Dear María

Thursday mornings were the worst and just thinking about having a competition in three hours made it worse. Hopefully I had some spare time to train, before changing into white trousers and a red jacket. I headed to Stella’s temporary paddock with my normal light grey trousers and a random shirt with her head stall in hand.
After tacking her up, I noticed a few people staring at me, but I let it slip. I untied Stella from the pole and hopped on the first try, adjusted the girth and pushed her to the training arena.
Today I’d be jumping seven-feet obstacles and Stella and I needed to warm up or else we’d be injured.
I started making her trot a few laps until I saw her starting to heat up a bit and asked her to canter, which she happily agreed to. When we did three laps around the arena I started guiding her to the obstacles.
“María, you’ve got visitors” Olga called. I turned a bit, just to see thirteen men walking to the fence. I saw Jack between Alex and Austin Carlile. I guess they were touring together. Next to Austin, Vic Fuentes leaned against the fence. I started having an inner-fangirl attack. Oh, please, not now.
“Hello sweetie, how did you sleep?” Jack asked in a loud tone. I slowed down to a trot.
“Quite good, actually. Couldn’t keep my mind off you” I heard him chuckle. When got near them I waved my hand in the guys from Of Mice & Men and Pierce The Veil’s direction, “Hello, by the way. Sorry I can’t greet you guys properly right now”
“Nah, don’t worry” Alan Ashby chuckled.
Stella started to pin her ears back a bit, I gave her a few pats on her neck before asking her to canter again, and leading her to an easy obstacle.
I let the guys talk between them while I kept practising when I heard Tony Perry say something about Stella.
“She raises her knees a lot, don’t you think?
“That’s because she wants to kick you, probably” Zack joked, all of them started laughing. I joined them, before jumping over another obstacle again. Someone whistled whilst Stella touched the ground in a very elegant way, showing off her andalusian pretensions.
“Actually, andalusian horses do that naturally” I raised my voice, Stella raised her feet a bit more, cantering slower. God, my horse is such an attention seeker. In all the right ways, but still.
“Yeah, yesterday I did a bit of a research” Jack raised his voice as well, “I’ve read that they’re also sassy and get pissed off quite easily” Jack chuckled, earning a laugh from everyone, including mine.
“True” I agreed with him, patting Stella’s neck. She turned to her normal canter, stil raising her knees, but not as exagerated.

When the training was over, my legs hurt like Hell. I jumped off with wobbly legs and I started to untighten Stella’s girth, but not completely, as we had the competition in an hour. I undid her briddle, and put her head stall. I excused myself a minute and went to change into competition clothes. I was greeted by the guys as soon as I came out the bus again.
“Well, well, it’s been long enough since we haven’t seen each other” Alex walked to me and hugged me. I greeted and hugged everyone else before Jack put his arm around my waist and pulled me closer to him.
“So, you’re that famous youtuber everyone’s talking about?” Mike asked, smiling at me.
“The one and only” I smirked.
“Well, I’m sorry, but we’ll have to kill you 'cause Jack hasn’t stopped talking about you since we went on tour” Tino explained trying to be serious, I chuckled.
“As tempting as what you’re telling me sounds, I’m sorry but Stella’d kill you if you tried” I chuckled. Stella turned her head and shot Tino a very scary gaze.
“Sorry ma’am” Tino apologized laughing. Stella turned her head away, like she was rolling her eyes.
“You’re all staying here to watch Stella and I?” I asked, they all nodded. Jack turned to me and our eyes met.
“I’m sorry if it makes you uncomfortable” he started to apologize.
“No, no, I don’t really care. Anyway, I’ll be competing in front of hundreds of other people in the next months, so I guess I’ll have to get used to it” I smiled, reassuring him it was ok. He squeezed my hip a bit and gave me a smile before we broke eye contact.
“That’s the spirit!” Mike and Alex exclaimed.
“I’m surprised you’re not fangirling, to be honest” Vic mumbled looking at my arms a bit shyly. I chuckled and he looked up giving me warm smile.
“Trust me, when I saw you walking towards the fence I was completely freaking out” I said, earning a chuckle from him. He looked to my arm a bit more. Please, tell me he didn’t see any weird lines on it, the last thing I needed was something like that.
“MARIAAA” Oriol called me. He sounded happy. I sighed.
“Who is that?” Austin asked me.
“My trainer, ugh. Excuse me a second” I walked around the group and met Oriol a few steps away.
“Yep?”
“I have good news for you!” he exclaimed.
“Well, tell me!” I urged him.
“Next competition will be in Munich in two weeks aaaand” he said gesturing his hands, “In six weeks we’ll be going to Montpellier, isn’t that fantastic?” he asked, cheering.
“Awesome!” I smiled. Oriol looked over my shoulder.
“Who are those?” he asked, eyeing me suspiciously.
“Oh, just some friends from rock bands” I smirked.
“Yeah, well… be careful with the tall one with tattoos” he warned me. I felt Austin frown a bit, thinking he was referring to the whole tattoos-are-for-bad-people shit, but then Oriol added, “I think Stella wants to smell that rose on his neck, and she'd be displeased if she discovered it’s not real a rose” he chuckled, walking away, “See you in forty-five minutes!” he called as I turned to the guys. Austin eyeing Stella and taking two steps away from her. I chuckled at the scene and patted Stella on her neck.
“Don’t you dare bite him, little one” I warned her, putting my arms around her neck and giving her a hug and earning a big aww from everyone.
“Little one” Rian pointed out, with sarcasm. “Yeah, I mean she’s so small” he laughed.
“She is” I insisted, pulling away from her, still touching her neck with a hand, “I mean, she’s not even 9 years old, yet”
“Oh, that means she has to grow more?” Austin asked, chuckling. I nodded with a smile, “Jesus, help us” everyone laughed when he said that.
We started talking about grown up Stella and moved to tour dates. Apparently, we will be meeting again in Munich and Montpellier.

