Moving In [tag: rick]

[lily]

THE OUTFIT
THE TRUCK

Her father had not taken the news of her moving out so well. Really, Lily hadn’t planned on telling him to begin with, he just happened to show up as she was dragging her suitcases out the door. The conversation hadn’t gone the best because Lily had a hard time lying to him. Even though he was an ass and it sometimes felt like he hated her guts, he was still her dad. It was a little strange, actually. Lily was truly surprised that he had flipped his lid, begging her to stay. Maybe he did care about her, in his sick twisted sort of way. It was as if he knew he was losing her for good, that she wouldn’t be there anymore to help clean up his messes. Lily would never find out if he’d change or not, because even though her heart weighed heavy with guilt, she still left. She still had tossed her suitcases into the bed of her truck and left. She couldn’t trust him.

The 97’ Ford truck rumbled and growled as she drove in the direction of Caramel Rivers Stable, on her way there she made sure to stop at a gas station to fill up her cooler with ice and bud light. She had a feeling that she’d need a few beers after moving in and talking to her brother Jake. Lily flipped her cell open and pressed 3, Jake was on speed dial for a reason. He was her best friend and brother. She talked to him nearly every day. He always knew what to say to make her feel better. The phone rang four times before he answered, “Hey Lils..” His tone of voice immediately set her inner sirens off. It was that tone he used when Heidi did something wrong, but he didn’t want to make her cry by scolding her. “You already talked to Dad didn’t you?” The pause confirmed her suspicions, “Wow, he really wasted no time in calling you. He’s probably on the other line, right?” She heard Jake sigh into the phone, she knew without looking that he was gritting his teeth, something he did when he was thinking, “Yea he is. Lily, you know he really does love you and wants you to stay.”

Was Jake actually sticking up for him? Her best friend, her brother, the person who was suppose to take HER side. Her foot pressed on the gas, causing the truck to gain speed, “Are you shitting me Jake? How can you say that? Really? He’ll never change. He decided who he wanted to be once Mom died. I’m twenty-five years old, it’s about time I stop trying to make him the father that I want him to be.” And with that, she snapped the phone closed and tossed it over to the passenger side. “Stupid!” She growled out, slamming the steering wheel with the palm of her hand, her fingers then rolled over it and gripped it tightly. Once again, the truck sped up just a bit more. The sooner she got there, the sooner she could get her mind off everything. Lily just wanted a fresh start.

Moving into the stable lodging would be that fresh start. Not only that, she’d be able to get more work done and start working with the horses more. The grip on the steering wheel relaxed as she began to clear her thoughts and soothe her temper. The benefits out weighed the problems, considering the only problem she had was her father being a big baby.

She pulled up to the apartments, tires skidding as she hit the brakes. She’d already snagged a key from the main office building of the stable for one of the empty rooms. She had the choice of a room with two beds or one with a queen sized bed. There’d be no way she’d get a roommate so she’d taken one of the queen sized bed rooms. Squinting Lily stared at the front door of the apartment she had parked in front of, then looked down at the key she held. Both had the number ‘eight’ engraved on them. Shrugging, she slid out of the truck and moved to the bed of it where her suitcases were. Lily opened the cab of it so it’d be easier to pull the bulky luggage out. With a few grunts and groans, she was finally dragging them to the front door of the apartment, fumbling for the key as she did so.

It was only a few more minutes before she was standing in her new home, gazing around the small apartment. Though it may be small, it was now home sweet home. She’d make it more homier later, right now her mind was focusing on one thing. That ice cold beer in the back of her truck. Tugging at her bottom lip with her teeth, Lily opened up one of the suitcases and pulled out a medium sized quilt. The pattern was simple, with yellow, blue and purple shapes sewn into it. Clutching it to her chest, she headed back out to the bed of her truck. She laid the quilt along the door of the bed and hopped on, letting her legs dangle off the edge. The cooler of beer was already in reach and she leaned over, flipping the top open and snatched one out. Instead of twisting the cap open she used the edge of her truck as a bottle opener, popping the lid off. Lily brought the bottle to her lips and took a long drink, enjoying the feel of the cold liquid run down her throat and into her belly. The first drink of a much needed beer was always the most important moment of enjoyment. As she pulled the bottle away, she made that ‘ahhh’ sound of pure pleasure. Her eyes darted up to the star filled sky, her body leaning against the inner side of the truck.

