by Megan Smith
"Sorry, I guess maybe I should have told you. She just wanted to talk about the party last weekend. She asked if I had been there cause she hadn't seen me."
What the hell! "Why would she care if you were at the party? She's trying to start shit again." The more I thought about her, the more pissed I got.
"I said the same thing to her." He turned his head to stare out the front windshield. "She was going on about seeing Hunter with his hands all over you, and you guys walking out of the party by yourselves." Then he turned back to me. "I don't care if you did. I told her I trusted you."
"That's good, because you should trust me."
"I know. That's why I'm not worried about it." He did not sound very sure of himself. Dominic knew I had feelings for Hunter. He knew what happened between us last summer.
"Good. Look, I have to go help Hailey pack, and then we are going to lunch with my brothers. I wish you had told me you were going to come home. Let me see if they would mind you coming to lunch too. Or, if you want, I can hang out with you when I'm done."
"No, don't worry about it. It's my fault. I'm just going to head back. I'll see you tomorrow at school." He leaned out of the window again to kiss me, "Love you."
After he left, I went inside to help Hailey pack the things that she was taking with her. After convincing her she did not need to pack her whole room, we headed to the restaurant for lunch with my brothers.
It was neat to get together with them one last time before not seeing them for the next few months. Mason and Cooper could not wait for baseball to start up again. They were looking forward to the parties that would start back up too. Jackson and Chloe were having a tough time coming up with a baby's name; they kept tossing ideas back and forth but could not both agree on any one name.
After we finished lunch, I dropped Hailey off at her house. I needed to get home to pack the last minute things I had thought of during lunch. Once I was finished, I still had a few hours until dinner with Hunter, so I decided to finish the book I was reading to kill some time.
Around six, Hunter picked me up, and we went for pizza at my favorite place. It was just a little hole in the wall, but I loved it.
I put my pizza down and wiped my face with my napkin, "I'm going to miss this pizza. Thanks for bringing me here."
"You're welcome. So, Dominic is home, huh?" He asked, watching me take a bite of my pizza.
"Christ! How did you know?" How did everyone know this, and I didn't?
"I saw him and Alexis together, walking into her house last night?"
What! I snapped my head up to look at him, hoping he was joking. "What? He didn't come home until this morning." At least that is what he told me.
Glaring down at his pizza, he said, "No, he was home last night, and he was with her."
"You must have seen wrong. He wasn't home then." My cheeks were beginning to burn from embarrassment.
He looked at me for a minute before he asked, "CC, can I ask you something?" I nodded at him. "Why are you with him?"
"Why does it matter to you?" I wish I was with you is what I honestly wanted to tell him.
He let out a sigh. "He doesn't treat you right. Why would he not tell you he was home? Why is he even talking to Alexis after all that shit that went down last year?"
I need this conversation to end; I don't want to talk to him about this. "I asked him about that. He said that she told him you and I fooled around with each other at the party last week. I guess he wanted to see what she had to say."
"And what did she say?"
"Hunter." I said with a warning tone. "I can't do this. I can't have everyone questioning my relationship with Dominic. It's my relationship, not anyone else's. I'm finished eating, so can you take me home now?" I stood up from the booth, and headed towards the bathroom. I needed a few minutes to calm down.
When I walked out of the bathroom, Hunter was at the counter paying for our food. I kept right on walking out of the restaurant, and waited by his street bike.
He came walking over to me, but did not say anything at first. He put his helmet on, and then gently put mine on. He lifted my chin to snap the strap, and looked into my eyes. "I'm not sorry for caring about you, CC."
I did not respond. I did not think he wanted me to. He threw his leg on the bike, kicked the kickstand up and then steadied the bike so I could get on. As we took off back to my house, with the wind in my face and hair, I started to feel bad for blowing up on him the way I did, but I am tired of everyone worrying about my relationship. I was not worried about it, why should they be.
