Turn N' Burn

Chapter 3

 I show up at his house the next day, and he takes me to the back. We sit in the grass, typing away at our computers so as to finish this essay. Two horses graze not too far away, Flash and another mare.

"That's Mouse," He eventually says as he nods to the palomino mare with an almost white mane. "She's retired, had a leg injury a few years back when she fell around the barrel."

"Were you the one riding her?"

"Hm?" He says, looking up from his computer. "Oh, yeah. That happens sometimes. Horses fall. Ground was pretty deep, I was pretty sore but nothing bad."

"Oh," My eyes go wide.

He watches me for a few beats while I turn back to my computer.

"But uh- I'm a good coach, and I'd protect you!" He says nervously, and I notice the light blush on his face.

I laugh, "Ok, thank you my knight and shining armor. Now, tell me more about this rodeo! We're finally on your favorite paragraph now, the barrel racing."

"Well, there's three barrels set up in a clover leaf pattern. Timers are set up pretty close to the alleyway and horses are sent in at full speed to turn those barrels. Two lefts and a right or two rights and a left. Once they leave third they need to speed up even more home and the fastest time wins," I type as fast as I can while he speaks. "Knocked barrels are given five second penalties of course and horses need to slow down just a bit to make it through the turn. Then they are pushed to the next barrel."

I nod, "Interesting."

"Yeah, it is. But even more importantly it's fun, if you enjoy having mini panic attacks before every run."

"Huh?"

"Nothing, are we done? I'm ready to coach you."

He get's Flash tacked, and I hop on.

"Have you ridden a horse before?"

"I had lessons when I was seven."

"Ok, well, what do you remember?"

"Say walk with a squeeze to walk, tr-"

"Spell it, they know vocal cues."

"T-r-o-t with a squeeze for that, and c-a-n-t-e-r for the next. And pull back with a woah to stop."

"Correct." He follows me on the ground as he explains everything. Then for the next hour he teaches me the basics. Even letting me walk and trot the pattern which he says went well. He seems comfortable with me, unlike his school self. Smiling, laughing, opposite of angsty.

"Why don't you run through? Just once to see what happens. Flash'll take care of you."

"A- Are you sure?"

"Very." He looks at me with such certainty, whatever worry I had disappeared.

I go to the starting line with determination, cueing the bay horse to canter as I let him fly to first. I got this!

We head to the first, not as fast as Austin but still the fastest I've ever gone. I pull him in late, almost flying into the fence but Flash saves me at the last millisecond and heads to second. I turn him in much earlier, but this causes a sharp pain to hit my knee as I hit the metal barrel. It tumbles down as the big boy dodges and keeps going. Finally, I turn him in time and he races home. Not wide, and not knocked.

I pull him back with a loud woah, and Gone in a Flash reluctantly complies. "That third was good," Austin says, holding the reins.

"Yeah but the first two," I tell him with a frown.

"You're a newbie, I'm surprised the third was as good as it was. Just gotta put the work in."

This new side of Austin is still new to me, I'm so used to seeing him sit in the corner with a frown that seeing him smile let alone talk is a surprise to me.

"Welp, let's cool Flash off then I'll let ya head home."

"Do you wanna ride Flash?"

"That's ok, gotta get my steps in somehow."

"O- Ok," I say with a blush as Austin walks beside me. His long black hair complimenting the big bays nicely. Does my deep red compliment his?