The Place to Be - John Laurens x male reader

Chapter 8

I wake up at the crack of dawn.

Strangely enough, my internal clock sensed exactly when the mailboy would be passing. Leaping out from my tent, I succeed in completely terrifying the poor boy.

"Lieutenant!" He cries. "You terrified me!"

"I have a letter for you!" I gasps. "Finally," I add, embarrassed.

The mailboy snatches the letter out of my hand, peering at the front, obviously wondering who I possibly could be writing to. He sees the name and smirks.

"Peggy Schuyler?" He asks. "Are you courting her?"

I start, staring at him with wide eyes. "I - I - I mean,"

He smiles, patting my shoulder. I try not to duck out of the way. "It's alright, sir. Miss Schuyler is rather beautiful. And she's a Schuyler, which of course helps." He winks at me, walking off with the letter in his hand.

I stand there, watching him leave. Even though I am prone to overthinking things and assuming things will happen when they usually don't, I have no doubt in the fact that I'm supposedly courting Peggy Schuyler will go all around the camp. My father will hear of it. At least that'll stop him bugging me to get a girlfriend.

It'll reach Peggy, and I'm assuming she'll just laugh it off, knowing that both of us are gay.

Oh no. John will find out. What will he think? What will he say? Will he think I don't like him? That is, if he even knows I like him. Maybe he'd think I was bisexual, and had my eyes on Peggy. Oh God, what'll everyone say? They might tease me for it. And with the upcoming 'Winter's Ball' that everyone will be invited to, what if John gets together with a random lady that just happened to be there? Peggy will be there, too. She'll know what to do, I know she will.

My head aches at the thought, deciding to not think about it for the moment.

"I heard you were courting Margaret Schuyler!"

"Get in there, Y/n!"

"Lieutenant, I'm pleased to hear you've finally got a girlfriend. We've been waiting for months."

"Lafayette owes me five bucks now. Thanks, Washington."

"So," I hear a voice from behind me. I would recognise that voice from anywhere. I turn around to see the freckled man looking rather let down. "Heard you're courting Peggy Schuyler."

"No, I'm-"

"It's alright!" He laughs. However, even old oblivious me could tell that the laugh was strained. "Well done. I suppose the General will stop asking you about whether you have a girlfriend now."

He turned to walk off. My heart skipped a beat at his upset gaze. I wanted to blush but I couldn't bring myself to. It hurt me to see John so obviously disappointed. So I did the one thing I never thought that I would do to a human being.

I grab his wrist, stopping him from walking away from me.

"I'm not courting Peggy Schuyler," I say determinedly. "She's my friend, the rumour got out because I sent a letter to her and apparently a man isn't allowed to send a letter to a woman without everyone assuming there's something dirty in the letter!"

John's eyes widen with hope. "You're not courting her?"

"What happened to when I literally told you she was gay?" I cry, trying to keep my voice down. "Me and her are both gay. I sent a letter to her, because she's my friend, and everyone assumes we're together."

One of his eyebrows raise. "What was the letter about?"

"It was asking for help about -" I stop myself before I embarrass myself further.