Why You Shouldn't Lend A Bad Boy Your Clothes

by Philline Harms

  Hunter’s expression had turned progressively darker throughout my explanation. “That fucking—” He took a deep breath to calm himself down, but I could see his jaw working. “I should’ve known that she was behind all of this. The way she was clinging to me all week…But why didn’t you send Nate to tell me?” Hunter wondered.

  “She had an eye out for him, too. If he approached you, she would’ve known what it was about.”

  Hunter nodded slowly. “Okay. So, what now?”

  I swallowed and studied his features. The small space between our bodies felt like miles, and all I wanted to do was to pull him into a kiss. But I didn’t dare, not yet. Hunter had every right to be mad at me.

  “I don’t know,” I replied honestly. “But…I don’t want to lose this.”

  Hunter almost smiled and said, “Me neither. So…Are you up for some hide and seek?”

  Laughing felt strange after a week of not smiling once.

  “We’ll have to be careful.”

  He nodded, eyes suddenly sparkling again. It made me want to lock myself in my room and paint them with every little detail, just to catch the expression and to preserve the look of relief and unrestrained happiness in them. I was so focused on them that I didn’t even realize he was leaning in until his lips met mine.

  My eyes immediately shut as my hands clung to his neck, every cell of my body screaming for more. I had no idea how I endured seven days without this. It was like tripping out after a week of withdrawal.

  I kissed him until I needed to take a breath, still clinging onto him, not willing to let go anytime soon.

  “I missed you,” Hunter breathed, eyes still shut.

  “I’m sorry,” I muttered.

  Hunter’s eyes suddenly snapped open. “Don’t apologize. None of this is your fault. It’s Victoria’s and Sean’s and your parents’. And mine because I brought you to that bar and didn’t pay more attention.”

  Glaring at him, I backed away just a little. “I’m going to punch you if you say something this stupid again.” As he stared at me blankly, I groaned. “Hunter, you didn’t force me to go there. I chose so myself, and I enjoyed it. How many times do I have to tell you that? That Sean was there was unfortunate, but how could either of us know that? It happened. It’s over. Sooner or later, I would’ve had to tell my parents anyway.”

  Hunter still looked utterly confused. “How are you so okay with all of this?”

  “I’m not, but I can’t change anything about it now, can I? I’ll just have to get used to it. It might take a while, but I will. As long as we are together, I’ll manage,” I said softly, even though it sounded cheesy, and finally pushed the stray strands of hair out of his eyes.

  Hunter caught my hand in the process and brought it to his mouth, lightly brushing his lips against my knuckles. “Then you don’t have to worry. I’m not planning on letting you go that easily anytime soon.”

  I laughed quietly. “We really are corny today, huh?”

  Hunter smiled a little, looking down. “I think we deserve a bit of cheesiness after this week.” When he looked back up, his face was serious again. “They didn’t do anything to you, did they?”

  I thought of the few moments when my father had been close to losing control, and when he lifted his hand and had been seconds from actually lashing out. Repressing that memory, I shook my head. “They wouldn’t go that far.”

  Hunter looked convinced and incredibly relieved and leaned down to kiss me once more. When he broke away again, he said, “We should get out of here. I’ll find a way to get in touch with you and then we’ll find a way to meet. Alright?”

  “Yes,” I said even though I would’ve liked to stay here like this forever. “I’ll go first?”

  He nodded before he suddenly pulled me into a hug. For a second, I was frozen in shock, then I buried my face in the crook of his neck and wrapped my arms around him. As strange as it was, we really only hugged once before, after my brief panic attack in his kitchen. Just like then, the gesture was almost startlingly comforting, Hunter’s chin resting on my head and his hands splayed against my back.

  “Be careful, okay? I don’t want you to…get in trouble,” Hunter muttered.

  I nodded and reluctantly let go of him. Then I opened the door and stepped out into the corridor, not looking around to avoid seeming suspicious. Victoria was leaning against the lockers at the end of the hallway, smirking at me. I suppressed a triumphant grin and shot her a cold look instead.

