The Hog

Chapter 7

"Don't go Amy. Don't leave me Amy Tyson." cry.

There is silence.  Amy holds my hand in hers, a stream of tears flowing down her pink face. She shakes her head.

"Don't leave me." my voice is hoarse and heavy. I'm tired- I've been crying all day.

"Amy Tyson."

"Francisco Daies." 

We both smile at that. We haven't smiled in what feels like forever.

"It doesn't have the Amy Tyson ring to it, does it?" I say wiping the tear off my face first then on hers.

Jeremy walks into the room holding two cups of what I'm hoping is hot chocolate. The three of us drink from our cups in a sad silence.

********

I push the empty trolley into the supermarket. My aunt sent me money early to buy some food and stuff. I should be saving the money since I recently bought food but as usual Frank has made it his mission to run through our supplies as if he is at gun point.

I try my best to be an economical shopper, buying cheap things that are of good quality, but even I have things I don't comprise on. Yoghurt , for example, isn't an exception.

"You know which detergent is the best?" a familiar voice asks next to me. Thomas is standing in front of washing powders with a raised eyebrow.

"You do your own detergent shopping? Highly doubt you want the Hog's help with that task, would be contradictory to have my dirty Hog hands touch your stuff." I snap. I'm not sure why but I feel a sting when I speak. Why am I so angry at Thomas? We've been hanging out for the past few weeks, well if digging holes in his back yard counts but I haven't been this annoyed with him in a while.

"You just ruined it, damn." Thomas steps closer to me with a smirk on his face.

"Ruined what?"

"That moment when a not so strange guy asks a not so strange girl a random question to break the ice before he asks her for a favour."

"Blackmailers have no need to call in favours. You snap your fingers and I'm supposed to jumps, a rich boy like you Thomas should be used to that." I pick a washing powder, throw it in my trolley and start driving off.

"I was wondering how long it would take you to pull the rich boy card on me." he walks next to me as I get into the next aisle, " So that's why you hate me right? I'm a rich boy. Okay since that's out of the way, now on to my favour. I say favour because I don't want to blackmail you into this. I think you'll enjoy it even." his smirk turns into a genuine smile.

He is even more beautiful when he smiles. He can really take a person's breath away.

"A favour I'll enjoy? What are we friends now Thomas?" I stop and turn to look at him.

"Well we could be. Look after last night...well you looked so upset and I thought of something that might make you feel better. I won't use those pictures, consider them deleted.  No more blackmail."  he takes his iPhone out. Taps on the screen for a while before showing me the pictures, " See, they're gone."

A weight I didn't even know was on my shoulders is lifted. I take a deep breath.

" Thank you Thomas, thank you for deleting them. And thanks for your offer of this favour but I'll pass." I nod and start with my trolley again but he stops it before I can even move it.

His brow is furrowed, " What the hell? I just extended an olive branch here. Come on it'll be really good for you." he smiles his beautiful smile again.

Hog.

Hog. I am Hog.

"We aren't friends Thomas.  Because I do hate you, not because you're a rich boy. No, I hate you because  I hate all of you." I release the trolley.

His beautiful face has an expression of hurt on it. Its soon replaced by anger.

"I guess Hogs know nothing about olive branches." I whisper. I leave him standing there in the supermarket aisle and go without buying anything. 

********

      Beautiful.

"You are beautiful my angel." mom brushes her hand over my hair.

"Like a princess?" I gleam up at her.

"More beautiful than a princess."

We are sitting on the stoop waiting for dad to come home. Mom lost the keys, or left them at home or...she can't really remember. I don't mind though because the sun is out and it's warm and she's smiling at me like I'm a fresh flower.

********

I've been back from the market for hours when Frank stumbles into the house. It's only nearly six- a bit early for him to be back. As if he heard me he starts mumbling.

"Can you believe Doug threw me out?  Me! I've been going there since...forever!" he sits on the couch. I stand up and go to my room. I don't have to sit around and talk to a babbling drunkard.

No sooner do I close my door does the doorbell ring. One of Frank's drinking buddies. No. He has never brought anyone home. Not women, not drunk people.  No one. I hear Frank's heavy steps to the door. A deep voice says something. Silence.  The door closes.
Maybe the stanger is gone. I slump down on my bed and grab a book on my night stand. I'm rereading Just don't breathe for the fifth time this year.  From the title one would think it's a story about suicide- or something equally depressing.  It's actually a good story about a Jewish girl who is friends with this deaf guy. The two of them attempt to rob her father's shop so they can run away to Canada together.  Its a random story line but Rosa- the girl- is such a fun character that I find myself consumed in it within seconds. I'm turning a page when the strange voice speaks again. He isn't gone.

" Hog! Get down here." Frank calls me.
I close my book hesitantly.  Should I go down or not. After a few deep breaths I open my door and go downstairs.

Frank is leaning against a wall- probably using it to hold him up. He has his arms crossed and an amused lool on his face. I turn to the person standing next to him- who I expect to be a stranger but I'm shocked when familiar blue eyes look straight at me.
Thomas Greyson is standing next to my father, his fits clenched by his sides. He is sporting his infamous pissed look. What have I done now. His jaws -on his beautiful face- is tense.  His eyes almost seem deadly.
Maybe I shouldn't have told him I hated him and left him in a supermarket.