Justified ain't mine.
She had been twelve. Her hair had been long and in braids and she had worn a dress. The dress wasn't anything spectacularly pretty, just something that her momma had made with some fabric she'd found on sale at Wal-Mart but it was something that made her feel pretty. She wanted to look pretty today. She had rode her bike over by herself. She had thought maybe going with some other girls to make it less awkward, but the only other girl around was sick and she hadn't been in the mood to wait. She'd decided to go see if maybe he wanted to go bike riding. He had mentioned that he liked riding out in the woods, and she wanted to make herself seem a bit better than the other girls. The girls that didn't like going outside to play. So she had told him that maybe if she was bored on Saturday she'd come around and see if he wanted to bike riding with her. He had looked surprised, like maybe he didn't believe her, but he said sure.
She had been riding up to his when she noticed a few trucks and such in his driveway. Well, she supposed it wasn't really his driveway but really his daddy's. She noticed two boys sitting on the porch. They were older. Probably fifteen or so, but they looked much older, as fifteen year olds are apt to look to twelve year olds. One of them was smoking and the other was laying back a bit, with his baseball hat covering his eyes. He looked like he was trying to sleep. She was pretty sure the one smoking was Bowman's older brother. They had the same eyes. He wasn't as cute though. The other boy, the other boy she liked right away. He had evidently heard her approaching, moved his hat from his eyes and gave her a small smile to acknowledge her presence. This boy was almost cuter than Bowman. He put his hat back over his eyes, and tried to go back to sleep. Bowman's brother didn't do anything. He kept smoking and looked at her. Didn't smile or anything. She thought maybe he was trying to scare her.
Well, she wasn't about to get scared, not after she had rode all this way. So she asked if Bowman was home, and his brother smirked. Asked if she was his little girlfriend. She told him no, but she turned red as a tomato. She decided right then and there she did not like Bowman's brother in the least. He laughed when he saw her blush. She felt like maybe she would cry. The boy in the hat told him off. Told Bowman's brother to stop being a jackass.
She felt herself grow even more red. The boy in the hat, he came to her rescue. She looked at him, and she knew she shouldn't have right away. Because Bowman's brother noticed, smirked, and he yelled for Bowman, shouting that he better hurry his ass down because Raylan was about to steal his little girlfriend away. Raylan. His name was Raylan. Raylan shoved Bowman's brother pretty hard, enough to make him fall, but he was still laughing. Raylan told him to stop picking on the kid. She was half-offended, half mortified, wanted to tell them both that she wasn't no kid, but she didn't have the nerve. If she hadn't been so embarrassed, she mighta spit on Bowman's brother though. She couldn't remember the last time she had been so embarrassed. She heard somebody running down the stairs, and in a few seconds Bowman came out the door. He smiled at her. A bit of shy smile and she smiled back. She felt better right away. She asked if he still wanted to come bike riding, and she heard Boyd ask if that was what the kids were calling it these days, and she blushed again, but so did Bowman, so she felt better.
His brother asked Bowman if he had forgotten his manners. Bowman looked annoyed but he turned around anyway. Made the introductions. His brother's name was Boyd. His brother's friends name was Raylan. And he told them that her name was Ava. Bowman looked at Boyd and asked if maybe he should bring his daddy and everyone else outside so they wouldn't think he forgot his manners either. Boyd stood up right away, and for a second she was terrified. Boyd was smiling, but it wasn't friendly. She saw Bowman tense, and she knew he was scared of his brother. But he wasn't pretending he wasn't. She thought maybe he was trying to be brave, for her. Raylan said Ava Gardner.
Everyone paused for a moment, looked confused. Whatever was just about to happen between Boyd and Bowman cooled. Everyone turned to face Raylan. Ava Gardner. He said it again. He asked if that was who she was named after. She told him yes. Boyd looked at her. Told she didn't look a thing like Ava Gardner. She was staring to get really annoyed at Boyd. She told him she knew, and it wasn't like she named herself, her daddy liked Ava Gardner, so she was called Ava. She said all of this with the attitude she normally possessed when she wasn't scared or embarrassed or confused, and both Boyd and Raylan looked at her. Raylan looked impressed, and Boyd just laughed, slapped Bowman on the back and told him he got one hell of a girl. And just like that, both Bowman and Ava turned red.
They got off the porch fast, and Bowman went to the shed to get his bike. And as the rode away, she glanced back and saw that Raylan was back to sleeping and Boyd was back to smoking and she thought while she wouldn't mind maybe talking to Raylan again, she'd be happy if she never spoke to Boyd. But then Bowman started telling her about this one kid in their class they both didn't like, and she thought about how cute Bowman was, and how he'd blushed when Boyd said she was his girlfriend, and she thought, maybe if she was really going to be Bowman's girlfriend, she could learn to tolerate Boyd.
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