  When I hurried away from the room and Hunter, I was pleased to see that she was following me. She wouldn’t notice him leaving the same room in a few minutes.

  I almost couldn’t believe how quickly things changed. When Hunter had dragged me into that room, I had been devastated and ready to burst into tears at any given moment. Now I felt almost fine again, better than I had felt all week. A few minutes with him was enough to make seven days of hell seem okay.

  ***

  Two days later, Hunter still hadn’t talked to me, and I was starting to go back to being on edge and easily stressed out. My parents were still grinding on my nerves. My father apparently felt the need to make stupid remarks every time I entered the room, while my mom had completely stopped talking to me altogether.

  Every time I handed the crappy Nokia phone over when I came home after school, I was fuming with rage inside, but I didn’t give them the satisfaction of actually seeing me get worked up. I knew that my dad was just waiting for me to break, so I saved all my anger and tears for the confines of my own room.

  Knowing that Hunter knew why I was acting so strange helped though since I didn’t have to worry about him being hurt or angry at me anymore.

  Still, every time I saw him around the school, my heart skipped a beat. Occasionally, he would smile at me when I walked past him. Once, he had brushed his hand against mine when he walked to his seat in Biology class, making my hand tingle for the rest of class. We weren’t sitting next to each other anymore, but just being in the same room as him was enough for me right now.

  The only place where Victoria couldn’t follow me was the boys’ locker room before sports class and the restroom, which I was incredibly grateful for. But since Sean was often there, I didn’t dare to talk to Hunter. I was suspecting Sean would tell Victoria since the two of them had been hanging around together a lot during the last few weeks.

  I jumped when two fingers suddenly snapped right in front of my face. When I looked up, I saw Red rolling her eyes at me with a grin. “Stop dreaming of a lover boy and start making an Iced Americano, J.”

  “Sorry,” I muttered, feeling my cheeks heating up, and got to work.

  While I scooped ice into a glass, Red asked, “So, have you been able to talk it out with him?”

  I nodded. “Yeah, I told him everything. I think we’re good for now.”

  “Have you guys started hanging out again?”

  “No, we can’t. Victoria’s still following me everywhere and likes to whisper threats into my ear in passing,” I said, rolling my eyes.

  Red’s expression darkened. Since I told her about Victoria’s part in this, she hated the other girl with a passion. Whenever Victoria dared to come here to check if Hunter was with me, Red wrote insults on her cup and refused to let her near me. Even Darryl, after somehow hearing what happened, though I was pretty sure, Red had informed him about it during pillow talk, had told me he was tempted to ban her from this shop.

  “Do you think it’d be acceptable for me to spit into her coffee the next time she walks in here?” she mused while handing a customer his order.

  The poor man looked petrified, but Red only smiled sweetly at him.

  “Sounds reasonable to me.” I laughed and pushed the Iced Americano over the counter to a girl in her twenties. She was wearing a dress and a leather jacket that immediately reminded me of Hunter. “Here you go.”

  She thanked me and batted her lashes at me, probably attempting to look cute, but only achieving to look l
ike she got something in her eye. When she handed me the money, there was a little piece of paper between the banknotes. I raised a brow when I saw that there was a hastily scribbled telephone number and a smiley face on it. When I glanced back up, the girl was looking at me in anticipation.

  I smiled uncomfortably and said, “Sorry, I have a boyfriend. Hey, I love your outfit though!”

  Technically, that was a lie since Hunter and I weren’t actually official, but I didn’t know what else to say. The girl’s cheeks flushed bright red, and she muttered something under her breath before she turned around and practically sprinted out of the store.

  Next to me, Red was laughing almost hysterically. “I love your outfit though?” She panted between fits of laughter. “Now that was the least heterosexual thing you ever said.”

  I glared at her and made sure to bump into her when I walked over to the coffee machine to prepare the next order. “Jesus, what was I supposed to say? I never know what to say when this happens.”

