Hunter Williams' Taboo Adventure

Ninth Chapter

❝You are imperfect, permanently and inevitably flawed. And you are beautiful.❞

- Amy Bloom

[ H U N T E R   W I L L I A M S ]

At first, I thought my Friday back at Lockwood High School would go swimmingly without any kind of mishaps.

Boy was I wrong.

Everything seemed to be going well until the lunch period, as I walked through the hallway with Evelyn Hale and River Jade, the students would stare at us for seemingly no reason and whisper sweet nothings to each other. Something was up and I was not sure if I wanted to know anymore.

Soon as we walked into the massive cafeteria, that housed the majority of our high school's population at this very moment, it felt like time had stopped and everyone focused their attention to us. Okay, what the fuck. Were people just surprised to see me back at school or was this something much deeper?

We navigated our way to our usual table where the rest of our group, except for Eli and Bailey, were seated. Eve, River and I exchanged odd glances with each other but kept walking forward and took our seats. 

There was an awkward silence and barely any of us were making eye contact. I felt people glaring daggers into my back and I wasn't sure how I felt about it. I decided to look around the cafeteria to assess the situation, students were mostly back to doing their things, although some rogue glares were coming my way, especially from a table at the other side of the room.

At that table sat my ex-girlfriend, Bailey Woods, glaring at me with a satisfied at expression and beside her... sat my supposed best friend Eli King.

I didn't exactly know how to feel at that moment, Eli looked at me with a cold expression and I felt betrayed, despite not knowing the situation. "Hey, guys? Could you mind telling me what the hell is going on?" I turned my attention back to the group, a cautious tone lacing my question.

Miles coughed awkwardly and spoke. "A-are the rumours true?"

"What rumours?" I raised an eyebrow.

"You know... that you cheated on Bailey with Evelyn and then dumped her without any explanation?" He elaborated cautiously. 

I could have sworn I felt my eye twitch out of anger at that very moment. Looks like Bailey Woods was finally showing her true colours, playing the victim here and trying to drag me down. The worst part is, that rumours in high school tend to spread faster than the plague itself and people eat them up because of my ex-girlfriend's social status.