Pony Jumpers 5- Five Stride Line

by Kate Lattey

  “Fine. What’re you doing here?” I asked him, stopping behind him and reaching down for a handful of popcorn. I wondered if I should ask him about shoeing Squib, get a farrier’s perspective on things. Or an apprentice farrier, or whatever he was.

  “Stop it! That’s so gross!” Lexi snapped, slapping at my hand as I pulled a fistful of popcorn out of the bowl, suddenly aware that my knuckles were creased with dirt and my fingertips were covered in scurf and horse hair. But Squib’d had an itchy spot right behind his elbow and it had been my duty as a caring horse owner to give it a good scratch for him. At least, that’s how I saw it.

  “What’re you watching?” I asked, ignoring my sister’s horrified expression as I shoved the popcorn into my mouth.

  Harry answered for her. “Batman Begins.”

  I pulled a face. “Dark Knight’s better.”

  Harry picked up a DVD case from next to him on the couch and waved it in my face. “That comes after. It’s a Christmas Batman marathon! A Batmanathon. You should join us.”

  “Don’t,” Anders warned him. “She’ll talk the entire way through it.”

  “Shut up,” I told him, then swiped the DVD out of Harry’s hand and swatted him over the head with it. “Besides, you’re a bit early. It’s not Christmas for three more days.”

  Harry’s arm came groping backwards, trying to retrieve the DVD from my grasp. I held it just out of his reach, until he spun around on the couch and snatched it, upsetting the popcorn bowl onto the floor as he moved.

  “Now look what you’ve done!” Lexi was furious, huffing and muttering as she scooped up handfuls of popcorn and dumped them back into the bowl.

  Harry apologised immediately and tried to help her, and I looked over at Anders curiously.

  Why is he here? I tried to communicate by way of my facial expression, but Anders just raised his eyebrows at me with a slight smile, then focused his attention on our sister.

  “Lex, you’re fast-forwarding the opening credits.”

  One of Lexi’s many quirks was her insistence on watching any movie in its entirety. No matter how long or boring or slow the opening credits might be, she always insisted that we watched them, because they were ‘part of the movie’. She yelped and dove towards the remote, knocking the popcorn over once more.

  “We were all having a nice time until you got home,” Anders reprimanded me lazily, throwing a piece of popcorn from his own bowl into the air and catching it in his mouth.

  “Sorry to ruin your evening,” I replied, taking the hastily-refilled bowl from Harry and heading towards the kitchen. There was no way Lexi was eating anything that had gone anywhere near the floor, so I might as well throw it out. Or eat some myself, not being nearly as fussy as my sister. “I’ll make you some more. And I promise to wash my hands first,” I added over my shoulder.

  A couple of minutes later I was staring at the microwave and listening to the kernels popping when Harry came into the kitchen.

  “It’s almost done,” I told him. “I’ll bring it through.”

  “All good. Just came for a refill.” He lifted his glass and waved it at me, then went to the sink and filled it with tap water. I kept my eyes on the popcorn bag as it circled around on the microwave plate, popping occasionally. Harry sculled the glass of water back, then filled it again.

  “You’re going to miss the start,” I warned him, but he just grinned at me, and before I could help it, I was smiling back. Damn him, that charm was finally starting to work on me.

  “How’s your pony?”

  “He has a name,” I said reflexively. My parents had long considered it acceptable to just refer to Squib as “the pony” and I’d allowed it at first because I was so grateful just to have him, but lately it had been bothering me more and more. At Katy’s house, the ponies were members of the family, almost more important than the humans who lived there. But at my house, Squib was just “the pony”. But just as I was conceding to myself that Harry had only met Squib once, and I couldn’t even remember if I’d introduced them properly at the time, he surprised me.

  “Sorry. How’s Squib?”

  I turned in surprise and looked at him. “You remembered his name!”

  “It’s a hard one to forget,” he replied. “I’ve met about a thousand Montys and Honeys and Majors and Sams, but never a pony called Squib before.”

  “He’s one of a kind,” I agreed proudly.

