A/N: Esme and John find each other in the American Teenager AU.
The summer before John turned eighteen, Esme Lee came to town, but not by choice. She'd been expelled from school for truancy and her parents watched helplessly as she continued to destroy any hope for her future. “To love you is to suffer you, darlin'," her daddy sighed wearily every time the cops brought her home. Eventually, the Lees decided to send her away from their five other children, afraid her rebellious spirit was catching.
Uncle Johnny was one of the few relatives willing to take her. Folks called him "Johnny Dogs" on account of the hounds he raised for deer hunting. A gregarious bullshit artist, he also worked as a handyman despite being woefully under qualified for most of the jobs he undertook. He was an odd bird, but because of that he understood Esme's nature and didn't fault her for it. In fact, he encouraged her curiosity, teaching her to work on cars and how to disarm traps to rescue injured animals. When she began talking about finding work in a veterinary clinic, he thought her restlessness might be cured. But that was before she met John Shelby.
It was two months after she moved to town when John caught sight of her, a wild thing who ran barefoot, fingertips stained with the juice of fresh blackberries. He followed her to a swimming hole and they talked for hours before he laid her down where the trees bent low. After that, they were inseparable, John preferring to keep her as close as possible. "Always tuggin on me like you're runnin out of daylight," Esme would joke, unaware of how prophetic those words would become.
By the time John graduated high school, she learned that she could lead him to bed, but she couldn't make him sleep. John was receiving letters from his brother Tommy every week, urging him to enlist like him and their older brother Arthur. Despite knowing he was going to be a father, he gave in to the pressure of Tommy's demands, the thought of letting his brothers down more than he could bare.
"Don't worry, Ez," he told his girlfriend, stroking his hand up and down her back as she cried.
"You tell me all the time not to worry, but what happens when I wake up on my own?"
"Think of all the time we'll have when I get back," he whispered, but the gentleness of his voice did little to quiet the reverberation of sobs. Somehow she knew then she'd be alone for the birth and all the years afterward, only a J inked on her hip and a shotgun on the porch as reminders of him. It hurt like greenery that stings long after contact.
Forgive me if I'm recycling the moodboard. I'm tired to make a new one.
Better late than never, here's the little blurb about these two babies.
No warnings, just two little boys being friends. || 700 w
Amos belongs to @call-sign-shark
It wasn't unusual for Amos to change school. Every time his family had to move because his father's job, it means a new school. He was used to it, the same way he was used to leave his old "friends" behind, he didn't care either. That year was another year, or so the boy thought.
The private school welcomed the young German prince, but maybe not all the students did. Again, he didn't care. The teachers loved him because was well educated and smart, too smart, and Amos knew how easy was for him to have an adult eating from his little hands and enjoyed it.
But not all kids were brainless bullies. There were good ones too and among them one in his class that had caught his attention: a quiet and solitary redhead boy named James Walsh. Irish for what he knew and son of a famous neurosurgeon that, like his family, had moved to England.
Amos observed him from the distance during the breaks. During their time to rest, James Walsh used to talk to another boy that soon Amos knew was his brother but no one else. During classes, unless teachers asked him some, he remained quiet.
Once saw James pushing another kid that dared to pat his back, something that made Amos tilt his head. And there were another signs that eventually Amos learnt to read. He was young, but not that young to not understand certain things and James' attitude reminded him of a wounded dog that doesn't like to be touched. He wandered if was the case.
The first time he talked to James was during a physical education class when the teacher asked the kids to find a partner to work with that class.
"Hi," Amos said as both kids started to run around the running track.
It wasn't that James didn't like the new boy, he avoided all of them equally and the little Von Bismarck wasn't the exception but apparently that day he didn't have another option that working with him. Although honestly was better him that assholes like Fred or Reggie. Or the stupid girls.
"You did right the other day when you pushed him," Amos said so casually that took James unprepared "Fred is an asshole."
His black eyes looked at him briefly while both were running. "I guess," James replied. "I don't like him."
"I heard his father is the owner of some steel factory. But he got in trouble for hiring illegal immigrants. Underpaid."
"How do you know?"
"I know. I heard my dad talking to a colleague and I asked if it was the father of this idiot and it was. When I was the CEO of my father's company I'm not going to do that. Well paid workers work happy and better. It's basic."
"Maybe you're right. My father is a surgeon so I don't know about how industries work."
"Must be cool to have a surgeon in your family."
"My father isn't cool," James said and Amos nodded.
"Mine either. But he doesn't hurt me."
