I’ll Reach For You

Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 11

You’re staring at me
Hunter did not return downstairs after the couch incident. She hasn’t even eaten, and it is starting to worry me, she must be hungry. I get out of the sofa and walk upstairs and I knock on Hunter’s door.

“Yeah?” Hunter says and I open up the door. I step in and find her reading in her bed. Her room is clean; everything is in its place. All of her books in the bookshelf, school books stacked nicely on her desk. No clothes on the floor or on the big black carpet.

This is something else compared to mine. My room is so messy that I can’t even find my school books. We are two completely different people, I guess. Usually she makes me angry, because of her ignorance, and she makes me feel so guilty sometimes that it is scary. Goddamn that girl.

“Hi, I was just wondering if you were hungry?” She looks at me with those blue eyes. Dammit, I always liked blue eyes, mine is just boring dark brown. Taylor said it scares her sometimes how dark they could get, like black.

She said it usually happens when I am angry. There was this guy at school that was hitting on me, I swear to god I almost punched him in the face. If it weren’t for Taylor stopping me, I would have given him a blue eye. That’s when she told me I had that look in my eyes.

But every time I look into Hunter’s eyes, they look sad, and that scares me. I have never seen someone so fragile, and I do not even know what happened to her.

It’s just the way she is, how she talks when her voice tremble and she looks so small and afraid. To me, it seems like she is punishing herself, and she doesn’t even know that is wrong. Then I see Hunter nodding.

“Yeah.” Hunter answers and places the book on her desk.

I asked Hunter what she wanted. She seemed surprised when I did. At first, she was uncertain and said that I could decide. I shook my head and told her to pick, then finally she got a little confidence and said egg and bacon.

The perfect breakfast, I told her and she had that smile on her face. The one with the crooked smile and the fascinating look in her blue eyes. I like that look so much that I had to watch her a little longer than I should have. It made her uncomfortable and she blushed, it was adorable.

Now we sit around the dinner table. She in front of me, where dad usually sits. Her hair is now up in a ponytail, exposing her small ears. It’s weird that I adore them.

Just like her smile and her hair that is brown with small hints of red. No matter how much I should not like her, I simply can’t. There is just something about her that makes me like her, even though I barely know her.

“You’re staring at me.” She says without even looking at me. Her cheeks turned red after she said it, I think mine did as well. I was caught off guard, and it made me embarrassed. I never thought she would ever say something like that and I think it even surprised her since she blushed.

“Sorry.” I tell her and focus on my food. Her gaze is on me and I look at her watching me. I can see there is something she wants because she looks more nervous than usual.

Her left-hand shakes and she is biting her inner cheeks. She looks so small, and it makes me vulnerable to her. The way she is watching me makes my skin warm and my stomach twist. This girl really knows how to make me surrender.

“What?” I ask, and close my eyes as I realized I said it too harsh. I made her shrink by my hard tone. I open my eyes.

“I’m sorry, I did not mean to be angry.” It is not her fault that she can make me feel so confused or odd.

“I know there was something you wanted to say or ask. Please, tell me.” I beg, feeling guilty as I always do, because of all of my actions around her.

I hate the way I treat her it drives me insane. She looks down at her plate, playing with her food. Oh god, what if I made her close herself in for good now. That I scared her away and she would ignore me.

“Why do you hate me so much?” She asks. I felt my heart in my throat. I did not really expect that, even though I should. I am horrible to her and she knows, everyone knows. There is just something about her, and it is hard to explain and I do not even know what it is.

“I don’t hate you.” I tell her and she gives me a flat smile, not believing me. She starts eating her food again. After a while, she finished and now walks into the kitchen with me on her heels.

“Hunter, I do not hate you.” She places the plate in the dishwasher and turns to me.

“It’s hard to believe.” She says and walks past me into the living room and I stumble after her.

“Hey.” I say and grab her arm, she stops my touch. I lose my grip on her arm as she pushes me back. I watch her, stunned. She looks frozen again, just like she did in the morning. Her eyes locked on me, but now I see guilt in those blue.

That she pushed me away kind of scared me, she is always so calm, I think it even scared her. I Never thought she could do something like that. She hasn’t moved one muscle, this is more frightening than it was in the morning.

“Hunter?” I ask concerned. She takes a step back and blinks her eyes.

“I didn’t mean…”

“I know.” I cut her off. I know she wouldn’t have done that on purpose.

“It’s my fault I shouldn’t have touched you.” I tell her and she shakes her head.

“No, it’s…”

“You don’t need to explain, Hunter. You just scared me a little, that’s all.” She opens up her mouth but seems like she is fighting in her own head to find out what to say. She closes her mouth and then just nod. I breathe out relived.

“You don’t have to tell me things you don’t want me to know, Hunter. I’ll wait if you someday want to tell me.” She gives me the shy smile and nod again.

“I’m gonna go up.” She says and I nod.

I feel my phone buzz in my pocket.

“Hey, dad.” I answer.

“Hey honey, how it’s going?” He asks I can hear talking in the background.

“It’s going fine.”

“And Hunter?” He asks.

“I think she is fine, um, she kind of… I am not sure how to put it, but she kind of froze.”

“What happened?” Dad asks concerned and I can hear the sound of talking in the background disappear. How am I going to explain this? I can’t tell him that I fell asleep on her, and it freaked her out. That would be just awkward. I can’t tell him she pushed me either, that can probably mean consequences for her. I do not know how it works, but Hunter seems more fragile than a harm.

“We talked and it kind of got a little over the line…”

“Did you fight?” He sounds angry now.

“No dad, we didn’t fight” I sigh.

“She walked away from a conversation and I followed her and I took her arm. Dad, she freezes when I touch her.” I do not tell him about the look in her eyes. That made everything in me want to take whatever was in her head away.

“Is she okay?”

“I think so, it’s just it scares me when it happens because she can stand like that for a while.” I tell him.

“Just give her some time, she will come around, but I’m glad you two are not fighting and that you care about her. Just take it easy on her, okay?”

“Dad, calm down I told her that she doesn’t need to tell me anything that she doesn’t want to.”

“Okay, good. Sorry, but your mother is waiting for me, I love you and say hi to Hunter for me.”

“Okay, bye.”