I’ll Reach For You

Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 7

Like You Care
The school hallways have always smelled bad. I don’t understand why they haven’t done anything about it. I walk down the hall on my way to the bathroom.

“What ‘a?” The view of Hunter comes in. She sits on the floor next to the bathroom door. She is skipping class again.

“Hunter, what are you doing out here?” She turns to look at me and then stand up walking away from me.

“Goddammit, Hunter. Stop!” I run after her. To have shorter legs than me, she is fast. I reach her and take her arm.

“Hunter, what…” She turns. Her eyes red and she has a bad bruise on her cheekbone. I take my hand up to her chin to turn her head around, so I can take a better look.

“Hunter, what-what happened?” I ask worriedly.

“Nothing.” She moves out of my grip and takes a step back.

“Hunter, you can tell me.”

“Like you care.” She turns and walks. I follow her.

“Hunter stop.” She does, but she does not turn to look at me, so I walk around her.

“Let’s go home”. I tell and she nods, her eyes always seem to look so goddamn hurt.

We walk to the car and start driving home. I watch at her and she looks like a sad little pup. Her head down and her gaze stuck on her feet.

“You okay?” I ask. She nods carefully.

“You’re not going to talk to me are you?” She shakes her head.

“You know, I am missing soccer practice right now, so I think I deserve an explanation.” She shakes her head again. It makes me sigh. I give up, and stop the car behind dad’s car. She steps out of the car before I can even take out the keys. I grab them and follow her in. Dad turns to look at us from the sofa. Hunter walks towards the stairs.

“Hunter, what happened to you?” Dad asks, but Hunter reaches the stairs and goes up, two steps at a time. Dad turns to me.

“What happened to her?” He asks worriedly.

“I don’t know, I was on my way to the bathroom when I saw her. She was sitting on the floor next to the door. Then I saw her cheek was blue.” He scratches his neck, worried.

“No one from school has called, so I guess she must have been hiding or something since the accident. Did she say anything?” I shake my head.

“I tried, but she doesn’t want to talk to me.” I tell him frustrated.

“Okay, well at least you tried.” He says smiling.

“I think we should just give her some time and then I talk to her.” He says, I nod and then he goes to the porch door.

“By the way, mom will come home late.” I nod to him again, and he goes out into the sun.

I wake up to the sound of someone downstairs. I step out of bed and start walking down the stairs. The light in the kitchen is on; I go in finding Hunter with the fridge. She stands there in her blue pajama pants and a black T-shirt. She turns to look at me.

“You okay?” I ask her and she nods.

“Hungry.” She answers. Hunter skipped dinner this evening, she moves back to the fridge and takes out the pizza we had for dinner. She turns around and I can see the blue mark on her cheek. I feel awful, I should have been there, done something.

Still, she doesn’t want to talk about what happened. Dad tried, but she did not say anything. She placed the pizza in the microwave and start it. I move closer to her and lean on the counter. She turns to look at me with the same shy smile she always has. Still, she looks tired, she has looked tired from the day she came here.

“When was the last time you slept?” She looks at me, and just shrugs, I sigh. She is like a brick wall, hard to get through. She takes out the pizza and walks into the dining room.

“Good night.” I tell her and go back to bed.