Page 54 of Don't Puck Him

Cash drops my arm off his shoulder and holds me tight, like he never wants to let me go. Without a word, tonight we bond in our mixed blood. Us against them, from now until eternity.

We talk through our past childhoods. Where one or another parent would disappear for ages, then come merrily back home from some mysterious trip or another. The lying and subterfuge didn’t end with my birth. As we talk, we discover there was endless lying, endless games with both parents to the one they were supposed to protect the most — Cash and me.

The rage we once had towards each other switches tracks and it lands where it belongs. With the vile and disgusting Mr. and Mrs. David Anderson. They may be laughing here on Earth, but Cash and I hope there will come a time they rot in hell.

Before the night’s out, brother and sister, we are one.

With my strong back placed firmly against his, Cash and I will never be hurt again.

28

HUNTER

It seems like Cash and Wren are on the road to reconciliation. I get a call from Wren close to midnight, but I pick up, sitting on the balcony and watching a storm roll in.

“Wren.”

“Hunter,” she says, sniffing without concealing it at all. “I’m okay. Everything is okay. I think we have this figured out.”

I rub my nose, the chill of the wind catching me off guard. She sounds like she has been crying. It sounds like it is a relieved kind of cry, rather than sorrow. I should be relieved, too. My best friend and the woman who burns through every dream are finally on good terms.

But I’m not. Not completely, anyway. Something heavy sits at the center of my chest like a kettlebell. It’s not anger or fury. It's far more insidious, with arms that spread out like jellyfish.

It’s jealousy.

Nevertheless, I can’t let Wren know about that. There’a hurricane in my mind that has been spinning since my childhood, and it isn’t her job to tame it.

“That’s wonderful, Wren,” I say in a near croak. “Where are you right now? I’m coming to get you.”

She hesitates. It makes my skin crawl.

“Erm, a bar on campus. I met him at home to talk about it, but then we didn’t want to be in that horrible house. So we decided to come back here and have some drinks. But I don’t want you to come just yet. We have more to talk about. Thank you, though.”

I scan the map in my brain, knowing that there are only a handful of places that would serve alcohol past midnight on a school night. I check my watch and time staking them out within about twenty minutes to half an hour of each other.

“Hunter.”

My thoughts are cut off. My hand goes back to my nose, and I scratch it furiously.

“What?” I sneer.

“I mean it. Cash and I are fine. But I want to keep this conversation going as long as he is feeling open to it. We have a lot of wounds to heal. You don’t need to be here.”

I’m not entirely sure why, but her words are like a dagger to my heart. They also turn up the dial of my anger in a way that makes my stomach gurgle.

“Hunter,”she reiterates.

“I hear you, Wren, I hear you,” I say, trying not to snap. “But don’t stay out too late. Text me when you get back to your dorm, you hear me?”

She chuckles, and its sweetness softens me a little. Just a little.

“Okay.”

Nearly an hour after I spoke with Wren, I haven’t heard from her again. I’m not sleeping, of course, mostly staring up at the ceiling with blinding lights glaring down on me, waiting for my phone in my hand to buzz with Wren’s reply. I don’t even think about texting her to remind her of our agreement – that would be crossing the line. I want to show her that I comprehend how important her growing bond with Cash is, by respecting her boundaries and some distance.

At the core of my heart though, and body, I don’t want distance, and I don’t really want her spending a lot of time with Cash. I get the idea of fucked up family dynamics and that Wren wants to remedy that. But that means that I have to share her with someone else, and it's sickening.

I consider texting Cash for a moment, the obvious work-around to see where she is without seeming like I’m checking in on her, but my promise to Wren stops me. Just when I don’t think I can take it anymore, I feel my phone vibrate, and I raise the glowing light to my face.

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