James stopped running and so did his mate. Both boys stared at eachother and Amos put a hand on his shoulder, being careful to not touch his back. "I'm not going to say anything." But then, because he was still a kid and kids changed topics very easily, he asked "Do you want to come home one day? My mother sometimes orders Hedgehog slice. It's a traditional German cake not an actual a hedgehog. We don't bake hedgehogs. It's really tasty."
"My father doesn't allow us to go to other kids houses."
"What a prick. We need to convince him then."
And to James surprise later that afternoon when Mr. Walsh went to pick up his sons from school, the man allowed him to go to Amos' house after he talked to the little prince who was very determined to take James with him. After that day, everything changed.
By the age of 15, it was clear that both were inseparables. James was already Thorne and none of the other classmates asked why after that summer vacations their classmate had changed his surname. Better just speculate.
Adolescence brought new adventures, new attitudes, especially in Amos who was now one of popular students every school had.
But the day every really changed was when they managed to upset their English teacher. Their giggle were distracting the whole class and she had enough.
"Von Bismarck, Thorne!" Wanted to say the teacher trying to catch their attention but instead said "Von Thorne!"
First, thanks to Lee @zablife for creating this beautiful AU, then also thanks to her because I asked her for a song that could fit these two and she gave me gold. I love it. It's indeed very them! 🥺.
Since I had that dream I knew this whole AU happened in USA, so the song gave me the opportunity to make it real.
No warnings. Behold a happy James on my moodboard. Most dialogues are part of the lyrics. || 300 words.
A very brief reference to Eva who belongs to @julyzaas-writing-blog . I had to explain somehow what Rose was doing in Texas. Here you have the lyrics, if you want.
"Take a pistol," Eva said "beware of white men and trust no one."
Rose went to the new world to visit her because needed fresh air, something new outside London that sometimes suffocated her. Her life was boring and British men were getting on her nerves. If Eva agreed or not with Rose's decision to hitchhiking, didn't mention.
She was waiting on the thoroughfare when she saw him for the first time. A handsome ginger man with scruffy beard and kind eyes, driving a big truck. She remembered her friend's words "trust no one" but he said "Baby, don't run I'll take you anywhere" and something in him made her trust.
An Irishman escaping like her and fate put them together miles away from home. The photographer that became a truck driver, because in the route he was free.
"Hey, do you wanna see the west with me? 'Cause love's out there and I can't leave it be," he asked. Rose didn't believe in love. Never happened to her, but she agreed: "Honey, love's never meant that much to me. But I'll come with you if you're sure it's what you need"
First were shared dinners and laughs in lost towns, then came a night in a motel. Then another one. When Rose wanted to realised she began to see him with another eyes. Maybe love did exist after all. He was different, the first one that didn't show anger and was calm.
She was proud, always was, and along with her resentment, pride was probably one of her worst qualities that's why when they finally reached California and he said it was the end of the line, she didn't say anything despite it broke her heart. Because they never agreed to keep going, what she agreed with was to accompany him to the very west. But now they were there, she wasn't ready to leave.
James noticed that and smiled: "now that I met you, I finally know just where I'm headin' and we found Heaven in time. I didn't find my love but I still made it this far without it. Well, maybe not, 'cause look at what I've got, you might not be my love, but, baby, I doubt it."
Then he kissed her and she replied: "In your truck with all of your dumb luck is the only place I think I'd ever wanna be."
@justrainandcoffee Woooow Flor this is STUNNING. I’m obsessed with your moodboard and can’t stop to look at it. I’m so glad we got another post with trucker James because it fits him so darn well! I also adore how you wove the lyrics with the dialogue. They work so well with your blurb that I sincerely thought they came from your mind.
Also the hitchhiker x trucker is such a good trope for these two. So glad our little Rose got to live the travel life with the hottest trucker ever. 🖤
Kudos to Ler because she suggested the song thinking about this AU, i didn't have idea what to do (and I wanted to do something) so if it wasn't for her 😭❤️.
She did! And him too. I loved the song saying that he was looking for love because I didn't consider that and James, despite everything he thinks he is and is fine alone, needs someone next to him. So, unconsciously, I know he was looking for his girl 🤧.
First, thanks to Lee @zablife for creating this beautiful AU, then also thanks to her because I asked her for a song that could fit these two and she gave me gold. I love it. It's indeed very them! 🥺.
Since I had that dream I knew this whole AU happened in USA, so the song gave me the opportunity to make it real.
No warnings. Behold a happy James on my moodboard. Most dialogues are part of the lyrics. || 300 words.
A very brief reference to Eva who belongs to @julyzaas-writing-blog . I had to explain somehow what Rose was doing in Texas. Here you have the lyrics, if you want.
