The Struggle

Starting Over

"Wake up Aleyah, this is the third time i had to come in here, just to wake you up honey..." The somewhat angered mother rambles onto her daughter. 

"What if i don't wanna!" Aleyah whines half asleep. 

"Well you have to, I'm sorry, remember our agreement?" The mother says wiggling her eyebrows without thinking. Aleyah rolls her eyes as she remembers their agreement. She agreed to go back to horseback riding, because her mother knew how much she loved it, and she owned Dreamer, so she kind of had to.

"Fine.... " Aleyah replies, only because she loves Dreamer too much to sell him. She trudges out of bed and changes into her jeans and boots, she wears her favorite shirt, which says 'it's a race horse thing' on it. 

"Today's gonna be interesting isn't it Jack." Jack is her dog, he huffs out in response, he is almost 10 and almost never barks anymore. She heads down the stairs after patting Jack on the head.

"Mom! I'm ready to go!!!" Aleyah yells out to her mother. 

"Alright, I'll be down in a second!" Her mother yells back.

"I'm going to the car mom!" Aleyah screeches with a hint of annoyance in her voice. She hates waiting for her mom. 

She heads to the car and eventually her mother comes out with something big that was wrapped. 'Oh my gosh mom... What were you thinking' Aleyah thinks. 

"Hey mom, what's that?" Aleyah asks curiously.

"Oh just a little present." Her mother replies obviously trying to withhold a smile. 

"Well, can i open it?" Aleyah says with a little bit of irritation in her voice. She doesn't particularly like getting presents from her mother. I know what you're thinking, ungrateful daughter i know, i know, but the last time she got a 'present' from her mother it was her hairbrush, but the one she doesn't use at all. 

"Yes, go on ahead." Her mother says with excitement piping through her. 

Her daughter slowly opens the present making her mother nag on her to open it faster. When she opens it fully, she sees it is a picture in a picture frame, in fact it is her favorite picture of her and her best friend. Yes, it does have Amber in it with her. It has Aleyah on Dreamer, next to Amber on Pokey. They are at their favorite place to ride to, but it's sunset, so it's even prettier. 

"Mom, you really didn't have to go through all this trouble, i mean i love it but- " Aleyah babbles off to her mom. 

"I thought you might need that, and you're rambling again..." She responds without taking her eyes off the road. 

"Yeah but- thanks mom," Aleyah finally pipes out. 

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"Hey there Dreamer, it's been a while, " Aleyah says to her horse.

Dreamer nickers in response. Aleyah has his halter and lead rope in her hand and when she looks down at it she realizes her hands are shaking. She walks up to Dreamer slowly, and he stays still like he was trained to do years ago. She finally puts the lead rope on and tries to lead him around the stall. All goes well, it takes her a little bit though until she feels comfortable to get on. She puts a saddle on him and hops on. She clucks a little bit and he starts walking, she feels her stomach drop, but she gets used to it. After they walk in the arena a little bit, she decides that was enough for that day. 

"Thanks for today Dreamer. I didn't remember how fun it was." Aleyah said to her horse with a smile. 

Dreamer is to busy eating hay to respond. She walks out of the stall with a big grin plastered on her face. 

                        *                *                *                *

"Mom! I'm starving! When's dinner!?!?" Aleyah yells down the stairs at her mother as she smells the burgers cooking downstairs. 

"Just a minute honey, I'll tell you when to come down!" Ms. Jones yells back.

'Ugh!' Aleyah thinks to herself. She rolls her eyes, but stops when she sees the picture she got earlier. She walks over to it and feels pressure behind her eyes.

'Aleyah, don't cry, don't cry, don't cry!!!' She thinks to herself. She doesn't listen, because tears start falling onto her cheeks. 

'Amber, we were so happy, please come back, I miss you so much. I don't know what to do without you. I have no place to go, I need you, bad. Please just- come back.'  Aleyah thinks hiccuping the last part. 

"Sweetie! Time for dinner!!!" Aleyah's mother calls out to her daughter from the kitchen. 

Aleyah tries to pull herself together before trudging down the stairs.

"How are we gonna tell her John, I mean, she would never agree to it." Ms. Jones states to her husband. 

"Agree to what?" Aleyah asks her parents with her eyebrows furrowed like a caterpillar. 

"Oh, hi honey, come sit down, me and your father have some er- news to tell you." Aleyah's mother replies faking a smile.

Aleyah sits down slowly, confused at what her parents were hiding from her. 

"Wh-what's going on?" Aleyah asks stuttering her words. 

"Well, your father got a raise." Ms. Jones says to her daughter looking her straight in the eyes. 

"Okay... Um, what does that have to do with anything?" Aleyah asks in a hushed voice.

"Well, it's in Tennessee." Her mother states with loving eyes. "I'm sorry honey, i know you want to stay here and wait for Amber, but i don't think that's what fate wanted."

"What?! Mom how could you do this to me? I can't just leave her like that, what if she wakes up when im gone and i wont be there to support her, or she loses her memory and i wont be there for her to remember me, she cant do anything, i can't just leave mom!" Aleyah rants on, she only stops because she chokes on her words and can't say anything more. Aleyah storms upstairs before sobbing. She storms up to her room and slams the door behind her. She free-falls onto her bed and feels something hard on her back.

"OW!" Aleyah screeches out of instinct. She finds the source of her pain, the picture. 

'Please...'  She thinks to herself. She doesn't get any sleep that night.