  Harry grinned. “You might not want to admit it, but I’m earning your respect.”

  I raised my eyebrows. “Maybe a little tiny bit,” I conceded, holding up my thumb and forefinger to show a sliver of space between them.

  Harry reached over and prised them further apart. “More like that, I reckon.”

  I snapped my fingers back together. “And the respect is gone.”

  He shook his head slowly, looking discouraged. “Are you this rude to all your guests?”

  “Only the ones that–”

  I didn’t get a chance to finish that sentence, because Lexi came marching into the kitchen with a face like thunder.

  “What’s taking so long in here?”

  I motioned towards the microwave. “The popcorn.” It popped a couple more times, backing me up. “It’s not ready yet.”

  “It must be.”

  It popped again, several times in quick succession. “It’s not. Almost though,” I conceded. “I’ll bring it in when it’s done, no need to wait.”

  Lexi turned and looked at Harry. “Are you coming back?”

  There was a cautious edge to her voice that I didn’t hear often, since she more often demanded things than asked for them. But I could tell that she was making an effort, and I felt bad for letting Harry flirt with me. There wasn’t really any question anymore that that’s what he was doing, although whether he had any real interest in me or was just amusing himself was yet to be seen.

  Harry looked from Lexi to me, then back again, clearly weighing up his options. I gave him a quick nod towards Lexi, and he seemed to understand.

  “Yeah, all right,” he told her. “We’ll have the kitchen wench bring the refreshments in due course.”

  He crooked his arm towards Lexi, and after a moment’s hesitation she slid her arm through his, interlocking their elbows. I saw her smiling nervously as they left the room, and I leaned against the bench with my thoughts in a whirl. I hoped that Harry realised what he was doing, but I didn’t think he did. Lexi didn’t voluntarily touch anyone. This was the girl who used to throw screaming fits when she was little and Mum tried to hold her hand when crossing the road. The very fact that she’d linked her arm through Harry’s – someone she still barely knew, really – was a huge breakthrough for her. She hadn’t looked exactly comfortable, her whole arm had been rigid and her elbow was the only part of her that had made in any contact with Harry, but still…

  I thought about the night he’d come for dinner, and how excited our parents had been to see Lexi taking an interest in boys. I knew they worried about her making friends, and they’d been disappointed that she’d refused to attend the school’s senior ball this year, insisting that it was a stupid tradition that she wanted no part of. When pressed, she’d told our parents that nobody would want to dance with her anyway, so what was the point?

  “I’m not going to have a good time,” she’d told them, point blank. “It would be a waste of your money and an even bigger waste of my time.”

  The rest of us had accepted that without any surprise, and I’d wondered at the time just why Mum and Dad had been so keen on the whole thing in the first place. None of us could picture Lexi in a ball gown, teetering around in high heels, having her photo taken in the living room, going to the crowded venue and mingling with the other students, touching up her makeup in the toilets, sipping punch that someone had probably spiked, debating which after-party to go to… But Mum had looked very disappointed that Lexi had refused to even consider it. No wonder she’d been so thrilled to learn about Harry’s existe
nce, and had been so blinded by his good manners that she had completely failed to see what Anders and I had expected her to realise.

  Then again, maybe I was the one who was blinded. After all, Harry was nice to Lexi. He didn’t treat her any differently to the way he treated anyone else – maybe he teased her a little less – but he didn’t talk down to her, or treat her like she was crazy, or weird. He was probably the only friend she had at school, and I didn’t want to throw a spanner in that.

  I was still mulling it over when the microwave beeped, finally coming to a stop. I leaned over and pulled the door open, and the acrid smell of burnt popcorn quickly filled the kitchen, making me wrinkle up my nose in disgust.

  I fished it out of the microwave and dumped it in the bin, then scurried past the living room without confessing to my sin and headed down the hall, sticking my head into Astrid’s room on the way past.

  “Hey Chook, how’s it going?”

  Her ear buds were wedged firmly into her ears, and she didn’t look up. I rapped on the door loudly and stepped into the room, waving my hand at her.

