hunter's neck that had not been there when they left camp the morning before. Rachel snickered a little as she grabbed at the lychees once the girls dropped them on the ground, knowing that Toni and Hunter were not able to explain themselves. "Actually, I don't think I want to know."
"We got lost and thought it would be safer to camp out than hike in the dark," Toni said, the two girls on the ground nodding even though they didn't believe her. She was a good liar, but Hunter was giving it all away. Hunter had just noticed where Martha was sitting, covered head to toe in dried blood and she instantly knew that there was a lot going on in Toni's best friends head.
Shelby was hacking into the goat as Toni walked over to Martha, Hunter dropping her little bag on the floor before looking around at the tide. Turning back around, she noticed how Leah seemed to be more twitchy than usual, seeing how her hand was almost itching to reach up to her eyebrows and pluck at them.
They made eye contact for a brief moment and Hunter knew that something was going to happen soon. Leah had decided something wasn't right and Hunter knew there was no convincing her otherwise. But as much as Hunter had grown to love Leah, she wasn't going to make the same mistake twice. If Leah was going to lash out again, Hunter wasn't putting herself in the firing range this time.
She had enough unresolved trauma running through her head today - she didn't need Leah punching her in the face again.
___
When Agent Young brought Hunter the letter from Leah, Hunter was a little surprised to say the least. A lot of the letter wasn't coded - but that just made it easier for her to read while the Agent was still standing in her room.
Shelby had visited Leah. Shelbald has visited Hunter AND Leah. And now Leah was sending her another coded letter with one bit of information: block the door from locking as Agent Young left.
Hunter wasn't sure how to go about doing it, but just as Agent Young was leaving her room she rushed forward. He turned around just before shutting the door and upon hearing her footsteps growing closer behind him, raising an eyebrow in surprise at the girl's sudden desperation that was across her face.
"Agent Young, when is the quarantine order going to be lifted? I just need to see her," Hunter said, purposely speaking softly as she indicated the one person she knew they had been waiting for her to ask about. "I need to tell her that it wasn't her fault."
"Don't worry, you'll get the chance to speak to Toni soon," he told her with a gentle smile, feeling sorry for the girl as his eyes dropped to the ragged scar across her jawline - knowing that Toni was blaming herself for it. "But until then, just stay put."
As Agent walked down the hall, believing the door had clicked back into place, Hunter let out a small smile. Staying put was the last thing she was planning on doing.
___
Fatin and Hunter sat in silence as Hunter slowly peeled at one of the lychees, looking at where Toni was sitting by herself on the cliff edge. Toni was aware that something was up with Hunter since they'd slept together, but she didn't understand why the girl was now avoiding her.
"Fine, I'll bite since you obviously aren't in the mood to just tell your best friend," Fatin sighed dramatically as she threw one of the skins of her lychee at Hunter who squirmed as she tried to flick it off her. "What the fuck is up with you? I thought you'd be all over Toni since you were last night clearly."
Hunter shrugged a little, trying not to make eye contact with Fatin as she continued peeling at the lychee in her hand. The other girl stared at her hard, not having known her to not cave in suddenly and tell her what was going on in her mind. It seemed like whatever was wrong with Hunter wasn't something that she wanted to really talk about - and that gave Fatin a good idea as to the source of whatever was bothering her.
"Hunts," her voice softly murmured, the girl opposite her knowing exactly what was coming. "Is this about him?"
"Of course it's about him!" Hunter snapped as she threw her lychee to the sand, not meaning to snap but feeling all of the emotions that she had bottled to the surface rising. "Everything good is fucking tainted now because of him, and I just can't stop overthinking every little thing."
"Hunter..."
"Fatin, we had sex okay. We had sex and now I can't stop thinking about how good I and Riley were until we had sex and then everything changed! And I know Toni isn't like him, I do but I just can't stop thinking about it and I just don't want to put her through this and-"
Fatin leaned forward, wrapping her arms around her friend and mumbling soothing noises into her ear as Hunter tried to calm herself down. She knew she needed to go speak to Toni but she was too afraid it would turn out like it had before with Riley.
They sat there for a moment, wrapped around each other in nothing but solidarity. Hunter knew that she wouldn't survive long without these girls once they got back to the real world - but she knew it was also because of them that she would manage it. She was going to manage high school without them, knowing that once she graduated she'd have the freedom to see them again, regardless of where in the country they were.
So she took a deep breath and allowed Fatin to wipe her tears. She wasn't the same Hunter Boyd who first landed on the island. She wasn't the girl who would let her problems eat her up anymore.
Holding her head high, Hunter headed up to where Toni was sitting waiting on her. Entering what might have been one of the last blissful moments they'd get to spend together.
//.//
Omg so this next chapter will be the last one until we get season 2!!! Which is so crazy to say but oaft I cannot wait.
I've been a bit slow with updating recently just cause I've got a lot of college work to do but I really felt like I had to get this published today!