Waking up, I try to sit and stretch but I am restrained by something heavy across my waist. I shuffle down and try again.
But still, I can’t get out.
It’s not until I look down at my waist and see that a pair of arms are circling me that I realise why I couldn’t get out. And when I look at whose body those arms are connected to I see that it’s Bryce who is holding me down.
And he is fast asleep.
This time, I take his arm in my hand and move them up so I can slip past him, and I slide out of the bed.
Checking back to see that he is still in bed, I tiptoe out of the bed room.
“Morning, where have you been all night? You weren’t on the couch” Nick greets me when I get to the kitchen.
“Oh” I say, woops. Of course Nick wouldn’t have known where I was, I was in Bryce’s room!
“Ah, Bryce and I watched cars… and then I guess I fell asleep there…”
“Sure sure” Nick winks at me, opening the fridge door to get the juice out. Instinctively I walk to the cupboard and take out two glasses.
“Nothing happened Nick” I say firmly.
“Mmhmm” He hums.
“But he is finally talking to me.” I say, trying to make the topic slightly less sexual.
“Yeah?” Nick asks
“Yeah, he came home from work yesterday and had a conversation with me…”
“Was it worth the wait?”
“Well, yeah… it kind of was” I didn’t mention anything to do with what we actually talked about. I’ve still been avoiding the ‘why did you come here’ question as much as I can, and although I told Bryce… I don’t really feel ready to tell anyone else.
Nick grunts in satisfaction and takes out a bowl and some cereal.
“So, I’ve been thinking” Nick tells me
“About what?”
“You getting a job, I know I said you can clean the house, but you’ve done it about 20 times and I don’t think there is anything else you can do, you must get so bored staying here!”
That was true, I hadn’t really done anything but clean and party. I was dying to know other people and actually do something.
“There’s a dairy not far from here looking for some work, I mean, it wouldn’t be easy. But it’s good money.”
“Yeah? Who owns it?”
“One of my mate’s dad. You know Olly Dune?” I shake my head in answer. “Well, it’s his dad’s farm, if you want me to ask, I could get you doing a bit there?”
“Nick, that sounds great! Thankyou so much I don’t think you understand how much you’ve done for me!”
He just smiles down at his cereal bowl.
“Don’t worry about it”
So now I’m standing at the top of the driveway at the Dune’s Dairy. It’s about 500 metres down to the house, where I will meet Mr Dune, Olly’s father… and probably Olly too. Nick called up and said he had found someone looking for work, and Mr Dune asked if I could come in straight away. So here I am.
I start walking down the driveway, it has tall oak trees on each side of the road, the leaves of which are shades of red and yellow, due to it being the middle of Autumn. The road itself is dirt, and is slightly muddy from the rain a couple of days ago. I jump to the drier bits, but I still end up with dirty shoes.
Looking up, I can see the clear sky at the top of the trees. It’s crystal blue, and clouds are non-existent at the moment.
The air smells fresh, like eucalyptus and grass.
Finally, I make it up to the front door.
I knock and wait patiently for an answer.
The house is white panelled, with a front veranda and a red tin roof. It’s small, but cosy and the gardens have been kept in shape, making it look inviting.
“Hi, can I help you?” A rough male voice asks me and I turn around to see a 50 year old farmer standing in the doorway.
“Ah, yes. I’m Anna Greene, Nick Warwood called about me? I was wondering if you had a job for me” I asked timidly.
“Ah, righto.” He says, and walks out the door to where I’m standing. “Follow me, we’ll test you out, see if you’re cut out for it” He tells me, in a slightly amusing Australian accent. Coming from the city, most of the accents are quite proper. But here, it’s rough and unpolished. Just how I like it.
We walk over to a dairy and he takes me inside. There are some other people inside, ranging from ages old to new. He tells me what all the different equipment is and runs over how to set up the milking stations. It’s the job I would be doing, he tells me.
After he is done explaining everything, I have a go myself. Although my movements aren’t as fluid as his were and I am slightly clumsy when I have to handle the cows, I manage to do everything without many mistakes.
“Goodo, you’ll do just fine here, Love” He then drags me over to the other people in the dairy. His wife, Patricia, greeted me with a firm handshake I had to recover from. Their sons were working also, and their granddad. Other than that there were a few backpackers from England and America who seemed nice enough, but kept to themselves.
Eventually, Mr Dune walked off back to the house to finish whatever it was he was doing before.
His wife walked over to where I was setting up the milking machine on a cow and started talking to me.
“So, what brings you here?” Ah, the dreaded question.
“Well, I’ve been in the area for a little bit, and needed a job” I reply
“Well, don’t we all” she said and chuckled at her joke. Then she made conversation with me for a little while, whilst helping me if I needed it. She walked off when she could see I was handling everything myself and I continued to work.
After working for at least four hours, Pat came along to tell me that I got an hour break. She let me know where the fridge was and that I could buy anything in the vending machine. I walked to the break room out the back of the dairy and scummed around the bottom of my bag, looking for coins.
“Hey Babe, you’re a new one?” A strangely familiar voice asked me. I slowly turned around to see the so called “sleazebag” (in Bryce’s terms) standing in front of me.
Oh crap.
“Hi” I mutter, and turn around back to the vending machine.
Crap.
“Hey, I remember you… you’re the dancer” I nod, still not facing him “Well, do you wanna dance again?”
Turning around again I look him in the face and say “For you? No” then proceed to take food from the vending machine.
“Well, someone’s a bit stroppy then, I thought that night was fun”
“Yes, well I was kind of drunk”
“Ah, well. I guess I won’t be seeing you like that again until you’re drunk again”
“Hmm, probably not”
“Well, then I guess I will keep trying” he says and slaps me on the bum as he walks out of the room.
Then I matched the name to face. That was Olly Dune. And I was working at his farm.
YOU ARE READING
Saving skies
Teen FictionAnna runs away. With no where to stay she finds herself at a party in a country town where Nick offers her a couch to sleep on. That's where she meets Bryce.
