Country Boy, I Love You.

chapter one: pilot

           John strolled down the dirt pathway. He took his hat and tilted it towards his face, casting a shadow onto his eyes and blocking the sun.  He spit the piece of straw out of his mouth as he went to greet the horses. His horse, Juliet, let out a huff as she saw John enter the stable. "Down, girl. I gotcha." He gently ran his hand across the bridge of Juliet's nose as she calmed down. Just as she had calmed down, a commotion started again. John turned his head to look out the stable's opening.

         His eyes widened as he saw a fancy black Ferrari, so shiny it seemed as if it had never seen the light of day before until now, pulling down the dirt road that led to his family's property. The glamorous car halted and out a young person was shoved. From where John was standing, he couldn't tell who they were or what they looked like. He hesitantly strolled over to the scene, but as soon as the figure being was shoved out (with some belongings) the car reversed and sped away. The human, looking quite disheveled, looked around for any sort of sign as to where to go.

     "Lost?" John peered at the mysterious figure. "Yes, quite." They turned around to meet John's eyes. He looked them up and down. Long auburn ginger hair, pulled into a braid, all tied with a ribbon. Freckles dotting their face, scattering all across their cheeks, forehead, and even arm. Dark blue, violet-ish eyes, very piercing. They were wearing black suede boots, fairly dressy twill pants, and a button-up shirt. They were holding a coat, along with their luggage. Or, they were at least attempting to hold their luggage.

"The names John," John tipped his hat a bit and continued, "where are you fixin' to be off to?" His southern accent peeking out. 

There was a pause.

"Pardon?"

John chuckled, sighing, "I can tell you ain't from 'round here. Where are you trying to go?"  The figure shuffled in their spot and looked at the ground as they replied

"Well, I'm supposed to be going to the Laurens's residence. My 'guardians' told me I was acting too 'spoiled' and they made a deal with Henry Laurens to let me stay with him for a while as a helper," they let out a sigh, "on the farm."

John, surprised, replied, "Well, I'll be damned. I'm John Laurens, Henry's son. He never told me you'd be here, nice to meet ya." John held out his hand for a handshake.

"Alexander. Call me Alex if you'd prefer."

"That's a.. a mighty fine name. Alex." John repeated, not wanting to put his hand down in defeat, he came up with another use of it. "Well, let me help you with some of those bags." John grabbed a suitcase or two and shined his charming smile. Alexander showed a slight smirk of gratitude and made a mental note of how chivalrous this guy was.

The two strolled back to John's rather dashing home. They did have quite a bit of wealth, to be frank. Upon arrival at the house, John showed Alex to his room and went back downstairs while he put his many things into where he wanted around the room. John confronted his parents. "So, uh, were you guys ever going to tell your eldest son we were having a visitor?" His mother, Eleanor, gave a warm smile. "Honey, Alexander will be staying with us for the summer. I expect you to treat him kindly, and show him the way around the farm. He will help you with your daily chores, and, who knows, maybe you two will get along." John shook his head and replied, "Mama, you know me, I'm gonna be kind to someone until they give me a reason not to." She kept that soft smile and cautioned, "Please, just be patient with him. He is here to fix his attitude, not worsen it. He's stubborn, just like you, so play nice, boys." John's father, Henry, stayed silent, seeing that his wife had said everything he would have, only in a calmer and sweeter way.

John trudged back up the stairs and lightly knocked on Alexander's door. "Everything alright in there?" he asked. Alexander said, "Uh.. y-yeah!" In a way that sounded nowhere near confident. John opened the door slowly to see him putting away his clothes in the old dresser they had put in the guest room. What, it was his house, he figured Alexander wouldn't be doing anything too personal right away. "What's wrong?" John asked, kind of concerned. Alex looked at him worried and checked if anyone else was around (Why would there be?) before closing the door and tugging John by the arm to sit down on the bed. John let out a slight grunt of confusion and shot Alexander a look as he settled on the bed,

"What was that for?!" John exclaimed.

Alexander crept closer to John. he got very close to his face. John could feel Alex's soft breathing on his lips. He could see his eyes in such detail, John found them to look like pieces of art. As he started to notice the freckles that scattered his face like paint, Alexander leaned in... and moved his head to the side of John's, to whisper, "I have a huge fear of horses, and I saw a white one when I looked out the window. Do you have horses?"

John let out a sigh. Of disappointment? Of relief? Who knows? Not John.

"Yes, we have horses. That white horse you saw was mine. Her name's Juliet; a now-retired racing horse."

"That! That is what I'm scared about."
"Horses?"
"Yes! I hate them! They're scary, and big, and loud, and-"
John cut the boy off with a chortle.
"This is gonna be a long summer for you if you're scared of horses."

A long summer indeed.