Hunter didn't come to school the following Monday.

Usually, I either found him next to my locker in the morning or he joined me there later. But first period passed with no sign of him, and when he didn't appear in Mr. Barcroft's class, I called him. It went to voice mail.

When lunch period came around, I sprinted to the parking lot. Hunter's car was nowhere to be seen.

"Hey, did you see Hunter this morning?" I asked as soon as I joined the others at lunch. Everyone was there except for Liza.

"No," Lia replied as the others shook their heads. "Why? What's wrong?"

I chewed on my bottom lip and stared at the food on my tray. My stomach was all tied up in knots. The thought of eating made me queasy.

I couldn't take it. I pushed my tray towards Scott. "Not hungry. Eat this."

I rose. Lia threw me her car keys without saying a word. I loved this girl.

I was out of the cafeteria in a heartbeat. I just had to know what was wrong. Where could he be? Was he okay?

Alright, first, I should go to his place. I stopped dead in the hallway, people brushing past me to lunch. I didn't even know where he lived. But there must be someone who did.

My phone pinged in my hand. A message. From Hunter.

"Thank God," I mumbled, so relieved my hands shook. I leaned against the wall and read the text.

My relief didn't last. Heart in my throat, I sprinted to the parking lot, jumped in Lia's car, and drove to the hospital. Hunter's text flashed before my eyes the entire way.

Car accident. Hospital. Car accident. Car accident.

Images from my childhood burst to the surface, breaking through the chains of time.

My father driving. Flashes of bright headlights. A crash. Loud sirens and red lights. Blood and darkness. Then waking up in the hospital to Sam crying quietly next to me, my mother's wails. And the broken months to follow.

*

It took me a while to find Hunter. He was in a private room. The smell of the hospital tightened my guts. It brought back memories of my last time here after Jake had spiked my drink.

I stared at the closed white door, my heart racing. It was okay. He was fine. He'd said so in his text.

The fact that it was a car accident made all my childhood fears and present anxiety rush to the surface, squeezing a vise around my lungs.

I knocked. Hunter's deep voice called inside. I slipped in. The clouded sky spilled in gray light through the large window, dulling the white and blue colors of the room.

Hunter was alone, on the bed in the center of the room. His visible upper half was dressed in a pale blue hospital gown. My eyes immediately found his, so dark and intense and familiar, they made my knees shake.

"Hey," he said, sitting up with a wince. He leaned against his pillows and frowned. "Sapphire?"

A bandage covered half his forehead and his left forearm. His cheekbone was scratched. I stopped next to him. My vision blurred.

Hunter shifted forward, his warm hand touched my cheek. "Hey. I'm fine."

Warmth spilled on my cheeks. "You- you-"

I took a shuddering breath. A rock the size of Stefan's stubborn head lodged itself in my throat, constricting my lungs.

"I'm okay," he said, pulling my head against his shoulder. I breathed in his familiar scent. It cracked my composure and drew tears from my eyes. I hugged Hunter's neck and let them flow. Relief and gut-wrenching worry mingled in a toxic mess that made me feel like I was in a wild ocean, being flung around and swallowed by stormy waves.

After a few minutes, I got myself together and pulled away. Wiping my eyes and my cheeks, I sniffled and looked at Hunter properly. "What happened?"

He tugged on my arm until I sat next to him, then he took my hand in his. My black hair tie was still in his wrist. "A drunk asshole. That's what happened. Nothing serious-"

"You're in the hospital!" I said. "If course it's serious."

He squeezed my hand. "I have a concussion. So they want to keep an eye on me for tonight. That's all."

I let out a shuddering breath. "Where were you looking? I should just drive you around from now on. You can't be trusted with a car."

He smiled. "You do that."

"What happened to the asshole?" I asked.

"Police took care of him," he said.

There was a soft knock on the door before it opened. The woman who peeked then walked inside was barely five feet tall. Her graying dark hair was pulled in a low bun. She looked to be in her mid fifties, and the sweater and black trousers she wore couldn't hide her bony frame. She stood proud and walked with reassured steps, however. Her kind smile lining her tanned face. Was she Hunter's mother?

I made a move to stand up. Hunter's hand stopped me.

"And who's this beautiful young lady?" she asked, putting a tote bag on the dresser beside Hunter's bed.

"Tia Sofia," Hunter said, "this is Sapphire, my girlfriend."

Tia Sofia's eyes widened behind thick spectacles. "This is Sapphire?" She put her hands on my arms and squeezed. "Oh, it's very nice to finally meet you. Hunter speaks about you a lot."

Hunter groaned. "Tia Sofia..."

I bit back a smile, my spirit rising at the sight of Hunter's pink-tipped ears. "Nice to meet you."

Tia Sofia's smile twinkled her eyes. She patted mine and Hunter's linked hands. "Nice to meet you, too."

