Rescue ▶▶A Hunter Hayes Faniction◀◀

NINE

Bright and early in the morning on Saturday, Haley and I leave the house and spend the whole morning in the woods. She’s taking pictures the entire time, occasionally pointing the camera at me. I try to stay natural as she snaps pictures of me; she constantly has told me that natural is better than planned. Which is true. She has laid out all her pictures of me before, and I could easily point out which ones were staged and which were not. I’ve learned to just act like I’m alone.

Haley is in her element. She’s completely immersed in her art right now, standing and crawling in awkward positions and angles just to snap a picture. She sticks her tongue out as she focuses.

After a while, when Haley says that she’s done, we walk back to the house. When we walk through the door we hear Dad cursing from a different room. I grip onto Haley’s hand.

Dad bounds into the room, raging. “Where were you two? Did you forget about your chores?!”

I suddenly remember that we were supposed to make him lunch. A deep pit swirls in the bottom of my stomach.

Dad’s eyes drop to the camera in Haley’s hand. In one swift movement, he snatches it out of her grasp and chucks it against the wall. It shatters in a deafening smash. Haley lets out a strangled cry beside me, unlatching our connected hands and lunging towards the ruined camera pieces scattered on the floor. Before she reaches it, Dad’s hand grips around her arm, shoving her to the ground harshly. I immediately jump in between the two.

Dad’s hand shoots forward and he slaps me across the face. “You’re such a pathetic excuse of a daughter,” he hisses.

Without thinking I snap, “You’re no better at being a dad!”

The room goes deathly silent. Fear grips my stomach.

What did I just say?

In a flash, Dad’s fist connects with my cheek. Hard. I’m knocked off my feet and hit the hard ground with a loud thump next to Haley. The air is knocked out of me, but before I can breathe again, Dad’s foot connects with my ribs. I gasp for air in pain.

Grabbing a vase, Dad throws it at me, but in a split second Haley lunges in front of my body. The bottle breaks against her entire upper and forearm, blood immediately seeping through the new cuts across her skin. I take her arm and lock eyes with her. Tears of pain are springing up in hers.

Dad growls in anger and takes ahold of an empty beer bottle. I quickly take Haley’s hand and yank her out of the way as he catapults it. It hits the wall a meter away from where we are now, which is exactly where we were just a second ago.

I don’t waste any time in pulling Haley outside the house with me, running down the lane. Haley is clutching her arm to her chest tightly the entire time we run.

I glance down at my little sister. “That was so stupid of you.”

She glares at me. “Could you blame me? I didn’t want to see you get hurt again.”

After we enter town, Haley gives me a confused look. “Where are we going?”

“A friend’s house.”

-

I knock on the door twice before Hunter opens it. He smiles, but it falters a bit when he sees Haley at my side, tears staining her cheeks and blood dripping off her arm. His eyes scan my face, which is undoubtedly starting to bruise.

“Are y’all okay? What happened?”

I ignore his question and ask, “Can we borrow your bathroom? Please?”

Hunter opens the door wider and steps out of the way. “Sure.” I put my hand onto the small of Haley’s back and lightly push her so that she walks in front of me, following behind Hunter as he leads us to his bathroom. It’s pretty small compared to ours at home, but it’s still a fully functional bathroom. I sit Haley down onto the edge of the bathtub and hold out her arm so I can better examine it. I hear Hunter exit the room, but he comes back after a few seconds.