“Back when I was a kid, my dad was always busy working for most of the day.”
A young Hunter Huntingson runs down the halls of his family’s home.
“So the person I always had to rely on was…”
The young Hunter trips but is caught and lifted into the air by his mother; Kelling Huntingson.
“My mom.”
As the child Hunter giggles, Kelly sets him down. She’s a young parent, only 24 when her son was 5. She has long light brown hair, brown eyes, white skin, and a bright smile. She’s wearing a simple sweater and jeans.
“You could have gotten hurt, you know,” Kelly remarks.
“I know,” the child Hunter sighs.
“Back then, my mother always used to care for me.”
As the day goes by, Kelly finishes making a simple peanut butter jelly sandwich for the 5 y/o Hunter.
“She made me lunch…”
The day goes on as the two watch some kids show.
“Took part in my interests…”
As the sun begins to set, Kelly begins to clean up the place when the front door opens.
“And even…”
The young Hunter looks to see his father, a 25-year-old by the name of Oscar Huntington, entering the house. He’s a construction worker who just got off of work and is holding an empty beer bottle in his hand.
“Protect me.”
“Hunter, go upstairs into your room,” Kelly Huntingson states.
The child Hunter is hesitant, but he complies with his mother’s wishes. As he’s in his room, he begins to hear yelling come from downstairs which turns into fists hitting someone and then sobbing.
“The house was never quiet when my dad was there.”
_____________________________________
“Except for one special occasion.”
Hunter walks downstairs as it's night outside, however, he can hear laughter and screams of joy coming from the living room. Curious, he walks in to see the room washed in blue light from the TV and both of his parents happy. He sits on the couch with them and the three watch a game of baseball on the TV.
“Whenever we watched baseball, all of the arguments, all of the misery, it vanished away,”
_____________________________________
Years have passed and it's now the year 2011 - the start of Hunter’s time in middle school. As the days go by, Hunter makes sure to pick up any spare change he finds. He keeps on piling it up back at home in a jar.
“I decided for myself, that I’d be able to take my parents to see a baseball game together in person.”
Hunter is getting ready for school when his mother, Kelly Huntingson, now 32, walks over to him. Her hands are cold and she looks even skinnier than she did when she was younger.
“You have a safe day at school,” Kelly remarks, “Did you have breakfast?”
“I don’t really need it,” Hunter remarks as he ties his shoes on, “What about you, have you eaten yet?”
“I’m not too hungry,” Kelly sighs as Hunter gets up and begins to walk to the door.
However before Hunter leaves for school, Kelly stops him, and the two look at each other.
“What is it?” Hunter rolls his eyes.
Kelly tries to say something, but she sighs and just replies, “Let me know how school was for you when you get home, alright?”
“Yeah fine,” Hunter remarks as he leaves.
“I love you,” Kelly remarks.
She waits for a response but Hunter doesn’t as he’s too busy trying to get to school.
“I still think back to that day with regret.”
As she’s left alone in the house, she begins to cough and grabs a tissue to cough into.
“I regret that I never got to tell her how much she mattered to me on that day.”
Kelly looks at the tissue she has in her hand to see she’s coughed up blood, and after her brief respite, she continues to cough more and more.
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“Because I never got a second chance.”
_________________________
In class, the two friends Marcus & Hunter are chatting with one another during work time. As they do so, Hunter tosses crushed-up balls of paper into the trash can from his desk. Hunter then tells Marcus a joke which Marcus can’t help but laugh at.
“I didn’t know it at the time.”
Over the loudspeaker Hunter's name is called down to the office. Hunter after saying goodbye to Marcus leaves the class.
“She always kept secrets from me.”
As Hunter walks into the office he hears the news from the principal, his eyes widen in shock.
“I didn’t know how badly my dad treated her, she always covered up her wounds.”
As his dad picks him up to go to the hospital, when the two reach there, Hunter rushes in, trying to reach the room in time.
“I didn’t know the struggles she had to go through, trying to raise me at such a young age. She always made sure I never saw that.”
Hunter finally reaches the door to the room and he bursts through the door.
“And I didn’t know just how sick she really was, because the only thing I ever saw in her was how strong she was.”
________________________
“Once the funeral came to an end, it was just me and my father at home.”
Hunter returns home from school only to see his dad, much more disheveled, sitting by the kitchen table surrounded by empty bottles of beer. Hunter goes to try to talk to him but that’s when he feels his father’s fist slam into his face. Hunter stumbles back as Oscar Huntington gets up.
“You son of a bitch,” Oscar grumbles as he walks over to Hunter, “If she didn’t have to watch over you she would still be here!”
“And it was then that I got to see my real father. The one that my mother kept secret from me.”
Days continued as each day, every time he returned home, Oscar would find new ways of taking out his frustrations onto his son.
_____________________
One day, Hunter is in middle school when he decides to head into the bathroom to wash up some bruises he’s hidden under his hoodie.
“It was after then that…”
Hunter enters the bathroom to see Marcus there.
“When all of my frustrations and emotions reached a boiling point, I saw you.”
"So Buddy, you wanna hang out later?" Hunter asks as Marcus just looks down.
"I don't want to," Marcus murmurs.
“I was stupid.”
"What? Why not! We always hang out."
"I'm not in the mood Hunter," Marcus sighs.
“Oh, you aren’t?” Hunter begins to remark, “Well you sure were in the mood back then. But I get it, you wouldn’t want to hang out with someone like me anymore, you’re just gonna abandon me. Is that it?”
