Page 2 of Stolen Dreams

“Hey,” I hear softly from beside me and see my best friend, Courtney, coming toward me.“You guys got here late.”She puts her arm around my shoulders.Courtney and I have been best friends since second grade when she moved into town, and we sat next to each other on the first day of school.

“Yeah, he had football practice until eight.”I point over at Derek.

“The guys are going to the barn to get some of the horses out.”She motions with her chin toward the guys who look like they are walking toward the barn.There are lights lit up all around the fenced area.

“Oh, fun,” I say as we walk toward the area, seeing a couple of the guys come out holding two horses in each hand.

“Are we going to race or what?”one of them says, and I shake my head.

“You know what we should do?Boys against the girls,” Becca suggests from beside me.

“We all know who is going to win that one.”Derek snickers, and I look over at him.

“Is that so?”I fold my arms over my chest.I’ve been riding horses since I was five, and my mother put me on a pony at the local fair.From then, I begged and pleaded with them to find me a horse.So they took me to horseback riding lessons and then it just snowballed.If I wasn’t in school, I was riding a horse.Only lately it’s been at the bottom of the list with all that I’ve had to do before leaving.

“I’ll even give you a head start,” he chides, and the boys egg him on.

“Thanks, but I don’t need it,” I retort, walking into the fenced area and grabbing the reins of one of the horses.Before placing my foot in the stirrup and pulling myself up, I listen to the guys make the rules.

I look over to see Derek also getting on his horse.He’s a country boy, for sure, but he’s not that good of a rider.Just because he was born in the South doesn’t mean he’s a cowboy.

We line up side by side, as I lean down and rub the horse’s neck.“Let’s show them who’s boss,” I whisper as everyone lines up, standing on the bottom rail of the fence, both sides shouting for either me or Derek.

“Get ready.”I scoot down closer to the horse.“Get set.”I look over to see Derek smirking as if he has this.“Go!”The second I hear the word go, I kick the side of the horse.I don’t even look over at Derek as I make my way around the fenced area and back to the start line.I cross it and look back to see Derek right behind me, which means I won.

The guys tease him that I won, and all I do is get off the horse and dust my hands off.“It’s a good thing you didn’t give me a head start,” I joke with him, and all he does is glare at me as the guys tease him for losing to me.

“Whatever,” he barks, handing the horse off to the next guy, “the fucking horse should be put down.”

I gasp.“Fucking ancient,” he mutters of the horse.

I walk over to the fence.“Ignore him,” Courtney advises.“He’s always been a sore loser.You beat him fair and square, Louise.”She mentions the nickname we gave ourselves when we saw the movieThelma and Louisein sixth grade.

It ends up being a tie, but the guys all bug Derek about him losing to his girlfriend, something I don’t pay attention to as I make my way toward the girls.We sit on the grass, the sound of music coming softly from one of the ten cars that are parked side by side, all the way down.I look at my watch and see it’s eleven fifteen when Derek comes over and hands me a red Solo cup.“Here,” he says to me, “I got you a glass of sweet tea.”

“Thank you,” I reply, grabbing the glass from him.

“We leave in about half an hour,” he says, and I nod as he kisses my lips.

“Isn’t he the sweetest?”Debbie says, looking at Derek.

“He is,” I mumble, taking a sip of the sweet tea.“It’ll be hard when we aren’t together all the time.”

“I don’t know how you’re doing that,” she states.“Did you guys talk about how long you will go between visits?”

“We did not,” I respond.“I think we’re both pretending it’s not going to happen.”

“I get that,” she agrees, and thankfully, Courtney changes the subject, talking about a movie she wants to go see on Friday.

I finish the sweet tea when I hear Derek whistle and look over when he motions with his hand that I have to come to him.“Well, that is my cue,” I declare, getting up with the cup in my hand.“Courtney,” I say, “I’ll see you tomorrow at work.”I clap my hands together as she groans.

“I can’t believe I let you talk me into working at the pizza place,” she moans as she gets up.“Nothing about this sounds like fun.”

We turn and walk toward the guys.“How are you getting home?”I ask.

“Ben said he would drive me home since he has lacrosse practice early tomorrow.”

I hug her before she walks away with Ben to his car, and I make my way toward the truck with Derek.I take four steps before I feel like I’m going to fall down and hold on to his arm to catch myself.“Wow.”I look over at him.“I got dizzy there for a second.”

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