Page 34 of The Hearts We've Broken
Good luck tonight.
My phone was blowing up with notifications—text messages from my agent, Travis, and tags on social media. Photos of me and Juniper from last night were all over the Internet, and fans speculated in the comments about how long our relationship would last, or if it would last at all.
I could handle the comments about me; I’d been dealing with them for most of my career, but I couldn’t stand the harsh things people were saying about Juniper.
Luckily, no one knew her socialmedia handles, so they couldn’t tag her. Unfortunately, it was likely only a matter of time before someone found her.
“Stay off social media. Please,” I pleaded with her. “I can handle this.”
“Do they always say such horrible things about you?” she asked as she scrolled through the comment section of a western influencer’s video about us.
“It comes with the territory. I just try to ignore it.” I shrugged. “But you shouldn’t have to deal with it, so please, Peach.”
“This one called me a buckle bunny whore.” Her face fell for a second then contorted into something that looked a lot like anger. “That person doesn’t even know me! I don’t even know what the fuck that means!”
I took the phone out of her hands, turning it off and setting it on the counter. “Exactly, and that’s why you shouldn’t be reading the things people are saying online. I’ll handle this. Just stick with Ellison and Isa today, okay? And stay off social media, damn it.” With that, I exited the trailer, stepping into the morning sunlight.
“How’s she doing?” Reid walked up and patted me on the shoulder.
“She’s fine. Just frustrated, I think. But she won’t get out of the damn comments.”
“I can have Isa talk to her, if you’d like,” he offered. “You’ve got to focus on riding today, man. The best way to get them to eat their words is to prove them wrong.”
I looked down at the ground and nodded. Reid was right. This wasn’t unlike anything I’d dealt with before, except this time it didn’t just affect me. “Yeah, have her talk to Juniper. At least to distract her. I’ll talk to Colter, too, see if Ellison can do anything since she’s been in the public eye before. It’s not something I thought to prepareher for, and that’s on me. But I also didn’t think people would come after her like this.”
“We’ve got your back, Mike.” He gave me a solemn look then headed back to the trailer he and Colter shared.
Tonight was the first night of the second Super Series—the one I was competing in. Colter and Reid were competing in the fourth, and Hayden and Jake were competing in the fifth. The rest of the guys weren’t required to be here until the days they competed, but we had a habit of all traveling together.
Truthfully, it meant a lot to me. It’d been a long time since I’d traveled solo, and sometimes it would get lonely. I didn’t like being alone. Early on, meaningless hookups helped fill the void. After a while, it just became a habit. Then a punchline.
But I also knew I was good at jokes and people liked me for them. Sometimes I worried if I wasn’t the funny guy or the person to take the heaviness out of a situation, the guys wouldn’t like me anymore.
I wasn’t sure who I was—who I could be—without my friends.
Jake and Hayden were sitting in chairs outside their trailer.
I walked over to them, kicking a small rock as I went. “Morning, fellas.”
“You haven’t been looking at the media, have you?” Jake asked.
I shook my head. “No, and I told Juniper to stay away from social media, too.”
“Sorry, man. That sucks. Not the type of thing you need going into tonight.”
“It’s all right. I’ll just perform well and they’ll havesomething else to talk about.” I brushed it off. It was all I could do not to overwhelm myself.
Hayden gave me an encouraging glance. “That’s the spirit.”
“I’ve gotta get to the arena,” I muttered. Unfortunately, I was scheduled for an appearance this morning. The timing couldn’t have been better, at least for the media.
A few of the other bull riders were already at the spot where fans could meet us. Kids were getting pictures taken with them, and it looked like it was pretty calm. I wasn’t too worried about reporters hounding me here, not with so many fans and the other athletes around. My concern was after the appearance.
I stood in line next to a rider I didn’t recognize.
“Hi, I’m Cody.” He shook my hand.
“Mikey.”
