Hunter (Broken Bad Boys 1): A New Adult Bad Boy Romance

by Heart,Skylar

  Hanna laughs and her attention is diverted away from me again.

  I look at Hunter from the corner of my eyes. The shoes that made such noise don’t look like anything I recognize. They sort of look like army boots, but not like the models I know. And I don’t see any particular brand designs on the laces or the shoes. There are bands of leather instead of laces, and they are higher than most army boots.

  Hunter makes a noise, and I look up, my cheeks flushing.

  I clear my throat. “I’m sorry?”

  “They’re tank boots.” He obviously saw me stare.

  “Tank boots?” I feel Hanna grab my arm, and I turn to her. “What?”

  “We need to go in.” Hanna points towards the door, and a group of students spills out.

  I step back, away from the crowd. The group coming out is loud and rowdy and I step back further, a panic coming on. I bump into something. At first I think it’s the wall, until the wall moves.

  “Let’s leave.” Hunter’s whisper is close to my ear and even though he pulls on my arm for a moment, he immediately lets go and turns around, merging into the crowd. I twist after him, barely able to grab the sleeve of his jacket before he disappears from view.

  Yes, leaving, not being here. My chest becomes lighter just at the thought of it.

  Hunter stops outside the building and turns to me, his eyes scanning my face. “You okay?”

  I nod, not sure what to answer. I just followed a guy I don’t know, skipping another class on the first day, and I’m actually glad about it. I don’t normally do this, especially not with guys I barely met. I promised myself that I would never do anything someone asks just because they asked, especially when they were of the opposite gender. But it wasn’t like he asked—it was more that he vocalized what I had thought only moments before. I didn’t want to be stuck in a room with way too many people, not now, not today.

  “Hey.” Hunter touches my shoulder, and I pull back. No touching. “Sorry. You’re just a bit pale.”

  Pale? I guess he didn’t look closely at me before. I’m always pale. “I’m okay.” And I’m not lying—I’m okay now we’re outside.

  “You want to go into town or something? Now we’re not going to class anyway.” Hunter points towards the buses.

  “Sure.” It’s not like I have anything better to do. Nobody expects me home yet. I would have to face more annoying questions if I returned right now. “Don’t you need to take your bike?”

  Hunter’s eyes go wide, a darkness passing over them just for a fleeting moment, but then shakes his head and it’s gone again. “Nah, I can take the bus back here and pick it up later.” His voice is a tad too casual, his smile a tad too forced. “It’s easier to get somewhere by bus anyway.”

  I nod. It probably is, but that doesn’t explain him being uncomfortable. Hunter walks towards the edge of the campus and I follow him, staying slightly behind him, not wanting to focus attention on myself. Sometimes I hate how people ignore me, and at other times I hate it when people stare. Though it doesn’t help that people are staring anyway right now. Hanna was right, they’re not used to seeing Hunter interact with other people.

  Walking behind him has the added advantage that I can take a better look at him without him noticing. He isn’t just broad. Since he is carrying his jacket in his arms I can see how his back triangles to a slim waist. The muscles in his back move as he walks and his legs flex under the tightly fitting jeans. How do people do it? Being so slim while not being thin? Hunter is broad but I don’t see anything that isn’t rock-hard muscle. I almost bump into him as he stops and turns around, too lost in my own mind. I blush hard when he cocks an eyebrow at me.

  “Where do you want to go?” He almost reaches out, but then steps aside and moves his hands away. He learns fast, but why is there something inside me, a small voice, that wonders what it would feel like to have his hands on me?

  “Ehh… I’ve got no clue. I don’t go into town much.” I take trips to the art store, but that is basically it. I don’t like going shopping and I’m not a people person.

  Hunter smiles, his face lighting up, and then turns to look at the schedule near the bus stop. “I think I’ve got an idea.”

  I walk after Hunter through streets that are barely wide enough for a single car to go through. I’ve got no clue where I am. I’ve never been here before. But I’m sure we’re still in the town I’ve lived all my life, because I didn’t see us leave the city.

