Hunt Me Down - Chapter 14: Chapter 14

Vallery’s POV
I could tell by his slight frown that he’d felt my weight as I sat on his bed. He made no attempt to open his eyes though.
“C’mon, bro, get up,” I placed my hand over his shoulder and shook him. “It’s six a.m.; time to jog.”
“Leave me alone, Val,” he pleaded with a grunt.
“No way. You are coming with me, big brother.” This time, I poked him in the ribs. He rubbed the spot with his eyes still closed then put his hand back under his pillow. He obviously had no intention of getting up but I had set a goal for today and going for a jog with him was part of the plan. I started poking him in random places on his torso until, at last, he opened one of his eyes to look at me.
“You can wake up at six a.m. on a Sunday but you can’t be bothered to wake up at seven during the rest of the week to go to school?”
“I love jogging, I hate school; simple as that,” I replied cheerfully.
He closed his eye and turned his head away. A minute passed before he spoke:
“You are not going to leave me alone, are you, Val?”
“Sorry, bro; I’ll always be here for you even if you don’t want me to.”
He sighed and sitting up in his bed, he rubbed his face.
“Give me ten minutes to get ready.”
I grinned and pecked him on the cheek before skipping downstairs. My brother, being the punctual person he was, took exactly ten minutes to join me. Then again, he didn’t have to do much to get ready; just brush his teeth put on a pair of loose pants and a t-shirt and maybe comb his hair. Guys had it so easy! No need to pluck your eyebrows, straighten or curl your hair, put on face cream or lip balm.
“You’ll thank me later, bro,” I commented, patting his stomach. “I’m all that is standing between you and the extra pounds.”
“I’m disciplined enough to lose weight on my own if I have too much of it,” he protested as we walked towards the front door. “Besides, it’s not like I need to keep myself in shape for anyone in particular.”
“What about for Hunter?” I teased.
“Very funny, Vallery; you know darn well I am still angry at that guy. He shouldn’t have cheered you on in taking that turtle. What if someone saw you?” He asked turning towards me and walking backwards onto the porch. “Josh isn’t exactly your fan, Val; I’m sure he’d love to spill the beans on you. But you just had to take that turtle and Hunter just had to tell you what a great idea it was. If I don’t see hunter Harris anytime soon, I’d be all too happy with that.”
“Hey.” My brother literally jumped at his voice. “Your sister invited me to jog with you two,” Hunter went on with a wide grin.
“Stop laughing,” Nat - who couldn’t take his eyes of our neighbor and had his back to me - muttered.
“I am not even smiling,” I lied.
“Yes, you are; I can feel you grinning,” he whispered.
My brother had been sulking ever since we’d come back from the party this Friday. Correction: he’d been sulking ever since we managed to sneak Raphael out of the house and into the taxi which brought us home. At first he was angry at me and my ‘irresponsible behavior’ - how was saving the poor creature irresponsible? - but then, since he could never stay mad at me for long, he took it out on Hunter; Hunter who was older and who should be an example; Hunter who not only should’ve not supported me, but should’ve tried to dissuade me from kidnapping Raph, as Nat had put it.
My twin had been avoiding Hunt all day yesterday, going as far as to spend the entire afternoon in his room since I’d invited our neighbor over. I didn’t enjoy having to choose whether to spend my time with my big brother or with my new friend so I’d decided to put the two in the same room. Well, on the same street since we were going jogging.
“You know, bro, you might be a genius when it comes to school, but when it comes to people, you’re absolutely an idiot.”
“You mean ‘you are an absolute idiot’,” he automatically corrected me.
“All hail the Grammar Nazi!” I mock-saluted aloud.
“Are we jogging today or what?” Hunter, who was now leaning on our cherry tree, asked and crossed his bare arms over his chest.
I really could not understand what Nat’s problem was; if a guy with Hunter’s physique was striving to get my attention, I’d be all too happy to give it to him.
“Come on,” I took lead and shepherded them on one of my favorite jogging routes. Nat immediately turned on his mp3 player, keeping a few feet behind us.
More like behind Hunter, I corrected in my mind.
“Is it just me or is Natty taking the opportunity to check me out from behind?” Hunt joked, the leisurely pace making it easy to hold a conversation.
“In your dreams, Blondie, in your dreams.”
He sighed dramatically and tried to look disappointed. Or maybe he tried to hide that he looked disappointed?
