"At the same time, I wanna hug you, I wanna wrap my hands around your neck.

You're an asshole but I love you and you make me so mad I ask myself,

Why I'm still here, or where could I go? You're the only love I've ever known.

But I hate you, I really hate you,

So much, I think it must be true love..."

***

I jumped out of bed when I heard our door bell ringing. My parents already left and I wasn't expecting any visitors at this time of the night. I was immediately on high alert.

I grabbed my cellphone and glanced at the time. It was already 9 in the evening. I was home alone and someone was waiting for me outside. I was sure I'd already seen scenes like this in horror movies.

"Please, God, don't go full Conjuring on me." I silently prayed.

Tiptoeing towards the window, I felt like I could potentially encounter a serial killer, a brigade of the undead, or maybe just a run-of-the-mill ax murderer.

I peeked outside, ready to call 911 if I saw something suspicious.

I saw Hunter standing on our front porch, wearing a Yankees ball cap like he was some kind of a sporty poltergeist.

Yep, that definitely looked suspicious.

I unlocked my phone and dialed his number. It rung for a while before he answered.

"What do you want?" I demanded. I had a really bad day so excuse me if I wasn't in the mood for jovial greetings.

I only heard grumbling on the other line.

"Hello?" I asked once again.

Still grumbling.

I must admit I felt slightly concerned at that point. Hunter never missed a chance to use his self-proclaimed sexy telephone voice.

Something must be really wrong with him.

I ended the call and ran down the stairs, promising myself I'd give him a good beating if he was just playing pranks on me.

I opened the door, ready to give him a piece of my mind but before I could do so, he collapsed onto me. I grunted from the impact.

"Woah!" I grabbed him by the shoulder to prevent us from toppling onto the floor. I took a look at his face and saw how pale he was. "Hunter, are you okay?" I said in concern.

He mumbled something incomprehensible.

"What? I didn't get that." I said, trying to steady him.

One of his arms snaked around my head and the other on my waist as he buried his face to my neck. His warm breath sent bolts of electricity down my spine.

"S-sky..." He mumbled, his voice sounded pained.

"What is it?" I asked, really nervous now.

As much as I normally wished he would get swallowed up into the nearest sinkhole, the fact was, I really cared for this guy. I didn't want to see him in pain.

"Sky, I need..."

"What? What do you need?"

He was starting to scare the hell out of me. Was he hurt? Did Cain and his minions beat him up? I didn't see any visible physical injury but maybe they were hidden under his clothes? Should I do a more thorough check? Should I ask him to strip?

You just want to see him naked, hoe. Sneered that part of me that still lived in the middle ages.

Shut up! It's purely for scientific and humanitarian purposes! I mentally defended myself.

Hunter let out a weak sigh, forcing me out of my reverie.

"Hey, tell me what's wrong." I pleaded.

It felt like forever before he managed to say something.

"F-food..." He whispered weakly.

For a moment, I was bewildered.

"Food?"

That was when his stomach let out a growl so loud, it probably registered in the Richter scale.

Hunter raised his head and gave me a miserable look.

"Do you have any leftover dinner?" He said, his purple eyes practically begging.

I was speechless. I could not believe the audacity of this guy. So he came here for free food? What did he think of my house, a soup kitchen?

I harshly pushed him away from me.

"My house is not your personal refrigerator!" I half-yelled, seething from annoyance.

I poked him in the chest. "Do you get satisfaction from seeing me worried?"

Poke.

"I thought you were hurt!"

Poke.

"I thought something bad happened to you!"

Hunter caught my hands and trapped them in his.

"It's bad, Sky. Very bad." He said with just the right amount of sadness and forbidding laced in his voice. His eyes were rounded in what I could only assume was his I-am-about-to-spew-some-epic-bullshit look. "I haven't eaten anything since lunch. It's the worst thing that has ever happened to me."

He sniffed and let go of my hands to wipe his non-existent tears. From the way he was acting, you'd think he'd suffered some kind of a post-traumatic disorder for not being able to chew something for several hours.

I had a sudden urge to give him a high five. In the face. With a cactus.

