Hey you guys, thanks for the kind reviews! How do you like it so far? Enjoy, the first chapter in Lucas's POV!
Lucas
"Damn it, Hunter, can't you go a day without breaking something?"
The other boy tries to smile as I sit down next to him on the freezing metal table. His nose isn't bleeding, but it has faded into a swollen and throbbing sort of purple, twice the size I remember it being normally. His shirt is coated in blood. "Technically, this wasn't my own clumsiness. I got myself punched."
I wince. "Ouch. Was he big?"
"As a matter of fact," he says, "she was tiny. Shorter than me."
"A girl?" Don't get me wrong, I know very well how strong girls can be, but he got punched in the face by a teenage girl? "Geez, Hunter, what did you do to make her so mad?"
"Nothing recently. She's an old friend, to use the word loosely." The doctor is prodding gently at his nose, turning it this way and that under his fingers. I wonder if he can feel it throbbing and have to resist the urge to puke."I haven't seen her in about five years, so apparently she deemed it necessary to break my face when I showed up." He gasps and yelps in pain as the doctor takes his nose in both hands and shifts it back into place with a loud crack. "Oh, God, that hurts. Look, I'll explain it to you later, okay?"
"Sure." I am still curious, but there is a look in my little brother's eyes that I haven't seen since he stepped off the plane five years ago. I wonder what ghosts of his past are haunting him. "So, is it broken, Doc?"
"Oh, yes. Very badly. But it's nothing that won't heal. Just keep these butterfly bandages on it for the next few weeks and avoid anything coming in contact with your face. Icing it once a day wouldn't hurt, either." He rests a hand on Hunter's shoulder and looks at him, suddenly serious. "And as for this girl….did you deserve it?"
Hunter looks away, his mouth working. "Yeah," he says quietly. "I think I did."
"Well, then," the doctor says, "I'd be thinking real hard about how to make up for it, because any girl you'd take a punch from is obviously one you care about."
The car ride home is silent. I turn and look at him a few times, wanting to ask him what happened, but every time I close my mouth and keep driving. I take a few stabs at small talk, asking him when he plans on going to get his car (which he shouldn't have driven to the hospital by himself in the first place), what he wants to do about dinner, that sort of thing, but I give up quickly when I realize that all I'm going to get are one-word answers. I take to looking at him sideways instead. There is a noticeable absence of the usual twinkle in his eyes and it hurts.
He gets out without a word the minute we pull into the parking lot. "Hey, wait a minute," I call after him. "You told me you were going to explain what happened."
He doesn't turn around. "I said later. I didn't specify how much later."
"Hunter…" But he is gone, and I sigh and slam the car door shut. He has had times before where he's gotten like this, like the anniversaries of his parents' deaths, but he had obvious reasons then—now, I can't figure it out. I push the front door open and call out for Nathan.
He comes around the corner with a dish and sponge in his hands, his face inquisitive. "Yeah?"
"You're cleaning?" I ask, raising an eyebrow. Nathan is one of the messiest people I know. Izzi likes to always say that he doesn't just fit the stereotype for teenage boy, he created it, but she's a slob, too, so we always call her out on it. As much as she and Nathan are different, they have that one thing in common. Twin genetics, I guess.
"There was a mountain of dishes in the sink that Izzi and I were left to tackle alone, so he's helping. You and Hunter should be, too," Haley cuts in, pressing a glass into my hands. "Speaking of, where is he? Didn't he come home with you?"
"Yeah; he's upstairs. He's actually what I wanted to talk to you about, Nathan." I lower my voice. "I had to pick him up from the hospital. He went to see an old friend earlier and she broke his nose."
"Oh, my God! Is he okay?"
"Physically, he'll be fine, but he's acting really strange and I think it's because of her. You know how weird he is about talking about his past—I'm wondering what he did to her that he doesn't want to tell us about."
"Geez, you think there're more bad things in his past? The stuff we know already is terrible enough," Nathan says.
"Yes, I do. The story we know has some holes in it." I sigh. "I just hate to see him in pain. He's such a good guy."
"Well, Nate said something about one of the basketball guys having an end-of-the-summer party tonight. Maybe you should take him to that," Izzi suggested, stepping out of the kitchen. Even though I have known her my whole life, I am still struck at odd times by how much she looks like Nathan, and now is one of those times. With her brown hair and chocolate eyes, she could be him in girl form (except way prettier, she always jokes). "You know, get a little alcohol in him. Induce some short-term memory loss."
"None of you should be drinking at all," Haley says sharply, glaring at the three of us, especially Nathan. "But I do think that's a good idea. Let him have some fun and take his mind off things."
Nathan hesitates. "I don't know, you guys. Hunter's only been to one party since he got here, and he didn't have a very good time. Brooke tried to have sex with him the minute he walked in the door."
"And," I add, "tomorrow is Sunday. He usually doesn't like to stay up late on Saturdays so he can go to church."
"Well, the least you can do is ask him," Haley says. "Now, give him some time to himself and get in here. There are dishes to be done." She swats Nathan on the butt with a wet dish towel and shrieks as he picks her up and tickles her in retaliation.
I oblige, but my mind is a million miles away. My gaze keeps being drawn to the top of the stairs, where I can't help wondering if Hunter is sitting alone, crying for horrors of his past he has kept to himself for all these years.
Hope you liked this chapter PLEASE Review! Let me know if you have any questions.
-Kenya
