"Meet me at the park on the south side near the river tomorrow night at midnight. I'll be waiting. If you don't come to me, I'll be coming to you. ~H.S." I reread the rough writing again and again, just like I did with the last note. Who?! Who could it be?! I seriously don't know that many people and I don't pay attention to anyone but the twins at school! My head was starting to hurt. I rubbed my temples and sighed, flopping backwards on my bed. Was that last part a threat or just a warning? How could my life get twisted so much in one night? I don't know how this could even be possible. And why me? I've always tried to be good, besides my attitude. Okay, so I'm no angel, but still. I don't get into that much trouble. I try to avoid it as much as I can.
Speaking of trouble, that's all that Hunter is. Plain old trouble. Lots and lots of trouble packed into that hot, muscular, sexy, moody, tall man. How is someone like Mindy, who's fun, hyper, crazy, and wild, be siblings with THAT? It doesn't make sense. At all. I rub my face, and cast a look to my alarm clock on my bedside table. It's midnight. Great, just great. It really took me two hours to eat, take a shower, get dressed, and read two notes? Seriously? I am so bad at time management. My headache is starting to get worse. My head is all over the place. But the one thing that my thoughts are stuck on clearly is Hunter. I replay what happened tonight. My stomach starts twisting again and heat courses through me as I think of Hunter. It's nothing like I've ever felt before. What is this feeling?
I know I said I'm no angel but I'm still pure. Make sense? No? Well, that's me in a nutshell for you. What I'm trying to get at is, I've never had my first kiss, never had a boyfriend, never got asked out or had feelings confessed to me or anything at all. I think I can understand why. I'm pretty weird, and I don't normally pay attention to or attempt to ever talk to those around me. Ruby tries to convince me that it's because I'm just so pretty and I intimidate guys with my beauty. I roll my eyes, yeah, right, sure it's that. My life consists of school, the twins, and my mom. That's my world. And now, all of a sudden, it's been flipped upside down in just a couple hours.
But back to Hunter... He's the most attractive guy I've ever seen. His cold piercing grey eyes that stare deep into my own plain brown eyes, his noticeable muscles, his soft looking hair, his high cheekbones, his long lashes, his height and how he towers over my small figure, his smirk... Oh god, his smirk does things to me that make no sense to me. I'm so inexperienced in 'that' field of things, that you could put me next to a young teenager. Not that I don't know what things are or how things work, and stuff like that, it's just that I've never physically done things. Gosh, this is awkward to explain. I immediately stop thinking about it. Would Hunter want someone like me? Who doesn't know things like that? Judging by the alley, he likes things like that. But I shouldn't judge him just by that. Mindy said he's a squish ball, even though he looks mean and tough. Those two things don't exactly mix...
I wonder what his tattoos actually look like in the light when they're more visible. I wonder if there's meaning behind them. I want to know about him and know what he's like, not what he puts out to everyone, but who he is underneath. If his sister can describe him as a squish ball, then I'm sure his demeanor and how he acts is like that for a reason. I've decided that I want to find that out for myself. Just who exactly is Hunter? What makes him tick? What happened to him? I want to figure him out. Thinking back on when I first saw him, I realize that that might not be the safest thing to do. And didn't I tell myself to stay away from him? But right now, my mind just can't stop thinking about him, and I don't really care if he's dangerous or not. He's made me too curious to resist. Picking up the notes I received tonight, I look at the initials again. H.S. That has to be Hunter. I don't know anybody else who's name starts with H. I'm going to meet whoever this is, even if I have to go to the bad side of town at midnight. And if it's not Hunter, maybe he can be my Batman if I get myself in trouble again.
I yawn. My eyes start to water and burn from being open all night. I should get some sleep. I really really should. It would do a great disservice to the twins if I snap at them all day tomorrow on our only second day of school from lack of sleep. I look at the clock and notice I've spent hours thinking about this boy, and I only have a couple hours left to catch some sleep. I groan out loud. Get a couple hours of sleep and risk over sleeping, or stay up all night and have thoughts of Hunter plague my mind? I've thought enough of this boy, I need to stop thinking of him. Honestly, it's unhealthy to think of someone this much that I don't even know. Who even does that? Nobody normal, I don't think. I flip over to my stomach and pull the covers up to my chin. I snuggle down deeper into my warm plush bed, and close my eyes. Did I remember to set my alarm? Ah, who cares. I'm too lazy to get up and set an alarm on my phone and I'm sure my mom screaming at me to get up tomorrow will be enough to wake me up like she did today. My mind is still up thinking of Hunter as I slowly drift off to sleep...
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"Owwww" I groan as I feel my whole body in a dull pain. I squint my eyes open against the blinding sun and rub them, attempting to wake myself up a bit more. I've fallen off my bed. "Great way to start a day", I think to myself. I brush my hair out of my face and untangle myself from the blankets that was wrapped around me as I had fallen off the bed. After a bit of a tussle, I throw my blankets onto my bed, and stretch my arms over my body, my body starting to awaken. Oh god, my morning breath was absolutely awful. I make a face and pad into the bathroom, grabbing my toothbrush. I sway from side to side, a song in my head. After brushing my teeth, I was more awake. Noting that I should be a lot more exhausted from only a couple hours of sleep, I look to the clock in my room and wished to high heaven that I was still asleep. My clock read five past noon. Noon!!
