I choke out the words, and as I do, Grace uncoils from Mattie. She had him all wrapped up in her sickening grasp, but he jerked away. The reaction right away that I saw on his face was surprise. Of course. I’m sure he didn’t expect me to walk in on his little make-out session.
“Oh my god, Schaefer. I- I-“ Mattie reached his hand out at me, but I would not dare let him touch me ever again. I slapped his hand, and he brought it back towards his stomach. I gritted my teeth at that moment, a tear falling down my cheek.
“I just thought I could trust you when you said I would always be your shining star.” I was crying, but quizzical if anger or sadness was my main feeling. “All those kisses. All your words. I guess they weren’t real after all.”
“No. No!” Mattie tried again to reach for me, but I was backing up now. “Schaefer! Please listen to me!”
“Why should I listen to you?” I hissed out. “I know who will listen. That bitch you were smooching!”
Grace raised a brow, but I could tell she found humor in all of this. Hands crossed, her straight brown hair floated around in the slight breeze. The smirk…. The piercing blue eyes staring straight into me… She enjoyed this.
“No! It’s not-“ Mattie’s eyes started watering.
“Just save it for another time!” I scream at Mattie. “I don’t want to hear it!”
“But Schaefer, it’s not really-“ I broke him off, completely overcome by my tears.
“I DON’T WANT TO HEAR IT, YOU ROTTEN BASTARD!”
I turn on my foot, running as fast as I possibly could in the opposite direction of Mattie. Straight away, I heard pounding steps following after me and I knew it could only be Mattie. Who else would chase me? Well, chase me he will! The entire time I had lived in Florida, he chased me. But now I know it was all some sort of joke.
I could hardly believe it.
The person who made me feel like I was on the top of the world never even meant it.
He was gone.
And before long, I no longer heard pounding steps come up from behind me. Mattie must have stopped chasing, thank god. No… he wasn’t even Mattie to me anymore. He was just somebody. Somebody I didn’t want to know.
I ended up running all the way back to The Bay. By then, my legs ached and were practically numb from all the running I did. If life was normal right now, Navaeh would be right here, sitting on top of her mahogany tack trunk and waiting for me to talk to her. But she was dying now, and it was narrowed down to Alex and I now as being the only links of The Bay- that were accepted, at least. Once she heard about what Mattie did, she’ll succumb to feeling the same way.
The feeling of betrayal.
I rode awful on the horses for the rest of the day. I couldn’t stop thinking of Mattie, and it drove me to intense distraction. It wasn’t that I was sad anymore. Or wish things were how they were. Because frankly, I hated him now.
Hence why I had a knife in my hand.
Well, I wasn’t going to kill Mattie as much as I wanted to. But there was nothing wrong with throwing knives at the picture of us he bought me for my birthday. It was huge, and used to be in a frame I hung up on my wall. Now, I had cut myself out from the picture and I pinned the thing against my backyard fence. It was wood, so I knew the knives would stick.
“This is for you, asshole!” I hissed, sending a knife flying through the air.
It twirled three times before the blade righted itself and punctured Mattie’s right eyeball. It was a perfect hit. Hey, I actually wasn’t too bad at the sport of knife-throwing. Of course… I only picked it up today, but with all my anger, I was decent.
I ran forward, yanking the knife from the wooden fence. A hole was now in the picture, and his pupil was gone. Perfect. I flicked the knife around a little bit. I really liked the way it felt. It was your average steak knife, but it felt different in my hand when I was sending it at a target. It was fairly light, and really managed to bury itself into my target.
“It… was… all… for… nothing…” I snarl as I flex the knife, chucking it again at the picture.
This time, I wasn’t so lucky and the handhold ended up hitting the picture instead of the blade. “Damn it!” I shouted, running forward and crouching as I picked up the knife that had gotten stuck in a clumb of grass.
I didn’t bother letting out anymore words of my angst, and I allowed the blade to fly off of my hand straight away. This ended up being the right move, because the throw was once more perfect. The knife whizzed through the air, righting itself on Mattie’s heart. I guess it would have been more appropriate if it was my heart it hit, because mine was broken. But I wanted to crush his. However, hitting his print heart was good enough.
When I looked up for the next throw, I realized the sun was beginning to set. That meant my knife throwing would be cut short. And tonight- it was the grand prix. If Navaeh was alive and well- if- she would have been in it tonight. But life isn’t fair. Life was… life was just like my phone app, Temple Run, actually. Plenty of obstacles and difficult. Yes. That was how life was.
So I dropped the knife to the earth, not bothering to take down the picture. The more damaged it would get, the better. So huffing and puffing, I readied myself for the grand prix.
I was dressed in a flowing blue top and dark jeans when the first horse went on course. My shoes were a nice pair of gray sandals, and for once my curly brown hair was down and some of it brought back with a clip. It was a nice outfit for a prix night. Not if I was wondering around the showgrounds during the day.
Earlier, on my way to the prix, I had called up Alex and told her everything that happened. She was speechless. Well, not completely speechless. She let out some of her anger by calling up Mattie and screaming at him for how much of a jerk he was for deciding to have two.
She was seated next to me right now as we watched a giant gray tool around the course. I looked at her, big brown eyes watching in pain. She, too, was massively affected by the news with Navaeh. Not to mention Mattie, however he was only a friend to her. It was so hard looking at Alex not as the confident, outgoing and smiling girl I knew.
