Over the course of the next few days, Hunter showed plenty of improvement. His parents scraped together enough money for a more expensive, better quality air tank for him. Although he was still in the hospital, I barely left his side. I slept and ate in the hospital waiting room when I wasn't with him.

"Cieco," one of the nurses said when I was finishing a visit. "Don't you think it's time to go home to your family? They're probably worried, and it's almost time for Hunter to be discharged," she said.

"I want to be with him every step. And I'm sure no ones missing me right now, I told them I would be staying with Hunter until he was discharged," I lied.

"Okay then," she said skeptically before walking away.

I went to sit on a chair in the waiting room where I could have my thoughts to myself.

'Where am I supposed to go after he's discharged?' I thought.

"Hey Cieco." Hunter's voice came from beside me.

"Hunter? What are you undoing out of your room?"

"Well, I'm finally being discharged. The doctors said I had no chance, maybe you're my guardian angel."

I looked at him and smiled.

"Hunter, can we talk about a few days ago." I looked down at the ground and lost my smile.

He went silent.

"Hunter?"

"I don't feel like talking about it. My dad's coming, I don't need him in my personal life." He ended the conversation then and there.

"Hey Cieco," Hunter's dad said while walking up.

"Hey Mr. Anadu," I turned to face him.

"I heard about your situation," he paused.

"What do you mean by my situation."

"You have nowhere to be right now. How you were kicked out an-"

"I wasn't kicked out. I chose to run away from my broken family," I interrupted him. No one knew I had been running from the authorities or that they were probably looking for me.

"Right, how you ran away and all that. I was wondering if you would like to stay with us until you find your ground."

"Stay with you?" I paused to ponder the thought. "I would love to stay with you!" I stood up and attempted to hug him, but I missed and stumbled forwards.

"That's good news. We can have our guest room set up for you," he chuckled and hugged me.

"Let's go then," Hunter said from behind us.

I nodded and let them lead me to the car.

•••

"And the end of your tour, leads us to your room, on the main floor," Mr. Anadu said, concluding my tour.

"Thank you, Mr. Anadu," I said.

"No need to be formal. Just call me Al," he said. "Hunter, can you help Cieco with her room, get her used to it and show her where stuff is," Al said.

"Okay dad," Hunter said shortly after.

Hunter helped me get used to where everything was and what everything was.

When we were done with that, we sat on the bed and talked.

"So," I paused and lowered my voice. "Can we talk about what happened?"

"Oh, did you know we're bringing you shopping for new stuff later on in the week? We can help you choose. You know, you being blind and all," he pretended I hadn't said anything at all.

"Hunter, you can't ignore it forever."

"What do you mean Cieco?"

"Well you keep ignoring it. You always have an excuse, and when you don't you pretend you didn't hear me," I started to raise my voice with each word.

"Cieco, you have to accept that that was a moment for the both of us. Just because you can talk about it don' mean I can. It was spur of the moment. I was dying an' I wasn't thinking straight. It was an accident," Hunter was practically yelling.

"What's goin' on in here?" Al ran in.

"Nothing, we're fine," I mumbled and looked at the ground.

"Okay." He rose his bow skeptically, before slowly closing the door.

"So it was an accident? I was a last hope?" I kept my head hanging low.

"No, that's not what I meant," Hunter muttered.

"Then what did you mean? Because I think it's clear that we're just friends. You don't have to try any harder to show me that. I may be blind, but that's something I can see," I claimed, before calmly asking him to get out. He nodded and left.

I changed into a blue oversized t-shirt and a pair of shorts Hunter had lent me earlier, before I collapsed on my bed and fell asleep.

•••

I awoke to the smell of pancakes and eggs. I got up, changed and followed the heavenly scent to the dining room upstairs.

"Mornin' sleepy head," Al's voice came from the kitchen.

"Hey Al," I called back. "Is Hunter here?"

"No, he went for a walk. Want some pancakes?" He asked. I nodded, holding out my plate.

"Any idea when he'll be back?" I asked, before shoving a forkful of pancakes in my mouth.

"I have no ide-"

"I'm back," Hunter said.

"Hey Hunter." I continued to eat my pancakes.

"Hey Cieco. You wanna go to the field today?" He asked.

"Don't feel like it. I want to work on some school stuff," I said.

I needed to distance myself from him, and figure out how I felt. I knew he didn't love me back, so I needed to trash my feelings. Maybe we could start over as friends again.

"Oh, okay. I can help."

"No thank you. I'll manage," I lied. I didn't have any work in braille, and I had left my phone at the apartment.

"Okay," He said in a dull tone.

"Later we can go shopping, and then maybe go to the water park," Al barged his way into our conversation.

"Good idea, dad," Hunter said. I nodded and finished my pancakes.

"May I have some more?" I asked.

"Sure," Al said. After I heard the satisfying plop of two more pancakes, I put butter on them.

"Could you pass the syrup?" I mumbled to Hunter.

"Sure," He said. He hastily passed it to me, spilling syrup all over me.

"Shit!" I yelled, feeling the sticky substances drip from my shirt onto my thighs. "What the hell Hunter?"

"Hey, watch your language please. I'm sure we can find some clothes for you, I'll go look," Al said and hurried off.

"Sorry," I mumbled.

"Why does everything have to be so tense with us?" Hunter asked, shortly after Al had left the room.

"What are you talking about?"

"Well, we had one talk about how I need space and—"

"How I was a pity last resort?" I stopped him.

"I didn't mean it that way Cieco. I don't think you should get to be this mad. You sprung your crush on me the day you were leaving and then when you came back, we kissed? This is messed up Cieco," he sighed.

"You said it yourself. You didn't mean it and it was spur of the moment. You didn't want to kiss me, or choose to kiss me," I said.

There was an awkward silence.

"What?" I asked.

"Y'all kissed?" Al's voice came from behind me.

"W-well," I stuttered, turning around to face him.

"Dad, it's not like that." Hunter tried to cover it up.

"Sure it's not. What do you mean by all that then?" He asked skeptically.

"Well, I liked Hunter. When he was in the hospital, we had a quick kiss. Spur of the moment. You can kick me out, or anything. I'm really sorry," I said.

"It's fine," he sighed. "We're just going to lay out some ground rules." He took us to the living room and sat us on the couch. "First of all, no going into each other's rooms. Especially at night," He said.

"As if Hunter could come into my room." I glared at Hunter.

"Okay. No more kissing whatsoever."

"Don't worry, all taken care of," Hunter quickly said.

"No pornhub or any of the teenager 18+ stuff," Al finally said.

"Got it," we said simultaneously.

"Good. Do we all have an understanding?" Al said.

"Yes."

"Yeah dad."

"Okay. Here you go, Cieco." Al threw a pile of clothes at me. "Go change."

I nodded and ran to my room to change.