Until. We. Die

.9.

"I'm heading off to school..." Hunter's head poked in through the door, his voice following. For the third day in a row, he had a neutral look on his face as he opened my door to tell me he would be gone for the next few hours. He watched me adjust my knee brace with a struggle, not being able to turn the knobs on it correctly.

"Yea okay." I waved him away, still struggling. I had moved around last night and the brace got loose. Waking up my leg hurt more than usual without the pressure helping it.

Bitting my lip as I tried to turn the stupid thing to tighten around my knee more, "Stop before you blow a brain cell." Hunter dropped his bag and opened the door more while coming at me. He kneeled on the ground by my leg and shooed my hands away from my own brace.

Steadily he turned the knobs until the brace sat right on my leg. He double checked the rest of them before looking up at me. His hair was gelled upwards, but it looked like his hoodie made a mess of it as parts of it started to fall at his eyes.

"Better?"

"Yeah...thank you." It had been a weird few days now that I was living with the Rhodes for sure now. I had tried to stay out of their way as much as possible yet they were always popping up and in on me. Everyone has their routine and I was tring not to invade as much as I could. I was only here for three weeks starting tomorrow. They didn't need to get use to me.

Hunter made sure every morning I didn't need anything before he left, Mary did the same before taking Lou to school and usually Dean was out of the house by six in the morning. I stayed in my room besides to get food. When everyone got back home for the day the house was more chaotic but they were welcoming enough to drag me out of the room for a little while when Hunter and Lou worked on homework or such.

Hunter stood up, placing his hands on the bed next to me while doing so. His head brushed past all of me as he stood before he walked back to the door. "I'm going to school." Picking up his bag, he looked back at me before adjusting his hood on his head again.

"Okay."

"Lou is staying home with my mom today, if you need something talk to them."

"Okay."

"Are you just gonna say okay to me all the time now?"

"Don't you have school?" His glare was humorous as of now, looking at me like he wanted to throw a come back at me. I was barely breaking a smile at him as he tried to think of something to say.

But he didn't, he just stood there gripping his bag that hung off his shoulders and slowly his gaze softened.

It was when a small smile broke on his face, barely there and barely crooking his lips upward, but it was there. He looked at my legs and then back at my face again, making eye contact that I haven't had with his in a very long time.

It was playful and calm, not aggressive or abrasive, rude, hurtful, spiteful, nothing. It was just a look. "I'll see you later." He barely waved as he closed the door, a small smile on his face as he left me alone in this room again.

This room. I will never be ungrateful for it or anything I am being given here. But it's lonely. In a house full of people, especially for the past few days, I have been here; it's been lonely.

But three weeks starts soon. Three weeks officially until my birthday and three weeks until I would leave here and never look back. If we lasted that long and I stayed quiet, I could last that long and that is really all that mattered to me.

Eventually, I made my way out of the room for the second day now, walking down the hall with a limp due to the brace. When I made it to the kitchen Mary was sitting at the table to the side with her phone and a cup.