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I felt my cheeks grow hot. “Like what?”
“Kurt doesn’t get that upset without good reason.”
“Well, this time it was without good reason.”
“Skye,” Leo urged, “tell me what Kurt saw that pissed him off so much.”
I paused, giving up. “Hunter was naked in my bed—"
He let out a sharp exhale, and I stopped talking straightaway. My heart rate picked up immediately as I risked a look in his direction and saw the wide-eyed panic I’d hoped to avoid.
“Leo…” I stammered, tongue tied. “Nothing happened.”
Leo, ever the gentleman, schooled his expression, but I saw the cracks form. I saw the anger, the despair, the…panic.
He seemed cautious, his voice dropping lower like he was afraid to ask. “Why was he naked in your bed, Skye?”
I watched him warily for a few moments, but his expression softened, the cracks disappeared, and he looked at me now, encouraging me to answer. “Nothing happened like that, Leo—”
“I can handle the truth.”
“I’m giving it to you.”
He took another moment, then, “Why was he naked in your bed?”
I turned off the water, but continued to stand there, looking at my wet hands now. “I woke up in the middle of the night and he was against my window, looking…messed up. He got into a fight, and his clothes were muddy. I forced him into my shower and washed his clothes. By the time they finished, he was dead asleep in my bed. That’s it. The end.”
There was a lot I omitted, and I was itching to tell him all of it, but I felt like I was betraying Hunter by doing so. He was vulnerable that night, broken. If he wanted Leo to know what happened, he would need to tell him on his own.
“Do you know who he got into a fight with?” he asked.
I hesitated. “Someone at his workplace, maybe. I don’t really know.”
“Is he okay now?”
“I think so.” Truthfully, I didn’t know that either. I hadn’t seen him since he held me in his bed, and he was currently avoiding school like the plague.
Leo shuffled closer. “He keeps finding trouble, Skye.”
I nodded. “I know.”
“How do I stop him from doing something irreversible?”
I squeezed his arm now, turning to face him. Leo cared for Hunter deeply, and like me, he didn’t want to see him in trouble. “We just have to be there for him.”
Leo studied me closely as the minutes passed. I could tell he wanted to prod for more information, but he held back. To my relief, his shoulders relaxed. “So Kurt saw him in your bed—”
“And chased him off with a belt,” I finished, rolling my eyes. “He is next level.”
Leo didn’t look so well. He ran a hand through his wet hair, avoiding my eye. “Yeah, but he’s right to get upset. On the outside, Hunter seems rabid, Skye. He seems…unhinged.”
“He’s not unhinged,” I argued.
Leo still didn’t meet my eye. “Everyone doesn’t see him the way you—we—do.”
I thought of Hunter crying against my chest, of his arms wrapped tightly around me, of his unbearably soft lips crushing mine. I thought of him tending to me as the doctor looked me over that night Loraine destroyed my trust in the world. He had held my hand, whispering sweet words in my ears as I tried my hardest not to crumble.
“We have to be there for him,” I repeated now. “We have to catch him when he falls.”
