Exposed

9

We pull up outside my house.

“Thanks for the ride” I say as I get out of the van.

“It’s all good, you seem cool” Says Jack.

I smile and he revs the engine, ready to drive off. “See ya tomorrow” he calls out the window, as he pulls out the driveway.

My heart flutters and I open the front door, the smell of roast fills the air and my stomach growls, I hadn't eaten all day. Mum sees me as I step into the kitchen to get a glass of water.

“I'm so proud of you Gem” She smiles. Tomorrow was Friday and then I would have been at the school for a week, I had done pretty well besides drinking with a bunch of half strangers and ditching school.

“I'm gonna go do some homework before dinner” I tell my mum before dashing upstairs.

I felt as if I should be more scared after telling Jack about the death of Annabelle. After pouring out all my emotions onto the poor guy, I told him that I didn't actually push her and then I just ended up telling him the full story, including the part where Hunter had saved my life. He had listened and for some reason I felt as if the information was safe with him.

~

“See you later honey” Calls mum as I dash out the door and run down the road to where Jack sits in an old white car waiting for me. I get in and he begins to drive.

“We don't have to actually go to school you know” Jack says, eyes on the busy morning traffic.

“You don't, but I do” I say.

We pull up outside of school and I open the door for myself, leaning back into the car to say goodbye. Apparently Jack only shows up at school just enough for no one to realise he was gone.

“See you after school” He says.

I walk to class on my own, I was pretty early and hardly anyone was here yet. I shiver as the cold wind slaps against my skin and my arms begin to feel numb. Today was not a good day to wear a t- shirt. I make my way to class with my arms pulled tightly around me in attempt to conserve heat.

“Hey Charlie!” I hear a voice from behind and the turning of a skateboard. I turn quickly and look up to see a blur of red. I blink a few times.

“Oh, hi Hunter” Another gush of wind rushes through me and I shiver again, my teeth chatter loudly in the slightly awkward silence between the two of us.

“Are you cold?” Asks Hunter, he reaches into his bag and pulls out a black jumper. He hands it to me with a smile, his blue eyes sparkling as usual.

“Thanks” I mutter, pulling it over my head. Why was Hunter so nice? It made me want to be near him even more when I knew I couldn’t be, because I wanted to forget every single detail about Australia.

He checks his watch. “Forty minutes till form time” he tells me. “Wanna go get a coffee?”

I don’t normally drink coffee but a hot drink sounded like a good idea.

“Okay” I say, I follow him back past where I had already walked and down the road to a nearby cafe.

“So...” he says, pushing a cardboard coffee cup towards me. I reach into my bag for my wallet but he stops me, “I’ve got money to burn, I can pay” he smiles.

We sit in silence for a moment and I try to act as if I don't see Hunter trying to make eye contact with me from across the table. I give in and look over.

“So, how have um.. things been going?” Hunter asks.

“Alright,” I shrug.

“You?”

“Much better since I moved” he says, “but nevermind me, how have things been since that day?”

“Getting better, I try not to think about her”

“About who?”

I realise that Hunter didn’t know about what had happened.

“Nothing.” He looks unconvinced but leaves the matter alone.

A bell dings as the door to the cafe opens and in comes Lily with Frankie. They scan the room for a seat and Lily’s eyes meet mine. Her eyes flicker over to Hunter and her face lights up, she grabs Frankie by the arm and pulls her over to our table

“Hey guys” she says. She over and kisses Hunter on the cheek and the same pang of jealousy from the other day floods over me. I needed to ignore these feelings. I liked Jack, right?

My cheeks flush and I realise that I was staring at them, I take another sip of my drink and smile, this was heating me up fast, it had been exactly what I needed.

“Thanks,” I say, extremely appreciative of the hot coffee. Hunter smiles, “No problem”

He turns to Lily “Are you joining us?”

Lily shakes her head, “just take away, we need to be at school in ten minutes.”

Hunter checks his watch and realises that we were in fact going to be late if we didn't leave.

“We’ll come” he says, standing up. I get up too and follow them out of the cafe and back towards the school.

~

“Hey” Jack greets me as I get into his car. I shut the door and let out a large sigh.

“Everything okay?” He asks.

“Yeah” I say, “just tired.” I smile at him as he starts the engine and pulls out. I stare at him as he drives, I try to focus on him but all it could think about was Hunter. I felt as if I was catching feelings for him and that was bad because Lily had made it more than clear that Hunter was hers. Lily had been such a kind friend to me and I could never do something like steal her boyfriend, what kind of dick would that make me? Besides, Hunter was crazy over her, so even if Lily and I’s friendship wasn't an issue, I would never have have a chance of getting him to even think about me like that.

My thoughts are interrupted by Jack’s voice.

“Are you sure that you’re okay?” He asks again

I nod and he tilts his head slightly “Okay..” he says.

“It’s just that I parked this car outside your house 7 minutes ago and you just kept staring out the window.”

“I'm sorry Jack, like I said I'm just really tired” I open the car door and thank him for the ride.

“I'll meet you here tomorrow morning” he yells as I hop up the steps to the front door, not turning back to wave goodbye. I hop inside, mum welcomes me with a big hug, which I smile and return.

“You made it through the week, I’m so proud of you.” She says. I head on upstairs to get some homework done, first week in and I already had 3 assignments due. Halfway through editing my english paper, my mind starts to wander. I begin to think about Hunter, did I like him or no? I was confused with my emotions, I hoped that I didn’t, because that would hurt Lily and Jack. But there was a part of me that almost wanted to like him and sort of invited the feelings to stay, no matter how much I tried to push them away.

I pull up a new tab on my laptop and find myself googling his name. I find a bunch of social media platforms, instagram, facebook and twitter, and find out some details about himself I would never have picked to have gone on underneath his always smiling surface. I also find a video of him playing with his band, or old one now since he had moved. I see he is following Lily so I chuck her a follow and Hunter as well.

Before I knew it, I had spent around 40 minutes cyberstalking Hunter, opps. My mum calls upstairs to say that dinner is ready so I quickly clear my history and head downstairs. I am not hungry.

- Author's note
Heyy guys, yikes, Charlie seems to be catching feelings for Hunter.. this could end badly :/
Out of interest, who actually reads this story? If so, comment!
That's all, I'll update soon
Thanks for reading :-)