It's too late to even think of going to school. It ends in a couple hours. I hope my mom called me in because I was not about to get an in school suspension for missing my second day of school when I just had a detention yesterday, and I promised Mr. Blackferd that I'm not one to be truant. I hesitantly walk down the hall and peek into my moms room. Nobody. I walk down the stairs and check the living room. Empty. The blanket is neatly folded with the extra pillow placed on top. I check the garage and see her car gone. I should've just checked there in the first place. I walk into the kitchen and plop down onto a chair at the kitchen island with my head in my hands, thinking of how stupid I was not to set an alarm. I raise my head and see a bright neon yellow sticky note on the counter, and my heart spikes, remembering last night.
I pick it up and read: "Good afternoon, Honey! Thank you for taking care of me last night. I tried waking you up this morning but you were dead asleep. I called into the school and excused you today. No need to rush, take your time and relax even though it's only the second day of school. Text me when you're up! Love, Mom."
I trudge back up the stairs and grab my phone, shooting my mom a good morning text to let her know that I'm finally up. I'm about to text the twins when I see I've already got several missed calls and texts from them. They're much worse then my mom, and she's my parent! I smile and read the many messages demanding where I could be on the second day of school, and various threats of using black magic to bring me back from the dead and I laugh at those ones. These guys have one big imagination. But what if they could actually use black magic? Could they tell me who followed me home and stuck those notes to my window? Okay, okay, now who has the big imagination? I roll my eyes at myself. I am so weird, I think with a snort. Well, if I got about full twelve hours of sleep today, then I shouldn't have any problem staying up tonight to sneak out of my window to the park at midnight. My mom is usually a really deep sleeper so I never have to worry about her waking up when I sneak out on random occasions. She confesses to me that she has trouble waking up most mornings too. She's half a teenager and half an adult, I swear.
I'm eating cookie cereal for breakfast and the chocolate is starting to make my 2% milk into chocolate milk. I'm not much of a big cereal fan, but it's noon and I'm not really hungry, my nerves are bouncing around for tonight, my appetite suppressed under the butterflies. I'm not one to take big risks like this, meeting an unknown person in the middle of the night. Should I tell the twins at least so that they know where I am in case I don't come home and I'm kidnapped? No, I think to myself, I should be fine. Everything will be fine.
I might as well get ready for the rest of the day and at least do yesterday's homework considering I never got the chance to last night. I get up and I put my cereal bowl in the dishwasher. I turn and I walk out of the kitchen, down the hallway and up the stairs to my room. I open my closet and search for something to wear for tonight.
I have to remind myself several times that it's not a date with whoever it is. They followed me home, I have no idea what their intention is. I settle on dark blue jeans, a dark plum purple tank top, with my black leather jacket. I put the jacket on the back of my door on the coat hanger, and turn to my mirror. Makeup or no? Hair up or hair down? Jewelry? This is NOT a date, I repeat, it is NOT a date, Daisy! Jeez. I go with a simple smokey eye look, with red gloss on my lips. I'll have to reapply it by tonight, but I like how I look. I throw my hair up into a straight sleek ponytail. I take a few hairs from the front and frame my face with them. Deciding to see what the whole look is put together, I grab my leather jacket and turn to stare at myself in the wall mirror I have. It's the whole length of the wall and is extremely useful for times like this when I need to assess my whole outfit.
I nod in approval at my reflection. I like how I look. For once, without Ruby's help or clothes, I look hot! I never try this hard. This isn't even a date, I remind myself with a good smack to the forehead. Why do I need to keep reminding myself that? I take the jacket off and sit down at my white oak desk. I pull out my homework from my bag. Yes, we have homework on the first day. Not a lot, just a few classes. My math, chemistry, and creative writing class decided that we were already "behind" on the first day and had to assign homework. It's barely anything and doesn't need all my attention focused on it.
Instead, I try to think up of an excuse on why I look like this, because I know my mom will definitely be asking when she arrives home after work tonight. She works as a personal assistant to a tech company. It's called Fix-4-You. Ever since she got hired to that job a year after dad passed away, she was strangely happy. Not that she didn't deserve to happy, I just thought she would mourn longer. I have a feeling that I'll find out why soon enough.
Half focusing on my thoughts, and half focusing on my homework, I let go of the time and my surroundings. Three squared plus five cubed divided by two equals? Excuse excuse excuse. Hmmm....
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What would you guys do? Would you meet this mystery follower? Would you do something about your appearance for a meeting with him/her? Or what would you do with the notes when you got them? Would you spend this much time thinking of the person? Would your parents ever excuse you on the second day of school? Have they before?