We could have been on the outskirts of the prix with the partiers drinking beer, but that was so not a good idea after all we’ve been through. Besides, I’ve never gotten drunk in my life. Even though we were invited… we decided not to go.
“Some week, huh?” She said to me, voice quiet.
“Yeah. Some week.” I tell her in return, sitting deep in my chair.
Now, the horse drawn to go second entered the arena. Navaeh was actually the original horse that was supposed to go second, but that idea was crushed. I could hardly bear it. It didn’t help the horse going in now looked practically just like the one Navaeh should have been on.
It was a small, lean black gelding that went. He swapped every chance he could, but somehow had the power to thrust himself over the jumps. The rider on him was a known one, Jason Snow. While only in his late twenties, he had proved himself on circuit. Captain Scully, the horse he was on now, was becoming a crowd favorite for his small size and incredible power.
He propelled himself over the first jump, clearing the obstacle easily. He landed bucking, and Jason had to jerk up on his outside rein to get Captain Scully to listen. They went to their next jump, an oxer, and once more soared over the thing effortlessly. That was how Navaeh would have looked… Effortless… No problems…
“I’m so sorry. But I can’t do this.” I shook my head, wiping my nose as I stood up from my seat. “I just cant.”
I pushed my way through fellow equestrians who had all joined together on the seats to watch the prix. And so, I began making my way around the outskirts of the international arena. Many people were all joined together in groups talking, several with beer. To my right, a room with a blue floor seemed to be the place where a dinner party was happening, but most adults looked fairly drunk.
Ahead, I saw the beginning of what would probably be some horse show hook-ups. Teens, about twenty of them, were all bunched up. They were smiling, laughing, plenty of hot horse show boys to their side. I expected to see Adriano Ricci side by side with them, a red solo cup in hand. And in the end, I did see him. But not with them.
I pushed passed all of them, and noticed the boy was sitting alone at Tito’s Tacos. He was drinking a lemonade as I could see, and stared blankly at the table. He twiddled his thumbs, and I narrowed my eyes. Why was he alone? Shouldn’t he be with the rest of them?
But he wasn’t exactly dressed for partying. He wore a blue and white striped polo, and breeches went around his legs. He wore sneakers, just like Mattie would, and his hair was in the same scruffy style. Only his hair was darker, a rich, shadowed shade of brown. He was also tanner, and instead of crystal blue eyes his were green. He looked just like the Italian he was, and yet I was amazed at how… normal he looked. But then, I realized I was staring. I was about to walk by, when suddenly I heard his voice, soothing and gentle.
“Hello there, vistoso.”
I turned around slowly. Yeah, that was his voice with the Italian word at the end. I didn’t know what it meant, but I’m sure he could tell me. I was going to keep walking, but paused. There was nothing wrong with talking to a guy, right? Perfectly fine now that Mattie left me.
Walking forward, I pulled out a chair at the table Adriano was sitting at. I sat in it, grinning slightly. “So, you’re Adriano?”
He took a sip of his lemonade. “That’s what they call me. And you’re the grand, beautiful Schaefer Hoff?”
I began blushing at his mention of beautiful. “Haha… That’s me.”
For a second, the two of us just looked into each other’s eyes. Blinking. Moonlight falling on our faces. Adriano took another sip of the lemonade, and as he stared at me he managed to a spill a little on his polo. The two of us laughed, and he wiped it away, looking back up into me with those green eyes of his.
“I heard about what that ragazzo, Matthew, did to you.” He leaned in a little closer. “I am very sorry for that.”
I bit my lip. “I don’t care. I don’t need somebody like him.”
“You’re right. You don’t.” He finished off his lemonade. “You need someone charming… kind… someone to trust, no?”
“That’s….” I started, blinking as I looked off to the side. “That’s exactly what I need.”
“I hope things do get better for you, Schaefer Hoff.” Adriano said, picking up my hand. At first I felt like pulling away, but his grasp was very warm. He rubbed my palm, and it relaxed me right away. “But you seem to be on a very nice horse. The flaxen one? What do you call him?”
“Marvel.” I tell him simply. “He’s… a good boy.”
“Ah, Marvel. Marvelous. I get it.” Adriano sets my hand down softly. “You know, people call me a party animal. But see, I find it much more relaxing to be off to the side, watching horses and sitting with a beautiful ragazza.”
I can interpret that what he means by the word ‘ragazza’ must be girl. And then, I was struck with the realization that he meant me. I hadn’t been talking with Adriano Ricci for more than a minute and I was already charmed, already pulled in. He was… extraordinary.
“I think I would prefer watching horses with a… a… handsome regazzo as well.” I smile broadly, sticking in the Italian word I picked up on.
Adriano chuckled, blinking his eyes closed as we heard the announcement of somebody jumping clear. Then a buzzer, and silence, only laughter and the drum of a horse’s hooves. For once in a long time, I was completely at peace. All thanks to Adriano.
“You’re amazing.” Adriano stuck in.
I blush again. He made me feel like Mattie did, worth something. “I think that goes to you too.”
“You know… Schaefer Hoff…” Adriano speaks again, and once more does the relaxing rub on my palm. “If you need someone, you can come to me,piacevole.”
“Of course.” I was caught in a haze.
I lost track of how long the two of us sat under the stars that night, laughing, telling stories. But I was certain Adriano saved me on that day. Somehow, he made me smile.