**a/n— a lot of new characters are introduced here and more are coming, but they play some important roles later on!!**
Hunter's POV
What was going on?
Roommate?
There was no way all of the sudden she just showed up and said she was moving in. It didn't matter if it was temporary—it was weird, and definitely not a coincidence.
"Addie," I waved her over after I saw Danielle go into the bathroom. "What did you do?" I got straight to the point
"What do you mean 'what did you do?' I did nothing," she mimics me.
"Don't lie, how did you get her here?" I crossed my arms and thought about what she could've done. Knowing her she probably did something ridiculous.
"I had nothing to do with this." she defends but I can see the smile she's trying to hide.
"Addie," I gave her a glare.
"Ok, ok, maybe I did do something..." she admits.
"What did you do?" I asked again.
She takes in a breath, "I may or may not have put a rat in her room, but who says that's what I did because maybe–"
"You did what?" I whisper yelled.
She pauses and looks at me, "There might be an eight inch rat sitting in her bedroom right now." she smiles.
My eyes widened, "You can't be serious." She gave me a shrug telling me that she was. "How did you do that?"
"Well I might've had a connection, see the rat isn't quite mine, it's my uncle's," she explained.
"Who's your uncle?" I asked.
"Greg,"
"The security guard?" Now I was interested in what she had to say.
"Yeah," she nodded, "He's quite...unique if
you say. You see, I called him earlier today and asked him to bring over Macie, his pet rat, and put it in Dani's room."
"You're unbelievable," I rolled my eyes.
"I am only trying to help, and you better believe that I'm willing to help you two in the best way I can." she countered.
"So putting a rat in her room was the best way to help?" I pointed out.
"Yes, and I think it worked perfectly." she smiled. "You know I think I deserve a reward." she continues.
"A reward?" I tilted my head.
"Yes. A little something for my helpful contributions to your relationship, I was thinking maybe money, preferably in cash." she explained.
"You want money?"
"Yep. Twenty dollars and I won't tell her," she threatened.
"She's gonna find out anyways, you know that right?" I reasoned.
"Yeah, but I'm also broke so..." She held out her hand and motioned me to pay up. I took my wallet out of my pocket and handed her a crisp twenty dollar bill.
"Addie!" I heard as I put my wallet back. I turned and saw Dani standing on the other side of the room, waving Addison over.
"I wish you the best." she says before walking over to Dani.
You are one crazy chick Addison Costa.
~~~~~
It had been about an hour since those two left and Cal and I were sitting in the apartment. He decided to call Addison back for dinner and we sat down at the counter to eat a half an hour later.
"Cal," I called out, "Are you going to the night sesh tonight?" I asked in between bites.
"Probably," he said before taking another bite.
"What's a night sesh?" Addison asked in between us.
"The rink is open 24/7 so some of the guys put in a little extra practice at night." I said.
"It's mostly on weekdays." Cal adds.
She nods at our explanation, "Can I go?" she asks and takes a pause, "To watch I mean."
Cal laughs, taking another bite, "Yeah, because I would love to see you on skates. You can barely walk on the sidewalk without tripping." he jokes.
"Hey!" She hits him on the shoulder, "You never know, I could be an amazing skater. Maybe even better than Dani," she says sarcastically.
I let out a laugh at this but quickly shut my mouth.
"You think I'm joking?" she pushes.
"I know you are." I countered.
"Wait, since when could Dani skate?" Cal butts in. I look over at him and see a confused expression on his face.
Did she not tell him?
"You don't know?" I asked.
"Know what?"
"Dani used to do figure skating when she was younger. She was pretty good too." Addison explains.
"How come she never told me about that?" he scrunched his eyebrows together. I gave him a shrug and turned back to my food. "And how do you know and I don't?" he asks.
I give him a glance before fully looking at him, "Who? Me?" I pointed at myself.
"Yeah, you Hunter." he confirms.
I paused. Shit. Shit. Shit. "Uhm—because..."
