This Old Town ✖️Muke

Chapter 9

(Michael)

 "Are we there yet?" Luke whines after only a half hour of riding. I just roll my eyes at his complaining.

"we've only been riding for a half hour" I laugh.

"How much longer till we get there?" 

"At this pace? An hour or more." I tell him. It never takes this long when Ash, Cal, John ad I go because we all ride so we basically race each other the whole way. He groans.

"why do we have to go so far out? were already in the middle of nowhere as it is on the farm"

"Ranch" I correct him.  "and were not actually going that far we just have to go slow so you don't fall off." he scoffs at that.

"you said it was 10 miles, that's ages away."

"when you think about it being a 200 acre ranch, 10 miles isn't that much. Plus ,we actually enjoy the ride." I look back at him. He's riding with his back stiff as a board and looks really uncomfortable.

"how can you enjoy this!? my butt hurts!" He exclaims and I laugh at his obvious discomfort.

"sorry, forgot you aren't used to riding."

"forgot you aren't used to riding" he mocks, which just makes me laugh.

"You need to loosen up." I note after a minute of silence. he snorts.

"ya? and why is that?" he spits. 

"your back. that's why it hurts." I explained.

"what?" 

"you're sitting too straight in the saddle, that's why your back hurts. you need to relax your spine. tuck your tailbone under and let yourself move with her not against." i instruct him. 

"oh." he whispers, more to himself than to me. he's quiet after that. probably concentrating on doing as i said.

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"This is so boring" he whines after another 10 minutes of nothing but the sounds of nature.

"If you would just shut up and enjoy the outdoors you wouldn't be bored." i snap

"says you. you've lived here your whole life." i frown at that.

"what's that supposed to mean?" I challenge, turning back to glare at him.

"I just mean that you grew up with this, i grew up in the city. It's different, i'm used to the fast paced world." i roll my eyes.

"in other words, you don't know what peace and quiet is." i hint. He huffs at that, probably getting the message.

~~~~~~~~

After another 20 minutes we come up over a ridge where the sight line is above the trees.

"whoa boy" I say, pulling on the reins lightly to tell Blaze to stop.

"why are we stopping? are we there?" Luke asks.

"Look" I point over to where you can see for miles. All untouched wilderness.

"way on the horizon, that's the city." i tell him. he looks to be admiring the view because he's silent for a while and then I hear him sigh.

"what?" i turn back to look at him. He just shakes his head and looks down, wringing  his fingers together.

"it seems so far away." he finally whispers. "Not just in sight, but in my mind too. My parents didn't tell me when I could go back. They canceled the rest of my world tour." he explains quietly. I finally take pity on him a little bit then, i mean he was picked up and dropped in the middle of nowhere, to a place he hasn't been in years. If i was moved to the city against my will I would be angry too. That's ignoring the being famous and doing drugs part.