“If it weren’t me you were with, no one would’ve paid any attention to it. But it’s different because everyone seems so keen to have something with me and they always get crazy when I’m with someone new. Just because a jealous asshole like Sean spread it around, they think they have the right to go after you because of it.”
“Maybe. But it’s not your fault,” I said. “I wanted what we were doing in the club. You didn’t force me or anything. It’s all Sean’s fault, but that doesn’t matter anymore. All I can do about it now is to accept how it is. I am not ready yet, but I’ll get used to it because I have to.”
Hunter was silent, dwelling on something, then he said, “I was surprised by Emily’s reaction today.”
I smiled at that. “I knew that she would understand, but I didn’t expect her to do so soon.”
“She’s amazing,” Hunter said with genuine admiration in his voice.
“She is.” I agreed.
For a moment, we sat together in silence, but it was a comfortable one. We ate chocolate and drank from the bottle while enjoying the view. With his free hand, Hunter pointed at the town beneath us. Lights were twinkling there like stars that had tumbled from the sky.
“I like sitting here at night. Everything’s way more beautiful in the dark,” Hunter said softly.
“Do you think so?” I asked and looked at him while he was gazing into the distance.
He shrugged. “You can’t see what everyone is up to and they can’t see you. No one is judging or controlling you. You can do whatever you want at night, and when you wake up in the morning, it’ll be forgotten.”
There was a tiny little voice in my head, probably the small bit of my sanity, that was telling me that this was a bad idea, but it got drowned out by my heart yelling at me to say what I had in mind.
My breath hitched in my throat before I quietly said, “What…What is it that you want to do?”
Hunter didn’t react right away, and I already thought he didn’t hear me. Then he suddenly turned towards me and let go of my hand. His fingers found their way to the back of my neck.
Hunter smelled like smoke and aftershave. He tasted like chocolate.
My body froze in shock as I suddenly felt his lips on mine, kissing me with a gentleness I hadn’t expected.
So this was it. This was what a kiss was supposed to feel like. The butterflies, the electricity, things I had put off as stupid clichés…Now, I finally felt them. My heart was beating wildly in my chest, and I lifted my hands to grip onto Hunter, to have him closer, but before I could reach him, he suddenly broke away. He slid from the car’s hood and took a step back. He looked like someone who had just woken up from a bad dream.
I was still sitting on the car, breathing heavily and staring at him like a deer in the headlights.
“I’m…” Hunter stammered, “Fuck, I shouldn’t have…I didn’t even ask. I’m sorry—”
Not listening anymore, I grasped the collar of his shirt and pulled him towards me. His gasp got smothered by my lips.
At first, he was careful, kissing me and cupping my cheek as if he was scared I might shatter into a thousand pieces if he was too rough.
Then, once both of my hands were locked behind his neck, it was like something in him snapped. Suddenly, he stepped closer and placed one hand on the hood of his car while the other was tangled in my hair. I was still sitting, so I used the opportunity to wrap my legs around him to have him even nearer.
All along, I had wondered, in the back of my head, what kissing Hunter would feel like. I had never expected it to be like this, hadn’t expected desperate lips and roaming hands and feeling like every inch separating us was too much to handle.
Kissing Emily was so different, not only because it didn’t feel right, but because she was so soft. While she was all curves and smooth skin, the only thing soft about Hunter was his lips.
Neither of us seemed eager to be the first one to let go, and in the end, it was the lack of oxygen that made me lean away from him just to take a deep breath.
Hunter’s breathing was just as heavy as mine, but there was a wide smile on his face. “Are you impressed now?”
I laughed breathlessly and swatted his chest, just for him to catch my wrist and not let go.
“Was that okay?” There was an actual concern in his voice, making my heart start to race all over again.
“It was more than okay,” I said and tried to pull him closer again, but he caught my other hand as well and grinned down at me.
I rolled my eyes at him and tried to twist my hands out of his grip, but he wouldn’t let go.
“What are you trying to do?” He teased.
“Kiss you, dumbass,” I muttered and glared half-heartedly at him.
“Yeah?” he asked, feigning surprise. “You want another kiss?”
I hummed approvingly and tried to lean forward to kiss him, but he simply took a step away. He laughed quietly when he saw me getting even more frustrated. Then, he finally let go of my hands and pushed me onto my back, so I was leaning onto the windshield of his car on my elbows.
“Fuck you,” I muttered but didn’t bother to drop my hands, which I tangled in his hair.
Hunter’s smirk grew even wider. “I’d rather f—”
I quickly shut him up with another kiss.
When I let go of him, he asked, “Do I get this every time I’m about to say something stupid from now on?”
“We would never stop kissing then,” I replied, unable to hold back a wide grin.
Hunter laughed, one hand still splayed against my ribcage. “You say it like it’s a bad thing.”
“It’s not.” I leaned in again to press a kiss to his jaw.
Seeing his face light up at my words, I wanted to say something, but a yawn cut me short.
Hunter laughed. “Am I boring you, sugarpie?” As he got nothing but a huff in return, he said, sounding just a little wistful at the prospect of ending the moment, “Alright, let’s get you home.”