"It doesn't matter, are we going to this night sesh or not?" Addie changes the topic.
Thank god.
I was silent for a moment, "Yeah, it's in an hour," I said checking my phone.
Cal got up and put his plate in the sink before walking out of the kitchen. As I heard his door shut I felt bad knowing that he was the only one in the dark, the only one who didn't know what was going on, the only one who had no idea.
It wasn't fair.
~~~~~
I got on the ice at around nine and all the others were right behind me. Most of the guys who showed up were here tonight so we had a pretty typical practice.
One thing I loved about these night sessions is that everyone knows about it but the only non-teammate we have, who is also unfortunately our captain. Practice without Ryan actually feels like practice and not a constant struggle to play.
There was no more arguing over plays and I could always expect a pass back if I was open. The rest of the team played smart, and played hard—Ryan just played selfishly.
We took the practice seriously for a little over an hour before we started fooling around. Carter was always the first to start it up, ironic because he's always serious during game time, but off ice—forget about it. First it would be a silly trick shot and then he would balance the puck on his stick before whacking it like a baseball.
Of course, it never went anywhere but then we had a whole competition to see who could get it the furthest. Briggs, aka Solomon Briggs, our right defenseman, was up next after a decent try from Carter. He balanced the puck on his stick, tossed it up, and took a swing at it, completely missing the puck.
"Hah! Missed that shot like Selly missed his shot with his girl last night!" Carter joked.
The whole team turned around at this. "Selly has a girl?" I asked.
"Since when has Selly ever talked to a chick?"
"Wow, Selly's gettin' some?"
"Shut up." he shook his head.
I turned down the ice and called out to Cal and Marty, our goalie, "Hey Marty! Cal! You're hearing this right!"
Marty took off his helmet, "What!" he shouted back.
"Selly's got a girl!" I laughed. I never saw the two skate over faster.
Jason Sellers was a quiet kid, never spoke much. He was the little kid on our team, just turning nineteen a couple weeks ago. He happened to also be the shortest of all of us, making him an easy target to tease and we did it all the time, but that didn't take away from his talent. The kid was fast and quick, it wasn't hard for him to out skate someone.
"You have to tell us everything man!" Briggs demanded as we skated to the bench. We sat down and Selly started to explain, he was a little shaky at first but got better as the story went on.
Apparently Carter brought Selly along to a party the other day, claiming he needed to get out of the house, and while at the party this chick named McKenna was all up on Selly. Sitting next to him, touching his shoulder, getting him drinks, all of that. By the end of the night Carter assumed Selly was going to leave with her but he never did.
"So what'd you do?" Marty asks.
"She wanted to go home with me but I turned her down," he shrugged.
Briggs gasped, "Why'd you do that!" He threw his hands up.
"She was trying too hard...and she wasn't even my type," he admitted. "Too blonde, too tan, and way too short. I know I'm the short one here but 5'2 is..." He didn't even finish his sentence rolling his eyes.
"So Selly likes his women tall, got it." Carter pretends to write down a note on his hand. We all laugh at the gesture.
"Oh and another thing, she wouldn't shut up about herself. I was sick of it." he rolled his eyes and got back onto the ice.
"Sounds just like Ryan's type, why don't you pass her over." I joked, stepping off the bench. My words were followed by a whole lot of laughter from the others. I smiled at myself before skating over to Callum who was at the side of the rink with Addie.
Another girl accompanied her by her side and I wondered who she was. She had dark, pin straight hair, and dark eyes from what I could see. I gave her a smile before turning towards Cal and Addison.
"Who's this?" I whispered pointing behind me.
Addison straightens up from her slumped over position, "Oh, Hunter, Cal, this is Allie, I just met her—an hour ago." she says checking her imaginary watch.
I turn back to the girl who gives me a small wave. I remember hearing about an Allie before, "Carter's girlfriend?" I asked.
