Chapter 39

Hunter

Just keep eating, pal. Finish your fucking food, say your goodbyes, and get the fuck out of here. You shouldn’t have come in, you fucking know that, but here you are and if you’re going to make it out of here you have to fucking remain calm.

I looked across the table at the kid as he crammed his food into his mouth. He ate like an animal, but fuck it, so did I. I could hear Kelly and Grace chattering back and forth in the other room and I could only assume it wasn’t anything good. How the fuck was I going to get this girl out of here? Was I just going to stay there in that little piece of shit town forever?

No, of course I wasn’t. I couldn’t. Not with my old man barreling down on me with the fury of south Boston behind him.

Goddamn it, Kelly. Why did I have to fucking meet you? I was just fucking fine before you came into my fucking life.

“So are you, like, Kelly’s boyfriend or something?” the little voice from across the table asked me.

“Fuck do you care?” I said, barely looking up from my food.

“She’s my sister,” he answered back without skipping a beat. He wasn’t scared of me at all. Yet.

“You sure swear a lot. Didn’t your parents teach you not to swear?”

This little kid was getting on my nerves. Just because his sister made me come like a fucking geyser didn’t mean I had to put up with this shit.

“No parents, kid. None that I knew anyway. Must have missed that lesson.”

Lucas got real silent and stopped eating his food.

“Me too. I mean, I had parents. But they died. I don’t really remember too much about them, but I remember enough.”

Fuck.

Kelly never mentioned that her parents had died. She never mentioned them at all. I just assumed the good little girl had a good little life. It never even occurred to me that she didn’t have the fucking perfect parents living around the corner. That explained why Grace was hanging around. It also explained why her little brother was there, eating breakfast with me.

Fuck me.

I had never even stopped to ask a single thing about her life. I’d only thought about my own. Turned out she’d had her own share of hardships to overcome.

Goddamn. That pussy fucking blinds you, pal.

“What happened to your parents, Hunter?” the kid kept going. I didn’t want to be having this fucking conversation and I couldn’t think of a way I could get out of it without upsetting this lovely little family meal time.

“I don’t know, kid. Never knew them.”

He sat there and his eyes dropped down to the table.

“You’re lucky.”

“And how do you figure that, pal?”

He kept his glance firmly planted on the table in front of him and then spoke calmly.

“Because then you don’t have to miss them.”

Fuck me. I felt like I should give this little fucker an Oscar. You’re even melting my heart here, pal. Jesus, I’ve got to get the fuck out of here.

I struggled to change the subject since all I wanted was for him to shut the fuck up.

“So, what do you do in school, buddy? You got a favorite class, or you more of a sports and girls type of guy?”

Lucas looked up and his mood seemed to brighten a bit.

Thank fucking God. Babysitting is not fucking high on my list of talents, Kelly. Get the fuck back here.

“I don’t know. The school part is okay,” the little guy said, and then he paused and looked around to make sure Grace and Kelly weren’t too close by. “But I like the sports and the girls better.”

You grimy little fucker. A man after my own heart.

“I’ll tell you a little secret, pal, but don’t let Grace know,” I gave the kid a smile and leaned across the table a bit. He leaned in too and looked around for the old broad. “I never went to school for anything other than girls or sports either.”

Lucas sat back in his seat and smiled.

“So what do you do, Hunter?”

Goddamn you with the questions, kid. I’m still half drunk and trying to eat here.

“I work for Dennis, pal. You know? Fixing cars and shit.”

Lucas’s eyes brightened up anytime I cursed. It was probably the most excitement the little dude ever got.

“What type of car do you have? Is it fast? Is it red?”

I just laughed into my coffee.

“Yeah, kid. It’s red and it’s real fucking fast.”

“Awesome.”

We sat there in silence a little longer until he piped up again.

“I’ve had like five girlfriends this year.”

The little fucker was trying to talk shit with me. I couldn’t believe it. What a fucking joke. How did people do this everyday?

“No shit, pal. That’s actually kind of pathetic. When I was your age I think I had ten girlfriends. At the same time.”

He looked back at me like he wanted to deck me.

“I could have twenty if I wanted to,” he said.

Voices carried in from the living room.

“What are you two talking about in there?”

“Girls,” Lucas and I shouted at the same time and then looked at each other and chuckled.

Kelly’s head shot out from around the corner and gave me a confused look. I just shrugged my shoulders and went back to talking shit with her little brother. She disappeared around the wall and I heard her and Grace start up again.

“So, what is it, kid? You’re like eight, maybe nine years old or something?”

“I’m ten. Ten years old. Do I look like a baby to you?” he said, raising his voice and standing up, pushing his chair back

I slid back in my chair and laughed, pretending I was scared.

“Whoa, sorry, pal. I didn’t realize I was dealing with such a tough fucking guy.”

Lucas laughed and sat back down in his seat.

“Tougher than you, car guy.”

He went back to eating his eggs and so did I. We didn’t talk anymore.

Maybe the little fuck wasn’t so bad after all.