𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑲𝒊𝒅 & 𝑰 - A Billy the Kid western romance

Reinstitution

Milo bobs behind me as we return to face the tall gate once more. This time, however, we are expected. We dismount, and I ruffle his brown curls. It's like I resurrect them, they rise in volume. I can't help but adore him, even though he attempts to swat me off. His life got messy so fast, but he remains strong.

I travel back to the time I truly realised just how golden his heart was. Cooper and Milo were 14 and 13, when they stumbled into our house. Cooper, parading a brand new crook on his nose, which was a maroon colour, making his freckles look somewhat blue. Milo had a matching bruise on his left temple, along with a scratch slashing right across his dirty face, through his eyebrow. My eyes widen at them as they appear in the doorway sizzling of life, seemingly unaware of their battled states. Cooper's eyes fall to mine, and he realises that their faces expose their adventure. Milo catches on then, too, and begins telling the story bearing a crooked smile. A story, about a little chick. She had spiralled out of her nest uncontrollably onto the firmly packed dust below it. Unfortunately, as she lays in her misery under a frying sun, three older boys spot her. The three torture the poor tweeting thing, laughing, until her two much smaller saviours step out of the shadows. They pry the boys' hands off of her, expecting to surely take a beating, which they do. Cooper smiles too, showing off the gap between his two front-teeth, while Milo recounts their day passionately. He couldn't stand to watch the little birdie be treated so horrendously, and they both knew to act in it's favour. "It was so worth it!" They sing unanimously as I tend to their wounds. I couldn't help but know then.

Tom O'Folliard approaches us from the opposite side. He receives us with half a smirk that fails to reach his thin, brown eyes. The gate unlocks with a metal clink, but he doesn't allow it to swing all the way open. Instead, he swiftly peels Milo from my grasp and shuts me back out. My eyebrows crinkle toward my hairline. "Tom. What is going on?" I murmur, holding onto the bars of the gate. "Billy's orders", he sighs shortly and turns away.

Milo flashes me a look over his shoulder, as he follows Tom away from me. "Come back! You have to let me in, Tom!" I heave out. Suddenly I realise that he has no reason to. I had just expected that he would, without a figure as to why. Billy watches me from under the brim of His hat through one of the windows, and then shuts the blinds, shielding me from his world as I disappear into thin air.

No one but me remains outside in the daylight, and I head on home. In the span of a couple of days, Billy the Kid has left me more alone than ever, but I don't feel it. My mind rests assured of Milo's safety that night, because some part of me is convinced that Billy is a man of his word.