  “Where—” I start to speak, but Hunter puts his hand up.

  “We’re almost there.” He slows down and walks next to me. “I’m sure you’ll like it. It’s a wonder you’ve never been here before.” How does he know? I’ve got no clue where we’re going, he didn’t ask, and he somehow just assumed.

  As the street opens up into a square, all the different small streets converge here. It’s like a little hideout. “Where is this?” I look around but part of my view is obscured by Hunter, who keeps standing right in front of me.

  Hunter grins and steps aside. In the middle of the space is a huge metal dragon on a block of cement.

  I must gape as Hunter laughs and softly pushes me towards the center of the square. “You made this?”

  Hunter nods. “A few years ago. You didn’t recognize it when I showed you the picture before, so I was pretty sure that you’d never been here. This is not a place many people quickly forget. Come.” He motions at the statue and as I get closer I can see that there are drawings on the cement block. “Wanna find an empty spot?” He pulls two black markers from his backpack and gives one to me.

  “Is this okay?” I take the marker but don’t step forward yet. I know that other people have drawn on it, but that doesn’t mean I’m keen on breaking the law by doodling on some statue.

  “It’s what it is meant for. Look around you, there is art everywhere.” He points towards the benches and other things around the square and I realize that nothing is painted. Everything is drawn on in different colors, covered in doodles that from further away give the appearance of the items having been painted, even if they aren’t. Hunter breaks my stare. “This is a get-together place for artists. It can get quite busy during the late afternoon and evening. The square is closed off—no cars can come here. The streets are too narrow to allow for safe navigation around this part of town. So the county decided that it could be an art hangout spot.”

  I step closer to the cement block and check the art on it. Most of it I don’t recognize, but here and there are styles that bring up memories from years ago. It feels weird, the good kind, to see that the people I used to know from Tamara’s workshop also come here. “Cool.” I find an empty spot and open the marker, deciding what to draw on it. Nothing comes to mind and I almost close the marker again but Hunter draws a water drop in the spot.

  “Now you do something with that.” He smiles and steps back again.

  I draw a semi-circle around it and then Hunter steps in again. We keep going back and forth, completing the drawing as we go. When the spot is filled I step back, looking at the picture, at how it interacts with the doodles around it. While everything is different, the whole thing together creates something that has some sort of whole-ness.

  “See? This is what this spot is created for, to have a place to create things together.” Hunter walks to a bench nearby and flops down. “I’ve spent a lot of time here the past couple of years.”

  I sit down nearby on the cement edge of a raised bed of plants. “The idea is cool.” I know why I’ve never been here before. My parents would never have allowed me to come to this neighborhood—it’s in the older part of town, but not the nice older part, the slightly rundown older part. They’re so scared something bad will happen to me that they’d never allow me to come here. Always being watched by my parents and not having my own car, or a motorbike like Hunter—yeah, I didn’t really explore much apart from areas they were okay with.

  The blood drains from my face as the world around me starts to
spin slightly. I close my eyes, fighting against the feeling. No, not now. I can’t faint right now.

  “Liz?” I feel Hunter next to me in seconds, hovering, still not touching me.

  “I’m okay.” I keep my eyes closed as I reach for my bag, searching for my water bottle.

  “Let me.” Hunter takes the bag from me, and a few moments later the cool bottle of water touches my hand. “Here.”

  I open the bottle and take a few gulps. Not enough food, I know, and not enough liquids. But I don’t want to worry Hunter even more, so I open my eyes, not focusing on anything in particular, just opening them to show that I’m okay.

  “Lizzy.” He kneels in front of me, his blurry outline still imposing. “Maybe you should go home.”

  “No, I’m okay.” I stay seated, not moving one bit. If I don’t move, the darkness won’t take me.

  “If that is what you want to believe.” I’m not sure I’m supposed to have heard those mumbled words as blurry Hunter walks off.

