Authors Note
Hey guys! What's up?
Thanks for all of the reviews! And thanks to all those who answered my incredibly random question. There really is a bunch of you Gryffindors out there reading this, I was kind of shocked. Actually I wasn't, I expected almost everyone to say Gryffindor or Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw. I didn't expect any Slytherins among us…
Now, as for my house… I'm not a Gryffindor –gasp—right? I'm a Slytherin. I am a Slytherin through and through. I LOVE Dark!Harry fics (either with Harry has Voldemort's "son" and heir or other) and I am pro Dark Side, I love Draco Malfoy and Voldemort and snakes, I have a fascination with snakes and love the Slytherin colors, black, silver, dark green, favorite colors. I HATE Hermione, Ron, Dumbledore, The Order, and all that other woohoo we're Light Side stuff. I do like Fred and George Weasly though, they ARE hot. They're even better when the join the Dark Side. How could you want to kill Voldemort though? He's just a guy that wants to take over the world and dark magic is H-O-T! (So is Voldemort in the second Harry Potter movie –wink wink— of course Daniel Radcliff (Harry Potter) and Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy) are not hard on the eyes either…) I am a hard core Slytherin. I think EXACTLY like J.K Rowling portrays the Slytherins. I might not be out right all the time but it's the way my mind works, I think about things through before I act (none of the Gryffindor pride and bravery crap for me) and nothing slips by me, I catch everything, sometimes that is not such a great thing. And I recently reclaimed the title of Most Evil from Shawna; I just have a more subtle way of going about things, at first, watch out later. I often times have to keep my true Slytherin self in check (he-he) and I am more of an observer, I observe things before I jump into anything, and no one ever suspects quiet, innocent Steph from doing anything bad. Tis a good life I tell you.
On the down side, no actually really knows me, except my mom, brother and step-dad. They know me a bit too well I'd say, though they don't know everything. If someone at school particularly gets on my nerves I don't jump in and start a fight, I could, easily, but I find I'm stronger with words. My friends have caught glimpses of said self occasionally and they're all like "Go Steph! Wooohoooo!" after the initial shock that I would do something like that… and so if you ask anyone that doesn't KNOW me they will tell that I am shy and quiet. If you ask someone that does KNOW me they will tell you that I am on occasion quiet but I'm really not at all shy. Ah, the life of being a "shy girl". It defiantly has its perks. You can't imagine the faces on some people when I've said something that they would consider out of line for me. Priceless.
So, in conclusion, I am a true Slytherin at heart. And a tip of advice, you really don't want to get on my bad side. Go ahead if you really want to but I wouldn't if I were you. But I can flame like none of your business so you've been warned. I think Shawna will agree with me on the flaming part since we laughed about that tons on IM the other night. Feel free to check out the flame in question if you have any doubts whatsoever on my skills. I won't tell you exactly where it is (to save said author from further embarrassment)… just that it is in the Heartland category and you can not miss it. It might seem wrong, but I am quite pleased with myself. Reading it over makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. No laughing at Steph. Just because I have different views on what is fun then you Gryffindors…
In other news around the world… I have no idea what is going to happen in this chapter so fingers crossed that something good turns up. If it sucks… well then don't complain to me… or do. Review!
And a quick note, if one more person tells me that they hated the last chapter because Ty was "mean"… I will seriously delete this story… or continue it privately and email it to the deserving people. Ty was a tad bit mean but that's nothing, if you didn't like that then maybe you shouldn't read further. There was actually a reason he acted like that, several people guessed it.
-Steph
NOTE (READ): I said this in the last chapter (I think) but I messed up on what day it should be now in the story. I think its Wednesday I just forgot what week it was. So I don't care if this is accurate or not but it is now Saturday ONE WEEK BEFORE the weeding. Enjoy. Oh and this chapter might show some more T rated stuff. You've been warned. Nothing too bad though… just some cowboy jokes –wink wink— oh and my motto is in here too.
Disclaimer: based loosely on stuff owned by Lauren Brooke. I don't own Ty but I DO own Mick so BACK OFF! I used a part of a song; the lyrics are bolded so I don't own that part either.
The Peak
Chapter 13
Saturday
"I always knew it…" Mick huffed, staggering into the clearing where Ty was already perched comfortably on a large bolder. Ty turned to face Mick and the rest of his friends, they were all sweating and dusty from the sand, dirt and rocks. The hot, late spring Arizona sun beat down on them with a vengeance.
"Knew what?" Ty prompted his friend with an insane grin.
"I always knew that you were insane," Mick said clearly as he collapsed onto the boulder next to Ty. The rest of the group took their respective seats on the smaller boulders that framed Ty's throne.
