Chapter 5

Thursday.

When I woke up, Pepper still wasn't around. It was odd. I couldn't have cared less what she did on her nights during school, and yet now I felt strangely responsible for her. I guess it was just misplaced chivalry.

I put thoughts of her out of my mind and concentrated trying to get my morning wood to go down as I waited for my toast to pop.

Stella had to rush off to a class she had forgotten about so I had been left hanging. I was well aware of how greedy it was to be affronted at such a thing, but I figured being self aware made it okay. I was seriously considering having a pull when I heard a banging at the door.

I still had a hard on so I opened it just a crack to peer out, hoping that seeing a delivery man or whoever it was would shock me into a normal state. It was not a delivery man though. It was my roommate.

Pepper's long blonde hair was all over the place and she had panda eyes. She also reeked of booze.

'Bout fucking time.' she mumbled as she took a step through the door and would have fallen flat on her face if I hadn't caught her.

She giggled and rolled around to face me. 'Heeey, Hunter! Shouldn't you be at class or screwing my best friend?'

'I do other things as well, ' I sniffed.

'I be... ' she started to say. ' ... oh shit.' and with that, the ever charming Pepper vomited over the both of us.

She at least had the decency to cover her mouth, but Malibu smelling spew flew everywhere. I was hit on the corner of the mouth by a piece of carrot. I didn't remember seeing her eat any in the last few days.

Pepper tried to stand up, but she just fell again. It was a little bit sad for me to see her in this state since she had always been such a princess. With a sigh, I lifted her in my arms. 'Come on then.'

'You're not my hero.' She said bitterly, but she didn't complain as I carried her up to her bathroom and got in the shower with her. I left both our clothes on until most of the Pepper spray (yes, I thought it was a great one too and I laughed at my own joke accordingly) was off us.

She passed out once, then woke up seconds later, staring around, disoriented before she remembered where she was. Pepper was seriously hammered. She lifted up her arms, which an apparent invitation to get her out of her dress so I lifted it off her. 'Them too.' She looked down at her underwear.

I grimaced and slid them off, then squirted a bit of her Hermes body wash onto a sponge and gently washed her back while she sat on the floor with the hot water jetting over her. When I was done I turned off the water to a moan of disappointment. I wrapped Pepper up in a towel and took her to bed. I tucked her under the covers and got another towel for her wet hair then left her to it.

I only had one lecture today and was going in for an interview at one of the places I had dropped a resume off at a couple of days before. It would be good to get working again, I felt kind of useless without my own money coming in. I looked at my watch. It would probably be recess, so I called my sister. I hadn't spoken to Keira in a few days and I felt bad.

She picked up after one ring. 'I thought you'd forgotten me, ' she said.

'Never. How you doing, sis?'

Keira sighed. 'I'm okay, you know how it is. Everyone is freaking out already about college and GPAs and all that other stuff.'

'Well not everyone has the advantage of being a brain like you.' I said.

'Right.' She didn't sound convinced. 'Well the world will have hell to pay if I don't get in to Stanford.'

'Damn right it will. I might have to end up going to a community college just so we can hang.'

I couldn't see her, but I could feel her smiling on the other end of the phone. 'I miss you.'

She had stopped smiling.

'I miss you too.' And I meant it, things were great with Stella, but I missed my family desperately already. I didn't know how people were supposed to just move away for four years.

'So, how's your man?' I asked, trying to distract her.

'He's good, still relatively boring but I love him. I guess you just spoiled me though when you were here.'

'Well, I'll be spoiling you when you graduate and when I come back for holidays, ' I promised.

'I can't wait. I guess it's not so long.'

'No, not so long, ' I said, trying to be as convincing as I could.

The bell was ringing in the background.

'I... ' she started.

'I know you have to go. I just wanted to hear your voice.'

'I love you, Hunter, ' she said sadly. 'Call me again soon, you promise?'

'I promise. Have a good day.' I hung up the phone and threw it on to the couch across from me. I quickly flicked drop of water from my eye, where something had obviously got caught in it, and looked around me. What was the point again? I should have gone somewhere closer to home. No one was going to give a shit what university I went to in the end. I was probably only going to be a dive bum any way.

I turned around to see Pepper standing unsteadily in the doorway wrapped in her sheets. 'I came down to get water, ' she said.

'Well, you know where the tap is, ' I snapped. I hadn't meant to.

'It's unhealthy, ' she said.

'What is?' I asked unnecessarily.

'What do you think? The thing with your sister. You can never be together and she has her life on hold for you. Why else do you think she keeps that guy around? Because he is safe and he is a substitute.'

'Mind your own business.' I got up.

'You know I'm right.' She opened a bottle of water from the fridge.

'Yeah, you're always right. Now leave me alone, I'm in a bad mood.' I stalked off back to my room and sat on the window sill. Of course it was unhealthy, I didn't need anyone to tell me that it was a fucked up situation. I just had to try and put it away. We were hundreds of miles from each other, so there was nothing that could be done.