School.
It was the 1st day of a new high school and it was safe to say that I was absolutley shitting myself. One, because I hated school. And 2, Hunter was no doubt going to get into fights. He always did. In our old school, even though he had one on one lessons with a teacher, he still managed to make enemies. And he was pretty scary when he got into a real fight.
Chris was driving us to school, and he'd told Hunter to start making his way to the office because he wanted to have a word with me. I wasn't scared, because Chris wasn't scary and had never actually been mad at me. We had fights sometimes, but I loved him.
"What's up?"
"You didn't shout for me last night," he murmured; staring out ahead the window.
"Oh," I said quietly. "I was going to..it's just erm, Hunter woke up before it got too serious."
"He was screaming Kat,"
"Yeah and I was there for him," I shot back. "Chris I made sure he was ok. I knew what that dream was about, I knew what I needed to do. I woke him up, and he went to go shower. He came back into the room 30 minutes later, and he went back to sleep. He was ok."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah. Why are you getting at me for helping your son?"
"I'm not getting at you," he stated. "I just don't want you to get it into your head that you can handle it. You do realize that Hunter did physically attack me one time I tried to wake him up?"
"Yeah," I nodded. "You had a black eye for weeks,"
"And bruised bones," he added. "Do you think I want that to happen to you? Do you think he wants that to happen to you?"
"Hunter doesn't give a shit about me,"
"Don't swear,"
"Right," I smiled. "So what happens if you're on a night shift? You really think my Mom's gonna want to sit at Hunter's side and hold him? You think Hunter wants that? As much as he hates me, he'd rather me help him than my Mom."
"Kat I don't wanna fight-"
"And we're not. I'm just saying,"
*
I met this girl called Cassie and she introduced me to a bunch of her friends at lunch. There was Cassie, Josh, Lucy and Ash. They were all friends since babies, and they were all really nice. I was sat on the bleachers with Cassie and Ash and Lucy whilst watching Josh practise football. And then suddenly the conversation drifted from my reasons for moving, to the boy smoking in the corner.
"It's a no smoking zone," Cassie murmured. "But he's too hot to send him away,"
"He's nothing special," Ash muttered. He was Cassie's boyfriend, obviously he was going to snap back.
"Are you kidding?! Look at him. Mysterious, beautiful, really fucking beautiful, he's..he's-"
"My step brother,"
"What?!" Cassie shrieked. "Seriously, he's your step brother?!"
"Kinda. It's complicated,"
"How so?"
"He was adopted by Chris. Chris married my Mom. I guess it makes us adoptive step siblings but I just call him my brother,"
"That's cool," Lucy chirped. "What's his name?"
"Hunter,"
"That's weird," Ash mumbled.
"It's not his real name. It's his middle name,"
"Why do people call him that then?"
"Because his Dad changed his name when he was like 3," I explained. "I dunno what his name actually is. We try to keep his old life away from this one,"
"Oh," Lucy looked over to Hunter who took in another draw of the ciggarrette. I had no idea where he got them, but he always had loads of them. I didn't tell Chris, because Hunter said that if I did, he'd steal my beanie. And I happened to like my beanie. "Does he have a girlfriend?"
"Here we go.."
"No," I laughed. "And don't get your hopes up or anything. Hunter's completely anti-social. He wont be in any of your classes, and he'll probably punch you in the face if you say one word to him."
"Why?"
"He's just..he doesn't like people,"
"Oh. Sucks," she pouted. "Wait, has he ever actually punched you in the face?!"
"No, but we've had fights before,"
"Do you think he's hot?"
"What?!"
Meh, he was good looking.
*
"I think Josh likes you," Cassie smirked as we sat in Maths. I fucking hated maths. I just didn't get it. Why did you need to know what x equals?
"Ha," I laughed. "He's not even known me for 6 hours,"
"Yeah but he thinks you're cute,"
"Really?"
"And you think he's cute too by the looks of it," she smiled and I gave her a weird look. "What? You blushed,"
"I did not,"
"And there it is again," she giggled. "Don't you think he's cute?"
I thought over Josh. He had brown hair, was tall and muscular, was nice to me. Yeah, I guess he was cute.
*
"How was school?"
