Phoenix Hearts

Hunter moved back as Hazel sat up, keeping his lips on hers as they kissed passionately. As she tugged on his pants, her way of telling him it was time to get rid of them, he unclasped her bra now that she was sitting up some he could reach the clasp easier. He kissed her shoulder and pushed the straps down her arms. This was probably his favorite part, sure all the teasing and the kissing was fun and the all the stuff after was exhilarating and intoxicating but this part, the stripping of each other’s clothes was his favorite. 

She pressed her body back against him while he drew her. Her lips fervently moved back to his to meet with a heated kiss as one of her hands slid down from his back to his chest. Her fingers gripped into the fabric and gave it a slight tug as she continued to press her kisses to his lips.

Before she allowed herself to get too carried away she paused and lightly pulled herself back a bit. “You really do need to study though.” She murmured out although every bit of her wanted to continue. It felt selfish though. She didn’t want the sake of his exams to determined by her lack of concentration of history.

“I can study later.” Hunter mumbled, leaning forward to kiss her again. He was slightly frustrated that she was trying to change the direction that this was going yet again. His lips moved to her neck, “How am I suppose to concentrate now anyway,” He whispered against her skin before kissing the spot on her neck he knew would drive her crazy. 

Her head turned a little further towards his and slightly nodded. She place little pecks onto his collar bone as she spoke. “Well most people couldn’t do that either, ya know.” She muttered as she scooted in closer, now completely done with the idea of studying. She did want to help him, and she felt a little bad with the immediate change of intention, but she did want to spend more time with him and less time worrying about school. Although both of them did need to focus on school; especially around this time of the year.

Hunter had a feeling Hazel wasn’t interested in his studying, her mind seem elsewhere and it didn’t go unnoticed that she was tracing patterns lightly on his arm. It’s not like he wanted to study either, but with how their evening started out he thought studying could be a back up plan of sorts, a distraction to keep him from talking about their relationship and starting an argument they both didn’t want. That is if the movie didn’t work, or if she fell asleep he thought he’d be productive. His worries about their night together being ruined melted away when he felt her kiss his collar bone.

“Just water, please.” She said as he asked if she wanted anything. She leaned forward and looked over the book that was sitting on the coffee table. “What subject are you studying for anyway?” She asked before leaning back against the couch. “I might be able to help you study depending on the class.” She offered.

Hunter returned with two glasses of water, his lips curved into a small smile when he saw her curled up on the couch. After setting the drinks down on the coffee table he joined her. He pressed play on the menu for the movie and adjusted the volume. He glanced at his pile of school work, “World History. I just need to brush up on it, and remember what happened and when it happened.” Sometimes he confused the timeline of events, especially in Asia and Europe since their history goes farther into the past than America’s history. 

It did put her more at ease. It felt a little less serious than it had been just moments ago. She looked over to him and nodded at the suggestion of staying for a movie. “Yeah that sounds nice.” She was glad that he was willing to still want to make the most of the evening despite of their almost-fight. She wasn’t sure if he wanted her to stay the night, but she didn’t want to invite herself to stay so she figured she’d wait to ask.

She opened the car door and started to walk to go inside the house with him. “I’m surprised that it’s still in there to be honest.” She said upon thinking about how long it must’ve been in there as she and Hunter went back into the house.

"We don’t really watch movies in the living room.” Hunter closed his door and followed Hazel into the house. “In fact I’m pretty sure we’re the only two that really use that room. Sometimes if we have people over we’ll all be there but most of the time if we have guests are over it’s for business or dinner or both.” Once in the living room he turned the fireplace on, the television and the DVD player. He grabbed a blanket and set it on the couch. “Make yourself comfortable,” He said even though he figured she would, he had hoped he wouldn’t have to remind her to make herself at home. It wasn’t like she wasn’t over often and by now he wanted her to feel like this was another home, a safe place to be. 

