Sterling's Daughter

"Laya!" a voice snapped, jolting her out of her daydream. She blinked and looked around, and found Zena giving her a strange look from the other side of the dinner table.
"Sorry?" Laya asked. She'd kind of zoned out in the last few moments and wasn't sure what her sister was on about.
"I asked you to pass the salad about 10 times," Zena said. "Your head's in the clouds."
"Sorry," Laya muttered again. SHe lifted the fork to her mouth, then quickly put it back down again. "Umm...may I be excused?"
It was mum's turn to give her an odd look.
"You've barely eaten anything," she said. "Do you feel okay?"
"Yeah, fine," Laya shrugged. "Just not hungry. Might go and do some homework."
"Alright, well..." before Mum could say anything else, Laya dumped her plate on the bench and bolted upstairs to her room. SHe shut the door behind her and leaned against it and closed her eyes. An image of WIll popped into her mind. Dark, messy hair and those brown-black eyes that had almost hypnotised her earlier in the day.
Stop it, Laya thought furiously, flicking her eyes open. Stop it! Stop thinking about him! Why him? Why?
Frustrated, Laya pulled a few books out of her schoolbag with her good hand and dumped them on her desk. She was determined to work until Will Hamilton was the last of her thoughts.
***
Laya perched on the wooden fence and watched the horses grazing as she listened to music through her earphones from her phone. it was Saturday and about 2 in the afternoon, and Mum was somewhere in the barn, but Laya felt kind of useless. Because of her broken arm, it limited the things she could do and help Mum with. To make things worse, the guilt still lingered from the promise Laya had failed to keep. To her, the broken promise was worse than the broken arm. It felt like a broken trust. Mum didn't talk about the accident, and to be honest, it wasn't like her to dwell on things like that. She was the type of person who carried on and was an overcomer. Laya heaved a huge sigh and slumped her shoulders foward, looking away from the horses to the ground.
A hand landed on her shoulder, making her look up and around. Mrs Hamilton stood next to her, looking at her curiously. Laya yanked out her earphones and attempted a smile.
"Hello," she said, trying to sound perky but failing completely.
"I've come to talk to your mother about a few things," the woman said in a business like tone. "Could you tell me where I can find her please?"
"In the barn," Laya responded, pointing in the direction of the building several hundred metres away. "She's just bringing up some hay for the horses. She'll be up in a few minutes if you just want to wait for her."
"I"ll wait a moment or two i guess," Mrs Hamilton leaned against the fence beside Laya. "So how have you been doing lately?"
"Oh, just...you know. The ankle's doing much better and all that," Laya waved her hand vaguely. Movement behind Mrs Hamilton caught her eye, and Laya realised with dismay that the woman was not alone. Will was with her.
"Great," Mrs Hamilton smiled enthusiastically. "I bet you just can't wait to get into the saddle again. Your mother talked about you like you're the kind of a person who would be talking about riding again only moments after an accident."
Laya felt stunned. Yet she also felt heart aching disappointment as she realised just how much her mother thought of her riding and horse capabilities. Heart aching disappointment as she realised just how much trust she had broken that night. All because of Will and his stupid dare.
"Yeah," Laya looked over at the horses. Something died within her, but she couldn't quite pin down what it was. "I guess so."
"Oh, there's your mum. Excuse me," Mrs Hamilton hurried away, leaving Laya alone with Will.
There was a long silence. Questions burned through Laya's brain.
"Why doesn't she hate me?" she blurted out before she could stop herself. She wasn't sure why she hadn't thought about Mrs Hamilton before. She'd only met the woman once, and that was a while before the accident.
"Hate you?" Will's voice was a little confused. "Care to explain what you mean?"
"I'm kind of the reason the horse she owned was killed," the words just tumbled out.
"No, you weren't," Will was gripping the top rail of the fence as he spoke. "It was my dare. My fault."
"I agreed to the dare," Laya retorted. "That was my fault. I could have refused but i didnt."
"Fine. It's both our faults," WIll said. "We're equally to blame on this."
Laya paused, thinking of a way that she could produce an argument between them. It helped to distract her from the fact he was cute and that he constantly caught her attention. But right at the moment, absolutely nothing sprang to mind.
"Fine," she rolled her eyes. "We're both to blame. Done. But you didnt answer my question. Why isn't your mum leaping down my throat for what happened? Tempo was a valuable horse."
"She knows," Will said with a sigh. Laya frowned.
"Knows what?" she demanded, feeling impatient.
"She knows I dared you to ride him," he said. "Your family knows too."
Laya sat in silence. So they all knew. Knew she'd agreed to a dare from Will Hamilton. That only made her feel even worse. A dare had broken her arm, her promise and possibly a trust between her and her mother. But then how could people not find out about how and why the accident occured when there were witnesses? It was only sense that they found out.
Laya combed her fingers through her hair and allowed herself to sneak a sideways glance in his direction. He shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans and shifted from one foot to the other. She was about to shift her eyes away again when his flicked up and met her gaze head on. Laya's breath caught in her throat as she found it impossible to look away when she desperately wanted to do just that. Or did she?
Laya could feel herself becoming flustered. She swallowed and licked her lips nervously. Her cheeks were going red and hot and she was only too well aware of the fact.
"Will, let's go!" a voice called and Will's eyes darted away from her to his mum.
"Coming!" he called back. He glanced at her. "I guess I'll see you Monday?"
Laya could only nod.