Summer
EIGHT
My phone rings as I trail Levi to the car, where he’s gliding my suitcase over the rough sidewalk. It’s an unknown number, so I hesitate to answer at first, despising telemarketers, but then I opt to so I know to block it or not.
“Hello?”
Click.
Levi glances over his shoulder. “Wrong number?”
“Guess so.”
I block it anyway, just in case.
The resort staff steps aside after unlocking the cabana door. He drops the keys into Levi’s hand and waves, leaving us alone to head back to main building.
The sun beams down with unfiltered heat, baking me inside my favourite hoodie—my preferred clothing, even during summer.
Here, though, away from school and life and with my best friend, I trust removing it, unbothered if strangers notice my self-harm scars.
This place looks and feels like freedom I’ve never known before.
Surrounding the cabana is sand for what feels like forever, stretching every which way. It’s pale white, glistening beneath the tropical sun, travelling up a slight hill towards the main buildings and larger public pools, to either side of me where other guest cabanas are, and leading to the beach.
The ocean, an endless pale blue, calls to me even before we arrived. Flying in, seeing it from above, made all the other shit in my life seem so minuscule. It isn’t, of course, but in that instance, there became so much more to the world than my trauma.
A week has passed since the trial. A week in which I’ve experienced every emotion there is. When Levi and I hung out, he helped distract me. My conversations with his alternate ego have been much frequent than normal, but he too has been checking up on me.
Levi rolls my suitcase through the doorway, glancing at me when I don’t immediately follow. “You alright?”
“Yeah, taking it all in.” Shaking off the thoughts, I pace over the hardwood, pausing on the edge of the light blue floor carpet hosting the bed.
“There’s a private pool.” He gestures to the sliding door on the other side of the room. “It’s pretty small, so for a proper swim, I recommend the main pool. The path to get back up there is on the other side, the same we took here.”
Levi goes through the rest of the room, pointing out features, including the room service menu I anticipate using at some point.
The walls are a light tan, the two-seater couch a blue matching the carpet.
The bedframe is a couple shades darker than the walls while the sheets and pillows are the typical hotel white.
“It’s so pretty.”
“Don’t tell my parents that. They might end up liking you.
” Levi laughs at his own joke, except he’s probably right.
My first visit to his mansion, his mother acted like she was smelling garbage.
It hurt at the time but reminded me of a simple fact: no matter how good the bond between Levi and me, his parents would never approve of us together.
Yet another reason I cling to him as Hunter; some part of him is exclusively mine.
He directs me to the small deck outside, the pool stretching the length of the building towards the cabana about fifty feet to the right.
“That’s where I’ll stay. Knowing Dad, he’ll expect me to keep busy, so I probably won’t be around much, but we’ll spend evenings together.
My caveat for coming here was being off every day at five.
That way, we can get supper together and hang out. ”
And he can become Hunter.
I turn to him, sliding my arm through his for a half-hug—the kind of touch that’s familiar and what I’ll one day miss. “Thanks, Levi. This is amazing. You’re amazing.”
His other arm slides around my waist, right over the heat burning a hole through my conscious. I can’t pinpoint when my feelings for him blossomed—whether before or after we became friends. I noticed him, certainly, when he started at our school.
The first time Levi saw evidence of my father’s abuse was a particularly bad day.
The night prior, he zip tied me to my bed after I accidentally burned dinner.
My skin was rubbed raw and stinging all day at school, but Levi…
beneath my hoodie and sharp remarks, he uncovered the grimmest parts of my life.
Asking to hang out was almost certainly a ploy to pull some prank on me.
It wasn’t. He drove me to school that first day and walked me to class. His friends only questioned him once before he shut them down and forced me to sit with them at lunch. The odd stares eventually faded, and his friends spoke to me. One was even thrilled I was an avid gamer like him.
Day two brought more promises. He drove me to school again, this time with an iced coffee awaiting me in the cup holder of his fancy car that costs more than anyone our age should be driving.
He continued killing the backward glances and whispered comments about us, ending rumours before they began.
