“Eh.” Hunter shrugs almost noncommittally. “We were, but things have been a little weird since her mom walked in on us in bed together.”
My eyes widen and I feel the color drain from my face. I can feel the surprise in the guys at the table, but Hunter is as casual as can be as he decimates my reputation.
“You two…?” his one friend trails off.
Poplowski doesn’t dither. “You’ve been banging the nerd?”
My chest starts to tighten as Hunter shows his pearly whites, smirking across the table. “Why else would I be hanging out with her?”
“Aw, shit,” one of his friends says before busting up laughing.
I can’t breathe.
Hunter looks back at me, the malice in his eyes no longer camouflaged or confusing. He hates me, and he wants me to know it. “I told you it’s over, Riley. Don’t make it harder on yourself than it has to be.”
His friends laugh at me—the stage five clinger who apparently can’t let go after the prince of assholes took my virginity and got caught in my bed the next morning.
I cannot believe he just did that. My whole body feels shaky, and my stomach is sick. Not because everyone’s laughing at me now, not because of the lewd way Mark looks at me after hearing I put out, but because Hunter did this to me. He knew exactly what he was doing. He’s punishing me, just like he punished his old best friend for whatever he must have done to earn Hunter’s wrath.
I feel like I’m going to be sick and I can’t face further embarrassment right now, so I turn on my heel and make my way out of the cafeteria as quickly as I can without running.
My insides are so restless and unsettled. I can’t go back in there. I can’t sit through the class after recess, knowing by then the juicy gossip he just created will have spread and everyone who isn’t talking about him will be talking about me.
Before I entirely know what I’m doing, I head to my locker, collect all my things, and flee the building.
I want to walk straight home so I can curl up alone in my bed, but I don’t. Mom hasn’t left for work yet, so she’d want to know why I’m home from school early. I can’t explain, because I can’t tell her what just happened.
I stop at the bridge instead. I sit down and dangle my feet over the edge, staring down at the water until I feel calm again.
After a little time passes, I open my backpack and take out my homework. I might as well get started on it. Maybe by the time I finish, Mom will be gone and I can walk the rest of the way home.
I get carried away in my work. It’s a great escape, but more time passes than I intended. I don’t realize it until I hear footsteps on the bridge. Until they stop and Hunter laughs a little.
“Wow. You’re still here after all that.”
I start to put my things back in my book bag, casting him a guarded look over my shoulder. “I’m not here for you. I didn’t realize school had already let out. I was just killing time until I could go home.”
“Maybe you should suck my dick first since everyone thinks you have been anyway,” he says, apparently amused by the destruction he caused.
I don’t bother to dignify that with a response. “Did that make you feel better? You completely ruined my reputation. Every single person we go to school with will have heard about this by the time I get to school tomorrow.”
“I know. But hey, this makes me look better than the other things they could be saying about me,” he states.
I shake my head, zipping my bag back up and standing. “That is without question the most selfish statement I have ever heard.”
“You brought it on yourself,” he says, completely remorseless. “All you had to do was keep your mouth shut, Riley. All you had to do was keep your word.”
Dropping my backpack and pivoting angrily, I fling back, “I was afraid he’d kill you, Hunter. I was terrified that the next time you disappeared, it would be for good. I was trying to protect you.”
I’m so overcome with hurt and anger that I can’t keep my composure, but Hunter stands there looking cool and unaffected as he tucks his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “I didn’t need your protection.”
I draw a shuddering breath, angry at my own emotions for being so out of control. “What I did may have hurt you, but it wasn’t malicious. What you did today… that was just cruel.”
Hunter shrugs. “Never claimed to be a nice guy.”
I shake my head, looking down at the footbridge. “Well, not like you care, but for the record? I’m extremely disappointed in you.”
I expect him to shoot back something cruel at worst, casually indifferent at best, but he falls silent. The silence lasts for so long that I finally look up at him.
He’s looking off at the woods that lead to his house. “Well, you won’t have to be disappointed for very long,” he tells me, his tone more grounded, but a little hollow. Not hollow like he doesn’t care, but… something else. Something more serious.
I shouldn’t care. After what he just did to intentionally hurt me, I should walk away without another word, but it’s not in my nature. “What do you mean?”
“All the shit you kicked up caused a lot of trouble for my mom.”
I cock my head, glancing past him and narrowing my eyes in consideration. “I think it was allowing her husband to beat the shit out of you that caused trouble for your mom, but… go on.”
“Apparently, while my existence wasn’t enough of a draw for my father to ever come here, a potential public scandal is.”
I straighten at the mention of his father. I thought the girls in history were just peddling slush from the gossip mill. I didn’t think there was any truth to it. “Your dad’s here? I thought you guys didn’t even talk.”
“We don’t,” he says, bending to pick up an errant stick on the bridge, then throwing it as hard as he can into the woods. “We’re strangers, but his name’s on my birth certificate. I guess he’s some kind of big deal, and there’s already been so much scandal in his family that he won’t tolerate a bastard in America who ends up a ward of the state because his mom’s been ruled an unfit parent until she completes some bullshit parenting classes.”
“In America?” I question, eyes wide.
Hunter finally looks at me. “He’s European.”
“Don’t tell me he lives in a chateau in Paris,” I say, thinking of the gossip from earlier.
Hunter shakes his head. “Not a chateau, but he does have an apartment there. A place in Geneva, too, where his wife—who hates me—and two daughters—who don’t even know I exist—live in their family home. I guess my dad works in Italy though, so he has a house in Umbria where they won’t have to deal with me on the regular. Apparently… I’m being shipped off to Italy.”
My heart sinks and I feel a little light on my feet. “What?”
He clears his throat and nods, looking down at the footbridge. “Don’t speak a word of Italian so I’m not sure how that’s gonna work, but… I guess I’ll learn.”
“But… your mom only has to take parenting classes, right? And keep Dennis away. And then she can still parent you. Can’t she explain that to him? Why would he take you all the way to Italy—?”