As soon as Lisa left our house I went straight to my room. For the rest of the day I was going to work on the song I made for dad because tomorrow marks one year of his terrible passing. All of us are going to his grave to visit him and give him some presents.
"Ronnie, I'm going grocery shopping. Ivan's in his room if you need him."
"Okay, mom."
"Do you want anything?"
"Blueberry muffins and chocolate milk please."
"Okay, I'll be back in 20 minutes."
"See you later, Marilyn."
"Veronica, what did I tell you about calling me that?"
"See you later, mom." I correct.
She smiles, then leaves.
Getting up with my guitar and my song book in my hands, I go to the backyard to soak in some sun.
I sit on the ground, leaning on a big shady tree and start playing, without a care in the world.
"You play lovely." I hear.
I scream in fright looking at Hunter.
"How did you get in?!"
"The fence was open. Ivan told me you love to play guitar so I knew it was you, also, I was hoping to talk to you."
"I don't want to talk to you." I mumble, getting up and going inside the house, trying to get away from Hunter. I was still embarrassed because of what happened yesterday.
Hunter ended up following me inside.
"I just want you to explain to me what happened yesterday."
"Ivan!" I yell out his name.
He immediately comes running down the stairs.
"What's wrong?" He frantically asks.
"Hunter? What are you doing here?" He says when he see's him.
"I came to talk to Veronica."
"It's Ronnie! Now leave!" I exclaim getting angry.
I regret screaming at him because his facial expression immediately changed from happy to hurt.
"Hunter, I think you have to go." Ivan says.
"I'll see you later, Ivan." He tells him, then faces me.
"I'm sorry for bothering you Veronica."
Hunter starts making his way to the door.
"Wait."
He turns with a light smile on his face.
"I'm sorry for screaming at you."
"It's okay."
"Want to stay for some coffee or something?" I ask.
"Coffee?" Ivan burst out, laughing.
"What's wrong with coffee?"
"You're seventeen Ronnie not forty. You ask something like do you want to stay and watch a movie. Something teenagers do." Ivan says.
"Sorry, I haven't had a friend in a long time I don't know what to do."
"I'd love some coffee." Hunter says.
"Follow me into the kitchen."
And he does.
"Can we talk now?" He asks, once I'm done making the coffee.
"I don't want to." I mumble, passing him a mug.
"Why?"
"Because I don't want to."
"But why?" He pesters on.
"Because Hunter what I go through is none of your business and I don't appreciate some stranger trying to get me to talk to him as if we've known each other our whole lives."
He looks down at his mug, then back up at me.
"Let's start new."
"How?"
"I'll pretend what happened yesterday didn't happen and when you're ready to open up to me I'm all ears."
I wanted to tell him that's why I have a shrink and that I didn't need him, but he seemed so happy with the thought.
"Let's start new." I say.
He smiles a breathtaking smile, causing my poor heartbeat to accelerate.
"Why do you want to be friends with me though?"
"Because you're special to me."
"How am I special if you've only known me less than forty eight hours?"
"You just are."
All of a sudden lightning struck loudly, causing me to flinch.
"It's going to rain hard so I guess I can stay longer." Hunter says.
Then I remembered about Marilyn. Grabbing my phone I call her.
"Yes?" She answers calmly.
"You have to get home already Marilyn. It's going to start raining hard any minute."
"I'm at Arthur's place."
"What?"
"I was just visiting him. I'm going to stay here until it calms down."
"Fine."
I hang up and look back at Hunter.
"So..." But he's interrupted by the electricity going out.
"Son of a bitch." I mutter.
Using the flashlight on my phone I take Hunter's hand, leading him up the stairs to my room. When we pass Ivan's room, I open his door, he's just talking on the phone with someone.
"Hey!" He says as I was about to close the door.
"Yeah?"
"Leave your door open and talk in loud voices. I don't want silence coming from your room." He says, sounding like a father.
"Will do." Hunter says.
When we enter my room I lay on my bed.
"Ow!" Hunter says as he bumps into something.
I point the flash at him.
"What happened?"
"The corner of your desk jabbed into my thigh."
He sits on the couch that's right beside my bed.
"Can I see your guitar?" He asks.
"Yeah." I pass it to him.
It was too dark to see what he was doing with it.
My eyes widen as he starts strumming it and starts playing 'The Scientist'.
My heart melts when he starts humming along to the beat. I can honestly say now that Hunter is truly perfect.
When he's done playing he just messes around.
"You play beautifully." I tell him.
"Thanks." He replies.
"How long have you've been playing?"
"Six years already."
"Any request?" He asks.
"Yes! Play 'Sexy Back'!" Ivan shouts from his room.
"Idiot." I mutter, getting up to close the door then lay back on my bed.
"Do you know any Beatles tunes?"
"Are you kidding? They're the reason I started playing the guitar."
This guy literally gets perfect by the minute.
"Play me 'Something' please."
He starts strumming the guitar to 'Something' when he gets to the middle I start singing along, lowly.
"We should become a duo." He says.
"As tempting as that sounds, I don't think I have the confidence to sing in front of anybody else. It's a miracle, I just did it in front of you."
"Too bad we would've been a bad ass duo. Now, since I played you two songs you have to play me a song." He says passing me my guitar.
I decide to do another Beatles ballad. 'All My Loving'.
I start playing it and singing along.
When I'm done, I hear clapping, but not from Hunter.
"I can't believe you sang in front of someone else other than us!" I hear Ivan say.
"Ivan stop eavesdropping!"
"I can't. The walls remember?"
Hunter's chuckling is what brought me back to him.
For the rest of the day Hunter and I talked about simple things like our favorite movies, color, food, etc...