“They’d take you away from that awful place.” I didn’t understand what he was saying. The only thing that mattered was him being safe.
“And where would I go?” he asked.
“I-I don’t know.”
“Sherry.” Silent tears finally dripped down his face. “You’re my best friend. You’re the only person who cares about me. And I don’t want to be without you. I can’t be without you.”
I understood what he was saying, but…
“And I won’t always be this little,” he added. “Eventually I’ll be too big for him. So please don’t ask me to report him.”
My tears came harder. “But—”
“Please. Besides, these cuts are nothing compared to the rest. And you’re all I need to make the rest better.”
I knew he meant his mother. Her standing by and doing nothing hurt him more than his father’s fists ever could.
“So tell me something good, Sherry. Anything.”
“Uhh…” I had absolutely nothing. My brain sucked right now.
Hunter laughed, wincing a little. “You look terrified.”
“I can’t think of anything,” I hissed, putting light pressure on his chest. And then we were both laughing.
I had tears in my eyes and his blood on my hands, and we were laughing like we didn’t have a care in the world. I didn’t know what to feel. Should I have left the cloud hanging over us, acknowledging this tragedy? Or was it better to be smiling in spite of it?
I didn’t know. I only knew I wanted to win. I wanted to beat Hunter’s father. I wanted to be able to go to sleep tonight knowing Hunter’s dad didn’t take anything away from him, knowing Hunter could still smile in spite of his horrible father.
In the beginning, I’d thought ignoring it would give his dad power. I’d thought letting it go was the same thing as saying it’s okay. But that wasn’t true at all. Because nothing would make it okay. Whether we swept it under the rug or confronted it head-on, it would always be wrong. There was nothing we could do about that. The only thing we could affect was now, the after. That was how I knew what I would do.
I’d make Hunter smile. I’d make him laugh until his stomach cramped and his cheeks ached. Even if I had his blood on my hands, I’d also have his smile, his joy. Something I’d never let his father take.
Hunter had asked me to make his heart better, and from that day on, I promised myself I would.
“Sher bear?” my mother called through the door. I felt my cheeks warm when Hunter cracked a genuine smile.
“Sher bear?!” he whispered, mocking me. I wanted to be embarrassed or angry, but I was just happy to see him looking better.
I’d grabbed some old clothes of Bobby’s for him to wear and cleaned up his lip. It was still gross; the cut wasn’t bleeding anymore but it was dark red and the area around it had gotten fat and purple. There was also a large white bandage on his forehead, but otherwise nothing looked wrong. He wouldn’t let me see any of his other injuries, he told me he took care of them when he was changing.
“Shut up,” I muttered before getting to my feet. I tossed his bloody clothes in my tub and closed the curtain before walking toward my bedroom door, shutting the bathroom door on my way.
“Yeah, Mom?” I yelled, my front plastered to the inch of wood separating us.
“Do you want to help me serve dessert?”
“Already?”
She paused. “It’s been an hour and a half.” I could hear the worry in her voice, and I wondered if she had heard the panic in mine.
“Sherry, please open the door.”
I eased it open, leaving myself only enough room to fit my body through.
“Sorry, Mom. I just—” I stopped, my last words coming out strangled. My mother wasn’t looking at me. Her gaze was roaming the room behind me before she paused on something. I turned to see what she found. She had zeroed in on the blood smear under the window frame and Hunter’s jacket discarded beneath it.
Crap! Crap! Crap!
When I faced her again, her body had turned stiff and her wide, disbelieving eyes were on mine.
“What happened? Are you hurt?” she asked quickly, snapping out of her daze and pushing the door open. Her hands lightly gripped my shoulders as she assessed my body.
“I’m fine. I’m fine,” I assured her. She had the same look on her face as she did the day we rushed Bobby to the hospital almost four years ago. Her gaze flew to the bathroom door behind me, seeing the light coming from underneath, before walking around me and reaching for Hunter’s only line of defense.
“Mom, no—”
It was a futile effort. The door was open before I could even think about what I would have said. Moving to her side, my eyes locked on a shell-shocked Hunter. He was looking at my mom and despite his attempt to hide it, fear was radiating from his dark brown eyes. My hand made contact with my mom’s arm, ready to explain the situation and make sure she didn’t do or say anything to upset Hunter even more.
“Oh my!” she exclaimed, immediately making me realize how stupid I’d been to think my mother would be anything other than the nice and supportive person she always was. “Are you okay, son?” His eyes flared at the word son, even as he straightened and tried to move away from her when she reached for him.
She kept her distance and squatted on the ground.
“Hi. I’m Liz. Sherry’s mom,” she said before she turned around and gave me a warm smile. I tried to return it, but I was too worried about Hunter.
My mom turned back toward Hunter. “Would you like some dessert? We have all different kinds… ice cream, apple pie, pumpkin pie, brownies… you name it and we probably have it.”
“Um…” He trailed off, clearly flustered. Like a grown-up being nice to him was so strange he didn’t know how to respond.
“Sherry can sneak one up to you, it’ll be our little secret…” Her voice trailed off to a whisper as she lifted a finger to her deep red lips, earning a small smile out of Hunter.
