Page 25 of Choosing Her
crossy
Saylor didn’t come to class again the next morning and I was planning to go by her room to check on her in the evening, until Poppy told me she’d seen Saylor at the stable. I went there straight after hockey practice and found Saylor almost immediately, unsurprisingly in Bourbon’s stall.
“Fancy seeing you here,” I said, resting my arms on top of the stall door and leaning in.
Saylor jerked her head up and glanced at me, but then went back to grooming the horse like I wasn’t even there.
Bourbon turned her head toward me, nudging at my hand like she expected something.
I put down the coffee cup I’d gotten I’m my way over and held up my hands, so Bourbon could see they were empty. “Sorry, girl. No treats.”
I made a mental note that if I was going to be hanging around the stable this much that I needed to start getting horse treats.
What could horses eat anyway? Sugar cubes?
I had no idea where I could get sugar cubes without time travelling back a hundred years, but I swore that was what people gave horses in movies.
I opened my mouth to ask Saylor about it, but thought better of it.
She would probably just laugh at me and say that I couldn’t trust everything I saw on TV.
Saylor still wasn’t acknowledging my existence, so I pulled my phone out of my pocket. I knew how annoying it was when someone bothered me while I was in the middle of doing something for hockey, so I wasn’t going to try to distract her while she was doing this. I could wait.
Group Name: The Penalty Box
Members: Bear, Tino, Crossy, Mako
Crossy
Do any of you know what horses like to eat
Tino
Hay?
Crossy
Like as a treat
Tino
Sugar cubes
Crossy
That’s what I thought too but is that just a thing in movies??
Tino
I don’t know man
Not sure I’ve ever seen a horse in real life
Crossy
Huh??
Bear
That can’t possibly be true
Tino
Where would I see one??
Bear
Oh I don’t know, maybe at the stables at our school?
Tino
I don’t go up there
Horses give me the creeps
Crossy
I THOUGHT YOU’VE NEVER SEEN ONE
Tino
WHY ARE YOU YELLING AT ME
“Are you here for a reason or are you just trying to make my horse fall in love with you?” Saylor asked. I slowly lifted my gaze from my phone and stared at her, even though she kept her gaze on Bourbon.
“Did you just make a joke?”
Her eyes flicked up to mine. “Is that so hard to believe?”
“No, I just…” I slipped my phone into my pocket and studied her.
She must have made jokes before this but something about that one had stood out to me for some reason.
Maybe because it didn’t feel malicious. I cleared my throat.
“You just took me by surprise. Anyway, do you have any treats I could give her?”
Saylor slowed down in her movements but didn’t stop. She looked like she was thinking really hard about something, then sighed and muttered. “There are peppermints in my bag. Beside you.”
I dropped my arms from the stall door and turned to the bag that was hanging on a hook on the wall beside it.
Sticking out of it was a small bag and when I pulled it up, I realized it was a bag of peppermints.
I raised my eyes and looked at Saylor but she didn’t seem to notice.
Either that or she was ignoring me, which admittedly seemed just as likely.
“You give your horse peppermints?” I asked.
Saylor eyes finally flicked up to mine. “They’re her favorite,” she said softly.
So different than that first time I visited her in the stable to beg her to tutor me and she’d snapped at me to stay away from her horse.
I took a peppermint out of the bag and held it out to Bourbon, who ate it happily.
It tickled as her mouth brushed my hand, eating the whole peppermint in one bite, and I smiled.
“Oh, this is for you,” I said to Saylor, then ducked down to grab the iced coffee I’d temporarily put on the floor.
I held it over the stable door, jerking it out of the way quickly when Bourbon decide to try to take a bite.
Saylor laughed softly and patted Bourbon’s neck softly, then took the cup from my hand with a quiet thanks.
“Were you here for tutoring?” Saylor asked.
I shrugged. “I guess we could do some math. But I was really here to check on you.”
She raised her eyebrows as she took a long sip of the coffee.
I watched her face for a reaction, because I’d gotten a new flavor today—maple pecan.
It sounded a little disgusting to me, but Saylor looked impressed as she took a sip of it.
I made a mental note of that, knowing I would need to mark it down on my on-going list later, but I couldn’t do that I front of her. I would just have to remember.
“You came to check on me?” Saylor asked when she was done drinking it. She rested the cup next to my arms on the stable door and I snatched it up before Bourbon could knock it back off.