"Shit," me and Hunter said in union. We looked at each other for a minute before carrying on walking towards the door. I think Chris was going to say something about us swearing, but 2 overruled one and we were inside before he said anything.
"Hey kids," Mom smiled as she walked out from the kitchen. "Can we talk to you in here for a second?"
"Sure," I murmured and Hunter followed me into the kitchen. I jumped up onto the counter, and Hunter leaned on the fridge next to me. There was pasta cooking next to me and pizza in the oven. Which was a little weird because pasta was my favorite food, and pizza was Hunter's.
"Your Mom and I were thinking about going out tonight," Chris explained. "It's my first day at work tomorrow and we wanted to have a little celebrationary drink. We were just wondering if you 2 would be ok staying here on your own?"
"Yeah," I murmured. "We'll be fine,"
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah Mom. And you didn't have to cook the pasta or pizza,"
"Oh.."
*
As usual, Hunter didn't eat his food. Even though it was pizza; and believe me, the guy loved pizza like it was better than sex. But no, he just chewed at the ends of it and left a plateful. But I was more than happy to help him finish it up.
"Sure you don't want this?"
"No,"
"You sure?"
"I'm sure Kat,"
"Really? It's like, the best pizza ever."
"Just shut up!" Hunter snapped and shoved me away from him. We were sat side by side on the couch watching The Night Before Christmas because I loved Tim Burton. In all honesty, Hunter actually resembled a Tim Burton character. Skinny, pale, dark hair, huge eyes. Awh, he was a Tim Burton character.
"What's up with you?"
"You're pissing me off," he mumbled.
"Or you're just pissy,"
"Shut the fuck up, Taylors!"
"My name is not Taylors. That is my last name. My name is Kat."
"Great,"
"I know, right?"
"Seriously, just fuck off!" He growled and ran an impatient hand through his hair. His breathing increased a little and I could tell that he was getting angrier by the second. I didn't get why though. It wasn't like I was doing anything that incredibly annoying.
"So how was school?"
He took in a deep breath before replying. "Shit,"
"Same. Make any friends?"
"Yeah. Everyone loves me,"
"Hunter-"
"Just shut up, ok?!" He demanded. "Seriously, I don't wanna fucking talk!"
"Well why don't you just fuck off then?"
"If only,"
"Hunter-"
"Fuck off Kat,"
"God! No wonder Chris is on the edge of breaking," I hissed and stood up; taking my plate with me. I reached over for Hunter's and started making my way through to the kitchen but as soon as I got through the door, arms grabbed my wrist and forced me around. The plates dropped from my grip and shattered into tiny pieces on the floor.
"Hunter!"
"Shut the fuck up about Chris!" He growled.
"But it's true," I shot back. "You're driving him crazy! He's doing the best he can for you and you're just acting like an ungrateful piece of shit like always! Hunter, I know that you went through shit. But it's not happening anymore, is it? No! So get your act together and forget about it. Get over it for fuck sake!"
Shit. Shit shit shit.
"Hunter," I said quietly as I saw his facial expression turn completely into a cry for help. His lip almost quivered and his eyes were on the edge of watering. "Hunter, I didn't mean that. I'm so-"
Before i could finish, I fell to the floor as Hunter grabbed my shoulders and literally flung me across the room. I toppled over onto the glass and felt it pierce through the skin on my arm.
"Fuck! Hunter!" I screamed as I cradled my bleeding arm.
"You asked for it,"
"Fuck you!" And I grabbed his ankle along with his hand and pulled him down to the floor with me. He fell face down onto the glass, probably cutting along his stomach but he got up quickly to tackle me onto my back.
"Get off me!" I cried and thrashed my arms around his face. I clawed under his eyes and slammed my knee into his chest but he didn't budge. "Hunter, you're hurting me! Get off!"
And then looking into my watering eyes, he got up. Emotionlessly, he brushed the broken plate parts from his shirt and then he walked over to a cupboard.
"What are you doing?"
Hunter ignored me as he reached inside the cupboard and pulled out a bottle of vodka. I immediatley jumped to my feet and ignoring my bleeding arm, stumbled towards him.
"Hunter, what are you doing?!"
"Fucking off," he said as he slammed the door behind him.
