Rescued (Forever 5)

There was a brief silence on the other line. I was right. “Yeah,” she said. “You need to put Hunter on the phone right now.”

Her tone was irritating. Who the hell did she think she was to call me and start giving me orders? “How did you get my number? Why are you calling?”

She sighed loudly, then continued in a condescending tone. “Hunter might die if he doesn’t get a test he skipped out on.”

My stomach dropped and I felt my pulse pounding in my ears. What the f**k? Was she lying? Why would she lie about something like this?

“. . . I’m trying to get him to take it. Are you f**king listening? Is he there?”

“What?” I asked, my voice shaky. “A test?”

“At the hospital, yes. I was there with him after he got knocked out. The doctor told him he had to take this test at the end of the week to make sure his MS didn’t start to get worse. They said worst-case scenario, he could die. Like maybe in a few months.”

“How do you know he didn’t take it?”

“Is he there or not?”

I closed my eyes. “Yes, he’s here.”

“Good, I knew he’d go chasing you after you ditched him again,” she said, speaking quickly. The pattern on the wallpaper was starting to look like it was moving, and my breath came in short bursts. “I was worried he would drop everything and go after you. Looks like I was right. I tried texting him but he didn’t respond. Classic Hunter, avoiding a test like this. He has multiple sclerosis by the way. I don’t know if he’s told you yet.”

I bit my lip, trying to steady myself. Ada’s petty insults weren’t worth getting upset over, but how could Hunter have hidden this from me? Why was he skipping out on this test? It sounded like it could be something serious. Despite her obnoxious tone, even Ada wouldn’t lie about something like this.

“I also tried calling him and left messages, because, you know, I really wanted to talk to him and was worried that he had just disappeared. Well, that and I’m not an emo, callous bitch.”

That was enough. Maybe Ada really did care about Hunter’s well-being but I didn’t deserve her bullshit. I opened my mouth to say something back, but closed it and took a deep breath to steady myself. Arguing with Ada wasn’t worth my breath.

“He did tell me he has MS,” I said, my voice steady. “Is there anything else I should ask him about, or will he know what I mean when I ask him about the test?”

“Put him on the phone.”

I shook my head even though she wasn’t there. “If he wants to talk to you, he has his own phone.”

She let out a frustrated sigh. “I need to talk to Hunter. Don’t be jealous that I’m the only one who can convince him to stop being a f**king baby.”

Ada could insult me all she wanted, but hearing her talk about Hunter like that, when he was the one who had to deal with so much, made me furious.

“I’d reach through this phone and slap you right now, but that would be child abuse. Anything else?”

“Put him on the phone you stupid f**king whore!"

“Thank you for calling,” I said sweetly. “Goodbye.”

I held the phone away from my face but I could still hear Ada yelling profanities at me over it. Then I hung up.

Chapter Twelve

TALK

I looked at my phone and contemplated what to do next, putting Ada out of my mind. I had to focus Hunter right now. My face felt hot. Why wouldn’t he take this test? How could he hide it from me? If Ada hadn’t called, I would have never known about it. It was hard to believe. After we’d had that heart to heart, and he’d told me he wouldn’t hide anything like that from me again, here we were. Again. The more I thought about it, the angrier I got.

I shook my head and walked back into the living room, feeling Hunter’s gaze on me as I came in and sat on the couch. He searched my face, but I did my best to wipe any expression away, burying my frustration.

“Did you guys finish the apple slices?” I asked.

I was looking at Hunter, but it was Billy who answered. “There’s still a couple left,” he said. Peanut butter clung to the edges of his mouth. “Do you want some?”

I shook my head in answer as my aunt came into the room. “How are my boys doing?” she asked.

“Good,” they answered, nearly in unison.

“Billy, come here and let me wipe your mouth.”

“Mommm,” he cried. But he stomped over obediently.

I looked at Hunter and felt a jolt as we locked eyes, then looked away quickly. Even though I wanted to yell my voice hoarse at him, I knew it wasn’t the right thing to do.

Why had Hunter not taken the test? Was it because he was so concerned about my well-being that he couldn’t stay in Studsen? No, that didn’t seem right. After the first night he came here, he had plenty of time. Even with him working on the dining room for Aunt Caroline, he would have had time to slip out to go to a clinic in Indiana if he had wanted to.

No, it had to be something else. I sat on the couch, my emotions in turmoil as I tried to figure it out.

It was only when I thought back to the night he let me help him with his treatment shot that I realized what it was. My heart clutched in pain at the realization.

He must be scared.

It was hard for me to imagine how scary it was to deal with something like MS, but I knew it must’ve been terrifying. I knew that sometimes things were so hard to deal with you didn’t deal with them well.

Avoiding the test was not the right thing to do, but I knew what it felt like to be so paralyzed that you couldn’t even think straight. I also knew that Ada’s approach of yelling at him would never work. The fact Hunter wouldn’t respond to Ada’s messages was evidence of that.

I took a deep breath and chanced a look at him again. His head turned simultaneously, and his raised eyebrows showed he was concerned by the conversation I’d just had.

“Do you want to go for a walk?” I asked him. The boys—Joel from his position on the floor and Billy still being attended to by his mother—snapped their heads over toward me with enthusiastic looks.

“Yeah, let’s go for a walk!” Joel cried.

I grimaced and looked at my aunt, who had already seemed to catch my drift. “We can go for a walk later,” she said. “Let’s go and clean our rooms first.”

Their faces fell. “But Mom! We just cleaned them!”

“Then we can tidy up. Come on, let’s go and leave Hunter and Lorrie alone.”