Author's Note: Aaah! I'm sorry I left you guys hanging for such a long time. . .again. I was gone traveling for a week and forgot my flashdrive with the chapters on it at home. But I finally arrived home today, after a thirteen hour layover, just in time to celebrate my birthday so I'm sending this lovely chapter your way.
"What?!" I practically yelled.
Then Colby did something I'd never seen her do in front of me. She brought her hands up to her face and began sobbing into them. I rushed forward and put my arms around her, pulling her against me. This was my tough as nails best friend literally crying in my arms and that did things to me. I'd never seen Colby so unhinged before. I stood there and just held her for a few minutes, squeezing her as hard as she would have squeezed me. Well, not quite as hard because Colby was stronger than me, but still pretty hard. And I did that because even though squeezes like those could leave bruises, they actually felt pretty good because so much love prompted them. Then I smoothed my hand over the back of her hair and rubbed her back for another minute while she calmed down some.
She started hiccuping as she said "H-He. I-I saw. . ."
"Shh. Hey, now. Try to calm down some so you can tell me what happened. Do you want to go to your room so we can talk this out?"
Colby fervently shook her head. "N-N-No. I don't want to go in there j-just yet."
I understood what she wasn't saying. She didn't want anybody else to see her how she was now, not even her family. Perhaps especially not her family. It would be bad enough for her when she told them about the breakup. She didn't need them having this visual of her in their minds in addition to that.
"Okay then. How about. . ." I looked around and saw the boxes we'd sat on before when she'd manhandled me and had me tell her all about Jackson before. "How about we stay here where we have our privacy? We can sit over there on those boxes and I'll wait as long as you want. Or you don't even have to tell me at all and I can just sit with you until you're ready to go in. How does that sound?"
Colby nodded and I gently took her by the arm as I led her over to the boxes. I sat down on the same box as her and put my arm around her shoulder, pulling her close. She sat there for a little while just staring at her horse. When she'd had her fill of that, she moved on to staring at a few cows that were clustered together trying to avoid the cold of the pasture. Her breathing finally started to even out some and then she said "The funny thing is, I brought this on myself."
"What? Colby, don't be preposterous. You didn't bring this on yourself."
She gave a rueful laugh that was devoid of even the smallest smidgeon of humor. "Oh yes I did. You've tried to tell me ever since we got together that he was bad news. And me? Of course I didn't listen to you. I mean, I didn't even want to hear it! I never, ever wanted to hear it. Your words pretty much went in one ear and out the other. The worst part is that I'm always aware of that. I'm the type of person who likes to give out advice on occasion, but doesn't want to hear it."
"Colby," I started before she hushed me.
"Don't, Violet, okay? Don't make excuses for me. The fact of the matter is you were right and I was wrong."
I gave her a firm shake of my head and said "Colby, I've never wanted you to say something like that to me, okay?"
"I know," she told me as she stared down at her hands and started to wring them. "You've just wanted the best for me and you always knew that the best for me wasn't Ignacio."
I fell silent then because Colby had just hit the nail on the head with that statement. After a minute or so, I found my voice. "I would never say something like 'I told you so' to you and I don't want you feeling like I was oh so right about something or you were oh so wrong." I put a finger to her lips when she turned her head and started to say something. "Nope. Nothing that I've said on the subject matters, okay? What matters is that clearly Ignacio has hurt you and I'm hoping you will decide to tell me the story."
Colby sat there miserably in silence for a few minutes before she quietly said "Like I said before, he's been cheating on me."
"How do you know this? Did somebody come up to you in Buena Vista and claim she's been seeing him?"
She worried at her bottom lip as she gave a firm shake of her head. "No. If some woman had come up to me like that, I probably would have laughed at her, called her a liar, and walked off completely oblivious. Apparently I'm the type of woman who has to see things herself in order to properly believe them."
My mouth dropped open. "No."
"Yes."
"W-What happened, Col?" I questioned as I put my hand over hers to stop that whole wringing thing.
With a sigh, she finally launched into her story properly. "I got into that argument with you. By the way, I'm. . ."
"Nope. Don't even say it. There isn't even any need to."
She took a deep breath before she continued. "Well, I left your house, got my horse all saddled up, and rode my ridiculous self over to Buena Vista. I thought that Ignacio was at work today, so I decided I would go to his house and surprise him. I know where the spare key is located so I got it out and let myself in. Like an idiot, I sat in his living room for about ten whole minutes before I started to hear something. Do you get it, Vi? Ten whole minutes! Ten minutes I sat there in his house oblivious before I finally noticed the sounds. I was sitting there for ten minutes on the couch that I helped him pick out with that stupid chocolate party cake I made him sitting on the coffee table before I knew something was up in that house!" She jumped up off the box then and rather than pacing she kind of stalked around in front of me angrily.
