Big Girl Boots

Twenty-Two

When I finally went back inside after my cussing and kicking the gray plastic bucket until it broke, I found a house full of very subdued Daces and one still bawling Coda. Now she was crying even harder than before and I rubbed my hand down my face, seriously wondering if I would be able to handle it. Tears tended to send me running.

"What's going on?" I mouthed to mama Callie, resting my folded arms on the bar in the kitchen where she was cooking silently. It was strange to see her doing anything in that room without any noise. Normally she would have the radio or TV on, and if nothing else, be singing while she worked.

When responding her voice was low. It did nothing to drown out the sobs coming from Coda's room where I knew Kellan was trying hopelessly to comfort her. "Wyatt."

"What?" My eyebrows shot up and I gawked at my aunt as she sawed through a loaf of french bread. "That son of a bitch... She doesn't need his shit right now! I'm gonna let him have it." Before she could even reply, I was stalking up the stairs towards the privacy of my bedroom to make a call.

I punched the numbers on my phone and waited impatiently as it rang. After three long buzzes, I was directed to Wyatt's voicemail. Angrily, I typed out a message and chucked the device onto my bed. It was already getting dark outside, making the bounces of my still-on phone seem like flashes of lightning until it landed face down under a pillow. I never bothered to make my bed so it wasn't hard to lose things in the black hole that it was.

"Goddammit, Wyatt, answer your fucking phone!" I growled, stomping a foot on the ground. Even after shouting and kicking things for a solid hour, I was still wound up and frustrated about everything that had happened in the past four hours. Hearing your best friend say she doesn't want you to have any part in what might be the most major conflict of her life stings a little...or a lot. Even though she'd hurt me didn't mean, I wasn't just going to ignore the fact that she was crying even harder now and Wyatt had something to do with it. I cursed the asshole again and stared out my bedroom window with both hands on my hips, debating what to do.

Obviously I wasn't supposed to go down and talk to Coda, no matter how curious I was. Knowing Kellan, he would explain it all to me later.

A light snow began to fall and I let out a growl. More snow was the last damn thing I needed.

My week in Caldwell had been good; great, even. They didn't get nearly as much snow as Starton did, and what fell typically melted off and froze. Mom and I actually spent a whole evening pulling each other around on an innertube with the four wheeler, which was great fun until it popped with me on it. Reaching up, I felt the ice-inflicted scratches on my face, grateful that there was at least something to distract me from this hellish day.

They were starting to scab over, making my left cheek rough and bumpy. With all the chaos going on, nobody had even noticed the series of scrapes, not that I cared. I didn't really want to be seen as the injured child when my best friend was bawling. She had just started to feel familial acceptance and was getting comfortable in her own skin when her crazy-ass mother had to bust in and ruin it all. The whole world was working against her, as usual.

I was still glaring out the window when I heard the muffled ding of my phone, alerting me of a message. After flicking on the lights, I pawed roughly through the rumpled covers in search of the stupid thing, hoping it was Wyatt with a damn explanation. In my excitement upon finding it, I nearly dropped the thing and cursed some more. Finally, I got it to open to my most recent messages.

Just like I'd hoped, it was from Wyatt, only instead of an explanation, he sent me a link to some YouTube video. My temperature spiked at the lack of explanation, but I was too curious to just ignore it. The video came up as soon as I clicked on it and the upbeat sounds of drums and a fiddle met my ears. Joe Diffie's smooth voice took over the camera zoomed in on him furiously strumming a guitar on the side of a dirt road. The focus then panned back and forth between a cowboy in full leather and a blonde wearing a short white sundress before shifting back to Mr. Diffie and his glorious mullet.