Saved

Chapter 3

After a couple of minutes Scotty started a conversation with me.

"So Vannessa, where are you from?" he asked me

"I, uh, lived up in Minnesota" I told him

"If I may ask, what made you come to Tennessee?" he asked me gently

"Um, I guess you could say things got complicated at home and I told Chris and she pretty much forced me to move down here with her Jeff and Levi" I told him, leaving out most of the details. My eyes started to tear up as I thought of the terrible memories I had there.

"Hey, you okay?" Scotty asked with a soft tone

I wiped my eyes and said, " Yeah". We continued to keep riding horses and listening to Levi talk about all his friends and school and memories from when they lived in Minnesota. Levi always knew how to make me feel better and I loved him for that. Plus the kid knew how to make me laugh. I don't know how many times Scotty and I bursted out laughing at Levi's stories.

When we got back it was 1:30. We brushed, fed, and watered our horses and went inside for lunch, including Scotty. We walked inside and took our boots off and walked into the kitchen to see Chris making ham and cheese sandwiches. She put a plate with sandwich in front of each of us, then put a bag of potato chips, and some vegetables on the table, along with her plate. We all began to eat and then my phone started ringing. It was an unknown number but I answered it anyway.

"Hello?" I said into the phone

"Hey baby, haven't seen you around lately" It was my ex, Drew. I got up from the table and walked to my room

"What do you want" I said, trying to keep my voice steady even though I was about to cry. He had cheated on me with my best friend, then they both started to ignore me, along with everyone else, just like my family did.

"Wanna know where you've been sweetheart" my heart kept breaking when he called me 'baby' and 'sweetheart', names he used to call me before everything happened

"Not in Minnesota" I said with an emotionless voice

"Why not?" he asked

"You know why! You all treated me like shit!" Like I was nothing!" I yelled into the phone

"You know I never meant to hurt you"

"Yeah just like you didn't mean to hook up with my best friend" I said then hung up and started crying. A few minutes later Chris walked into my room to see me laying on my bed with my face in my pillow, still crying.

I sat up and said "It was Drew"

"It's gonna be okay"she told me and pulled me into a hug. She knew what Drew did to me and she hated him for it. I had been dating Drew since the beginning of 10th grade, the year Chris, Jeff, and Levi moved to Tennessee. Chris met Drew a few months before they moved, and liked him. I did too. He was always being a gentlemen, being sweet. And then in the middle of our junior year, he hooked up with my best friend, and you know the rest.

Around 5 minutes later, I stopped crying and Levi walked in. Chris left and Levi came and sat down next to me on my bed.

"Could you guys hear me?" I asked

"Just the 'you know why' part and the part where you said something about your best friend" he told me. He was always honest with me, another reason why he was my favorite kid in the whole world.

"So I'm guessing Scotty heard?" I said

"Yeah, but before he could say anything I started talking about football" he told me

"Thanks bud" I said, and gave him a hug.

We walked downstairs and I threw the rest of my sandwich away, not in the mood to eat anymore. Chris and Levi understood. Then I walked into the mud room, put my boots on and walked outside. Neither of them followed me. They knew I just wanted/needed to be alone right now. I walked to the barn and saw Scotty working.

"Hey" he said

"Hi, I'm sorry you had to hear that" was all I said then walked away and saddled up Flicka.

I was glad when he didn't follow me, I just really needed to be alone. I rode Flicka around the Lehn's 300 acre land and found a little pond. I stopped there, hopped up Flicka, tied her to a branch by the grass, and sat down by the water. I brought my knees up and rested my head on them and replayed the phone call in my head, then started crying again. I cried for a good 10 minutes from the painful memories. After sitting by the pond for 20 minutes, I heard footprints and turned around to see Scotty on Storm, one of the other horses.

"Chris wanted me to come look for you, make sure you were okay" he said

"I'm fine" I said and turned back around to look at the pond. I heard Scotty slide off of Storm and he came at sat next to me, and I looked at him, our eyes locked.

"I know you're not okay, " he told me "I can see it in your eyes" I looked towards the pond again and rested my chin on my knees, and didn't say anything. He was right, I wasn't okay.

"I don't know that guy you were talking to, but he sounds like a douche" he said, trying to lighten the mood

All I said was "Yeah" in a quiet voice. Then he stood up and held his hand out. Hesitantly, I took his giant hand, which swallowed up by tiny hand, and he helped me up. I blushed when I almost fell on him, because my legs had fallen asleep.

"I wanna show you somethin'" he told me, then led me to the horses, still holding hands. When I reached the horses, he let go of my hand and I missed the warmth of his hand around mine, but ignored the thought and hopped on Flicka. He hopped on Storm, then I followed him to wherever we were going.

About 10 minutes later, we stopped at a place I didn't see while I was riding around on Flicka. It was a beautiful small pond, but still bigger than the one I found, with trees surrounding it. There was a dock leading part way into the water. We hopped off the horses and tied them to a tree branch. Then we walked out on the dock and sat at the end. We took our boots and socks off and put our feet in the water. It was really hot outside so it felt good.

"How'd you find this place?" I asked Scotty

"About a year ago when I started workin here Levi and Chris took me out ridin' and gave me a tour of the land and we found this place." he told me

"It's so pretty here" I said

"That's why I always come here when I just want to think, or go swimmin'" he said with a small smile. After that neither of us said anything, just looked across the pond, starin at nothin'.

After a few minutes, his phone started ringing, he answered it. "Hey Chris" "Yeah I found her" "Yeah we're just sittin' down at the pond" "Okay, bye" . I couldn't hear Chris said and then he said to me "Chris wants us back"

"Okay" was all I said. We stood up and put our boots back on then untied the horses and jumped up on them and we rode back to barn, neither of us said anything on the way back.