Just A Bloke With An Umbrella

Chapter Thirteen

The first two weeks were the hardest. Every morning was every night for him, and every morning for him was my night. We played racing games with each other over Game Center and face timed while doing so. We had so much fun until he stopped calling one night. I couldn't reach him. The offices at the studio said he was ok, but had lost internet connection. The cameramen with him had a very limited source of their gps for pictures and they had taken a picture of The boys at their campsite and Richard was reading a book, my book. I was pleased to see him reading it. There was another picture that had him sitting on the tailgate of the jeep he had and I noticed something in the back. I zoomed in and found it was a note on the tag of the jeep. It said "I'm sorry Layla, I love you!" With a small crappy heart next to it. He knew that someone would get that to me.

I smiled and just laughed to myself. I was at my desk in the cubicals of top gear accountants, managers, supervisors, and photographers. It was a chattery day due to the pictures that we had received from the crew. We were so happy to hear from the boys that some of us photographers went out to the bar.

Veronica came and so did Estella, because they decided to move down south like I did. We were all so excited and had the idea to buy a huge field near where I lived so we could ride side by sides, quad bikes, dirtbikes, and just a bunch of toys. I bought a Yamaha YFZ450R SE in red and black. I had made friends with a bunch of photographers at the top gear offices so Izzy, Steven, Matt, and Tom all were going to help made the field our fun place. This late summer and fall wasn't going to be fun without these guys. Richard was off having fun in Brazil so hey I can have fun right here at home!

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July, 3rd

It was a sunny afternoon, we were all suited up to go ride around in the muddy pasture. Izzy was happy to be getting out of the offices, because her job just seemed never ending. She decided not to go to Brazil with the boys even though she was chief photographer, because she said she was knee deep in work.

"This is going to be so fun!" Her red curls bounced.

"Hey hey now don't get too excited!" Matt, the videographer camera man for the cool looking videos on Top Gear, spoke. He was tall, slender and had slick black hair. Steven sat on his quad bike just shaking his head at us. He was short and had fiery red hair swept across his forehead made him the perfect ginger. Freckles spotted his cheeks and nose and his soft blue eyes were a weakness of mine, even though I still was attached to Richard.

"Oi! Come on guys let's stop jibber jabbering!" Tom, the brown curly haired nerd started his bike and rode off, splattering us with mud.

"REALLY!??" I yelled. We all had smiles on out faces as we started our toys to get revenge on him.

We road for a few hours, until we were tired and needed a beer. When we stopped and sat around and watched the sun set, I had tom set up a camera on a tripod and we all posed for a picture. I was going to send a bunch of pictures for Hammond in a scrap book full of things I did this summer, and what better way to kick it off?

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July, 10th

Our group all headed down to the Lake District so we could have a nice weekend camping. We set up camp in a beautiful lakeside camping area and pitched our tents at sundown, making time work perfectly. By the campfire, we took another picture, making some roasted marshmallows over the fire, the good old American way. I smiled and truly laughed for the first time in forever. I really was down since Richard left a month ago. It wasn't even half way over and I thought it might never end.

~

The next day we all got into our cozzies and walked over to a cliff nearby.

"Come on guys!" Tom ran and flipped backwards off the cliff. We all rushed to the side to watch him plummet to the water and dive in.

"I'm going!" I sprinted and jumped off. The wind rushed in my ears and the adrenaline was pumping my heart extremely fast as my body flew face first down the cliff. Before I hit the water, I flipped my bum towards the water and performed a cannon ball, so I wouldn't have to slam my face into the water.

Veronica jumped after me and dove perfectly into the water a few feet from me. After diving the first time, we climbed the rope to the top and started to do flips and tricks off the edge, shooting videos with a GoPro camera. I wold have to send these to Richard on a disk.

Thinking about him, my heart sunk to my stomach. I really do miss him. Maybe it's time to take a trip over to Brazil.