Falling for my best friends brother (Emily Holland)

chapter 3

when i get is the stables with Mistral there's a suprise waiting for me.

i see tom standing in the stable with the parents from Katie and Evan talking to each other and not noticing me so i try and slip past them and walk at the other side of Mistral so i don't need to greet my famous brother who just left for a movie while he promised he would be there and support me on the most important day in my life back then when is was trying out for the Brittisch olympic equestrian team, but nooo this arse of a brother left so he could be with his girlfriend Z not that i hate her i just hate the fact that he left without saying anything so i didn't talk to him for a good 14 months now.

" you know it could be that she is still training with the others or she could be in the field with her horses or- ohh there is she is" i could mentally slap myself on my forehead when i hear Katie's mother say that while i try and not be seen. "oh hey Mrs Holmes, Mr Holmes i will just put Mistral away and then i will train Thunder, then i will be free for a little and then the lessons will start at 1.30 pm" i just walk past them and don't give Tom a chance to speak to me because i simply don't want to talk to him right now, i just don't get why he is here and not at home being all happy with my parents and brothers, like this is my place and his is at home or on a movie set. i text in the groups chat that tom is here and that i am currently dieing because i just don't want him here right now. i put Mistral away and give her a carrot and brush her down again before i go to Thunder and get him out of his stable and in the cross ties so i can do the same routine as i do with Mistral. "c'mon buddy time to shine out there, let's make everyone see how amazing you are, and after that you get a carrot and can go to the meadow with Mistral, Monty, Nacho and Nugget" when i want to walk to the tack room Tom goes to stand in between the door and me. "why won't you talk to me Em, i'm your brother who just got back after a year away from home, i heard you drowned yourself in work you know that is not healty especially in your condition". this is where i snap "AND WHAT WOULD YOU KNOW ABOUT ME AND MY CONDITION, YOU ARE ALWAYS AT THE OTHER SIDE OF THIS FUCKING PLANET WITH YOU'RE PERFECT GIRLFRIEND AND LEAVE YOUR FAMILY BEHIND AND THAT WITHOUT A SIMPLE GOODBYE OR A SORRY I COULDN'T MAKE IT!" i then turn around and walk past all my friends, who stand at the door of the barn, and walk to the meadow and straight to Monty, i lunge myself on him and just lay down on him and hope that al my problems magically dissapear, but sadly they don't. i hear someone walking to me and feeling the reaction from Monty it's Katie or Evan because Monty has a weird dislike towards Jay but i guess thats because Jay hugged me once when i stood for his stall and he pushed us apart and made Jay back away from me, but that's a story for later. I look up to see who is there and to my suprise it's Evan i expected Katie to be honest but i guess she is taking care of Thunder for me.

"hey Em i know you don't want to talk right now but know that we are here for you and you can always call me or the others if you need a quick get away from Tom, but you also still need to train thunder with me and my horse". i sight and know he is right so is sit up and look at him with a sad look on my face " i know that Ev and i'm thankfull for that but it's just everytime i see Tom i think back to the promise he made to me about being there with me for try-outs for the team and when i got there only you guys where there and my dad told me right before i needed to ride that he left without a goodbye to me to go catch his plane to America, and now he is here and thinks he can walts back into my life and in my problems while he isn't here to help me solve them so i just blocked him out of my life". I slip off Monty and walk past Evan to my pony's Nugget and Nacho before walking to the gate and turning around to Evan "thanks for listening and are you coming the horses don't train themselves at jumping" i say to him with a smile on my face and once again  i just feel happy about going to ride with my friends, horses and my little- oke big crush on Evan.

i walk back into the stable and see that indeed Katie did take care of Thunder for me and saddled him up for me and Jay saddled Evan's horse up so we grab our horses and take them to the jumping arena, when we get there Katie and Jay are already there and much to my dismay Tom is there to but sits in the stands at the side of the arena " hey Evan what do you think, should we jump high today or are we going to jump the Olympic height?" i shout to Evan who is on the other side of the arena " i think we should jump the Olympic height if we want to score points next competition and we can show our talents to the team that they we're not wrong about choosing this team to join them" Evan shouts back and i agree with him and look sideways at Tom and he looks wide eyed at the jumps who Katie and Jay set on 1.60 meters high, i just smile to myself about that tom looks scared about me jumping those jumps. Evan and i warm our horses up and start to jump some low jumps who are set up for the jumping lesson later today, when we are warmed up we start to jump the high jumps and when i do Tom almost falls from his seat when he sees me flying over them. The only thing i can do is laugh at his face and at how amazing it feels to fly over those jumps with an horse so amazing as Thunder. " Evan i challenge you to jump all the 1.60 jumps in one row without 1 pole falling down" "challenge accepted Em, i will beat your arse" he says smirking back before sending his horse over all the jumps and knocks not 1 pole down so now it's up to me to jump them all, i ride Thunder to the first one and jump it clean, and so does for the half of the jumps then an oxer from 1.60 high and 1.20 wide comes infront of me and i lose my stirrup and i hear everyone gasp and i just don't bother to steer Thunder away from the jump so i just push my knee in the saddle and hold my balance when we jump and we jump the rest of the course with only 1 stirrup and i didn't knock down a pole but when i'm done and walking Thunder around i feel my knee in pain and i almost fall out of my saddle from the pain in my knee what only results in an astma attack so i start gasping for air while i almost cry out in pain, i hear Tom shout at me but i can't hear a thing he says and i blurrily see Katie grabbing Thunders reins and i hear someone running towards us and i feel my inhaler between my lips as soon as the footsteps stop, i take my inhaler from the person who grabbed it for me and take several intakes before opening my eyes again and look around to everybody around me and they see me regaining my calm and happy self except for my pained expression about the pain in my knee. "i'm sorry guys i wasn't planning on losing my stirrup and injure my knee and having an attack" "it's alright Em and you know we had worse than this and you know that, but about that knee of yours i think you should come off Thunder and let Jay or Evan jump him some more and cool him down afterwards but you need to sit down put your knee brace on and an icepack on your knee before it gets worse and you need to let that competition go and go to the next" i listen to what Katie says and come of thunder with the help of Evan who holds my waist and i get butterflies in my stomach but don't react to it because the pain in my knee is slowly getting worse and i need to focus on carefully putting my foot down without injuring myself any further. when i'm on the ground and slowly wobbling over to the tackroom in our own stable  i see tom coming my way with an icepack and his phone by his ear and he is talking rapidly to someone about what just happened. i look over to Jay who holds Thunder and Evans horse while Katie and Evan bring me to the tackroom once i'm there i ask if Evan wants to jump thunder for me and he agrees and grabs Jay's helmet and disappeares from view and in seconds after that Tom appears with a look on him face i don't like.

i'm in for a big lecture from him i guess....