"You. Lucky. Bastard." Jake said, shaking his head a small smile on his face. He turned back to his food a moment then took a breath to speak, but put his head back down.
"What?" Hunter said, rolling his eyes a little.
"So, this whole time, you were the one who saved her?" Hunter nodded. "And even after you knew that I liked her, you didn't say anything?"
"Dude, I was thinking about telling you about it and you could say it was you who saved her." Hunter said with a chuckle. "Then this whole Brooke thing happened and then Brett and then Capture the Flag then Brooke then the beach." He sighed a little took a sip of root beer out of his cup. "I really care for her. I don't know when it happened. Maybe when she kissed me or--"
"Whoa, whoa. Hold the fuck up." Jake said, tossing his fork onto his tray. "You're telling me that you kissed? As in your lips touched her lips intentionally?"
"Well, she kissed me after I saved her the second time. After the fight." Jake blinked at him a second and then stood up, moving to the other side of the table then slapping Hunter hard in the back of the head. Hunter waited for him to sit down again before speaking. "And what was that for?"
"Well, think about it. The guy she liked turned up to be a major asshat. She finds you and you comfort her. Then she HESITATES before going into her cabin. Dude, you should have told her." Hunter scoffed and rolled his eyes.
"Told her what? Oh, so I know you just got over this guy who said he was the guy who saved you, but I really need to let you know that I'm the one who saved you." He nodded and took another sip of root beer. "Yeah. I could have saved you a lot of trouble and I probably could have avoided this whole Brooke thing if I had told you earlier, but I'm telling you now. That's worth something, right?"
"Look, knowing this camp, it takes about...4 hours for the entire camp to know about an available child of Aphrodite. Arabella became available at least 12 hours ago. Do you really think that Brett is the only douchebag to think of trying to trick her? You need to tell her before a better liar than Brett comes along." Hunter sighed and rubbed his eyes a little.
"Fine. You're right. I'll try and find her today." Hunter said, trying to not sound as excited as he actually was. He looked down at his tray then finished his drink. "What do we have after this?"
"Arts and crafts. In about...10 minutes." Hunter looked at him a moment, narrowing his eyes. "You're not coming, are you?"
"No....I'm not. I'm going to be absent, late, etcetera. Cover for me and I'll get you back eventually."
"No, you won't, but that's alright. I'll talk to you later. Good luck, man." Jake said, waving to him before turning back to his food. Hunter turned and walked out of the mess hall, heading to the Aphrodite cabin. He kept his distance a little, hoping that he would run into Brooke or the vast number of Brooke sympathizers that more than likely awaited within. He saw Danny walk out and he hurried forward quickly.
"Danny."
"Oh, my gods...It's Hunter." He said with a nod. "What can I do you for?"
"Is Arabella in there?" Hunter asked, peeking over Danny's shoulder.
"I don't believe so. I think I saw her heading to the woods or the beach. In that direction, I'm sure."
"Thanks, Danny." Hunter said before taking off toward the beach. It was empty, but he walked to the spot where they sat last night. He closed his eyes and remembered how nice it felt to be with her. How good it felt to just be standing next to her. He looked down at where they made snow angels and sighed a little before heading toward the woods. He hoped he found her. He needed to tell her and he knew that the longer he waited the quicker she would slip through his fingers.
Hunter walked in the woods a ways. He didn't know how long he walked, but it seemed familiar. The whole setting seemed familiar. He had been to the woods before, but it was rare that he would be this deep in the woods in the daytime. He looked around a little bit as he walked and his foot bumped into something with a little clunk. He turned and looked down, seeing a wet and very dented shield. He took a little breath and picked it up, wiping the mud off it and looking along the edge for the little notched marking where Hunter scratched his name. After a little bit of searching, he found it and took a deep breath. It was the shield that Arabella used last night. He put it on his back and turned back to the camp, his eyes landing on Marina.
"I can fix that shield, if you want." She said with a smile, looking him in the eye. Hunter looked around feeling a little uncomfortable.
"Uhh...No. That's okay. I kind of like it dented like this." He said, slowly walking back toward camp. She giggled and started walking next to him. "So, what are you doing here, Marina?"
"Oh, I saw you walk out here and I thought that we could hang out or something." She said with a hopeful smile. "I mean, I have nothing really except for umm...trials of strength and you have arts and crafts, so we won't be missing anything important. What do you want to do?" Hunter cleared his throat, looking over at her a little.
"I'm actually...I umm...I'm kind of busy, right now." He said with a sigh. "I promise we'll hang out later, okay? I promise." He said, putting a hand on her shoulder a second before running out of the woods. He ran out of the woods and paused a moment before trying to think of where Arabella would be. He was at Arts and Crafts. Marina was at Trials of strength. That left the pasture and the Arena open. He took off toward the arena, hurrying that he wasn't too late. He had to tell her. He headed toward the arena and tried to keep his heart from exploding. He tried to envision what it would look like. What the whole conversation would look like. He entered in and saw that everyone was leaving. He cursed under his breath and waited by the entrance to see if he could find her. He didn't see her. What if he was too late? What if someone had already talked to her? He took a deep breath. He had to find her.