“Hierr.” The dog shot to his side and nosed at his hands. Hunter glanced at Michael. “Will you drive me back now?”
“Why don’t you wait,” said Michael. “Have some dinner.”
Hunter glanced at the bowl of crushed cookies in milk. “Thanks, I’ll pass.”
“You going to sleep in your car and skip school again?” said Michael.
Well, that changed the tenor of the room. Hunter couldn’t look at any of them now. He could feel them staring, and that was bad enough.
“Forget it,” he said. “I’ll walk.”
The night air stung his face when he stepped out of the house, and Hunter pulled the hood of his sweatshirt higher against his neck. No one followed him.
Good.
He was dirty from helping Michael, and a hot shower would have helped ease the soreness across his shoulders, but that would have to wait until tomorrow morning. He wasn’t sure how long he could keep using the school gym showers without someone noticing he wasn’t going to class, but he’d do it as long as he could keep it up.
Your grandfather said you left.
Hunter swallowed. Stupid old man. Like he wanted to be there anyway.
He thought of the Merricks, sitting around the kitchen table, a room full of aggression and old wounds—but full of camaraderie and solidarity, too. The brothers didn’t always get along, but they knew each other.
His grandfather didn’t even know that Hunter would never have hit a girl.
His grandfather hadn’t even hesitated before hitting him. Hunter had to swallow again.
God, stop being such a wuss.
His father would be so disappointed.
Hunter rubbed at his eyes.
His cell phone chimed, and he yanked it out of his pocket, stupidly hoping it would be his mother.
It wasn’t.
Bueller . . . Bueller . . . Bueller.
Kate. Hunter smiled and wanted to kick himself. He stared at the text and wondered how to respond.
He felt a flicker of guilt at the way he’d thrown her out of his jeep.
Sneakers ground on pavement behind him, and Hunter whirled, hands up. Then the air sparked with Gabriel’s presence.
He shoved the phone in his pocket and kept walking.
Gabriel fell into step beside him.
Hunter didn’t even glance over. “Leave me alone.”
“Having a good cry?”
He wasn’t, but Hunter set his jaw anyway. “Go to hell.”
“So yesterday,” said Gabriel. “Remember when I flipped your tray?”
“No. I forgot all about it.”
“Totally didn’t know you’d have soup on there. Jesus, I didn’t even know the cafeteria sold—”
Hunter stopped on the street and looked at him. “What do you want, Gabriel? What?”
“I want to know why you pretended to be my friend.”
Hunter started walking again.
Gabriel kept after him. “Michael said your grandfather threw you out because of what happened with Calla.”
“So what?”
“Does anyone trust you? Or do you just feed everyone a line of crap until it catches up with you?”
Hunter couldn’t look at him now. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Remember that day we went running? Remember how you sat on the side of the trail and cried about your father? Was that real? Or just one more act? Something to get me to talk, so you could report back to Bill?” His voice turned into a breathy lisping mockery of Hunter’s. “ ‘Guess what I learned today. Gabriel Merrick misses his mommy.’ ”
“Fuck you.”
“No, fuck you, Hunter.” Gabriel got in his face and shoved him, true anger behind the motion. “You know why you slept alone in your jeep last night? Because you’ve screwed over anyone who might help you.”
Hunter shoved past him and kept walking. He remembered that day, jogging on the trail, racing Gabriel for fun until they ran out of energy and adrenaline and collapsed in the grass. The air had been crisp and clean with the sun beating down—and memories of his father had clouded Hunter’s brain until he couldn’t help but talk about it. Emotion was tightening his chest again, just thinking about it.
A car rolled down the road, swirling dead leaves from the roadside in its wake. Night wind snuck into the space between Hunter’s collar and his neck. He begged the air for warmth, but it was merely content to nip at his skin and make him shiver.
“What I don’t get,” said Gabriel from behind him, “is how you could trust that asshole.”
Hunter didn’t say anything.
“I mean,” Gabriel continued, “you know he abandoned his own daughter. You know he trapped Chris and Nick and used them as bait. Hell, you saw the news footage of the bridge when he tried to blow up Becca’s car. Some fucking father.”