"You heard some sounds so then what?"
"Call me Sherlock because I went to investigate. I crept down the hall to his bedroom door and do you know what I found?"
I held up my hand and shook my head. "Don't. You don't need to go into those details. I get it."
With a rough nod, Colby managed to slow herself into a pace. "Well naturally I pulled her out the room by her hair and told her that if she didn't leave the house in thirty seconds then she was going to have to start wearing wigs from now on." Now that was the Colby I knew and loved. "After she left, it was just me and Ignacio and we got into this awful argument. B-But then he said. . ."
She trailed off before she suddenly returned to her seat and slumped forward a little. After a few seconds she leaned against me. "What did he say, Col?" She shook her head. "Tell me what he said, Colby. You don't owe him anything, not one single thing, so whatever he said I want to know it."
Colby threw her hands against her face and started sobbing again, though she didn't hiccup. "He told me that I'd been a fun little distraction over the years. I was like some doll he could get to dress up for him and take down from his shelf to play with once in a while. Then he told me that the game was up and he was growing bored with me and he kicked me out of his house. He kicked me out of his house like a piece of trash and the whole time that stupid cake was on that stupid table and it was still there when stupid me left that stupid house!"
I pulled her back to me and held her while she cried it out, the whole while thinking about everything that she'd told me. The whole time I got angrier and angrier with every tear that leaked out of Colby's eyes. By the time she finally wound down and became calm, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. Wait, no. I knew exactly what I needed to do. I reached inside my rucksack and pulled out a clean handkerchief. I then used that to wipe the remaining tears and streaks of makeup from her face. When that was done, I stood up and calmly stood in front of Colby. "Don't worry, Col. I'm gonna take care of it."
She looked up at me with furrowed brows etching confusion onto her face. Colby had the extreme advantage of being one of those rare pretty criers. "Take care of what?"
"What needs to be taken care of," I said rather cryptically. "Listen, it's cold out here. I think you should go inside soon. I'll see you when I get back into town."
"Wait, what?"
With that said, I promptly stomped my way out of the barn. She didn't follow me because she was probably still worried that somebody would see her all red and splotchy and upset, though I'll say once again that Colby was actually a pretty crier even if she didn't even know it. Pretty crier or not, though, I knew that Colby had her pride and it had been shattered enough for one day as it was. As soon as I hopped her fence, Akito was next to me. I wondered if he'd been waiting for me to emerge from the barn all that time.
"Violet, what's wrong?" he asked with some serious, deep concern going on in his voice.
"Why do you think something is wrong?" I asked in a deadly calm tone and realized that I definitely did not sound like myself at all.
Akito stepped in front of me so I'd have no choice but to stop. I crossed my arms over my chest as I stared up at him. "That and this," he said as he pointed at the barn and then motioned at me. "Colby came storming into town like something seriously messed up happened and then you went after her. Then when you finally come out of the barn you look like you're the top soldier in some army and you're about to go wage the war of the century!"
It wasn't the first time and I was sure it wouldn't be the last time I thought about how funny it was that Akito had that ability to get things so accurate when it came to me sometimes. "You're right, Ki. I'm about to wage myself a war and I'm going to win." I stepped around him and started stomping off again.
"Wait, wait, wait. Whoa. Violet, what happened?" I paused. "I'm not going to let you out of my sight until you give me some kind of an explanation."
I stood there and thought that over. I wasn't about to go blabbing all of Colby's business, not even to Akito. At the moment, though, I really needed to vent at least a little of my frustration. More importantly, I really needed Akito out of my way and I believed him when he told me he wasn't going to let me out of his sight until he got some kind of an explanation. He was the same guy who had refused to put me down and carried me all the way to the clinic when I was sick, after all. So I said "Ignacio hurt Colby, okay?"
"Did he hit her?" he asked with a fierce expression on his face the likes of which I'd never seen, although I was pretty sure it was still tame in comparison to whatever he was seeing on my own face. Still, though, Akito was a gentleman and I'm sure the thought of a man hitting a woman was throwing him into a tizzy.
"Whoa, down, tiger. I'm the soldier in this war and I'm about to go soldier all over the place. But no, Akito, it wasn't physical. Colby would never let something like that happen to her." Colby easily could have stomped Ignacio into the ground if she'd wanted to. "He left some deep emotional scars instead and vengeance will be mine."
Akito thought over what I had said and what I hadn't said and some kind of understanding seemed to dawn on him. I could tell the exact moment when that imaginary light bulb started to flash above his head. "He. . .?"
I stepped around him and started stomping off again. I didn't confirm nor deny his suspicions even though I was pretty sure he'd reached the correct conclusion in his head. "I'm on my way to Buena Vista."
