The Hunter's Angel

Ace's

If I had to copy down one more equation, I was actually going to lose my mind. 

Listening to my old, bearded professor drone on about statistics for the last hour was proving to be a great method for falling asleep. Learning? Not so much. 

"Who the fuck invented math?" Kat whispered in my ear, clearly sharing my hatred for the subject. 

Huffing out an exhausted sigh, I grumbled, "No idea, but he deserves a special place in hell."

Kat laughed under her breath, careful to not draw the professor's attention. We were sitting in the back row, but the man had eagle eyes and enjoyed calling out students for being distracted.  

"You know what would make up for this shitty class?" she murmured with a small grin. 

"Do enlighten me." Anything sounded better than this. 

"Drinks with Liam tonight at Ace's." 

Ace's was a trendy bar not too far from campus, where a lot of college students frequented. Damn if a night out didn't sound good after this torturous lesson. 

"Say less babe. You had me at drinks," I answered with a wink. 

Kat's grin grew and she pulled out her phone to text Liam. "Does 8:00 work?" 

"I get off at 5:00 so that should be perfect." 

I had my internship at Hawthorne Media right after class, but three hours was ample time to get ready for the night. 

"All right, that should cover it for today," the professor announced from the front of the lecture hall. "We'll pick up where we left off on Wednesday. Don't forget we have a quiz next week."

"Fucking great," Kat and I both mumbled at the same time, laughing at our shared annoyance as we struggled through the throng of students leaving. 

Once we made it to the courtyard, Kat hugged me goodbye. I was done for the day, but she still had a psychology lecture to attend. 

"See you tonight babe," she said. 

"Can't wait," I raved, waiting for her to head off before walking towards the parking lot. 

Pressing my keys, I listened for the distant beep of my car. I had a habit of forgetting where I parked. 

Finally locating my baby, I slid inside and tossed my bag on the passenger seat, starting her up. The purr of the engine made me forget momentarily how awful the past hour had been, and I smiled in relief.                                                                                 

Five minutes into the drive, I decided to call my mom and catch up. I usually talked to her several times throughout the week, but I had been so busy and overwhelmed with Hunter that I completely forgot. 

She answered on the first ring. "Hi, honey! How are you doing?" Her warm voice always managed to brighten my day. 

"I'm good, just wanted to check in and see how you were." 

"You're so sweet hun," she buzzed graciously. "All great over here, just missing my babies." 

I chuckled. "Mom, we're not babies anymore." 

She loved to pretend that my sister and I were still kids, even though Ariana and I were both in our 20's. 

She sighed. "You're always gonna be my babies, even when you're 50 with kids."