She took a deep breath as she saw the bright green refection illuminated the car. It sent relief over her. When they were stuck at the red light she felt like his eyes were all on her, observing her reactions. She felt a little more free knowing that he had driving to focus on now too. “I don’t have anyone in particular that I think you should take.” She shook her head. “You can go with whoever you want.” It was a test. She wanted to see just who he thought would be a good fit to take to the dance. So far his suggestions weren’t winning her over being that one of them she had gotten into a literal fight with, and the other he had sex with just a few months ago. Although she could certainly tolerate him taking Amelie, she was hoping that he’d at least suggest someone that wouldn’t blatantly piss her off.

“Actually I can’t,” Hunter sighed, “you see the one girl I want to take, well, dances aren’t her thing. And it doesn’t help that she would rather not been seen with me in public.” He laughed. His tone was playful as he tried not to anger her anymore than he may already have. He wasn’t worried about not finding someone to take to the dance, he was worried about taking someone who would want more after the dance and not understand that they would go just as friends. Of course there was always the option of going with a group of friends, but even then those friends would have their own dates. 

As they walked she crossed her arms over her chest for warmth, and also because it helped her feel somehow more guarded than before. She was quiet until they were both in the car and had started their journey back to his house. Her jealous mind started wandering as she kept thinking about the idea of him actually taking someone else. It was weird to think that she agreed to that so quickly. “So,” She started in a quiet tone, breaking the silence between them. She tried to speak casually so he wouldn’t start to think she was being jealous already. “Who do you think that you’re going to take to the dance then?”

Hunter shook his head, “I get that you don’t go to a lot of these but the after party is something I can live without. It’s mainly just for people to drink more and hook up.” He shrugged, “I don’t know how much free time I’ll have while I’m in New York, who knows when we’ll have a chance to Skype or FaceTime.” He took the blanket they were sitting on and folded it.

He noticed the silence between them as they walked to the car. This was a time for both of them to calm down after their almost argument. Once they were in the car, he turned up the heater and let the car warm up a bit before starting to drive back to his house. It wasn’t until they were only a few minutes away from their destination that Hazel spoke up. He slowed to a stop at a red light, “Leah was the first to ask me if I want to go.” He paused to think about taking one of the most popular girls in their grade to the dance. “But I think she’ll expect more from me then just being a date for the dance. I could take Cadence, or Amelie, they would understand it’s just friends, but I’m not sure the rest of the school would understand that.” He thought about how Poppy had spread the news about his one night stand with the Bailey girl and the rumor about a one night stand with his best friend that was practically his sister, and taking either of them to the dance could start something he wouldn’t want to deal with. “Amelie might already be going with Phillip or Dylan though, I’m not sure.”

Hunter huffed. “Fine.” He took the blanket off of them and reached to his side for the thermoses to put back in his bag. “It’s cold, and it’s getting late, we should get going.” He tried to move on from the whole subject of the dance. He started to fold up the blanket so it would fit in the bag. He sighed, “I don’t...” There was a pause as he turned to look at her. “I don’t want to fight about this and I don’t mean to make this a problem. I know you hate dances, but I’ll go with my friends and bring someone with me. Then,” He shrugged. “I’ll miss the after party I guess and we can do something before I have to leave for New York.” 

Hunter quirked a brow as he looked back at her, her response was very much the opposite of what he was expecting. His arms around her tightened as he felt her move closer to him, huddling for warmth. “You’d really be okay with me taking someone else to the dance?” He asked trying to figure out how he felt about it. A part of him was disappointed, but another part of him felt like this was progress. The disappointment came from Hazel not fighting for him, even though her jealousy did cause a lot of problems it was a twisted way for her to show that she cared about him and wanted him to be only hers. But he felt like this was progress because it meant that she trusted him, of course that’s only if she meant what she said and wasn’t setting up some sort of trap or testing him.

“I’m not even saying until graduation either, Hunter. "I just mean a little but longer than now. I mean, it’s been less than two months. I just think we need to have more of a foundation laid out for us. We’re just getting back on our feet.”

She wrapped her arms around herself a little more firmly. Her head continued to shake as she tried to think of some kind of compromise, but there just wasn’t one. It didn’t seem like there was a happy medium for this. Not right now at least. “Hunter, we just need some more time. I don’t know how much longer, but all I know is that we need longer than right now.” She finished with a final tone. That was all she had to say about it, before where she put her foot down.

