I Never Thought You'd Come Along

Part 7

*Alex's POV*

"But Mom!" I heard Brent shout, "I have a 'date' with a my girlfriend tonight! I can't go look at some dog!"

"Brent, you've been at this school 2 days! I highly doubt your serious enough about this girl, who most likely will only be 'your girl' for less than a week, to not go and check out a pet that will be with you through thick and thin for years! And from past experience of you and your 'girlfriends' she probably won't be much better than a 'dog' herself!"

Mom finished red-faced with a huff of breath. Brent starred at her for a minute, then stiffly nodded and went up to his room to get his coat. All I could do was look at mom, rather wide eyed, and think "go mom!".

　

~30 minutes later~

"That's the place! Turn! No, not there! Honey, you passed it!" Mom exclaimed as she looked back over her shoulder at the driveway we 'd just sped by.

"Sweetheart, you've got to give me more of a warning then 'turn now'!" My dad replied, doing a U-turn in the middle of the road.

"Sorry, I thought you knew where I meant to turn." Mom said only half caring.

The driveway entrance was surrounded by tall, and somewhat dense, trees that reached for the sky. Where we'd lived before in California hadn't had many tall trees. Just tall buildings.

We rounded a corner and went up a hill to be welcomed by a pasture on either side of us. Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a black streak fly by. I twisted my head around and watched as a gorgeous black horse galloped by. Mane flying, and tail held high, it reminded of The Black Stallion. That was the horse that got stuck on the island with that boy right? I barely recalled anything about that movie. My little cousin back in Cali had been IN LOVE with that movie and had forced me to watch it with her. I hadn't complained, it was better than playing Barbies.....

I watched the horse sharply turn around and charge back across the pasture, neighing loudly as it did so. I heard a answer back to it, and only then did I notice Taylor at the other end of the pasture attempting to control another new and different horse. This one looked a lot like the black one, but it was an orange-ish/brown color. It was dancing around making a regular nuisance of itself.

"Those horse are beautiful!" My mother said gleefully, "Did I ever tell you about the horse I had when I was younger?"

"Yes, mom!" My brother and I replied in unison. We'd heard that story PLENTY of times....

"Hey, isn't that that one girl?" My brother asked pointing down the road towards Taylor.

"Yep. That's her. And FYI, her name is Taylor! Not 'that one girl'!" I shouted back accusingly.

"Sorry man! I didn't mean to offend you!"

"Whatever."

"Boys be quiet! I'm trying to talk here!"

Only then did I realize that we were right next to Taylor. But she was hardly listening to my mother. She was far to busy keeping that brown horse in check.

"Bandit!" Taylor exclaimed, "That's enough!" And she forcefully jerked on the lead rope. The horse stopped dancing about and just stood there quivering with excitement watching the black horse run through the pasture. "My family's at the barn, Mrs. Hoffman. Just keep going and I'll meet you there."

"Okay, good luck with Bandit!" My mom called out the window as we started to roll away.

I watched Taylor as we drove off.

"It's not nice to stare, Alex!" My brother teased.

"Shut up, Brent!"

"You so like her!"

"I've only known her 2 short days! It's not possible that I like her!"

"Whatever man." My brother mumbled.

We parked and got out. "Now boys, be polite. I want to make a good first impression." Mom whispered threateningly as the Mr. and Mrs. Green walked towards us.

"Well hello!" The Mrs. said brightly, "You must be the Hoffmans!"

"That we are! And you must be Richard and Melissa, am I right?"

"Yes, and this is Clark." Mr. Hoffman said motioning to the dog tagging along at their heels.

"Oh he's adorable!" Mother shrieked crouching down to the puppy's height.

"Richard, where's Taylor?"

"I don't know, Honey"

"Oh, she's down with the horses." I said.

"Richard, would you please go tell Taylor to hurry?"

"I can do it, Mrs. -"

"Call me Melissa."

"Oh, um, okay. I can go get Taylor if you want." She looked at me blankly for a moment. I looked away, realizing I had offered to go be with Taylor a little too fast.

"As long as your parents don't mind, I don't see why not." Melissa replied looking from my mom to my dad.

"Go ahead, son." My dad said as my brother smirked at me. Could he be anymore annoying?

"Okay, be right back." I starting to walk down the driveway. "Oh what was I thinking?" I muttered under my breath.