"What? No, Violet. You don't want to do that."
"Yes I do," I insisted right before he stood in front of me again. I stumbled a little and he caught me before I went crashing into his chest.
"If you go rushing off to Buena Vista when you're this angry then you'll do something that you'll regret."
I chose my words very carefully right then. "I'm not going to do something I'll regret, Akito." That was the truth. I so wasn't going to regret what I had planned. Yet I was certainly going to do something that Akito wouldn't want me to rush off and do and would try to stop if he knew what I had planned. There I was being the queen of not-quite lies and half-truths again.
Akito stood there looking at me dubiously. The next thing I knew, he switched over and started looking at me in that way he had that always made me feel like he was looking right into me. "Violet."
"I'm going to go," I started as I chose my words carefully again. "express my dissatisfaction with the way he treated Colby. Somebody needs to see him face to face and let him know that it's not okay. You don't know the story, Akito, but somebody. . .somebody has to see him face-to-face and let him know that. . ."
I trailed off then, not wanting to say what had been on my mind because that was something Colby had told me.
'He told me that I'd been a fun little distraction over the years. I was like some doll he could get to dress up for him and take down from his shelf to play with once in a while. Then he told me that the game was up and he was growing bored with me.'
Colby's words were ringing through my head. She wasn't just a distraction. She wasn't anybody's doll. She wasn't something to be played with and her feelings were certainly not part of a game. Somebody had to let him know that and that somebody was going to be me.
I stood there staring at Akito and he stared back at me and it was like we were in an epic stare-down that was part of an even more epic battle of wills. Unfortunately for Akito, I had an iron will at the moment and while on any other day I would have let him calm me down and be my voice of reason, today was not that day. He must have sensed that from me because he gave a weary sigh and shook his head.
"Okay. You're going to Buena Vista."
"That's the plan," I said as I stepped around him again and commenced my stomping once more.
He didn't grab me. All he did was place his hand against my arm ever so gently and that stopped me in my tracks. I slowly turned around and looked up at him.
"And I'm going with you," he declared.
"What? No, Ki. I told you that I'm the soldier and I'm about to go wage me some war, not you."
Akito looked like he truly had no idea what to do with me at the moment, which made sense because he had never seen me like this before. Come to think of it, I had never seen me like this before. Watching and listening to Colby's heart break had done something to me the likes of which had never been done before. It was definitely worse than when Violent Violet had been unleashed upon Akito that day in the town square when we were kids.
"Yes, Violet. I know you and you're. . .this. . .Look, you're clearly distraught. I just think you need somebody with you when you see him."
"Akito."
"Violet," he said as he took a step closer. "Let me go with you."
I looked up into those clear, concerned golden eyes of his and silently chastised myself because he was my ultimate weakness. As I've said before, Akito was my kryptonite. "Okay," I said quietly.
He let out a relieved breath I hadn't even realized he'd been holding in. He smiled down at me cautiously before he said "Let's go get us a horse."
"You go get your horse and I'll. . ."
"Nope. Violet, I'm not letting you out of my sight. You might run off without me when I'm not looking. And if I let you ride your own horse, it will be like letting a distracted teenager drive a car. You might run an innocent horse into a tree."
"I told you we'll go together. I'm not about to go back on my word. I'm also pretty sure I'd be fine riding my a horse by myself," I told him then. He was still looking at me with that direct golden gaze, though, so I added on "For your peace of mind, though, okay. Let's go get us a horse."
For our first order of business, Akito made a quick appearance at the shop to ask his parents to let Courtney know he had something to take care of in Buena Vista if she came and asked about him. Then I walked with Akito back to Georgia's barn and watched as he found a horse for us to ride. He saddled her up and then looked at Delilah as he said "Don't worry. You're still my best horse girl." For some reason, that really warmed my heart.
Akito led the horse out of the barn and onto the road. "I believe introductions are in order and it's only polite the two of you are properly introduced before she's taken into battle. Violet, this is Mina. Mina, this is Violet."
I almost laughed at that. Akito was making it really hard to keep my focus on being the avenging little soldier at the moment. "It's nice to meet you, Mina."
With the kind of ease that could only be achieved through many years of riding horses, Akito mounted Mina. He reached his hand out to me looking like some kind of knight in shining armor up on that horse. Or maybe that was my brain romanticizing what I was seeing. Really, though, the way he looked holding his hand out to me on top of that horse made something happen.
Boom-clap.
I didn't need his help. He knew it and I knew it. I took his hand to humor him, but I mounted the horse right behind him just as easily as he had. Akito let out a low whistle and said "Just as skilled as ever, I see."