Ty grinned wickedly at Mick and his emerald green eyes twinkled mischievously. "Insanity and brilliance are often mistaken for the other."
"Yeah, maybe they are, but you are insane. There's no way around that fact." Mick replied from where he was lying on his back across the boulder with a muscular and tanned arm draped across his eyes to block out the sun.
Ty lent backwards, bracing himself on his arms. "Maybe…" he mussed. "Brilliant too though."
"And I'm Little Mo Beep," Mick grunted.
"Where are your sheep, Miss Beep?" Ty jumped nimbly off of the boulder, dodging the arm that Mick swung at him easily.
"It's Little Bo Peep, you know," a snotty, male voice cut into the boys laughter.
Ty threw his arms above his head in exasperation. "If you wanted a piece of Ty Baldwin all you had to do was ask," Ty remarked casually, choosing the sarcastic way instead of the annoyed alternative. The group of Arizona boys smirked at Matt and Tom, who had just pushed their way through the dense, pathetic bushes surrounding their sight. "There's enough of me to go around."
"What's wrong?" Mick asked in a mock sympathetic voice as he pushed himself off of the rock and stood by Ty's side. "Don't you throw your lasso that way?" he asked innocently.
Tom and Matt blinked in confusion but their eyes widened when the understood what Mick was implying. Mick and Ty and the rest of their group laughed loudly at the two Virginia boys faces. Mick raised an arm above his head and swung it around, like he was preparing to let go of a lasso.
"Now that, my friend," Mick began, turning to face Ty, "was brilliance," he said proudly with a firm nod of his head.
"Insanity and brilliance are often mistaken for the other," Ty said again with a grin.
"You're sick," Matt's face twisted into an ugly grimace.
"Aw come on," Ty began, his eyes glinting wickedly, "we're in the desert. It was just a little desert humor."
"It wasn't very funny," Tom said, stony faced.
Ty scowled at the two intruding boys. He grinned again as an idea struck him. "Don't get your tighty whities in a twist," Ty joked, Tom turned red, "it was a joke, a J-O-K-E, joke. Ever heard of them?"
"I was under the impression that J-O-K-Es were supposed to be funny," Tom shot back.
"Well you're horse snobs," Ty scoffed in disgust. Then he grinned again, it was that famous grin that adorned his features whenever he was scheming. "Maybe you'll like this one better…
Riding up and down Broadway
on my old stud Leroy
And the girls say," Ty began belting out the lyrics to the end of Big & (and) Rich's Save a Horse Ride a Cowboy.
Mick and the rest of their group picked up as Ty waved a hand for them to jump in.
"Save a horse, ride a cowboy." They sang clearly and perfectly, just like Ty had.
"Everybody says," Ty continued with the song. His voice adopting a perfect western twang.
"Save a horse, ride a cowboy," the others answered in unison.
"What? What?" Ty cupped a hand to his ear and lent slightly in the others direction.
"Save a horse, ride a cowboy," the others shouted back.
"Everybody says," Ty sang one last time.
"Save a horse, ride a cowboooooooooooooooy!" the others threw open their arms as they held the last note for affect.
"And that, my dear ol' friend," Ty turned to Mick and clapped him of the shoulder, "is brilliance." Ty bowed deeply for emphasis.
Mick rolled his eye exaggeratedly. "As you said, "insanity and brilliance are often mistaken for the other"," Mick mimicked Ty. If it was anyone else other then Mick that mimicked him, Ty would have seen that they never did it again. But being best friends with Ty Baldwin defiantly had its perks. "That defiantly falls into the insane category."
"I wasn't the only one singing," Ty reminded Mick.
"Hey, it's not me that has a problem admitting to insanity," Mick reasoned.
"I never said I had a problem admitting to insanity," Ty challenged.
Mick's eyebrow rose as he looked at Ty skeptically. "Well then wha…"
"I hate to interrupt your little lover's quarrel," Matt cut in sharply. He paused and watched Ty, hoping to see that his words had had some affect of Ty. Ty crossed his arms and waited for Matt to continue. When Matt did continue, he wasn't as confident as before, that emerald eyed gaze that Ty fixed him with made him shift his weight from foot to foot uncomfortably. If you ever saw 24, it was a stare that could rival that of Jack Bauer's and that guy had the whole stare down. (a/n: man he has a good stare! I am so jealous of him. I have the "evil eye" though)
Mick noticed Matt's behavior too and glanced at Ty. Mick shook his head but even he knew the affects that that stare could have on one but he felt no pity for the younger boy.
