Reckless

Reckless - Chapter Thirty

R E C K L E S S . . .

CHAPTER THIRTY

Bidding farewell to Blake, I stepped into the dorm and closed the door behind me. I heard faint voices from the other room but apart from that the dorm seemed empty. For a second I felt annoyed that Sam and Claire didn’t seem the least bit worried about where I’d been for the past few hours (they weren’t exactly rushing to my aid as I stepped through the door) but then sense kicked in and I realised that they hadn’t even been talking to me today out of their twisted feelings of guilt. Why should they care, anyway? They didn’t want anything to do with me.

I didn’t see how completely ignoring me was going to make anything better for them, especially when they were supposed to be apologising to me after leading Mr Veritas to me and Chris. They had to be the strangest, most idiotic people ever to hold this abnormal sense of righteousness.

Sighing, I walked into the other room only to stop dead at the sight in front of me. Sam and Claire were leaning out of the window, their excited chatter aimed down at someone below them. I didn’t need to look to know that it was Hunter.

“What the hell guys?”

They both turned to face me, caught in between guilt and amusement. “Hey Anne!” they chirped. “Where have you been?”

I narrowed my eyes at the two, my annoyance overriding the sense of relief that they’d forgotten they didn’t want to talk to me ever again. “With Ben and some other people. What are you doing talking to Hunter?” I asked guardedly .

“He was bored waiting for you and wanted some company, so we decided to talk to him. Does he really sit outside our window everynight?” Sam asked.

I shrugged. “I guess he does. It doesn’t actually matter to me – I’d rather he not be there, to be totally honest.”

“He’s here to protect you, Anne!” Claire said, looking aghast.

“Yeah, sure,” I muttered grouchily. Don’t take my side, then. Just believe the random guy sitting outside the window.  “Hunter’s just here to annoy the living hell out of me by hanging outside my window with his friends and acting like a full-blown stalker – we both know that. So can you guys give us a minute to talk?”

After a second of consideration they both turned and walked out of the bedroom, whispering to each other in hushed tones and giggling.

I walked over to the window and leaned out, trying to spot Hunter.

“Over here, sunshine,” he called and my head snapped downwards. He was sat cross legged on the stairs of the fire escape, cigarette in hand. “Care to join me?”

“I guess so, but if I break my neck it’s your fault.”

He grinned. I didn’t trust that grin at all. If anything I felt a heightened sense of anxiety. “I’ll catch you,” he said.

“Oh sure you will, Hunter. Because you really care about my safety.”

“I’m out here, aren’t I? I’m protecting you,” he joked.

“You just can’t be bothered to go to that meeting with Mort,” I retorted. “You’d rather sit outside and not do anything. It’s an easy job seeing as nobody in their right mind is going to try and storm into my dorm and kill me in my sleep.”

He shrugged. “You see right through me, Anne. But I’d say that Chris would try that, considering that he hasn’t been in his right mind for a good ninety years.”

I hopped onto the window sill and swung my legs down so they were dangling off the edge. I stared down at the ground, and then glanced at the fire escape.