It was obvious he didn’t want to talk about it, so I let the subject drop. His reluctance to share the whole story made me wonder, though. What was he hiding? Something that would stop him from doing ROTC had to be pretty big. The possibilities ran through my mind as we walked back to his apartment. I’d hidden things about my personal life from Hunter, but apparently he was hiding things about himself as well. Druggie parents, kicked out of ROTC despite top scores—it sounded like Hunter had a fucked up past like I did. I decided not to prod him on it though. He hadn’t questioned me about my past even though it was clear I was hiding something bad from him.
Instead, I focused on the prospect of taking care of six adorable little furry babies with Hunter. It was going to be an adventure.
Chapter Twelve
HOME
Friday marked the end of the fifth week of classes. I stood outside the Floyd Hall parking lot, eagerly awaiting my aunt’s arrival. She had called me asking if it was okay to park in the lot for the weekend or if she needed some sort of permit. After checking the signs posted on lamplights around the lot, I told her that she didn’t need a permit on weekends.
I looked at the rows of cars and saw Aunt Caroline step out the driver-side of a white minivan with a bumper sticker that said “#1 Soccer Mom.”
“Aunt Caroline!” I waved at her to catch her attention as she pulled out a small suitcase from the trunk.
She turned around and smiled. “Lorrie!”
I walked over to help her carry her suitcase.
“You’re looking good!” she said. “It’s been what . . . a little over a month since I last saw you.”
“Thanks! Yeah, it’s been some time.”
“I can see you’re eating well at the dorms.” She grinned.
My face heated as I laughed. Aunt Caroline was a good observer and wasn’t afraid to call it as she saw it. But she wasn’t mean-spirited or critical. She was in decent shape considering she had two boys, but by no means a Jessica Alba getting a six pack a few months after delivering. “Yeah, maybe a little too much.”
“Hey if it feels good, it can’t be wrong right? Bah, I wish I was your age again with your metabolism. I remember I’d be able to eat almost a whole pizza from the dining hall and not gain a single pound.” She sighed. “Now, it’s all about eating salads and dieting just to stay somewhat in shape. Ah, youth.”
“Well, you look great Aunt Caroline.”
“You’re too sweet!”
We went back to my dorm room. Aunt Caroline opened up her suitcase and presented me with a gift bag filled with cookies and other delicious treats.
“I wasn’t sure if you were eating enough, being busy with studying and everything, so I brought you this just in case,” she said.
I laughed. “And here you were making fun of me for eating too much!”
“I know, but you can eat these guilt-free because it contains Auntie’s love. Think of it as aspartame for cookies.”
“Ah, Diet Cookies. Don’t mind if I do then.” I took a bite of a chocolate chip one and the cookie crumbled in my mouth in all its gooey glory. I could taste the love.
“So,” she said, taking a bite of one herself. “How’s everything going? Are you adjusting to student life again?”
“Yeah, it was kind of hard in the beginning but it’s gotten easier. I’m getting into the groove, doing a lot more art.”
“That’s great to hear! Sometimes it takes a little while to adjust, it can be hard coming back from a long break. Classes going well?”
“So-so. Classes are tough but I’m passing at least. Psychology is kind of hard. Economics is harder. My other classes like sociology and art history aren’t too bad though.”
Aunt Caroline put her hand on my shoulder. “Don’t feel bad, Lorrie. College isn’t all about grades. Half of it is meeting new people and enjoying your experience. You should be making fond memories that you can look back on when you’re older. When it comes to grades, what’s important is that you’re doing your best. Have you made any new friends besides Daniela?”
I thought about Hunter. Suddenly I remembered that I had to feed little Rampage and Taylor. Otherwise they’d get grumpy.
“Yes, actually. Speaking of which, I have to go over to his place to feed his kittens.”
“A boy?”
I thought about correcting her by referring to Hunter as a ‘man’ but decided against it because no ‘man’ would be afraid of a black-and-white fly monster. “Yes, a boy.”
“Ooh, tell me about him and the kittens.”
