AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Listen, I’m sure everything is fine…”
“Yes, it isfine,”I snap. “What isn’t fine is the fact that I’m standing here getting soaked while talking to some idiot who thinks it’s safe to drive up a fucking mountain when…” I step back and hold my arms out, a weird smile lifting one side of my face. “…hello! There’s a big fucking storm coming!”
She shrieks and begins biting her nails. “Oh, I know. I know. I shouldn’t have come.”
“You think?!” I bark, but when she flinches, a hint of regret pulls at my belly.
A burning feeling in my stomach shoots up my throat. It dries instantly. Her eyes cast across the paddock, through the windshield and I see a hint of pain glaze over the moisture gathering in the corners of her eyes.
The wind blows and it’s like I’m thrown back twenty years. Fifteen years. Fuck. I don’t know. It’s been a long fucking time, that’s what it is.
But she hasn’t changed at all.
If anything, she’s more beautiful than ever.
A white, tailored shirt is showing off an ample rack that I spent my high school years craving to see beneath. I never told Hannah how I felt, not until that night when I finally got her all to myself. My grand plan came to fruition that night - high school prom was the moment I made my move.
A crush on my best friend grew over the years. She was my obsession. I felt love for the first time, and I told myself each and every night that she was going to feel the same. I took it slow, built the foundations of a friendship until I felt sure the connection was there.
Then the final step to win her once and for all: I just had to tell her how I felt.
Sure, my life at home felt like torture. Thinking about Hannah’s smile was my relief from the barrage of insults cast at me endlessly by my parents. But you can expect that when you’re the product of a life-changing mistake. My parents didn’t want children, but one drunken night later, abortion wasn’t an option in my mother’s books.
Instead, I suffered through a loveless upbringing. No siblings. No uncles or aunts. No family.
Nothing.
Hannah was my everything.
And finally, just as my lips sealed the promise that I craved. The promise of having someone else’s heart beat alongside mine… she was gone.
I ran away. I retreated up the mountains and never looked back.
“Get in!” Hannah screams as lightning strikes a tree nearby and a loud crack causes us both to jump. “Before you get killed! GET IN!”
I race around and pull the door open. Hannah plants her foot and the wheels just skid round and round in the muddy bog.
“Ease it up,” I say, reaching down for the gear shift. “Switch it to all wheel drive.” I slam the gearshift down and the engine cracks and groans beneath us. “Try it now!”
Hannah grips the steering wheel. Her knuckles whiten and I’m too busy staring at her to see us flying across the bumpy paddock.
She doesn’t know who I am. She’s got no idea. She hasn’t recognized me.
“Where do I go?” Hannah cries out.
“Straight through there!” I point towards the opening gate by the cabin. It’s racing towards us, approaching at an increasing speed that has my jaw locked tight. “Watch out for that-”
BANG.
“…wheelbarrow.”
The vehicle comes to a screeching halt, smoke bellowing from the engine. Hannah’s breathing is rushed, her chest heaving through scattered breaths. My hand is pressed up against the dash, holding my heavy body from the impact of the smashing blow into a wheelbarrow. I glance through the window and over the hood. The rusty wheelbarrow Hannah’s crashed into is still tumbling across the vegetable patch, leaving behind a trail of logs and fresh produce.
Hannah reaches for the clipboard and tries a smile. “Well, the gates work. Check.” She strikes a bright red tick on the paper, laughs nervously and looks out the window. “Shall we get started on the inside first?”
CHAPTER THREE
Hannah
