Chapter two

River

I didn't do much yesterday besides reading and watch t.v. So when I woke up this morning I was excited, 1)because I get to go to the farmer's market and I've never been 2)I'll be going with Oakley's family, and 3)I'm allowed to get a treat for myself and Oakley. I got up and showered, ate my breakfast as fast as I could, then ran back upstairs, put my hair in a ponytail showing off my awesome under-cut and put my shoes on.

"RIVER," my Grammy said with a laugh, "Slow down! You're going to turn yourself into a knot!

"No I won't, and it's not even physically possible."

"You won't believe the things I've seen."

"Whatever," Grammy gives me her credit card, "are you sure you want to give me your credit card?"

"I trust you won't take advantage of it, yes?"

"Yes, but-"

"Okay, good. Now go before you lose your ride."

"What?"

"Your friend, what's her name, Oakley?"

My heart flutters, "Yes, what about her?"

"She's been outside waiting for two minutes now."

"What! Why didn't you tell me?"

"I thought you knew."

I quickly kiss my Grammy on the cheek and wave good-bye. When I get outside I see Oakley's leaning on her Four wheeler. She smiles and my heart skips a beat.

"I was supposed to meet you at your house! If I'd known you were coming here I'd have been out sooner."

"I just wanted to surprise you," she turns around and grabs her spare helmet, and tosses it to me, "you wanna drive or ride?"

"You trust me to drive that after last time?"

"Just because you almost killed me by almost hitting a tree, doesn't mean you shouldn't try again."

"It totally means I shouldn't try again, I-I shouldn't even be looking at it!"

"It's just like driving a go-cart, no get on before we're late."

I walk towards it and Oakley slides back and pats the front part of the seat. I sit down and with hesitation, I turn the key to start it. Oakley named it Tree because she's named after one. Tree comes to life with a roar, and I grip onto the handlebars. Slowly I get us on the road towards the village. I'm too scared to go faster than 15 miles per hour, and when Oakley realizes it she laughs.

"It's not funny!"

"Whatever," Oakley smirks and scoots closer, if she couldn't feel my heartbeat earlier she can now, "Here, I'll help," She puts her hands over mine, and I'm glad she can't see my face because my face is entirely red, "Now, just relax."

"O-Okay," I speed up a little.

"There you go! We'll be there in no time now."

"W-we were fine before," I say, trying to calm my blush.

"Please we would have been there three hours after it finished."

We are now at the speed limit and about five minutes from town, but we won't be late.

We finally get there and I park Tree next to the family truck. They brought the petting zoo with them this weekend. They grow all kinds of crops but their berries are the best. I know it's not berry season, but they still manage to grow them, even in the winter. (They use greenhouses.) Today seems really busy, I mean it's 78 degrees and the high is 80 so everyone will be here. I love helping Oakley with the stand, and since there are more people today we've got the stand split into two tables. The market is bustling today.

"That'll be $5.11," Oakley said to a customer.

"So... Oakley, I was wondering if."

"If?" Oakley glanced at me while she was with a customer.

"If after our shift you might want to go get some ice cream or something."

She smirked at me, "are you trying to ask me out on a date," she asked jokingly.

I felt my cheeks getting hot, I smiled, "um, in a way."

"Yes River, I would love to go on a date with you. Now please will you help me. Were extra popular."

"Yeah. I know."

We were at work at least for two hours, and we made a decent amount of tips. I might be bragging when I say this, but if a child saw the amount of money we made today they would say they were the richest person in the world. I finnish helping packing up and then headed to my backpack to get my wallet, then she spotted me and smiled. She could stop a full-on war with her smile.

"You ready?" She bumps me and I fall from my squat.

"Hay!" I say with a laugh.

"Hay is for horses," she helped me up, "But you're for me."

I almost choked on my water, "What?"

She blushed a little, "Did I say that out loud?"

"Yes, yes she did," a voice said from behind me.

"Becca? Didn't think you would be at a farmer's market, thought you'd be at the mall with your "besties"."

"What-ever, I see you have a new pet. Heard your old one up and left you."

"Come on, we can spend our time better someplace away from here."

"Bye, bye Barkley and Pet!!," she laughed as Oakley dragged us to hide behind her older cousin's truck. Her face was pure anger.

"Wow, last time I saw you this red you'd almost drowned in your pond," she wanted to see who could hold their breath the longest.

"She thinks she's better than everyone because she's the mayor's daughter."

"She's just a stupid rich kid who does what her parents tell her to do and doesn't have a personality besides, " 'I'm like, so hot, and I have the new iPhone! EEEEEEEEE,'" that made her laugh.

"That's a little mean, but you're not wrong," she said with a laugh.

"Now, how about that ice cream we talked about?"

"That sounds good."

We left the truck, got our bit of the tips, and headed towards the town. Here people are more accepting of LGBTQ+. One of my classmates were gay at school, and somehow somebody found out and everyone made his life miserable. He committed suicide three months after it all started. To be honest, I don't want to go back home, it's so much nicer here. The apartment I stayed in was about half of Oakley's room. I bet I could convince one of my parents to move here.

"Okay, so which ice cream shop?" Her voice makes me jump.

"Leny's," I answer.

"K," she holds the door open for me, we order our ice cream and sit down.

"Cookie dough, huh?" I say teasingly

"Well, at least I'm not the one with mint chocolate chip."

"Whatever, it's good."

She shakes her head and snikers, "Okay then. So as we both know school will start this Monday. I know I'm going to school this year, but are you?"

"I think so, I'm not all sure."

"Well, I need to grab some more potting soil, wanna come?"

"I actually need to get the groceries, so yes"

We head to Tree, to go to the nearest Kroger. We get everything as quickly as we can so we can get home before six.

"You ready to hit the road?"

"Yeah," we're taking the long way home and Oakley is driving. It takes about an hour and a half to get home, so I start to get relaxed. We drive through the forest all the way there and it's beautiful. Then I realize that I've been leaning into Oakley for five minutes, and I don't know what to do. We turn onto our street and I slowly lean off her, then we pull into the driveway at Grammy's house.

"You want me to help you with the bags?"

"Yes, I don't think I could do it by myself."

We walk through the front door and I see Grammy sitting in a chair covering her mouth with her hand and her eyes are red and puffy, "Grammy? What's wrong?"

"Your Mom… she, your parents weren't getting a divorce. Your mom was sick," I drop to the floor letting go of my bags, "River, your mom," she started to cry, "I'm so sorry."

I can't believe this, my mom is gone. Forever, I'll never see her again. I feel dizzy and out of breath, then the world slowly loses its color and turns black.

Throughout the past three months that I've been here, and there's been one thing that I've wanted most, and now she's dead.