Chapter 2
A little blue truck was coming down the long driveway of Heartland. I could hear the blaring music from a mile away. I closed the pin as he slammed on his breaks only a few feet away.
"Can I help you?" I asked after he turned the little Ford off. He was probably about 19.
"Yeah, you can tell me where a…" He looked down at a piece of paper. "Marion Flemming." A small gasp came out of my before I could stop it. I hadn't heard her name since the accident. I know it sounds stupid, and I never thought it would have this affect, but somehow it did.
"You can't, I am sorry."
"And why is that?" He looked annoyed.
"She's dead," I say bluntly. He blinked a couple of times, and I could tell he wasn't sure what to say.
"Why are you here?" I ask. Out of the corner of my eye I saw grandpa coming out of the house, putting his jacket on in the process.
"Um…I was hired to work here a few weeks ago." He opened his mouth to say something else but stopped.
"By who?" Grandpa reaches us in time to hear this part of the conversation. He looks at me like he's unsure if he should say or not.
"Mom." I blurt out for him. I see the hurt in grandpa's eyes before I go back to the pin where Roulette is impatiently waiting for me. I grab the lead rope and take him back to the stall. I stop and look at grandpa one more time before I go back to the stall.
"He listened." I leave them to talk about this 'situation' that has come up.
"I'm not trying to break you." I tell Roulette. "I just want you to trust me." I keep telling him that and I keep thinking it but it's the only thing that I can think of to describe how I feel. "We both went through the same thing…I know how you feel." I talk to my horses as if we are both people. I saw the time and realized I should be getting ready. I put Roulette away and ran back to the house. I am always running to the house a lot; I don't manage my time well. I didn't take much time to get ready, cause I honestly didn't care that much. Keep in mind, I said I didn't care THAT much, so I still care. Curling my hair is what took the longest, than I grabbed one of the two pairs of jeans that I kept for times like this. I only ever wore jeans so I had to keep some that didn't get stains all over them. I grabbed my nice boots that only had a couple scratches on them and went into the living room.
"I'm taking the truck," I yell to the empty house. "Hey I warned them," I say to myself. I grabbed the keys off the hook and hopped in the truck. It was grandpa's truck and he had had it since before I was born, meaning it's really old. I turned the key and just like every other time it didn't start.
"Ugh!" I open the door and popped the hood. I looked around for the wire that grandpa had told me to make sure was connected if it did this. It wasn't a real common problem. I found it and squeezed it and the connector together. That didn't work so I went back to the hood of the truck. I really need to learn about trucks if I am going to be driving this old thing. I put my hands on my hips and looked for something that could be wrong, then I hollered for someone; no answer. I would just take the newer truck but I wasn't allowed to drive it without someone with me.
"Damn…" I whisper.
"Need some help?" He's still here? I think to myself.
"No."
"So what's wrong with it?" He's just like Lou!
"Uh…"
"Do you want me to take a look?"
"Sure." It kind of looks like he is hanging around here so I might as well get used to it. He walks over and fiddles with a few things while I lean against the truck and tap my foot, trying to hint that I am in a hurry.
"So where are you going…" He takes his eyes away from the engine and looks at me for a couple seconds.
"Amy…it's Amy Flemming."
"Ty Borden." He whipped his hand off on his pants and shook my hand. Nice. Grandpa came out of the barn.
"Ty what did I tell you about my granddaughters?" He looked at me and then down at his feet.
"Um…no closer than ten feet sir."
"Are you ten feet away from both of my granddaughters?"
"No, sir." I didn't like Ty, but grandpa was being a little too technical.
"He's just trying to help grandpa. The truck wouldn't start."
"And where do you think you're going."
"A…party."
"I didn't know about this."
"I told Lou and she said I could go. I thought that would be ok."
"Not all by yourself." I sighed and picked up my phone.
"What if Soraya goes?"
"I want two people who have a license in that car." Why? It doesn't take two people to drive a car! But grandpa is too stubborn and Soraya does not have her license yet, just her permit.
"Lou could drive me and then I can call her when I want her to pick me up." Just then, of course, Lou got in the truck and drove to town.
"Ugh."
"I can drive you into town. I got some stuff to do anyway," Ty offered.
"Yeah, sure, I guess."
"Is anyone going to ask me what I think?" Grandpa's raspy voice cut in.
