12:09 AM || m.c a.u

The Barn

The Barn

Song for this chapter- Begin Again- Taylor Swift

Kellar's POV:

"Care to explain why you just spent an hour out with Michael?"

"You know, just hanging out." I brushed it off, walking past him and putting my camera on my desk and the photos in my desk drawer.

"Hanging out? Kellar, since when do you and Michael 'hang out'?" He asked.

"Since I started smoking pot."

"Well I don't- wait, you smoke pot!?" He exclaimed.

"No, dingy. It's called sarcasm."

"Well, that's besides the point. Kellar, you don't know Michael. He's always changing and moving and doing things. The longest relationship he's had was, like, two months." He said, pushing his hair out of his face.

"Alright, Ash. I get it." I rolled my eyes, pulling the sleeves of my flannel down over my hands.

"Whatever, Kellar." He sighed and left my room, shaking his head.

I felt guilty- Ashton and I never fought. We were best friends growing up. I didn't want us to start acting like normal siblings- it was nice having a brother like him.

I shut my door and took off my pants, too lazy to put on actual pajamas. I climbed into my bed and set my phone on the dock, choosing a song.

Siblings fight all the time- right?

***

I was home alone and had jus woken up. My mom took Harry and Lauren shopping and Ashton went to meet Luke at the skate park.

At 11:45 I realized I should start getting around for lunch with Michael- procrastinating, as always.

I decided to look a little nicer than normal. I mean, was this a date?

I pulled out some black high waisted shorts and a white t-shirt, and tucked it in. I rolled the sleeves and left my hair down and put on a long necklace.

I heard a honk from outside and looked out of my window to see Michael, grinning up at me.

I smiled and put on my shoes, running downstairs, almost tripping on my way out.

Michael was leaning against his truck, clad in his signature black skinny jeans, and red flannel shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his forearms.

"Aren't you hot?" I laughed, coming up to meet him.

"I'm actually quite comfortable." He leaned forward and kissed my cheek and then popped the door open for me. He got into the driver's side and turned the truck on, the engine turning over, almost not turning on.

"So what are we going to do?" I asked, propping my feet out of the window.

"You'll see." He said, looking at me and winking.

I fiddled with the radio station, letting it stay on stations playing good songs.

"We're here." I looked up, surprised we were there already. It was a farm, with a barn and a pasture, horses in it, and no houses near it, just one in the front yard.

"It's my grandparents. They're out of town this weekend, but they said they didn't care if I used to the barn.

He hopped out of the truck and went to the bed of it.

"Come on!" He called out, grinning at me.

He carried a blanket and a picnic basket and I smiled- he put a lot of thought into this.

I followed him into the barn and he went over to the side where there was a ladder to the hay loft. He climbed it and waved me up, and we carefully stepped around the cracked floorboards to where the window where they loaded the hay was.

"Help me spread this out." He held out the navy blanket over a few bales and I grabbed two ends and laid them down on top of them.

"Okay, I made," he opened the picnic basket and pulled out a pizza box, "pizza!"

I laughed at him, shaking my head.

"Alright so maybe I didn't make it but it's still pretty good. And I got sparking grape juice because you're not 18 yet, and I do not promote illegal drinking even though I used to do it." He pulled out a glass bottle and two plastic cups, and some paper plates.

"This is perfect, Michael." I said, smiling up at him.

"So, do we classify this as our first date?" He asked me, opening the top to the grape juice.

"We're on a date?" I asked, grabbing a piece of pizza.

"Well I do most certainly hope so." He smiled at me, his lip ring moving.

"Well then I would classify this as our second date. Because I enjoyed last night."

"Second date it is."

I didn't feel uncomfortable eating a lot in front of Michael, if he liked me for me, he wouldn't care. (We finished the entire pizza by ourselves.)

Come on, I want you to meet someone." Michael said, gathering our stuff and ushering me down the ladder. He set it down by the barn door and walked to a pen on the other side.

"This is our youngest colt right now. His name's Walter. Because it sounded fancy." I laughed at Michael, and stood up on the bottom rung of the fence, and stretched my hand out to him like I did at my grandparent's farm when I was little.

"Have you ever ridden a horse?" He asked.

"Yeah, I took lessons for a while and my grandma had some." I said, coming down from the fence.

"Do you want to ride today?" I excitedly nodded, eager to get back on a horse. It'd been a while.

"Come on, you can ride Maggie. You'll love her."

He was right. Maggie was an old, Palomino horse- my favorite. I got the saddle and everything on her, and Michael set up Jackson, Walter's dad next to me.

"Need a lift?" Michael helped me swing my leg around Maggie and put my feet in the stirrups.

"You guys make quite a pair." He smiled, patting Maggie's neck. He got on Jackson and led me out of the barn.

"You're a natural born rider. It took me a while to get the hang of it." Michael said, leading Jackson to the field.

"I have to admit it, Michael. You're a pretty good date planner." I smiled at him, thinking how odd the tattooed boy looked on the horse.

"And I have to admit, Kellar, you look really pretty tonight."

And then Godzilla came back for a visit in my stomach, stomping around, making me feel funny.

Michael made me feel funny. I good funny.