Sorrel Hill: Dancing In Rome (BK3) |COMPLETED|

Chapter Sixteen

"Only those who care about you can hear when you're quiet."
_______________________________________________________________

~Worry~

Today was the day, Justice, was going to be collected to breed Maria's mares! I was beyond ecstatic. The poor stallion has been fussing in his stall and running like a demon at turnout. I lead him gently off the trailer and into the builder where two women greeted me. "He's a beautiful gray," the blonde woman, Clarissa, said. I said a thank you following them into an open room. There was a dummy placed in the center of the room with a teaser mare located against the far wall in paneled fencing. Justice immediately picked up her scent and nickered out to her. His movements became a frantic prance as he tried to get to her. I handed him off to the woman who wore a helmet. Stallions can be extremely dangerous, I reminded myself.
She led Justice over to the dummy, the mare peed as Justice whinnied once more. He leaped onto to dummy several times before managing to keep his balance. The other woman had a semen collector and went up to him, collecting his semen. The interaction only lasted for a few seconds before he moved off the dummy. Clarissa brought him back over to me as the other woman, Daniella, took the collected semen to the vet room to be examined. Justice was a lot calmer after collection and seemed to be focused on me. He rubbed his nose against my stomach, his eyelashes tickling me.  I gently wrapped my arms around the stud's pristine head, a tinge dancing around in my gut.  I felt so honored that Justice was letting me do this.  I tied him up and went to the examination room where I was relieved to hear Justice had outstanding semen.  I left with excitement glittering throughout my body. The trip was short and Justice behaved like a well raised stallion.
Once he arrived back at the stables, I was pleased to see how much calmer he had become. I suppose testosterone could only be responsible for so much of the stud behavior. I, for the first time in a while, had nothing to do for the rest of the afternoon now that Justice had been collected. My mind briefly wondered back to my friends and how they were doing. We had recently made a group chat involving Foster and Peter incase anything tragic happened again. I pulled out my phone and sent a text.

Hey, what are y'all doing?
-Kils

Getting ready to compete in the Grand Prix
-Ben

What? Since when were you competing!
-Kils

Since a few months ago. I kept it quiet because I didn't want y'all posting about it on socials and getting all the super, nice, drawn-out comments and then failing everyone.
-Ben

That's the most you've ever written.
-Xav

Grand Prix?
-Foster

Highest level jumping competition
- Peter

Wishing you luck from Canada!
-Samantha

And London!
-Emily

Posting it right now
-Luke

Jerk
-Ben

Just flipped to the TV channel, getting ready to watch you. You'll do great on Star, bro.
-Will

Anyone else competing in anything coming up?
Kils

NRHA
-Xav

NCHA
-Luke

Kentucky Derby
-Jessie

Halter Words with Junior
-Hannah

Some endurance competition
-Peter

Nathan, I can see you reading these.
-Kils

Life.
-Nathan

That's not something to joke about, dude
-Xav

Chill, guys, he's right here with me. He's fine
-Jessie

Alright... I gotta go, bye
-Kils

I hadn't said that for a full minute before Jessie called me. I held the phone to my ear, "yes, Love?" He chuckled, "that's a nickname I could get used too. Anyway, when you come back you need to talk some sense into Nate. He's been acting strange." Why does it always have to be Nathan? I feel like he has some overwhelming desire to get people worried, irritated, and then just be normal out of the blue.  "Acting strange how?"  I never really knew Nathan, I didn't even know his favorite color.  He was Jessie's best friend, but far from being mine.  "He's like... I don't know, spaced out?  He's stressed out about something, I just don't know what exactly.  I've asked, but he never says anything other than 'I'm fine' which I know isn't true," Jessie sounded exhausted.  I had never heard him sound so tired before, this was obviously bothering him and had been for a while.  I wished I was back to comfort my boyfriend and annoy the crap out of his best friend until said friend began talking.
   "I thought you said he was with you?"  Jessie let a long sigh over the phone, "no.  He's stopped coming by as often as he used too.  Kiley, I'm worried about him."  This made my heart beat pick up.  Nathan was the guy that tossed around piles of attitude, but never once was intentionally rude to his friends.  He teased me and made fun of me, but that was all in good conscience.  Jessie and him were like Luke and Xavier, maybe not as inseparable, but close to it.  I wanted to teleport back home and magically locate Nathan and put him under some type of magical spell that would compel him to talk to me.  Of course, that was all in my mind, I couldn't leave this places not yet- but I could call him.  "Hey, Jess, I'm going to try and call him, okay?"  Jessie agreed and hung up the phone with a 'good luck' at the end.
     I was quick to dial Nathan's number.  After spamming the call button, he picked up on the fourteenth call, "hm?"  The attitude froze over through the phone, "don't hm me, I should be hmming you."  I mentally face palmed, that sounded incredibly stupid.  "What do you mean?"  I sighed, "Nathan, what's been going on?  Jessie's real worried about you."  There was a stretched silence before he spoke, "nothing, Kiley, look I'm fine.  I'm not suicidal or anything."  I wanted to smack him, "not buying the 'I'm fine' Nathan, seriously, what's going on?"  He sighed through the phone, he sounded just as tired as Jessie had, "look, I have to go.  Kiley, I promise, I'm fine."  He hung up without a chance for me to say anything.  I went to google maps and found his location.  He was deep in the forest of Sorrel Hill, Peter and Foster, were with him.  For some reason, I was relieved to know he was with someone, but I couldn't understand why he would be with them?  They were four to five years younger and newbies to the group, Nathan wasn't the social butterfly, so why was he hanging with them?

A/N:  finally a chapter up, yay?  I'm losing so much motivation to continue this book, but I promise I'll hunker down and pull through to get it finished.💕