“You weren’t in class again today. I thought you might still be sick.”
“So you came looking for me in the stables?”
“Well, I know how much you love your horse.” I grinned and she rolled her eyes. But strangely, I was starting to see that as a sign of endearment instead of annoyance. “And Poppy may have mentioned to me that you were here.”
Her brows knit together. “You asked Poppy where I was?”
I shrugged. “She was watching our hockey practice again. And weren’t you the one who suggested I do that yesterday?”
“Yeah, I just…” She shook her head. “I guess I’m just surprised you care enough to.”
I frowned. “Why wouldn’t I?”
She stared at her, her eyes vulnerable. “Sometimes, I think of the summer. You know, when you told me…”
I sighed as I remembered the exact day she was talking about.
When I pulled her aside and told her that I thought we should forget what had happened between us because I loved Naomi now.
At the time, I thought I was doing the right thing—giving us both a clean break, since we’d have to spend the summer looking at each other.
If I knew Naomi was going to break up with me less than a month later, I probably wouldn’t have bothered.
And if I’d known that Saylor would be upset enough to shove me in the pool, I would have realized it was the wrong decision altogether. But hindsight was 20/20.
“I was wrong,” I said bluntly. “I shouldn’t have told you like that. I’m sorry.”
She chewed on her lip and looked at me for a moment longer, then nodded.
“Well, um…” She cleared her throat. “We can get to studying now if you want.”
“You’re done grooming her?” I asked. I looked Bourbon over, as if I knew anything about horses or how to know when they’ve been properly groomed.
Saylor hesitated for a second before saying, “Yeah.”
“We can wait,” I said. “I know we have a lot to catch up on, what with me missing my class and everything yesterday...” She glared at her and I smiled back, trusting that she wasn’t that mad about it. “But if there’s anything you want to do now, go ahead. I know I kind of surprised you here.”
She shrugged with one shoulder, avoiding my gaze. “Not like you came out of nowhere. It’s our normal day. And you have a test soon, right?”
“Midterm test is next week,” I said. My fingers automatically began nervous tapping as I thought about the test. Doing well on that would decide a lot for me—mostly, whether I should just drop this class and give up on the idea of getting these math credits this year.
When I first told my guidance counsellor I wanted to retake it to raise my grade and be able to take the next level math course next semester, she’d asked me why I thought I could do better this time if I did so terribly last time.
Yeah, that had been a nice and uplifting conversation.
“How are you feeling about it?” Saylor asked.
I shrugged. “Fine. Even better when I’m not thinking about it.”
She grinned to herself. “Yeah, that method might not be the best way of passing . Come on.”
We each said a quick goodbye to Bourbon then she stepped out of the stall, letting a staff member know as she walked by that Bourbon could go back out into the pasture now.
“What else did you want to do?” I asked Saylor as she led the way upstairs. “You obviously had something else in mind when I asked if you were done grooming her.”
Saylor laughed softly and tucked her chin. “Nothing important.”
She pushed open the door to the upstairs room and walked inside, immediately claiming her usual chair in the corner.
I sat in my own spot next to it and put the iced coffee on the table so I could pull out my books.
The next time I looked up, it was gone. I smiled—clearly maple pecan syrup was a hit.
“Tell me,” I said, going back to our previous conversation. “What was it?”
That might have bee the first time ever I saw Saylor blush. “I told you: nothing important.”
I leaned back in my seat and crossed my arms. “We’re not studying until you tell me.”
She rolled her eyes. “You do realize which one of us will be negatively impacted by that, right? I’ll give you a hint: it’s not me.”
“Come on!” I said, nudging her foot with me. “Tell me, tell me, tell?—”
“Fine!” She exclaimed and I laughed. “I wanted to braid her mane.”
“You…” I raised an eyebrow and leaned in. “I’m sorry, I must have misheard you—I thought you said you wanted to braid your horse’s hair.”
“Her mane!” she corrected. Then under her breath, she added, “And her tail.”
I laughed and she kicked me hard in the leg. I kept laughing, while rubbing the bruise.
“You’re kidding,” I said.
She scowled at me. “It’s very common.”
“Sure,” I said. I had no idea how common it was or wasn’t but I wouldn’t argue with the horse expert over that. “But still—of all people in the world, I don’t think I would ever expect you to do that.”
“And why not?” She demanded. She pulled her braid over her shoulder, showing it off to me. “I braid my own hair. Why not Bourbon’s?”