I didn’t want to leave this place, mainly because it felt like everything would be forgotten or at the very best a faded memory as soon as we did. If I could save moments to relive them later, this one would be the one I’d repeat until it got boring. But after a look at the time on my phone, I followed him to the car.
Maybe we’d come here more often from now on.
***
A few minutes later, we pulled up in front of my house. I expected Hunter to stay in the car and drive off, but he escorted me up to the front door.
“What are you doing?” I laughed as he even followed me inside while I was taking off my coat.
“Gotta use all the time we have together,” he replied, watching me with a smile.
“What are you going to do next? Follow me into my bedroom?” I teased and added as he opened his mouth. “That wasn’t an invitation.”
“We’ll get there,” Hunter said confidently.
I rolled my eyes and got out of my shoes. Then I turned around to him. His words were ringing through my ears, You can do whatever you want at night, and when you wake up in the morning, it’ll be forgotten.
“This wasn’t one of those things that are forgotten when you wake up, was it?” I asked quietly.
Hunter’s face was serious as he shook his head. “I’ll be damned if I ever forget about this.”
He stepped closer and kissed me once more, and my heart felt like it was doing backflips in my chest. I was about to give in completely again, but he broke away too soon, his hand cupping my cheek and his eyes locked with mine in the dark of the hallway.
“Good night, Jules.”
“Good night,” I whispered and watched as he left.
Then I turned around…and almost screamed when I saw a dark figure standing on the stairs behind me.
“Jules? Who was that?” she asked.
Heaving a sigh, I bent down to pick my little sister up. She was standing on the stairs in her Minnie Mouse pajama, strands of hair falling
into her face and sticking up around her head.
“No one, Maya,” I muttered into her ear as I picked her up. “You’re sleepwalking again. Come, I’ll bring you to your room.”
She blinked a couple times in confusion but didn’t reply. After a moment of waiting for an answer, I realized she had already fallen asleep in my arms. I carried her up the stairs, careful not to wake her up before I put her down on her bed, and tucked her in. She immediately curled into a ball and continued to sleep as if nothing happened.
When I was sure that everything was fine, I quietly left her room and sneaked into mine.
Maya certainly wouldn’t remember anything she had seen by tomorrow. She had been sleepwalking like she often did. Even if she did remember, it probably wasn’t important to her at all. Not important enough to tell my parents about, anyway.
Luckily, the thought of Hunter and the feeling of his lips on mine were more prominent right now, and I quickly forgot about those worries. Replaying the memory again and again, I fell asleep with a smile on my lips, for the first time in months.
Chapter 23
Even though I went to bed around half past 3:00 am, I woke up even earlier than usual on school days. Not voluntary, of course, but because Maya bounced into my room and tugged at my covers until I reluctantly opened my eyes.
“What is it?” I groaned into my pillow.
Maya answered with a cheerfulness that should be impossible this early, “Mommy is making pancakes for breakfast!”
“Awesome,” I muttered and already felt myself drifting off again, barely able to keep my eyes open to blink up at her.
Maya nodded in barely contained excitement. “Are you having breakfast with us?”
I was about to say no to go back to sleep, but when I looked at Maya’s hopeful expression, I nodded with a sigh.
She laughed happily and tugged at my hand. “Come to the kitchen. We can help Mommy! Maybe she will let me crack the egg. I cracked an egg when I was baking cookies with Ben and his mommy last week! She said I’m a great baker!”
“Give me five minutes.” I groaned.
She was silent for a while, then she said, sounding genuinely worried, “But you’ll fall asleep again!”
“You can stay here and make sure I don’t,” I mumbled, laughing tiredly.
Maya thought about it, then she nodded and climbed onto the bed. I lifted her up and over me. She snuggled under the covers next to me immediately like a cat. With only about two hours of sleep in my system, it was pretty hard to keep myself from dozing off again. Maya was lying next to me, watching me closely, and every time my eyes fell shut, she poked me so I would open them again.
A few minutes later, Mom’s voice wafted into the room, along with the delicious smell of fresh pancakes. “Kids! Breakfast’s ready.”
Maya was up and out of bed within seconds. I followed her with a little less enthusiasm and a muffled yawn.
When I shuffled into the kitchen, Dad was already seated at the head of the table, reading the newspaper with a cup of tea in his hand. Meanwhile, Mom was baking the last pancake on the stove. She looked up as we came in and offered us a bright smile.
I sunk into a chair and poured some orange juice for Maya and me. When Mom put the plate of pancakes onto the table, Maya immediately loaded three of them onto her place.
“Honey, you don’t eat that much!” Mom said, still smiling.
Maya just shrugged, seemingly unconcerned, and topped them off with a concerning amount of maple syrup.
When everyone was finally sitting and quietly eating their pancakes in the typical early morning haze, I became aware of my mother’s eyes studying me closely. Finally, she said, “Jules, what time did you go to bed yesterday? You look tired.”
I sure as hell felt tired as well. Last night, I didn’t notice my exhaustion. The adrenaline after the kiss wiped any thought of sleep away. Now, however, I felt like a zombie and probably looked like one, too.
“It was a little late,” I said vaguely.