  “Hello? Earth to Astrid.”

  “What?” She unplugged one ear and looked at me in mild irritation. I wasn’t bothered by that – it was her default expression when someone interrupted her reading. But I was glad to see that she was dry-eyed today, and seemed to be back to her usual self.

  “Just checking in. You doing okay?”

  “I’m fine.” She reached for her discarded earbud and moved to push it back into her ear.

  “Whatcha reading?”

  She tilted the book up so I could see the cover, then plugged her earbud back in and buried her face once more in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. No wonder she’d been feeling so crabby, if that’s what she’d been reading. I liked the Harry Potter books as much as the next person, but that book was a slog to get through, and was guaranteed to put the reader into a bit of an emotional slump.

  I took a shower and washed my hair, then lay on my bed and checked my phone messages. Nothing much was going on in Facebook world, so after a while I got bored of that and decided to go dig up some dessert. I’d eaten dinner at Katy’s as usual, but they hadn’t had much in the way of dessert food on offer, and I couldn’t stop thinking about the ice cream that I knew was in our freezer.

  I snuck past the living room and retrieved the ice cream, planning on heading straight back to my bedroom to devour it. The living room lights were turned out and the TV cast a flickering blue light across the floor, occasionally illuminating the faces of the three people avidly watching. They were all so zoned in that I paused to watch, wondering for a moment at the ability of movies and books to suck us so completely into an alternate world. I scooped out a spoonful of ice cream and ate it, leaning against the door frame and watching for a moment as Liam Neeson told Christian Bale that he could make himself more than just a man…

  Okay, I couldn’t resist. I liked this movie, and there was nothing else going on in the house, so I figured I might as well join in and watch it. I’d make Anders shove over and give me room to sit on the couch, even if I had to bribe him with ice cream to get him to move. I walked quietly into the room, passing around behind the couch where Harry and Lexi were sitting with a gap as wide as the Cook Strait between them.

  If you devote yourself to an ideal, and if they can't stop you, then you become something else entirely.

  I watched as Christian Bale looked up. Which is?

  I was standing right behind Harry, and I couldn’t resist. I leaned down and whispered in his ear. “A bat man!”

  He jumped and spun around, and his head connected with my chin, clacking my jaw shut and making both of us yelp.

  “Ow!”

  “What the hell!”

  I rubbed my jaw for a moment, then lifted the tub of ice cream to my face and held it against the bruise I was going to have.

  “Mild overreaction,” I told him.

  “You ambushed me!” he argued, and Lexi huffed out an exasperated breath.

  “You’re talking over the movie,” she reminded us both sharply.

  “Sorry Lex.” I mimed zipping my mouth shut, then went over to Anders’ couch. “Budge up.”

  “Bugger off.”

  I looked at Lexi, who was scowling at the TV screen, clearly still irritated by the disruption and struggling to keep her temper contained. I slapped Anders’ leg, and he retaliated by kicking me.

  “Move over!” I hissed.

  “Go sit on the other couch, this one’s occupied.” He craned his neck around me, trying to see the TV screen. “You make a better door than a window, Poss,” he complained.

  “You can sit here, there’s plenty of room,” Harry offered, patting the empty seat next to him and sliding closer to Lexi. At least he hadn’t proposed putting me between the two of them, which would’ve been mighty awkward. I flicked a glob of ice cream at Anders’ face and turned away from him, feeling a handful of popcorn hit me on my back as I made my way to the other couch and sat down next to Harry. Lexi shot me an unhappy look, although I wasn’t entirely sure whether it was because I was disrupting the movie or because I was sitting next to her pseudo-boyfriend. I squeezed up as close to the arm of the couch as possible and pulled my legs up underneath me, then focused intently on the movie.

  Or I tried to. But sitting there with the tub of maple walnut ice cream melting in my lap, I couldn’t help but be very aware of Harry sitting so close to me. The part of my brain that wouldn’t listen to the rational part kept trying to convince me to shift closer to him, wondering if he’d move away if I did. I don’t know whether I did it intentionally, or whether my leg just slipped, but when the toes of my left foot ended up coming into contact with his thigh, I held my breath and waited to see what he’d do.

