out of sync

4.

"Hey!" I yelled at the person who was running out of the yard, having almost tackled me around the corner to the stables. She either didn't hear me or didn't care, her long strides taking her out of the entrance to Bright Fields and onto the road in a matter of seconds.

What the hell? I turned and rushed to pick up Firefly's lead, taking him into his stable. Mia appeared at the doorway just as I was taking off his saddle.

"See, aren't you glad you finally-" she began to muse, but cut herself off when she saw me next to Firefly. "Oh, Pin." She let out a sharp exhale. "I thought my cousin was in here."

"Your cousin?" I asked. Normally, I avoided engaging with anyone in the yard—especially Mia—but it wasn't every day that a stranger came to visit just to bolt away moments later.

"Yes, my cousin, Melody." she replied, looking out across the paddock. "If you had seen her, you'd know, everyone believed we were twins when we were little."

I thought back to the runner, struggling to remember any details of her appearance. It all happened so suddenly that I didn't even see her face, only glimpsed her side profile as she took off down the lane. If she was Mia's cousin, they didn't really strike me as people who looked enough alike to be confused for one another.

"I may have seen her, just now," I began, piecing together what had just happened, "why was she here if she doesn't like horses?"

Mia's head whipped around quickly.

"She does like horses. She rides competitively on the mainland and loves Firefly almost more than I do. She's just been acting weird lately."

I stood up straighter, putting Firefly's saddle on the stable door before opening it.

"You're kidding, right?" I scoffed. Mia continued to stare at me, her gaze harsh. "She freaked when Firefly nudged her just now. Threw his lead rope, ran out of the yard, almost took me down in the process." As far as I could tell, there was no way Firefly had done anything that would be considered scary by a 10 year old visiting the yard for the first time, let alone someone who supposedly adored him.

Mia shook her head, clearly agitated by the situation.

"Like I said, she's been acting weird," she huffed. After a pause where neither of us moved to walk or speak, she started up again while pacing the length of the fence.

"Ever since she came to stay, she's only come with me to the stables one time, and now she keeps blowing me off. She's supposed to be going to study veterinary medicine, she can't just stop riding now. Daddy says she needs 'time to heal' or whatever, but I don't think it's any excuse for throwing away her future."

It was almost as if Mia was talking to herself as she ranted. That would explain why she'd tell me—of all people—any of these things, as well as why she looked up at me suddenly and rolled her eyes at the confusion that must have shown on my face.

I was struggling to understand how any of it tied together, but at least one thing in her monologue caught my attention.

"She's studying veterinary medicine? The person who couldn't stand to be near a horse for more than a second?" I asked, skeptical.

Mia hoisted Firefly's saddle into her arms and started walking toward the tack room. I followed on her heels, not ready for the conversation to be over. I couldn't remember a time I'd ever talked to Mia for this long—I probably never had.

"Believe it or not, it's all she's wanted ever since we started riding together. She knew the name of every bone in a horse's body by the time we were 7," she explained as she began putting up the tack.