"We need to talk," Tom jumped in quickly to save his friend from anymore humiliation.
"Do we?" Ty looked thoughtful. "I really don't think we do. Wait… maybe we should talk about your crude fascination with me. I could report you for stalking you know, it helps having the states best lawyer as your father." Ty winked.
"We're not stalking you," Matt replied indignantly.
"Really? You could have fooled me," Ty met them with his level gaze. "So then how is it one of you always manages to show up wherever the hell I am? I surprised I haven't found one of you in my bed yet!"
"And this really isn't going anywhere," Mick cut in, his eyes blazing. "So, if you would…" he gestured with his hands for Matt and Tom to go back the way that they had come.
"We're not going anywhere until we talk," Matt surprised Mick by saying.
Mick opened his mouth to something that would undoubtedly have been of the nasty variety had Ty not held up his hand.
"Let him talk," Ty said calmly.
"You really hurt my friend," Matt blurted out.
Ty blinked. "You have a lot of friends," he said even though he knew exactly who Matt was talking about.
"You know exactly who I'm talking about." When Ty didn't say anything Matt sighed. "Amy."
Ty's scowl deepened. "Oh, her? What about her?"
"You know exactly what I'm talking about!" Matt yelled at Ty forcefully. It unnerved him to no end when all Ty did was blink. He'd expected a teeny tiny little flinch at the very least.
"Apparently you didn't understand what I told you," Ty growled, his fun was over and now he was just plain pissed off. "I told you to leave me alone, I don't want to see you or talk to you or have anything to do with any of you! Leave. Me. Alone." He emphasized the three words as though he were talking to a slow five-year-old.
"You didn't mean that," Matt said simply with a shrug of broad shoulders.
Ty was speechless for one of the few times in his life. "You're joking, right?"
"Why would I be joking? I know you didn't mean what you said."
Ty took a deep breath so he wouldn't do something rash. "You can leave now," Ty said eventually, looking pointedly at the way Matt and Tom had come from.
"We have to talk," Matt said once again in a voice that he hoped was commanding and persuasive.
"No, we really don't," Ty said firmly. Matt opened his mouth to argue with the hardheaded Ty but to prove his point on how little he wanted to talk, Ty turned his back on Matt and Tom and wandered back to his rock.
Mick stared at Ty. "What?" Ty asked like he really had no clue what Mick was looking at.
Mick burst out laughing and had to lean against the big boulder so he didn't fall over. "What did you take this morning?" he burst out, still laughing quite hard.
"Just those pills the doctor prescribed," Ty shrugged.
"You're sure?" Ty nodded in response to Mick's question. "And you only took the prescribed dose?" Ty grinned and Mick shook his head. "You know you're supposed to do what the doctor says, right?"
Ty shrugged innocently. "Hey, Dr. Cowboy never told me exactly how many to take. He said from five to eight pills twice a day."
"And you took eight," Mick stated.
Ty didn't answer. Mick started to laugh again.
Matt made a noise from behind Ty that indicated he was disgusted.
Ty spun around and glared furiously at the two boys. "Are you waiting for an invitation to get the hell away from me?"
"You're sick," Matt sneered.
Ty groaned, the boy couldn't even sneer right! "That's why I took medication this morning."
"You overdosed," Matt accused.
"Actually, I didn't," Ty denied, "Doctor said five to eight pills twice a day. I didn't take over that."
"Yeah, well, you probably didn't even need eight!" Matt exclaimed, clinging to whatever argument he could make.
"What's your point?" Matt gaped at Ty. "Jesus," Ty groaned, "you really do live in a small town, don't you? Welcome to the twenty-first century!"
"My towns not that small. Are you insinuating that all teenagers in this day and age overdose and prescribed medication?" Matt asked.
"For someone with a head so small, you sure do use a lot of big words," Ty laughed. "And that's not what I said. I took that amount of pills that I felt was…" Ty paused for a second, "right," he concluded.
"You didn't take them because you needed them," Matt said in a prissy voice.
"What the hell are you people?" Mick burst out. "You really are stalkers if you care that much about what Ty does. He's told you and your cow hick friends to get lost more then once and yet… you don't! There's something seriously wrong with that. Has it not registered yet that Ty doesn't like you? Doesn't like any of you? Now, perhaps you missed the signs and markers on the trail head that said to stay on the path."
"You're not on the path," Tom challenged.
