Justin rolled over, taking a moment to remember where he was. Jessica wasn’t in the bed; she always was a morning person. He glanced at the clock on the table next to the bed- 9:45.

”Good morning sleepy head.”

He looked at the door and saw his mom standing there, smiling.

“Morning mama,” he groaned, stretching his body.

”Breakfast is ready when you get up and moving.”

”Jess down there?”

”Oh yes. She came down at 7:30 already showered and dressed. Was telling me about filming her new movie over it Italy.” Justin rolled his eyes, aggravated at her bragging. “Billy called this morning. Said they’d be here around 11 to pick you up and take you out.”

“Great,” he mumbled sarcastically, his mom laughing.

”Get up and get moving so you can eat first,” and she turned to go back downstairs.

He got up and went to his old dresser to see what was still in there. He grabbed an old pair of jeans, a tight fitting plane white t-shirt and his old work boots. After he showered, he put it all on, surprised it all still fit.

He walked downstairs, causing his girlfriend to nearly spit her coffee out all over. “What in God’s name are you wearing?”

He just shrugged. “Clothes.”

“Well yeah, but why those?”

“I don’t want to ruin good ones going out with the boys.”

Her jaw dropped. “What?”

“They’re coming by to catch up. Who knows what we’ll do.”

”I didn’t know-“

“You can come too. No big deal.”