We pulled up in front of my house, and I got off the bike. I reached for the snap on the helmet, but Hunter grabbed my hand and did it himself. I took it off, and started running my fingers through my hair to get the knots out. I looked over at him and was about to apologize when he grabbed the front pocket of my jeans and pulled me to him, "Don't apologize."
I rested my hand on his toned chest, and nodded, "I'll be here around noon to pack up all your shit, then we will grab Hailey, and get the hell out of here."
"Okay, see you then." I turn to head inside as he started his bike and left.
I strolled into the house and went straight to my room. I tossed and turned all night long. Was it just me or did he have a hard time fighting his feelings for me? He tells me nothing can happen between us, but he flirts and acts as if he wants something to happen. Was it because I was with Dominic? Hunter knew he kept pushing me away by trying to keep his distance from me.
The next morning, when I finally got my ass out of bed, I went downstairs to eat breakfast with mom and dad.
I walked over to the kitchen table to sit down. Mom started in on me first thing. "Are you sure you want to go to the ODU, Kenzie? There are plenty of schools here in New Jersey."
Rolling my eyes behind her back, I patiently answered, "Yes Mom, I'm more than sure." She must have asked me this same question at least 100 times this week.
I looked over at Mom, and she had tears in her eyes, "It's not going to be the same without you here; we're all going to miss you." My mom had a lot of time on her hands. With my leaving, she was going to have even more. She became a stay-at-home mom after she had the twins. Dad, being a stockbroker for the New York Stock Exchange, made more than enough money for her to stay home.
Dad came sauntering in with his coffee cup, and added his two cents. "We are baby girl, and it's going be different without you around."
"Don't worry mom and dad; I'll make sure she is taken care of." My eyebrows shot up when Hailey walked into the kitchen, with Mason right behind her. What in the hell is she doing here?
"That's what I'm worried about," my mom said under her breath. Looking at Hailey, I wondered if she had heard mom. If she did, she wasn't letting on about it. I know my mom and dad love Hailey, but my mom always thought she was a little wild. This is what I loved about Hailey.
"I'll come home whenever I can. I need to do this, and we've talked about this." We did talk about this for almost a year, as I was trying to convince my parents to let me go to ODU for school. I think it helped that Hailey and Hunter were going to be there with me; well mostly that Hunter would be there.
"What the hell are you doing here?" I asked Hailey, as she stole a piece of bacon off my plate. She just shrugged her shoulders at me.
Shaking my head at her, I picked up my plate, put it in the dishwasher and then went back up to my room to take a shower.
Hunter showed up right on time to help load all of my stuff in his truck. My brothers were also there helping him. My mom was crying because she did not want me to go. I promised her I would be home for Thanksgiving, and I would call her every chance I got. I think that helped ease her mind, maybe just a little.
My dad pulled me aside, and handed me a check. "What's this for? I don't need your money dad; I saved up all my money from babysitting, and working over the summer."
"I know, but I'm not going to be there to spoil you like I would if you were here. If you don't spend the mon
ey, at least deposit it in the bank for emergencies." Dad grabbed me, pulled me into a tight hug and kissed the top of my head. "We're really going to miss you, baby girl."
I wiped the tears away that were running down my cheeks. "I'm going to miss you too dad. I love you." I was going to miss him and mom; this was the first time I was seriously going to be on my own.
"Alright, go say good-bye to your Mom, and then I'll get her out of here so you can leave." He said with a chuckle.
I walked over to my mom and hugged her. I told her I would call her as soon as I settled into my dorm. Mom was still clinging on to me, crying when Dad wrapped his arm around her, and walked her to the car to go out to lunch.
Jackson hugged and kissed my cheek, told me he would miss me like crazy, and that he and Chloe would call me during the week to check up on me.
Cooper was next to say goodbye. "Don't let anyone mess with you Kenzie. If you have any problems, call me. I don't care what time it is."
"I will, I promise. Love you; take care of Mom for me." Cooper was my mom's favorite; I knew he would look out for her.
