"Okay everyone, mount your horses," Claire calls, hoisting herself up onto Storm. "Partner up with whoever you want today."
I see Marc riding his horse over towards me, so I nudge Trigger over to Ivy, despite the fact that I know she is mad at me. He'll find a partner- we have an even number today since Avery isn't riding with us.
After he got back from his little impromptu trail ride earlier, I approached him to make sure we were okay.
"Look, I'm sorry. Are you mad at me?" I asked.
He glanced at me sideways while putting Feather back in her stall.
"Do I have a reason to be?" he retorted.
"No! Marc and I were just messing around-"
"So I do have a reason?" he cut me off. I looked at him, a small scowl on my face.
"That is the exact opposite of what I just said," I whisper-shouted. "Are you deaf?"
He snorted, not looking directly at me.
"No, but I'm not blind either," he replied simply. He turned and started to walk away from me.
"Avery," I snapped, my voice low. I grabbed his upper arm and spun him around. "I told you nothing was going on. Why don't you trust me?"
"It's not you I don't trust," he shot back.
I had let go of him, taking a step back. "When did you get to be so jealous?"
"I'm not-"
"I appologized," I cut him off, raising my hand to silence him. "You are acting like a jealous child. Come find me when you're ready to act like an adult."
I spun on my heels and walked away from him. A part of me expected him to chase after me, tell me he was sorry.
He didn't.
"Aren't you going to ride with man candy over there?" Ivy quips once I approach her, tilting her head towards Marc. "Or are you worried your boyfriend wouldn't like it?"
"Cool it Ivy," I snap, rolling my eyes. "I don't want to fight with you."
A glimmer of emotion crosses over her eyes, disappearing moments later. She doesn't want to fight either.
"Can we just- be normal again?" I almost beg, nudging Trigger into a walk as the rest of the group takes off.
She looks a bit taken aback, a small frown appearing on her face."Do you not trust me?" she asks after a while.
"I do trust you, Ivy," I assure. "I just- I have issues opening up to people. There's a lot about me you don't know, and I know thats partially my fault. Like I said, I have issues opening up to people."
She sighs and shakes her head. "Okay."
"Okay?" I ask, confused.
"Okay we can be normal again. At least we can try."
A sigh of relief escapes from my mouth.
"Although I still think there's something going on between you and Avery," she adds quickly, her voice hushed.
"I know you do."
"Not denying it, are we?" she chuckles.
"Not confirming it," I start. I pause for a moment, unsure of how to respond. I won't lie to her anymore. "But not denying it, either."
She smiles at me, a genuine smile. I can tell in that moment that I've gained her trust again. We're back to how we were before.
The rest of the ride is laid back, with Ivy and I talking and teasing each other. Ivy's probably my best friend here, and its nice to have her back. It's strange to think that when I arrived here, I thought she was one fo the most annoying people ever. I guess you shouldn't judge people till you get to know them.
When we get back to the ranch, I spot Avery's in his window. His eyes meet mine, and he's gone in seconds.
I frown. If he wanted to keep tabs on me he should have just come. Or could it be he's trying to make sure I'm not riding with Marc.
Someone's jealous. And it's not cute.
"What are you thinking about?" Ivy asks.
I shake my head, as if that will cause thoughts of Avery to just fly out of my head. It doesn't work.
"Nothing," I reply.
She frowns at me. "It doesn't seem like nothing," she mutters under her breath, although she leaves it alone after that.
"Claire, I'm starving," Jesse calls. "When are we eating dinner?"
Claire chuckles, dismounting her horse. "It's been baking while we were gone, so it should be done soon." She hands her reigns over to him. "And it will be done sooner if you put Storm up for me."
His smile quickly disappears, as he grumbles something incoherent under his breath.
"What was that?" Claire taunts humorously.
"I said 'Gladly,'" Jesse jokes, rolling his eyes.
I smile, climbing off of Trigger and leading him to the cross ties.
"You're such a good boy," I coo as I untack him. I quickly run a curry comb and a hard brush over him to get the saddle marks off, and pick his hooves, before putting him up in his stall.
"You ready to go?" Ivy asks when I'm done, having already put Blue away.
"Yeah- but shouldn't we wait for Piper and Laurel?"
She shakes her head. "They already went in- they were hungry."
I laugh, and start to head back to the house with her.
When we make it to the dining room, I spot Avery at the table.
It appears Ivy does, too, because she leans in and whisper, "Look who decided to join us."
I roll my eyes, pulling my gaze away from him. I'm still waiting for an apology.
After making a plate, I scanthe table and frown. Normally, there are lots of extra chairs, which is what allows us all to be able to split into different groups to eat. Now, there are just enough chairs for us all to sit down, forcing us all to be close to each other.
"I see you've noticed my new arrangement," Claire chuckles when she notices me examining the table. "I figured it would force you all to talk to each other."
I frown. What if I don't want to talk to everyone?
Seemingly oblivious to my unhappiness, Claire makes a plate and disappears from the room. I wonder where she eats- probably in the kitchen. She almost never eats with us.
"So, this sucks," I mutter to Ivy.
"It's really not that different from before," she says quietly, while we both sit down facing Laurel and Piper.
"The only difference is that now we are going to be forced to listen to Jesse's horrible flirting," Laurel chimes loudly, causing all four of us to shoot Jesse a dirty look.
He smiles sheepishly. "I haven't even said anything yet."
"But we all know you will," I chuckle.
"You got that right," he replies, shooting me a flirtatious wink.
