Chapter 29: Paths Along The Constellations or No Sugar Before Dinner
"He and I collided, like two predestined stars—and in that brief exchange, I felt what it was like to be immortal."-Lang Leav
Look at the picture and the quote! Too beautiful. I own both of her poetry books. Please more than 350 comments before next update! Can it get as much love as Chapter 27 cuz wow! PLEASE VOTE AND COMMENT!! Those are my motivation trust me!
December’s Pov.(Not edited) Kinda a filler
The thing those people had in common were that they all wanted to hurt Hunter in some way, even himself. The snake and bunny. I finally know what that meant now. Hunter has told me plenty of times that people saw him as the evil; the snake, that is tempting innocence but I didn’t think so.
The snake was Hunter and I was the bunny. Although phantasmagoric, the bunny symbolizes innocence but in my dream why would it kill the snake usually it would be the other way around. Now I know that I’m not some type of psychic but was this omen that I was somehow going to be the one to hurt Hunter?
I shook the thought out of my head and looked back at the boy who was now standing right in front of my face and sliding his hand on my hip.
“Is that what you want?” He whispered leaning closer with his eyes completely open. He liked me? Truly I knew the answer, I just didn’t want to accept the fact that he’s actually into me.
“I—” my words were caught in my throat by his question. Did I? Why even lie to myself and him, of course I did.
“Yes,” I spoke making it official I guess.
“Then you’re mine, there’s no denying it.” He smiled and before I even had a chance to smile back his lips attacked mine. His other arm slipped around my waist lifting me up because I was super short compared to him. His lips were soft and dry like they always were and they tasted like he had been eating chocolate chip cookies.
But my mind drifted back to Ryan’s words to me. He said ‘Why would I kill my most prized possession.’ He talked as if Hunter was an inanimate object to do with what he wanted. As if he could control Hunter. I understand that he was his most prized thief, but why would he refer to his brother as a possession? That didn’t sit right with me. Why did Ryan want Hunter so bad? Why couldn’t he just train Kalian or Isabella? Or some other innocent kid?
And he kept insinuating that Hunter loved me. Didn’t he know that he actually succeeded in compelling his brother into not believing in love? But I do know that Hunter likes me a lot and I feel the same about him. I knew that I was a little late to be thinking about these things seeing how its been weeks since I was taken by Ryan. But the group never gave me a chance to think about it.
Ryan vilified his brother. He tried to hurt me by telling me to mistrust Hunter but I don’t think I have it in me. If he lied it would hurt, but I’m sure he has a good reason for it.
“December?” I heard Hunter call out when I finally broke from my reverie. When my eyes focused on him I realized that his lips were no longer on mine and he was staring at me with an eyebrow raised.
“Huh?” I muttered unintelligently, blinked up rapidly, my arms sliding down from around his neck to my sides.
“Your lips kind of stopped moving and you were staring into space with an adorable frown.” He placed a couple of his fingers under my chin to lift it up to look at him. “What’s up?”
I took for granted how attentive Hunter was about how I was feeling until now. I never realized how much he cared about what I was thinking.
“Oh nothing, I—just—why does Ryan consider you a possession?” I know this was a terrible moment to bring up something so hard to talk about for Hunter, but it was wracking my brain. I ruined an intimate moment, but with Hunter’s prurient mindset there will be plenty more; especially now that he’s my boyfriend. Still a weird thought.
Was he going to tell people? Or did he want this to be a down-low thing because he’s known for never having a girlfriend? Will this be basically a ‘friends with benefits’ type of situation? Relationships were meant to be for two people not the world anyway, but I was a little perplexed because he and I both were new at this. My mind was wandering too much, the question I asked was about Ryan.
“Because basically that’s what I was.” He sighed pulling me with him while he lay back on his bed. “I was so subservient. It would only make sense for him to think of me that way. But I’m not anymore. As long as I’m concerned we’re no longer even brothers. We are only connected because of the blood that runs through us and our mom.”