She pulled out a tumbler from the tote bag and put it on the bedside table. "I made you a smoothie. I know you're too spoiled for hospital food."

Hunter huffed. "I'm fine."

Tia Sofia smiled and winked at me. I liked her already.

She wasn't Hunter's mother, but the two seemed very close. And it looked like she cared about him a great deal.

Tia Sofia emptied the tote bag. There were water bottles, another tumbler with what she said was soup, and a container of cut fruits. She stacked all of it on the bedside table within reach of Hunter's hand and folded the tote bag.

"Well, I better hurry home," she said. "Your mother and father are coming here."

A look passed between the two of them.

Hunter sighed. "Why?"

Tia Sofia simply patted his cheek, her eyes soft and a little sad. "I'll be going." She looked at me and gave me a smile that lit up her eyes. "I'm glad I finally met you, Sapphire. Thank you for looking after Hunter."

"Oh, I don't really- you're welcome," I said.

Tia Sofia left after another pat at Hunter's cheek. The door closed behind her with a quiet snick.

Hunter picked up the smoothie tumbler and took a sip. "Tia Sofia's been working for my family since I was born," he said. "She practically raised me. I guess you could say she's been a mother to me. Well, better than my real mother, that's for sure"

"She looks like a good person," I said.

He nodded. "She is."

I poked his cheek and grinned. "Are you embarrassed she's treating you like a kid?"

He shook his head. "No. She earned that right. Besides, I wanted you to meet her eventually. She's basically the only family I have."

I frowned. "I really don't like your parents, and I haven't even met them yet."

Hunter cracked a smile. "I don't like them either."

I traced the veins on the back of his hand. "Were they... bad to you even when you were a kid?"

He was quiet for a moment. "I guess. Mom never cared much about me, except when my grandparents were around. And Dad was an ass... well, he still is an asshole. Although it's better now since he can't just smack me around whenever he wanted to like he used to do."

I sucked in a sharp breath. "He used to hit you?"

Hunter shrugged, his eyes in my finger on top of his hand. "Sometimes. It stopped when I was about thirteen or fourteen. I got taller and bigger. One day I just realized that I was bigger and stronger than him. When he tried to hit me, I shoved him back and he fell. He looked more surprised than I was. He hasn't touched me since."

I scowled at the window. I really, really hated his parents.

"Hey, I have you now," Hunter said, snapping the black hair tie around his wrist.

His words warmed my heart. I leaned forward and kissed him. His hand touched my face, gentle and firm.

I love you.

I love you. I love you. I love you.

The words wanted to burst out of me. And when I pulled back, I saw the same desperate emotion mirrored in Hunter's eyes. He brushed his finger across my bottom lip.

He turned his head and snuck his hand below his pillow, coming out with a satin blue skinny scrunchie. He slipped it around my wrist.

I grinned and touched the silky material. "Is this my engagement hair tie?"

He grunted and rubbed his thumb across my pulse.

"I love it," I said, kissing his cheek. He smiled back. Just as we leaned closer, the door opened. We jumped apart.

A woman walked in. I gaped at her. She looked like a brunette version of Nicole Kidman. Her hair was a dark brown with honey colored highlights, long and wavy, it touched her waist. Her skin was pale, almost translucent, and her eyes were a brown framed with thick eyelashes and a winged liner that gave her a cat-eyed look.

She wore a white blouse tucked in skinny jeans, a pale blue blazer on top, and nude high heels. Sunglasses perched onto of her head. Her age was difficult to pinpoint. She had that look of women who never let themselves go, her face oddly ageless. She could be anywhere from late thirties to early fifties.

She looked at me, looked at Hunter, then sighed and clicked her heels closer. "How are you doing?" she asked Hunter. Her voice matched her look, a sultry contralto.

"Fine," Hunter said. His face had closed off. I blinked. Was I seeing things? His look was so at odds with the open, warm expression he had when Tia Sofia was here.

"You should've been careful," she said, looking around the room. Her cherry-painted lips turned down. "You should be in a private room. It has better accommodations."

Awkward. I shifted in my seat. Who was this woman?

She finally turned her eyes to me. She raised her eyebrows. "And you are?"

I opened my mouth.

"A friend," Hunter said before I could speak. The woman nodded, looking pointedly at our clasped hands in my lap. I glanced at Hunter.

She gave my outfit of a dark blue sweater, jeans and sneakers a once over. "I see."

There was a world of meaning behind those two words. She looked back at Hunter. I might as well be a fly on the wall.

Then a man walked in, closing the door behind him. He saw me and blinked. He was dressed in a casual dark sweater over a dark blue collared shirt with black dress pants. His hair was black and short, gelled back over his head in an expensive looking hairstyle. His eyes were sharp and blue. The gray on his temples and peppering his trimmed beard only emphasized his good looks.

