Come for Me

Chapter 8

Chris sits on one of the couches in MIW's bus wearing a Bolts jersey with a Vanilla Coke in hand. Hunter sits next to him, wearing a black maxi-dress and black, heeled flip-flops. She wore black hoop earrings and a few rings on her fingers as well, and her hair was pinned back. Chris had been trying to teacher Hunter how hockey worked ever since the game on TV had started. (A/N: I don't watch hockey and don't know how it works so I got the following from Wikipedia.)

"Now, goals in hockey are scored when the pub gets hit across the goal line, obviously. Unless, of course, there's a penalty, the puck is hit by a high stick, or the player tries to hit the puck with something other than the stick. Except that's allowed if, like, the player angles his skate so the puck bounces off of it into the goal net. Oh, and it's a violation to go offside too. Do you get it now?" Chris asks.

Hunter nods, "Uh huh."

Hunter then glances over at Balz and mouths 'What the fuck?!' Balz smiles and tries not to laugh.

"I should text Blake to come over. Hockey is, like, one of Blake's passions." Hunter says.

"What? Why didn't I know this?" Chris asks.

Hunter shrugs, "I dunno. I guess it just never came up."

"We can all tell by the look on your face how thrilling the sport is to you." Balz states, sarcastically.

"I've tried getting into hockey before; I just never could." Hunter says.

"When did you try getting into it before?" Ghost asks.

"When I was a kid...It was he-who-shall-not-be-named's favorite sport. He had it on a lot."

Chris blinks, "Oh."

Hunter pulls out her phone and taps a few things on it. Chris tries to change the subject.

"Did you ever play any sports when you were a kid?" 

Hunter smiles, "I did." She says, putting her phone away, "I played soccer when I was little for like five minutes, but I hated it so I quit. Then I was a competitive cheerleader for five years. That was amazing. I miss it sometimes."

"Well, why'd you stop?"

Hunter shrugs, 'It had been five years and it was time to move on. What about you? You play anything?"

"Yeah, I played baseball a while until I was about twelve or thirteen and I played football in middle school. I almost joined the football team in high school, but I started skateboarding and hit my 'emo' phase, and here I am now singing on stage while wearing mascara and leather pants." Chris says.

Hunter gives a small laugh, "Well, then I hope my brother ends up like you."

"What do you mean?"

"He used to be in all kinds of sports, then he evolved to skating and listening to metal music. Granted, that's sort of my fault, but..he's just kind of in a bad place right now and I want him to get better."

"Stuff with his dad?"

"Yeah, and other things too. He's such a good kid though, and he just really doesn't deserve it...Ten again, I never thought I deserved the shit I went through either and it only ended up making me stronger, so what do I know?"

"No one deserves it. It just sort of happens."

"Yeah, but he's fifteen. That's, like, the worst age for these things to be happening to him. And I'm scared shitless for him to be seeing his dad again because of...Well, you know...I wish I didn't worry so much."