  If that is what I want to believe? No, it’s what I want him to believe. I don’t want to worry him, don’t want to scare him. But he seems unfazed by most things I do, too unfazed to be normal.

  I don’t hear him for a while and as the faint feeling fades, the worry is growing. “Hunter?” I call out for him, but he doesn’t answer. I push myself up, not wanting to be vulnerable in a place I don’t know. I slowly stand up, blinking to stop the spinning. When the world is back to normal, I look around, starting to worry. No Hunter, no one in the whole square.

  I take up my bag and search for my phone, wanting to call someone to pick me up, but then Hunter reappears at the side of my vision.

  “I was getting something to eat. I was hungry,” he explains as he holds out a paper bag and sits on the bench. “Come, you must be hungry too.” Nothing that he’s saying or doing betrays what he feels about what just happened. He nearly saw me faint, and all he did was buy food?

  I shake my head but he keeps pointing to the other side of the bench, so I sit down too.

  He grabs a huge sandwich from the bag and then hands me the bag. “I hope you like it.” I don’t normally accept food from just anyone, but at the same time, it would look bad if I didn’t accept it.

  I look at him, worried about what he got me, but then he points towards the bag, urging me to look in. In the bag there is a small clear box with fruit. Pineapple, mango, grapes and a few ones I don’t immediately recognize, generic light colored fruits like apple or pear. I’m glad that he didn’t get me a sandwich too, but still, this is too much for me, too much to eat. And in front of Hunter too… I can’t eat in front of strangers. I smile though, trying to make it as genuine as possible, and take the box from the bag. “Thank you.”

  “No problem.” Hunter happily eats away at his sandwich and looks around, ignoring me.

  I eye him for a while longer, and then look at the tub in my hands. I know I should at least eat something, or I might actually faint. I really don’t want to, but I can’t get around eating with Hunter right next to me. Walking away now would be rude and I really do need to eat. I open the foil lid of the top a slight bit, just enough to take a grape from the box. I bite the grape in half, checking for seeds, when I don’t find them, I chew on the half in my mouth. Carefully chewing, grinding everything into tiny pieces, taking just long enough time, not too long, not too short. When I’m finished, I take a swig of water and then look at the other half. I bite it in half again, chewing on it carefully.

  From the corner of my eyes I see Hunter look at me and I turn my head, but he quickly looks away. Ugh, this is why I hate eating in public. People stare. Like they’ve never seen someone eat before…

  I put the last bit of the grape into my mouth and put the box down on the bench next to me. I don’t like being looked at while eating. I refuse to eat when people stare at me.

  Chapter 4

  Hunter

  I look away from Lizzy. Someone told me years ago that some people hate being looked at when they eat—they feel like you’re judging them. I don’t remember who said it, or why, but I guess Lizzy is one of those people. She is not going to eat like this, and I try to come up with a new plan, a way to distract both me and her.

  I look at the dragon in the middle of the square, remember what I was doing and thinking when I made it. It takes me a moment before I realize I’m starting to babble, filling the silence, keeping Lizzy’s attention on me instead of her food. I keep out the part about Joey, as he was going through one of his bad stages at the time. I also keep out the crappy ending—his death, just days before the dragon was revealed. The dragon he loved so much that he had spent weeks watching me create it, that he looked forward to watching being put together piece by piece as his body broke down. I keep babbling, the words flowing out, and from the corner of my eyes I watch Lizzy eat a few more pieces of fruit. Though eating is too big a word for what she is doing—it’s more like nibbling, like a small mouse. She’s so focused on listening to my story that she doesn’t even realize it.

  When we came down the stairs of the college building and the blood drained from her face, I suspected that something was up. But the episode just now confirmed for me that she probably hadn’t eaten yet today—low blood sugar. With her slim form, I’m not that surprised. Girls who look that skinny often skip breakfast.

  “Hunter?” Lizzy is looking at me and then reaches out, though she pulls her hand back before she touches me. “Thank you.” She looks sincere, though I’m not sure why.

  I blink. “For what?”

