AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I eye my mom and can’t read her poker face. She fishes a compact mirror from her purse, fixes her makeup and touches up her hair. How impertinent of her to not even try to comfort me.
“Say something,” I yell at her.
She snaps the compact shut and glares at me. “You’ll not speak to me in that tone. We’re in public, for crying out loud. This is exactly what I mean by Hunter being a bad influence.”
I swallow my tears and fury. “This isn’t about him. It’s about my life and all the ways you lied to me. Can’t you at least try to make that right? It’s the least you can do. For me, your daughter. I promise to understand.”
Her face softens. I feel relieved. She’s finally about to own up and take accountability for her great mistakes.
“I’m going to say this once so listen up.” Her voice is deliberate. “I want you to end things with Hunter, or we won’t pay for your next semester.” She ends it with a triumphant smile.
I feel my heart shatter into pieces. I can’t believe she’d hold that over my head because I have no one else to pay my school fees.
“Congrats. You’ve won.” I spit the words at her and storm off.
I’m so sorry, Hunter.
34
HUNTER
Cash and I have mostly returned to your usual, brotherly-like routine. We sit in front of the TV playing video games, joking and laughing like a wedge didn’t come between us. I thought of it that way when it all started to happen – the emotional torrents, the attraction to Wren, the torn feeling of loyalty – but I no longer think of it that way. Wren isn’t a wedge. She is something magical, a providence of sorts.
I have my phone next to me on the couch as we play a war game. I know that Wren had gone out to have dinner with her mother, which makes me both anxious and agitated. I shuffle around a bit, checking the screen for any notice on what the fuck is going on.
I’m not a fan of not being there and knowing every single detail of what is happening.
In between rounds, Cash elbows me. I am about to text Wren when he gives me a judgemental look. Which is quite a complex emotion for such a simple face.
“What?” I implore.
“She’s fine!” Cash says, elbowing me again in the ribs, but a bit harder. “She’s a big girl, Hunter. It’s no wonder you’ve never really had a girlfriend before. You probably fucking scare them off.”
He says it in a tone that is playful, a big ugly grin on his face, so I try to let it go. If he had said anything remotely close to that a few weeks ago, I would have been more than inclined to punch his head right off his shoulders.
Fuck. Wren really has softened me.
I scowl, with a smirk to follow. I elbow him back, and he lets out a dramatic and sarcastic scream.
“Ow!”
I start the game while he howls, and he yelps back at me.
“Hey! No fucking cheating!”
I start to forget about Wren a little while we play, but never completely, when the door of the apartment bursts open. My body tenses up. I pause the game, shooting to my feet, knowing with all of my intuition that it is Wren.
It is Wren, of course, dressed nicely still from her dinner. But her face is distorted, crumbling, with makeup streaking her face in long, thin back lines.
My fists clench when she bursts into tears.
“Hunter!”
Wren comes to me, nearly tripping over the coffee table as she does. Cash rises to his feet too, looking at me as she buries her face into my chest. I run my hands through her hair, her weeping turning into sobs.
Fuck, how I hate seeing her like this.
“Wren, what happened?” Cash is the first to speak.
