“I wasn’t very happy when he started inking up his body, I’ll tell you that much. If his mother, God rest her soul, knew she would have had a litter of kittens.”
I really, really wanted to ask about the mother, but I didn’t want to seem like I was trying to pry.
I also wasn’t going to tell her that I thought his tattoos were beyond sexy.
“As long as he doesn’t get a motorcycle, I think my heart will be able to take it. Thank the stars that John Jr. never got into that sort of thing. I would have had his hide.” I laughed.
“You have a great laugh. Has anyone ever told you that?”
“Hunter,” I said without thinking.
“He would.” She turned away from watching Harper and stared at me. Like really stared. Like she was trying to see deep down into my soul. I tried not to flinch while she completed her examination.
“I think of Hunter as my son, and as his mother it is my job to vet any potential females he may be interested in. This is nothing personal, it’s my job.”
“And?” I asked hesitantly. This woman clearly had a set of fangs behind those pearly whites. Noted.
“I don’t want him to hurt you. I don’t want you to hurt him.”
“Me neither. We’re not involved… that way anyway.” I didn’t know what way we were involved. I was pretty sure there wasn’t a definition for it yet.
Hope gave me another once-over with her laser eyes. It was worse than airport security.
“Yet. You’re not involved yet, but honey, I’ve never seen that boy as smitten with anyone as he is with you. You’d have to be blind not to see it.”
Yeah, yeah. I fought the urge to roll my eyes. She didn’t understand how complicated it was.
“Love is simple. You fall and that’s it. You’ll work the other stuff out. You just gotta let yourself fall and have faith that someone will be there to catch you.”
I didn’t want to do any falling. Falling usually led to meeting a hard surface in an unpleasant way.
“All right, that’s enough of the third degree. Now tell me some more about yourself. That top is just darling on you.”
I didn’t tell her that Hunter picked it out. We continued our small talk, but I could tell that she was watching me.
Sixteen
“They’re great. Your family,” I said later that afternoon as Hunter and I drove back to campus. He’d been mostly silent since we’d left. Hope had given me a huge hug and told me to come back soon, and Harper had made me promise I’d sing again with her. John shook my hand again and said I was a lovely young lady. Mase and Darah were staying another night, so I said I’d see her the next day.
“They are.”
“You’re being weird.”
“How?”
“I’ve never seen you so quiet. You’d think someone had died.” I instantly realized my mistake. “Sorry, that was mean.”
“No, I deserved it. I’m not very nice, Taylor.” He almost never called me by my real name. I found I didn’t like it much.
“I know. But that doesn’t give you license to be a jerk.”
“I am what I am. If you don’t like it, there’s a simple way out of it. You have three options. Hate me, love me, do me. Pick your poison.”
“Fuck you.”
“That’s one of the options.”
“I am never giving you a ride again.”
“That’s fine. Now I know where you keep your keys. Sassy and I would have a good time,” he said, patting the dashboard.
“I swear to God, Hunter, if you steal this car, I will stab you in your sleep.”
“Fine. Go ahead.”
What was wrong with him? I turned on an old Avril Lavigne CD just to piss him off. He stared out the window and tapped his leg.
One, two, three, four, five. I wanted to break each one of his five fingers so he couldn’t tap them anymore.
I didn’t speak to him again until we were back on campus. Hunter carried his guitar, and I carried a plastic container with leftovers from Hope that she had forced on me as I walked out the door. How could I say no?
I immediately went to our room and shut the door.
*****
I stayed in there for several hours, munching on the leftovers from the Masons and reading. I thought about calling Tawny, but I didn’t really want to know what she’d have to say about this situation. I didn’t want advice, which would be what she would give me, however unsolicited it might be.
I was deep in the throes of Gone With The Wind when I heard voices in the living room. Must be Dev and Sean. There was a soft knock on the door. Hunter never knocked on our door.
“Hey, we’re going to Blue. You want to come? I’ll buy you a drink.”
I shook my head, not looking up from my book.
“Come on, Missy.”
“You’ve been saying that a lot to me lately.”
“Thank God, she speaks.”
“Bite me.”
“You’re insulting me. Must mean you’re back to normal. Come out with us. It’ll be fun. You can dance and tease me again.”
“Will you let me smash a beer bottle over your head? Because I’d totally sign up for that.”
“Let’s get you out and see how things go. I might let you get a punch in, depending on how drunk I get.”
I’d never seen Hunter drunk. He had a few beers, but I’d never seen him out of control like most people got. Since I was small, alcohol affected me like a hammer. I just needed one or two drinks and I was in happy land. I’d never really seen the appeal of getting drunk. Until tonight.