I hesitated but I felt like he should know what some of his brother said. When I initially got back from being taken, I didn’t really divulge into the specifics because I knew:
A. Hunter would do something rash/stupid
B. No one would let me
“He said he was going to give you time. He didn’t tell me time for what because he said you already knew. But he just said you understand already." I think he honestly knew that already so I changed the subject.
"So uhm you liked me when I was younger?" I expected bashfulness maybe even blushing even if it’s slight. But then again that wasn’t Hunter—only when his mom insinuates something.
“Yeah” He shrugged and pulled me close. “I’ve always been attracted to what good, I couldn’t have. Maybe that’s why stealing for my brother was so easy? It was things we couldn’t afford—things worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. I never took a dime. But it was the satisfaction of being good at something ya know?”
“You’re good at a lot of things.” I whispered placing my hand on his cheek and looking him in the eyes.
“Oh I know, and I’ll be the one to demonstrate what I’m good at on you.” And there he goes, turning a perfectly innocent conversation into something dirty.
His breath tickled against my neck and he pressed his lips against it tenderly.
“Hunter,” his mom knocked breaking the intimate moment before walking in.
We jumped apart immediately, but the damage was done. “This is not what it looks like,” I screamed at the same time Hunter said “this is exactly what it looks like.” I turned to him with a look of embarrassment and disbelief on my face.
I put my hand on my face and fell back into the bed “You are such an idiot.”
I could tell he had a smile on his face when he said “But I’m your idiot now.” That was true.
***
You can cancel whatever thoughts and plans you have in your head about the future because I for one believe that we don’t have any say in it. Life is already mapped out amongst the stars. We are paths along the constellations that are bound to happen. Sure, what we do will reflect our future but maybe the future was going to be like that rather you chose a different route or not.
In a way I think I was destined to meet Hunter, whether or not I wanted to. It was kismet, predestined, providential, maybe even serendipitous, but it was just the way my life was suppose to work.
“I’m gonna take you on a date since you’re mine now.”
We had long grown bored of sitting in his room, especially after his mom said “No sugar before dinner. It’ll rot your teeth. Or in this case end up with a teen pregnancy.” This caused Hunter’s cheeks to turn red a little before whining “Mooom.”
“So then, where are we going?”
“Well we could skip right to the bedroom?” He offered while we were walking to the jeep.
“Do you not remember what your mom said?” I queried hopping into the passenger seat.
I noticed Hunter’s cheeks turn a little before he completely changed the subject “I still need to teach you how to drive.”
“I can drive! Just not very well. I’m fine with just riding along.”
“That’s alright if you just like to ride” He winked at me causing me to turn away in embarrassment at his innuendo. “Along,” He added just for giggles.
We ended up at a small house on the more older people part of town. I was confused on why we would be over here but I loved learning anything about Hunter, regardless. He was such an enigma.
We passed the houses that all looked differently and were paint various colors. There were numerous old people out; they were walking, grabbing papers from their lawns having conversations, etcetera.
Hunter placed his hand over mine comfortingly and I smiled up at him, not asking a single question just enjoying the ride.
When we pulled into a driveway, the woman came out from the house. She was older with silver hair and although she was old she didn’t look frail. She looked in shape and very healthy.
Hunter got out the car, quickly moving to my side to open my door for me.
As we walked up the older lady he quickly took her into an embrace even though he was towering over her short petite form.
“Grandma, this is December, my girlfriend.” My eyes started to water at the fact that he thought I was special enough to bring to his grandma. She threw her arms around me and pulled me into a hug that I returned with a genuine laugh.
“It’s nice to meet you December! Let’s head inside and do the stereotypical stuff like showing you embarrassing pictures of Hunter, Muse, and the Devil.” She ushered us into the house and it gave off the same vibe as Hunter’s home. Comfort-ability.
“The devil?” I wondered out loud.
“Oh, Ryan, dear. Nothing but the devil in his soul,” Hunter’s Grandma continued.
“Grandma,” Hunter warned with a smile. I feel as if Hunter’s Grandmother knew more about the situation between the two boys than their mom.
“Okay, we won’t talk about him today.” She rolled her eyes before scurrying off to the kitchen and returning with milk and cookies.
