Wingless and Beautiful

Chapter 9

“Come over here so I can examine your face with my hands and see deeper into your soul than a sighted person ever could.”  - The Fault in Our Stars, coming to theatres this Friday

Chapter Nine

Friday night, Denise insisted that I sleepover her house.  She said she’s been my best friend for more than a year and I have never even met her family.  I didn’t want to go but she was begging, almost crying even.  She even spoke to Meredith about it.  And since I didn’t want Meredith to further inquire what the big deal was, why I could not sleepover Denise’s house, I decided to be brave about it.  After all, Denise and Hunter weren’t really close.  And she has a big house.  If I stay in Denise’s bedroom, I should be okay.

When Chaise picked me up that night, he asked me about it.

“So you’re going to spend the night under one roof with Mr. Short Temper?”

“Huh?”  I stared at him blankly.

“Hunter Vaughn.  He lives with Denise, right?”

“Oh.”  Was all I could say.  I didn’t want to talk about Hunter, I didn’t even want to remember him.  Because if I do… I would only remember the last time he looked at me… with contempt, disgust... like he was on the verge of puking.  I wanted to preserve Hunter’s memory in my mind.  The one that was gentle, sweet… wonderful.

“If he so much as insults you, you would tell me, right?”

No.  But I nodded slightly.

“Mr. Smarty Pants thought he was above everybody else.”  He murmured. 

Chaise took me to Denise’s place instead of mine.  “I’ll pick you up tomorrow.”  He said.  “Remember, my sister?”

I smiled at him.  “I remember.”

Chaise stared at me for a moment and then he looked down at my pendant again.  He frowned slightly.  “He’s still in, huh.”  He murmured.

I bit my lip but did not respond.  Right now… if the choice was up to me, I’d get Hunter out of my heart and try to move on.  But sometimes, you can’t make decisions in love.  Your heart makes all those stupid decisions for you.  And I still love Hunter no matter if he doesn’t love me anymore… no matter if he doesn’t want anything to do with me anymore.

I stared up at Chaise.  “I need to go.” 

He nodded slightly and I went down from the car.  I walked towards Denise front door.  Before I reach the front steps, I stared up and saw Hunter.  He was standing in a balcony two floors above me.  He was wearing nothing but a pair of jeans, his abs were exposed to my view.  He was holding a bottle of beer in one hand.  He was looking down at me, watching me.  His brow was raised and I thought he didn’t look too pleased.  But I was used to that by now.  It was his constant reaction to me since he came back. He always looked annoyed with me… well, not that he was the first one.  There were plenty of them at school.

Hunter Vaughn is slowly entering my “Ignore List”.  I wish I could also ignore this throbbing pain inside my chest every time I see the angry look on his face when he looks at me.

I took a deep breath and rang the bell.  I looked back and saw that Chaise has not yet gone away.  He was waiting for me to go inside the house.  Of course, like a true Guardian Angel he was, he was waiting for me to be safely inside.

Denise was ecstatic when she saw me.  Her house was massive.  The living room alone was twice the size of my entire house.  The ceilings were high and they were adorned with beautiful crystal chandeliers.