Childhood Crushes

Chapter Fifty-One - Horseback

[[Jesus, chapter 51...when is this gonna end?! I'm trying to end this, because it's rambling on now. I don't even know how many people read past the wedding, but to those who are still reading I'm sorry I've been uploading so slowly, and I'm sorry if the story lost its fire somewhere along the way. I'm trying to pick it back up!]]

Today the weather was incredible; the sky was blue without a single cloud, the sun was high and warm, and the giant oak trees swayed with a slight cool breeze. It was the perfect weather for shorts and horseback riding.

I walked across the large field with my eyes set on beautiful Juliette; the one being in this world that could calm me down and clear my mind. Yesterday was enough to drive a woman crazy, and I think if I wasn’t doing this, I would have been gone a while ago. Bale was confusing me, we were arguing a lot more lately, and I was starting to feel…different. No, I wasn’t ‘falling out of love’ with him, but I was just…losing something. When I left Tennessee this summer I was depressed, and felt like if I was away from Bale for even one day, I would lose my mind. Right now I felt at peace, and sort of relieved that Bale wasn’t here; I knew we would only fight if he was. It was a sad truth, but a truth nonetheless.

Juliette greeted me with a happy whinny and trotted over to the gate when I reached her pin. If horses could smile, she would be grinning from ear to ear at the sight of me. Over the summer, the two of us had repaired our strong bond, and I was now comfortable enough on a horse to ride without a helmet; I only needed my cowboy hat.

“Hey, princess,” I greeted her softly, stroking her snout with tender and care. She nudged into the petting motion, wanting me to continue. With a giggle, I walked over to the gate door and opened it to stand next to her. Juliette seemed very happy, as if she knew what was happening. Within twenty minutes she had on her saddle, I was on her back, and we were off.

For what felt like hours – and probably was hours – we roamed the backyard without aim, really, and just enjoyed the late fall weather together. I had asked Daddy if he wanted to ride his horse, Bucky, with me, but he was too busy making sure he had everything for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow. At first I was scared; Daddy – cooking food? I had never seen him make anything besides breakfast, steak, or hamburgers; he wasn’t what you would call a ‘Food Network’ kind of guy. In fact, I was surprised he didn’t just get us each a box of our favorite cereal, a gallon of milk, a store-bought pie, and said, “Have at it.”

When I came out to see Juliette, the sun was in the middle of the sky; noon. By the time my shoulders began to sting and Juliette grew tired, it was late in the afternoon. At the sight of the nearly setting sun my stomach let out a loud snarl; telling me I was extremely hungry. After putting Juliette’s saddle back, brushing her off, and giving her fresh water, I made my way back to the house. Unlike summer time, Daddy had the air conditioning on full blast every hour of the day, now that he had it. All this time he’s said, “We don’t need air conditioning. When I was your age, all we had was paper fans and the backyard hose!” I suppose now that he sees how wonderful cold air can be on a hot sunny day, he’s willing to spend the extra money.

The blast of cool air on my sweaty skin felt heavenly when I opened the back door. I even took off my hat and gave myself a boost by fanning myself with it. This went on for a few minutes before I ran into the kitchen and grabbed a bagel – plain – and started thundering up the stairs to my old bedroom.

“I’m gonna take a shower!” I hollered out, not sure whether Daddy was home or not, but I still felt the need to let him know where I would be for possibly the next hour.

“Wait a minute!”

I stopped at the top of the stairs and looked down, only to see the bright face of Michael. He grinned, and so did I; I hadn’t seen him since I left for college. I squealed with joy before leaping back down the stairs and crashing onto him in a warm hug, causing him to catch me and stumble backwards.

“It’s good to see you, too, Belly!” He laughed beneath me. When he set me down, he looked me over. “I see you’ve been outside all day.”

Thinking he meant the sweat that lightly coated my skin, I apologized. “Oh, sorry,”

“No, I’m talking about this,” he pointed gently to the slight sunburn on my shoulders, leaving a white spot where his fingertip touched. “You be careful; make sure you wear sunblock.”

“I will, Mom.” I teased.

Michael gave an innocent shrug, “I’m just watching out for my friend. How’s college going?”

Once again, I rambled on with the same robotic excuse I gave to everyone. After about five minutes he knew everything about mu schedule, my teachers, and my campus.

“Sounds like you’ve got your hands full,” he noted. I realized he was the first person to say college sounded anything other than ‘interesting’ or ‘like fun!’ It’s not fun, and I’d much rather be doing something else.

I nodded in reply, figuring I would whine about my classes some other time.

Then he asked a question that surprised me.

“Make any good friends – anyone worth mentioning?”

I raised an eyebrow before shaking it off and answering anyway. “Well, my roommate is pretty cool; she and I have a lot in common. Then there’s this guy Craig, he’s cool. Of course, if you’ve spoken to Bale recently you would have heard he’s a filthy scoundrel, or something along those lines.”

“I don’t think he was that kind. I think he was–”

“You know,” I cut him off. “I don’t think I need to know.”

He gave a sympathetic smile, “You do realize he’s just being a baby, right? I mean, he’ll get over it.”

I shook my head, “I don’t know, Michael. We’ve been fighting a lot lately…”

“Well, just know he still loves you. And before you know it, he’ll be at your door, begging you to forgive him. In fact, he’s coming over tomorrow for Thanksgiving; all of us are.”

By ‘all of us’ he meant Hazel, Billy B., himself, my brothers, Ashley, and even a few people from town. I wondered if this house would be big enough to hold everyone in, but I knew it would have to be since I missed everyone here.

I took Michael’s words to heart and I prayed he was right. Tomorrow, I’ll see Bale, and we can talk this all through. It’ll be that simple.