  Red, who was slowly calming down, wiped tears of laughter away from under her eyes. “We should make this a drinking game. One shot every time a girl asks for your number.”

  “There were two guys, too.” I recalled, grimacing at the memory. One of them had been pretty cute, the other one simply intimidating. “But come on, you got hit on plenty times as well.”

  “Right,” Red said, grinning widely. “Can’t blame them though. Who wouldn’t want a piece of this?”

  I stared at her for a moment. Sometimes it was scary how similar to Hunter she actually was. Then I shrugged and pointed at me. “Me, for instance.”

  Red looked up from the change she was counting to roll her eyes at me. “I’m not talking about people who are about as straight as a rainbow.”

  I chuckled, but the sound died in my throat when I saw who just entered.

  Hunter was looking around the shop, probably to see if Victoria was near, before he flashed me a smile and walked up to me, hands in his pockets.

  Red whistled as she saw him approaching and bumped me with her hip. “Boy, you’re so damn lucky.”

  Against my will, I grinned as I scanned his face. “I know.”

  Hunter, who hadn’t heard our conversation, propped his elbow on the counter and said, barely containing his laughter, “Hey, I’d like to order a…Victoria.”

  I blinked at him in confusion. “A what?”

  “Victoria, a Flat White,” he said, cracking up laughing at his own joke.

  Red snickered and high-fived him, then she pushed me out of the way as I walked towards the coffee machine to work on his order. “I’ll handle it. You go spend some time with lover boy.”

  “Thanks, babe. I owe you one,” I said and ruffled her hair before she could slap my hand away.

  When I turned around, I caught Hunter still staring at me. He didn’t even bother to look away and act embarrassed as I raised a brow at him. Biting my lip, I walked around the counter so I could properly greet him. As soon as I was within reach, he hooked two fingers into the collar of my shirt and pulled me into a kiss.

  I pushed away the thought that there were at least a dozen people in the shop who could see us and focused on kissing him back instead. Hunter grinned happily when he brushed a few curls out of my face and pecked my cheek once more before letting go of me.

  “How are you?”

  I could tell that the question wasn’t just out of courtesy.

  “I’m fine,” I said. For the first time today, I meant it.

  Hunter nodded and whispered, “I can’t believe you kissed me back. There are like twenty people watching us.”

  “I missed you,” I said with a shrug. “What have you been up to this week?”

  “The usual,” he said vaguely.

  “As in street racing, drinking, and hooking up with strangers?”

  He shook his head. “No. As in not being able to concentrate on anything because I was thinking of you and as in annoying Alex, Liam, and Adam with my talks about you.”

  I narrowed my eyes at him. “Liar.”

  Hunter held a hand to his chest, acting offended. “That’s the truth! I mean, okay, I may have done a couple other things too…But definitely, no other people if that’s what you’re worried about.”

  “Why would I care who you have sex with?” I asked, trying to seem unaffected.

  Hunter wasn’t impressed. “You do. Who wouldn’t care about their boyfriend cheating?”

  My eyes were probably the size of saucers as I stared at him in shock. Did I hear him right?

  “Did you…” I choked out. “Did you just call yourself my boyfriend?”

  On Hunter’s face was a mix of amusement, nervousness, and confusion as he said, “Yeah…I mean, I thought maybe we were that far, but…You know, if you’re not comfortable with that, just forget I said that—”

  “Oh my God. Shut up,” I breathed before practically throwing myself at him as I kissed him.

  Against my lips, I could feel him smiling as he wrapped his arms around my waist and nearly lifted me off my feet.

  It wasn’t until someone cleared their throat behind us that we let go of each other.

  Hunter turned around with a questioning look. Behind us stood a man in cargo shorts and a shirt in the same color with a little boy in his arms who appeared to be around five. Next to him was his wife, a tall blonde with a strict ponytail and a sour expression.

  “Boys, quit it.” The man demanded. “No offense, but I didn’t come here with my family to see two horny guys snogging!”

