Lina’s POV

            Jon handled the task of gutting the deer a lot better than I had imagined; I admit the first time I seen it happen I had thrown up repeatedly and it took me two more times of watching before I could actually stomach being there for the entire process. We shaved off the antlers for him to keep and treated the pelt so that he could have it later once it was fully cured; we cut up all the good parts of the deer and took them to a nearby sink to clean them before bagging them up and taking them in the house to put in the fridge, I would have to take them to Joe later to process for us. Leaving a few pieces out I fried them up and we sat at his kitchen table together after some quick showers to enjoy the meat; Jon was impressed with the taste, it was the first time he had eaten venison.

            It was nice to be the person to be able to teach Jon new things; his dad had been there with me the first time I went fishing and hunting so it meant a lot that I was able to be there with Jon for his first time doing both of those things too. I could tell that he really enjoyed both of them and knew that we would be doing them again together in the near future; not only did I like spending time with Jon but hunting and fishing were two of my favorite things to do so I was happy to find he enjoyed them just as much as I did. We ended the night with me telling him stories about the hunting and fishing trips that I would take with Bubba and by the time I headed off to bed both of our cheeks were hurting from laughing so much; it felt good to be able to share my memories of his father with him and he really seemed to enjoy hearing about them too.

            The next week went by quickly and by the middle of the week I had finished all the work my dad had left for me so I was back to working in the barns with Jon; the more time we spent together the more we got to know each other and I found myself growing increasingly close with him. Not only was I highly attracted to his good looks but his kind and caring personality was starting to rub off on me too; I could no longer deny the fact that I did indeed have a crush on him. I found myself actually flirting with him without even realizing that I was doing it; I was constantly scowled myself for checking him out when he would take off his shirt or bend over in his tight jeans to pick something up off the barn floor.

            As interested as I found myself in him he didn’t seem to be returning the same vibes to me; he would look uncomfortable when I accidentally flirted with him and no matter what I was wearing I never once caught him checking me out, even when I was trying to be seductive he just didn’t seem to get the hint. By the weekend I had come to the conclusion that it was a one way crush and I told myself that I would have to keep myself in check when I was around him before I embarrassed myself doing something stupid. Why did I have to fall for Jon? I just had to fall for someone that I couldn’t have, didn’t I? I felt so stupid for having a crush on a guy that had no interest in me; I was just glad that I was smart enough to figure out that he wasn’t interested before I tried something with him and made myself look like an idiot when he turned me down.

            We had plans to go with Jen this weekend to the truck pulls at the fair grounds; Caleb had a built diesel truck that he pulled every year and was yet to lose a pull with it. Jen met us at the farm and we all piled into my truck to head off to the fair; after a short argument with Jon I finally agreed to allow him to drive, he had been begging me for the last week to get a chance to drive my baby and I figured I would just give in and let him do it. When we arrived at the fair grounds we found some seats in the front row of the stands and waited for the pulls to start.

“So what’s this whole thing about?” Jon asked once we were seated; I tended to forget that he wasn’t from around here and this thing wasn’t the norm for him.

“They hook up their trucks to that sled over there.” Jen stated pointing over to the weighted sled that the trucks would pull down the lane. “Once they get hooked up a green light will come on and they start drivin’ down the track, as they drive the weight on the top of the sled comes down to the front causin’ that plow in the front to dig into the ground and make it harder to pull. The point is to try and get the furthest you can before the truck comes to a stop and can’t pull anymore. Just watch Caleb, he’ll show you how it’s done.” She ended sounding proud of her boyfriend; I had to say Caleb was good at pulling but it was probably the only talent that the guy had.

“Alright I think I get it now.” Jon said after we watched a few trucks go down the track.