Jessica rolled her eyes as she continued to sip her coffee. Lynn had been standing at the sink cleaning up dishes, listening to the whole discussion. She had a smile on her face at her son’s declaration of going out with is friends, and not giving in to his girlfriend. Even his girlfriend’s obvious disgust was causing a smile on her face.

~~~

The breakfast dishes weren’t even completely cleaned up when a truck came tearing down the rock drive, windows slightly rattling from the exhaust.

“11:00, right on time,” Lynn observed from the sink.

Jessica went and stood at the window, watching as Lynn and Justin cleaned up the dishes.

The old red Chevy came to a stop behind Justin’s BMW. The light bar, and grille guard transformed what might have been a decent truck as a truck that was deeply used for purposes other than driving and hauling.

She saw six guys climb out of the truck, all in old faded blue jeans and work boots, all in hats. Most had on plain white t-shirts like Justin’s, two were bare-chested, their farmer’s tans showing.

“I’m in hillbilly hell,” she mumbled, walking away from the window.

The front door opened, and they all walked right in, no knocking or calling hello.

“Hey Mama Lynn,” the biggest greeted, then they all looked at Justin. “Well look who it is!”

”The pretty boy from Cali came back!”

“Bout God damn time!”

“Yeah, yeah, I missed you fuckheads too!” Justin laughed as they all hugged.

“Who are you?” one of the men asked, almost glaring at Jessica.

“Guys, this is Jessica, my girlfriend. Baby this is Bobby, Billy, Kyle, Chance, James and Kevin.”

”Girlfriend?” three of them asked.

“Yeah.”

”But I thought-“ Kyle started, but Chance hit him mid-sentence making him shut up.

“Thought what?” Justin asked curiously.

“Nothin’. Ready to go raise some hell?”

Justin looked at Jessica. “Ready babe?”

“Sure,” she sighed, not the least bit impressed. She walked across the kitchen floor, her designer heels clicking loudly.

“This should be fun,” Kyle whispered to Bobby, both smiling mischievously.

Jessica walked over to Justin and took his arm, everyone walking outside.

“Where’s your beast at Bobby?” Justin asked, just seeing James’ truck.

“Engine got flooded. It’s at Waylon’s with Payton.”

“Ahh.”

James climbed in the driver’s seat as everyone else climbed in the bed of the truck. Justin helped Jessica up and had her sit against the back of the cab.

“Where the hell are we goin’?” Justin asked Chance sitting next to him.

“The old fishin’ hole. Got a couple coolers full of beer, the poles and all afternoon.”

Justin turned to look at his girlfriend and knew he’d hear about it later, but for the moment didn’t care. He was back home, out with his oldest friends and was perfectly happy.


They had to do some creek running to get to their fishin’ hole. They splashed through some of the deeper parts, water going everywhere. All the boys were cheering, then Justin remembered Jessica. He snuck a glance at her; she was glaring at him, her hair dripping wet, her designer clothes had water spots all over them.

“Shit,” Justin groaned quietly, knowing as ass chewing was coming his way soon.

When they finally arrived at their destination, everyone grabbed a fishing pole and a cooler and hopped out of the truck. Everyone that is, except Jessica. She slowly climbed out of the truck, her feet slipping on the rocks from her heels.

“Fucking assholes,” she muttered, tripping time after time as she made her way over to Justin.

“Hey baby,” she said smiling at her, knowing he was in deep shit.

“Fuck you,” she mumbled, making her way past him to a large rock in the sun. She laid on it, letting her hair and clothes begin to dry.

“She’s pissed,” Billy whispered to Chance, laughing.

“Oh well! She’s the one that came, she can deal with it.”

The boys spent the afternoon fishing and getting drunk off of all the beer they’d brought.

Finally around 6 PM, Jessica heard what she’d been waiting for all afternoon. “Come on baby, we’re leaving.”

She slowly made her way over to the truck, and this time climbed in the cab with James. She put the window up and sat quietly sat there.

This time, the guys got to talk since she was up front and couldn’t hear them.

“J, tell me she’s leaving soon,” Billy said, making Justin laugh.

“She’s here with me for two weeks, then has to go back home to get ready for Italy.”

“Two weeks! She couldn’t even handle today, how the hell is she going to last two weeks?”

“Give her a break guys. She’s a girl, and not used to this.”

“Payton’s a girl and likes this shit more than we do.”

Justin rolled his eyes. “Payton is an exception. She’s one of us.”

The guys kind of looked around at his statement, knowing he had no idea about her.

“Next time, leave her with your mom. Please dude?”

Justin laughed. “I was planning on it. She’s not too crazy about my mom’s house either.”

“Go figure.”

”Is Payton working tomorrow? I was gonna stop by and say hey.”

Chance bit his lip, trying to hide his smile. “I have no idea. She works some Saturdays, some she don’t.”

Justin nodded, curious about his friend’s reactions about Payton now. What’d happened in three years to make them seem almost uncomfortable about her?

“Wait, are one of you guys dating her?”

“Na. Bobby did for like three months last summer, but it was too weird for her.”

“Why was it weird? They’ve known each other for forever.”

“No one knows. She’s…changed.”

Justin looked over at Bobby, his eyes narrowing. “What’d you do?”

“I didn’t do anything!” he shouted, getting defensive. “I told her I loved her after three months, and she freaked out on me.”

At that moment he knew. He was almost positive he knew, but chose not to share. And maybe, just maybe, he thought, that their night together had been haunting her all this time. Like it’d been doing to him for only the last twenty-four hours.

~~

As they approached Justin’s house, the guys all started wishing him luck with his girlfriend. They weren’t shy with their disapprovals of her, or of him for choosing her. He knew then there was no way she’d cut it if they got married and moved back here like he wanted to do.

Once the truck stopped, Justin jumped out and Jessica slowly started climbing out of the cab. He went to help her, and she slapped his hand away. “Don’t touch me,” she growled.

He instantly withdrew his hand, and desperately wished he could jump back in the truck and leave with his friends. He knew she was going to scream and loose her temper as soon as they pulled away.

He followed her in the house, and she instantly stormed off up the stairs to the bathroom to take a shower. Lynn walked around the corner from the kitchen, looking at Justin with a smile on her face.

“She’s pissed,” Justin stated flatly at his moms curious look.

“I knew she would be. She’s not from this kind of background.”

“I just wanted her to get a feel of it. I didn’t expect her to get so pissed, she’s usually all for something new and fun.”

Lynn’s jaw dropped. “That’s not fun for her! I bet she’s never been in the back of a pick-up truck much less rode in a truck period. Does she even know what a fishing pole is?”

“Mom, not you too. I heard it all from the guys, I don’t need you doing it to. It was a mistake bringing her here, I get that now.”

“It’s not a mistake, I’m glad I got to meet her. Just….make better choices of when to take her and when to let her stay here.”

“She’s going to stay here tomorrow. I’m gonna go see Payton, I don’t need drama. She’s already asked about her, because it’s another girl.”

“That’s a good idea,” Lynn said, thinking they didn’t need to ever meet but not saying it out loud.

That’s when Jessica came walking down the stairs in the sundress Justin had bought her earlier in the summer. It cost quite a bit, and he was surprised she’d brought it with her. She walked past him and Lynn into the kitchen and threw her clothes away she’d had on earlier.

“Mud and water come out dear,” Lynn said, trying to be considerate.

“Not out of dry clean only clothes that cost more than that whole stupid truck was worth,” she replied, her nose going in the air. Then she turned to look at Justin. “And why did you drag me here, when you were just going to drag me out with your friends, ruin my clothes and ignore me?”

Lynn quickly excused herself and went upstairs as their quarrel started.

“I thought you might would enjoy it. I hang around all your friends, and get ignored. What’s the big deal?”

“What’s the big deal? Are you kidding me Justin?” she screamed.

“I didn’t know it’d piss you off. I’m sorry.”

“From now on, you go do your thing with your hick friends and leave me here. I don’t want anything to do with them. I can’t believe you used to be like that.”

”Used to be? Honey, that’s me. Out in California though there’s not many creeks or fishing holes to go to.”

“I like the Cali you better, and I can’t wait until we are both there together again.”

Justin rolled his eyes, and sighed. “I don’t know if I want to live in California anymore Jess. I miss being here, I’m-“

”Don’t you dare! We live in California. If you ever want to marry me, that is where we are living, no exceptions. I will not live in some little hoosier hillbilly town.”

There it was. The woman he thought he was in love with just shot his dream of moving back down. He quickly knew then that she wasn’t the one and he wasn’t going to marry her.

“Ok. I’m going to take a shower and get something to eat. You do what you want.” He brushed past her up the stairs.

He grabbed his clean clothes and locked himself in the bathroom. The last two days had been mentally exhausting for him. His feelings for Jessica were slowly dying down to nothing, the way everyone was being so weird about Payton was driving him crazy. He was almost scared to go see her tomorrow, afraid of what he would find.

When he walked back in the bedroom, Jessica was asleep in the bed. Early to bed, early to rise was what she always would say. Unless it was a big party and a bunch of her high and mighty friends were there, then she would stay up all night. Even their sex life was like that, it was always hurry up, I need to get to sleep or no honey, it’s too late.

He went down stairs, grabbed a bottle of the clear liquid Paul always kept hidden in a closet and went outside. He started a small fire in the fire pit and sat there, watching it, taking swig after swig of the liquid. He felt the warm fuzzy feeling starting, that’s when he stumbled his way into the living room. He fell on the couch and passed out in a drunken slumber, numb and oblivious to the world and his feelings for the time being.