No Place Like Home

Loren decided to take a break from her job hunting; she’s been browsing different websites all morning trying to find somewhere close to her brother’s house. For the past couple of days while she’s been settling in she’s thought about how she’s going to get to a job since she won’t have a car for a while. The easiest solution is to have a job close to the house so she can ride a bike which she plans to get with the money she withdrew from her mom’s account. So far she hasn’t had much luck with the job search but she isn’t going to quit until she finds something, even if she has to walk into town and apply in store and beg someone to hire her.

Loren finally ventured out of her room and went downstairs to find something to eat but there wasn’t really anything to eat plus she didn’t know what food belonged to who and she didn’t want to eat something without asking. She could hear movement upstairs and wondered if she could convince whoever was here to get some food with her and maybe, just maybe go to a bike shop to see what she can afford. Loren went back upstairs and followed the faint sound of music being played in one of the bedrooms. It took her a couple of seconds to work up the courage to knock on the door and when she received a ‘come in’ it took her a few more seconds to actually open the door.

“Hey Loren!” Hunter greeted, his smile wide and inviting.

“Hello.”

“What’s going on?”

Loren was going to tell him about the job hunting and the bike research but was distracted by the music playing, “Is this A Day To Remember?”

“Yeah! It’s their new cd. Have you heard it?”

“Not much no. I’ve been meaning to.”

“I’ll have to get it to you. It’s fantastic, definitely worth the wait.”

“Well that’s good to hear.”

“Yeah and you know you don’t have to just stand there. You can sit down.” Loren blushed and walked over to his bed sitting right on the edge of it. “So what have you been doing all day? You’ve been so quiet.”

“Job hunting and stuff.” Loren shrugged. “What about you? You’ve been pretty quiet too.”

“I only woke up like an hour ago.” Hunter laughed.

“It’s two o’clock!”

Hunter just shrugged, “So?”

Loren just laughed and shook her head, “Okay, okay.”

“Are you hungry? I’m starving.”

“I am actually. I know its like not place to ask this but I was going to ask if you wanted to go get some food. I’ll pay.”

Hunter’s nose scrunched in such a cute way Loren had to cough to suppress her smile, “You can ask me anything and I’d love to go get some food.”

“Okay then uhm do you think we can go to this bike place? I looked it up online and I think I want to get one so when I get a job I don’t have to ask you guys all the time.”

“So much exercise. You sure you want to do that?”

Loren nodded, “I’m sure.”

“Alright. I just need to put some shoes on and stuff and we can go.”

“Okay me too.”

Loren hopped off Hunter’s bed and smiled at him again, “Thanks, Hunter.”

“Not a problem Lo.”

Loren slipped on her gray vans to match one of her many basketball tees and put on a hat to cover her unwashed hair. She grabbed her purse and finally left her room, meeting Hunter in the foyer.

“Nice shirt.” Loren complimented his Iron Man t-shirt.

Hunter grinned, “Thank you!”

Hunter opened the door for her making her blush ever so slightly as she walked to his car, waiting for him to unlock the door so she could get in.

“So where do you want to go for lunch?”

“Oh I don’t really know.”

“How does In N Out sound? I haven’t had them in a few days.”

“I’ve never had it.”

Hunter gasped, “What? That’s blasphemy.”

“We don’t have those on the east coast.”

“That’s a shame. Okay we’re going to In N Out.”

“That’s fine by me.”

Conversation faded out then but it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. Hunter plugged his phone into the sound system and a mix cd started playing, the first song being one of Loren’s favorites. She didn’t want to say anything to Hunter so she took her phone from her purse and texted Heather about it instead. His car smelled like the cologne he uses, smoke and something else Loren wasn’t quite sure what it was but it was intoxicating and she just hoped they would be there soon.

Hunter rolled down the windows and turned the music up which allowed Loren a chance to feel like she could breath. Loren looked over at Hunter not being able to stop it anymore. She’s never really had an opinion on guys wearing snapbacks or sunglasses but seeing Hunter in them was making her go a little crazy. Some of his short brown hair was sticking out of the hat and Loren couldn’t help to think it was adorable. Her eyes moved from his button nose down his torso and landed on the bracelet on his wrist; she wondered if it meant anything. She glanced at his shirt again and couldn’t help but smile and wondered if Iron Man was his favorite superhero. Loren knew she was starring too long so she took a final glance at his wrist then his hair poking from his snapback and tuned to look out the window.

Ten more minutes in the car and they finally arrived at In N Out burger. Loren didn’t think it looked like anything special but Hunter seemed to be crawling out of his skin with excitement.

“This is going to change your life.” Hunter told her meeting Loren in front of the car.

“And if it doesn’t?”

“Well,” Hunter paused, “I guess you’re wrong.”

Loren rolled her eyes, “Right.”

Hunter laughed and wrapped his arm around her, “Oh come on.”

When they got to the door Hunter opened it and let her in first. There were quite a few people in line so Loren stood back, Hunter standing right behind her.

