Texas to Tennessee

There was tall grass everywhere. It must’ve been at least two and a half feet. The field was all I could see, except for the trees on the other side, which acted as a gate or a fence; holding all of the fields creatures inside, or maybe even protecting them from what was outside. Jackson set me down and then walked a bit into the field, extending his arms he said, “This is it.”
“Your special place.” I finished his sentence. I stepped into the grass and giggled. It was all the way up my thigh. “I love it.”
“I come out here to think.” He said, looking around and then piercing me with those dazzling dark eyes. “Come sit. No one will find us here.”
Jackson sat down in the grass, and nearly disappeared. I jogged out to where he was and tackled him. We rolled around laughing. There I was, in a field laying on my back, next to this strange, but amazing guy who had somehow made me stay when I wanted to run away.I could tell why he loved this place so much. I looked over at him and smiled. “Thank you.”
“For what?” He rolled on top of me, gazing into my eyes.
“Wow he smells good.” I thought to myself before saying, “for showing me.”
“You’re the only person who knows about this place.” He gave me a kiss on the lips.
There was this surge of excitement in my chest and I kissed him back, wrapping my arms around his neck. He tasted like peppermint, yet he wasn’t chewing any gum. The more he kissed me, the more addicted I became.
Slowly, he pulled away and looked directly down at me, his eyes making me believe that I was safe, making me feel like I was someone else living in this fairytale. “Tell me something about you.”
“My mom’s dead.” I just blurted it out, not even thinking. I guess it was all I could think of, of maybe it was because he seemed to be the one person who didn’t know anything about my past or who I used to be. Either way, I blurted it out and it kinda killed the mood. Jackson’s face went from happy to sympathetic. He rolled off me, and starred up at the sky, not saying anything, which just made me feel even more awkward. I spoke quickly, trying to save myself from already ruining this relationship. “It was a car crash. A drunk driver ran a red light and hit her side. They said she was killed instantly. I told you because I was trying to open up a little bit, which is something I rarely do, and if you start to act weird or if you treat me like I’m some fragile little girl then we aren’t going to work out.” I sat up, and looked down at him.
Jackson bent his chin down and starred back at me, he seemed to be sizing me up; trying to decide if I was as broken as I sounded. Then he sat up too. “Alright.” He smiled a little, and put his hand underneath my chin, and pulled me forward, giving me a long, soft, yet sweet kiss.
We laid there for a long while, must’ve been at least two hours, probably three. We talked, mostly. He told me about his parents and about his younger sister, Clara. And how he rode in rodeos a lot. He had two horses; one stallion named Beauty (after his mothers favorite movie) and a mare named Rosey (since she was almost red in color). I loved listening to the sound of his voice when he talked about his horses. He’d had Beauty since he was just a foal and Rosey since she was two; he’d broken them both as well. I knew that one day soon we’d go down to his barn and see them.
I realized he was a bit unsure of asking me about myself, probably scared that I’d bring up my mom. I guessed that he wasn’t too good at the comforting thing. So I didn’t bring her up. Instead I talked about the old horse ranch, and how I had been riding since I was born. I told him all about Rowdy and how I could race anyone in Texas and beat them.
After awhile we got onto the subject of how he’d crept into my lawn last night, and how he’d scared me to pieces. But all he said was “I’m sorry, I won’t do it again.” I informed him that he could do it as much as he wanted, just as long as he didn’t get caught by my father, who happened to have a few guns lying about the house somewhere.
Talking about the ranch wasn’t as hard as I had expected, or maybe it was just because I was talking with Jackson. It didn’t really matter. We lazily walked back to the truck, neither of us said it, but it was obvious we didn’t want to leave the field or the lake. When we did get to the truck Jackson smiled, opened the door and helped me in. “He is such a gentleman!” I thought, unable to wrap my mind around the concept that a guy could be this nice. On the drive back home, I closed my eyes and laid my head back against the seat, I was exhausted even though I’d barely done anything.

