Wham Bam Thank You Ma'am

That night after her parents went to bed, Ferin hung out in the living room with Tyson, Trace and Celene watching movies. Eventually she drifted off and now her mother was standing over her holding the vacuum cleaner nosel in her hand like she was waiting for her to move.

"Good morning mom," Ferin muttered.

Her mother shut off the vacuum cleaner and looked at her with pale eyes. "Why didn't you sleep in your own room?"

Ferin looked her over. She might as well just get straight to the point. "Because my room is full of boxes and bags." She rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand.

Her mother backed off slightly allowing her to get up. "Where did they come from?"

"I'm moving out."

Her mother stared at her wide eyed. "Are you going back to that boy?"

Ferin nodded. "Didn't even think you even knew about 'that boy'," she mocked her mother.

"Don't use that tone with me," her mother warned her. "You know it's useless to waste your time with him Ferin. You need to go back to work and focus on your career." She began lifting cushions off the couch to vacuum underneath them. "Find another boy around here, get married, have kids."

Ferin had never had the urge to smack her mother's glasses off her face before but it was becoming a more relevent feeling. Her mother was old fashioned. Women get married, cook, clean and have kids. That's it. Ferin often wondered how she came from her.

"I did have a boy from here, and you didn't care about him either," Ferin retorted. "So not that you care now, I'm going to live with him, because I like him."

Love him was probably the more appropriate word, but there was no way in hell she was revealing that to her mother. She was having a hard enough time trying to believe it herself.

"And if it's a mistake, it's one I have to make on my own."

Her mother never showed much emotion. "Well, as long as you don't come crawling home, looking for money when it doesn't work."

Ferin no longer wanted to even be near her mother. "I'm going to get my truck and trailer."

But that caught her attention. "What are you doing with them?"

"I'm taking them to Pennsylvania." Ferin headed for her room to change and shower. "Natasha's moving too."

She ignored her mother's response which she guessed landed somewhere along the lines of a sarcastic remark. After her shower, she changed into new clothes, then headed down to the barn with her truck and hooked up to her horse trailer. Once Tyson finished breakfast he came down to help her clean it out. She then brought it up closer to her house and loaded up her stuff before heading off to Natasha's.

Ferin knocked on the front door then opened it up knowing full well that her friend wouldn't mind. "Natasha!"

"I'm in here!"

"In here," Ferin murmured through a laugh, "that helps." She closed the door behind her.

She set her purse down by her shoes and pushed them aside so they wouldn't be in the way. Venturing a guess on Natasha's lack of specifics she checked on the living room first with no success, then headed to her friend's bedroom. There she found Tash sitting on the floor in the middle of her room surrounded by a pile of clothes.

Tash threw her arms up in frustration. "I have no fuckin clue what to take."

Ferin leaned against the door jam and looked at her skeptically. "You're moving," she stated. "Don't you usually take it all?"

Tash smiled and looked around her room. "Yeah I guess, but do I really need all of these clothes?"

Ferin shrugged her shoulders. "I guess not." She stood up straight. "But that's up to you, something you have to do on your own, so give me a room to work on, and I'll start packing things into boxes."

She thought quietly for a moment. "You can do the kitchen, I'll just end up breaking shit."

"Yeah you and Knoxville make a good couple," Ferin laughed before disappearing front the doorway.

***

Bam paced back and forth in front of the island in the kitchen in the Pirate Bar. Ape and Phil sat quietly at the island drinking tea.

"Why don't you go do something," Ape suggested, she'd never seen her son this bored.

"Like what?" Bam muttered sinking down onto one of the heartagram stools. "We fucked with Vito yesterday so he's out for today."

"You don't have to screw with Vito to have fun," Phil stated, gripping his CKY mug in his hand.

"No, we don't," Bam repeated. "We haven't fucked with you two for a while though."

Ape began shaking her head. "No Bam, this house and I can't stand any more of your pranks."

"Why don't you just fucking call her," Raab spoke up for the first time from his position in a lazy boy chair near the door.

"Call who?" Dunn asked absent mindedly from the couch in front of the fire place.

"Ferin," Raab informed him. "It's driving Bam crazy."

