When a 14-day dating challenge erupts between skeptical Blossom and her secretly smitten best friend Hunter in the waning days of 1999, their easy friendship is plunged into a maelstrom of teenage angst, unrequited affection, and the terrifying poss...
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~ ~ ~ 1999
The gravel crunched under the tires of Hunter's beat-up pickup as he turned off the main road and onto the long, winding dirt path that led to his home. The setting sun cast long, skeletal shadows from the surrounding trees, making the familiar woods seem a little more ominous than usual. He was tired, a pleasant sort of tired that came from a day spent trying to unravel Blossom's carefully constructed walls. Their second 'bet date' had been a success, if he did say so himself.
A fun 5K that she had first wanted nothing to do with but in the end she was smiling, sweating, and beet red but most importantly smiling.
Blossom had even laughed, a genuine, unrestrained laugh, after he made some jokes about where he'd take her next and for a moment, Hunter thought he'd glimpsed at the girl behind the cynical facade; a girl who wanted, maybe even needed, to believe in something.
But getting there was like navigating a minefield, every word, every touch, carefully chosen to not set off the alarms he knew were constantly buzzing beneath the surface.
He parked the pickup next to a weathered barn, the scent of hay and earth filling the air. He stretched, popping a few vertebrae in his back, and slammed the truck door shut, letting the heavy thud echo across the quiet homestead. He saw his father, a man of few words but endless calloused hands, leaning against the fence, watching a small herd of cattle grazing in the field.
"Evening, Dad," Hunter called out, his voice carrying on the crisp evening air.
His father nodded, a silent acknowledgment that spoke volumes. He pushed himself off the fence, joints popping with a sound similar to Hunter's, and together they walked towards the watering trough. The cattle, a mix of blacks and browns, shifted and mooed contentedly at their approach.
"How was town?" Dad asked, his gaze sweeping across the herd. He used a large, calloused hand to pat one of the cows as it came to him.
"Alright," Hunter replied, starting to fill the trough with a hose from the pump. "Took Blossom to that couples run you and mama sometimes go to."
Dad's eyes flickered up, a hint of curiosity in their weathered depths. "That girl still not convinced about love?"
Hunter chuckled, a dry sound. "Not even close. She still doesn't want anything to do with it."
Dad grunted, a sound that could mean any number of things. "She'll give in eventually." He paused, then spoke with the slow deliberation of a man who'd learned his life lessons the hard way. "Sometimes, the stubbornest folks get so lost in their own heads, they forget what it feels like to let somethin' in."
Hunter nodded, his mind replaying snippets of his conversations with Blossom, her quick wit and the wall she seemed to build around her after the horrible breakup she went through and the even worse and far too soon rebound. He'd never met anyone quite like her, so fiercely independent and yet, vulnerable in a way she tried to conceal. "She's, uh, difficult."