"Take a pistol," Eva said "beware of white men and trust no one."
Rose went to the new world to visit her because needed fresh air, something new outside London that sometimes suffocated her. Her life was boring and British men were getting on her nerves. If Eva agreed or not with Rose's decision to hitchhiking, didn't mention.
She was waiting on the thoroughfare when she saw him for the first time. A handsome ginger man with scruffy beard and kind eyes, driving a big truck. She remembered her friend's words "trust no one" but he said "Baby, don't run I'll take you anywhere" and something in him made her trust.
An Irishman escaping like her and fate put them together miles away from home. The photographer that became a truck driver, because in the route he was free.
"Hey, do you wanna see the west with me? 'Cause love's out there and I can't leave it be," he asked. Rose didn't believe in love. Never happened to her, but she agreed: "Honey, love's never meant that much to me. But I'll come with you if you're sure it's what you need"
First were shared dinners and laughs in lost towns, then came a night in a motel. Then another one. When Rose wanted to realised she began to see him with another eyes. Maybe love did exist after all. He was different, the first one that didn't show anger and was calm.
She was proud, always was, and along with her resentment, pride was probably one of her worst qualities that's why when they finally reached California and he said it was the end of the line, she didn't say anything despite it broke her heart. Because they never agreed to keep going, what she agreed with was to accompany him to the very west. But now they were there, she wasn't ready to leave.
James noticed that and smiled: "now that I met you, I finally know just where I'm headin' and we found Heaven in time. I didn't find my love but I still made it this far without it. Well, maybe not, 'cause look at what I've got, you might not be my love, but, baby, I doubt it."
Then he kissed her and she replied: "In your truck with all of your dumb luck is the only place I think I'd ever wanna be."
First, thanks to Lee @zablife for creating this beautiful AU, then also thanks to her because I asked her for a song that could fit these two and she gave me gold. I love it. It's indeed very them! 🥺.
Since I had that dream I knew this whole AU happened in USA, so the song gave me the opportunity to make it real.
No warnings. Behold a happy James on my moodboard. Most dialogues are part of the lyrics. || 300 words.
A very brief reference to Eva who belongs to @julyzaas-writing-blog . I had to explain somehow what Rose was doing in Texas. Here you have the lyrics, if you want.
"Take a pistol," Eva said "beware of white men and trust no one."
Rose went to the new world to visit her because needed fresh air, something new outside London that sometimes suffocated her. Her life was boring and British men were getting on her nerves. If Eva agreed or not with Rose's decision to hitchhiking, didn't mention.
She was waiting on the thoroughfare when she saw him for the first time. A handsome ginger man with scruffy beard and kind eyes, driving a big truck. She remembered her friend's words "trust no one" but he said "Baby, don't run I'll take you anywhere" and something in him made her trust.
An Irishman escaping like her and fate put them together miles away from home. The photographer that became a truck driver, because in the route he was free.
"Hey, do you wanna see the west with me? 'Cause love's out there and I can't leave it be," he asked. Rose didn't believe in love. Never happened to her, but she agreed: "Honey, love's never meant that much to me. But I'll come with you if you're sure it's what you need"
First were shared dinners and laughs in lost towns, then came a night in a motel. Then another one. When Rose wanted to realised she began to see him with another eyes. Maybe love did exist after all. He was different, the first one that didn't show anger and was calm.
She was proud, always was, and along with her resentment, pride was probably one of her worst qualities that's why when they finally reached California and he said it was the end of the line, she didn't say anything despite it broke her heart. Because they never agreed to keep going, what she agreed with was to accompany him to the very west. But now they were there, she wasn't ready to leave.
James noticed that and smiled: "now that I met you, I finally know just where I'm headin' and we found Heaven in time. I didn't find my love but I still made it this far without it. Well, maybe not, 'cause look at what I've got, you might not be my love, but, baby, I doubt it."
Then he kissed her and she replied: "In your truck with all of your dumb luck is the only place I think I'd ever wanna be."
A/N: Polly's son Michael grows up in the shadow of violence and addiction. Nina belongs to @peakyswritings. Part of my American Teenager AU.
Michael Gray was six when he listened intently to the preacher who spoke about a better place for those who believe in the Lord, but he had far too many memories of nights that ended in yelling and broken beer bottles to believe his daddy had found salvation.
Polly was certain the bad memories would fade in time. After all, Michael was surrounded by his cousins and like them, was blessed with the Shelby good looks. The church ladies pinched his cheeks and offered up plates of pie to the adorable little choir boy.
