Chapter 510) From Bay To Prairie

Brindleton Bay
The Elysium
Home to Chase & Hailey Cameron with their twin daughters Briar Rose and Iris Marie and Colton & Maddie Hargrave with son Jasper

16-year-old Briar Rose pulled out her phone, looked at the caller ID, then ran up the stairs to her room, where she closed the door and locked it, before answering.

“What?!” she hissed into the phone.

“Whoa, some mood! What’s wrong?” a young, but deep and kinda rougher male voice asked.

“Are you serious!?” her tone implied that he should know. He didn’t, so his tone soured too.

“I can’t read minds, Bri. You have been ghosting me for over a week. I have called and called and texted you what felt like at least a thousand times and no reaction from you! Were it not for your sister’s Insta, I would have thought you were dead! Don’t do that to me, girl!”

“Ummm, yeah sure Jackson, why could THAT be? Hmm, oh I dunno – couldn’t have anything to do with all the videocalls we were gonna have over the past two weeks, but didn’t, cos someone was totally MIA. Hint: wasn’t ME! YOU ghosted ME first!” her tone was sharp and accusatory.

“I didn’t ghost ya, Bri! My dad was moving to another country so we had extra costs, I just couldn’t afford to reload my phone card until I got paid again.”

“No phone card? So THAT is what you are going with? Oh, that’s just the lamest excuse ever, like, you are not even trying! Firstly, I know the Cromwells paid for your dad’s move, like all inclusive, they arranged it, all he had to do was show up! And who doesn’t have 10 or 20 bucks to tell someone … something?!”

“Umm, maybe someone who doesn’t have wealthy parents who are in a famous band?! And yeah, they paid, but we still had some personal shit to take care of that had nothing to do with the move itself, cos, unlike you and your family, we live in the REAL WORLD!”

“Oh, come on, not the wealthy parents again! Nobody picks their parents! And it’s really not like mom and dad do nothing but shower Iris and me with gifts and dollar bills! They keep us on short leashes, so we learn the value of money and all. They are great but can be kinda tough, just like ANY parents.”

“Yeah well, some just got luckier than others.”

“Nice. I am sure your dad would be thrilled to hear that! He tries so hard, yet, still not good enough for you, huh?”

“I didn’t say that, my dad is great, but I have only known him for 2 years, didn’t even know he existed before then, and now he lives far away again. At least yours is home a lot when not touring and you always have a mom. Mine is dead and I barely remember her, you still got siblings and a ton of other family, and I have no other family except dad and his new daughter, a baby that lives at a palace. Hypocrite!”

“What is THAT supposed to mean?” her question was almost pouty.

“Well, I try hard, but it’s just never good enough for you. Oh, before we go back and forth forever here, congrats on the boyfriend! Yeah, the redneck knows! Once I had access to the outside world again and you didn’t answer my calls or texts, I checked social media and saw your sister’s post with you and some Yuppie dude riding around fancy Brindleton Bay together, having the time of your lives. Was it those fat horses that got you all hot and bothered for the pretty boy, assuming those are his?” Jackson’s tone sharpened.

“Oooooooooooh, HELL NO! That is so rich! He cannot keep phone dates, but can stalk me online. Nice, Jackson, real nice! Not like this would be ANY of your business, but Bradford is not my boyfriend. He is just a boy and a friend. And his horses aren’t fat! They are Clydesdales and two are pregnant, they are uber-cute! His parents breed them, the Cunningham Clydesdales.” Bri’s tone was pouty.

“Listen Valley-girl, Clydesdales are draft horses for a reason, they are not the kind you want to spend long time in the saddle on or you and your ass’ll be sore and sorry! But if they breed horses AND live in Brindleton Bay, it all makes sense now. Got it.”

“Care to share?”

“Sure. The old story: rich girl yanks the poor boy around for fun, but ultimately chooses the rich boy. Story old as time. Wasn’t that what AG did to my dad? You Camerons are all alike. I was an idiot to think you actually gave a real shit about me, rich girl!” Jackson’s voice reflected his poor mood.

Which probably got much worse when Briar Rose huffed.