“Ladies and gentlemen, the show-jumping competition will be starting in fifteen minutes. Riders, please start taking your horses to the meeting point”

“Well, see you later, then” I breathed in, suddenly nervous.
“You’ll do fine, don’t worry” Zack muttered, giving me a smile. I gave him another smile.
“Olga will be at the terraces already” his smile widened a bit. And started to walk away.
I recieved a few hugs and “Don’t worrie”s while putting Stella her briddle again whilst she started stretching her legs before Jack hugged me tightly from behind. He turned me around before saying:
“Don’t fall off, ok?” he looked concerned. I nodded, “By the way, I love you too” he smiled at me and gave me a peck on my lips before adding, “Be careful, I’m sure you’ll win those bastards” he squeezed my hand before walking away with a chuckle.
I jumped on Stella and tightened the girth again and took a deep breath.

JACK’S POV

Stella and her looked light when they jumped together, like the last time I saw her training, but this was different. María looked hot in white trousers a red jacket, trying not to sit on Stella’s saddle after each jump. Just sitting there you felt Stella’s feet hit the ground, and saw her flying over each obstacle. And I know I repeat myself a lot, but María looked smoking hot and I couldn't keep my eyes off her.
“Jack, you’re drooling” Alex smirked.
I wiped the drool off my mouth and smiled. Stella jumped the last obstacle successfully and started to move her head side to side. The guy speaking throught the speakers said:

"Well, well, looks like we have a new Omega, here"

María stood up, letting the reins go and patted her neck before raising her hand and taking her helmet off. They cantered to the side of the arena whilst they called another name, I stood up and walked closer to the fence. The arena was 3 feet below the bleachers’ level. María came closer and spotted me quickly. I leaned over the fence as if to give her a kiss, which wasn’t my intention. But Stella took it another way.
She did a bucking off movement, María seemed to notice and pressed her legs tighter around her so she didn't fall and unconsciously leaned closer to me whilst she was in the air.
Our lips connected and I cupped her face for a second before she was pulled down by gravity again. It was short, but I felt a wave of passion, urge and happiness in her lips and it was enough to make me feel an entire flock of eagles build up inside my stomach.
When she got to the corner, she turned to me and blushed a bit, smiling. She turned around to slow down Stella, and walked down the ramp before jumping off and recieving a pat on her back from her instructor. She blushed more when he said something and looked at me with the cutest smile on Earth.
There were some of her fans there too and they were all whistling and cheering us.
“Good one, Barakat” Jaime playfully slapped my shoulder.
I smirked and looked at María untacking Stella and putting her head stall again on. We made eye contact and I started to feel my cheeks burn under her sweet gaze. She blushed too and that only made me smile again.
I’m sure I looked like a complete idiot, but I didn’t care and surely I didn’t regret anything.

Notes

Woohoo! Second chapter in day! Hope you've liked it!

Title credit: O.G. Loko by Of Mice & Men.