Rural

Chapter 5: Being Friends is For the Best. I Guess.

       "Sorry, I'm busy," Sawyer said as I hopped over the fence. "I got work to do." He gestured for me to follow him so I did as he led me to the stables.

       "What do you need help with?" I asked.

       "Escaping Kitty," Sawyer said. "Sorry, I don't actually need your help. I just needed a reason to let her know I was 'busy' so she wouldn't come looking for me after talking to you." Sawyer sat down on a bale of hay. "I just can't believe she thought she could waltz on our land and think everything is okay, especially after everything she has done."

       "Tell me about it," I said, sitting down beside him. "I hate the stigma around bisexuals. How we're more likely to cheat just because we can like men and women."

       "Her dumping me for being bi isn't the only reason I don't want to be around her," Sawyer said. "It's everything that happened after."

       I wanted to ask Sawyer exactly what happened after but I didn't want him to feel pressured into telling me, especially if it was something he wasn't ready to talk about. And I think there was a lot he wasn't ready to talk about.

       However, Sawyer continued talking about it anyway. "She broke up with me right before a big competition. I was getting ready to get on my horse and she walked over to me. I thought she was going to wish me good luck but she started yelling at me. And said those things I told you and then dumped me. And because it was right before the competition, I couldn't concentrate."

        Sawyer didn't even have to finish telling me the events for me to know what happened. One thing you needed while riding a horse was complete and utter concentration. If Sawyer didn't have that, it was obvious what the results were, especially when it was during a competition.

       "How long were you in the hospital for?" I asked in a quiet voice.

       "To be honest... I have no idea," Sawyer said. "I was out cold for a few days. Stayed for a while after I woke up. When I did get released, it took my a long time to heal properly. I didn't even get back on a horse until a few weeks ago. Months after the accident and long after my doctor told me it was okay to ride again."

       "Now I see your reluctance to be near Kitty," I said. "Breaking up with you before the competition? It couldn't wait until after?"

       "Apparently not," Sawyer said. "Can you promise me something? Promise you won't pressure me to compete? My friends and family has been sympathetic towards me after the accident but once I got on my horse again, they've been so anxious to get me to compete again. You know, because I was a champion and I shouldn't let what happened hold me back. I just... I need one person not telling me to get back into competing."

       "Of course I won't pressure you to compete," I said. "You're the one who knows better than everyone if you're ready or not, and if you say you aren't ready, then you're not ready. It will be like... me having an allergic reaction to bananas and then people telling me to eat bananas because I love it."

       "Jamie, that's... that's not a good analogy," Sawyer said. "It makes no sense. But thanks. For understanding." Sawyer smiled at me and I smiled back.

       "Sawyer, Jamie," I heard Vincent say so we looked over to see him standing at the entrance. "Mayor Ward wants our families' help setting up the fair next Friday. All of our help."

       "Seriously?" Sawyer asked. "She defended Kitty after everything that happened and she wants me to help them?"

       "Trust me, I'm not happy about it either," Vincent said. "But, you know, can't turn down the mayor. Unless you already have plans. It won't be fair for you to cancel your plans."

       "Then it's a good thing I do have plans," Sawyer said. "At least, you can tell her I do."

       "I will but you might want to create fake plans anyway," Vincent said. "You know how persistent she can be. She'll ask what the plans are to make sure you actually have them."

       "If she does ask, just tell her... That I'm going to be taking Jamie out," Sawyer said.

       I gasped dramatically. "Sawyer, you never asked me out. You can't assume I'll go on a date with you."

       Sawyer rolled her eyes, though a smile was on his face. "I might take you out into the town. To show you around because you keep getting lost."

       "Still sounds like a date to me."

       Sawyer chuckled and looked at his older brother. "Can you go tell Mayor Ward I'll be showing Jamie around the town?"

       "Sure," Vincent said. "And if she's still persistent, saying how you can do it another day, I'll say it's actually a date and it's not cool to cancel a date. She'll probably get mad once she finds out her daughter's ex-boyfriend is going on a date."

       "I like the way you think," I said.

       "Please don't say that, Vince," Sawyer said. "Jamie doesn't need the encouragement."

       "In other words, he'll never go out with me so my heart is broken," I said.

       "Yeah, whatever," Sawyer said. "Vince, if she does tell us to cancel, say Jamie and I are also going to be running some errands because we have some pick ups scheduled that day and can't change it."

       "Got it," Vincent said before walking off.

       "You know," I said. "You can pick me up any time."

       "Shut up," Sawyer said, gently nudging my side. "You really don't stop with the innuendos, do you?"

       "I think you need to learn what an innuendo is," I said. "That clearly wasn't one. That was just me trying to flirt. Did it work?"

       "Not really."

       Dang, I would have to step up my game then. Not really. I didn't like Sawyer or anything. I just enjoyed flirting with him and making innuendos to annoy him. We were just friends. The last thing I needed was a relationship and I was sure that was the last thing he needed as well.

       Being friends was the best option.

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sure jamie sure. he just friendzoned himself lol.

and yay we got some of vincent. i really want to write more of the birch family. there will be a fair soon so maybe we'll get to see of the whole family, plus jamie's mom and dorothy. we need them more too, especially dorothy, that precious little bean.

i'm going to have to write a script for my screenwriting class soon and i like using my characters from my books on wattpad because i've already connected with them so it's easy to write about and i'm so tempted to use jamie and sawyer, mainly for jamie's sexual comments lol.

i want to use grant and ollie or jerome and nolan but i did last semester :(