Take A Walk (A Hunter Hayes Fanfiction, Book 5 of The Hardships Saga)

Chapter Six

❝abstinence (pronounced ˈabstɪnəns or ab-stuh-nuh ns), noun
the practice of restraining oneself from indulging in something, typically alcohol or sex.❞

Three weeks passed.

Phoenix came out of his room eventually, but still barely spoke to anyone. A word of conversation was difficult to come by, and his smile was nonexistent. Robin worked as hard as she could in school, and came home having scraped an A-, something Ryan was extremely proud of her for. Spencer began exploring the wide world of food, and constantly sat with Ryan in the kitchen, helping her cook and scrutinising her methods and reasoning.

Hunter and Ryan were... on and off, to say the least. Some nights, they'd almost kiss again, before Ryan pulled away in quiet dissent, and other nights they'd just be the best of friends, falling asleep together after talking until three am about everything and anything. She was a better best friend than Lilly had ever been.

There was a knock on the day that Hunter had off, and he went to open it. "Hi," said Cassie.

Hunter opened the door wider, inviting her in, and said, "You got Elle's message?"

She nodded. "Yeah. You have the results?"

"I haven't opened them yet, but yes, I do."

There was a loud crash from the kitchen, and Hunter whipped around. "Spencer?" he called.

"Nothing! I didn't break it!"

He laughed slightly. "We're making cookies," explained Hunter. "It's only Spence and I home, and I read him 'Green Eggs and Ham', so he wanted to make green cookies with green milk."

"You guys cook together?"

"He really loves cooking, so we encourage him however we can, provided we teach him healthy foods, too, and not just unhealthy." He smiled. "Would you like to join us?"

"Sure," she said. She looked around at the walls, and said, "I googled some stuff about you two."

"Us two?"

"You and Lilly."

"Right."

"It's... interesting."

"Yeah? How so?"

"You seemed to really love each other."

"We did," said Hunter. "Just around here."

They rounded the corner, and Spencer smiled brightly. "Hi! What's your name? I'm Spence."

"Hey, Spence," she responded. "I'm Cassie. It's nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you, too! You're pretty. You look like Robin, a bit." He went back to mixing the dough, humming cheerfully to himself.

"Robin was my first daughter with Ryan," said Hunter, clarifying. "Spencer was the secondborn, and Red is our third."

"Where's Elle?"

"She's resting. Having a bad day with her leukemia."

"The poor thing."

"She prefers to be alone or with Drew when she's in pain, so she's alone now."

Cassie swallowed. "I, um... yeah. I googled more about Lilly, and... we're similar in looks, that's for sure."

"That's why I was so shocked when I saw you in that cafe," said Hunter. "You looked a lot like her that day, and it threw me off guard."

"Right," she mumbled.