Hunter listened and it seemed that Hazel was set on keeping things between them a secret from the public for the time being. He wasn’t in the mood to argue but he couldn’t very well just give up, not yet anyway. “I think we have a pretty good foundation Hazel.” He shrugged but nodded. “But I am willing to drop the subject if you promise to think about it over the weekend. Don’t say no yet, please. You can make up your mind Monday and let me know.”

He paused before he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close. “If you still think we should stay in the shadows a little longer then that’s what we’ll do. But I still think we can make handle them, Poppy, her gang, and all the other students.” He kissed the side of her head. “If you don’t think we can handle talking about and resolving whatever rumors are thrown at us then I guess I can keep this quiet for a little longer, as long as I’ve got you.”

“You say that now, but dealing with rumors and pressure like that is so much more difficult than just keeping it like it has been. Do you remember that we actually broke up once over the rumors that something happened between me and Prosper? And those were completely untrue.” She explained before pausing for a moment. “And we almost broke up over rumors that you and Amelie hooked up too. Most of our arguments and break ups haven’t been because of things directly related to our relationship, but because of the bullshit high school drama that started it all.”

“I’m not saying it needs to be like this forever, but right now we don’t have enough foundation laid out of this new run of our relationship yet for it to be challenged with all the drama that comes from it.”

Hunter sighed, “Well the rumor about me and Amelie played a big part in our last break up…” He mumbled. “The argument that we had when those rumors about you and Prosper were going around got out of hand way too fast. And if you remember correctly, we got back together practically the same week we broke up. And yeah we tried to make things work after that rumor about Amelie and me but you know it was never the same after that. Hawaii just escalated things.”

He paused a moment, trying to think of what to say that could persuade her to change her mind. “You're saying that it doesn't have to be like this forever but what I’m hearing is that it has to be like this until we graduate. Hazel, if I’m being completely honest, I can’t wait that long. I mean if we wait that long then we might not even now how to function as a couple in the public eye, and then what do we do?” He pressed his lips together before continuing. “Dealing with the rumors is difficult but I think we’ve at least learned a few ways how not to deal with them. That means we have better chances this time.”

“If a rumor starts we simply just have to not believe it until we get a chance to talk. And I mean talk, not argue. When we talk we’ll find out the truth, and as long as we trust each other then we can deal with Poppy and her crew easily. I mean you trust me right? I feel like after that whole Amelie debacle you didn’t trust me anymore and that’s understandable. I didn’t remember that night, I wouldn’t have trust me either probably. But I’d like to think I earned some trust back by now.” 

Once Hunter draped the blanket over the top of them, she leaned her head further against him and sighed. Part of her wanted to get the talk he wanted to have so badly out of the way. Maybe if they finished they conversation early it’d leave the rest of the night for fun. “Okay so,” She started almost wishing she could simply take it back. Maybe now wouldn’t be the easier time, but now it was too late- she had already started speaking. “Why don’t you want to keep all of this a secret anymore?” She finished the question and pulled away to look at his face.

Why don’t you want to keep all of this a secret anymore? That was the question Hunter had been asking himself for the past few weeks now. It wasn’t an easy question to answer, any time he had an answer for it he had to convince himself it was right. “Well,” He started to say. He ran his fingers through his hair and looked at his girlfriend. “Why do you want to still keep this a secret?” He knew the answer to that question, but he wanted her to really think about it.

“I know I agreed to keep this relationship just between us for a while, but babe for how long? We kept this quiet because we knew if we didn’t we’d have to deal with rumors and pressure to be a certain person, to be a certain couple.” He paused a moment and sighed. “We haven’t handled all of that well in the past, which is why I thought this whole secret relationship was a good idea for the time being.”

He shifted on the ground and got the drinks out of the backpack. “Now just hear me out.” He poured a small cup of hot chocolate and took a sip before offering it to Hazel. “I’ve done a lot of thinking about this. We are going to deal with rumors and judgement and pressure from the public no matter what; it doesn’t matter when we go public, waiting doesn’t really change the outcome. I believe that we are stronger this time around. We can handle it.” Hunter sighed, “As for dealing with what others think, I mean come on Hazel, you’ve never really been one to care what people think about you.”