AllFreeNovel
Share Us
ASPEN
SEVENTEEN YEARS OLD
Prom night.
It was one of the most important nights in a teen girl’s life. I know some girls didn’t care for prom, but I was not that girl. I was psyched for prom.
I was excited, Riggs agreed to take me to prom and Austin was taking Harlow. I knew she had a crush on him so she thought all of her dreams had come true, but Austin didn’t like her like that. He found her annoying and whiny, and I mean, he wasn’t wrong but she was my best friend, I knew her inside out and her annoyance was all towards him. She wasn’t like that with anyone else but Austin.
When I thought about asking Riggs, I was sure he was going to say no. I mean, he was twenty-one, he was a lot older than me but I didn’t care about the age. I just wanted to be on Riggs’ arm for one night and for him to see me other than his best friend’s kid sister, or the annoying girl from the farm next door. I scoff a little laugh. Ironic that Austin finds Harlow annoying and yet here I am being the same annoying kid in Riggs’ eyes.
I still remember it like it was yesterday. I had spent days building up the courage, pacing back and forth and replaying the scripted conversation over in my head, only to go completely off track and buckle on the spot. Riggs was in the bunkhouse, working alongside Bridger, being shown the ropes. I hid in the stables, flustered and worked up, and the words came out in a rush when he’d found me in there. Dirty jodhpurs, knee high riding boots and an old tee of Austin’s. I had been riding Blossom, getting ready for our show in the summer.
Prom fell in spring. My favorite time of the year.
I paced up and down outside, nibbling on my bottom lip, picking at the dry skin around my nail bed. I could hear a commotion coming from inside and I froze. Sulking away, I hid in the stables and begun to untack Blossom.
“You were such a good girl today,” I say softly as I lift her saddle and blanket off her back and place it on the saddle horse. Unbuckling her bridle, I lift it over her ears then drop her bit into my hands, hanging it over the door ready for me to clean. Turning back to scratch Blossom’s neck, my body stiffens when I hear Riggs mumbling and moaning under his breath. The sound of his boot kicking the concrete floor. I gave her a pat then hung over the half door.
“All okay there Riggs?”
“Great,” he rumbles, stalking towards me, his green eyes soften when they land on me.
My hair is in a low bun, no doubt the top now flat from my riding hat. Fresh faced, but I wasn’t a big make up wearer; it’s not that I didn’t like wearing it, I just never had time. I suppose when you’re raised on a small-town farm with horses and mucking stalls out every day, glamour kind of goes out the window and falls on the back burner. It isn’t a priority.
“Wanna talk about it?” I unbolt the stall door and close it behind me. I step towards him, hands pressed onto my hips.
“Not really,” he rolls his eyes, stepping past me and leaning over Blossom’s door.
I spin, head cocked as I watch him. Dirty denim jeans, heavy black boots and a dirty white tee. Riggs is slender but muscular. The cowboys down at the bunkhouse don’t give him an easy ride. Jorge makes them work him, and they treat him like their little pet. He is normally asleep by seven most nights, awake again at four. I miss the sneaking out, now it’s just me, Austin, Tripp and Pacey but it won’t be long before Tripp is roped into the same fate as Riggs. Live by the ranch, die by the ranch; that was Jorge’s motto. Branded across their hearts, those words tattooed into their skin.
“She’s looking good,” he whitters, lifting his cowboy hat off his head and tossing it to the floor. I tut, picking it up and dusting it off. My fingers trace the rim of the hat and I can’t stop the way my heartrate spikes even if I wanted to.
I hover it over my head and give him a grin before he knocks it out of my hand. A soft gasp passes my lips and my eyes fall to where the hat now sits.
“Don’t. Don’t do that,” he sounds pained and my heart sinks, his eyes darken for just a moment as he looks at the floor.
“Why not?”
“You’ll belong to me, whether you want it or not and I’m not going to burden you with that. We’re friends Aspen, I care a lot about you… too much to tie you to me forever,” he lets out a soft chuckle, the green back in his eyes. His shoulders relax as he pops his hat back on the top of his head and rests his back against Blossom’s stall door.
I have no idea why but hearing them words sting like a thousand needles pricking my skin.
“Lucky me,” I mock in a sarcastic tone.
Silence blankets us for a moment and I swallow, needing to just ask him what has been sitting on the tip of my tongue since this morning.
“Hey, Riggs,” I pull his eyes to mine as my voice echoes down the empty stables like a soft spring breeze.
“Yeah?”
“Will you take me to prom?” I rush the words out as if they’re venomous.
Riggs blinks at me, and I can see it’s taking him a moment to register what has just come from my mouth.
“You sure about that, Dinks?”
“Yeah…” I breathe as he steps closer to me, snatching my breath in an instant. “Unless…” I stammer, stepping back before my back hits the wall behind me. What if he doesn’t want to take me. I don’t want to force him into it, I didn’t want him to think he had to take me.