"Do you know who I am?" Mick shot back incredulously. "Do you know who my parents are? Who Ty's parents are? They already know we go off the trails, we've been doing this for two years, they don't care! You on the other hand… we could report to a Ranger Joe. A five hundred dollar fine is pocket change to us but you two…" Mick eyed them up and down and his lips curved into a perfect sneer as he took in their ordinary and plain clothing, "five hundreds what to you? The amount of money mommy and daddy let you spend after your bar mitzvah? The amount of money you're allowed to spend in one year?"
Matt shook with rage. They had no right to insult him like that! All he was trying to do was protect one of his best friends!
"Fine, we'll go," Matt said, his voice filled with suppressed rage. "But first," he stayed where he was and Ty frowned, "I have something that I need to make very clear to you, pretty boy," Matt tried his hand at insulting Ty. Ty looked like he was about to burst out in laughter. Matt cleared his throat and continued, "Amy is my friend, one of my best friends. And for some reason she can't let go of the notion that you are the Ty she knew two years ago. She won't listen to me or Tom or Soroya or Joni when we tell her otherwise. She still thinks that you are some… some great person. But you're not; you're a slacker, a druggie and a womanizer…"
"Whoa! WHOA!" Ty exclaimed and held up a hand to stop a startled Matt. "Slacker? I don't think so. Druggie? I am not a druggie, okay? And a womanizer? Where the hell did you get that idea?"
Matt narrowed his eyes. "Oh yeah, right. I saw you at that party that Amy insisted we go to. I saw you when you got home at noon that one morning and you didn't even remember who you were with!" Matt said in rage and disgust. "That is disgusting."
Ty frowned but refused to respond to Matt's accusations. "Have you ever seen me hurt a woman?" he asked instead.
"I'd say not remembering someone's name is hurt enough. You don't have to physically abuse someone to hurt them you know."
"Your precious friend, Amy, spent a whole afternoon with me." Ty glanced at Mick, "and for most of that time it was just us," Ty smirked at the way Matt's face colored as he said those two words. "Did she come back hurt in anyway at all?" Ty shook his head as Matt tried to object, "I'm talking about physically of mentally. Was she crying? Did she act hurt?"
Matt was silent. He couldn't object because the truth was, Amy had come back from that day she spent with Ty happier then he'd seen her in years. Instead, Matt settled for glaring coldly at Ty.
"That's what I thought," Ty snickered. "Do you have anything else you'd like to wrongly accuse me of?"
"Yeah," Matt said, surprising even himself because he honestly had no idea what to say. He grappled with his thoughts and burst out the first thing that he found. "You street race!"
Now, Ty couldn't hold in his laughter anymore. He burst out laughing and Matt shifted uncomfortably.
"What does that have to do with anything?" Ty managed to ask once he had controlled his laughter a bit, he was still laughing lightly though. "And what the hell is the big fucking deal? I street race! So what? It's… here, let me put it simply for you, FUN!"
"You enjoy smashing up expensive cars?" Matt asked incredulously. He was more or less repeating what Mick had said in the hospital on Wednesday to Tony and that fact did not escape Mick.
"We don't smash up expensive cars," Mick mimicked Matt, "sometimes shit like that happens but we don't purposefully do it. Just because you only race like ancient tractors and such in Hicksville doesn't mean we can't do things our way here."
Matt ignored Mick and looked directly at Ty as he spoke next. "So, Ty, tell me, who did you race? And why haven't you told anyone about him… or her?" Matt knew that he had struck a nerve in Ty by saying that, if the way Ty's face darkened was any indication at all. Matt, never one to know exactly when to stop, dug himself in deeper by continuing, "Can't daddy fix all of your problems for you?"
"I do not need my "daddy" to take care of my problems," Ty hissed venomously. "This is my problem, my fight if you will, and I will take care of it on my time and in the way that I deem right. You have no right to follow me and come here and do this. You don't know what the hell you are talking about so get lost. Whenever that stupid wedding of yours is…"
"It's Saturday, you know, next Saturday not today," Matt interrupted Ty.
Ty, not a big fan of being interrupted, turned on Matt slowly, his green eyes blazing and glancing with an intense fire. "What the fuck are you talking about now?"
Matt rolled his eyes. "My brother Scott's and Amy's sister Lou's wedding. It's next week on Saturday at SASSI at noon. I believe you know where SASSI is since…"
"I know where SASSI is you idiot," Ty retorted. "Why the hell would I possibly care about when your precious big brothers' wedding is?" he demanded.
"Well… I just figured that you might want to come…"
"Yeah, you just figured. Well guess what? I don't want to go to the wedding; I couldn't give a wheelbarrow fill of horseshit about it. So if that's all…" Ty hinted at them that they should leave.
