College is the fresh start Mackenna Baker is hoping for, but her past follows her from the small town she left behind like a ghost. She does her best to ignore them and no matter how hard she tries, she can never seem to actually let them go. Shovin...
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The sign welcoming me back to my hometown on the Saturday afternoon before Thanksgiving happens quicker than I want it too, the four-and-a-half hour drive from my dorm building to here brought a tightness in my chest the closer I got.
My trusty Jeep guides me down the main highway through the center of town, nothing has changed since I've been gone, unsurprising there.
Buffalo, Wyoming doesn't change.
Buffalo, Wyoming, population of not even 5,000, where everyone knows everything about everyone. It's settled between the peaks of Big Horn Mountains and the plains once called the Old West, equal distance from the Yellowstone National Park and Mount Rushmore.
A.K.A. my own personal version of Hell when I'm anywhere associated with the town since living on my family's ranch about fifteen minutes outside of town.
This town haunts me of what is left of my family, the numbers dwindling to just Miles, our grandma and I since our mom is still not completely in the picture.
Picture this, our parents were high school sweethearts, together since freshman year, they get married less than a year after they graduate and within five years, they have two kids, picture perfect life, right?
Yeah, not so much.
Around the time that I turned four, my mom all but bounced from my life after finding another guy. I don't remember it, but I've heard enough of the rumblings that it got nasty between our parents and somehow my dad ended up with full custody of us, something that's definitely not the norm.
Now, our mom, Lorena and her husband, Zane Williams, live in California together where they literally have a whole other family with two younger siblings I know basically nothing about other than their names and birthdays, Amelia is almost eleven and Theodore just turned eight. Miles and I haven't ever met them and I'm not sure when or if we ever will. We've never met Zane either for that matter.
It's almost like we're her dirty little secret, the one she up and left. Chooses when she wants to show up, unannounced every single time.
Our mom's only been back a few times, always by herself, between the time she left and I turned twelve. She'll pop in and out for a day, maybe two if we were lucky, for our birthdays. She did come a couple years ago when Miles graduated high school, literally coming for the ceremony and only the beginning of his graduation party before dipping out. After not bothering to acknowledge our dad's funeral, she showed up for my graduation and I all but refused to even breathe in the same room as her.
As soon as I pass through the main stretch and I'm back to a more open road, I expect the tension to ease some, but it doesn't.
Because Wesley will probably still be there.
Miles hasn't said anything about firing ex-boyfriend or Wesley handing in his notice when I returned back from Cheyenne, so I'm expecting, but not ready, to see him.
