Missed Me, Missed Me, Now You Gotta Kiss Me

Rescue Race

   Dear Liam,

  You're my friend for so many reasons. It's hard to put it all down on paper. I'm quite certain it can't be done, but I'm going to try anyway.

  You're such an immature, little brat. You're easy to pout and even easier to aggravate. You're a cowboy, not a hillbilly. A hillbilly wouldn't be as gentle with horses as you are. I love the way you treat them as basically equals yet you still manage to be the one in charge. You're arrogant, but in an acceptable way. It's just who you are. Maybe it's because you also somehow manage to be humble and modest at the same time. How do you do that?

  By the way I'm talking, I make you sound like Superman! That, my friend, you are not. You're not a super hero. But you are my hero. You kept my pony after all these years and you never forgot about me. Even now, eighteen years old, you're still so childish. I see the kid in your hazel eyes every day, and yet you're more grown up than I am (I can hardly begin to explain why, though). Your sun bleached chestnut hair is still a mess, only now you cover it with countless of worn out baseball hats. I'm not even sure you ever watch baseball.

  But you wanna know the real reason you're my best friend, even after these past ten and a half years of being apart? You believe in me. You listen, you don't rush. You're patient with me when no one else is. You get me. You don't have to ask if I'm okay, you're just able to see it.

  Thank you, Liam Nelson, for being my best friend out of all the better people to choose out there.

 

   I stared at my paper, mouth silently agape. Apparently, my teacher liked how I wrote the report as a letter, because I got a one hundred percent. From the assorted whines and groans in the room, I guessed not many people scored as high as this. A little smirk of triumph stretched through my lips. And why shouldn't I be proud? Granted, I was basically an A student, but the fact that this report in particular should reach that high level just made me all warm and giddy. It was almost a shame Liam would never see it. I feared he'd get the wrong idea, as I was sure Lulu would-which is why she wouldn't be reading it, either.

  But anyway, the hundred was because I chose Liam. Everyone in Lewisburg knew and loved him. They just couldn't help it. No one can deny that country charm that he seemed to possess easily.

  As soon as school was let out, I sped home, excited. I was stoked for two reasons: one, I wanted to tell Liam that he earned me a perfect A, and two we were practicing the rescue race for the country boy show tomorrow night. We had been working on it all week. Basically what a recue race was one person would stand at one end of the arena while the other ran their horse from the other end, and the person not on a horse has to jump on the back of the horse while the horse is barely at a stop. Guess who was jumping on the horse? Liam. I was scared to death the first time we practiced it, fearing I'd run him over-that, and I was riding Kiko, who I'd never ridden before.

  We were getting good, though. Kiko was a really fast runner, even with two people on her back. Next time, I had sworn to Liam, I was going to jump on the back and he'd have to ride. He'd gotten this nervous look on his face, laughed, and said there was no way in hell. I'd have to find a different rider to "endanger my life". When pressed that I was doing the exact same to him, he just waved me off and said some bullshit about how he'd never fallen off during the rescue race. Then I asked him if he'd ever done it before. He had; only he was the one riding the horse. All these things didn't exactly make me feel better.

  "How'd your report go?" Liam asked when I parked the car and came down to the barn. He was in the round pen with Terry, ground working him.

  "You got me a one hundred," I said, propping my arms on the bars of the pen.