But, once again Matt didn't do as Ty wanted. "Amy wants you come," he said pointedly.
"And I could possibly care about your friend…? Why?"
"She likes you."
Ty snickered. "Lots of people like me but you don't see me doing favors for them…" Ty trailed off and paused. A sick grin overcame his face and he shrugged. "At least not favors like that…"
"You really are sick," Matt scoffed.
Ty only laughed again. Mick came and stood by Ty's side and the rest of Ty's friends lined up behind him.
Matt noticed them, all of Ty's friends, his big friends. Not big like that… well maybe they were big like that but they were all tall and made solely of walls of sinewy muscles that rippled with every move they made. They were all on the football team with Mick and Ty and many of them played on the offensive line and their position was to protect the quarterback, a.k.a. Ty.
"Got your friends to protect you?" Matt asked innocently.
"Jesus, man, you just don't know when to stop, do you?" Mick subtly hinted that Matt and Tom should leave… now.
"Fine," Matt threw his hands up in surrender but he smirked at Ty. Matt swore he never smirked more in his life then he had in the past hour or so. "But you should know…"
"What should I know?" Ty sighed. "That I'm a big, bad man?" his friends snickered behind him.
"No," Mick scowled. "Amy, for some unfathomable reason, likes you. Have you seen Amy? Like actually looked at her?" Matt didn't wait for Ty to answer. "She's gorgeous and smart and funny and you'll have a pretty hard time finding someone better then her. She likes you. She won't admit it to us be its as clear as daylight. She's liked Ty Baldwin since before the accident two years ago, she only just realized it after you were gone and we all thought you were dead. But no, she didn't think you were dead! We all told her on a regular basis that you were dead but she wouldn't listen to us. Sure, she'd say "sure, whatever" and go along with us because you being dead was the only thing that was possible, but you could see it in her eyes that she didn't believe it. And then we came here and she found you. And ever since then you've treated her like she was no better then shit... you've treated us all like that."
"That's because you," Ty motioned to Matt and Tom, "and your other little friends are no better then shit, as you put it. I have treated Amy better then that and you know it. I do like her but not like that. But hey, give her my number, I'm sure that you have it, you know with being my stalkers and all. She can call me and we can arrange something. You can call me an All You Can Eat Buffet," Ty laughed.
"You're sick," Matt said for possibly the zillionth and twenty-first time that afternoon. "And Amy's not like that, she's not at all like that."
"Well then okay. You're dismissed," Ty tried another method for getting ride of them. Be was beginning to wonder if they responded better to orders.
"We're going," Matt yelled in exasperation.
He composed himself as Ty and Mick and their friends started to laugh at him. Matt blushed a little at their laughter.
"I thought you'd respond better with orders. Though, you do know that you really shouldn't yell at your order giver right?" Ty joked in a not very joking manner.
Matt glared but didn't say anything. "You're missing out on a really great girl, Ty. Amy's just about as good as they come and you're ruining everything. She'll be heartbroken when you don't show up next Saturday. And I can think that even someone like you might have a bit of a heart. You and she used to be so close, you were like best friends. You would never even have dreamt of hurting her and that's all you're doing now."
"Well boo hoo, sorry if I've disappointed all of you," Ty mocked, he was more then through with the conversation. He looked up into the sky and stared at the sun until spot appeared in front of his eyes. As he blinked to clear the blurry spots, he realized that Matt was talking again. Didn't he ever run out of things to say?
Ty turned to Matt, but Matt's face was obscured by Ty's blurry vision. Ty could feel the pills he'd taken that morning taking affect and he suddenly wanted to laugh really hard.
"We're leaving now," Matt announced somberly.
"Thank, God," Ty groaned and turned his back on them.
Matt and Tom disappeared into the desert and Ty reclaimed his spot on the rock.
"Think they'll get lost on their way back?" Ty asked giddily.
"Would be nice," Mick agreed.
Ty lay back on the rock and folded his under his head, fashioning a pillow of sorts. The tips of hi chocolate brown hair brushed against the rough surface of the shoulder. Ty laughed suddenly, everyone looked at him.
"Erm, Ty? What's so funny?" Mick asked.
Ty just laughed harder and shook his head. "Save a horse, ride a cowboy…"
a/n: reviews are happy things and I want a lot before I update. Random chapter, I know, but I LIKE IT so no teasing it. Ty's so hot… and Mick too… hmm. Oh and there are five chapters or so left. I lied Shawna… actually I didn't really since I just decided to have three more chapters instead of two… but those two are still included… and I've just thoroughly confused myself… oh well. And I don't give a hoot about editing right now so… Review! -Steph