Texas to Tennessee

I stood there in front Wayne and Jackson not saying a word. They thought I, Ali Grey, was a horse whisperer. I wasn’t so keen to the idea though. I mean, I was from a horse farm, an yes, horses had always been this huge part of my life and I’d never once gotten hurt...but a horse whisperer? I’m not the kind of girl who’s really special. I’ve always just lived through life day by day, I just couldn’t see myself having special powers.
Peering behind me, I saw that horse. That tall, muscular, beautiful, yet muddy horse who was afraid of everyone and everything. Everyone except for me. Now how do you explain that? I gave her a half smile and reached over to pat her neck.
“Will yah look at that?” Wayne said in amazement. “You have talent.”
“She has talent in a lot of things.” Jackson muttered under his breath for only me to hear.
Smirking, I replied “Thanks. I know daddy will want to see her before I buy her, and I should probably look at some others...” but we all knew that was a lie. It was as plain as day that that horse and I were meant to find each other. I took a little while longer to stroke her and then gave her a kiss on the nose. “Bye sweet thing. I’ll be back soon.” I whispered, unable to be heard by the boys on the fence.
An hour later Jackson and I were pulling up to my house. Wayne had invited us inside for some sweet tea, and we’d happily said yes. But all throughout tea, while the boys were talking and telling stories, I kept glancing out the window, trying to spot the horse I’d seen in the pasture. I needed a name for her. A name for the face. When I’d asked about it, Wayne had told me that the family he’d rescued her from had called her a number, and since he hadn’t had much time with her he’d just called her “Rescue”.
Jackson walked me up to our front door, and we both stood there awkwardly, neither of us knowing what to say. I shuffled my feet, “well, thanks for the ride. I really appreciate it.” I started to open the door = but Jackson wouldn’t allow it.
“Texas, you are driving me crazy!” He took my face in one of his hands and put the other behind my head, he leaned in real close and stopped. I could feel my heart just pounding on the inside. I got on my tiptoes and kissed him. It must’ve been a good kiss because I felt my mind go blank and suddenly I was light headed. When the kiss was over, he quickly gave me a peck on the cheek. “I have a special place, and I want you to see it.”
“Okay?” I said, confused and still a little dizzy.
He handed me a slip of paper. “That’s my number. Text me when you wake up and I’ll swing by here and we can go.”
I smiled, “Alright, where is this special place?”
“You’ll just have to wait and find out.” Jackson winked, and then hopped down the porch stairs and into his truck. He gave me a wave. “Bye Texas!” and then he drove down the road.
I stood on my porch for a good amount of time, just looking down the driveway. I couldn’t figure out what I was more excited about. The horse? or the sweet southern boy? Either one was a pretty good deal though. I eventually went back into the house and up to my room, (after grabbing a snack, of course.) By now, it was getting to be late afternoon. I grabbed my laptop and sat down on my bed; I was going to look up horse names.

My dad came home late that night, too late for his dinner to still be warm and too late to even say goodnight with me. I watched from my bedroom door as he stumbled into his own room. It was easy to see that he was drunk. That surprised me though. Dad hadn’t taken a sip of anything alcoholic since mom died, or at least, that I had known of. I went and sat down on my bed, grabbing my phone. I had three missed calls and five texts. They were all from Chance. What did he want? I listen to the voicemail he’d left. It was filled with “I need to talk to you” and “I’m sorry.” After listening to it, I started at my phone, his numbers dialed. Chance and I had been best friends before we’d dated, and maybe he was in need of a friend right now. I decided to call him back.
The phone rang twice and then he answered. “Ali?”
“Hey Chance.” I said cooly. “You called?”
“Yes! Um, I was asking if it’d be okay if I visit you.”
“Visit me?” frowning, I gazed out the window, out into the starry night.
“Yeah, like in Tennessee.” He sounded excited, just like a little boy at Christmas time.
I shook my head, even though he couldn’t see it. “Chance, no. It’s not a good time. I’m trying to move on with my life.” I could feel my breathing get a little ragged, and my face getting hot.
My “no” didn’t stop Chance from pursuing. “Please? I know I wasn’t a very good boyfriend, but we’re still friends, right?” He was starting to sound like a girl with all his emotions.
A big, fat salty tear rolled down the side of my face. This was too hard for me. “Don’t you get that I don’t want to be near you?! Texas reminds me of my dead mother!” The words I used could’ve passed for weapons. “And what’s more, you cheated on me! With my other best friend. I haven’t heard from anyone back home, and I don’t care. I am a broken person, and if you think flying here is gonna fix your mistake then you’re wrong.” Man, I was on a roll. I knew I wasn’t being fair, you know, bringing my mom into it, but I needed to use everything I could to get him to stay far away from Tennessee. “So just leave me alone!” My voice was cracking. I pressed end as hard as I could and threw my phone across the room. I laid back into my pillows and let my tears roll off the side of my face.
It was 1am and I still wasn’t asleep, but I had stopped crying. I rolled over, closing my eyes. There were too many thoughts in my head to sleep though. My phone rang softy. Jerkingly, I sat up and went to get it. I had figured it’d be Chance again. But it wasn’t. It was from Jackson.

“Look out your window, you sad, sad girl.” It read.