Cottagecore Dreaming

𝚘𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚛𝚘𝚊𝚍.

I sit on my couch, waiting for Alex to come get me. Next to me is my trusty messenger bag filled with money, acne meds, portable charger, hair brush, toothbrush and toothpaste, and whatever else. I have another backpack filled with various clothes, mostly natural colored button ups, shorts and pants, suspenders, socks, and clean underwear of course. I'm wearing the daisy crown Alex had gifted me a few days prior. I hear a knock on the door and quickly get it, being met with Alex's smiling face.

"You ready for our trip, my lord?" He asks, bowing and holding out his hand.

I giggle, taking his hand and locking the door behind me, slipping the key under the welcome mat. I had made sure to leave my mom a note on the counter for when she comes back a week later.

Alex leads me to the bus stop nearby, not letting go of my hand. He must've just forgotten to let go, right?

"I'm so excited, I barely got any sleep. My mum was angry but she's letting me go, surprisingly. I guess because I'm 18."

I chuckle, subconsciously squeezing Alex's hand as the bus pulls up. "I just left my mom a note. Hope she doesn't call the cops or anything." I pay for both our tickets as we climb onto the bus and head to the back row.

"I call window seat!" Alex says, entering the row before me.

"Hey! We gotta trade in the middle of our trip though." I smile and sit next to him. I see that the trip will be about six hours. Not bad.

We spend the bus ride laughing and whispering when we get annoyed looks from other passengers. Eventually, we're the last ones on the bus.We have two hours left on our journey . Alex ends up falling asleep on my shoulder, so I put in an earbud and drift off as well.

We're awoken by the kind bus driver nudging us to leave.

"Thank you!" We both say as we exit. The bus driver smiles and pulls away. I look into Alex's brown-green eyes and smile.

"We did it."

"We did it!" He dances around the street lantern like a total child.

I chuckle and join him, interlocking our arms and spinning around. We laugh together before we both get tired, so we sit down on the soft grass beside the lantern. Alex falls on his back, stretching his arms behind his head. I follow his lead, turning my head to look over at him. He turns to me and we both smile.

"Honey, we're home." Alex says, standing. He pulls me up and into his arms.

"Honey?" I chuckle, embracing him as well.

"It's from a song. I think." He pulls away. "Anyways. We're home now. This is our home. This quaint village six hours away from the city. We're starting our lives here." He takes my hands and smiles gently.

"Thank you, Alex. You're the best friend I could've ever asked for. Thank you for everything, forever and always."

"Forever and always."

I look around, seeing a few stone buildings in the distance, with a small cobblestone church. "Should we start heading into town?" I ask.

"Of course." We start our walk, hand in hand.

I mean, girl friends do it, so why can't guy friends?

We approach the village, spotting a few small shops and even a bakery. I'm especially interested in the flower shop.

I let go of Alex's hand to go inside, and he follows. "Excuse me?" I ask the short, plump woman behind the counter. She's wearing a red and white polka dot dress with a brown apron. The first thing I noticed was her giant mushroom cap on her head, covering her dark brown-almost greying coils.

"Oh, hello young man!" She spots Alex. "Oh, you two are quite the lookers!" She chuckles.

"Why, thank you!" Alex smiles charmingly.

"You boys must be new, I haven't seen your faces around."

"Yeah, we just got here. We were looking to get away from all the stress of the city, yknow?" I say, smiling.

"Well, welcome to Fairy Circle! We're lucky to have new faces." The woman smiles and sits on a stool behind her.

"What a cute name for a cute town! Also, I was wondering if there was any housing available? We don't have anywhere to stay." I ask, shifting from one foot to another.

"Ah, yes. We actually do have a small cottage available. Nobody's lived in it for years, so it's been pretty grown over with vines and trees. It's just on the outskirts of town, and backs up to a small lake with plenty of coverage from ancient oak trees." The woman explains, showing a printed out photo of the property.

"Ooh, it's gorgeous. Do we need to pay any fees to move in?" I ask, trying to remember how much money I had.

"Oh, no not at all. Don't worry about it, we've been wanting someone to move in for a long time, so just the new faces is enough payment."

"Thank you so much for your help. I'm Milo and this is Alex."

"Pleasure to meet you dears. I'm Mrs. Flore, but you can call me Susie."

"Nice to meet you too! We'll definitely be coming by again soon. Thank you!" I call to her as we exit.

"No problem dearies!" Susie waves and smiles.

"Well, housing is sorted out. Guess we just have to see what the inside looks like." Alex says, taking my hand again and leading me down the street. "But first, I want to get a muffin from the bakery over there, it smells delicious and I'm hungry."

"Well obviously we'll get muffins before anything else."

——-///——-///——-///——-

Life couldn't be any more perfect at this point.