“You are a dick and a douche, Jackson! No matter if you are rich or poor, nobody wants to date you because you are an asshole! Go fuck yourself and just leave me alone! Lose my number – for good this time!” Briar Rose hung up, tossed her phone on the bed and cried.

After a long, hard cry, with lots of swearing and self-pity, she picked up the phone, hoping to find a slew of apologies and confessions of love from Jackson, while he was on the road to come see her to beg her forgiveness in person. Just like in all those teen movies. It always worked there, always seemed logical, and always happened.

But all she found was a reminder of the cheerleading competition this upcoming weekend. Usually something very important to Bri, but right now completely irrelevant and nothing but a mockery of her emotions to her. This incited another round of crying.

Eventually she ran out of tears, laying there on her bed staring at the ceiling the walls started closing in on her, in a bout of sudden onset cabin fever, she freshened up quickly, then left the house and went down to the beach where she saw some her friends as well as her and Jasper’s parents by the fire, where the Bay crowd usually hung out.

She joined them, after a while she pulled on Bradford’s sleeve, gesturing him to follow her.

“What’s up?” he asked when they had reached a quiet spot away from the others, his blue eyes beneath his curly blonde hair, giving Bri a jolt of electricity that ran from the top of her head down to her toes.
He was really cute, and unlike most boys who knew they had a lot going for them, he was fairly down-to-earth, so a lot of girls at school had crushes on him, Bri was no exception. She knew him better than most of the other girls, since he had been Jasper’s best friend for a while now. Kind of the big brother’s best friend thing, even though Jasper was only a few months older than Briar Rose and her twin sister Iris Marie, and not biologically their brother, just raised together since birth in the same communal setting with their parents all living together as their older siblings Connor and Keira had been.
It was unconventional, but it worked. For them. Then and now. Even though the Camerons and the Hargraves remained a bit of the oddball out because of it, despite being one of the wealthier, if not the wealthiest residents in the Bay.

But it wasn’t until recently, around the time that she came to the conclusion that despite her wishful thinking and romantic dreaming she and Jackson would probably never happen, that she was even receptive enough to acknowledge she REALLY liked Bradford, a LOT, which she realized weeks ago when he started teaching her how to horseback ride on his family’s horses.

Bri had always loved horses, even though she had never ridden one, let alone owned one, and during one of the parties at her big brother Connor’s place in San Sequoia, his best friend and ranch owner Jack’s son Jackson had promised Bri to teach her on his father’s ranch. Bri felt ten feet tall when he made that promise, as she had a solid and hard crush on him from the first moment she met him, her barely 15 then and him almost 17 and it was hard to miss that he liked her too.

Sadly, they never got around to act on it, because they were teens and lived at opposite ends of the country, only ever saw each other once in a blue moon whenever the stars aligned just perfectly when Connor would throw a party, her parents and her would actually go to it, and Jack would actually not avoid it like usual, and would also bring his son Jackson to it, which didn’t happen a lot.

Not to mention that it wasn’t until only a few months ago that Jackson finally got a cell phone on a pay-as-you-go plan, but when they finally exchanged numbers, after Bri almost ran out of hints to drop about it, she thought this was finally the beginning of something more. And in a way it was, they texted a lot, talked occasionally, always mindful of Jackson’s phone card balance. They started flirting, he paid her compliments, whenever they met in person at Connor’s place, they danced together and usually sat next to each other, he would get her refills of drinks and plates, they didn’t even try to hide it much from the others, until Jackson turned 18, when it became a iffier, both felt no different than before, but knew if it were to go anywhere, it would be a lot tougher to sell to their respective parents, so they became more covert with their mutual attraction.

Still, hopeless romantic Bri had hoped Jackson would somehow cross the entire country to come see her if only to confess his everlasting love to her, finding a way to stay with her, like the boys in those teen movies always would. He didn’t. Probably because he had no money for that and couldn’t leave the ranch, especially now that his father moved to Henfordshire. And then, on top of that perceived let-down, Jackson then suddenly ghosted her for almost two weeks, missing several of their scheduled phone ‘dates’, which caused Briar Rose sleepless nights full of sobs and tears wondering if it had been something she said. Or didn’t say. All while also imagining him having too much fun with entire flocks of beautiful and sexy cowgirls, keeping him too busy to even think about her.
Her first broken heart in the making.