When she finally brought out the photo album I saw some pictures that she took of Tristan and Hunter at middle school, but I noticed Hunter wasn’t looking at the camera but at a person in the distance. She looked familiar but it was sort of blurry.
“What were you staring at?” I asked my head tilting slightly, squinting at the person in the picture.
“Nothing. Next picture. I’m sure there’s one that’s embarrassing like of me in the tub somewhere. I couldn’t keep my clothes on as a kid.”
“So nothing’s changed?” Then I realized that sounded bad in front of his Grandma “Not like that! We’ve never done that!” I quickly tried to fix. “But don’t change the subject. What were you looking at?” I tried to divert the conversation to get away from my embarrassment.
“Oh I’ll tell you deary. He was obsessed with this little girl; like practically in love. But she avoided him like the plague.” My heart practically awed at the sight. I knew who that little girl was.
“That little girl was me,” I gushed practically pulling Hunter into a hug.
“Grand, you love to just embarrass me to the point of no return don’t you?”
***
“I’m so freaking excited for this trip,” Anna gushed practically bouncing in the gray bus seat. Tristan was behind her with a soft smile on his face. He was still a mean-y but it was out of love, I’ve come to learn.
“Chill out, it’s a stupid class trip,” Anna took this moment to glare at her boyfriend. They still argued like no other—Jeremy described it as passion between two annoyances.
Meanwhile Hunter’s hand was sneaking up my back and I abruptly smacked it away. Although we were more affectionate, I was still a little reserved from too much affection, I wasn’t use to that type of stuff yet and he understands.
He laughed, “So what’re the plans? The rest of the gang is meeting us at the hotel” Hunter announced pulling me onto his lap so he could sit crossways on the lengthy bus seats.
“I mean after the stores of course we can hit up the beach. Even though we have a beach, we can always hit up Mission Beach, they have rollercoasters.” Anna offered finally tearing her glare off of Tristan.
“Sounds great, I’d take any chance I get to see October half-naked.” He winked but I clearly wasn’t interested in his joke.
“It would make sense seeing it’s the only time you’ll ever see me like that,” I countered and he stuck his tongue out at me like a big kid. I’m starting to think the boys in this group were toddlers in the brain.
“Rey just texted me. Be on the lookout for the party-pooper police. Dalon will be in attendance.” Anna reported but Hunter’s eyes were closed and he was relaxed into the back of the window. Either he was ignoring that fact or he was asleep. But I was going with the first one.
***
“So I wanted to get to know you guys better so I have some questions to ask.” I finally admitted to the group who were lounging in various places in Hunter’s and I hotel room. We had just gotten off the bus and it was really tiring so we were just chilling in the rooms.
Cj was sitting cross-legged on the floor with a blanket draped over him—courtesy of his sister. Peter was on the floor with a pillow propped under his head his eyes resting. Jeremy was in a chair by the window on his phone playing some sort of game. Reylor was lying at the edge of the bed that Hunter and I were on. And on the bed next to ours sat Tristan and Anna.
“Ah, you waited almost a month since the kidnapping to ask us this? We kind of expected you to question us at least somewhat the day after at least.” Reylor said, tugging a sweater over herself.
“So who’s first for today?” Anna asked abruptly earning a nudge from Tristan for being impatient.
“Well, I got this scar from a ‘mission’ gone wrong. I was supposed to be paying attention—to be looking out but just as I went to go alarm the other—including Hunter who was in the house at the time. The way we work is one goes in while we have several look outs. I was hanging on the fence when a girl caught my eye. I was about to raise the walkie-talkie to alarm the others but she stared at me for a good three minutes and I was so stuck that I didn’t even realize everyone had been telling me leave because they were sending dogs out.” He yawned running his hand through his curly locks on his head before continuing the story.
“She disappeared but as I heard the last warning I started to climb over the fence, the dog came and jumped up pulling on my leg causing me to slide my neck down the metal in a weird angle slicing the side clean open. Hurt like a bitch but 15 stitches later here I am.”
“What did I Ryan say?” I asked quietly, Hunter’s hand was laced through mine.
