Summer Nights | Lams

June 5th

"So, do you have any plans for today?" Alex asked John at breakfast. John shrugged. "I might go to the art studio, and just kinda mess around. I don't really have a plan," John lied.

"Do you want me to come and keep you company?" Alex asked. John took a bite of french toast and shook his head.

"I'll be okay on my own."

John went to the cabin to grab his sketchbook straight after breakfast, before going to the art studio. No one else was there, so John took his phone out to listen to a podcast while he painted. He found the proper cabinets, getting out paint, canvas, and brushes. He sat down and began sketching out the general outline for the painting.

"I'm gonna put you in a field instead of a stable, Applesauce," John said to no one in particular. "I'm the artist, so I get to do that."

John proceeded to mix his paint, pick up a paintbrush, and get lost in time. Every stroke of the paintbrush made the world around him feel more frozen. He painted a sunflower field around Applesauce, with a sunset in the background. He didn't even realize how many episodes of his podcast he had listened to until he heard someone knocked on the door of the art studio.

John jumped and looked over his shoulder at the door as Alex came in, holding a paper plate and a bottle of water.

"I looked everywhere for you, I didn't realize you were planning on staying here so long," he told John. "You missed lunch, but Martha told me I could sneak a sandwich out for you." He nodded to the plate.

"Oh," John said. "Uh, thank you. Has it really been that long?"

Alex nodded, setting the plate down on the table next to John and sitting down next to him. "You struck me as a turkey sandwich type of guy, so that's what I brought."

"Well, I'm actually more of an any sandwich type of guy, so you really couldn't have gone wrong."

John took a bite of the sandwich as Alex looked over at the canvas. Alex's eyebrows raised.

"That looks great, John," he said. John scoffed, swallowing his bite.

"Don't lie," he said. "I'm not even half-done; even the greatest painters in the world can't honestly say their half-finished paintings look good."

Alex shrugged. "Well, I think yours does," he said. "Is there anything you aren't good at? You play instruments, you sing, you paint. You're like an art superhero."

John flushed. "Don't worry, there are plenty of things I'm not good at."

"Yeah? Like what?"

"Well, for starters, socializing," John pointed out. Alex smiled.

"You're good at socializing with me, though."

"Well, then you're the exception, not the standard."

John took another bite of his sandwich as Alexander kept looking at the in-progress painting. "Do you like horses?"

John grinned. "Love 'em. My mom had one while I was growing up, she got him when I was like eight, and he was only a couple years old, so I kinda grew up riding. My mom taught me how to saddle him, what to feed him, the difference between a canter and a gallop."

Alex raised an eyebrow. "I've never even heard of a canter."

"It's kinda like a gallop, but slower and it's a three-beat gait instead of a four-beat."

"And what's a gait?"

"Like, the pattern that their hooves hit the ground."

"Oh, huh," Alex said. "I don't think that knowledge will ever come up in my everyday life, but, I still liked hearing you talk about it."

John grinned. "My mom would be so proud, I remembered multiple horse fun facts. Pretty impressive."

Alex looked away from the painting at John. "You said your mom..."

John cleared his throat. "Died? Yeah, she did. About four years ago."

"I'm sorry," Alex said. John shrugged.

"Thanks. I'm... I'm pretty much over it by now. My dad is great, so that helps."

Alex nodded. "That's good. Is he gonna come on the 4th of July for the parent visit?"

"Nah, we live crazy far away, and he's trying to figure out things for moving and stuff, because we're basically moving across the country after this summer."

"That sounds fun," Alex said sarcastically. "My dad's coming, but I don't know if I'm excited about that or not."

"Is he an asshole?"

"He can be, I guess, could be worse."

John ate in silence for a couple minutes, before Alex began talking again.

"At camp last year I rode the same horse every single week," Alex told him. "I had never ridden a horse, and Martha picked it out because apparently it was the most tame."

John absentmindedly picked up a pencil and started doodling on his napkin while he listened. "What did it look like?"

"Totally white. Her name was Hedwig. I haven't checked to see if they still have her this year, but I'm guessing they do."

"I think I saw a white horse yesterday, but I didn't check the name."

"So you went to the stables yesterday?"

John snorted. "Yeah, if me asking Martha about visiting the stables and me painting a horse didn't give it away."

Alex rolled his eyes, grinning. "Well you don't have to be sassy about it, I was just asking to be sure." Alex looked at the napkin John was drawing on. "Is that me?"

John looked down, suddenly aware of what his hand was doing with the pencil, and flushed. "Oh, uh... yeah. It is. Just kind of a doodle, though."

Alex grabbed the napkin and looked at it closer. "I know this is like... a napkin and all, but do you mind if I keep it?"

John raised an eyebrow. "You want to keep my messy napkin sketch?" Alex nodded.

"Yeah, it's seriously really good, and it's kinda cool to like, I dunno, see myself the way you see me."

"I see you the same as anyone else."

"No, you're an artist," Alex insisted. "You notice things that I wouldn't notice, and that other people wouldn't notice."

"Like what?" John asked. Alex shrugged.

"I'm not an artist, so I can't tell you that," he said. "You'll have to tell me sometime.

i wonder when alex will unlock the entirety of john's tragic backstory™

you know it's rough when a horse knows more about your future bf than you

is that a spoiler? it's in the tags... and the title... so i'm gonna go with no