"Is that ok with you, grandpa?" I asked sarcastically.
"Yes," He says that one word and walks away. I laugh and shake my head at him.
"The belts broken, we'll take my truck."
"Kay." I grabbed my wallet and went to his truck. It took twenty minutes to get there, I gave directions.
"What's your number?"
"Why?"
"So I can call you to ask you out." I said sarcastically, "I need to be able to call you when I need a ride if you're not here yet."
"Oh, right. It's 587-7384." I put it in and realize that we're already there.
"Thanks." I get out and close the truck door. There are cars parked everywhere and I weave my way through them in to the mansion where the party is. Ashley Stanton lived here and is one of those people who are so popular but the meanest also. I search for a familiar face once I step inside but I think the whole school is here so it's hard to even take a step. Someone bumps into the back of me and I almost fall on my face.
"Hey! Watch it would ya?" I start to say but then I turn around to see Matt who was shoved into me.
"Dude, careful!" He says half laughing half serious.
"Sorry." The guy stumbles away to find someone else to mess with.
"Sorry about that."
"It's ok. It's not your fault." I look around awkwardly hoping that he would say something.
"So are you having a good time?" Thank you!
"Uh…"
"Besides the fact that I practically knocked you over?"
"I just got here and that's pretty much the only thing that has happened."
"Well, then you need to do something!"
"I need to do something fun, that's for sure."
"Alright, you thirsty."
"Yes." He takes me by the hand and we walk through the crowd to the kitchen. He starts to pour me a 'drink' (if you get my drift.)
"I don't drink."
"Oh, come on, it's just one drink. It won't hurt you."
"I don't want it." He starts to protest but stops and pours it into the sink. Instead he gives me a cup of just coke.
"Thank you."
"Yeah." I sat down on a couch and started to talk to a few friends from school. This is probably the last party that I go to without Soraya. I normally have so much fun but this time I'm not. It could be that my mom just died. I think to myself as I listen to Riley tell me a story about riding her horse and running into some guy on their property. Or it could be that Soraya always makes me laugh and is always making me do stuff I normally wouldn't do, like dancing. After about two hours I was getting tired but was having a little more fun than I had been. Riley and I just sat down after dancing a little bit and walking around to see who was there. She was one of the most talkative people I have ever met!
"Hey do you want to dance?" Matt asked.
"Uh…not really."
"Come on, Amy! You never do anything fun!" He grabs my arm and pulls me off of the couch.
"Matt, stop. I don't want to dance with you!" He pulls me in close and I push away which knocks him over. I ran out of the house and looked around hoping Ty would just be there already. His truck was nowhere in sight so I took my phone out and dialed his number.
"I'm on my way."
"Thanks." I sat down on the porch and Riley came out.
"Hey, are you ok? I can't believe Matt did that."
"I can. I'm ok, thanks for checking on me."
"Do you want me to wait here until your ride comes?"
"No…that's ok. You go back inside."
"You sure?"
"Yep!" I tried to sound cheery but we both knew she saw right through me. I smiled and playfully hit her arm before she went back inside. Five and then ten minutes went by and Ty still wasn't here. Where is he? I heard the door open and close behind me and I turned around to see Matt. I turned around to just ignore him but it didn't work.
"What is your problem?" He sounded furious.
"I don't have a problem, you do."
"We were having fun until you freaked out because I wanted to dance."
"You practically past out on me, and I didn't want to. You can't force someone to do something. Besides you made a way bigger deal of it then it should've been."
"Oh so all of a sudden this is my fault?"
"Not all of a sudden. It was from the beginning."
"What?" He pulled me up by the arm.
"Ouch! Get off of me!" I yell at him and try to push him away but he grabbed tighter. Before I knew it Matt was on the ground and I was being pulled up by Ty. I could feel the bruise forming on my arm as I walked back to the truck with Ty, his arm firmly around my waist, guiding me. He set me in the car and then walked back over to Matt. He yelled at him but I couldn't hear it over the music coming from the house and the people talking in the yard. I saw people laughing and I didn't even care. He sat down in the car and put his hands on the wheel. We sat there for a moment and then he looked at me.
"Are you ok?"
"Yeah…my arms a little sore…but I'm fine, I've had worse." I hesitated at what I would say next. "Thank you."
"Yeah," He said with a sigh and then started the car and we headed back to Heartland.