Over time, he broke down my defences, including my fear of touch. Levi bust through that when he proved to be different. He’s comfort and safety, and when he kisses my forehead, it’s like anything is possible.
“You deserve this,” he mumbles into my hair. “I should go check into the office. Dad wants me to introduce myself to the staff, since only a handful know me, and explain my presence…once I figure out why the hell he has me working here.”
I draw out of his arms, gathering my hair to cover my neck, which burns with concealed emotions. “Will I see you for supper?”
“Damn straight. For now, unpack, get comfortable. Swim and get some lunch.”
I exhale, glancing at the bed, then the deck with the pool. “I like that we’re far away from school and home and everything.”
Something passes through his eyes—something dangerous that makes my mouth dry. Something I envision as being part of his Hunter persona. He releases me, but his fingers linger around my neck, tilting my head back until we’re breathing the same air.
“Understand this, Summer: no one will get to you here. Your father is gone, so you’ll relax for you.
You won’t constantly look over your shoulder.
You won’t injure yourself.” He sweeps a finger down my arms, over the old cuts.
“There’s nothing sharp in here, and you will tell me if those feelings return.
I need to know, to help you. You’re safe. Understand, darling? He is gone.”
My control is almost as well.
The control that keeps me from admitting knowing the truth.
A bit of guilt weaves through me over his impending return as Hunter to play another kind of game, unaware I know who he is.
It’s the same kind of deceptiveness he’s playing on me, which should make my actions justified.
As Levi, he’s giving me this vacation and escape, and as Hunter, he’ll heal me.
Two sides of him to fix the two sides of me.
Except they’ll never converge. There will never be a happy ending in this. So, I promise myself to enjoy it while I can.
Ducking my face before he finds evidence of my guilt, I busy myself by unzipping my suitcase. “Good luck with work.”
After he goes, I watch through the window as he drops his suitcase off at his cabana, then heads up to the main part of the resort.
Alone, I fall onto the bed, messing up the straightened and crisp sheets.
And smile.
This isn’t merely a vacation. It’s a kind of therapy the internet recommended. It’s escape, away from home, and somewhere Dad knows nothing about.
Then, there’s Hunter…
He still hasn’t messaged me his plans. How he’ll transition from Levi to Hunter has me curious. What he’ll do. When he’ll appear. How he’ll hide the truth from me when we’re face-to-face, without screens and phones between us.
Shaking off the thoughts, I unzip my suitcase to start organizing the room a bit, since I’ll be staying a while. Levi didn’t provide an exact end date, and truthfully, it doesn’t matter; I have nothing better to do until the next semester in September.
I head into the bathroom to put toiletries away, but on returning, the sunlight that was streaming inside has been quelled by darkness, only strips peeking between the shut blinds. The overhead light has been switched off, leaving the place in dim shadows.
The air is different, packed with an energy that has me wanting to scream, run away, but also fall submissive to. My breaths catch as all the air in the cabana is sucked out when, from the shadow by the door, the darkness moves.
A person—a man, based on his build—dressed to meld with the environment he crafted. Black jeans, black sweater, with the hood drawn over his head. Even so, his face is covered by a mask; one of those light-up ones with Xs for eyes that glow purple.
Hunter…Levi.
If I didn’t know my best friend as well as I do, I might miss how their builds are similar.
The way his shoulders move with his stilted breath, and even the tick of his head—Levi’s tell that he’s focusing.
I’ve seen it numerous instances while he studies, and even the times when he’s gaming—in front of me as himself, not Hunter.
Someone else might run away with the fear that, arguably, I’m not supposed to know his real identity, so he could be someone who could very well murder me, or at least be incredibly dangerous.
My feet remain pinned to the floor.
Not only will he defend me, but I’ve lived with danger. And this—the edged apprehension that spikes my heart rate and heats my core—starts replacing the perils of my past. This is apprehension while being safe, nothing like when Dad came after me.
He’ll expect my fear, for me to be intimidated by my request, which means playing the part and asking questions I know the answer to. “How did you find me already?”
The shadows bend as his moves—just the slightest twitch of his body. “You were never hard to find. When I want something, I go for it. There was no way I was waiting to see you.”