From The Fall / Bailey Zimmerman

FOUR

Bailey knew he should be getting home soon and that the same went for Ivy, even after all these years.

But he took one last deadly glance at Ivy Mae, his attention getting hooked on the short redhead standing in front of him.

He starts to speak his thoughts, which was how they should really be getting back to their own houses soon, but she touched her finger to his lips, shushing the short-ish boy standing in front of her.

"Naw, no shoulda coulda stuff, I know what you're fixin' to say 'n I don't wanna hear it."

He rolls his eyes.

"Seriously, we haven't spent time together in years. At least let me enjoy this, once."

"Fine."

She looks up at Bailey, a big ass grin on her freckled face that matched the goofy one on his.

Bailey pulls away, a desperate ache in his chest. He didn't know how much he missed this girl.
It hasn't even been that long. Hell, who's he kidding? It felt like forever without her.

"We gotta go home."

"No we don't."

"Just.. fine."

She takes his hand, following him along the winding dirt road that led to Bailey's mama's house, and Ivy's family ranch.

Bailey stops dead in his tracks when he sees both of Ivy's brothers sitting on their front porch glaring at him.

"I.. think I'm gonna leave, Ivy." He smiled, squeezing her hand before he lets go.

She gives him her best puppy dog eyes as if asking him to stay for a while longer, but the death stares he's gotten from her brothers tells him to leave. "My mama's prob'ly cookin' supper, I'll.. come over later."

"Okay, well.. bye Bailey."

Shit, she looks so sad-but he's gotta go.

"Bye Ivy Mae."

"Who was that?" Dallas asks as he looks down at his only sister. "Bailey Zimmerman, you really don't remember him?"

Dallas thinks for a minute, "Oh yeah, he's that boy you liked a couple years back, ain't he?"

"Shut up." Ivy rolls her eyes, trying to ignore her brothers as she pushes past them to get in the house.

2018

Ivy's phone rings, echoing throughout her tiny bedroom. "Ugh, shut up."

She rolls over, reaching over onto her nightstand for her phone. "The heck is so important you have to call me at five thirty in the morning?"

She rubs her tired eyes.

Bailey's sleep-filled voice answers her. "I'm.. headin' to Nashville right now and I uh.. thought you oughta know."

Bailey himself is still in pajamas as he packed his stuff into his one tiny suitcase, the only one that would fit inside his truck. "Bailey, no-you.. why?"

"Remember how everythin' started picking up for me after I released Small Town Crazy? I got a record deal up in Nashville and.. I'm takin' it. I wanted you to come with me."

"I can't just up and leave Illinois now, Bails."

"You did years ago-you know what? No, just, stay here then."

"Bailey.."

"This is where it ends."

Bailey hangs up, taking a sharp breath in.

Fuck.

His own bitter words are breaking his heart, shattering his entire world in five words towards the only damn girl he's ever loved.

He rips his second favorite hoodie off the foot of his unmade bed, stuffing it into his already filled to the point it barely closed suitcase.

"Shit. I left my favorite hoodie at Ivy's house.."

"Bailey, honey, if you wanna get there 'fore the traffic gets real bad you ought to be heading out soon." Kristi shouts from her comfortable spot on the couch. "I know, ma!"

"It's a four hour drive, almost four hours 'n twenty minutes."

"I know, mom." Bailey shouted back.

The former smile on his face was long gone by know but he keeps his mind on his very first record deal, and off Ivy Mae and the ranch.

"Bye mama." Bailey pulls his mama in for one last hug before he's out the door, noticing Ivy's sitting on her parent's front porch.

He's too far to notice, but she's got tears streaming down her cheeks and has his hoodie on, her hair's a mess because she'd just gotten out of bed and her, Bailey and Kristi are the only people awake probably in the whole damn neighborhood.

"Bailey!" She shouts, running up to the Ford Ranger that slowly comes to a stop the closer she got, resting her hand on the side of the roughly running truck. "Please, please don't do this. Please don't go, Bails."

"I can't pass this up, Ivy, this type a thing is a once in a lifetime offer and I.. need this, you know that."

That look she gives him makes his heart break, if that's even possible at this rate. "Damn it, Mae."

"Promise me you'll call?"
"Promise."

Five hours later

Bailey plops his suitcase down on the floor of his shitty apartment.

It's nothing like his mama's house in Illinois, it's cramped, neighbors close as hell, almost no room to put his stuff and he didn't even have much.

He pulls his phone from his pocket, the smile on his face only growing while he dials her phone number.

It rings and rings, the pain from the time she'd left filling his mind as he waited for her to pick up his call.

                                        🍁
"No, mom! Please give me back my phone, Bailey's supposed to call me when he gets there and-"

She rolls her eyes at her daughter, slipping the phone into her pocket. "Bailey can wait. You've been ditching your work around the ranch to spend time with him."

"Mom, I can't lose him again, I can't go through this a second time."

"Go feed the horses and brush Myles and you can have your phone back."

"Mom.. I.."

"No ifs, no ands and no buts-get out there and finish your work and then we'll talk."

"Fine."

Ivy slips her boots on, and pulls Bailey's old hoodie over her head messing up her ginger hair. "Please, if he calls, answer him and tell him I'll call him back later."

She nods, watching Ivy walk out the door headed for the stables to feed and care for her horse, Myles.