Page 5 of Out of Place

“Crystal,” I grit out. “Is there a time frame on this great adventure?”

“Until we think you’re ready,” Dad replies like that’s a fair answer.

“So I’m stuck down there indefinitely?”

My mom gives me a sad smile. “Think of this as an opportunity. We’ll check in on you periodically, and once we feel like you’ve found a purpose, we’ll let you come back.”

“Fine, whatever. I’d love to stay and chat, but apparently, I have to pack my whole life up and head to Hicksville. So, if you’ll excuse me.” I stomp off toward my room and do something that no twenty-six-year-old woman should, but I do it anyway.

I slam my bedroom door.

* * *

Serena is laying on my bed while I sort through my closet, trying to figure out what in the hell I’m going to take to wear on a farm.

“I can’t believe your parents are doing this.” She’s propped up against the headboard, staring at my half-packed suitcases.

“I know.”

“I didn’t even know you had an aunt named Dottie.”

“That’s because I’ve only seen her like once. She’s my mom’s sister.” The one time I met her, she flew up to New York for a few days. I remember she wore jeans and plain T-shirts, which I thought was the strangest thing. It was hard to believe she was my mom’s sister when they stood next to each other. My mom was dressed to the nines, and Dottie looked like she rode a horse to the restaurant.

My mom was born and raised in a small town called Thundersville, in southern Georgia. She did beauty pageants from a young age until my father met her right after she won Miss Georgia in her early twenties. It was love at first sight or something like that. He swooped her off her feet and brought her to New York, and the rest is history.

She always talks about how glad she was to get out of Thundersville, and now she’s sending me right back to the place she hates? It’s unbelievable.

“What am I going to do without my partner in crime?” Serena pouts.

“You better not find a new best friend while I’m gone.”

She shakes her head. “Never. It’s me and you forever.”

Serena and I attended the same all-girls high school and hated it. When it was time for college, we picked the same one so we could be roommates. Things got a little crazy then. Neither one of us was really there to study. We’re both trust-fund babies and proud of it. We partied hard. Drank, tried drugs. Fooled around with boys. I’m surprised we even graduated.

But it was fun. So fun that we decided to continue the party after graduating.

What’s the point of life if you aren’t having fun? Am I right?

“I’m going to miss you, bitch,” she says.

I lie down next to her and stare up at the ceiling. “I’m going to miss you more.”

She laughs. “So, do you think there are any hot cowboys down there?”

“I doubt it. And cowboys have never been my type.”

“You’re telling me you wouldn’t be interested in a hot cowboy?” I don’t respond as I try to hold back a smile. She shoves my shoulder. “Yeah, that’s what I fucking thought.”

I hold my hands up in defense. “I’m just gonna go down there, do what I’ve gotta do, show them I’m a functioning human or whatever, and then come home, and everything will go back to normal. This is just a minor blip in my life. Everything will be fine.”

She sighs. “If you say so, Liv.”

I do say so. I have to say so. I cannot be stuck on a farm in the middle of nowhere. I’ll lose my goddamn mind.

CHAPTER 3

Olivia