Hunter's father. The resemblance was uncanny, except for the blue eyes. So this was the asshole.

"Your grandparents have been asking about the colleges you applied to," his father said, without so much as a greeting or asking about how Hunter was. "They might come down here again this weekend. How are we going to explain that their only grandson is getting into fights and car accidents? This is the second time you're involved with the police recently."

The first time must be in Jake's incident. I glanced at Hunter. He looked bored, almost like he heard this everyday, but his hand around mine was tight. Anger flared in my chest.

How could they? They didn't even care if their son was hurt or not. They didn't even ask how he was. How could they? And they called themselves his parents?

I glared at them. How dare they?

I opened my mouth. I didn't know what I was going to say, I just knew that I was too pissed off to stay quiet.

Hunter squeezed my hand. "Sapphire."

I looked at him.

"Why don't you grab a bite downstairs?" He mumbled.

I pursed my lips. Fine. Standing up, I gave his mother and his father a withering glare, which, unfortunately, went right over their heads. His father simply looked me up and down and raised his eyebrow when I kept glaring at him. What an asshole.

I stormed out of the room, my heart pounding in my ears. I wanted to storm back inside and yell at them that they didn't deserve Hunter as a son, that they were shitty parents, that they should be ashamed of themselves.

Instead, I went downstairs to the cafeteria. I grabbed a sandwich and sat by one of the big windows, the noise of people in the background dull with exhaustion and despair. I hated hospitals.

Rain drizzled outside, darkening the sidewalk and rinsing the trees.

I touched the silky hair tie on my wrist. I understood Hunter a little bit better now. All his gruff exterior and his general careless behavior towards others. He must have known from a young age that his parents didn't care for him. My heart hurt when I imagined a younger Hunter coming to terms with that heartbreaking fact.

But there was Tia Sofia. She'd been in his life since he was young. She must have had a positive influence on him, because beneath that gruffness, Hunter was gentle and kind and caring for people he considered his.

The morning's anxieties disappeared, leaving behind a growling hole in my stomach. I polished off my sandwich and went to grab my backpack from the car. I had a bag of Doritos there. And after this worry-filled morning, I deserved to have a little snack.

I went back upstairs, taking the stairs to lose time. Were his parents gone? I really didn't want to see them anytime soon. A woman dressed in a hospital gown walked down the hallway, dragging an IV drip pole with her. I snuck up to Hunter's room. The door was cracked open, and voices spilled out. I stopped.

"... your responsibility to this family. I won't have you waste your life for some good for nothing degree in some third rate college. I saw your college applications, and whatever you have in mind, photography or art or any such nonsense, forget it. Those fanciful notions will get you nowhere. I won't let you waste your life away in some good for nothing profession-"

"You mean you don't want grandfather to write us off," Hunter said, his voice cold and bored at once. I leaned against the wall by the door and dropped all pretense of not listening in. I was eavesdropping.

"Hunter, we just want what's best for you," his mother said in a reconciliatory tone. "We want you to be happy."

"Like you guys are happy?" A cold laugh. "If I'm going to end up like you, I'd rather have a failed career in some good for nothing profession."

"Enough!"

I jumped.

"Where did this come from? You were pretty obedient, you were happy with what we planned for you."

"No. I wasn't happy. I simply didn't care. There's a difference."

"Uh-huh. And now you care? What changed?" His father paused. "It's the girl, isn't it? Who's she?"

I held my breath.

"She's none of your business," Hunter said. "My college is none of your business. And soon, I won't be any of your business, either. You can tell my grandparents to keep their money."

"Hunter..." his mother said, her voice almost whiny.

"I see," his father said, an odd finality to his voice. Footsteps came closer. I didn't move. Hunter's father came out of the room. He saw me and paused.

"What's your name?" He asked.

None of your business. That was what I wanted to say. But my parents had raised me better than that. So I replied. "Sapphire Milton."

He gave me an ounce over and walked away. Arrogant, rude jerk. I should've just told him 'none of your business'.

Hunter's mom left a second later, not even looking at me. Good riddance. I knocked on the open door and stepped inside.

Hunter was leaning back, his forearm hiding his eyes.

"Do you want to be alone?" I asked.

"No," he replied instantly. Lowering his forearm, he looked at me. "Snacks?"

I nodded and ripped open the bag of Doritos. "I figured we deserve it."

He chuckled. "We do, I guess."

He patted the spot next to him where I'd been sitting earlier. I took a seat and held the bag of chips for him. He took one and dropped it in his mouth. "You heard all that?"

"Not all," I said. "Most of it, I guess."

He sighed. "I can't wait to be eighteen."

"Soon."

The only sound was the crunching of chips and the rain outside. It pelted the window, growing in intensity as the sky grew darker.

A stronger storm was coming. 

--- ---- ---

Hey guys!

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Next chapter on Sunday iA

Much love <3 <3 <3

M.B.