Chapter 13(Revised)

                                    

                                          
"Superman, it's me again. I have to talk to you about something whenever you wake up. Sorry to bother you so much, love you." She hangs up and sighs, three calls in five hours and he still hasn't picked up. Calvin answered the first time and they caught up on life, as she had met him before she and Tyson began dating, the first time. After they were done talking he said he would leave it to wake him up. 
                          
A knock at the front down has her stomach queasy, she had been back to the house alone just a day and being fifteen minutes out of town isn't ideal while living right off of I10. Another more powerful knock drags her to the door. She looks out her secret peep hole and sees Brooke's small car in the driveway. She throws the door open with a scowl. 
                          
"Geez more brother probs?" Brooke asks, walking in and settling on the couch. 
                          
Jaelyn continues to glare. "No you freakin' gave me a panic attack!" 
                          
Brooke raises her eyebrows, so nonchalantly. "Why?"
                          
"I don't know because I live fifteen minutes out of town and just off of I10. And I am doing it by myself for the first time." She spouts plopping down beside her best friend. The tone of her voice was much harsher than she intended it to be.  
                          
Brooke flips through the latest edition of Horse and Rider making herself at home, as always. "You know you could have called me and I would have come over." 
                          
Jaelyn sighs, something she has been doing a lot lately. "I know, but I have to get used to it sometime." 
                          
Brooke dramatically slaps the magazine closed and looks into her friend's eyes. "Anyway! To lighten the mood, I thought you weren't coming back until Thursday." 
                          
Jaelyn rolls her eyes. "Yeah, well, I decided to be alone a couple days before Tyson comes down and helps me not turn into a mental crisis." 
                          
"I would think that if you were going to be you already would be. Oh! And I want to hear all the details about mister 'come back and be my one'." Brooke uses her fingers for quotation marks while smirking. 
                          
"I haven't let myself think about things a lot." She pauses. "There is still a lot that Tyson and I need to talk about, and with all of this it just seems like someone set fire to my halfway decent mental state." 
                          
Brooke turns to her friend with open arms signaling for a hug. "I am here for you and so are your parents, Andrew, Gary, Karl and Tyson better be dang sure he is if he is keeping his role as 'man on your mind'" 
                          
That makes Jaelyn laugh. 
                          
The sound of vibrating causes them to stop and Jaelyn to squeal. She jumps over the back of the couch and slides across the tile floor in her sock clad feet. "Hey Superman!" She gushes walking into her room leaving a laughing, but love sick Brooke to flip on the TV.  
                          
"Hey Jae Sweet! Is everything okay? You said you wanted to talk." He smiles to the camera so happy to see her face even if it is only through FaceTime. 
                          
She grins giddily. "Yes, everything is fine. I just had been thinking about the letter Cane left on the fridge and what he said about doing something I have been putting off." 
                          
He nods with anticipation plain on his face. 
                          
"There is an online course to get my Therapeutic Riding instructor's license. I have always wanted to, but it has never fit in to where I was in life," she tells him, her excitement obvious. 
                          
"That's great! So when do you start?" He asks a wide happy smile gracing his facial features. 
                          
Her smile drops to a dull line and her gaze diverts from his. He wants to reach out and lift her chin up, if only it were in real life then over video chat. "Sweet, what's holding you back?" 
                          
She takes a deep breath. "A couple things. Time, I'm not going to have time to juggle all the horses and online school especially since I am going to have to pick up an extra job just to make the feed bill. The other thing is.." 
                          
"What? What is the other thing?" He presses gently. 
                          
She slowly moves her gaze to meet his and their eyes lock. A deep breath inflates her lungs and then leaves them. "Us. If I do this then that eliminates that much more time that I might have to spend with you. And I don't want you to be the one putting all the miles in." 
                          
He smiles at her sweet reasoning. "Jae, Sweetheart, you just told me you have always wanted to do this. I am already over halfway done with the schooling for my dream. You have never tried to stop me. Instead you have pushed me to go to class and make the best grades I can. I want to do the same for you. If this is what you want and what makes you happy the miles I put in, so we see each other, verses the ones you put in doesn't matter. Miles traveled are just a leaf in the wind compared to a missed dream."  
                          
She smiles and pushes back the tears that are swimming around in her eyelids. "You are so sweet. So you really think I should do it?" 
                          
Throwing his hands up he beams. "Absolutely!"
                          
"Okay, I will show you everything this weekend. Right now, as much as I want to talk to you, I ought to go hang out with Brooke," she tells him. 
                          
He rolls his eyes smiling. "That's okay I guess since I have to stuff my face and get to class."
                          
"Okay. Oh! Wait a second before you hang up. Is there something that's bothering you?" 
                          
He looks at her quizzically. "No, should there be?" 
                          
She shrugs and makes a conscious effort not to meet his gaze. A slightly guilty feeling has come over her. "Calvin just mentioned that you were worried about what you made on a test." 
                          
"Let me get this straight, you talked to my roommate and he told you about my test? What kind of life do I live in?" His voice is light and airy.
                          
She laughs. "He pretty much told me your every move you have made since getting back." 
                          
He groans. "I am going to kick him out! Did he tell you about-"
                          
"About you freaking out when you got back and checking your phone every half a second? Yes, but don't worry I think it is quite charming." She laughs as he covers his face no doubt hiding a red tent on his cheeks.
                          
"I really have to go if I am going to make it to class on time, I love you." 
                          
A huff leaves her. "Love you too. Call me after your last class." 
                          
They hang up and she makes her way back into the living room a gray cloud hanging over her head. She takes the last chocolate bar from the fridge before sitting beside Brooke. Breaking the wrapper open she shoves a piece in her mouth intently studying the small writing on the inside of the silver wrapper.
                          
Brooke turns quickly to face Jaelyn. "What did he do? I will knock his lights out." 
                          
"Brooke, just stop. He didn't do anything wrong. He's not talking to me about this test that Calvin told me about. I don't know why, he always makes the best grades," she mumbles, stuffing another piece in her mouth. 
                          
Brooke sighs. "Why are you so down about him not looking at what he made?" 
                          
Jaelyn shrugs. "I don't know." She stuffs the last of the chocolate in her mouth. "Let's go ride!"
                          
Jaelyn saddles one of the many client horses for herself and allows Brooke to take Hutch. Jaelyn leads on a trail the little gray snorting at every stump, bush, rabbit, bird or invisible object he can find. When they get back to the barn Brooke audibly lets out a relieved breath. Jaelyn just laughs at her friend's worrying about her riding the colts.