He ducked his head. “Yes, ma’am. That sounds good.”
“Excellent. What kind?”
“Whatever you have the most of, ma’am.”
I’d never heard Hunter talk to someone older than him before. It was weird how polite he sounded. I wondered if that had been beaten into him. I wondered if I’d ever stop wondering at the lengths of his father’s abuse.
My mother smiled. “What’s your favorite, dear?” she asked.
“Pumpkin,” Hunter mumbled, his chin tucked down, finally relaxing and letting his guard down.
“You stay here. Sherry will be right back.”
She stood, still smiling, and left the room. My mom never even bothered to see if I was following her—she knew I would. As soon as the door was shut with us on the other side, my mom turned toward me. Her smile was completely gone and her eyes were pinched with worry.
“Who is that?”
“M-my friend, Hunter.”
“And what happened to him?”
My eyes flew around the hallway; I needed to think quickly. “Football,” I blurted out. “H-he was playing football and uh, his parents told him he couldn’t. He came here so he wouldn’t be in trouble with them.”
“His face looked awfully nasty for football, and that blood looked like too much…” She trailed off like she did whenever she was waiting for Bobby or me to tell her what really happened.
“People break bones playing football.” That seemed a lot worse than a cut lip.
She nodded, but I could tell she didn’t believe me. Looking hurt and unsure, her eyes landed on the closed door.
I had never lied to my mother before, and it was on the tip of my tongue to tell her the truth. But then I remembered Hunter’s words…
You’re the only person who cares about me. And I don’t want to be without you. I can’t be without you. I won’t always be this little. Eventually I’ll be too big for him. So please don’t ask me to report him.
And I couldn’t. He
trusted me, only me, and I couldn’t risk that. Swallowing down the truth, I said with as much confidence as I could, “I promise. It was just football.”
Something sparked in her eyes. “You know you can talk to me about anything, right?”
“Yeah.”
My mom frowned before she shook it off and gave me a hug. “Okay, well let’s go get Hunter his pie.”
Nodding, I hugged her back. We broke apart and made our way to the kitchen, hand in hand. I held on as tight as I could, hoping that someday Hunter knew what it was like to be loved this much.
14 years old
ON MY FOURTEENTH BIRTHDAY, the day we dubbed our anniversary, we had a picnic in my backyard. I brought out two sandwiches that I made myself, two bags of carrots, and two bottles of water.
Hunter grabbed his sandwich and took a bite. I laughed as the peanut butter dripped from the side and ran down his chin.
“Are you excited for summer?” I bit into a crisp carrot while I waited for his answer. Both of us would be starting high school in the fall, finally going to the same school. Over the past year and a half, my mom had been asking Hunter to come over more and more. And Hunter’s parents had started getting busier, meaning they didn’t care as much. The beatings after that Thanksgiving were less frequent; Hunter said his father realized how dangerous it had been… for him and his wife.
I wanted to run to his house and punch him right in the face. But I still had no clue where Hunter lived, and he told me the only thing that mattered was that the abuse had virtually stopped. There hadn’t been an incident in over six months.
“My parents have been talking about moving.”
“What?” I asked, my head snapping up and my eyes widening.
“Yeah. I don’t know where, but I’ve heard whispers. Something about my dad’s business doing better and having more money. I don’t really know.”
I looked down at the ground. “But… what if it’s farther away? What if we can’t see each other anymore?”
Hunter shook his head. “Don’t worry, Sherry.”
“But what—?”
He sat up on his knees and put his finger on my lips. I felt a weird spark travel through me at the contact. I kept my mouth shut as he pulled his hand away and sat back down.
“It’s not going to be anywhere too far. He needs to stay close to ‘the action,’ or something. And my mom has a lot of friends around here. Worst comes to worst, there’s a couple more neighborhoods I have to cut through to get to you. That’s nothing, Sherry.”
I frowned. I wanted him closer, not farther away.
“Hey, turn that frown upside down.” He nodded toward the two presents I’d brought out. “Let’s see what you got so far.”
Setting my bag of carrots down, I reached for the gifts. For as long as I could remember, my parents had a tradition of waking me up at midnight, each of them giving me one present. I never knew what they would be; sometimes they were serious, other times they were jokes. Between the two of them, I usually got one of each every year, with them alternating who gave which type of present. But every single gift, silly or serious, meant something to me and I loved them deeply.
I opened the first box, my father’s, revealing a pretty silver bracelet. It was simple, yet “elegant” as my mother would say.
“My mom has one just like it,” I said, carefully handing it to Hunter. “It’s her favorite. But I was always stealing it to wear.”
“And she got mad?” His expression was worried as he waited for my answer.
I shook my head. “Not at all. They just wanted me to have one of my own. Something special we could both wear.”
“That’s nice.” Hunter ran his fingers over the bracelet with a faraway look on his face. And all of a sudden, I felt like the biggest jerk on the planet. Constantly shoving in his face what he didn’t have. The nice presents and the loving parents.
I reached forward and took the box from him. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be—”
“Sherry, it’s okay.” I looked in his eyes and I knew he understood why I was worried. “I promise. I’m happy you have nice things and that your parents care about you so much. I’m not thinking about anything else other than how happy I am for you.”