If they knew what I had been up to and that I left the house, they would raise hell against me.
“What have you been doing?” Dad asked with a frown.
Before I could answer, Maya suddenly chimed in. In her squeaky voice, she said, “Jules was here with someone he really, really likes!”
My eyes widened, and I nearly dropped my knife onto the plate. Both of my parents looked between us with equally wary expressions.
“Sweetie, what are you talking about?” Mom asked.
“Jules…kissed someone in the corridor,” Maya whispered and giggled at the word kissed. “You said people do that when they like each other very much.”
“That was Emily,” I quickly said.
They still didn’t know that we had broken up. Neither did they know anything about Hunter.
“But it was a boy!” Maya insisted.
I was starting to get irritated. “She wore a ponytail and her hood over it. You probably didn’t see her long hair. It was dark.”
“Julian, what are you talking about?” Dad asked. “Was someone here last night?”
I nodded slowly. “Yeah…Emily came over. She…had a question about the, uh, school project in Spanish.”
“But it was a boy!” Maya said again.
I lightly kicked her chair under the table and glared at her. “No, it wasn’t. Why would I kiss a boy? That’d be…so strange.”
My father nodded and leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest. “Indeed. Please don’t invite Emily over that late again.”
“You can invite her over at any other time, though,” my mother was quick to say. “I haven’t seen her in a while. She’s always welcome here.”
I nodded and swallowed against the lump in my throat. “I’ll tell her that.” Then I abruptly got up. “Alright, I have to go get ready for school…See you later.”
“Have a good day, Jules!” Mom called after me.
Too eager to get out of there before they got any more suspicious, I rushed to my room and quickly changed.
***
When I arrived at school, I immediately looked out for the black Audi, but it was nowhere to be seen. I shook my head at myself as I realized how disappointed I was. When had seeing Hunter become my priority?
On the way to school, I had time to really think about last night and the kiss for the first time. Now I was even more confused.
Did it have any significance?
To Hunter, a kiss was nothing unusual. He had probably kissed more people than the number of students at this school. Maybe he had only kissed me because the moment was convenient. He had been drunk on victory after the car race. Maybe that led him to do it. Hunter took nothing seriously.
Why would he think much of this? the little voice of my self-conscious said.
Meanwhile, the rest of my brain tried to reason that I should just stay calm, wait and see, and not be too fast with my assumptions.
Maybe it was not like I thought. Maybe this was as important to Hunter as it was to me.
Trying my best to cling to that thought, I opened my locker and took the books I needed out. I jumped as someone suddenly tapped my shoulder, and I accidentally dropped my things: a book and a notepad. When I turned around, I saw Hunter standing right before me.
“God, you scared me.” I laughed and crouched down to pick everything up.
Hunter quickly set the two Starbucks cups in his hands on the ground and helped me gather all the notes and papers that were scattered around us.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to,” he said and lightly brushed my hand with his.
It could’ve been accidental, but knowing Hunter, it probably wasn’t.
Once I had everything back in my hands, I really looked at Hunter for the first time. He looked at least as tired as I felt, dark circles standing out on his pale skin, as did his slowly fading black eye. He wore a hoodie under his leather jacket, a bit of his tousled hair peeking out from underneath the hood.
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br /> “Have you ever slept at all last night?” I asked worriedly.
It couldn’t be healthy for him to stay up so late for days in a row.
Hunter shook his head. “No.” Instead of offering an explanation, he held up one of the coffee cups and handed it to me. “Which is why I got us these.”
A smile spread across my face. “You actually bought one?”
He shrugged and took a sip. “You asked me to last night. Why wouldn’t I?”
I smiled gratefully at him and lifted the cup to my lips, balancing my books in my other arm. My eyes widened as I tasted the coffee.
“Is this a Caramel Macchiato?” I vaguely remembered telling him that it was one of my favorite drinks, but I hadn’t thought he even listened, much less remembered.
Hunter nodded, a hint of satisfaction in his voice as he said, “Yeah. Oh, by the way. You still don’t have a new job since you quit at that bar, right?”
“Ugh, don’t remind me. I still have to find a new one.” I groaned, grimacing.
“They’re looking for people at Starbucks,” Hunter said. “You should apply.”
“Do you think?” I asked.
I wasn’t very good at the whole…human interaction thing.
But Hunter nodded encouragingly. “Yes! You already know the entire menu. You know people who work there. You’re always friendly and polite…plus, you’re cute. Who wouldn’t tip you?”
I rolled my eyes at him but couldn’t quite restrain a smile. “Fine. Maybe I’ll go there tomorrow after school.”
“Maybe?”
“Okay, I’ll go there. Definitely.” I laughed.
Hunter smiled, but the content expression faded as he glanced behind me. When I turned around to see what he was looking at, I saw Victoria heading straight for us.
Against my hopes, she didn’t walk past us but stopped right next to Hunter, offering him a seductive smile and purring, “Hey, babe.”
Victoria was smart and positioned herself right in between Hunter and me, effectively excluding me from the conversation. I crossed my arms and sent Hunter a pointed look over her head.
“What do you want?” he asked warily.
Why You Shouldn't Lend A Bad Boy Your Clothes Page 21