“Honestly, everything is good and I’m paying so just order whatever, okay?”

Nothing Hunter just said really registered in her mind because of how close Hunter was and if this was going to be a trend, Loren wasn’t sure how she will survive in the house. It was finally their turn so Loren ordered the double cheeseburger meal, Hunter looking surprised beside her but she just smiled and moved out of the way so he could order the same thing. Loren looked around and decided it was too packed inside so she told Hunter she would pick a table outside.

“I’ll get you something to drink.” Hunter told her. “What do you want?”

“Uhm, sprite I suppose.”

“Okay, go ahead.”

Loren picked a table under the shade and pulled her phone from her pocket finally seeing that Heather texted her back.

from Heather:
you have a cute roommate! That’s not fair! Send me a picture right now.

from Heather:
miss you by the way.

Loren didn’t reply right away, she thought about how much she missed Heather and it struck her how badly she did. With the planning of leaving and actually arriving in Arizona she didn’t really talk or hang out with her much. Heather understood of course but Loren still felt pretty bad that it went that way. She underestimated how much she would miss her best friend and now talking to her about a cute boy like they used to when they were together makes her miss her even more.

“Your food ma’am.”

Loren looked up from her phone and saw Hunter placing a tray down in front of her.

“Thank you sir.”

Loren was never the best with being subtle so once Hunter was sitting down and getting his food together she held up her phone and told him to smile which he did automatically.

“What was that for?” he asked taking a bite from his burger.

“My best friend wants to know who my new roommates are.”

“Ah, okay.”

Loren ignored how absolutely adorable the picture was and sent it to Heather, putting her phone to the side and taking a bite of her own food.

“Mmm.” Loren hummed.

Hunter laughed, “Good, right?”

“Yeah, definitely good.”

“I told you.” Hunter smirked.

They had casual conversation as they ate, talking about movies and music and things to do in Arizona. They got back in the car and were heading to the bike store when Loren saw a ‘help wanted’ sign for a pizzeria.

“Hunter.” Loren said but he didn’t hear her over the music. She reached out and touched his arm gently, hesitantly even.

Hunter glanced at her and turned the music down, “What’s up?”

“Uhm, can we go to that pizzeria over there?” she asked pointing to the complex.

“Still hungry?”

“Not at all. They had a help wanted sign so I thought I could try to apply.”

“Oh yeah sure.”

“Thank you.”

Hunter drove them to the pizzeria, Loren told him he could wait in the car if he wanted but he got out of the car anyway and sat in a random seat while she asked for the application.

“Do you mind if I fill it out real quick?”

“Of course not.”

“Okay cool.”

Loren filled it out as quickly as she could so she didn’t keep Hunter waiting and turned it into the manager. They left the store and finally went to the bicycle shop. They walked around for a while before Loren saw a light blue bike she thought was really cute. It even had a place holder for a basket so when she rode to work she could hold all of her belongings.

“You like this one?” Hunter asked.

“Yeah I do. It’s really cute.”

“How much is it?”

“Uhm,” Loren glanced at the price tag. “$100.”

“Are you going to get it?”

“I want to. I mean I really don’t want to have to ask you or the rest of the guys to take me to work all the time.”

“It makes sense, it does. I’m not going to stop you or anything. I don’t know how Will is going to feel about you riding home in the dark but that’s up to him.”

Loren chewed on the inside of her lip, “Yeah, that makes sense. I just think I need to do this.”

“Alright, I understand. I think it’ll fit in my car, depending on how we angle it in there.”

“Okay, I guess I’ll go find someone to help me with it.”

Hunter smiled, “Okay, I’ll go get the car situated.”

It was easy enough for Loren to buy the bike and Hunter helped her get it in the car; it separated them in the front seat but Loren was happy for the distance.

“Can I ask a question?”

Loren’s heart raced, “Sure.”

“How were you able to afford that bike so easily?”

“Oh. I stole the money from my parents.”

“Really?”

“Well yeah, I mean…” Loren trailed off. “Yeah.”

Hunter didn’t say anything else and it was making Loren nervous. She could see how terrible that sounded and she wished she didn’t seem like such a terrible person but she knew she wasn’t ready to share everything yet. So she just stayed quiet and checked her phone to see if Heather replied. Thankfully she did so she could distract herself with replying to her. The drive back to the house was quiet and somewhat awkward but Loren didn’t know what to do so just sat there. Once they arrived home, Hunter helped her get the bike out and showed her where she could keep it in the garage but then he escaped into the house.

Loren wasn’t sure what went wrong and why he was being so distant and she really didn’t want to be bothered by it but she was. She had to remind herself however that she just met Hunter and it shouldn’t matter what he thinks of her and he doesn’t understand what she did and he may never. She doesn’t have to tell him anything about her life and if he doesn’t agree with it then oh well. He’s just a boy, he’s just a roommate, a roommate she just met and she doesn’t owe him anything. And yet despite all of this, she was still upset and she just wished everything would be okay.