[Richard Eli Calvin]

Rick had had a very long, very full day. Which he supposed was usual for him but today somehow really seemed to get to him. He hadn’t really slept well the night before, which was also usual, but for some reason that also really seemed to drag on him more than it usually did that morning. He got up at around his normal time. He fed and played with the dogs, throwing their ball across the very large backyard just to get some energy out of the large hovawarts before leaving them cooped up in the house for the rest of the day. Normally he would take the dogs for a walk, but obviously he couldn’t just leave Jade home alone so he had to improvise. He then went inside and woke Jade up. After she was dressed she watched some television while he made her some breakfast of pancakes, pretty much the only thing he knew how to make. Right when he got custody of Jade he had called his mother almost every night to ask her how to make something for the young child’s dinner. He figured he shouldn’t be feeding her cold cereal for dinner every night, as he had been doing for quite a while before Jade came into his life. His cooking skills were still far from great, but he could give a decent spread of things for his daughter to enjoy so life wasn’t so bad.

Both he and Jade ate breakfast before Rick had to quickly get her out the door to make sure she wasn’t late for school. Jade went to half day kindergarten, which worked very well for Rick. He went to practice during the morning and then they gave them a break before the performance at night. Well, fine, it wasn’t much of a break for Rick, quickly leaving practice to pick up Jade and spend the afternoon with her but he did feel that it was important that they got to spend that time together because every day he had to leave her with a babysitter to put her to bed. Sure, he felt bad doing that but that was how he brought in the money that kept them in the gorgeous house they lived in. He was still losing money with the stable. There weren’t enough borders and all that, but all in all, with his acting, he still had some money to put into savings at the end of the month so there was no need to worry about that either.


After Rick picked her up at noon he took her to a quick lunch before taking her home to take a nap while he, you guessed it, worked. He ran over lines, songs, stage directions and everything else. Not for that night’s performance but for the one coming up in a few months. They didn’t get much practice time between the changes of performances so everyone was expected to know their part by the time they started to practice. It wasn’t so bad. They were all trained to know a part after reading it twice and to be able to listen to a song, pick out their part, and be able to hum it after the first time and know the basic lyrics after hearing it twice. It was a hell of a lot of work, which he knew a lot of people were aware of, but what he didn’t know is why he chose this life. Sure, he loved the actual performing and the whole idea of getting paid to kiss girls and seeing them walk around the green room half naked (or more) wasn’t a half bad job (yes, he laughed at the idea of actors being gay when football players, supposedly so manly, were the ones running around in spandex and piling on top of other guys for a living) but this life style, though he had been expecting it, still came as a shock to him.

When Jade woke up from her nap he took her to the stable, at her request, to ride Magic and Millie out on the trails. Millie and been fresh and spooky and he wasn’t exactly sure what caused that so he spent a lot of his time making his horse work for him. By the time they got off Millie had been hot and covered in sweat, meaning he spent a while cooling her out. Sure, Jade liked it. Whenever Millie had to really be cooled out she got to sit on her and Jade was like any little girl and liked to ride the horse her daddy was riding. It was then when he got the text telling him that Lily would be moving into her apartment that night and the number which she had taken, which he made a mental note of. He wasn’t sure when he was going to show up and say hello, but he would see when he had a free moment.

He took the child home, his normal babysitter showed up and he ran her through everything, even though she already knew it all and was quickly on the ground playing with his daughter. He left and went to work, only to find out that his costar got suddenly sick and they had to use the understudy. He hated working with understudies. Of course he would never say that to them, he was much too nice for that, but it was hard since he spent all his time practicing with his normal costar only to have someone new thrown into the equation. The show still went alright, nothing really to report on but as he left he knew he wasn’t quite ready to go home. He called the babysitter to make sure everything was going all right and Jade was in fact asleep. After getting word that the babysitter could stay longer he made up his mind to take that night to his advantage and go over to Lily’s new place.

He drove his gorgeous Jaguar, which he got for his sixteenth birthday and knew he would never get rid of, to the stable and over to the apartments. He immediately saw Lily leaning against her truck and smiled unconsciously. No, he was actually not expecting anything to happen that night. He knew they joked about things like that all the time, but he never knew how serious she was and the last thing he wanted to do was pressure he in any way. He had still to figure out how he felt about her. He knew she was great to be around, great with Jade and was simply strong and refused to let people push her around, all qualities he loved but when it came to exactly what he wanted out of their relationship he simply wasn’t sure and was simply going to need some time.

He stopped the luxury car behind her truck, put it in park and got out, sliding the keys into his pocket. “Hey Lily,” he said, walking up to her, knowing she should know it was him just by his car. “You all right?” he asked, noticing she wasn’t quite her normal self. Seeing the beer in her hand made him really hope he’d be offered one as well. That just sounded good at the moment and after such a long day. He walked over to her and also leaned against her truck. He sighed deeply and ran his hand through his hair, pushing it back and away from his eyes. “You like your place well enough?” he asked, jerking towards her new apartment. He didn’t want to just jump in to how long his day had been, that was never fun and nobody really cared and he always cared about how everyone else around him felt.