Farm Girl Loves Bad Boy (#2)

Chapter Two

I stare out at the people who look back at me as we drive through Redwood Valley. My infamy had travelled fast throughout the town as well as Springdale, and if I went anywhere, I was yelled at or watched. I guess you really can’t escape gossip, even in the middle of nowhere, or in my case, County Road Six.

As we reach the country and go past the fields, I realize that Emery has a reason for driving me home right now. Before he had driven with my dad on the way here, and it was unsaid that it was supposed to stay the same. I’m apparently not allowed to talk, so I have to wait on Emery to explain himself, if he ever does. I have a feeling that he’d much rather torture me with wonder.

Strangely, he plays no music like he normally would. I know it’s because he’s clearing the air for us to talk, but with his horrible mood since the hospital, I’m not pushing my luck by talking. When he first came to live on the farm, he was awful. He threatened me, hurt me, but nothing all that terrible happened from it. Now though, he seems a hell of a lot worse than he was then.

I’m so lost in thoughts that I almost flinch when I feel him. His hand pries mine from my lap, and his fingers intertwine with mine. I try not to seem shocked, but truthfully, I am completely. I haven’t so much as bumped into him in the last month, because he’s been avoiding me so much. I don’t even know him anymore, and the contact feels foreign.

“Emery,” I whisper, finally finding the courage to speak. I want to talk about what happened with him, because I’ve told everyone else except the person who was involved. “Why do we have to be this way?”

“I told you not to talk,” he snaps, yanking his hand out of mine. My hand falls limply in my lap and my fingers long for his.

“Then why did you get in my truck instead of my dad’s?”

He doesn’t respond, so I stop talking. Instead I stare out at the boring, flat fields that we pass for a while. I’m getting more and more sick of this every day. All Emery is doing is pushing me out of his life, when I desperately want to be in it. I can’t get over what happened; what I did, and the only person who can make it better is Emery. However he refuses to talk about it.

We pull into my driveway when I finally realize I blew it. When Emery grabbed my hand, it was his first attempt at establishing contact with me. I know he wants to say something, but he refuses to say it. It seems that all I’ve done the past few months is ruin things for myself.

“So I have some news,” my dad says during a particularly quiet dinner. He takes a bite of his steak and continues when he’s done chewing. “The first part is that we are getting some new animals.” My head snaps up to look at my father. My mother stares at him shocked, showing me that she had no idea. “There’s only a few, and it’s either here or the slaughterhouse,” he adds quickly before my mother can object.

My mom shakes her head and rests a palm on her forehead. “When will we have them?” She sighs, clearly not happy about this. Personally, I’m excited, but I don’t want to pester my dad with question while my mom is extremely stressed.

“In a few days, which brings me to the second part of the news.” He stops cutting his steak and clasps his hands together. He meets Emery’s eyes; however Emery isn’t really paying attention. He’s lost in his own world of thoughts.

“Emery,” he says sternly. “You mother’s sister got in touch with me yesterday.”

I turn to Emery, whose eyes are wide. He looks like he just saw a ghost. As far as I knew, he has no other family members. Does he even know that he has an aunt?

“She wants you to go see her to talk about living arrangements, schooling and other things.” Emery drops his fork and looks unimpressed at my father. “Now, I already said you are more than welcome to stay here and be homeschooled, however that’s entirely up to you.” I don’t know what Emery’s thinking as he pushes his chair noisily away from the table. “You’re flying out early next week,” my dad calls as Emery heads out the back door. It slams shut behind him as he heads outside into the fading sunlight.

“Well then,” mutters my dad, turning to me. “With that being said, I have something important to tell you, River.”

“Don’t tell me you’re bringing another crazy kid to our farm,” I say under my breath, annoyed. My father hears me anyways, and wastes no time telling me.

“Nope, only Vince.”

“Oh my god,” I whine, pushing my plate aside. Once it’s out of the way, I drop my head onto the table. “No. Why?”

Not Vince. I hadn’t seen him in almost a year, and I hadn’t missed him at all. All he did was slack off the farm work and put it on me so he could go to parties. Besides, I remember him being disgusting, a pig, and a jerk like Emery.

“Well,” my dad says, who’s probably ignoring the fact that I can’t even meet his eyes. “Since you and Emery are…” he pauses to choose his words wisely. “Out of commission when it comes to the barn, I figured we need another hand, and Vince already gave me a call.”

“What’s with you and letting horrible, stupid jerks live on our farm?” I snap, pushing myself away from the table. I hear my mother call my name as I head towards the back door. I throw it open and slam it dramatically behind me. I always hated Vince, and I really can’t deal with two arrogant boys right now.

For the first time since the incident, I want to go riding. I haven’t been at all, since I’ve been afraid to go in the barn. But as my anger sizzles, I stomp towards it anyways. Emery is thankfully nowhere to be found, so I have nothing to worry about when it comes to people seeing me freak out.

The doors are open, revealing perfectly normal barn isle. Nothing is out of the ordinary, and there are no remains of what had occurred only a short while ago. My feet stop right in front of the doors before I can even decide if this is what I really want to do.

Going inside would mean facing my fear, and the past. I’m positive that the horrifying memories will surface, but I can’t just avoid the barn forever, can I? Sighing, I take a step towards the barn, and then turn around. Then I turn around again and head towards the barn. It probably looks like I’m pacing back and forth, but really I’m mentally and physically fighting with myself.

“You look really stupid doing that.” The voice laughs darkly behind me. Spinning around, I find Emery sitting on the cow fence, smoking a cigarette. He wasn’t there before, but somehow managed to slip past me without making a sound.

“Well, you look really stupid in general,” I snap, and fold my arms over my chest.

“That wasn’t that great of a comeback,” he rolls his eyes and I stare at the ground, agitated.

“Yeah, I realize that now,” I mumble, still deciding if I wanted to go in the barn or not. All I want to do is go for a ride on Silver, and maybe Patch, considering Mary and I have both neglected them. Why does something so simple have to be so hard? “Why do we have to be like this, Emery?” I say quietly.

He takes a long, slow drag of his cigarette and blows his smoke up into the air. “I think it’s pretty obvious.”

I take slow steps towards the fence and then climb up, propping myself a few feet beside Emery. My hands grip the old wood tightly so I don’t fall. “Well clearly I have no idea, so if it’s obvious, tell me.”

“No,” Emery says, emotionless. “I think I’ll let you figure it out on your own.” I exhale loudly and stare up at the blue, cloudless sky. The daylight is slowly fading away, making it one day closer to when Emery leaves. I never asked how long he would be gone for, or when he would come back. However sometimes not knowing the answer to a question makes things easier.

Slowly, I reach my left hand over the space between us like Emery had in the truck. My fingers find his and for once, it seems like everything is back to normal.

“You know, everything is going to be okay,” I whisper, not really to Emery in particular, but also to me. Because I need some hope to hold onto right now. I thought that everything would be over after the night in the barn, but it seems that what happened was only the beginning.

Suddenly, Emery yanks his hand out of mine. “Everything will be okay,” he snaps, jumping off the fence. He starts to walk towards the house and calls over his shoulder to me. “As long as you leave me the fuck alone.”