  Hunter demonstratively wrapped an arm around my shoulder and calmly said, “Full offense. I didn’t come here with my boyfriend to be bothered by an ignorant old man.”

  I failed to stifle my laugh as I saw the man’s face turning a bright shade of red. I also failed to keep my cheeks from heating up at the word boyfriend.

  “Why do gay people always need to make out in public for everyone to see?” the woman snarled.

  “I’m bisexual.” Hunter corrected her.

  “So you can’t decide?”

  “No,” he said impatiently. “It means that I like girls and boys.” He looked over at me and grinned. “Especially this one.”

  I smiled widely and squeezed his hand in return.

  “And I think that everyone who has eyes in their head can see that there are way more straight people showing affection in public than homosexuals. Overthink that argument and come back when you have a better one. Or do us all a favor and never come back at all.” Hunter continued.

  Probably wanting to stress that the image of two boys kissing would forever scar the child’s memory, the man said, “My son—”

  “Should learn about things like homosexuality as early as possible so that he doesn’t turn out to be an intolerant asshole like his dad.” Hunter smiled innocently at the family.

  In lack of anything clever to reply, the man huffed angrily and turned around on his heel, dragging his wife with him.

  For a second, I was so awestruck that all I could do was stare at Hunter.

  Red suddenly appeared right next to us with a huge grin on her face. “You know, lover boy, I’m starting to like you more and more,” she said.

  I jokingly scowled at her and wrapped my arms around his waist possessively. “Back off. He’s mine.”

  Hunter laughed quietly and freed one of his arms to rest them on my back. “You heard him.”

  Red looked at us for a second before she turned around, muttering something along the lines of I can’t believe they didn’t get it on yet.

  Meanwhile, Hunter looked at his watch and sighed. “I gotta go. I’m meeting Alex in twenty minutes. I’ll write to you though.”

  “I still can’t use my phone.”

  “I know,” he said with a grin. “We’ll do it the old-fashioned way.”

  Before I could ask what he was talking about, he swiftly hugged me and pressed a kiss atop my head, before he left, not without taking the cup of coffee Red ha
d fixed him.

  ***

  The following two hours went by in a blur of making and serving coffee, chatting with customers, and joking around with Red.

  I felt like walking on clouds. Hunter’s visit, as short as it had been, had brightened my mood significantly. Talking to him seemed to be the only thing of importance this week, while the remaining time had been drenched in sadness and anger.

  At seven in the evening, I said my goodbyes to Red and Darryl, though I wasn’t sure if they heard me, seeing as they had been quite engaged in eating each other’s faces in the storage room, and drove home.

  I took a deep breath before I unlocked the front door. It was an unsettling feeling to not feel safe and loved in your own home, but I was slowly getting used to it. There would be no smiles and warm hellos when I came home anymore, no “How was your day,” or “Dinner is ready.” No one to even care whether I was home or not.

  Over the past few days, I had pretty much taken care of myself, making my own food, washing my own clothes. I tried to be as invisible as possible, to the extent that I got up an hour earlier in the morning so that I could leave before my parents were up. It was unbelievable how little you could interact with someone who lived a few rooms down the hall.

  That was why I was all the more surprised when my mom came towards me once I entered the hallway and closed the door behind me. I was tempted to just leave her standing there and bolt right up to the stairs to my room, but the stupid little glimmer of hope I still had in my parents made me stay where I was. After I slipped out of my shoes and got out of my jacket, I just stood there, looking her up and down.

  She looked thinner and older than she had a week ago. Her lips were pressed together in a thin line, her eyes like an owl’s behind her glasses.

  The silence was weighing heavy on my chest as she looked at me without saying a word. Then, finally, she crossed the small distance between us and put a hand to my cheek. I nearly flinched away from her touch but then reminded myself that this was my mom, not my dad. Those were the same hands that held me when I cried in kindergarten, put Band-Aids on my knees when I had fallen from my bike in elementary school, and helped style my hair before my first date in middle school—hands that, despite what had happened, were still familiar and gentle.