Finally, it was Mason's turn. Even though we fought all the time, I was going to miss him the most. "Give your sister a hug." I told him, with tears rolling down my cheeks again.
Hugging me, he whispered, "I really wish you weren't going away Kenzie. We need you here." Then he pulled back and wiped the tears from my cheeks.
"You're not going to be here in a few weeks Mase. You guys will be ok without me. Y'all are going to come visit us in a few weeks anyway."
"I know we'll be gone, but I can't keep an eye on you Kenzie. I have to rely on Hunter to protect you now that I can't." Always the over protective one, I loved him, but this was another reason I chose this college.
"I have Dominic too, you know. No one is going to mess with me with him and Hunter around. Go to school, have fun and stay out of trouble." I winked at him, trying to lighten the situation. He was always getting into trouble until baseball season started up.
"Love ya; call me when you get there. If you don't, I'll be there by tomorrow morning." I knew he was not kidding.
Chuckling, I said, "Yes Dad. Love you too."
I walked over to Hunter's truck, and looked over to him. "Finally, let's get the hell out of here before they handcuff me here."
After we stopped at Hailey's and picked up all her stuff, we started on our five-hour drive. We played Hot Seat to kill some of the time. Since Hunter was driving, he was in the Hot Seat first. Hailey and I had to ask five questions each, and he could veto only one question.
I started, "Who was the first person you ever kissed?"
He glanced over at me. "You." That surprised me. I am shocked he even remembered it. He was sixteen and the girls flocked to him. I would have thought he would have kissed someone before me.
Hailey piped up from the back seat, "Who was the first person you had sex with?" Of course, she would jump into that.
Hunter looked in the rear view mirror at Hailey. "Lilly."
"How old were you?" I asked curiously.
He honestly did not want to answer, but did anyway, "16."
Hailey laughed, "When was the last time you had sex?"
He looked straight out the window, "Two months ago."
Hold on…what? "You walked that girl out of your room last weekend."
"That's not a question."
I rolled my eyes, "You didn't sleep with that girl you spent the night with last weekend?"
"No," was all he said.
Hailey was bouncing in her seat, "My turn, would you have sex with Kenzie?"
"Really, Hails?" I looked at Hunter, "You don't have to…."
"Yes." he said, before I could even finish what I was saying.
I needed to change the subject quickly. "What's your favorite color?"
He looked over, and winked at me, "Blue, like the color of your eyes." Ugh, this is not going the way I wanted it to. I did not want this to become awkward.
Hailey was laughing hysterically, "How big is your dick?" Now it was awkward.
Turning around in my seat, I glowered at Hailey, and she shrugged her shoulders at me.
Hunter started laughing, "No one has ever complained."
I wanted to change the subject completely. It was becoming extremely hot in here, thinking about his size, "What did you have for breakfast?"
He was still laughing, "Coffee."
I braced myself for what was about to come next out of Hailey's mouth. "Would you date Kenzie if you weren't friends with her brothers?"
He looked at me, smiled and then checked both ways before entering the intersection, "Hell yeah." Damn brothers!
"Alright Hailey, you're next." Hunter looked in the rearview mirror once we were safely through the intersection.
Hailey started whining. "Let's play something else; I don't want to play this anymore."
I had a pretty good feeling it was because she knew we were going to ask questions about her and Mason. Since Hunter is an easygoing guy, we dropped the game and started playing Name that Song. Hunter had the radio buttons on his steering wheel, so he would hit the seek button, and the three of us would try to guess the song. This kept us entertained for a little bit until Hailey and I busted out dancing and singing Call Me Maybe at the top of our lungs, while Hunter laughed at us. After a while, my throat started hurting from yelling, so I gave up. I laid down along the seat, stuck my feet out the window and read for a while.
It was late when we finally made it to campus, but because it was check-in weekend, it really did not matter. When we pulled up to the dorms, I texted Dominic to let him know we were here, and to ask if he could come help me unload my stuff.
