Page 24 of Hunter
“Good, you’re alive.” I hear Max’s voice, and I attempt to sit up just as he sticks his phone in my face. “Smile for the camera, your sister wants proof of life.”
I push his hand away and attempt to stand up, but my back fucking hates me and locks, sending me right back down to the floor.Fuck! That hurts!
I flinch and arch my lower back just as I’m blinded by Max’s phone. “Stay still and say cheese.”
“Come on, man,” I say while squeezing my eyes together. Every fucking time he takes a picture, this idiot has his flash on.
“Ha, that’s fucking perfect,” he says to himself while typing out a message,probably to B, before he pockets his phone. “Your sister’s mad at you, by the way, which makes me mad at you too.”
Oh yeah? Get in fucking line.He sticks his hand out to help me get to my feet, and now, I’m fucking pissed. Because I’m looking around and she’s gone.And I slept right through it.
“Fucking hell, this girl. Alvi!” I shout toward the other side of the shop. He comes out of the break room with a cup of coffee in his hand. “She’s gone, man, she escaped.”
As soon as I hear myself say the words, the dragon in my stomach roars and lurches, sending fiery slop up my esophagus and into my mouth. I clear my throat, and the acid boils my tongue. Her absence is literally setting my insides on fire.
“This isn’t a fucking prison, man, she didn’t escape. I unlocked the front door for her before she left.” I pull my phone out to check the time and could fucking scream. It’s so much later than I thought. She’s probably been gone for hours.
“You just let her leave? Do you know where she went?” Fuck, why didn’t you wake me up?” It’s 12:17 PM. I slept for eight fucking hours like nothing in the universe mattered and woke up feeling like my world was flipped upside down.
I missed practice and slept through my two morning classes, and it was all for fucking nothing because she’s not here and I am. I’ve got a fuck ton of texts from the boys and our teammates about me not showing up earlier, and I know that’s why my brother and Max are here. Chase probably tracked me.
I also have two Delta sorority sisters from class texting me in some group chat they started, offering to catch me up, while stripping down. Twenty-four hours ago, I would’ve texted them back, gone to meet up to fuck, and then would never have thought about them again.
I couldn’t tell you who these two girls are from the history class I missed today. Not that that’s ever stopped me before. I used to blow off tutoring to go get blown by bunnies all the fucking time, but right now, that’s not gonna fucking happen.
I delete the thread and ignore everyone else. There’s nothing on my phone right now that’s gonna get in the way of me sending her a text. I’ve got ten percent battery life left, and I’ve got even less odds of her answering me, but fuck it, I’ve always liked to roll the dice.
Me:
Where’d you go, Ed?
I don’t know where she goes or what she really does. What I do know is that I’m gonna figure it out so we can pick up where we left off. Because now I want all her sassy-ass kisses.
I’m not gonna let her run and hide from this. We can play all day. I don’t plan on losing… I plan on winning her over.Game on, you pretty little lunatic.
“Who are you talking about?” My brother asks, and I stall for a second. I can’t fucking remember the last time Chase and I talked about a girl that I liked. Honestly, it was probably freshman year of high school. Because, since then, I haven’t dated anyone.
I’ve never had a serious relationship, which was the exact opposite of Chase, who always had girlfriends and went out with the girls he hooked up with. Me not so much,or fucking ever.
I say her name to myself, silently answering his question, while her face appears in my head. She looks every bit the pretty little nightmare that I just woke up to, and she’s already tormenting me by not answering my text. I wake up my phone, and there’s nothing. Just dwindling battery life.
“Max, you have that extra charger?” Since last November, Max has carried this MagSafe battery pack for his and my sister’s phones. He doesn’t leave anywhere without it, and I’m hoping he has it with him now, because I’m down to eight percent.And it’s making me feel fucking anxious.
Knowing my dumb luck, my phone will die right as she texts me. And if by some fucking miracle she answers me at all, I don’t want to miss it.I'm gonna stop at the school bookstore today and get my own. I’m not gonna take any chances.
“Yeah, here,” he says while struggling with the zipper of his windbreaker pocket.
“Come on, man. My phone’s about to die,” I motion with my hand for him to hurry up as he continues to fight with his jacket like a kindergartner who got his zipper all jammed up.
“Hold on, you impatient fuck,” he mutters while twisting his body around to his side as he uses both of his hands to win the battle of the century. I swear that took a hundred years for him to do. “What’s going on, man?” He asks while nodding to my phone before smiling at me like an idiot. “Is Hunt Wilton waiting on someone?”
If by someone you meana spooked, stray black cat that I’m trying to bring home with me, then yes.Before I explain the last twelve hours to him, I snatch the powerbank outta his hands while myformerbest friend laughs at me. I attach the magnetic charger to the back of my phone, and I’m instantly relieved when it connects.Good, now I won’t miss anything.
“His tutor was here earlier, and now she’s gone,” Alv adds, and hearing the last part makes my stomach clench like I just took a puck to the gut. It hits me hard, and I don’t fucking like it.
“Why’d you let her leave, Alv? Why didn’t you get me up?”How could he just let her walk outta here? I don’t understand. Doesn’t he see I’m supposed to look out for her now? What if something happens to her? Or she fucking hops a train, plane, or bus and just leaves Havenwood? WHAT IF I NEVER SEE HER AGAIN?!
“Edison was here?” Chase looks at me like he’s trying to see inside my head. It’s like he’s knocking on the door to my locked room, and I’m sitting on my bed, staring at my bleeding heart inmy blood-soaked hands.Stay out, C, can’t you read the sign on the door?!
