Hunt Me Down - Chapter 10: Chapter 10

Nathaniel’s POV
We passed the church and most of the gravestones – some worn-out, others quite new – but we kept moving. Hunter did not slow down until we reached the very end of the cemetery – the least well-kept part so far, which was unusually crowded. Even before I saw them, I’d heard the two talking and laughing; once we neared, I realized they were from the same group of people my neighbor spent lunch with.
“You brought us company,” Lyn noted, patting Hunt on the back the same way Val had done earlier today. “And this time you brought us the cuter Reed as well; no offence, Val,” she added, checking me out, one of her hands darting towards her multicolored Mohawk.
“No offence? You are breaking my heart, love,” my sister jested.
“Try mending it with this; it fixes everything,” a boy coughed out, offering a joint.
“I don’t do that stuff,” my sister declined disgusted.
“Suit yourself,” he shrugged, taking another drag. “And you?” He then asked me.
“You’ll tempt neither of the Reeds with that, Colin,” Hunter replied for me.
“Only you’ll smoke that shit, big bro,” Lyn shook her head and took a drag from her normal cigarette.
It was then that I realized they shared the same brown eyes and judging by Mohawk girl’s eyebrows – which I guessed she had not dyed – the same shade of black hair.
“Hunt?” She offered him her smoke.
“Not in the church yard,” he replied and she raised her eyebrows.
“Whatever, dude. Val?” She then tried but my sister also refused her and so did I.
“Can’t you two offer me something I’d actually take?” My twin asked. “Maybe a beer or something?”
“There will be plenty of that if you come to the party,” Colin – who nobody had bothered to introduce me to – noted.
“And whose party is that?” She asked and I cringed. Not another one!
“Josh’s,” Lyn replied. “He’s a total douche but he hosts awesome parties with all sorts of alcohol and drinking games, college guys and girls coming over, cool music… He even hires a DJ sometimes and since his daddy’s got cash, we have to go totally berserk before the neighbors call the cops. His house is big and so is the yard so the neighbors aren’t that close to begin with. All in all – awesome place to have a party.”
“Why can’t I remember who this guy is?” Val rubbed her chin.
“Because you don’t hang around the jock society,” Hunt suggested.
“Oh, yeah. Well,” my twin clapped her hands. “Let’s not discriminate that caste by avoiding the party.”
“Vallery,” I pulled her away from them and spoke quietly: “Are you sure you want to go? I mean, you don’t even know the host and he doesn’t seem like the best of company. It’s probably going to be one of those loud-music-and-alcohol-saturated parties where total strangers rub into you before they barf their guts out or pick a pointless fight.”
“And your argument is supposed to discourage me because…?”
“How can you have fun like that?”
“Come with me and you’ll see.”
“I’d rather I didn’t.”
“So you’d prefer to stay at home and spend the night praying I don’t get in trouble?” She wrapped her arm around my shoulders. “I’ll tell you what, bro: you come with me to the party and you get to babysit me. Just think of all the activities you can try and prevent me from engaging in.”
“Are you attempting to use my responsible character against me and lure me to the party?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at her.
“Yes,” she replied with a nod of her head and a huge grin on her face. “And judging by your pained expression, I’d say it’s working.”
“Fine,” I gave up, “I’ll come. But you have to promise me not to get into any fights, Val.”
“We’ll see how the night will turn out,” she shrugged and walked back towards Hunter and the others.
“Vallery…”
“All I can promise you, Nat, is to try not to start a fight; but if anyone else delivers the first blow… Well, what am I supposed to do? Just stand there like a punching bag?”
I hated to admit it but my sister had a point; self-defense was the only time I approved of violence.
“We are coming,” Val informed the trio. “I want to have some fun and Nat is babysitting.”
“Cool,” Lyn smirked. “Then he can be our designated driver.”
“I can’t drive.”
“The Hell not, man?” Colin perked up. “Every guy should own a ride and know how to ride it.”
“And every gal,” his sister added.
“The Hell with that! Women belong in the kitchen or in the bedroom. The only time they should be in a car is when they are givin’ you some at the back seat.”
“Oh, yeah!” His sister jumped off the gravestone she’d used as a chair and threw her cigarette on the ground; I hurried to step on it before it set any of the dry grass and leaves ablaze. “How about I prepare you a knuckle sandwich, bro? Would you still think all women belong in the kitchen?”
