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Hunter
The exam period turns into the longest two weeks of my life. I haven’t seen Annie since the fight in the car park, since I ended things. But ended what? We were never really a thing. We were just teetering close to the edge of something real and all-consuming and fucking terrifying. I did what I had to do, what she didn’t have the strength to. And I remind myself of this over and over, but it does little to move whatever’s lodged in my chest.
My last exam is 2D art, and I can’t tell if I’m on edge because I’m so close to the finish line or because I’m going to see Annie. I don’t know if she’s angry, upset, or completely over the whole thing. And I don’t know which one would be worse.
She’s last to arrive and first to leave. She doesn’t so much as glance in my direction, while my eyes seem to drift constantly in hers. It’s crazy to miss something you never had.
I’m intentionally slow getting down the stairs after the exam, and I’m rewarded by the sight of Annie driving away in her mother’s car. I guess she’s not one for awkward encounters either.
The rest of the students are standing in a group with relieved smiles on their faces and bags under their eyes. They’re laughing at things that aren’t funny. It’s the adrenaline of the past few weeks working its way out of their bodies. More year twelve students pull up in cars, wanting to share this moment. Sammy’s among them. He jumps out of Trent’s car and walks over to me, pulling me into a hug.
‘We’re done,’ he says, clapping me on the back.
My mouth turns up, his cheerfulness contagious. ‘We are.’
Releasing me, he crosses his arms, looking around at the others. ‘Feels weird, doesn’t it?’
‘Yeah. Yeah it does.’
I can see Tamsin standing beside Trent’s car with her friends, their gestures animated as they make plans for the evening. She glances in my direction, then steps away from the group to come speak with me—or, more likely, Sammy.
‘Hey,’ she says. ‘You guys coming to celebrate tonight?’
Sammy perks up. ‘Where?’
‘Whistle Beach.’
‘I’m keen,’ he says.
Me, not so much. ‘Who else’s going?’
Tamsin gives me a look. ‘I would’ve invited Annie, but she fled so fast I didn’t get a chance.’ There’s a hint of accusation in her tone.
‘I’ll come for a bit,’ I tell her.
‘Great.’ She looks at Sammy. ‘I’ll see you later.’ She heads back over to Trent’s car.
When we’re alone, he turns to me and says, ‘Let me guess. You’re the reason Annie fled.’
‘No comment.’ I start walking to the ute. Sure, it’s possible I regret some of the words that spilled from my mouth a few weeks back, but I don’t regret the end result. Annie needs me out of the way while she figures out how she wants to live her adult life.
‘Can you drop me home?’ he asks.
‘Sure.’
‘Then pick me up later?’
I roll my eyes. ‘Fine, but I’m not hanging around all night.’
It’s nearing five in the afternoon when I finally walk in the door, and Dad’s nowhere to be seen. I don’t know why, but I expect him to be waiting for me. This feels like one of those moments he should be present for.
I go check if the bike’s in the shed. Thankfully it is. I then set off in search of him, calling to him like he’s a lost toddler instead of a forty-five-year-old man.
‘Dad!’
I eventually find him slumped against a rail of one of the sheep pens. He doesn’t appear to be injured, so that’s something. I nudge his leg with my boot, and he groans. And he’s alive.
Grabbing hold of his arm, I drape it around my shoulders and pull him to his feet. ‘Gonna need you to walk,’ I say.
