A Trophy Father's Trophy... Daughter

Chapter Twenty Seven

Chapter Twenty Seven

Jesse's POV

I was getting tired of Justin arguing with me about what's best for Hunter. About what was making everything worse and what was helping her.

I glanced over to where Hunter was sitting, but, she wasn't there. The chair was deserted and Hunter was no where in sight.

"Where'd she go?!" Justin yelled in my ear.

"I don't know Justin. Don't yell at me seriously. I'm not playing."

"Whatever Jesse.." Justin rolled his eyes at me, but I didn't really care. my first priority was finding Hunter.

Justin took off down the hall and was looking around frantically.

I decided to go down a different hall to search for her, but as I began walking, her little figure came out from behind the corner.

"Hunter!! Where were you? We were getting kinda worried."

She didn't answer me. She was staring at her feet as she walked, shuffling slowly down the hall to me. She had a gloominess surrounding her. I couldn't tell if it was just because of the hospital and the event that had just occurred, or if there was something else.

"Hunter... Where were you.?"

"The bathroom." She answered so quietly I could barely hear her.

"Oh. Well are you oka...." And then it clicked. Her gloominess. And she wasn't wearing a sweatshirt before she left. It was hot in the hospital. "What's with the sweatshirt?"

"Got cold."

"But it's like 80 degrees in here..."

"Yea I know. I just got cold."

I watched her shift uncomfortably as she never looked up at me as she answered each of my questions. I knew what was going on.

I stomped over to her and pulled up her sweatshirt sleeve. There were words about dying and 8 other cuts there. Fresh. Raw. They were still bleeding.. When I had pulled her sleeve up, the blood had smeared up her arm and she winced. I quickly pulled her sleeve down and shook my head, grabbing her hand.

I led her over to the chairs where we were sitting once before.

"What happened Hunter?"

She shrugged her shoulders in response.

"Hunter... Please talk to me.."

"Stress. Hopelessness. Just wanting to die again." Her answers were short and to the point. But... Too short and too to the point.

I leaned over and hugged her. She didn't hug me back. I unwrapped my arms and looked at her. She was shaking, but she didn't want to be touched.

I wanted so badly to help her, but I just didn't know how...

But then Justin came over to "take over" for me. He was changing, and I didn't like it one bit...

Justin's POV

Hunter was gone, and she really needed to be found. She could be anywhere, doing anything.

I ran to Kellin's hospital room to ask Jack if he had seen her anywere.

"Um no. I thought she was with you guys. Is everything okay?" I didn't answer, I just ran back out of the room and down the halls.

"No running in the hospital halls sir." Said a young nurse as I ran past. I looked at her, and slowed my pace a little, but not much. I passed the hall that we had started in, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jesse and Hunter.

"Hunter! Oh my gosh I was so worried!" I sprinted over to her and ripped her from Jesse's arms and wrapped mine around her. But.. She didn't hug me back. She didn't return it.

"Baby, what's wrong?"

"Nothing." she stated looked down at her feet, then over at Jesse, then down at her feet again. There was something going on that I didn't know...

"She's just kinda upset with everything going on right now. She was in the bathroom. Nothing to flip out about Justin. It's all okay." Jesse wasn't looking me in the eyes as he talked. But, that was one of his pet peeves; not looking people in the eyes when speaking. So I knew something was up.

"Guys, for real. What's going on?!"

"Nothing Justin. I had to pee. So I did. End of story. I don't know why you guys flipped so much."

This was crap. And I knew it. I sigh.

"Well, whatever. Hunter, you must be dying in here in that sweatshirt!" It was like 80 degrees in here and as I spoke I pulled up her sweatshirt sleeves.

But then I saw them. The words and the cuts. Fresh and raw and still bleeding. No, not again...

"B...b...bu... But what happened?" I stammered feeling sick.

She shrugged her shoulders at me and continued shifting her weight from one foot to another.

"Hunter. I love you so much. Do you know how hard it is to watch the one person you truly love do this to themselves? To watch the most beautiful girl scar herself time after time with that wretched razor blade? Do you know how hard it is when that image of your love running the razor down her skin is playing over and over and over again in your mind? You don't! You don't...." I was trying to keep it together but just like the words spilling from my mouth, the tears did too.

So there I stood, crying like a baby with my girlfriend next to me not saying a word, and Jesse standing there dumbfounded.

"Um, excuse me? Mr. Quinn has just woken up. I thought you might like to see him." A young nurse peeked around the corner and smiled at us.

"Oh alright. Give us a minute." Jesse said. He was the only one pulled together here...

I stood up, and helped Hunter off the ground and we walked back to the hospital room slowly.

"G...gu...guys.? Wh...wh...what happened?" Kellin stuttered as we walked in to see him.

I looked at Hunter. She wasn't crying. She walked over to the side of Kellin's bed, and just stared at him, a blank expression on her face. 

Maybe it was too late for her. Maybe now it's the time her tears have just stopped falling...