“That it’s what I got for not paying attention. Which truth be told it was. I mean, my whole purpose was surveillance and I did a bad job that day. All for a girl who was pretty—who ended up getting me 5 months in Juvie.” He rolled his eyes and plopped back onto his blanket on the floor.
“Reylor?” I asked wanting her to tell her story next. Her story seemed like the most interesting given that she’s been brought up by Ryan so much.
“I’m not ready to talk about it.” She mumbled softly and truly it wasn’t my business so I wasn’t going to push her, despite my wanting.
“Who’s Kalian?” I asked the group and I felt Hunter stiffen at the name.
“Why?” Cj asked in disgust, giving me a look of pure confusion on why he was brought up.
I shrugged, “I don’t know. He’s the one that took me that day.”
“He touched you.” Hunter declared, not leaving any room for question it was more of a statement if anything.
“I mean he tied me up and threw me in the van, that’s pretty much it.” I could tell my answer made him feel better but he still didn’t like the thought of Kalian around me.
“Kalian is Ryan’s best friend; I guess you would call him. He’s might seem nonchalant about everything but that’s just what he wants you to think. He’s a manipulative son of a bitch.” Reylor was leering at the wall just at the thought of him. Something told me that he had a lot more to do with the situation then they were letting on about.
I could tell the talk of Kalian made Hunter angry because his hand twitched and started pushing his face into my neck to serve as a distraction.
“Ugh gross! Is this going to turn into porn? Because I don’t think I’m old enough to watch that kind of stuff.” Peter cried closing his eyes and childishly placing his hands of his eyes and shaking his head.
“Dude you have like a stack of porn stashed underneath the couches at the garage, shut up.” Tristan rolled his eyes and laid back on Anna’s crossed legs. Peter gave him a death glare and Jeremy laughed till his heart’s content.
“Noo, Hunter just needs to learn how to keep his hands to himself.” I craned my neck out of the way from his searching lips.
“So are you two finally together?” Reylor asked with an innocent child-like look on her face.
“Yup,” I replied not making eye-contact with anyone while Hunter pulled me back to him. I didn’t even shun away from him burying his face into my neck.
“Finally! We’ve all been betting on this. Now I’m here to collect. Pay up guys, I said a week before Hunter’s birthday.” The rest of the gang grumbled begrudgingly digging in their pockets. When I saw Anna and Tristan giving their money to Reylor I scoffed at them.
“What?” Anna laughed showing all of her pearly white teeth, “We kind of saw it coming. We were just waiting for your resistance to break honestly.”
“I told you all, she has resistance; the best actually. She’d do the best at the temptation exercise.” When Tristan mentioned the Temptation Exercise everyone in the room groaned except Anna and I because we had no clue what that was.
“That shit was the worst,” Cj spat almost shuddering at the thought of it.
“Part of the initiation of the gang was going through exercises to test your abilities. This gang was much more than the common one you think of. It was more exclusive and skillful” Jeremy explained, his eyes closed. “The Temptation Exercise was that they would put your biggest desire in front of you and test how long you could resist the fact that what you want is at your fingertips. Despite what you think, it takes a lot of will and mental strength.”
Although they tried not to show it on their face it must have been pretty gruesome because as if they were reliving the moment they all had grimaces of pain on their face.
***
“Hunter steal from me. I want to see how good you are,” I pushed randomly into our conversation, while we were walking the strip. We needed a little fresh air and change of scenery. Not even ten seconds after asking the question he replied.
“Done,” my eyebrows raised in confusion. At first I thought he would say something cheesy like ‘your heart’, but he was really serious.
“Huh? What did you steal?”
“You always keep the locket I bought you, even if it doesn’t match your outfit.”He smiled his hand sliding onto my back thigh and pulling me closer. He pulled the necklace from his pocket and dangled it in front of my face. “It was in your back pocket.” I quickly snatched it, tucking it in my front pocket this time.
“These pants are tight. How come I didn’t feel it?”
