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Chapter Three

Chapter Three

Alexa couldn't have pressed Pin any further even if she'd wanted to. Shouts began to echo throughout Bright Fields, each one calling her name.

"I think Becky and Jade just realised you're here." Pin stood up from the bale of hay.

"They probably found Willow."

Despite her response, Alexa's mind wasn't focused on the two teenage girls searching the yard, instead she watched the way Pin's gaze shifted away from her. He was tenser than he'd been just minutes ago, even though he'd always been good at hiding his discomfort in the past.

"You're sure you don't want to talk about it?" Alexa asked, dropping the hay in her hand back down onto the bale she sat on.

"It's nothing, but I need to go and fix the gate before Raven finds a way to break out."

Pin was gone before Alexa even had chance to reply.

She sighed, running a weary hand through her tangled blonde hair to push it out of her face.

In the past she'd always known that if anything was seriously wrong, Pin would tell her about it. She hoped that was still the case, but she had been absent for two years and a lot could change during that time.

Alexa just hoped that he was okay.

The shouts were closer now and the proximity snapped Alexa out of her thoughts. Becky and Jade. If anything could keep Alexa's mind away from Pin, it was the pair of best friends with an affinity for finding trouble.

She cautiously stepped out of the hay barn, casting her eyes over the sections of Bright Fields she could see before her.

The two girls were walking around the stables, calling her name. They appeared to be checking every inch of the land around them.

"Do you think Ghost Pony found her?" Becky's voice carried across the short distance between Alexa and her friends.

"At this time of the day?"

"Yeah, you're probably right." Becky agreed. "It's much more likely to be a certain teenage boy."

Alexa sighed, the exasperated action tinged with amusement as she moved forwards into the two girls view. "You guys do know that the entire yard can hear you, right?"

Squeals of excitement reached Alexa as the two girls crushed her in a hug. She attempted to hug them back, but struggled with her arms mostly pinned to her body.

Jade stepped back with an amused smile on her face as Becky clung onto her for a moment longer.

"I can't believe you didn't tell us you were coming back!" Becky's offended tone didn't match the grin on her face.

"I didn't tell anyone. I'm sorry, I was just so scared that it wouldn't happen and I didn't want to do anything to threaten this."

"What Becky means to say is that we're really glad you're here and we really missed you." Jade added, her enthusiasm far calmer than that of her best friend.

"I missed you both. It hasn't been the same without you."

"But I was right, wasn't I?" Becky paused for emphasis with a mischievous smile. "About you being with a certain teenage boy."

She rolled her eyes, over exaggerating the movement for Becky. "He's my best friend Becky. You're just overthinking things."

"If you're certain, then you won't mind appointing me as maid of honour to your wedding?"

"I wanted to be maid of honour." Jade frowned towards Becky.

Alexa hesitated, glancing between her two friends completely overwhelmed by the conversation taking place so soon after she'd arrived back at Bright Fields. She'd expected questions about her time on the mainland, not the organisation of a wedding that would never happen.

"Well, I guess since Becky claimed the... Pin wedding first, she'd get to be maid of honour for that and Jade then gains maid of honour to any other wedding I may possibly have in the future." Alexa spoke slowly, figuring that it was the best compromise she could make under the circumstances.

The grin on Becky's face widened.

"Becky's odds are so much better than mine." Jade sighed.

"You guys do realise that I'm not in love with Pin, right?"

"Sure."

"Of course."

Despite the innocence behind their responses, Alexa didn't believe them. Something about the tone of their voice and the way they glanced towards other before speaking raised her suspicions. They'd always been a little over invested in Alexa and Pin's friendship, only now did she begin to wonder whether it was because they wanted it to be something more.

She felt the start of a headache forming at her temples as a result of the thoughts running through her mind. Alexa was definitely far too tired to deal with that conversation any further.

"Ok, now that we've sorted out far too much of my distant future, can we find Bob? I've missed his charmingly strange face."

"See." Becky told Jade. "Alexa loves Bob."

Jade just laughed and shook her head as the trio of friends made their way towards the main block of stables where the smell of horse grew even stronger, overpowering everything around them.

Most people wouldn't find the smell soothing, but as someone who'd grown up around horses and had spent almost her entire life with them, the scent that coated the yard barely fazed her. Alexa's parents were far less accustomed to the smell and always made her change her clothes as soon as she got into the house so that the scent of horses didn't invade their home.

Bob's head was already poking out over the top of his stable door when the three teenage girls reached him. His ears were perked forwards as he stared in the direction of the stall Alexa knew to be Willow's.

Alexa looked across the yard, seeing no sign of Willow returning Bob's open friendliness. Her horse was probably too busy throwing her bedding around, making a mess of the neat stable.

As they stopped outside his stable, Bob turned his attention away from Willow's stall and towards the girls in front of him. He stretched his neck out, sniffing around them in the hope of discovering hidden mints. When he failed to find any Bob's focus drifted back to Willow's stable across the yard. He barely even noticed that Alexa had returned after being away for two years.

"At least that hasn't changed." She laughed. "My horse is still far more popular than me."