"The worst thing that will ever happen to you is me, kicking you in your esophagus! Goodbye!" I said then tried to close the door in his face but before I did, he managed to slip inside the house.

"Get out! You are trespassing!" I shouted.

Instead of doing what I demanded, he dropped to the cold, marbled floor theatrically, and curled into a fetal position.

"I'm so hungry." He sobbed a sob so fake, Kim Kardashian's ass would be jealous. "Please feed me."

He looked so pathetic curled up in a ball like that, that it was almost funny. In fact, I was having a hard time keeping a straight face.

I let out a huff. There was no escaping this. I knew I was stuck with this big baby until he was fed.

"Fine!" I said, raising my hand in surrender. "Now stand up!"

He was back on his feet in a blink of an eye.

"Yessss!" He cheered. "Woooh hooo!" He ran past me towards the kitchen, skipping like a Disney Princess. And all I could do was roll my eyes.

***

"You know what, buddy? I think I've already discovered a way for us to become billionaires." Hunter said thoughtfully as soon as he was done devouring the mac and cheese I made for him.

We didn't have left-over dinner so I had no choice but to cook. I thought I did well given that I only almost set our house on fire twice.

"How?"

"We could sell your mac and cheese to the government. It could be a weapon for mass destruction."

I threw a crumpled paper napkin at him and it hit him square in the chest.

"Sorry if my cooking skills disappointed you, you ungrateful jerk!" I snapped, trying not to blush.

Okay, so maybe I sort of burned the macaroni and put a little too much salt in the cheese but no one would have guessed so especially since he wolfed it down in twenty seconds.

Hunter laughed at my expression.

"Haha. Just Kidding!" He said. "It was the best mac and cheese I've ever had. 6 out of 5 stars. I want it as a gift for my birthday. It's so good, it would give any Michelin chefs a run for their money. In fact, you should patent it." His smile brought up sides of his mouth, and a dimple surfaced.

I fought back a smile.

Gosh, why was he so adorable?

"So... you have any dessert?"

Or maybe not.

I scowled my scowliest scowl.

"This isn't a restaurant."

"Your mom said you baked cookies for me."

"When did you talk to my mom?"

Hunter put his arm on the table and rested his chin on his palm.

"She texted me." He said, smiling at me like he knew something super-fantastic but couldn't say it.

"You're also text-mates with my mom?!" I exclaimed, completely horrified.

"Of course." He said, looking smug as ever.

I knew it! He was sucking up with my parents! He was using his charms to gain unlimited access to our refrigerator! The lengths this boy would go just to have free food!

Incidentally, I did baked cookies earlier just to have something to do. I might not be good at cooking but I was pretty confident of my baking skills. Maybe I should let him try them to redeem myself after that abomination of a mac and cheese.

I walked over the refrigerator and brought out the cookies.

Hunter looked like Christmas just came early when I put the tray on the table. He smiled like the cat that ate the canary and then ate the canary's little brothers and sisters and the canary's second cousin too.

Eyes twinkling, he took one cookie and brought it to his face.

"I love cookies." He said, his eyes closed as he cradled the cookie, cooing at it softly like he was talking to a baby.

"You're crazy." I said.

He was obviously used to being called a lunatic because he just chose to ignore that.

"Thank you for baking these for me. You're so sweet." He said.

"Actually, I didn't bake that for you." I clarified. "I was planning to bring that tomorrow for everyone."

Upon hearing that, Hunter abruptly lunged on the table and grabbed the tray of cookies. He hugged it to his chest with the fervor of a man determined not to be apart from his dearly-beloved confectionery.

"No! These are mine! You made it for me." He pouted, staring at me indignantly.

"You can have that one. I have one more tray saved for the others."

"Those are mine too."

I slapped my hand on the table.

"Why are you being so selfish?"

"Because you made them."

"So?"

"So I want them all."

I rolled my eyes.

"You can't eat them all! You'll get sick!"

"I've survived your mac and cheese. That basically made me indestructible."

"Shut up and eat my cookies."

"Okay."

