Metal Kingdom

18. I'm Broken

I'm Broken-Pantera

After playing the song together Hunter and Frankie decided to relax for the night and watch movies together. Hunter sat in his leather chair, offering it to Frankie first. But she told him they could just share. Grabbing a blanket to sit in Hunter's lap as they flipped through channels. She brought her knees up to her chest, almost sitting in a ball on his lap. Hunter laughing at how she snuggled into him. 

He eventually saw that she had fallen asleep on him. Wrapping his arms around her body in a hug as he continued to watch tv. Not long until he drifted off as well.

 At one point throughout the night Hunter had woken up. Thinking there was no way Frankie was comfortable sleeping squished in his lap like this. He decided to pick her up and carry her to the bed. Placing her down gently and covering her up so she could continue to sleep.

He looked at her for a moment to take in her beauty. Her hair was still pulled up to the top of her head in a bun. He raised his hand to brush away the few loose strands around her face but quickly pulled his hand back down. Deciding against it. 

He turned around and headed upstairs. Retreating to his own bedroom for the night. Wanting to give Frankie some personal space since she's been there. 

Throwing himself on top of his actual bed to stare up at the ceiling. He took a deep breath and signed harshly. The last two days on a constant loop in his mind. As much fun as they've had did it really mean anything? Would Frankie want to be friends or anything more with him after this?

 He was almost dreading returning to school after break. Would things go back to how they always were? With them hating each other. He felt as if they lived in two separate worlds sometimes. Her with the popular crowd at school and him with his small group of real friends. How could they be so alike yet so different? Hunter never cared about being popular a day in his life. If anything he thrived on being different and not falling into conformity bounds. He knew Frankie expressed who she was and what she enjoyed to her friends but could tell she enjoyed the attention of being liked by her peers. Not wanting to live as an outsider. Fearing being hated and judged by everybody. Just like they did to him.

Did she even look at Hunter the saw way he was now viewing her? He wasn't even sure what his own feelings were about her. There's been so many times over the years where she made him want to rip his own hair out. Shit she even unintentionally played a part in Skip cutting part of his hair last year. A jealous war started over a girl Hunter didn't even care about.

He raised a hand to run his fingers over the shaven part of his head. Thinking about the horrible attack.

 He decided to continue to keep up on shaving it as an undercut to show Skip he didn't win. He would just part his hair down the middle on days he wanted it to look like it was all long. He tried to look at it as no real harm done in the end because of that but it still broke part of him. He knew Skip just wanted him to feel small and powerless. Like the loser everyone thinks he is. He wondered if Skip ever did anything to try and make Frankie feel that way.

Hunter would go out of his way to annoy Frankie. But maybe all this time it was because that's the only way he knew to grab her attention. He would watch for years as different boys would flirt or embarrass themselves for a moment with her. Never knowing why anger would build inside of himself when seeing their interactions. She never gave him a shred of attention like she did to others. Only when they would fight or annoy each other.