  “For getting me something to eat. That was really nice of you.” Lizzy puts the box back into the bag.

  I try to smile, hoping it seems genuine. “No problem.” We’re just playing parts, exchanging niceties without meaning, and we both know it. We both know that she didn’t eat a lot and that she’s trying to hide it. “Where do you want to go next?”

  “Ehh.” She checks her phone. “I don’t know, it’s still early.” She looks around, standing up and moving around the square, looking at the art on the ground and the walls.

  I stay seated, letting her do what she wants, just observing her movements, the way she sways as she moves and how her hair swishes around her lower back. I want to draw her, but I’m too lazy to hunt around for pen and paper in my bag, and I don’t think she would appreciate if I put her on a wall for everyone to see. I close my eyes, basking in the sun, relaxing as the sounds from all around me make me sleepy.

  “I think I want to go home.” Lizzy is right next to me and I startle.

  I stare at her for a moment, wanting to say something, but in the time I had my eyes closed, a darkness has taken over her eyes. She looks tense, her shoulders are hunched and she avoids my gaze. I want to make that darkness in her eyes go away, but I don’t have a clue how to. “Let’s go then.”

  I stand and I’m suddenly so close to her that I can smell her sweet orange scent. If I even move one bit, I could kiss her hair. God, she smells good. I step back and try to smile at her again. No matter how tempting it is, that would not be a good idea. “This way.”

  “Will you get home okay?” We stand at the bus station near where her bus will leave.

  “I’ll be fine. I’m not a little girl.” She grins, baring her teeth, but there is no spark in her eyes. Which somehow worries me, even though it could simply be exhaustion, because I feel that too.

  “Okay. Just wanted to make sure.” I rub my arms for a moment, then run my fingers through my hair.

  “If you don’t leave now you’ll miss your bus.” Lizzy points towards the bus stop where the bus to the college campus will leave soon.

  I nod. I want to stay here, wait for her to leave, but I know that I’m crowding her and it also means that my trip will take half an hour longer. “See you tomorrow?” I reach out to her, then just leave my hand outstretched.

  Lizzy looks at my hand, my face, and then back to my hand. At last, she shakes it. “I’ll see you tomorrow in cla
ss.” There is a fleeting smile before she turns and walks to her bus stop.

  Now there is nothing more for me to do than get to my own bus stop. I sprint as I see the time, and the door of the bus is about to close when I reach it. I walk through the aisle, aware of the people staring at me as I pass. The crazy one. The insane one. The damaged one. The fighter. I know what people say about me, about who I am, what I do. I wish I could fight it, but it’s true. After Tessa’s crash, I went off the rails. Even before that I had a reputation for being a fighter, but after that I… I stopped caring for so long.

  I sit down and stare out of the window, ignoring everyone around me.

  The city passes me by, the roads familiar, though unfamiliar at the same time. I’m not used to riding the bus anywhere. For the past five years I’ve gotten everywhere by bike. Tessa by my side. I put my hand over my chest, the pain still stinging and only ever so slowly fading. I don’t close my eyes, I can’t close my eyes. I don’t want to see the yellow bike wrapped around the tree, Tessa stuck in the mangled mess.

  I grip the chair, squeezing so hard that it hurts. Move on, moving on. Don’t linger there, or the darkness will overtake me.

  The campus comes into view and I stand, wanting off the bus. Now.

  I jump out of the bus, my face back to being plain. I walk towards my bike, and see Tamara come out of the art building. I want to turn around, but she already notices me.

  “Hunter,” Tamara calls out for me, and I walk to her, a smile on my face.

  “Hi. Just grabbing my bike.” I point to it. What a stupid thing to say.

  Tamara frowns, confused, but then nods. “Sure. I just wanted to check with you that it was okay.”

  “That what was okay?” I’m confused now. Did I miss something?

  “I sort of sprang the whole moving to a different class onto you. I wanted to make sure it was okay. I didn’t have time to talk to you about it beforehand.” She walks with me to my bike, talking while I unlock the bike.