            When Caleb pulled up to the line Jen started jumping up and down in the stands hooting and hollering for her man. Jon and I shared an embarrassed for her look before turning our attention back to the track to watch Caleb make his run. Jen was screaming at the top of her lungs as Caleb blew the other pullers out of the water with the longest run of the day so far; we earned quite a few glares from other people in the stands at Jens obnoxious behavior but she didn’t seem to even notice. Once Caleb was unhooked from the sled he proceeded to do burn outs and donuts at the end of the track showing off before sticking his head out the window and yelling “Yeah Baby” while shaking his fist in the air.

“Yeah baby!” Jen yelled back at him before blowing a kiss in his direction which he pretended to catch and smash on his face. “That’s my man!” She yelled holding her hands in the air pointing at herself. “You hear that bitches, that’s my man!” She yelled again looking around at the crowd as if to make sure everyone got the point; I grabbed her shirt and pulled at her to sit back down.

“Jen calm the fuck down!” I growled at her once I finally got her seated after a few more shouts.

“Just stakin’ my claim, these bitches need to know what’s up.” She said looking around the stands as she bounced in her seat; she tended to get a little crazy at these events and claimed that there were and I quote ‘bumper bunnies’ out there trying to steal her man.

“I think they got the point crazy woman.” Jon chirped in earning him a quick jab to the shoulder from Jen.

“Don’t get between a girl and her truck pulls.” She warned him as he rubbed his shoulder.

            There was a set of three pulls and Caleb blew everyone away in each and every one of them; Jon and I suffered through a series of shouts and warnings to other girls from Jen after every pull and ended up having to pull her back down into her seat before she pissed someone off from being her normal crazy self. After they handed out the awards we made our way out of the stands to the fair grounds to wait for Caleb; we were standing next to the grandstand entrance when three girls walked by and one of them glanced over to give Jen a dirty look. I was hoping that she didn’t catch it but luck didn’t happen to be on our side as Jen pushed herself off the side of the building and grabbed the girls arm pulling her to a stop.

“Got a problem bitch?” Jen asked getting right in the girls face.

“Yeah, you’re my problem.” The girl spat back not backing down an inch; Jon went to walk over but I grabbed his arm pulling him back knowing that Jen could hold her own. This was a normal routine after a truck pull for her; she was so hopped up on adrenaline that she was just itching to get in a fight with the first person that even looked at her wrong, she’s lucky that her daddy is the sheriff or she would have a rap sheet long enough to stretch around the entire building.

“Feelin’ frogy bitch, jump!” Jen said holding her arms out to the side as an invitation for the girl to hit her.

“Maybe I will just jump on Caleb later.” The girl said with a smirk; that was it all it took to push Jen over the edge and before I knew it fists were flying through the air.

            Jen had the other girl on the ground within seconds beating the crap out of her while the girls friends tried to pull her off; Jon looked over at me with a confused look as to why I didn’t move and I just shrugged my shoulders. This was like a routine for Jen and I knew that she could hold her own even if the other two girls decided to jump in and fight instead of just trying to save their friend from needing too much plastic surgery after Jen finished with her face. It was only a minute later when Caleb came strolling around the corner all smiles, that is at least until he saw the fight going on in the middle of the dirt path; he tossed his metals he won to me on the way by and I caught them as I watched him grab Jen by both of her arms and pull her off the now bleeding girl on the ground. She turned around swinging trying to get Caleb off of her until she realized who it was then they started making out immediately.

“What the hell?” Jon mumbled quietly as he took in the scene in front of him with a confused expression.

“You’re goin’ to pay for that bitch!” The girl that Jen was beating screamed as her friends helped her to her feet and pulled her away down the road.

“I’ll be here all night! Feel free to come back for round two!” Jen shouted back before her lips once again collided with Caleb’s.

“Welcome to the south.” I said back to Jon as I pushed myself off the wall and walked over to my friends.

“Will you two stop playin’ kissy face so that we can go have some fun?” I asked, Jen and Caleb stopped making out and we all started to make our way towards the main part of the fair ground.