Ape looked at her son. Why she hadn't noticed that Ferin's absence was bothering Bam was beyond her. She was always pretty good at that. "Is she coming back?" Ape asked cautiously.

Bam snorted, "yeah, I asked her to move in."

Dunn turned to look at his friend with a serious face. "That's the last thing we need."

Bam laughed. "Why's that Prima Dunna?"

Ape grinned at the thought. "I'd like another girl in the house."

"Because she'll turn out to be just like Ape," Dunn protested. "Why don't you do something productive? Bam I'm not cleaning this up! Do this, do that, bitch, bitch, bitch," Dunn mocked Ape.

"Hey," Ape protested. "I'm not that bad. Am I?"

Raab shook his head and ripped the hole in his jeans even bigger. "Yeah you are Ape."

DiCo sighed in frustration. "Just call her." He got up from the other end of the couch and headed to the door beside Raab and opened it up. "Or stop being a fuckin pussy and come outside and play." DiCo left the house closing the door behind him.

Everyone glanced at each other before breaking out laughing.

"Why don't we have a barbecue?" Ape suggested.

"We need to have a party," Knoxville jumped right into the conversation as he and Rake came down the stairs.

"A party sounds good," Bam admitted.

"No, no, no," Ape stood up straight waving her arms out in front of her. "No more parties Bam, I finally just got this place cleaned up."

Bam grinned, "come on Ape, this house isn't my house unless it's dirty."

"Why don't you wait till Ferin gets home?" Phil asked Bam. "Then have like a homecoming party?"

Bam thought about it for a moment. "That could work fat boy." He turned and leaned against the island looking at all the guys. "We could get a band and invite the entire town."

Ape groaned behind him knowing that once Bam set his mind to something, it meant she was defeated.

"Sounds like fun," Rake admitted, "but we need to do something to make it different from all our other parties."

"What if," Bam spoke softly, his eyes facing the floor as he thought, "wait a minute." He looked up at everyone again and grabbed his cell, dialing Ferin's phone number.

She picked up a few moments later and Bam grinned when she spoke. "What's your favorite band?"

"Well hello to you too," she was quiet a moment before replying. "Ummm The 69 Eyes."

Bam grinned, "good that's all I needed to know."

"Bam, wait?"

He almost hung up on her but decided not too. "What's up?"

"We need to talk."

His heart began racing and he looked around at his family and extended family before leaving them standing there while he went outside. He sat down in one of the lawn chairs just outside the door in the sunshine. "What's wrong?" he asked cautiously.

"Nothing," she sounded happy. "I just have a minor problem."

He laughed softly at his own insecurities. He would have lost it if Ferin had told him she wasn't coming back. "What's your minor problem?"

"Well," she started, "I have two horses here in Nevada."

Bam wasn't entirely sure where she was going with this, "and?"

She laughed softly. "And I think you should give me a couple acres so I can bring them to Pennsylvania."

Bam smiled, he knew it'd taken her forever to think of a way to ask him. "You want me to have horses on my property?" he laughed.

"Yeah," she said softly. "Pleeease babe?"

He thought about dragging it out and bugging her but he decided not too. "Sure, you gonna drive them out here?"

Ferin was quiet for a moment. "Ummm no, I can't. We're filling my horse trailer with all of Natasha's stuff. I'd have to fed-ex the horses there."

Bam nodded even though she couldn't see him. "Alright, when are you going to be back?"

"Ummm, if we get Tyson and Trace's help we'll have all of the stuff that Natasha needs packed up and ready to go by tomorrow," she went quiet for a moment and Bam could hear Natasha in the background, "and it'll take us a couple days to drive," she added.

Bam calculated in his head, "so you'll be home by Saturday?"

"Yeah."

"You promise me you'll be home by Saturday?" he asked her, he didn't want her ruining all his plans.

"Most likely."

"No no," Bam laughed, "you have to promise me."

"Why does it matter if it takes us another day?"

"Promise me you'll be home on Saturday."

"Bam," she groaned. "What are you planning?"

"Promise me you'll be home on Saturday," he repeated.

She gave in. "Fine, I'll be home on Saturday."

"Good," he smiled. "I'll talk to you then." He clicked his phone shut before returning to the house. They had alot of planning to do.