Lyn was now standing in front of her sibling, towering a good few inches above him due to her high-heeled boots. Her chin tilted upward, she looked at him with such rage in her eyes I couldn’t help but flinch and take a step back. Her brother attempted to look as if he wasn’t shaking in his shoes and jerked his hand towards his jaw where a purple bruise contrasted with his unhealthy, yellow skin.
Could the wound be his sister’s doing?
I’d already seen her pull a girl’s hair and scratch her face so I wouldn’t put it past her.
“Well? Will ya?” She snarled.
“I mean other girls, Lyn, not you,” he muttered, wrapping his arms around his torso.
“Oh, you can bet your junkie ass you do!”
I jumped a little as my phone signaled a text.
We are closing the stands and the Johnsons offered us a ride. Will you grab your sister and go wait for us next to their car, sweetie? Love, mom
“Val, we are leaving,” I said, putting my phone back in my pocket.
“See you guys later,” my sister hugged Hunt and – to my disappointment – Lyn before we started walking towards the church.
“Mohawk girl scares me, Val,” I admitted quietly.
“She’s a bit of a feminist so she lights up easily when it comes to women in the kitchen,” she explained with a shrug.
“But I’ve seen her like that before,” I commented. “In school, she was fighting with another girl. Did that other girl also say women belong into the kitchen?”
“Skinny, blonde with colorful streaks in her hair?” I nodded at the description of Lyn’s adversary. “That’s her best friend; it’s how the two of them bond.”
“And you approve of this?” I stopped to grab her by the hand and make her face me.
“Approve? No.” She shook her head. “But I don’t care; it’s none of my business.”
She turned around but made only a single step before she froze.
“Vallery? Nathaniel?” Someone questioned from our left. “It’s so good to see you in the house of God.” Matthew’s surprise turned into a victorious smile as if our presence here was his doing.
“We are only in his yard,” Val justified herself using Hunter’s words.
“It is still a step in the right direction, Vallery Reed,” the blonde woman who was accompanying Mat smiled; at least this time it was just the two of them.
“How do you know my name?” My twin’s eyes widened and she stepped closer to me.
“With their Christian mumbo-jumbo,” I jested quietly so only she could hear but her glare told me this wasn’t a time for jokes.
“Oh, our Matthew has been telling the family a lot about you,” the woman said, still smiling.
“You are going to force me to get baptized, aren’t you?”
“Force you?” The woman laughed discreetly. “You can’t force God into anyone, my dear. One has to accept His glory and might with an open heart…”
The cracking of flames followed by ‘Satan’s calling’ and a cackle cut her off and made her grab her offspring, pulling him back with her. Val barely managed to contain her own chuckle at the sight of their startles faces as she swiped the screen of her phone, causing the ringtone to halt.
“What?” My sibling asked almost innocently. “Don’t I get some brownie points for ignoring a call from Satan?”
“The salvation of your soul is not something to joke about, Vallery Reed!” Mat’s mom recited what I was starting to believe was their family motto; she had straightened up, her jaw clenched, no signs left of her angelic smile. “Come on, Matthew, let’s go.”
The boy shook his head disappointedly and sighed heavily as he turned around and followed her.
“What did Aunt Sarah want?” I asked just as I heard footsteps nearby.
“Aunt Sarah?” Hunter repeated as a question.
“Great Aunt Sarah, actually,” I clarified. “Why aren’t you with Lyn and Colin?”
“I missed you, Natty,” he winked and nudged me with his elbow.
“So what did she want?” I asked again, not allowing him more time to flirt.
“How am I supposed to know?” Val shrugged. “I hung up on her, didn’t I?”
“You what?” I shouted.
“Oh, relax; what’s the worst that she could do to us? Besides, she was probably calling to threaten us with another visit; she still hasn’t seen our newest house,” she guessed and the three of us began walking towards the Johnsons’ car.
“Threaten you?” Hunt’s head tilted to the left. “Who is this aunt of yours?”
“The Devil reincarnated,” Val replied. “She lives to ruin people’s lives and self-esteem, making them feel like the lowest of the low. She targets me in particular which is probably why she chose to bug me with a call instead of Nat or mom. Also, she somewhat resembles Satan. Not the skinny one though; I mean a really fat Satan with a moustache instead of a goatee. When she’s angry, she gets the same ruby complexion as Satan himself with the added feature of spit dripping down her chins… all three of them…”
“She’s exaggerating,” I told Hunter.