  But it was the middle of an exciting action sequence and Harry gave no sign that he’d even noticed, so I let my foot rest there, my heart rate slowly returning to normal. I was eating more ice cream, feeling slightly queasy and wondering whether my eyes had been bigger than my stomach, when I felt something tickling the sole of my foot. Almost spitting out my ice cream in surprise, I turned to see a smile playing around the corners of Harry’s mouth as he gently pinched my little toe. I started to pull away, but he gripped my ankle and shook his head slightly, returning my foot to its previous position. Oh, help. I didn’t know what to do. Get up and leave the room? Ignore him? Change my sitting position so that my legs were in front of me? Or keep sitting here with my foot against his leg, both of us pretending like nothing had happened?

  I don’t remember much about the rest of the movie, although I’d seen it enough times before to know what was going on. It became a succession of familiar scenes, oddly disjointed in my head as my brain refused to connect each piece together into a cohesive story. My attention was divided between the pictures on the screen, the sickly taste of the melting ice cream, and the solidity of Harry’s jeans-clad thigh against the sole of my bare foot.

  When the movie finally ended, I unfolded my legs with difficulty. They’d been screaming in cramped agony for the past half hour, but I hadn’t wanted to move them away from contact with Harry’s leg. So pathetic, I scolded myself, thinking of how Katy could be when Anders was around, sickeningly gushy and weirdly intense. Don’t be that girl.

  I stood up and stretched, my shoulder muscles clicking as I rolled them backwards. “Well, that was fun.”

  “I’m tired. I’m going to bed.” Lexi stood up as well as Anders objected.

  “We’ve got another movie to watch.”

  “Another time, maybe,” I suggested. Harry shrugged and stretched his legs out in front of him. “I could go another.”

  “Good man. Chuck it in for us AJ.” Anders picked up the Dark Knight DVD and threw it in my direction. I was still holding the ice cream container, but I managed to catch the DVD with my free hand.

  I threw it back at him, aiming for his head. “Put it in yourself, lazy.”

>   “But you’re already standing up,” he argued, throwing it back in my direction with a low pass that Harry intercepted effortlessly.

  “Jeez, I’ll do it. It’s not like it’s hard.” He stood up and moved towards me. I realised just how tall he was, and how broad his shoulders were. His hair was all rumpled up and his collar was askew. For a moment we stood there and looked at each other, then Anders cleared his throat.

  “Movie,” he reminded Harry.

  “I’m waiting for your sister to get out of my way.”

  “Just shove past her,” Anders told him as I sat back down to let Harry past.

  Lexi was on her feet, looking between us all with a perplexed expression. “Are you going to watch another movie?” she asked me, brow furrowed.

  I shook my head, and got to my feet again. “Nah, I’m going to bed. Night everyone.”

  From the corner of my eye, I saw Harry turn towards me from his crouched position in front of the TV, but I didn’t make eye contact. I went into the kitchen and rinsed out the empty ice cream container, then threw it into the recycling. I could hear Lexi marching down the hallway – she never could go anywhere quietly – and then the bathroom door shut behind her, and the lock click over. For someone who wasn’t particularly fussed on their personal appearance, Lexi took a long time to get ready for bed every night. She had some kind of specific ritual, and I knew I had a good twenty minutes before she’d be out of there and back in her bedroom.

  In the living room, the movie had started. I paused in the doorway again, then found myself gravitating back towards the couch where Harry was sitting. Anders shot me a sideways look as Harry patted the seat next to him encouragingly. There was a whole lot more room on the couch now that Lexi was gone, and it wasn’t like I could go to bed yet anyway, not with Lexi clogging up the bathroom. I ignored the look that Anders was giving me and took the offered seat, kicking my legs up onto the coffee table in front of me and crossing my arms over my stomach as the opening sequence unfolded.

  “Ow!”

  I woke up with a start, my arm throbbing, to see Harry looking startled.