Hunter
A Sight To Behold
Tonight Hero is throwing a small party at the house; he’s even preparing dinner and grilling. This is a huge turnaround for him. I feel like a proud father as I watch him from inside my house. Hero whistles a tune and flips sizzling patties on the grill that’s on patio by the pool.
Ivy presses her front to my back, wrapping her arms around my midsection. “He’ll get there, Hunter. He just needs more time.”
“I know. I wish I could eat his misery. He’s been through a lot to be so young.”
Her slender fingers run through my hair, massaging my scalp. “So have you.”
***
The house is now filled with half of Cherry Creek. The young and old along with everyone in-between occupy every space. Ear-shattering hip-hop music blares from all over. Discarded plastic cups litter every surface. A bunch of people are in the pool playing water sports, making out and smoking, doing little to no swimming.
I glance around and have a sudden flare of panic. My clean house is in the process of being vandalized. The unrelenting urge to pick up trash and wipe down and disinfect surfaces is a strong one. I can’t tolerate living in filth or being immersed in it for very long. The origin of my OCD traits dates back to being forced to live with my own waste when I was imprisoned in a cramped cage as a child. Clean and organized is practical and is easy to understand. Chaos and filth is difficult to analyze and assess. Terrifying things lurk within a world of grime…
Hero calls everyone over to the small square-shaped wrought-iron table on patio by the sliding glass doors. Blue sits at the head of the table in her shimmering black and gold designer bikini, puffing on a cigarette and knocking back a beer while stuffing her face with salty chips. I guess when she isn’t modeling she can splurge on the finer things in life.
“I’ve made a special dessert for my beautiful friend, Blue. Don’t you all think she’s the hottest thing you’ve ever seen?” The crowd erupts in loud hollers and whistles. I cross my arms at my chest, bracing for something. I just don’t know what it is. A girl with red glowing heart-shaped sunglasses brings out a dish covered with a metal cloche lid and places it in front Blue. When she tries to open it, Hero places a firm hand on top of hers, effectively bringing her to an abrupt halt. He looks down at her and smiles a smile laced with malice. “I just want you to know that I’ve put my heart into that and thought about you the entire time I made it. I made quite a mess in the process, but the end result was well-worth it. So please, enjoy.”
Blue lifts the top off the dish and some people scream while others laugh. A teen girl with pigtails gags and pukes all over my potted geraniums. It is Berry’s bloody head served on a platter. Hero slaughtered a poor kitty for a reason unknown to me, because it sure as hell doesn’t upset Blue.
She barely blinks.
“Well done, Hero,” Blue says. She stabs the brilliant cherry of her cigarette out on Berry’s discolored tongue that hangs limply out from his mouth. “I’ve been thinking about this for a while now, Hero. I’m going to give my agency in Paris a call. I think you’re modeling material. Would you like that?”
He gives her a suspicious look and then grins massively. “I would love it.”
I don’t know what these two are playing at, but I am grateful Ivy is in the house, so she doesn’t have to witness a beheaded Berry. She loved that cat.
“Enough, Hero. Get that shit off my table!”
His stark blue eyes dart to mine. “Okay. Cool it, Hunter,” he mouths, giving his head a slight shake. I’ve come to realize that this wasn’t a party at all…just some kind of incontrovertible declaration that Hero isn’t tolerating Blue’s cruel ridicule anymore.