Catching feelings. A story about you & Austin North.

"Ouch Wildfire!"

My heart skipped a beat. He'd tweeted me "I'm so down. DM me when & where & I'm there!" "Holy shit!" I yelled. Apparently a little too loudly because my hella reactive horse decided that my yell was apparently a war cry & he bolted, almost taking my foot that was in the stirrup with him. "Ouch Wildfire!" I said while giving him the evil eye. I glanced back to my phone & saw a notification saying that "@austinnorth55 followed you" I hit his username & went to his profile. I touched the message button & started typing "hey! I'm so surprised that you answered but I'm happy to hear from you. I live on a ranch in rison, Arkansas. If that's too far I understand but I'll give you all the horse riding lessons you could need & I'll even buy you dinner at my favorite little cafe. Message back if you're up for it." There, that was pretty chill. Not even kind of crazed fan like. I grinned & walked over to my horse petting him & quietly promising not to scare the bejesus out of him anymore. I hopped into the saddle & off we went. I was planning on running him on barrels in next Tuesday's show so we definitely needed to practice. I took him into our small riding arena & we went around the barrels until we knew them so well, we could do it in our sleep. My phone went off & I wiggled it out of my back pocket while pulling back on the reins to signal the horse to stop. I had a message from Austin. I pulled it up in a hurry, hardly being able to contain my excitement. "Hi. I think it's so cool that you would invite me. I've always loved horses but living in downtown LA doesn't give me much of a chance to interact with them, ya know? Arkansas is just a hop, skip, & a plane ride away. No problem. When should I come? I don't want to interrupt any plans you might have." I chuckled a little at that. "I have no plans. Just a little barrel racing practice show on Tuesday but you're more than welcome to come. In fact, with a little practice, maybe you could ride in the show! Im sure everyone at our saddle club would love to meet you & see you ride in your first show! Let's see, today is Wednesday so if you came friday we could practice every day up until the show" I typed out & hit send. I sat staring at my phone & holding my breath as he replied. "Hm it takes me like 10 minutes to pack a bag. I think I'll fly out tomorrow because I'll probably need an extra day of practice if you expect me to actually stay on a moving horse. Give me your cell number & I'll call you after I get packed & buy my plane ticket." I sent him my number & tried to patiently wait for his call.