I told Aunt Caroline a little about Hunter beyond him having short, dark hair—but not too much more. Certain parts—like girls propositioning him for a threesome—were definitely left out of the explanation. Having nothing else to do, Aunt Caroline joined me in going over to Hunter’s apartment. I was wary of my aunt meeting Hunter and getting the wrong impression, but he was usually at the gym around this time. On the way, I asked her about how Uncle Stewart and the boys were doing and she said that Stewart was keeping busy with his job as a salesman and the boys—Billy and Joel—were keeping busy with soccer practice. It seemed like the Perkins household was as stable as always.
I began bottle-feeding the cats and Aunt Caroline helped out as well. When we were almost done, the door opened and Hunter stepped inside. He was wearing a black sweater with the hood up and jeans and was carrying a gym bag in one hand; he looked like he’d showered recently.
Oh no.
“Hey Lorrie!” He waved at me kneeling in the kitchen, kitten on my lap. “Oh, hello,” he said, noticing my aunt beside me.
I put Bones down and stood up. “Hey Hunter. Oh this is my aunt, Caroline.” Hunter smiled and extended his hand. Aunt Caroline got up and shook it, and returned the smile. “I didn’t expect you to be back from the gym already.”
“Yeah, I got done early with training today,” he said as he set his bag down and removed the hood of his sweater. “So you guys just feeding the kittens?”
“Yep,” I replied, giving Bones a pet on the head as he mewed at me.
“So Hunter,” my aunt chirped. “Lorrie’s told me a lot about you. It sounds like you two are good friends.”
He grinned. “Yeah, I’d say so. Wouldn’t you agree, Lorrie?”
I tried to hide my smile by rolling my eyes at Hunter. “I’d say decent friends. We get on each other’s nerves sometimes.”
“Maybe not enough,” he replied.
Aunt Caroline was too busy admiring Hunter’s appearance to pay close attention to our banter. “Hunter, you’re very tall and handsome. You even have tattoos I see.” She pointed at the collar of his sweater. “Has anyone told you that you look like Tom Hardy?”
Oh no, Aunt Caroline noticed his tattoos.
Hunter laughed. “Yeah, I get that a lot. Thank you for the compliments.”
I was expecting Aunt Caroline to promptly pull me back to the dorm or even back to Indiana and lock me inside my room, so what she said next came as a surprise. “Have you considered dating Lorrie?”
“A-Aunt Caroline!” I spluttered. “Why would you ask such a thing?”
Hunter smiled widely. A little too widely. “We’ve had a discussion or two about it but we’re just friends at the moment.”
“I see.” Aunt Caroline looked at me gauging my reaction. She must’ve noticed how red my face was. “So tell me more about those tattoos you have,” she said to Hunter, changing the subject.
Hunter pushed up his sleeve showing us his bulging biceps and the tattoos on his arm. “I don’t have anything too crazy. Just some simple designs.”
“That’s some cool ink! I really like that hammer!” Aunt Caroline then lifted up her sleeve and showed us a tattoo on her arm. “The reason I ask is because I got one recently myself.” I looked at her arm and saw an etched soccer ball with big letters in front of it that said ‘MOM’.
“Awesome!” Hunter said, smiling.
“Whoa, Aunt Caroline! I never knew you had a t
attoo. How come you never showed me?”
“I just got it recently, Lorrie. Well, me and a few other moms on the team got tattoos. We wanted to show our support for our boys.”
I stared at her, dumbfounded. A bumper sticker was one thing, but a tattoo? When I thought about it further, I realized that Aunt Caroline did have a bit of a wild side so I shouldn’t be too surprised. She was probably the one who suggested it and got the other mothers on board.
The rest of the evening went by without anymore shocking surprises. Aunt Caroline and I stayed at Hunter’s a bit longer to play with the kittens and hang out with Hunter. Hunter was being uncharacteristically flattering and entertaining to Aunt Caroline and me, taking every opportunity to flash his tattoos and biceps.
It wasn’t until dinner time that we got back to my dorm.
