Nameless // h.s. au

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fourteen

*Hunter*

"Mom I have to go." I rush out before ending the call and trying to keep my eyes off of the glaring man with those green eyes and brown curls and that sinister mouth that never seems to say what I want it to.

But why would I want him to say anything really.

No feelings remember, no feelings.

My phone is tucked safely away as I cross my arms and grind my heel into the sidewalk. The thoughts boiling in my head making me sick.

"No calls during work hours," He smirks, "Even for mummy."

My eyes roll and I bite my lip before walking towards the entrance of the shop that once intrigued me but now just makes me grind my teeth.

The hasty exit I had concocted is stopped with the simple clasping of long ring clad fingers around my elbow, pulling me back to face him.

Dun-dun. Dun-dun. Dun-dun.

"I expect you to be staying after your shift. Because of this little stunt you have tonight's late shift."

"But I had the late shift last night! It's Erin's turn." My teeth are gritted and my fingers are white from the fists that have formed.

"Tough luck love." He shrugs, his fingers still wrapped around my arm. His hand fidgets every once and a while and that's how I know that this is just another cry at control that drunken words and outstretched arms have diminished slowly.

My eyes bore into his before I'm pulling my once damaged arm from his grasp and walking back into the shop with the padding of my boot heels and the ringing of the bell above the door. My cheeks are warm with anger as I plop down at the front desk and pull my notebook out of the- same old falling apart at the seams bag- and open to a fresh page.

Control.

Control is what everyone seeks.

The girl in her bedroom at two a.m. whether she is slicing her skin because she can control her own pain or the boy who jacks off to cheap porn because he can't have sex with his girlfriend without going soft but he can control it then.

Control is what everyone needs.

If you lose control-

"Hello Erin."

"Hello Mr. Styles."

If you lose control you feel like you're floating with the tide. But no- more like paralyzed and crashing into the shore one minute only to be pulled back out to sea.

"So I was thinking about our last- well- encounter..." Hearts stop and hands clench around yellow pencils that are nearly down to the nub.

"Mhm..." Lips are bitten and hearts are beating and they're getting closer but I look away.

You're a doll being pulled between snotty little toddlers or dropped in a toy box. You're a leaf that grows on a branch until you drift off into the wind to be slaughtered by a lawn mower or left to decompose in the mud.

"Let's talk about this in private." Voices are hushed but you can still hear his smirk and her lip bite and the way they want to tear each other apart and how I am in no way going to stop them but it doesn't mean the mystery ache in my chest is gone.

Her heels click and his arm winds its way around her proportional hips and the stairs creak but louder because they're side by side.

Notebooks are closed and yellow pencils that are nearly down to the nub are smacked down on the counter.