Gonna Ride Again

On the Run

Sissie POV

     I know I am a coward, sneaking out on Brantley. I just couldn't deal with him and everything that had been thrown at me in the past 72 hours. I buried my daddy and then was blindsided while nursing the hangover from hell.
  I think back to yesterday at the lawyers office and the first fact that daddy knew he was sick and didn't have long. He kept that from everyone. I know that information not only rocked me but rocked Brantley. Brantley didn't say what his letter said and I didn't ask. If he wanted me to know he would have told me.
    Then the biggest thing to shock us both was that daddy had left a stipulation I had to complete before I heard what the inheritance was for me. Daddy made the stipulation that I had to come home and live in Jefferson for a full year before I would find out what he left me not only that but I had to go on tour with Brantley in the summer. I looked at Brantley and I know that was all news to him. He couldn't fake that shock.
  So I did what I did best and ran just as soon as Brantley had went to sleep.I pretended to go to bed and go to sleep and just as soon as he crashed I tiptoed out and loaded up my stuff and cut out back to Atlanta. I need to be at school today to give final exams. Besides I need time to think all this through and being close to Brantley well all I could think about was how much I felt for him. The man had only gotten better with time. He had filled out and added more tattoos and well that growl just got better. He muddles my brain whenever he is around.
   This may piss him off and I lose him forever but I need some space.  I stopped by the cemetery on the way out of town and gave daddy a piece of my mind. How dare he do this? Does he not remember how broken I was when I lost B before? How when he told me that B had moved on I lost it and destroyed my apartment and then when I heard about the engagement how I went into a deep depression that I had to go on medication and go to therapy and he wants me to tour with Brantley for 3 months? I can't ...truth is ...I am afraid.
   I pull in my house and park. I go turn the coffee pot on cause I am going to need it to make it through today. I go take a shower while it perks. Getting out I  dry my hair and put it up in a low bun. Its back to business of English and Literature and being Ms. Brown. I put on the clothes I had laid out on my bed. The black pencil skirt was my favorite along with the hot pink sleeveless dress shirt. I pulled out my peep toe black pumps and finished with daddy's tags under my shirt and the pearl earrings he bought me for my high school graduation. Now I feel like Karissa Brown school teacher and not Sissie Brown, BG or as they liked to call him Boss' ol lady. I grab a cup of coffee and get in my car and I head to school to start grading papers that will be waiting for me. Taking last week off meant I have several late nights ahead cause graduation is Friday and all grades have to be in tomorrow for Seniors and Thursday at 3 for everyone else.
   I unlock the end door and something feels off but it could be just in my mind. I mean in just a week I have gotten so used to B taking charge and making sure I was okay. I know that I will have to go back and I planned to keep in touch with the MC but I didn't plan in living there.  Do i take a chance and do what daddy wants me to? Or do I just say screw that and forget about any inheritance that daddy has left for me?
    I make it to my room and see the stack of papers and take a sip of coffee before I dive in. I have just finished the last of the essays from my 10th grade classes when I realize that it is time for the kids to start trickling in. I walk down to the teachers lounge for more coffee when Mr Jones calls me to the office. I get my coffee and walk in and he tells me," glad to have you back. This came for you on Friday by FedEx. "  I thank him and I take the package and walk back to my room.
   I have classes 1-5 periods and work grading papers through lunch. During my planning time I open the package and it is from the lawyer that handled Daddy's will. It is a copy of my stipulation and that if I do move back I am to live in the house Daddy owned, the one I grew up in except the first couple of years after Mama died. It also had a contract for a teaching position at Jefferson High School starting the middle of August.  The paper explained that I needed to sign and take a years leave of absence if I planned on meeting my dads stipulation but I only had until the end of the week to make a decision.