His face was such a combination of disillusion and amusement – two emotions that somewhat contradicted each other – that I could not make out which was real and which pretense.
“I was kind of hoping working out together is going to make you talk,” I admitted. “Well, that it’s going to make Nathaniel talk with you; you obviously have no problem talking to him.”
“Are you trying to get me and your brother together?”
“Not really, although I do think he needs to be around more people like us. He’s too follow-the-rules, abide-by-the-law… He needs to loosen up.”
“But if we get together you’ll be cool with it?”
“I don’t care who he is with as long as he’s happy and if he’s happy alone, then he should stay alone.”
*****
“Put your singlet back on; it’s October,” my brother managed to say while placing his hands over his knees and trying to catch his breath.
During our jog, Hunt and I argued which one of us could run faster so we’d decided to race on our way back. Surprisingly, Nat joined us; not surprisingly, he could barely breathe now. He wasn’t in a bad shape but he was nowhere near Hunter and me.
“It’s still warm though,” the blond replied, stretching. “Am I distracting you, Natty?”
“No,” my twin hurried to contradict. “You can walk around naked for all I care.”
“Okay.”
“No!” My brother jumped up from his crouching position. “Hunter, put your pants back on!”
“Why?” Our neighbor asked, stepping away from his pants and lowering the right edge of his boxer an inch. “I thought you didn’t mind, Natty. Do you mind, Val?”
“Definitely not,” I reassured him, my eyes running over his body. Just because he was gay, it didn’t mean I’d say no to the eye candy. “I can even turn on some music for you. Maybe a bit of Joe Cocker?”
“Are you two insane? Hunter, put your pants back on before someone sees you,” Nat begged but instead Hunter pulled the other side of his boxers an inch down.
Darn it; still not low enough to see the good stuff!
“It’s Sunday; most people are probably at church, Natty.”
“Which is somewhere you should be too,” someone rumbled and we looked at our neighbor’s yard to see Miss. Betty Harris erect on her porch with her large hands crossed over her large chest.
“Boy, put your clothes on and hurry and take a shower; I don’t want you to stink at church.”
“Yes, Aunty,” Hunt agreed with a sweet smile and swiftly put his jogging pants and singlet back on before striding towards their house. He gave Boot Camp Aunt a quick kiss on the cheek, making her bark out “Don’t fawn on me, boy!”. Coarse tone or not, she smiled before following her nephew inside.
“I should buy some books on Christianity,” my brother commented.
“Why?”
“I don’t know that much about it.”
“And what’s with the sudden interest, bro?”
“Most of our neighbors are Christians,” he looked away from me.
“I think you are taking an interest because of one neighbor in particular,” I noted. My brother didn’t reply and hurried to get inside.
“Just don’t turn into Mathew,” I pleaded, stepping into our hallway.
“I got a bit curious, Val; it’s not like I’m going to buy a bunch of crucifixes and pin one in each room,” he replied, still avoiding to my gaze.
Was he blushing again?
“Good, ‘cause I don’t think they are going to go well with my spell book and my broom, Nat.”
“Very funny, Val.”
“And speaking of support…” I caught up with him and wrapped my arm over his shoulders.
“Who is speaking of support?” He finally faced me, one of his eyebrows eleveted.
“I am now," I hugged him tighter. "How about you support me with a glimpse of your homework?”
“You know I’m not going to let you copy that,” he moved away from me and crossed his arms over his chest.
“Just a tiny glimpse on a couple of classes, bro,” I tried again although if it worked, it would be a first.
“A couple?” Nat’s eyes narrowed. “Have you done any of your homework?”
“No.”
“What were you doing yesterday?” He threw his arms in the air.
“Watching movies with Hunter, eating pizza with Hunter, talking about how hot the male actors were with Hunter. And before you say he’s a bad influence…”
“He encouraged you to steal a turtle and let you spend all day in front of the TV,” he pointed out.
“First, I’m not a child; second, Hunt isn’t responsible for my actions and has no obligation to constantly poke me to do chores and homework like you do; third – he probably wouldn’t have spent so much time at our place if he didn’t want to see you and make sure you are not still angry with him.”
“I doubt that was why he stayed so long,” he snorted.
“Do you honestly think he’d get up at six a.m. on a Sunday just to jog?”
My brother started playing with the hem of his t-shirt.
“You think I’m the reason he did that?” He asked after a short while.
“You have to ask? You really are absolutely an idiot, bro.”