Hunter’s fist struck the side of Asa’s face, hard knuckles colliding into his lip and jaw, making his bag slip off his shoulder and sending him stumbling back a few steps—a result of both Asa’s surprise at his own actions slowing his usual reflexes and Hunter’s inability to stop the momentum of the swing.
Pain flared in the bottom left of Asa’s jaw before shooting up in the entire side of his face. He lifted his fingers to his busted lips and felt something warm and wet trickle down his chin.
“Hijo de puta!” Asa hissed as he pulled back his fingers from his face and saw the red liquid smearing them.
Without waiting to see how much bloodier his split lips could get, he shoved past Hunter, barrelling into the shoulders of whoever was in his way as he stormed into the locker room and headed straight towards the row of sinks lining one of the walls.
Asa winced as he took in the reflection of his bloody mouth from the long mirror that hung above the sinks, spanning over the entire length of that wall. His eyes fell on a faintly discoloured patch of skin near his jaw where he was certain a bruise was going to form by the time morning came.
And this time he couldn’t even blame Hunter. That only pissed Asa off more.
What had he been thinking?
“What the hell were you thinking?!” Hunter’s voice thundered throughout the locker room as he slammed the door open. Asa turned just in time to see the prick throw his bag (which he must’ve picked up from where it’d fallen) in his direction, watching as it skidded across the floor and stopped right at his feet.
Asa shot Hunter a heated glare and snatched his bag from the floor, placing it on one of the benches between the lockers before going back to the sink and turning on the tap.
“Pendejo,” Asa muttered under his breath as he tried splashing water on the cut.
“Swear at me in Spanish again,” Hunter threatened, narrowing his eyes at Asa. “Go on, I fucking dare you.”
Asa turned around fully to face Hunter and looked him straight in the eyes. “P-e-n-d-e-j-o,” he said unflinchingly, deliberately dragging out each letter as he spelled them. Then, he let his mouth curve upwards into a smirk.
Hunter’s jaw clenched, and Asa watched as his palms curled into fists, shooting Asa a look that would’ve killed if the particular saying was actually true.
And then, he stormed towards the storage cupboard in the corner of the room, yanking the doors open with unnecessary force and grabbing something that Asa couldn’t see.
Hunter marched back towards him and shoved the object into Asa’s chest, the unexpected gesture catching him off guard once again and causing him to stumble backwards slightly.
Asa looked down to see a fresh roll of tissue paper in his arms, and he took it with a scowl, turning back to the sink as he soaked a few tissues and began to dab at his bleeding lip.
“You’re welcome,” Hunter said in an annoyed voice as he moved back and leant sideways against one of the sinks, observing Asa with a scowl of his own.
“Oh, yeah,” Asa retorted sarcastically. “Thank you. I was totally in the mood for a busted lip and a bruising jaw.”
“I didn’t ask you to intervene,” Hunter snapped. “He asked for it anyway!”
Asa laughed disbelievingly. “You know, maybe I do deserve this,” he gestured wildly to his face, causing a few water droplets to fly around him, “—for actually feeling the tiniest shred of empathy and stopping you from doing something completely stupid only to get punched and then have you mock me for it!”
Hunter’s scowl lost some of the heat behind it as it morphed into something like a frown instead. “Empathy?” he asked in confusion, but the annoyance and anger still lingered in his tone.
“Yes,” Asa told him, throwing the used tissue papers into a bin nearby. “Empathy. The ability to put yourself in someone’s sh—”
“I know what empathy fucking means!” Hunter spat, looking like he wanted to throw something at Asa.
Asa shrugged. “Could’ve fooled me.”
“You’re making me really want to slam my fist into your face right now,” Hunter said in all seriousness.
“You’ve never held back before,” Asa muttered. “What’s stopping you now?”
Hunter pushed himself off the sink and stepped directly in front of Asa, frustration swimming in those icy blue eyes. “When are you going to stop holding that against me?”
“When all the shit you put me through stops hanging over me,” Asa said in a steely voice. “Just because you haven’t done anything recently doesn’t erase everything else you already have done!”
“Oh, come on!” Hunter growled in irritation, kicking the leg of a bench nearby. “It can’t be that hard for you to let go of—”
Asa’s head whipped towards him, warning flashing in his eyes. “Don’t you dare,” he said in a low voice, shaking with repressed anger. “Don’t you dare belittle the things you did, the things you said. You don’t get to decide if it’s easy or not for me to let go of it all. You don’t get to decide how much damage you’ve caused to someone. That’s like setting a person on fire and telling them how loud they’re allowed to scream.” Asa stepped away from Hunter and looked him dead in the eyes. “When someone tells you that you hurt them, you either apologise or you ask them what you can do to make it better. You don’t tell them they’re not supposed to feel the way they feel.”
A muscle in Hunter’s jaw ticked as he looked away. “You’re telling me you’ve never done things you regret?”
Asa scoffed, shaking his head to himself. “Hell yeah, I’ve done plenty