"You're not really surprised, are you?"
Akito and I had spent a lot of time horseback riding together when we were younger. Sometimes Colby would come along, too, but I'd be lying if I didn't acknowledge the fact that I'd enjoyed the times when it was just the two of us.
"No, ma'am." Akito shook his head and gave the kind of laugh I didn't like to hear from him. It was the fake kind. "I guess I've just gotten so used to being around the kind of woman who doesn't have the first clue about this kind of thing."
As I put my arms around Akito so I wouldn't ultimately end up on the ground, I looked over my shoulder toward the barn where I'd last seen Colby. She was still in there, I was sure of it, and any lightheartedness Akito had inspired in me was suddenly gone. I hadn't stopped being mad, but I found myself being mad all over again anyway and I was hyper-focused on getting to Buena Vista.
Akito didn't push Mina at the kind of pace I would have preferred, but that was probably a good thing considering I really wasn't thinking straight at the moment and no horse should have to endure my impatience. He'd been right, of course, when he told me I might would accidentally run an innocent horse into a tree. Somewhere in the back of my mind I registered the cold. Akito was blocking the worst of the wind, but some of it was still hitting me and chilling me to the bone. Shockingly, I really didn't care at the moment.
When we finally made our way to the outskirts of Buena Vista, I realized I hadn't been there in a long time. It had been around six years. I just hadn't found the time to go there since returning from the city for some reason. It was unfortunate that I couldn't be visiting Buena Vista now under better circumstances.
We came to a stop in the town square. Not too far off, I could see the huge lake that Buena Vista had been built by. The lake was so huge that you couldn't see the other shore so it gave the town a real seaside feel in the warmer months. It had started snowing quite a bit halfway through our journey there and it was starting to concern me a little.
"What now?" Akito asked as he hopped off Mina. He looked up at me and reached out. We both knew that I didn't need his help to get down, but it was another one of his gentlemanly gestures that I wasn't going to deny him.
Once I was off Mina's back I turned to him and said "Now we find Ignacio."
"Violet," he began.
"I'm not going to do anything I'll regret," I reaffirmed as I took the arm I saw him offering. It occurred to me somewhere in my mind that he never let Courtney glomp onto that particular arm. It was always the other arm.
"I was going to ask where you thought he'd be."
"Oh." I paused as I considered. "He's probably holed up in his house eating that cake," I seethed.
"What?"
"He's probably at his house. I've never been there, naturally, but Colby told me his address a while back." We walked in silence while I located the house I was sure was his. Akito kept shooting me concerned glances and I made it a point not to look at him because I had to stay focused. When we finally reached Ignacio's house I let go of Akito's arm and said "Maybe you should wait over there across the street."
"No."
"This is between me and him, Ki."
"I'm involved now, Vi. I'm here and I'm not going to let you face that scum alone." I shot him a look and he said "What? I went to school with him, too, and I've never liked the guy either."
I'd known before I even opened my mouth that it would be no use saying anything. Akito wasn't going anywhere. So I walked up to the door with him by my side and knocked. There was no answer so I knocked again. There was still no answer so I knocked harder. Finally, I heard footsteps and then the door opened.
Standing there in the doorway was Ignacio. That smarmy, slick, slippery, slithery, suspicious Ignacio who I hadn't liked from the first moment I laid eyes on him. If that bad vibe he'd always thrown off wasn't enough, then perhaps the fact that he'd constantly checked other women out while in Colby's presence, including me, was. I'd always thought that Colby deserved somebody better and I had always known that he was going to hurt her. I thought about all that Colby had told me, the absolute worst of it being what he'd said to her before kicking her out of his house and then I was distracted by something. There at the corner of his mouth was something brown. It was something chocolate. It was chocolate frosting.
'I. . .I can't believe this. He actually had the nerve to sit back and eat Colby's cake!' I thought incredulously, fuming on the inside.
"Violet," he said with that nasty little smile of his that I'd always detested. "Akito."
I noticed he looked more warily over at Akito. After all, Akito was a tall, big, strong, capable man who easily could have given him a beat down if he wanted to. He even had his arms crossed over his chest and was giving Ignacio the kind of look that he should be wary of. Akito wasn't the one he should be worrying about, though, and he was about to find that out.
"Iggy," I said as I took a step forward. That was all I said to him. That was quite literally all I had to say to him. Sure, there were a million things I could have said. I could have told him about how much I had always disliked him. I could have raked him over the coals for what Colby had been through. I could have yelled at him about the seven years of her life he had wasted. At the moment, though, talk was cheap and words were hollow. I felt that in this case, actions would definitely speak louder than words. So I pulled my leg back, brought it forward, and kicked him. . .where it hurt. By the way, I didn't regret it.
