Hunt Me Down {boyxboy} ✓

Chapter 41

A/N: Are you a writer who wants feedback and more exposure for your work? You can get that by entering the short story challenge I posted Sunday morning in The Contests Book. A link to it will be in the comments :)

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Vallery’s POV

My nose wrinkled when my mother stirred the stew, the smell of onions hitting me hard; she’d put way too many in it this time. She usually followed recipes to a t, but she was distracted today and understandably so.

It was noon and my brother had yet to come down. He’d skipped breakfast and was now on his way of skipping lunch. Our parents thought he had an upset stomach – mom blamed the food at the Johnson’s for that – but I knew the truth: he hadn’t gotten over what had happened last night at the party.

Even though I was aware that he needed time to compose himself, I was trying to come up with ideas to distract him. The first one was to ask Raiden to come over; I would even borrow money to pay for his ticket if he could not afford it. The redhead had approved of that plan, minus the me paying part. The problem was the timing: Nat would wish to be alone for the next few days and after that came Christmas – a family holiday which Rai should celebrate with his mother and father. He could, of course, come in the space after Boxing Day and before New Year, but would that be too late?
How long were my parents going to buy the stomach bug excuse?

If Nathaniel didn’t want to talk to them, it would be up to me to come up with excuses for him. I sighed, thinking I could really use the backup. Yet I felt that asking Raiden to fly over here because of my family, abandoning his own on Christmas was too much, so in the end, I was on my own.

I definitely couldn’t ask Hunter for help, not after last night. He would still be angry and who could blame him for that?

As much as I loved my brother, he was at fault. I wasn’t mad at him about it; I sympathized with him, but of all the times he could’ve acted on impulse, did it have to be now?

I couldn’t believe that I was the one calling him unreasonable – I’ve messed up so many times that I couldn’t even count that high – but I was so used to him being the calm and rational one that if I had not seen the boys’ reactions last evening, I’d think Hunt was pulling my leg when he told me what had taken place.

This really wasn’t like Nat; he always thought of others first, he always calculated the outcome of his decisions… Yet he’d done something in haste and as a result our friend was hurt.

Maybe I had underestimated Hunter’s influence over him; maybe it was wrong of me to try and get them together; maybe we wouldn’t be in this situation, if I spent more time with Nathaniel and talked to him about what he may be feeling towards our neighbor instead of tease him about it.

Was this partially my fault?

Was I pushing my twin too far?

The Vegas thing had definitely gone too far…

“Ruined; completely ruined!” My mother grumbled, throwing the large spoon she used for stirring in the sink. “Now what will your brother eat? I made this especially for his upset tummy but I can’t serve him this; it reeks of onions.”

I got off the stool and walked out of the kitchen without replying. The beginning of her tirade – I knew my mother; this was just the beginning – was rhetorical to start with. Plus, it wasn’t my twin’s tummy that was upset; it was Nathaniel himself.