“Nothing else at all?” I tried to give him my “serious face” because he always seemed to laugh whenever I did it. Sure enough, I got a chuckle.
“Well, maybe one other thing…”
“What?”
“I’m also thinking about how happy I am for me.” My brows furrowed before he finished, “Because I have you.”
I smiled as wide as I could at my best friend. He grinned right back, and just like when he smiled that first time, he was beautiful.
Hunter sat back and pointed to the other box. “Okay, what about from your mom?”
My mother’s was the joke, and I was actually a little embarrassed about this one. I picked it up and held the large box to my chest. “You can’t laugh.” Right on cue, his smile got bigger. “I’m serious, Hunter.”
“Of course. I’m sorry.” He pretended to lock his lips with a key before throwing it over his shoulder. Shaking my head, I opened the box and slowly took out the purple bear. Hunter looked confused.
“It’s a Care Bear,” I explained. If his raised eyebrow was any indication, my statement didn’t really explain anything. “There are a bunch of them, all different colors and with different names. Like Bedtime Bear, Friend Bear, Cheer Bear… stuff like that. This one’s Share Bear.” I turned the stuffed animal around and held him out to Hunter. “Get it? Like Sher Bear. My parents called me that when I was younger. They got me one of these before, but apparently I destroyed it.”
Hunter reached for it. “How did a sweet little girl like you destroy a teddy bear?”
Shrugging, I said, “I don’t know. I just know there’s a picture of me holding a purple bear like this one with only one eye, one arm, no legs, and half his head ripped off.”
“Wow. Remind me not to make you mad.” He looked at both my arms like they were weapons.
We talked about my epic skills for a few more minutes before he handed the bear back to me and I set both boxes aside. When I turned back toward him, his eyes were pinched closed.
“Hunter?” They flew open and he nodded, almost to himself. Then he stood up and walked to the side of the house. He brought back a brown box, holding it out to me while he sat back down.
“Happy birthday, Sherry.” I eagerly undid the bow wrapped around it before popping the lid. “Sherry?” His nervous voice brought my head up. I found him looking at my other two presents.
“Yeah?”
“It’s… uh…” Hunter waved his arm toward them. “It’s nothing as nice as… but…”
“Hey.” I nudged his knee with my foot. “I’m gonna love it.”
He looked like he didn’t believe me, but he also looked hopeful. “How do you know?”
“Because it’s from you, and you know me better than anybody.” His excitement returned and he nodded for me to continue.
I lost my breath when I opened it and looked down.
They were photos.
The top one was of me sitting by the window, and it was taken within the last year because my hair was cut to my shoulders. I picked the stack up; they were hole-punched twice at the top, with a thread of yarn wrapped through the holes keeping the photos together.
I flipped to the next one, a photo of himself making a funny face. The photos alternated between him and me. The last few were candid pictures of both of us. I remembered the moments, deducing that my parents must have sneakily taken them. The rest had to be taken by Hunter. I didn’t even know he had a camera.
The last picture was taken a few months ago on Christmas. His parents were gone for two weeks and he spent almost the entire time with us. We gave him a new skateboard. He had wanted to buy a used one, but he also wanted to save the money he made from mowing lawns. It had been easy to convince my parents to get it for him,
and they looked so incredibly proud when he opened it.
In the photo Hunter’s smile was wide and infectious, but he wasn’t looking at his present. He was looking at me. I’d never forget that moment. He had wanted the skateboard so he could get to me quicker, so we could spend more time together.
The picture was taken after Hunter picked me up and hugged me, his skateboard forgotten on the ground. He loved it and thanked my parents profusely, telling them it was perfect and exactly what he wanted. At the time it felt like he had been talking about me. And as I looked at the photo now, it looked like it, too. Hunter was looking at me like I was the perfect present, what he’d always wanted.
“Hunter… this is…”
“I found this camera about a year ago. I’ve been taking pictures ever since. I took a bunch of you, and well, you’re always saying you wish we could see each other more. It didn’t seem right that I could still see you but you couldn’t see me.” He shrugged like this wasn’t the sweetest thing anyone had ever done for another person.
“It’s perfect, Hunter. Thank you.” I gently put it back in the box before crawling into his lap and giving him a hug. I pulled back a few seconds later.
“How come I never see you with a camera?”
“I’d take a few and then hide it in one of the bushes.” He frowned. “I don’t know why. I guess I just wanted something to myself for a little bit… it’s kinda creepy now that I think about it.”
“Maybe if I didn’t know you.” I laughed and shoved his shoulder, both of us shifting with the movement, making me realize I was still sitting on top of him.
My gaze involuntarily dropped to his mouth, and out of the corner of my eye I saw his Adam’s apple bob.
“Can I give you one more gift?” he whispered.
Wordlessly, I nodded as I lifted my eyes back to his. For a few minutes, we just stared at one another. I felt my eyes widen when he started slowly moving closer… maybe giving me time to pull away? I wouldn’t. I didn’t want to.
Unveiling Ghosts (Unveiling Series, Book 3) Page 6