But the more it hurts, the less it shows and Michael was very good at appearances. All through primary school, he was a polite young man who made straight A's and never gave anyone a moment's trouble. However, when he reached high school, the former child prodigy turned into an angry teenager with notebooks full of vitriol and a gun stashed in his backpack.
"I raised you better than this!" Polly shouted when she discovered it. "Is this how you want people to remember you?"
"Does it matter? Fate's already fucked me sideways!" Michael yelled back. It wasn't long after that he was removed from Polly's home, having started a fire in their kitchen. In the days and weeks afterward, he would be connected to several other cases of vandalism in the neighborhood and he was sent to juvenile detention.
By the time Tommy came home, Michael was living in a group home. The boy had an angry looking scar running the length of his abdomen which had been poorly stitched together in the infirmary. Rumors abounded, but the mostly likely suspect was a girl named Nina who'd run off six months ago. Michael didn't seemed bothered by it, shrugging it off, along with questions about his future.
"Think of your mother, Michael," Tommy implored each time he'd visit.
"I don't think about her at all," came the casual reply.
You're killing it in this AU, Lee!! I loved this too! The background you gave him seems to be very plausible! I do imagine him ending in some juvenile detention. Poor Polly, I'll never understand how Michael has her blood.
Never liked him, so forgive me if I cheer for Nina! Nina isn't there stabbing people just because so I'm sure he did something and he deserved it.
(And just wait until Michael knows his cousin fell in love with the infamous girl. Let me believe these two are going to meet 🤭)
Nina Ferrante was a wild little thing, with a temperament that lived up to her surname and a knack for running away from home.
Disobedient and rebellious to the core, she lived her life as if rules only existed to be broken. Partying up all night, skipping school on the regular, sneaking out of Sunday mass to smoke and drink in the church’s backyard with the very rascals her parents warned her to stray away from.
She’s so smart, her teachers said. It’s such a shame she’s so out of control.
Brilliant kid turned good for nothing renegade, daddy’s little runaway skipped town for good in her senior year of high school, leaving everyone to wonder if she would even come back to graduate.
It’s just not my year, she would say. But I’m all good out here.
I tried to stick to @zablife American Teenager theme, but even Ethel Cain's brand of sad and miserable isn't enough to bring Jack down lol
cw: mentions of racism,lynching, homophobia, refrences to West Side Story and teen pregnancy
I knew it was love
When I rode home crying
Thinking of you fucking other girls
But when you
Said that you’re in love
I never wondered if you’re sure
Ethel Cain, Dust Bowl
The unlikely couple, the star player of the football team with a future so bright it could blind you and the girl who trusted tarot better than she trusted her handful of friends.
She stood out like a sore thumb when her dad brought her to this small town he lived in when he wasn’t ‘working’. The South wasn’t the most hospitable place for those who aren’t a certain color and certainly those who do not fit a certain mold, but it beat the noise and smells of the big cities even if they had to keep their heads down and stick to their own kind to make sure they didn’t end up hanging from trees like its 1950.
And just like West Side Story, she met him at a dance where she was supposed to be with a boy who her dad approved of because God forbid would happen to her if anyone knew she swung both ways. Jack had been crowned the homecoming king while her name had been submitted as a joke so the obnoxious blonde twat who’s mom accuses her of theft anytime she goes to their store beside him could gloat. Eva didn’t care about it but when the King of the School offered her a dance ‘cuz I always wanted to do this’ she took it and made sure to rub it in her face.
He liked her this whole time, except she didn’t believe him, and after the homecoming ended he spent the rest of the year proving it by never giving her a moment's peace. The witch knew she’d be punished for going out with him, but as long as she didn’t end up being the María to his Tony what harm was there.
She didn’t realize how much she loved him until she began feeling jealous and even threatened by the girls who didn’t give up even when they made their relationship official.
I love you, she’d blurted out when confronted by the boy demanding to know why suddenly she was so angry at him as he drove her home from school.
Took you long enough, I love you too, he’d said with a stupid smile and kissed her stupid while parked outside her house.
My dad’s not home, four words that would get her in trouble a month later when the pregnancy test came out positive.
Still, in this miserable little town Jack loved her and she loved him and unlike West Side Story, theirs was a happy ending.
ᴀᴜɢᴜꜱᴛᴜꜱ ᴜɴᴅᴇʀɢʀᴏᴜɴᴅ — american teenagers au by @zablife
↳ see Heaven here.
TW: blink-you'll-miss-it ref to +10 age gap and hunting parties.
Amos belonged to a world most people would never see.