"Yep." she nodded, "Do you mind calling him over for me? My voice isn't the best." She coughs into her elbow. I turn around and call over Carter who's quick to skate over.
"Allie!" He leans over the boards and gives her a peck. "What're you doing here, I thought I told you to stay home!" he complained.
"I don't need to be put on bed rest Doc," she crossed her arms. I laughed and turned around to my friends. Addie had her head leaning against Cal's chest and I looked back and forth between each couple.
I'm so single.
I rolled my eyes and skated around for another twenty minutes before we all left. It was around twelve when we got back and the other two went straight to bed. I stayed up for a while, not feeling that tired.
I passed by the living room and almost tripped over the suitcase on the ground. I almost forgot about the visitor we have. Speaking of her, where is she? It's pretty late.
Why am I worrying? I'm sure she's fine.
Walking out onto the balcony I took out a cigarette from my pocket and lit it. I sunk back against the brick wall and away from the light—I'm sure if someone came out here they wouldn't be able to see me.
After around five minutes I take another one out and light it, throwing the other one to the ground. As I put my lighter away I hear the sliding door open and someone walk out. I knew who it was as soon as they leaned across the railing, but I didn't want to say anything—not yet at least.
"People suck..." I saw her head drop.
I laughed at this, "You could say that again," I saw her jump back at my voice and I realized what I did, "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." I said, putting the cigarette back in my mouth.
She didn't say anything for a moment, but I could see her eyes trained on me. I couldn't really tell what she was looking at, but when her eyes trailed off to the smoke I knew. "Not into smokers?" I stared out into the dark, "Or smoking?"
"It's not gonna fix all your problems," she scoffed.
I thought about it—in fact I thought about it all the time. This was only a temporary solution, but it seemed to be doing its job. I sighed and dropped the cigarette on the ground, putting it out with my foot. "How would you know that?" I asked.
"Why don't you ask yourself?" This catches me a little off guard and I give her a quick look. "Has it solved all your problems?"
"Partially," I tell her, leaning against the railing.
She was quiet for a moment before responding, "Then I guess there's your answer." she said, so quietly I barely picked it up.
I let out a small breath before staring back out over the railing. We didn't say another word for a while, but it was oddly comforting, the silence between us. It was like we were exchanging a million thoughts without a sound.
It bugged me that there was so much tension out here, it was almost suffocating. I wanted right now to spill everything out for good, but I knew it wasn't the right time, she didn't want to, and the more I thought about it the more I realized how bad of an idea it was. The last time I tried to bring it up, it didn't go so well.
So we just stood there, in silence, suffocating silence, out in the dark. No words, no cars, no sound, nothing but the wind and the cold.
"It's late..." She finally breaks the silence and I turn towards her.
"Yeah." I pushed myself off the railing and followed her inside. Walking into my room I could still feel her eyes piercing my back like a knife until I shut the door.
I went into the bathroom and turned on the shower. I was weirdly energetic, even though I've been up for as long as all the others, I didn't feel an ounce of exhaustion. When I got out of the shower I was surprised to see the lights still on outside.
I opened my door and saw the kitchen lights were still turned on. I looked over and saw no one on the couch, this made me curious, was she still up?
I walked towards the kitchen and saw Dani with her arms crossed beneath her, her head resting against the counter, eyes shut, and a bag of cereal on the counter. Slowly, I strolled up next to her and tapped her shoulder. She didn't move as I expected so I took the bag of cereal and put it back in the cabinet.
Carefully I picked her up from the stool and carried her out of the kitchen, walking past the living room I pushed my door open with my foot. I laid her down in my bed and pulled the covers up. I couldn't let her sleep on the couch.
She didn't deserve that.
•
•
•
•
•
what a gentleman Hunter...now if only men were like this in real life.
i honestly love making him a sweetheart and caring ughhhh
but thoughts about Hunter???
please comment and vote
feedback is very helpful and appreciated!!
ily guys and see you soon! (disappears for three years)
kidding.....i would never