Flavor of the Week

When Liam picked Claire for his date, she thought she was going to faint. The look on the other girls’ faces told her that it didn’t come as a surprise to them, but she was still a bit taken aback by it. She still wasn’t used to the fact that a boy –a handsome one at that – liked her.

Of all the girls on his team, Liam had picked Claire as his date, and it sent her to Cloud 9. She tried to refrain from looking overly giddy or excited, because she was sure that wasn’t how Dream Claire was supposed to behave, but she wasn’t sure how good of a job she was truly doing.

The ride in the limousine was one of the most fun Claire had been on. The fact that the boys got to pick their own dates, meaning they were there with the girl they wanted to be with, clearly lightened the mood. It was as if all traces of the competition had vanished, and they were just friends hanging out on a date, but that wasn’t the case at all.

Regardless of how competitive things felt at that moment, it was all a lie. It was still an act. It was one big game that they all were playing, and in the end, none of them would be winners. Not by Claire’s standards, anyways.

She shook her head as Louis told a joke, refusing to think about the fate they’d succumb to when the games were finally over. The boys would most likely hate them for toying with their hearts, but no matter how much hatred they felt, it wouldn’t compare to the hatred Claire felt for herself. It wasn’t fair what they were doing, but it was too late to back out now.

“Where do you suppose we’re headed?” Liam asked as the limo turned one large corner.

The others shrugged, and the limousine driver gave Liam an answer by turning down a long, dirt road. Dust and debris was filling the air outside the limo and there was no doubt that someone would have to give it a wash later. After that drive the clean and pristine limo would be anything but.

When they reached the end of the road, the limo stopped and the driver opened the door for each of them to step out. They were greeted by a woman in a straw hat, who had a piece of hay sticking out of the corner of her mouth. Whether or not that was the attire that she usually wore was anybody’s guess, but Claire was willing to bet that the producers put her up to it.

“Well, howdy there, folks,” the woman said, a clearly fake, throaty southern drawl coming from her lips. She smiled at each of them will tipping down the edge of her hat. “It’s a pleasure ta meet ya. The name’s Patricia and I’ll be your guide for your date.” She flung out her arm, pointing in the direction of the white barn behind her. “First thing’s first, let’s meet your companions for the evening.”

At that, a few stable hands came marching out, with ten beautiful horses marching behind them. The horses ranged from pure white to a deep, beautiful brown, and their sizes were just as different as the colors of their coats. A few of the horses whinnied, and Patricia quickly latched onto Harry’s hand, pulling him towards the first horse.

“This here’s Butters,” she said, motioning towards the blonde horse she had led Harry to. “She’ll take good care of ya. Now, show your friends how ta do it.”

“How to do what?” Harry questioned, tilting his head to the side. Beside him, Ava giggled with her hand over her mouth doing nothing to stifle her laughter.

“Mount a horse.”

“Oh, no,” Harry said, shaking his head. “I don’t know how to do that.”

“Sure ya do.”

Patricia slapped her hand across Harry’s backside, causing him to lunge forward and the entire group to laugh. She reached down for Harry’s foot and pulled it up, forcing it into the stirrup. He nearly stumbled when she did it, but managed to keep his footing.

“Up ya go,” Patricia said, nodding her head.

Harry sighed, but flung his leg over. After an awkward moment of Harry shifting in his jeans, Patricia held out her hands and motioned for the rest of them to follow suit.

“Do you need help?” Liam asked as Claire moved to her horse. She’d picked the one closest to the dark one Liam had nabbed. The horse was tall, but Claire was sure she’d be able to hop on herself. Despite that, she found herself lying to Liam yet again.

“That would be nice, thank you.”

Liam smiled at her, before leaning down on his knees. He cupped his hands together, and she knew exactly what to do. After wrapping one hand around her horse’s saddle, she pressed the other on Liam’s shoulder and he easily helped to hoist her up.

When she’d seated herself comfortably, she gave him a smile, and he patted his hand against her leg. She couldn’t help but think how utterly charming he was, and it didn’t seem fair that someone so perfect even existed.

Claire clearly hadn’t been paying much attention to the group, because when she turned around, Patricia had seated herself on top of the tallest horse and was ready to lead the group onto the trail.

Luckily for everyone, the horses were very well trained and required little to no maneuvering on their part. When Patricia’s horse began moving, the others followed suit, and the group was quickly headed down a luscious trail filled with trees, flowers, and plants that Claire had never seen the likes of before.

It was one of the most romantic places they could have possibly been, but the fact that they were all forced to stay in a line, one after the other, definitely took away from that. Aside from the times Liam looked back at her, they barely had any contact at all, and of course the other dates were going about the same.

The whole date was a nice gesture on the producers’ part, but it didn’t really help foster any sort of bonding between them.

When the trail ride was over and the group had arrived back at the barn, Liam was the first to hop of his horse and he quickly headed over to the spot that Claire’s horse had stopped. He held out his hand to her, while smiling brightly.

“Do you need some help down?”

Claire nodded, her hair bouncing around her as she smiled, and took his hand, which felt much clammier than it did before.

She didn’t care though, because she was finally seeing Liam again, and even though she knew she shouldn’t, she felt happier about that than anything else.