Moments later, he winces, pulling his foot out from under the table.
"Ow!" he shouts, turning to Avery. "What the hell was that for?"
"Language!" Ivy snaps, shooting a glance at Christie.
"Sorry," Jesse replies."But that ass just stomped on my foot!"
Ivy fights back laughter, obviously amused by Avery's jealous actions. I, however, am not.
"Jesse! Language!" I yell., shooting him a killer glare.
"Jeez," he mutters under his breath. "When did everyone become the profanity police?"
--------------------------------------------------------
Everyone is wearing black. So much black, it seems to be the only color in the world.
People whose faces I can't make out are all around me. The sound of crying surrounds me, sniffles and sobs filling my ears. An air of depression is settled around the area I'm in, a place I know I've been before though I can't quite put my finger on it.
Suddenly, the people split to the sides of me, creating an aisle I can walk down. They all look at me expectantly, as if they want me to walk down the aisle they made for me. So I do.
The farther I walk, the longer it seems to become, until I'm so exhausted I could lie down and die. But there's something at the end of the aisle I'm meant to see, I know it. If I can just get to it everything will be okay.
In the distance, a shape starts to form. It seems to be a large box sitting on a table.
I take off running towards it. The closer I get, the more I can make it out. By the time I reach it, I can see that it's a coffin, the top half opened.
A feeling of dread takes over, and I become afraid to approach the coffin for fear of who might be in it.
I take deep breath and take a step forward. And then another. And then another until finally I'm staring down at the cold lifeless body in the casket.
"Chey," I cry, my hand flying up to cover my mouth. "No, not you. Anyone but you."
She's wearing a white dress that is stained with blood. So much blood that it seems impossible to be coming from her. There can't be that much blood in a person as small as her.
I hear a whisper from behind me.
"You killed her."
And then another, a differnt voice.
"Murderer."
Then all I can hear is people yelling, screaming at me.
"You killed her!"
"It should have been you instead!"
"You're a murderer!"
"You don't deserve to live!"
"Murder!"
Sobs erupt from my chest, the only sound I'm capable of making. In my distress, I don't notice that everything has gone quiet.
I turn to Chey's coffin, only to see her sit up. Her head slowly turns towards me, her expression cold.
"Why did you let me die?" she asks, her voice emotionless.
The shouts rise up again, and I turn around, trying to run away from everything. The people grab at me, pulling at my arms and my hair, yelling obscenities and accusations at me.
I fall to the ground, burying my head in my knees and sobbing into myself.
"No, it wasn't me! I didn't mean to," I cry, repeating it to myself over and over again.
When I open my eyes, I'm in my room, curled up in the fetal position on my bed. Tears are still flowing down my face as my body racks in sobs.
"I didn't mean to," I whimper, shaking my head.
Not really processing what I'm doing, I stand to my feet and leave my room. Maybe if I get far away from it then the memory of that dream will go away. But it doesn't. I can still hear the voices of those people in my head, yelling at me.
I wind up in front of a door to one of the bedrooms, though I can't remember whose it is in my exhausted state. The part of my brain that is awake just tells me that this room means safety, that I'll be okay here.
I knock at the door, and wait for the person to answer. When no one does, I knock again, a little louder this time.
I hear movement inside the room. A few seconds later the door opens, and I'm face to face with a very annoyed looking Avery.
"Grace, you understand that it's about 2 in the morning right?" he gruffly states.
"I know I just-" I sniffle, taking a deep breath to try and calm myself enough to finish my sentence. "I didn't know where else to go."
His expression immediately softens. "Grey, what's wrong? Why are you crying?"
He tilts my chin up towards him, and brushes few of my tears away with his thumb.
Suddenly, I start to feel like a five year old. "Um, I had a nightmare," I sheepishly reply, unable to stop the tears from coming.
He pulls me into his chest, rubbing circles into my back.
"It's okay," he comforts. "It was just a dream."
"But it wasn't," I whimper. "I killed her."
"Chey?" he asks softly.
I nod.
"Grace, that wasn't your fault. Don't ever say it was again," he sternly states, holding me at arms length.
"But-"
"No," he cuts me off, pulling me back into him. "It's not your fault. It was not your fault at all."
We both stay silent, standing in the doorway of his room. I focus on the sound of his rhythmic breathing, trying to match my own erratic breathing to his.
I start to feel drowsy, and before I zone out completely, I hear him whisper into my hair, "It's not your fault."
The thing is, it seems like he's talking more to himself than to me.
A/N
There you have it, an update. It has almost been a week since my last update and I apologize.
All you freshman this year, I just want to say freshman year is nothing compared to sophomore year. Phew, its tough. And then I hear Junior year is the worst. And then Senior year is the best!
So did you like Avery and Grace's little moment? I've been wanting to write it for a while.
But oh my gosh, if you guys knew what I have planned for this book- well, lets just say you'd probably go out in advance and buy a seat belt for the emotional roller coaster I'm planning lol. I get emotional thinking about it sometimes.
There might be a period of time where you all hate me (just a warning in advance)
Enjoy the sweet, happy chapters while you can, okay?
Ugh, I love you guys so much. You are all beautiful people.
btw, just curious if any of you have ever gone to Halloween Horror Nights in Orlando, or if you are going this year? Because I'm going this year on October 2nd! Yay! Just wanted to know what you guys think of it. (Yeah, I love scary stuff. I'm a huge horror junkie)
Goodnight My Lovelies
(Not really night yet but I'm a rebel)