When Colton and Maddie’s son Jasper, who was a few months older than Bri and her twin sister, and kind of like a brother to them, since their parents had lived together since the teens were born, took Bri and Iris along to his best friend Bradford’s family estate for a party, Bri and Brad just clicked, eventually it was him who started teaching her horseback riding, not Jackson. Bradford and Briar Rose started going on rides together, officially as friends, but the random touching of a hand occurring more and more often, each time giving Bri that feeling of electricity she craved so much, opened Bri’s eyes to the sober fact that Bradford was present and real, while Jackson would probably always be far away and always kind of just a teenage dream for her. Bri, her twin sister Iris and Jasper all had already started looking seriously into colleges to visit eventually once the time came, all three teens planned to attend university together after graduation in about 2 years, while Jackson had already long graduated, yet seemed to be doing nothing productive with his life in Bri’s book.

She looked up at Bradford.

“Prom is coming.” she said, hoping that would be enough for him to spring into action.

“Yup.” he said, cracking a smile.

“Sooooooooooo … Are you going with anyone?” she gave him more hints.

“Maybe. There is this one girl, I haven’t asked her yet. Not sure if she will say yes, so … waiting for the right time, I guess.” he said.

“Oh.” Bri’s smile disappeared and her heart sank. Not again! Raining rejections now. Ugh! And no hole nearby to crawl into.

Bradford smiled an irresistible smile, making Bri hot under the collar.

“Oh, don’t play me like that, girl, you know I am talking about you, Bri. So, are you gonna break my heart or will you say yes?” he said.

Her mood jumped up to top level, she blushed hard, while her heart was pounding now as if it was trying to bounce out of her body. ‘Play it cool, Bri!’, a little voice in her head reprimanded her, ‘don’t look too eager and available, or he’ll think you’re desperate and easy! You’re better than that! You got this!’

She smiled up at him.

“Well, you haven’t properly asked me.” she teased.

“Ah, so you’re the type of girl that needs the boy to go all out. Okay, all right, fine. You want a big production, I wasn’t expecting to do this tonight, so I am not prepared at all. Let’s see. Oh, I know!” Bradford grinned, winked, then went down on one knee.

“Miss Briar Rose Cameron, most beautiful of all flowers, hottest girl at the entire Bay High, will you do me the honor and be my prom date?” he said.

Squealing and squeaking, Briar Rose clapped, smiling big, unable to bridle her excitement anymore.

“YES!! OMG – yes! Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes! Hope you like pink, cos that is what the color of my dress will be! And for the corsage I like roses, obviously! I mean, like, duh! It’s LITERALLY in my name, amirite!?” she exclaimed.

“This better not be what it looks like!” Bri’s father Chase said, who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, Bradford scrambled up, smiling at a not very thrilled looking Chase.

“No Sir, no worries, it’s not. I just asked your daughter to prom, that’s all.” Bradford told him, grinning.

“And I said YES, daddy! I am going to prom with Brad! Squeeeeee! Is mom still down at the beach? I need to tell her that her credit card and I have a date next week. She can come.” Bri added, still unable to hide her excitement, as she nudged her father.

“Oh good, great. Cool, cool, cool. All right then. Congrats, I guess. You and I are gonna have a little instructional talk about acceptable and inappropriate behavior at proms soon, Bri. And I think you and I will too, Brad. Just in case. Just something casual, just a few reminders, hints and refreshers.” Chase said, then turned and walked off.

“Yeah, super, dad. Can’t wait.” Bri mumbled in his wake, only loud enough for Brad to hear.

“Me either.” Brad added.

“No worries, he’s harmless. It’s my mom you gotta watch out for. She’s super-nice – until she isn’t. Piss her off and nothing will fit right anymore.” Bri shrugged.

“Oh, I got one of those too. My dad is kinda the strict one, technically, but piss off my mom and you won’t know which way is up anymore. I am sure one day we’ll be grateful for that, but today isn’t that day. Doesn’t look good for tomorrow either.” Brad winked, at a giggling Bri.