“I’m happy that things are going well for you Lorrie. Hunter seems like a nice boy. Seems like he really cares about you.” She had a sly smile. “I know you’re reluctant to admit it, but I know you have feelings for him, Lorrie. I can tell. Maybe you should think about talking to him about those feelings sometime. A guy like him is probably not going to be available for long, you know.”
“Thanks,” I said sarcastically. I was still a little annoyed by Aunt Caroline asking Hunter if he wanted to date me. “I’m actually surprised you’re pushing me to date. I thought you’d be wrangling me back to Indiana once you saw Hunter’s tats.”
“Oh Lorrie. I know I’m sometimes a little overprotective of you but I also want you to live your life. As long as you’re not drinking or doing drugs or sleeping around with guys left and right, I think it’s good for you to have some fun.”
I raised a brow skeptically. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
“I’m just saying, I know you’re still adjusting to school but I don’t want you to be afraid of taking chances. Worst comes to worst, it doesn’t work out. Have some fun.” She grinned. “You’ve always got me and Stewart and the boys behind you. You’ve got our home you can always come back to when things get tough. So feel free to spread your wings. I just don’t want you to regret not seizing the opportunity when it’s there, that’s all.”
I sighed. “Yeah, yeah. I know Hunter’s a nice guy. I just want to go at my own pace with things though.”
“Sure, sure, Lorrie.”
We spent the rest of the night hanging out. On Sunday, I showed her around campus and we had fun getting ice cream from Clyde’s. Then she went back home Sunday night. It was a bittersweet goodbye. Although she had embarrassed me in front of Hunter, I was really glad she visited. With her surprising approval of Hunter as a potential boyfriend, I began to think that maybe that wasn’t such a bad idea.
Chapter Thirteen
THE SCAM
I dropped by Hunter’s apartment regularly the next couple days to feed the kittens. They were growing by the day but still so tiny. Even though feeding them by bottle was cute, I would be glad when they could finally eat solid food. Hunter and I had taken the kittens to the vet yesterday and they said it would still be a few more weeks of bottle-feeding.
The way Hunter and my Aunt Caroline had interacted still puzzled me. She had always been so overprotective, but Hunter and his tattoos seemed to impress her. I still couldn’t believe she’d gotten that soccer mom tattoo.
Thinking about all this made it hard to concentrate on psychology. Wednesday had come around and I had managed to drag myself to class with Daniela, but that didn’t mean I was really there. I was sketching Georgia’s adorable furry face in my notes when Daniela elbowed me.
“You should pay attention, this is interesting,” she whispered.
“Sorry, I’ve been distracted. What’s up?”
“Muller’s talking about how our emotions during an event affect our memory of it.”
“Oh, that does sound cool. Can I borrow your notes?”
“Sure. What’s bugging you, anyway?”
People were starting to give us dirty looks for chatting during lecture. I debated in my mind whether I should tell her I was developing feelings for Hunter. “I’ll tell you later,” I whispered.
She nodded. I spent the rest of class doing my best to pay attention, but it was hard to follow after missing the first part. Guess I’d have to copy Daniela’s notes again before the midterm. I went back to sketching Georgia. At least that was turning out well.
Daniela had to rush to meet with her group before a presentation in Geology, so I said goodbye and headed to the bathroom. I was hanging my purse up in the stall when I heard two girls enter with noisy footwear. They were chatting excitedly and quickly. I was preparing to ignore their gossip when I caught two words: “kittens” and “Hunter.”
“Did you see how little they were?” the girl with flats said.
“Oh my god, I know! And he looked so cute holding them. He’s so hot,” her friend wearing boots replied.
“I knowwwww!” Flats gushed.
“I’ve never seen that side of him before. He always seems so tough. He’s like an M&M: hard on the outside but soft on the inside.”
Flats laughed. “Maybe. But I like to think of him as a Snickers: long and hard.” They both laughed.
These girls were talking like they knew Hunter intimately. I started to fear the worst.
“Yeah, it’s too bad we didn’t get a chance to have sex with him,” Boots said.