“I was an idiot.”
Marcus groans as he shouts, "Hunter! What is your problem?!"
"Problem?"
"I mean, why are you like this? This isn't you!" Marcus screams.
As Marcus stops talking he looks at Hunter whose eyes are filled with rage.
"I'm not like this? This isn't me? You don't know a damn thing about me!" Hunter begins to yell, "You have no idea who I am, everything I go through, you're just some… some stupid kid unaware of the real world!"
As Hunter is breathing heavily and his hands are shaking, Marcus tries to reach out to Hunter, however, in a fit of blind rage and not realizing what he is doing, Hunter makes a fist and punches Marcus straight in the face.
"In that instant, I ruined our whole friendship..."
As Marcus falls to the ground, Hunter snaps back to reality as he realizes what he's just done. Regret washes over Hunter’s entire body as he remorsefully goes to reach out to Marcus and help him up.
But he stops himself, as something else begins to bubble up inside him.
Something he hasn’t felt before.
Power.
The power to be stronger than someone for once.
The power to maintain some sort of control in a life where he has none.
The power to feel absolutely free.
"All because I was such a coward that..."
As Marcus tries to get up, Hunter grabs Marcus by the hair as he makes a fist with his other hand.
“H-Hunter?” Marcus groans, “Wh-what are you doing?”
Hunter’s fist begins to tremble as a twisted smile begins to slowly inch its way across his face.
Finally, Hunter bellows, “Hey Buddy, did you think I was done after just one swing?!"
"I just took out all of my frustrations onto you."
____________
“Then, when it was all said and done…”
Hunter, Ronnie, and Marcus exit the middle school after getting scolded by the principal, when Hunter goes to leave he stops to take one last look at Marcus.
“Back then I wanted to say sorry but…”
Hunter then walks away towards his father's car.
“I didn’t. I was too prideful to be human.”
As Oscar drives Hunter home, the two are in silence. For a second Hunter thinks that maybe, just maybe, his dad will treat him better.
________________________
But as time goes on and it's now the fall of 2013, Hunter is once again at home getting beaten by his dad.
“You’re a disgrace!” Oscar remarks, “The only thing you did that was good was giving me some pocket change.”
Hunter looks confused only to realize that on the counter is an empty jar. A jar that he once filled with money. Money so his family could be happy. Rage consumes Hunter as he grabs a metal bat hanging from the wall and he begins to slam it into his father’s head.
After his father has been beaten to a pulp, Hunter looks around and spots a picture on the wall. A picture of his mom from when she was a teen, she was on a varsity team for baseball, and in her hands was the same bat Hunter was using now.
“That night was the last time I was in that house.”
Hunter quickly leaves the house.
“Even till the bitter end…”
Tears stream down Hunter’s face as he runs away.
“I was a disgrace to her.”
______________________
Now in late spring of 2014, Hunter & Marcus sit in the cold dark alleyway by themselves. As Hunter finishes his story, Marcus doesn’t know what to say.
“I’m…I’m sorry-” Marcus tries to say but Hunter cuts him off.
“For what?! You did nothing wrong!,” Hunter yells, “I was the one who bullied you. Why do you always do this? Always looking out for others even if it means putting yourself in the dirt. Didn’t I already do that enough?!”
Marcus is silent as Hunter calms down and replies, “I’m sorry, for everything.”
Marcus looks at Hunter and sighs, “We’ve both been through a lot, huh?”
“What?”
“I’m not going to forgive you for everything you did to me just because of your situation,” Marcus continues, “I don’t think I ever really can, but maybe if we both keep improving, we could be friends again.”
“Friends?” Hunter questions, “Why would you want to go back to being that after all that I did?”
“I don’t want to go back to the way things were,” Marcus says as he stands up before reaching his hand out to Hunter, “I want things to be better, for everybody, even for someone like you.”
Hunter is hesitant for a bit but he grabs Marcus’ hand. After Marcus helps Hunter up, the two let go before they start walking.
“So, where are we going now?” Hunter asks.
“We’ve both been abandoned by the people who should have cared for us the most, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t people who can still help us,” Marcus remarks, “We are not alone.”
“But… I’ve never done that before,” Hunter admits, “I’m just a coward. A coward that’s only just pushed my problems onto others.”
“You don’t have to be one,” Marcus begins to suggest, “and if you’re uncomfortable doing it alone, we could go ask for help together.”
Hearing those words, Hunter can’t help but softly smile as he remarks, “Yeah, I’d like that.”
The two finally walk out of the alleyway.
_________________________
At Starlight High the next morning, Amnestor parks his car in the teacher’s parking lot as he steps out of his black sedan. It’s a weekend day yet he still has some papers to grade. As he walks towards the front doors though, he sees an unusual sight.
“Marcus? Hunter?” Amnestor questions as he sees the two standing by the front doors of the school, “I didn’t expect you to be wanting to learn on a Saturday.”
“Uh, my bad,” Marcus murmurs.
“I was just joking,” Amnestor states.
“Uh, my bad,” Marcus murmurs.
“You don’t need to feel bad, it’s been a while since I last saw both of you in school. I was worried,” Amnestor admits before saying, “You two both look like you’ve been through a lot. If you want to, we can have a quick chat about it.”
After hearing those words and some hesitation, Marcus and Hunter both nod in agreement.
The two kids both have the feeling that despite everything that’s happened to them, things are finally going to turn out okay.
See You Next Chapter!~