Hold On

FOURTH

AURORA

"Aurora get your ass in here right now!" Marcus bellowed from the kitchen.

Walking as fast as I could, I entered the kitchen to see him standing next to the open fridge.

"Where the hell are my beers huh? I only found two in there?" why does he have to drink so much, it only makes him worse.

I too busy in my own little world that I didn't notice Marcus walking towards me until there was a grip so tight on my hair that I was afraid he would rip it from my scalp.

"WHEN I ASK YOU A QUESTION, YOU ANSWER ME!" with that he just completely went off. Throwing me to the floor as hard as he could. I felt punch after punch being rained down on me, too much to count until it abruptly stopped. I thought he had grown tired and walked away but my relief was washed away when he grabbed my left arm, forcing me to lie on my front. I heard what sounded like one of those burner lighter things that you use to light a gas stove and I knew that I was right when I felt the flame touch the skin on my shoulder blade.

All I could do was scream until the pain in my throat matched the pain on my shoulder.

I shot up straight in bed, sweat almost covering my entire body. I was shaking as I scanned my entire room looking for the threat and after a few minutes of trying to calm myself, I realized that I was just having a nightmare.

Putting my hand on my face, I quickly retracted it.

Gross, I really need to shower right now.

I was sweaty and I knew the warm water would be able to calm my nerves. Looking over at the clock on my bedside table, which read 2:50 AM, I decided to just get up. Even though it was way to early, I wouldn't be able to fall asleep in this state.

School is going to suck later.

*****

I was right when I said school was going to suck today. I feel like I'm about to fall asleep any moment and sitting under this tree isn't helping one bit. I've been sitting here since Monday. After my lunch with Hunter and his friends on Friday, I had decided that I wasn't ready to jump into having friends yet. Today is Thursday so I have no choice but to spend time with Hunter after school for our lessons but I don't have to sit with them at lunch.

"Aaah, see I was right, I told you guys she would be here" oh no.

"Aurora Clark, what do you think you're doing?" Maddison exclaimed, not sounding to pleased with me might I add.

"Uhmmm, what are you talking about?" even though we all knew that I knew, I decided to pretend I didn't.

"Don't you pull that card missy, I know that you know what I mean! Why are you ditching us? What? Are we not good enough for you? We don't normally just invite people to have lunch with us because we like how close and familiar we all are with one another but we invited you because we were trying to be nice and this is how you thank us. Well then suite yourself." I felt like a complete jerk. I was so busy thinking about myself that I didn't consider how me ditching them would make them feel.

"Let's just go you guys. We don't have to force her to be our friend." Zach spoke up, looking like a wounded puppy. That made me feel even worse.

They all looked disappointed, including Hunter and for some reason, knowing that I let him down stung.

I let them walk away, I didn't want to make an impulsive decision.

******

HUNTER

I won't lie and say that I'm not kinda pissed off. Maddie was right, we don't just let people into our group like that. It may not seem like a big deal to others but it's a big deal to us, it's not easy to know who you can trust and the fact that everybody in our group live very wealthy lives makes it easier for people to want to use us. So the fact that the girls wanted to invite Aurora to sit with us was surprising.

The other reason that I'm upset is because we've been nothing but nice to her and she didn't even have the decency to tell us that she didn't want to sit with us.

"I knew that I was right when I told you guys that he has a a crush on her." Malakai announced looking straight at me.

I didn't even realize that I had been talking out loud.

"No I don-" I was cut short when the seat next to me was taken by the very person we were discussing. Maddison was about to say something, no doubt ask her what she was doing but Aurora beat her to it.

"I didn't have any friends at my old school, for reasons I'm not ready to discuss, but I didn't have any so when you guys were talking about how you all knew each other....it made me sad. Sad because I wish that I still had that. I'm sorry for the way that I treated you guys, I shouldn't have just ditched you and I don't have a good excuse but I am sorry. I understand if you don't want to, but if the offer still stands, I'd like to have lunch with all of you, I understand if you don't though. You don't have to decide right away." Aurora was about to stand up and walk away but for some reason I pulled her back into her seat. Still holding onto her wrist, I turned to the group and silently asked them what they wanted with a look, knowing them for so long I understood and turned back to Aurora, who was patiently waiting.

"You can have lunch with us" a tiny, shy smile formed on her face.

"I want to invite you all over for a barbeque at my place on Saturday and an apology lunch, if you want to come" everybody smiled at her proposal, barbeque on Saturday it is.