Speak Now & Surprises [Hunter Hayes fanfic]

Chapter 44

“You think I’m putting my fame before you?” Hunter cried, kicking open the tour bus door and stomping out into the private parking lot.

“What’s she said now?” Austin who had just been walking up, rolled his eyes in my direction.

“What have I said now? What do you mean, what have I said now? What’s he said I’ve said?” I asked in frustration, before running after Hunter’s retreating figure.

“Girl, you’d better get your butt back here right now!” I heard Caitlin threaten me as she jammed open Taylor’s bedroom window, but I carried on walking to Hunter as he stormed after the horizon.

It was a small parking lot with only about twenty spaces – the type you’d need a reservation to get into. The ground wasn’t cheap gravel like the public parking lot, but raised tarmac with parking lines that made spaces big enough for the tour bus. The end of the parking lot petered out with a little foliage and turned into the edges of a small forest. I expected Hunter to stop when he reached the outskirts and stamp on a few broken branches, but instead he trampled on through the undergrowth, beating away the brambles with a stick he’d picked up.

“Hunter!” I called out, desperately trying to stop him. The words had slipped out wrong, and after all it was Austin that had planted that little seed of uncertainty in my head, “Hunter I can’t keep up! Slow down!”

The squashy uneven floor felt like a bouncy castle beneath my unstable feet, and the tangle of plants grabbed at my ankles like the hands of Hunter’s fans pushing and kicking me as I desperately tried to reach him.

“Hunter! Hunt-” it knocked the wind out of me and I crashed into the forest floor, the confused mesh of a root had knotted itself around my prosthetic limb in such an ugly fashion that it made me question the physics behind it.

No matter how hard I tugged at the root all I received was cut hands and that oozed beads of blood from the thistles that swarmed across the ground. The sun hung in my face, burning my vision with its blinding light so I could only fumble sightlessly for my mobile phone before realising that I’d left it in the hospital. My stomach sank through the damp earthy floor as did my head into my hands.

I don’t know how long I stayed like that, but long enough for the soggy ground to chill me to the bone. I hadn’t called for Hunter because he’d be too far away to hear me, or maybe that’s what I told myself so I didn’t have to think the alternative: he didn’t want to come back for me.

The sun shone dimly above me, peering through the leafy covering that was my roof, and snaking its way around the tree trunks that were my walls.

“I wish I didn’t have this stupid dumb leg.” I whispered to the plants I lay on my back. I gave my stump of a leg a wiggle which only resulted in my prosthetic leg becoming more stuck in the vice-like grip of the root.

“I wish I was back on tour.” I murmured to the amber flecks of the sky that peeped down at my little figure, probably laughing at how pathetic I seemed.

“I wish Hunter wasn’t mad at me.” I swallowed quickly, regretting the fact that I’d just said that out loud. I wasn’t known for being good at expressing my emotions. Instead I focused on the soft rush of what sounded like a stream, it didn’t sound to far away either... I was already off of the path, if only I could somehow drag myself to the stream, maybe I could find the path again and attract some attention by splashing?

I heaved myself of the cool earth and began fiddling with the fastenings of my prosthetic leg, thanking the sunset for the dim lighting as opposed to the harsh white light of before.

I was just digging my fingernails into the ground and preparing to rake myself through the earth when I heard a frantic splashing noise coming from the stream.

“Hello?” I said tentatively, then a little louder, “Hello? I need help. Who’s there?”

The splashing stopped and the stream began rushing calmly again. I shot up like a bolt – I know I heard something.

Dragging my hair out of my face with my dirty hands, I spoke again, louder, fiercer.

“Who the hell is there?”

“Did you hear that, Saskia?” A quiet voice whispered quickly from the direction of the stream.

“Yeah...” the person I assumed to be Saskia breathed.

“I said who’s there? I need help!” I yelled as forcefully as I could muster.

“Hello?” the second voice asked after a long pause, “Hello, are you hurt?”

“No!” I cried, “I’m stuck! Just come through the bushes and help take me to my bus. It’s not far from here, please!” I begged with the unseen people. I heard some discreet splashing and then silence. I began to think that they’d scarpered until a slender hand pushed past the foliage that was between me and the stream.

Those two grey eyes struck me like a bullet; not even blinking, she parted her painted red lips and spoke those two words to the second person behind:

“It’s her.”

“Shelby?! Aw man... Shelby?!” the most recognizable voice on the planet shouted from somewhere in the distance. My head spun around quickly and scanned the area, squinting my eyes desperately to try and spot Hunter scuffling through the bracken in search of me.

“Hunter! I’m here!” I yelled as loud as my weary self could muster. I turned back to the figure in the bush, only to find them gone. I twisted my head in a full circle, only to find the same forest empty of any other people.

“Shelby!” the ground I was lying upon was pounding with the force of Hunter’s feet as he approached me, “Shelby I’ve found you I’m so sorry Shelby I should never have left you!” his lips tumbled over the words he was trying to get out at once.

“Hunter, there was somebody here.” I said vacantly, trying to hush him.

“What are you talking about? Are you hurt, Shel?” Hunter asked, pushing the dirt off of my forehead and examining my cut and bloody hands, “I’m so sorry Shelby, really, I shouldn’t have left you like that.” His eyes were red rimmed and frantic. He must’ve been so worried about me once he’d realised I’d stopped calling him.

“Hunter, there were some people here!” I insisted. He shook his head in a relieved way and wiped his eyes.

“I’m so glad your okay Shelby. I’m taking you back to the bus.” He announced and promptly plopped a kiss on my cheek.

“Hunter, listen!” I pleaded with him, but he was oblivious to my cries as he cradled me in his arms with my prosthetic leg balanced across.

“How could I ever have explained it to Amelia if I’d lost you?” he muttered under his breath more to himself than me, “Boy, she’d kill me!”

I gave up trying to convince him of what I’d seen, and let my head flop against his warm chest. At least he wasn’t mad at me anymore.