Hunter, being the food addict that he was, happily ate the entire tray of cookies as if our argument never happened. Every once in a while, he would whisper sweet nothings of love to the cookie. I told him that wasn't really necessary but he just simply said: "Don't say that, buddy. It will hurt the cookies' feelings."

Talk about deranged.

Now here was another thing you needed to know if you wanted to hang out with Hunter Cole: Aside from having a doctorate degree in puppy dog-eyed looks, he probably also had a doctorate degree in eating. It was so much fun watching him eat. Like, if you wanted to eat a whole mammoth, you could watch him eat to get some tips. He ate with so much gusto, that it was almost infectious. If eating was a contest, I was sure he would win first place.

I smiled. I wasn't the best baker but Hunter was eating my cookies as if they were the best thing he'd ever tasted. Of course he had the same exact reaction to every food, but still.

"So why did you ditch school?" He asked when he was down to the last bite.

I shrugged.

"I wasn't feeling well."

It wasn't a complete lie. The whole Cain-shenanigan really made my head ache. I decided to take the remaining half of the day off to recharge. Dad picked me up at school after I walked out of that disastrous attempt at lunch with Cain and co.

"Are you okay now?"

"Yes." I said. "Uhm, Cain invited me to their lunch earlier." I added, opening the topic I had been itching to ask him about.

Hunter didn't react but I felt the atmosphere immediately changed.

I watched him as he carried his plate to the sink. "I'll wash, you dry." He said.

Hunting through the drawers to the side of the sink, he found a dish towel and slung it playfully at me. I caught it clumsily.

"I have questions about Cain and Maria..." I trailed off.

Hunter leaned lazily against the counter. Ash blonde hair flipped out from under his Yankees ball cap. A smile tugged at his mouth, and just like that, all the rational thoughts running through my head dissolved and a new thought broke the surface of my mind.

I wanted to kiss him. Right now.

As if reading my mind, he arched his eyebrows at me. "What?"

I shook my head to get rid of my dirty thoughts. I was so annoyed at myself for even thinking about kissing him. I blamed him for corrupting my once innocent mind.

"Uh, I'll ask later. You wash, I dry."

***

It didn't take long to finish the dishes, and when we had, we found ourselves cramped in the space near the sink. Hunter moved to take the dish towel from me, and our bodies touched. I looked up and our eyes met. Neither of us moved, holding to the fragile link that welded us together.

I stepped back first. Hunter looked amused.

"Relax. I won't let you rape me." He chuckled.

"Shut up." I hissed, blushing profusely.

I was trying so hard not to pounce at him but unfortunately, he was not making it any easier because he was just standing there with his fine self, looking like some beautiful-but-annoying-but-adorable-but-mysterious-but-childish fallen angel.

I meant, he might as well have his own theme music. Something catchy. With lots of electric guitar. And maybe some violin.

Ugh.

Why did I even let him enter our house? He was like turning me into some kind of nymphomaniac or something.

"Say what," he started to say, unaware of my borderline-crazy thoughts. "To show my gratitude to you for feeding me, you can ask me three questions and I promise I'll answer truthfully."

My pulse edged up a degree. Yes! This was the moment I had been waiting for!

"Sounds fair." I said, managing to keep a straight face even though I was brimming with excitement.

"Ask wisely." He said with a challenging smile.

And as expected, I asked the first question that popped into my douchebag-mind. "What's up with you and Maria?"

Of all the stupid questions, I had to ask the stupidest! Now he would think I was jealous, as if he needed another thing that would boost his already swollen ego.

I expected him to tease me about being in-love with him or something like that but his answer took me off-guard.

"I once thought I was in love with her." He said. "She's smart, she's pretty, and we got along really well. When you're a boy and fifteen, you think you're in love with every pretty girl you see, but most often than not, that isn't really the case. I wish I realized it sooner. It would've saved us a lot of heartbreak."

Wow. So he was on his serious, edgy Hunter mode now. The sudden change in his personality almost gave me a whiplash.

Surprisingly, I felt more interested than jealous. I was really curious to know his past. It was weird because even though I had known him for such a long time, I didn't really know him. He was an enigma, a puzzle that I needed to solve. And solve him, I would.