“I’m in,” I said, swinging my legs over my bed and hopping down. I’d cleaned up the clothing disaster from this morning, but finding the right shirt was going to take another trip through the mire.
Hunter stared at the closet. He knew where my mind had gone.
“Wear that pink one on the left.” He pointed, and I saw a scrap of pink. It was a shirt I had, but never wore. It just wasn’t really me. Tawny had given it to me a few years ago, and I couldn’t part with it because I didn’t want to make her mad. It had a little fabric flower on the neck and was kind of drapey.
“And those dark black skinny pants.”
“Who are you, my fashion consultant?”
“If it’ll get you ready faster, sure. I’ll be your fashion consultant.”
I grabbed the shirt and held it up. Actually, it didn’t look that bad.
“We’re ready when you are,” he said before he left me to change. It was going to be interesting to go out with just me and three boys. If I was a guy, I’d be a pimp. There really wasn’t a good equivalent for a girl.
I decided to leave my hair down. It was looking better than it had this morning, which was unusual, so I decided to embrace it.
“Fuckable?” I said when I came around the corner into the living room.
“Definitely,” Hunter said. I enjoyed the semi-stunned look on his face. God, he saw me every day, but still, when I put on something nice he couldn’t speak. I enjoyed it very much. You didn’t do that with someone you didn’t like.
The other boys smiled politely. I hadn’t seen much of them lately.
“Okay, let’s go, boys. Who wants to carry my purse, and who wants to be my drink bitch for the night?”
They all looked at each other.
“Joke. That was a joke. I wouldn’t emasculate you like that.”
“Carrying a purse wouldn’t emasculate me,” Hunter said. Yeah, I bet.
“I’d carry it, but it doesn’t go with my outfit,” Dev said. We all burst out laughing.
“Ditto,” Sean said as we left.
I took each of their arms.
“Shall we? To the bar!” I said, raising a fist.
We all walked in unison, Hunter trailing behind.
“You got a third arm for me?” he said.
“No, sorry. You can have my purse.” I tossed my black clutch at him, and he caught it.
“Well done. You may fetch my drinks this evening.”
“And what are they going to do?” he asked.
“Fan me and make sure I’m comfortable. Right?”
“My fanning skills are at your service,” Dev said, squeezing my arm.
“I guess that means I’m on comfortable duty,” Sean said.
“Man, are you always this easy?” I said to them.
“That’s what she said,” Hunter mumbled behind me.
“I heard that,” I said over my shoulder.
“You walked right into it, what was I supposed to do?”
“Control yourself, purse man.”
The slight chill in the air made my skin pimple, and I wished I’d brought a jacket.
“You cold?” Sean said.
“I’m fine. We’re almost there.”
Blue Lagoon was hopping again. It seemed that everyone had been bitten by the fall bug, or maybe it was a hold-out from summer. There was already a girl puking her guts out next to a car in the parking lot.
“It is your job tonight, all of you, to make sure I don’t turn out like that,” I said, pointing to the girl, whose hair was being held by an equally drunk girl who could barely stand.
“Hold on a second,” Hunter said.
“What’s he doing?” Dev said.
We all watched as he went over to the girl, who was making sure she steered clear of the vomit stream coming from her friend’s mouth.
“I have no idea,” I said.
He talked to the girl who wasn’t vomiting. She shook her head, and he motioned to me.
“You got your phone? My battery died. I’m going to call them a cab. They don’t live on campus.”
“Of course,” I said, fishing out my phone and searching for the number for one of the local cab companies that frequented the campus.
“I don’t know where my purse went,” the non-vomiting one said. “Purse” came out “pursh.” The other girl was slumped on the pavement, moaning.
“It’s okay, you’ll find it tomorrow. We’re gonna call you a cab, okay? Do you know where you live?” he said.
She gave him the address, and I relayed that to the cab company in case they forgot.
Dev and Sean got in on the action, helping vomit girl up and running inside to get a wet paper towel and a cup of water so she could try to clean herself up.
The cab came a few minutes later, and we got them both in. The cabbie assured us he would get them home safe and refused payment when Hunter pulled out some cash.
“No need. One good turn deserves another,” he said, waving to us and taking the drunken girls home. They probably weren’t going to remember the kindness Hunter showed them, but I would.
“Everyone ready to go in?” I really wanted to get away from the vomit smell, and my teeth were starting to chatter.
“What is it with girls and not having coats?” Hunter said.
“Well, I didn’t plan for this random moment of good Samaritan-ship.”
“You never do,” he said, walking to the door.
We saw a different bouncer this time, but he also knew Hunter. He was certainly a popular fellow. My fake ID was barely scrutinized before I was let in.