The Fairest of All

The Hunter

TAP. TAP.

    Chloe's eyes slowly opened. It was 10 PM at night and she had fallen asleep on top of her homework that she laid out on the bed. She had focused almost obsessively on her school work to avoid thinking about the horrible treatment she'd endured that day.

   TAP. TAP.

    Chloe knew that sound. She turned her head quickly to her window. Prince was standing there, under the gleam of the night sky. No, he had avoided her in school that whole day, now he wanted to show up?

    She approached the window but didn't unlatch it. She breathed onto the glass until it fogged up and with her fingertip, she wrote out: GO AWAY.

    Prince's features looked determined. He shook his head. He wasn't going to budge unless she opened the doors for him. She wanted to tell him to stay out there and to freeze for all she cared, but the problem was she did care. That was her nature, she cared too much.

    She convinced herself that she'd just let him in for ten minutes and then make him leave.

    Chloe unlocked the window and Prince shivered his way into her room. She gently closed the door and kept her voice low. The walls were much thinner than she had realized, so she didn't want to risk any of the other girls who might still be awake hearing her.

    "You have ten minutes. Just ten, then you go," she said sternly.

    "I can work with that." Prince tugged at the thick wool scarf around his neck. "I know you think I was being cold towards you today, but I had to put on an act. If people knew that it was me you were with they'd have done a lot worse towards you than just talking about you behind your back."

    Chloe was tired of this. "But they did do worse, Prince. I got ice water dumped on me today. And I think you should have let people know and told them the truth. Because whoever took the picture felt kind enough to protect your image, they just wanted to hurt mine."

    "Me telling the truth would have been the worst thing to do. Right now, people are guessing on who you were speaking to, the interest will die down in a week. If they knew it was me, they'd look to destroy you for the rest of the school year." Prince explained his way of thinking, but to Chloe, it just sounded like a bunch of excuses.

    He continued with, "I know you don't like secrets, and I'm not trying to make more secrets for you. I just want you to be safe. Being seen with me, or Dominic doesn't keep you safe—"

    "Whoa, wait," Chloe said with her handheld up to stop him before he could say anything else. "Dominic is okay being seen with me. Dominic has helped me since the first day I arrived here. You don't get to speak for him."

    Prince was making that same expression he did before when she mentioned Dominic. "Chloe, he is my friend, but he comes from a troubled past. The past six months he's become obsessed with the idea that your step-mother is his biological mother. He's only getting close to you for information about her. That day he hung out with us in NYC, the reason he showed up was that he knew you were her new step-daughter."

    Chloe still felt defensive. "I believe him, Prince. You're his friend, you should believe him too. Is this what you talked to him about when you went to visit him?"

    Prince didn't say anything for two breaths. He then nodded once. "I also had something else to tell him. After the day we all hung out in New York, I had a talk with Dominic. I asked him what he thought about you, and he said you seemed sad, lonely, and not his type. He asked me the same question and I told him that if he was right and by some chance, you ended up here, I wanted to know you better because . . . I'm just going to go ahead and say it. I like you, Chloe."