"So, you weren't really in love with her?" I pressed.

He gave me a look I couldn't decipher.

"No, not really." He tapped his fingers rhythmically onto the counter. "I loved her, I still do. But I was never in love with her."

Hallelujah! Hunter was finally giving me access to his unfiltered thoughts!

"She had a lot of things to say about you, you know?" I said.

He cocked his head to the side, like something about what I said amused him. "I'm sure she does."

"She said you betrayed them and almost ruined their lives." I whispered. I didn't know why I suddenly felt nervous.

"Do you believe her?"

"I don't know what to believe."

Hunter's face gave away nothing, but his eyes grew cold.

"They're not lying."

"So you really did it?"

"Did what?"

"Betray them?"

"Is that your second question?"

"Yes."

To be honest, I didn't know why it was important for me to know. Perhaps, I wanted him to deny all the bad things Maria said about him. I didn't want to accept that version of him, the one who was capable of betraying his friends. It wasn't the Hunter I knew. It wasn't my reality of him.

His eyes left mine and focused on something in front of us.

"This is going to be a long story." He said as he slid his cap around until its brim was facing backward.

"I have time." I insisted. I needed answers, and I needed them now.

Hunter let out a sigh.

"I met Cain when I was thirteen through an online site for hackers. He was looking for someone who would help him create the perfect virus."

"Perfect virus? Isn't Moriarty Tech the leading Anti-Virus manufacturer?"

Hunter nodded, then his gaze flew back at me.

"I have a question. How do you know if your anti-virus software is the perfect one?"

"I don't know. If it's the most expensive, I guess?"

He laughed softly.

"Close. But the correct answer is, you'll know it's perfect when it successfully blocked the perfect bug."

"But... if it's the perfect bug, shouldn't it be indestructible?"

"Exactly. And that simple fact was the thing that fucked us up. You asked me before if I created a perfect virus, the answer is yes. I did create one. I was stupid enough to think I was doing the right thing. I made the world's most dangerous virus, thinking it was just the first step in creating the perfect anti-virus. I thought the end would justify the means. I was wrong, Sky."

His voice was low and emotionless for someone whose confession was completely blowing my mind. I knew he was a computer genius, but I didn't expect he was that good.

"Cain wanted to use the virus to access some government agencies' database. So we hacked the Department of Defense, CIA, NSA and the Pentagon. We were just supposed to test the strength of their security systems, help them identify all the weak points. But the virus worked a little too well. We've accidentally gained access to a lot of information we were better off not knowing. To make the long story short, the FBI tracked down the source of the virus and it led them to my computer."

"But it's a happy ending, right?" I said, even though my gut feeling was telling me the opposite. "I watched the news. They said the CIA saw your potential so they decided to offer you apprenticeship in their new project instead of locking you up in juvenile detention."

Hunter let out a humorless laugh. Suddenly, I realized that everything I thought I knew about his past was wrong. Something bad happened to him. Very bad.

"Hacking government databases is a federal offense, Sky. My story is far from the fairytale story the media wanted everyone to believe. There's no happy ending here for me."

You know what was the most heartbreaking part of it all? It was the lack of emotion in his voice. There wasn't any grudge nor hate nor drama laced in it. He was speaking matter-of-factly, like he was just talking about the weather.

"The CIA gave me two choices, become a felon and rot in jail for the rest of my life, or tell them all the confidential information I know about Moriarty Tech and become their apprentice. I chose the latter."

I felt like a bomb exploded right in front of me. I was so shocked, no voice came out of my mouth. Hunter noticed my reaction and his face turned even more impassive.

"I'm not a good person, Sky." He said, piercing me with his haunting eyes. "But I was worse."

I didn't know what to say. So he did betray his friends. To save himself, he almost ruined the lives of others. If I were in his situation, would I do the same thing?

He reached for my hand and reeled me closer to him. He didn't stop until I was directly in front of him. Suddenly, he lifted me onto the counter. My face was level with his. There was a glint in his eyes that made me think I should be frightened of him.

"Do you hate me now?" He asked.

I gripped the counter behind me for support.

Did I?