The Hunting

Chapter 14

That annoying prick! I stomp farther and farther away from our campground as I was looking for a bush or a fight. He doesn't know how to keep his mouth shut! I-I literally can't believe the words that are coming out of his mouth half of the time. If he was only "serious Nate" more often, I think I would be rather fond of him... WAIT, what am I thinking? I would never like a guy like him. As I squatted near a bush and started doing my business. My mind drifted away from Nate and towards Javier. Now, what's his deal anyway? He's always so quiet and when he speaks it's like my mind explodes! I don't know what his back story is, but I can't even believe he's closed off even to the rest of them. They've known each other for five years, I can't believe it. My thoughts came to a halt when I heard a twig branch snap. I quickly pulled up my pants. I rested my hand on my foot, where my knife that my friends got me was still there. I heard footsteps getting closer, I squatted down ready for a fight. The voice that I wanted to hear the least came out behind the trees, "Arden will you please listen to me?"

I stood upright before he could see me. Nate. He walked right up to me and looked me dead in the eyes. I brushed past him as I started to walk back to camp. Trying to steer the subject away from the obvious I spoke, "How did they even let you go? We haven't been able to have a private conversation since they first captured us. Why?"

Nate, following me, spoke softly, "After you stormed off, I looked back at the hunters, shrugged and followed you. They didn't try to stop me surprisingly."

I raised my eyebrows in surprise but kept on walking.

I heard Nate audibly sigh as he followed me, "Arden, please listen to me."

I gritted my teeth and kept on walking.

I felt his hand grab my shoulder, I swung around to meet him. "How do you expect me to want to listen to you when all that comes out of it is perverted comments? I don't like them, I hate them. You're the one person I trust right now and all you're doing is making me not want to."

He looked down at me and took a deep breath, his voice sincere and shaky, "I'm sorry Arden. You don't deserve this. You don't deserve to be in this situation, and most importantly, you don't deserve my comments. What do you deserve is something a hell of a lot better than this. I try to make you laugh, but all I do is make you angry. Ever since this situation happened I've been trying to be there for you. I heard you cry that first night. That was the hardest thing I had to bear. I watch you stare off into space and I know you're thinking about home. I wish I could do more for you, but all I do is piss you off."

I looked into his eyes. I saw sorrow, regret, and something else that I couldn't quite describe. I know he feels bad, terrible even. I didn't realize how close I was to him until this moment. I whispered, "Nate, you have helped me more than you could ever imagine. Granted, I don't like those comments, but I've figured out by now that it's your way of keeping it together. Even though you drive me insane sometimes, I know you're here for me, you always have been. Especially now. We're here for one another, no doubt about that. Just please all I ask is for those nasty comments to stop. Okay? There is more than one way to get me to laugh if that's your goal."

Nate nodded as he brought his hand up to sweep some hair out of my face. He spoke ever so softly, "You know, every single time I try to talk to you I don't end up saying what I want to say. I end up making a fool out of myself instead. It's rather frustrating actually."

I looked at him confused, "What? What do you mean?"

Nate stood there in silence for a little while. I saw the cogs turning in his head as he was trying to figure out what to say. It looks like he finally figured it out when he looked at me again.

He muttered frustratedly, "To hell with this."

Then all of a sudden, I felt something warm on my lips. Nate was kissing me.

 ~

I kissed her. Finally after all of those years of wanting to. Arden Able is something amazing. She is witty, intelligent, quick, and just a badass bitch. I love her for that, I always have. Any other girl I talk to is the same. I've tried to talk to other girls, to keep my mind off of her. None of them hold a candle to her. Anytime I try to talk to her, I say all of the wrong things. Originally, this wasn't what I wanted to do when I followed her out there, I wanted to apologize and talk strategy. I guess that's out of the window now.

As I figured, she came to her senses and pushed me away. Even in the dark, I can see her blushing face. She's at a loss for words. Well, better get it over with Nate or you'll lose your chance to that Jaiver guy. I took a deep breath. I opened my mouth to say what has been on my mind for years.

"Hey, guys what are you doing?"

Goddammit.

Don was standing in front of us looking suspiciously smug.

He spoke, "You were taking quite a while so I decided to come to look. More like Calum and Jaiver are holding Pietra back from coming to kill you."

I was about to tell Don that he could go shove something up his ass when Arden talked for the first time in a while. "I-I was using the bathroom when Nate decided to barge in. I walked pretty far away. There's a creek not too far from here, we can stop there in the morning to get water. We were just walking back."

I nodded my head in agreement. "There are some shitty looking rosehip bushes that have some berries on them too."

Don stared at us for a moment, looking back and forth between us. He shrugged his shoulders. "All right, let's get back before Pietra thinks that you're making my intestines into a basket."