“Asa?” Carmen furrowed her eyebrows.
“Yeah, I answered it and let him know you were asleep. I think he might drop in today—he even asked if it was okay with me.” Carmen’s dad smiled at the last bit, seeming pleased, and she held back a smile of her own, making a mental note to congratulate Asa on actually making progress with her father.
Hunter just snorted at that and rolled his eyes, earning him a kick from Carmen under the table.
His eyes met hers and he lifted a brow. “Seriously? What are you, eight?”
“I was going to ask you the same thing,” Carmen said sweetly, before dropping the facade and shooting him a deadpan look. “Behave. Asa’s not even here and you’re already acting like a jerk about it.”
“Please.” Hunter scoffed. “As if he wouldn’t do the same if the tables were turned. In fact, he probably has a life-sized poster of me in his basement which he uses to practice throwing darts or something.”
Someone cleared their throat, and both Carmen and Hunter turned to face her father. “I’m going to be up in my room in case you kids need something,” he said awkwardly, obviously wanting to get away from the conversation the other two were having.
“Sure, Dad.” Carmen smiled, before looking away quickly, finding it difficult to maintain eye contact with him after last night’s events.
Hunter just nodded, leaning back in his chair and offering her father a single wave of his hand as he walked out of the kitchen.
“You have a Jonah West-sized chip on your shoulder,” Hunter remarked once Carmen’s father was out of earshot.
“Shut up,” she mumbled, pushing her plate away. “I can’t believe I told him I didn’t need him.” Carmen shuddered at the memory, recoiling on the inside as her words replayed in her head.
“Even the great and mighty Carmen West is allowed to make mistakes,” Hunter muttered, yawning as he stretched his arms above his head. “So quit your whining and stop beating yourself up about it.”
“You really do have a way with words,” Carmen said distastefully, throwing him an unimpressed look.
“I don’t sugarcoat.” He shrugged.
She just hummed in response and let herself drink in the sight right in front of her, wondering if a few weeks ago she’d have allowed herself to believe in the idea of Hunter and her reconnecting.
Hunter’s palm came crashing down on the table with a loud bang, causing Carmen to jump back in alarm and snap out of the trance she was in.
“Are you insane?” she hissed, feeling her heartbeat return to its normal rate after that momentary scare.
“You were staring. It makes me uncomfortable. Your boyfriend did that once while I was looking for something in my locker, and I told him I’d carve his eyes out.”
“Oh, God.” Carmen pinched the bridge of her nose, closing her eyes for a brief second. “You are insane.”
“Well, obviously. I totally didn’t tell my father about where I was going to be last night and then I stayed over here—even if that bit was unplanned.” He let out a low whistle. “Hell awaits me once I get back home.”
“I’m sorry,” Carmen began, frowning. “If—”
“Shut up,” he snapped. “I don’t want to ever hear you say those two words to me. I’m the last person you need to be apologising to—about anything.”
“I don’t think anyone else can be nice and rude at the same time the way you can,” she commented seriously, shaking her head.
Hunter raised both his brows. “You know, Asa also said something along those lines at that party two weeks back. Something about me being the only person who can pull off doing something nice and acting like an asshole at the same time.”
“For someone who hates Asa so much, you sure do remember the things he does and says.”
“What can I say? The guy knows how to leave an impression.” As if on instinct, Hunter’s hand reached up to his jaw, rubbing it with a scowl on his face. “Asshole even broke my jaw once. Shithead.”
“Yeah? What did you do to provoke him?” Carmen scoffed, rolling her eyes good-naturedly.
But the light-heartedness of the moment faded away as Hunter’s expression darkened and a muscle in his jaw ticked.
“Nothing I’m proud of,” he said quietly, looking away. “He was defending someone I was giving a hard time. I deserved the punch.”
Carmen’s heart sank and her gaze fell to her hands, watching as they drew lazy patterns on the surface of the table. “Listen, Hunter,” she began to say, taking in a deep breath, “I—”
“Your father mentioned Asa calling you last night,” Hunter interrupted, and Carmen tried to ignore the disappointment that washed over her. “Don’t think I’ve ever seen you around with a phone in school before.”
Carmen debated responding to his obvious attempt at changing the subject by either ignoring it or pushing him about the other thing. But they’d only just found some sort of common ground, and she wasn’t about to disrupt that.
Letting out a deep sigh, Carmen settled back into her chair and decided to go along with it. “That’s because I never used to have a cell. Activated it only recently.”
It was the first thing she’d done the night of their date after kissing Asa goodbye on the porch. She headed straight to her room, rummaged around in her closet for the sealed box, tore away the packaging, and pulled out the shiny new phone.
Hunter was about to say something else when Carmen’s phone buzzed and she looked down at the screen to find the pop-up text;
Asa: I’m here ;)
The wink in the text was enough to send up a flare of heat through Carmen, colouring her pale cheeks with a burning sensation only Asa could stir up in