*
3 hours and I'd done everything. I cleaned my arm up, bandaged it and threw on a hoodie to hide it from my Mom and Chris. I cleaned the mess up on the floor and put the broken plates into a bag, and into the bin outside. I wiped the drops of blood from the floor and then sat up on the counter. But I couldn't just sit there. I got down and started pacing the kitchen floor. But that wasn't enough. So I started breathing heavy and thinking about all of the things that Hunter could be up to.
I mean, it was Hunter. He was good looking, he was vulnerable and drunk. He was vulnerable and drunk. And some people would take advantage of that.
"Fuck this," I growled and made my way over to the front room. I grabbed my black beanie from the coat rack, slipped into some gloves and jumped into some converses.
God, I was gonna kill Hunter for this.
*
"Have you seen this boy?"
"Have you seen this guy in the photo?"
"Excuse me, have you seen this boy?"
"HUNTER?!"
Ugh, this was fucking exhausting. I'd been wandering around for God knows how long, been round every fucking street, was kinda lost, and there was still no sign of Hunter.
It actually kinda reminded me of the 1st time that we met. The first and only time that we actually had somewhat of a connection.
*
(Flashback: 2 years ago)
Hunter had ran off. Him and Chris had a fight and he ran off. Chris had been out looking for ages and now he was debating on whether to phone the police or not. I wanted to go look for him, but they wouldn't let me. So I said I was going to go and make a drink, then I crept out the back door.
It was freezing and raining and snowing and just, really cold. Hunter had ran out without a jacket and he must be so cold. I felt so bad.
I'd literally only been walking for 2 minutes before I saw a pale faced, dark haired boy sat across the corner. It was Hunter. And he was curled up against the wall with his knees to his chest, shivering like he had hyperthermia. So I did what anyone would do, I ran over to him.
"Hunter?"
He looked up at me with innocent green eyes. He was crying. He looked like he'd been crying for hours. And he was scared. He looked at me as if I was holding a knife to his throat. I wasn't going to hurt him, I just wanted to help him.
"Hunter?"
I walked closer towards him and his head quickly turned away from me. He looked to his hands which were shaking like mad, and I tried to be as careful as possible when I knealt down to him.
"My name's Kat," I said quietly. He looked angry as I said that, but innocent all the same. "Aren't you cold?"
He nodded a little, and then closed his eyes. It was quite adorable, as when he closed his eyes more tears ran down his face. He whimpered slightly and I pursed my lip.
"Do you wanna come back inside?"
He shook his head.
"Do you want me to stay with you?"
He shook his head.
"I don't care. You're coming inside. You'll get sick if you stay out here,"
He didn't answer, he just stared ahead.
"Hunter, I wont hurt you, I promsie. I don't know what happened to you but I know it's bad. I know you're scared. But I wont hurt you. You're stronger than me so even if I tried you'd probably kill me,"
"Come on," I smiled slightly and held my hand out. "Take my hand,"
Hunter was hesitant at first, but within a few moments his hand was clutching onto mine for dear life. As I started to pull myself up, he clung onto me as if he was afraid I were to disappear. He held onto my arm and my hand, shivering and breathing quickly.
"Come with me," I said as we looked into each other's eyes. We were around the same height, so it gave me a perfect level to look into him. He had really nice eyes. Green and watery and terrified and innocent.
As we turned the corner and I led Hunter towards the front door, he started to shake his head which was incredibly adorable. I think I just found him seriously cute. He was just, awh.
"It's ok," I assured him. "It's ok,"
*
( Present Time )
"Hunter? Oh my God!"
I dropped down to the floor and held onto the passed out boy as tight as I could. The bottle of vodka was at his side and it literally had 2 drops left in it. At his other side, it was obvious that he'd been throwing up. God, he'd probably given himself alcahol poisoning! You could freaking die if you drank that much!
"Hunter, wake up," I held him in my arms as his head lay down across my chest. He was breathing weird and was shaking like fuck. I slapped his cheek a few times but he wasn't moving. "Hunter, please..please wake up?"
"HUNTER?!"
*
{ AN } Here's a valuable piece of information. Never drink vodka unless it's mixed with something or in shots. One of my best friends did that one time, passed out, started coughing up weird white shit and we had to phone an ambulance. Police came and we all got in trouble for underage drinking (:
So yeye, never drink straight vodka unless it's mixed or a shot (:
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