“I’m that good,” his lips quirking up into a grin. He leaned me against the nearest wall of some sort—I wasn’t really paying attention, and placed his arms on the sides of my head as a barrier. His lips touched mine almost instantly when he knew I wasn’t going to run. Because of his height he was slanted at an angle and I rose to at least meet his face a little. My arms circled his back feeling his warmth seeping into the pads of my fingers.
He almost made me feel unrealistic. Like this was some sort of airy feeling that only comes with being someone who made you happy. I felt his heartbeat—sort of metronomic and I believed that somehow ours seemed to match.
How I felt was purely empirical. There was no way to describe it, you had to experience it.
“How cute? Right Izzy?” I heard a familiar voice say. Hunter pulled away from me immediately and tensed up.
“I think it’s disgusting.” The blonde rolled her eyes, yet she stared at Hunter as if he was the sun to a small child wanting to go outside on a rainy day.
“There you go with the salt again,” Kalian laughed and the blonde glared at him as she was willing him to combust off eyesight for embarrassing her in front of Hunter.
“What are you doing here?” Hunter addressed trying to get the unwanted conversation out the way.
“Your brother wanted us to see how you were progressing with your decision. Obviously you’ve been a little distracted. I can see why.” Hunter was practically growling at his words and if I didn’t have a hold onto his arm I’m sure he would’ve fought Kalian.
“How’s the cheek?” Isabella smirked, her lips painted a dainty cotton candy pink and her hair pulling into a sleek and long ponytail.
“How’s the nose? I think a bloody face makes you look better.” I countered and I’m surprised I even came with that.
“I didn’t come here to start any trouble. Just reminding you what you need to think about.” Kalian pulled the bitter blonde away from us and in the opposite direction but not before he shot me a wink making Hunter’s fist ball up.
He kind of ruined the rest of night for us. Hunter was pretty much quiet and unresponsive for the rest of the night. When he dropped me off at my hotel room, I thought he would come in and stay like normal but he merely kissed my cheek before he turned and walked next door to the room the guys had to share because of ‘school rules’.
I sighed and turned on my heel walking into my room where Anna and Reylor were sitting with smiles and facial masks on.
“What’s up with you?” Reylor noted dipping a chip in queso dip.
“My boyfriend’s acting moody,” I told them dipping my hand in the avocado mask bowl and coating my face.
“Sounds like Tristan, not Hunter,” Anna added with a chuckle. It made me laugh and they proceeded to take my thoughts away from Hunter who was facing inner turmoil that this time, I truly couldn’t help him with. So we got on the subject of the next coming week.
Reylor wagged her eyebrows at the mention of Hunter’s upcoming birthday.
“No, I’m not going to ‘fuck him’ Reylor. Get your mind out of the gutter.” I rolled my eyes and pushed her bright smiling face away from me.
“Why not make his 18th birthday the best one?” I wondered what I could do for his birthday that he would love—other than Reylor’s option.
What a great achievement it was to find someone that shows such little self-restraint. I'm a non-believer but I believe in these dirty little wicked games. Snakes and ladders abandoned here, love. The climb's too rough just to slide back down again I'm only here because I feel today deserves a truly sordid end,I've made some bad decisions I'll admit that freely. It's just that life tastes sweeter when it's wrapped in the poetry.-The Wombats, Jump Into the Fog
I'm a wild child, bright child, knocking at your door. You thought that you were done but now you want me even more. Dum(dumb) dum. I'm a star child, big smile, living in L.A. I'm coming over, baby, you can't go to school today. Dum dum/Once you've had something, something so beautiful. You'll never be the same once you've had a taste of heaven my way. You'll be forever changed/I'm a wild child, sky high, lying on your floor I know I had a lot, but baby, what's a little more?-Lana Del Rey, Dum Dum,<--These lines fit their relationship so much to me.
What do you think about Kalian (how do you personally pronounce his name)? December and Hunter's new relationship? Are you happy now? The song choices? The quote? The gang's small discussion about some of their troubles? Why do you think Kalian and Isabella were there, but Ryan wasn't? What's your interpretation of the bunny and snake metaphor?(I will go in depth on that more on how I thought of it next chapter) What should she get Hunter for his bday?
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