Hunter Sommer (missherocomplex) wrote in horror_story, @ 2013-03-04 11:17:00 |
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Entry tags: | complete, cycle002, hunter, max |
Who: Hunter & Max.
When: (Technically) Friday, January 4th. Around 1AM.
Where: The Brass Key.
What: Drinking away some feelings.
Warnings: Language, some thinly veiled threats.
Things hadn't been so good lately, to say the least. She had been trying to hold it together, but Hunter's emotional dam was never as strong as she liked to believe. It was sort of a catch twenty-two for her; after Bella died, she had wanted to go to O'Brien, for him to tell her that it'd all be okay. But she hadn't gone to see him and now there was no time. How was she supposed to know that she had such a small window? Now in the absence of him, she wanted nothing more than to just lay all day on her couch, with Bella curled by her legs like she always did when she could tell Hunter was in a bad mood. But she had neither of them now.
Her shifts at Vic's had begun to fall to the wayside, she had called in several times after Bella's death, and after the news about Bran.. well, she hadn't been to the diner in days. She had maintained coaching at the school, only because the girls needed her and January happened to be prime basketball season, but even with that, her heart wasn't entirely in it. She could put on a smile and razz the girls on the team the same as ever, tell them to get their fucking knees up and threaten to make them do ten laps if they didn't start following through better than that, but even her idle threats were halfhearted. Her mind was elsewhere.
She had been unloading on Annie a lot, and even if Annie was one of her best friends, she knew it wasn't fair. She felt bad for it, honestly, when she knew the older blonde had her own things going on. Between work (Hunter had already grabbed one woman by the front of her shirt and threatened her at the grocery store for implying Annie had anything to do with the Alison situation), and now her little cousin acting like some little hoodlum all of a sudden. Hell, she was fairly certain that Annie wasn't even over the whole Gideon situation yet, and now she had all that other bullshit to deal with.
On top of that, she probably didn't want to listen to Hunter ranting anymore about how she was going to wring Casper Decal's neck, although Hunter was very much set on doing that. She just didn't know how yet. Brannon's unexpected death might have thrown another wrench into her life, given her something else to struggle with, but no part of her had forgotten about Casper. Once the vet had told her what had killed Bella, Hunter had become judge, jury, and executioner in that instant. Casper had done it. There was no question in her mind. Why did she need evidence? She didn't own any rat poison, and if there was one person in town sick enough to feed something like that to a helpless animal, it was that psychopath. She had been in her trailer. She had probably videotaped the whole thing or something, that sick fuck. It made Hunter's blood boil to think of it.
It was better just to keep a little distance from her friends, for the time being. Until she could get over her own bullshit. Decide what to do next. It wasn't like she was entirely pleasant to be around anyway, and she wasn't good about talking about her problems. People crowding her, when she felt the intense mixture of anger and upset, was never good. Her temper was shorter than ever, like a hair-trigger. But it was lonely at her trailer, way too quiet. She hated sitting there by herself. She didn't even feel like going for any drives in her truck, something she often spent hours doing, just for something to do, music blaring. She would usually pick up Annie and Axel, and they'd all just.. go. They'd figure it out when they got there.
But, admittedly, it was hard to see Axel right now anyway. She loved Annie and that dog, but everything about him just made her think of Bella, the way her old dog had always seemed ten years younger when she was going for a walk with Axel or playing with him. He was probably the only one who missed Bella as much as her, and she could swear that his ears drooped every time she walked into Annie's apartment, alone.
Clearly, the answer of where to spend all of her time if she couldn't be at home and she didn't want to impose on her friends, was the Key.
She had been in every night so far this week, after school practice would conclude for the afternoon; she would go home long enough to change her clothes, then she would be back to the Key by dinnertime. Surprisingly, she had hardly even been ordering food. Her seemingly insatiable appetite had apparently begun to take a hit. She would show up smelling heavily like cigar as she would come inside, shed her jacket, and order just a drink instead. Tonight (as well as the last three nights), she was partaking in Jameson whiskey on the rocks, her third glass by that point. She had gotten up a few moments earlier to put a song on the jukebox, before settling back down at her bar stool.
There were a few people playing pool, a couple playing darts, but she wasn't even really paying attention to them, just sitting at the bar with her hands wrapped around her glass, watching her own reflection in the large mirror that hung behind the counter. There normally would have been no hesitation on Hunter's part to intrude and join right in on the guys playing the game of pool, or even darts (though she wasn't so good at that one but would still claim otherwise), just to take her mind off of whatever was bothering her. But her troubles tonight was a little too much for the laugh from flirting with a bunch of drunk guys to fix.
She didn't really feel like flirting with anyone, in fact. She just felt like sitting at the bar and minding her own business. She lifted up her drink and downed what was left, before slamming it down on the bar top and sliding the empty glass of ice away from herself. "Another!" she called down the bar, waving her hand in a gesture of come hither to the bartender.