My parents wanted me to experience college life, but did not want me sharing a room with three strange people, or sharing a common bathroom with an entire dorm floor of strangers. They paid extra money for a two-room suite. It was perfect for Hailey and me. We had two oversized single beds, individual desks, chairs and bookshelves. There were also two closets and chests of drawers. We even had our own private bathroom. We would miss having a laundry room right at hand. There was one on the first floor of our building, so at least we would not have to lug our dirty clothes all over campus.
Dominic thought we would be spending as much time together as possible, because Housing had assigned us to the same co-ed building. The school would not allow a male and a female together in the same room, and I think my parents and brothers were very happy about that. They would never allow me to room with Dominic.
Dominic walked over to where we parked, and wrapped his arms around me. "Hey baby, you finally made it. I was starting to get worried Hunter kidnapped you." Dominic glared over at Hunter.
I kissed his cheek, walked to the tailgate of the truck and handed him a bag. "I told you we weren't leaving until early afternoon."
He grabbed a few more bags from the back. "Well, let's get you unpacked. I'm sure Hunter has stuff he needs to do, maybe a party to go to or something."
Hunter just shrugged and said, "I'm good. Just going to my place and getting settled in."
Hailey walked over to Hunter, and put her hand on his arm. "Since Dominic has Kenzie covered, can you help me with my stuff?"
He nodded his head, and started grabbing some of Hailey's stuff. After everything was in our room, Hunter said goodbye to Hailey. Then he walked over to me, hugged me and whispered in my ear that if I needed anything at all to call him. I told him I would, and then he left.
Dominic seemed antsy, "Look baby, I'm going to head out and let you and Hailey get some sleep."
"Okay, I'll text you in the morning."
He kissed me, said he loved me and left. Hailey and I just looked at each other, confusion plain on our faces. What just happened here?
"It sure was nice of him to show us around. He said he was so happy about you staying in the same building, but it seemed like he couldn't wait to get out of here." Hailey said after Dominic left.
"Maybe he doesn't want to crowd me since we just got here. Besides, we were in the car for the last five hours."
"If you say so." She turned around, and started to unpack some of the boxes; I grabbed one, and started doing the same thing.
We stayed up until three in the morning, and then finally passed out. I had plans of getting up early and finishing up, but I did not wake up until I heard my phone ringing.
"Kenzie, what the fuck? I told you to call me when you got there." Mason yelled frantically into the phone.
I let out a huge groan. "Good God, Mason, calm down. I'm fine; we got in late, started unpacking and then fell asleep."
"It's one in the fucking afternoon Kenzie. Where is Hailey? Is she with you?"
"Yeah, she's sleeping; we were up till three this morning. Would you relax? If you were so worried, you could have called Hunter. He would have told you we made it."
"I did talk to him, but I told you to call me. Hunter isn't living with you. He doesn't know what you are doing, any more than I do."
"Seriously, if you don't knock it off, I'm hanging up on you. You are worse than Mom and Dad. Dominic is in the same building, so if anything happens to me, he is right here to help."
"Fine, whatever." Then he hung up on me. I dropped my head back on my pillow. A few seconds later, I heard Hailey's phone beep. I figured it was Mason chewing her ass out for not calling too.
I sent a text to Dominic, and asked if he would take me out to breakfast and show me around campus. He texted back, saying he was busy helping his roommate this afternoon, but he would take me out for dinner.
I did not know what to do with myself since Dominic had made other plans. I got up and headed to the bathroom to take a long hot shower. I stood, letting the water pour over my head, hoping that my coming here was not going to be a mistake. I was only here one day, and Dominic was already blowing me off. I would not have cared as much if I knew my way around campus. I was not expecting Dominic to be by my side twenty-four hours a day. He had football practice, and that took up a lot of his time, but it would have been nice if he could have set aside my first day here to spend with me.
