I Broke The Girl I Loved

You Bet I Am

I awoke to the aroma of lemon and vanilla and opened my eyes to see Aydrian peacefully asleep on my chest, her hair being the cause of the delightful smell. The sheets were sprawled out at the bottom of the bed, only barely covering our feet. Aydrian's leg was over mine and her hand rested around my torso. She moved closer to me, if that was even possible, when a slightly chilly morning breeze blew in through my window.

She looked so serene when she slept. Her breathing matching the pattern of mine. I could barely see her eyelids flutter open before I closed my eyes.

"You're not slick. I know you're awake," Aydrian whispered tiredly.

"Whatever," I whispered back and kissed her forehead.

Just then the moment was bombarded by Evie, who swung my door open and jumped on my bed.

"Jayce, you and your girlfriend better get your lazy butts out of bed. We have things to do," she demanded.

Evie was speaking so quickly that I almost missed her calling Aydrian my girlfriend. As much as I wanted her to be, I didn't know if we wanted those types of labels yet.

"Aydrian and I aren't dating," I stated, causing a barely noticeable painful look to briefly cross Aydrian's face before she recovered as if nothing happened. Evie ignored me and stomped her foot down, ordering us to hurry up.

Aydrian moved away from my chest, robbing me of the warmth her body had supplied to me. She let Evie guide her out of the room and downstairs as I followed behind. Evie had cinnamon rolls evenly placed out on a pan waiting to be placed in the oven. She sat down on the bar stool and motioned for Aydrian to sit on the seat next to her as I put the cinnamon rolls in the oven.

"So," she started, clasping her hands together in front of her in a professional manner. "Once the cimanin rolls are ready I thought we could go the ranch. Amara has an older sister that rides horses and she invited us to ride with her today."

"Did you say cimanin?" I questioned.

Evie rolled her eyes. "Yes, because that is how cinnamon should be said. Now back to the part about riding horses?"

"I think that's a great idea!" Aydrian exclaimed, looked ecstatic at the mention of riding horses.

Both her and Evie turned to me and gave me puppy dog eyes while making wining noises. Of course I gave in and both girls squealed before rushing upstairs to get ready. When they came back down the cinnamon rolls were ready but Evie was too excited to ride horses that she made us eat the rolls in the car.

•••
The ranch Evie directed me to was small but beautiful. There was a single tarnished white barn, surrounded by tall pine trees. When I parked in the lot near the barn, Evie hopped out of the car and led us to the front. To the sides of us, on the way towards the barn, were fenced in fields with what seemed like a total of forty horses munching on grass. In front of the barn stood a girl, around Aydrian's height with long straight black hair and tan skin, who was tending to one of the horses. She had on a pink shirt and blue jeans and was wearing a white cowgirl hat and brown cowgirl boots. Evie approached her and she looked up, her calm eyes full of joy when they met Evie's.

"Evie! I'm so glad you could make it," the girl exclaimed.

"Me too Avery. Oh, this is my brother Jayce and his girlfriend Aydrian," Evie said, pointing back at us.

"It's really nice to meet you guys," she offered us a wave before looking back at Evie and asking, "you ready to ride?"

"You bet I am."

•••
Avery led us through the barn that was lined with stables, all of which were empty aside from the last two. There were saddles hanging over the stables and helmets hanging on the wall. Avery grabbed us each a helmet, having us try them on to make sure they fit, and then selected saddles for us to use. We went back out and she opened a gate into the field and told us to wait until she came back. While we waited Aydrian and Evie were pointing out their favorite horses. When Avery came back she had one horse the was small and pure white with brown leather reins. She asked Evie to hand her the saddle so she did and Avery put it on the horse before tying the reins to the fence and leaving again. The second time, she repeated the same process by asking Aydrian to hand her the saddle before she placed it on a brown horse who had white spots. The third time she came back with a black horse and instructed me to hand her my saddle.

Once all the horses were saddled up and ready to go, Avery got on her horse and gave us a quick rundown on how to steer the horses.

"If you want to go left, pull the reins a bit to the left. If you want to go right, pull them to the right," she spoke with ease as she did what she was instructing us to do. "To stop, gently pull the reins towards your bellybutton and to go forward, move them forward. Understand?"

We all nodded in agreement. Avery hopped off of her horse and helped each of us onto ours. I was terrified to say the least. I'd watched too many videos of people getting bucked off of horses during a ride that all I could think about was that. To my left, Aydrian was leaning forward on her horse in order to rub its mane. She looked over at me and I swallowed hard, the fear of losing control was grasping my mind.

"Jayce, you're going to be fine. Trust me," Aydrian said. I gave her an uneasy smile in return and then Avery spoke.

"Follow me."

My horse began following after Aydrian's, making it the last one in our train of four horses. I couldn't relax. I was panicking. The only time I'd ridden a horse was when I was seven and my best friend invited me to his sisters birthday party at a ranch that his family owned. Every kid was able to ride the horse for a certain amount of time and I was eagerly waiting for it to be my turn. Once it was I got on the horse and, with all the excitement getting the best of me, I ignored the lesson on how to ride. They gave me the 'okay' and I responded even though I wasn't listening. The ride was smooth at first and then I kicked the horse, like I'd seen in all those western movies, which I would later find out I was told not to do. The horse went into full sprint mode and caught me by surprise. I fell off the back and landed funny on my arm causing it to fracture. Ever since then, I made sure to intently listen to everything anyone said and to stay away from horses.

Yet here I was riding a horse, scared out of my mind. Avery said we'd only stay at a walking pace and it had been going well but that's what I thought when I first rode a horse.