“She does spit when she’s angry,” my twin protested. “Not intentionally, but she clenches her jaw and shouts and spit sprays through her teeth. Then our suck-up of a cousin goes and offers her a handkerchief… He’s only putting up with her because she’s loaded and has no children so he hopes he’ll get to inherit her house and money. Knowing her, she’d leave all of them to her pooping machine; what does she feed that rat with anyways?”
“It’s a dog, Vallery, not a rat,” I corrected.
“Let’s agree to disagree on this one, shall we, bro?”
I was just about to tell her that rats don’t bark and Poofie – our Great Aunt’s Border Terrier, did when the sight of a familiar face made me smile. Irene was walking alone but paused as she saw us.
“Didn’t expect to see you of all people here,” she noted to Vallery. “Then again, there’s a lot of food, cookies included.”
“I love me my biscuits,” Val grinned.
Irene’s gaze flew past Hunter before settling on me.
“And you? Did you get tempted by the food as well?” She asked, placing a strand of her dark brown hair behind her ear.
“Somewhat. Is your family around?”
“Who do you think opened the Spanish food stand?”
“There is a Spanish food stand?”
How had we missed that?
“There was,” she corrected. “Everyone’s living now.”
“Oh,” I exclaimed somewhat disappointed. I had not had a decent Spanish meal in a while and I was found of those. “Are you going to the party next week?” I asked, hoping she’d say yes.
“I’m not really the partying type,” she shook her head and frowned. “All those drunken strangers rubbing themselves against you… Not my thing.”
“That’s exactly what I said!” I laughed.
“So you are not going either?”
“He’ll come to babysit me,” Val clarified.
“And I was hoping you’d also be there, Irene.”
“You were?” Her hand darted upwards to fix her hair again.
“Yes, I was hoping there’d be someone I’d actually enjoy spending time with,” I admitted.
“Well,” she bit her lip. “I might be able to come. It’s on Friday and that’s a busy night at the restaurant but maybe I can switch shifts or something. Would you like that?”
“Yes, that would be great. If it’s not too much trouble for you,” I added.
“Well, we’ll see. I have to go now so I’ll see you at the party, maybe.”
“We will see each other at school before that,” I reminded her.
“Yeah, but that’s… at school,” she concluded and I furrowed my eyebrows. “I mean, it’s different. I’ll go now,” she shot out and waved goodbye as she ran towards what I assumed was her car.
“That was a really lousy way to ask her out, Nathaniel,” Hunter noted.
“I wasn’t asking her out,” I protested.
“You kind of did. At least it looked like she took it as if you invited her to the party.”
“But I wasn’t…” He cut me off, turning to my sister:
“Val, what would you call what Natty here just did?”
“Don’t call me ‘Natty’, Hunt...”
“I call it the non-commitment invitation.” My sister announced all business-like. “You ask someone without actually asking them so if you hook up with another person, you can always use ‘we didn’t have anything set so I didn’t stand you up’. Basically, Nat, she’s your spare in case you don’t find anyone hotter and more accessible at the party.”
“That’s not why I invited her,” I insisted.
“So you admit that you invited her,” Hunt concluded.
“I… You two are just trying to confuse me!”
I wished to walk faster and leave them behind but we had already reached our destination – the Johnsons’ car. I leaned my back on the smooth dark surface, hands over my chest, and tried to come up with a plan about how to discretely check if Irene took my question as an invitation. In any case, I needed to make sure she didn’t; I’d be leading her on otherwise. I couldn’t date her.
But why not?
We had a lot in common, wouldn’t we be comfortable together?
I shook my head.
I didn’t feel anything towards her, although she did make me smile a lot. Okay, maybe there was a tinge of a potential relationship there but would the two of us have the time to act on it before my family moved away again?
Would I have the time to act on any kind of relationship be it with her or anyone else?
My eyes darted towards Hunter who was looking at me with his head tilted to the side again. He was trying to find out what was in my head, probably guessing that it had something to do with what he’d said to me.
I sighed and straightened up before looking away, determined that I was not going to give him the satisfaction of finding out for sure that his words had gotten to me once more.