I carefully released a breath of relief. Hunter had a reputation for being a player with women. Daniela had warned me multiple times and I had my own suspicions. But after becoming friends with Hunter, I realized he was a good-hearted guy who liked to be alone most of the time or only with close friends like me and Gary. Other than the threesome proposition at the hockey game—which he turned down—I hadn’t seen any signs of him living up to his reputation. Gossip could be stupid. These girls were stupid.
“Do you think he uses the kittens to pick up girls?”
“I wonder if he’s trying to be ironic with the whole using pussy to get pussy you know?” She laughed. “That’s so Hunter’s sense of humor! He doesn’t need to but I don’t see how any girl could resist him after seeing him with those kitties. I mean, it definitely worked on us. I was like so ready to scratch his pants off!”
“Yeah, me too.” They both laughed.
God, these girls made me want to hurl. Fortunately—but unfortunately for them—I couldn’t see Hunter ever going for these bimbos. It’s because of these types of girls that Hunter often wore hooded sweaters to hide his identity in public.
“At least we got to give him a blowjob,” Flats said.
My stomach dropped. Did I hear that correctly? Hunter got a blowjob from them? What the fuck.
I suddenly felt light headed. Surely I misheard her or she was joking. I had to have misunderstood her words. “Blowjob” could mean she’d been cutting his hair and had blow-dried his head after a rinse. Maybe these girls were part-time hair-stylists. Misinterpretation and jumping to conclusions was how rumors got started in the first place.
Boots chuckled. “Yeah, his cock has literally got to be the biggest on campus! I didn’t think it was possible but it was somehow long enough for both of us to suck on it at the same time!”
I fought against the urge to retch. The sordid details were too damning to ignore. How could Hunter be using his kittens to pick up girls? Our kittens, really. I was over there just about every day taking care of those things. And he was using them to get girls to suck his cock? I was so disgusted I wanted to vomit.
“Oh, and did you hear their names?” Flats giggled. “Rampage? How funny is that?”
“He said that girl Lorrie named the females. Are they like together?”
My heart pounded as I tried to steady my breathing.
“They have to be, right? I mean they have kittens together. Even still, Hunter’s never really ‘with’ girls. I mean, he let us give him a BJ.”
“Yeah. So weird. He must like the tragic emo type. I guess he’s probably as
much with her as he ever is with anyone?”
Her friend laughed. “Well, now that I think about it, that’s not entirely true. He was with Ada for a while during freshman year and I don’t think he ever cheated on her.”
“Oh right, I never heard anything either, but who knows with him? It’s been a pretty long time since they dated, anyway.”
Who’s Ada? I was tempted to ask them what Ada’s last name was so I could look her up but decided against blowing my cover.
“Okay, how do my eyes look?” Boots said.
“Great! Let’s go before we’re late.”
I heard footsteps, and then the door opened and closed. Bending down to look under the stall, I scanned the room for feet, but there were none. They were gone. I finished up in the bathroom and headed out. My face was hot with rage; it took all of my effort to try and fix my face in an expression that didn’t make me look like a deranged person. How could he do that to me? How?
Hunter texted me just as I entered my dorm after my drawing class. It was a little after three.
Hey are you coming by later to take care of the kittens? Rampage misses you ;-)
I stared at my phone, angry that he still thought he was tricking me into taking care of his kittens for him. How long would he have kept it up if I hadn’t found out? Months? I thought about giving him the typical avoidance treatment but decided I was going to be slightly more mature this time.
Find some other girl to take care of them.
Right as I hit ‘send’, I realized I should’ve made myself clearer so I sent another text immediately afterward.
Asshole.
Seconds later, my phone buzzed, but I put it on silent. I didn’t want to deal with his bullshit just then. If he wanted to try and explain his actions, I was going to make him think long and hard about what he had to say—like a fucking Snickers bar.
As soon as I got to my suite I threw my bag down on the futon and began to cry. I knew Kate and Petra were probably at the gym at this time so I didn’t care about letting loose. It was the first time I’d cried in a while and it surprised me that I was having this stupid reaction to what I’d heard earlier. Just when I opened myself up to someone, he stabbed me in the back with a smiley in his text message.
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