“That was hot babe.” Caleb said before pinching Jen on her ass causing her to let out a little scream and giggle.

“Gotta’ keep those bumper bunnies in their place.” Jen said back before slipping her hand in his back pocket as we walked.

“That was the craziest shit I have ever seen.” Jon shook his head in disbelief at everything that just happened.

“That was nothin’ man, one time I came out to find her in a full out brawl with three men; she had one on the ground holdin’ his balls, another holdin’ a few teeth in his hand that she knocked out and the last one in a head lock on the verge of passin’ out.” Caleb chuckled thinking back on the incident and I couldn’t help but laugh too; that was quite a sight to see although I missed most of it and came out of the bathroom at about the same time that Caleb showed up to break it all up.

“Damn maybe I should take her threats a little more seriously.” Jon said surely thinking back on all the arguments him and Jen got into and the threats she made to kick his ass; we all laughed and agreed with him.

            We walked around the grounds for a while all arguing about what rides we wanted to go on first; we spent the next hour or so going on ride after ride until we all got hungry and headed over to the refreshment stands. After a quick meal we headed back to the rides starting on the lower key ones without so much movement while we allowed our food to settle; a half an hour later we were back on the wild rides and twenty minutes after that Jen was throwing up in a trash can while the rest of us held our stomachs trying not to get sick right along with her. We decided to end the night on the Ferris wheel deciding that it was a ride that we could all handle without getting sick; it was the kind with single bench seats that only two people could sit in so Caleb and Jen took their own and Jon and I had our own.

“So did you enjoy the pulls?” I asked Jon after we were loaded up and the ride started moving.

“Yeah they were pretty cool; we definitely don’t have anything like that in LA.” Jon had a bright smile on his face and I could tell that he really did enjoy them and wasn’t just saying that so I didn’t feel bad for dragging him along.

“I can imagine that there are a lot of things that are different here than they were for you back…” My words were cut short as my breath caught in my throat when I looked down to see the next couple that were getting loaded onto the ride; Jon noticed that I stopped speaking and followed my gaze down to where I was looking.

“Is that the whore?” Jon asked when he seen Landon getting on the ride with some girl below us.

“Yeah.” I said but it came out more like a whisper and I wasn’t sure if he even heard me.

“Well he really took a step down.” Jon squeezed my shoulder trying to make me feel better; I just sat back in my seat and tried not to focus on what I just saw.

“You alright?” Jon asked after a few minutes of silence while I did my best to fight back the tears that threatened to escape my eyes; I knew that I didn’t want Landon back and to be honest I hated his guts but it still hurt to see him with someone else, especially with Kristy. I hated knowing that I was even getting upset about it but we had spent two years together and he just threw it all away for her; it obviously didn’t take him long to move on, we had only been broken up for two weeks.

“Yeah.” Apparently I was limited to one syllable words at the moment; my mind was going in circles and I couldn’t think about anything but the two people in a few carts below us.

“I know that it hurts Lina but you truly are better off without him; he was stupid for doing what he did to you and you deserve someone much better than him. If you want when we get off I can still beat his ass for you.” Jon offered causing me to actually let out a little laugh; it was nice of him to try and make me feel better and offer to knock out Landon but I really didn’t want him to get in any trouble over me.

“Thanks Jon, but I don’t want you to beat his ass.” I said leaning my head on his shoulder; he moved his arm over my head and pulled me closer to him holding onto my shoulder. I know that it was just a friendly gesture and him trying to comfort me but I couldn’t help but enjoy the feeling of being so close to him; the smell of his cologne was intoxicating and his body heat flowing into mine made me feel safe and secure in his arms. It didn’t take me long to forget all about Landon and Kristy while he held me close to him.

“Anytime Lina.” Jon whispered in my ear sending shivers down my spine as his breath rushed across my skin; I had to remind myself that we were just friends and he wasn’t interested in me before I did something stupid like lean over and try to kiss him like I wanted to.