I must’ve fallen asleep to the bumpy roads and low-playing country music because when I woke up I was in Jackson’s arms, being carried to the barn. “Wh-” I freaked for a second, trying to remember where I was and who the boy that was carrying me was.
“Shhh...” He cooed. “I’ve got you. You fell asleep.”
I relaxed in his arms and laid my head back on his shoulder. “Why didn’t you just take me to my room?”
He set me down, and made sure I could stand on my own. “Because then it would look like I was taking advantage of you.” He winked, “and besides, I didn’t have a key.”
“Oh who cares!” I was in a goofy mood. “Okay I have a question.” I twirled around in a circle.
“Shoot.” He sat down on the bench and watched me.
“What’s your favorite thing in the whole entire world?”
“Hmmmm...I’m not sure. What about you?”
“Tire swings.” I laid down on the bar floor, it didn’t matter because there hadn’t been any horses in there yet and the floor was as clean as it was ever gonna get. I looked at him, from where I was. He was smiling.
“Tire swings?”
“Yes. I love them.” I raised my hands above me, flapping them around. Obviously, I was way too hyper.
“I didn’t see your dad’s truck outside. Where is he?”
I rolled over onto my stomach. “I dunno.” I waited for a second then got up real fast. “Come on!” I grabbed his hand and pulled.
He stood up, “where?”
“Just come on!” I felt like a child at play. I yanked at his hand one more time and then took off running towards the house, glancing over my shoulder to see if he was following me. He was. I ran faster, my hair whipping behind me. Jackson caught up and flew past me. I squealed. “Not fair! You’ve got more muscle than me!”
He stood on the porch, leaned against the rail. “We’ll have to work on that.” He winked. “So what are we doing?”
I walked up the stairs slowly, not breaking eye contact with him. “My dad isn’t home...I want to show you around.”
A flash went through Jackson’s eyes as he watched me, curiously. “Ahh. Well, I would like to see your house.”
“I wanna show you my room.” I teased. What had gotten into me? I was turning into a seductive whore! I giggled and unlocked the door with the key from under the welcome mat.
We walked inside and awkwardly stood in the front hall. I wasn’t sure what to say and he didn’t know either. I broke the silence. “You’ve seen the kitchen, so we can start with the den.” I showed him our den, the dinning room and the downstairs bathroom and then started up the staircase. I stopped on the twelve step to show him a picture that was hanging on the wall. It was last years family portrait. “That was my family.” I starred at the smiling faces of my mother and father, and myself. It was haunting me. I wasn’t sure why we’d let the decorator put this picture up, considering the fact that we were trying to get away from bad memories, but we’d let her do it all the same, and neither my dad nor myself had had the heart to take it down.
Jackson nodded with a sad expression. “You look happy.”
“I was.” I said softly.
We stood there, taking in the picture for a moment or two and then I kept walking up to my room. I stopped at the door, and whipped around to face Jackson. “This...behind this door, is my room. Are you ready?”
Jackson laughed at my silliness. “Yes.”
“Okay then.” I opened the door, and strolled in, taking a place in the center of the room.
Jackson followed me. He turned in a slow circle, his eyes dancing around the walls and objects, trying to register every detail. I saw his eyes hesitate on the picture frame of Rowdy, Chance and I. Heat washed over my face but he didn’t say anything about it. I went and sat on my bed while I waited for Jackson to finish looking around. It took a few minutes but he finally looked at me.
“I like it.” Was all he said.
“Thanks”
Jackson stood there for a moment, just starring into my eyes and then he took three strides over, leaned down and kissed me. I kissed him back, our lips dancing on each others. Somehow, he ended up pushing me backwards onto the bed, and the next thing I knew, he was on top of me. Things were getting intense, but not a pressured intense. It was more like how we’d finally found what we were looking for. His kisses were like kisses from angels and I couldn’t stop myself from not holding back. After going on like that for awhile he pulled away slowly, keeping his eyes closed. “You’re really good at that.”
“At what?” I asked innocently, my heart beating hard.
Jackson rolled over next to me. “At kissing.”
I laughed, and snuggled up to him, resting my head on his chest and my hand around his waist. He put one arm around me and rubbed my shoulder and began to hum. I looked up at him, curiously. “What are you humming?”
“Time & Confusion by Anberlin.” He replied, and then when he saw I was surprised he continued. “Country’s not all that I listen to, Texas.”
I rolled my eyes and then got comfortable again. The way my side fit into his...well, it was like our bodies were made for each other. I closed my heavy eyelids, feeling incredibly tired all of the sudden. And without my knowledge, I slipped into a sound sleep, right there in Jackson’s strong arms.

I woke up with one of my stuffed animal horses starring at me with it’s too large of eyes. I moved it away from my face, and closed my eyes again. Just then, the memories of that day flooded back to me. I sat straight up and looked around, but Jackson wasn’t there. Frowning, I got out of bed, and noticed that it was dark outside. “What time is it?” I thought. I looked through my bed and covers trying to find my phone, I found it on my desk along with a note.

“Dear Texas,
I’m sorry I had to leave without saying goodbye. I heard your dad come home, and you looked so peaceful I decided not to wake you. I’ve got another surprise for you tomorrow. Get some rest.
Forever love,
Jackson”

I smiled, trying to decide whether he was strange or sweet. I decided on sweet. I opened my phone and saw that it was 11pm. Too late to do much of anything, so I put on my pajama’s and crawled back into bed. I wasn’t exactly tired, so I turned on the radio and grabbed my laptop. I hadn’t checked Facebook since I’d left Texas so I logged on. When I’d clicked the login button I wasn’t prepared for what I was about to see... I had over two hundred notifications! Yep. That’s right. Two hundred. I wasn’t about to look through them all, since most of them were wall posts from sympathetic people saying how sorry they were about my loss and how much they missed me. I went through the friend requests too. Most were from kids back in Texas, I ignored those. Then I realized I had some from people in Ridgeside. Sadie Hampton, Mary Lu Johnson, Tyler Sanders, and someone named Harley Joyce. I accepted them all, figuring that if I didn’t they’d know and get angry, and Sadie didn’t seem like the type of girl that I wanted to be angry at me. I thought back to the night of the bonfire and how Sadie had been talking to me like she owned the whole town. Feeling curious, I checked out her page. She was pretty, that was for sure. She had that trashy look though and her make up was much darker than mine. I went to her info box and skimmed through it. She was on the school drill team and apparently knew how to swear like a sailor. I rolled my eyes and signed off. There was no use in even bothering with her, she definitely wasn’t a nice person. I then realized that the one person I hadn’t had a request from was Jackson. He and I were dating now, I suppose. Shouldn’t that be on there? I reached back for my laptop, but stopped myself. I would just ask him about it tomorrow. That reminded me... tomorrow was my sixteenth birthday... I knew Jackson didn’t know about it. I hadn’t planned on telling him. And I doubted my dad was going to do much of anything for it, so it would just come and go like I wanted it to.
I laid down, feeling tired again after all that thinking, and fell asleep to that country radio.