Why You Shouldn't Lend A Bad Boy Your Clothes

Chapter 22

Hunter kept his word. Uninvited and without further agreement, he sent me a message around twelve o' clock at night, telling me to come outside, just as I was about to get ready for bed.

I had already thought that what he had said at school had been a joke and that he wouldn't actually come. But when I looked outside my window, I saw his car parked right outside my house. His window was rolled down and when he saw me, a smirk flickered across his features.

I had to hold back a smile and settled for rolling my eyes at him instead. Then I pulled the curtains closed and quickly changed into jeans and put on a denim jacket over my white t-shirt.

Three minutes later, I left the house as quietly as possible, dreading the thought of my parents waking up and catching me sneak outside in the middle of the night.

I shuddered as the cold air hit me and jogged over to the car, where I opened the door to the passenger seat and swiftly got inside.

Hunter was awaiting me with a grin, his dark hair looking as if he had just gotten up. His lower lip was still split open and he had gotten a black eye from his fight with Sean, but he was right; it did look good on him.

"What would you have done if I hadn't come?" I asked instead of a greeting.

"I knew you would," Hunter answered lightly, without the trace of a doubt in his tone.

I shook my head slightly and slumped deeper into the seat. "Where are we going?"

Hunter hesitated for a moment, then he said, picking his words with care: "Remember how you asked me what I was doing at nights? I told you that you wouldn't like it but you wanted to see. So... I'm going to show you."

"We're not going to a brothel, are we?" I asked worriedly.

"Jesus, you really don't think too highly of me, do you?" Hunter laughed. "Of course not."

I was more relieved than I cared to show. "Okay. Why now?"

Hunter shrugged, trying to look casual, but there was a look of weariness on his face that betrayed his efforts. "Well, I thought, since we can't really do much together at school, we have to make the most of the rest of our time."

I was silent for a moment and looked out of the window. I had been so focused on Hunter that I hadn't noticed we were already driving. Outside, the lonely alleys were gliding by, a blurred mix of dark and shadows, only disturbed by some stray lights flickering in the windows of the restless.

In the silence of the night, it seemed like Hunter and I were the only people, like no one else was up and living. I decided that I liked the thought.

"You're quiet," Hunter pointed out as we left the city behind us. "Are you alright?"

"Mh?" I asked, startled. It wasn't very common that someone asked me that and even fewer times they were genuinely worried, like Hunter was right now. People usually didn't want an honest answer when they asked how you were. "Yeah...yeah, I'm just thinking."

Hunter relaxed noticeably. A smile danced around the corner of his mouth. "You think quite a lot, don't you?"

"You say that like it's something bad," I said.

"Oh, I'm sure it's not," Hunter laughed. "People keep telling me I should do it more often. But maybe you should do it just a little less." He was quiet for so long that I didn't expect him to explain further, but eventually he did. "You don't have to overthink everything a hundred times before doing it. And you don't have to be sure about everything, especially not yourself. It's okay to not have everything figured out and it's okay to do something just because you want to."