Old money. Blue blood. Penthouse apartments overlooking Manhattan. Cigars, martinis, private clubs, diamonds pressure and pure cocaine. He was a man who signed contracts worth more than what most people would earn in a lifetime and he was beautiful as he did. Beautiful in the way Apex Predators were.
However, rumors followed him wherever he went. They were stories exchanged over expensive dinners, about hunting lodges, parties that stretched until sunrise and human being hunted like animals for fun. Something about Amos conveyed the sort of wealth that stopped asking whether something was right and started asking whether it could be bought. Nobody ever accused Amos of anything, though. How could they when his Netflix smile charmed so easily?
At thirty years old, he was left stuck in a dying farm town in the middle of summer because of a blown tire and an empty gas tank. It should have been a minor inconvenience, a forgettable stop on the road back home.
Months later, a woman was dead and a church had burned to the ground. Amos had vanished, and so did the local prom queen. The town blamed him, naturally. That's likely to happen when a stranger rolls into town in an expensive car and eyes like two bottomless pits of darkness.
What is never mentioned is that, for all his money, power and awful habits, Amos had never believed in the Devil, not knowing he might have welcomed it into his bed.
I love the contrast between the beginning and the ending. From a world we can only see on tv, an expensive life to the moment his new life began... With the devil next him.
I screamed when I read the last paragraph. Hell yeaaaah! Yes to that sexy devil. Amos fucking first IT and then the Devil is like he's upgrading the risks 😂.
Great blurb, Shark!! The fourth pic of the moodboard made me laugh 🤭.
Welcome to a world where love was banned. Procreation is still necessary to bring new lives to this world, loveless sex was never forbidden but love as it was known from the beginning of humanity it doesn't exist anymore.
People was useless when were in love so they created a pill that prevents that. It's free but obligatory to take. Police control the streets and are allowed to arrest those who didn't take it. People are happy now, they insist, as in the streets dull citizens walk or travel from their houses to their works with anything in their heads but their equally dull lives.
But the rebels always existed. Because it's fine if you choose not to love but they can't force you to feel absolutely nothing. The underworld, they say, is full of criminals and bandits. Full of smoke and fights. They tell stories in schools so kids from very young age are discouraged to be part of it. The pill is the salvation if you don't want to become one of them.
James Thorne looked at himself in the mirror after swallowing his pill. He felt nothing, as always happened. Just another day and the same emptiness inside him, like he was missing something. Only he had everything he wanted.
Maybe he should visit that girl. The same girl he always visited although she didn't live in his neighbourhood anymore. She was now downtown. She was part of the underworld.
The underworld that was full of outlaws and full of love.
@justrainandcoffee such a cool concept Flor! As Alex said, if could easily be the plot for a young adult novel. Also I adore this picture of JN - poor baby looks so darn sad. Also the last sentence with the underworld full of outlaws and love is very poetic!
It could... But their protagonists are near their 40s 😂. I can't write teenagers for the love of God, so not very ya novel but the world is open to all ages! And definitely see some teens defying the system as they should.
Jn has a special talent to play depressed characters that for me are very useful because he's a infinite source of inspiration... And I want to hug him very much 😭.
ᴘᴛᴏʟᴇᴍᴀᴇᴀ — american teenagers au by @zablife
↳ see Amos here.
TW: blink-you'll-miss-it ref to +10 age gap and murder
You love blood too much, but not like I do.
I am the face of love's rage
She was the kind of girl people didn't know whether to crucify or sanctify. She was the unexpected prom queen coming from a dying farm town, all pale blonde hair, blood scent and sharp teeth. She loved enchanting men to extort money from them, collecting animal bones in maso jars and disappearing into the woods with a rifle slung over her shoulder.
Her mother, a very pious creature whose husband left after impregnating her, was pitied by the other women of the town. Poor Anna Lavey, with her cold bed, calloused hands, and wicked daughter. Heaven, that was what the woman called her hellspawn, had learned how to kneel, smile, and hide the rot within her from an early age. A wolf in lamb clothing.
By her eighteenth birthday, everything changed and Heaven had become something else entirely. A little obscene hurricane wrapped in revealing clothes and cigarette smoke, who left splinters in everything she touched. That was also the year she vanished with a thirty-year-old Wall Street drifter who rolled into town like a bad omen.
One morning, her mother was dead, the church was burning, and Heaven was gone. Years have passed since then, but the old women still whisper about her name. They shake their heads as they recall what her mother used to thell her every Sunday before service:
Go to church, Heaven. Or else the Devil will get you.
And maybe, in the end, he did get her. Or maybe she climbed willingly into his car and called him Amos.
I know you said you'd like to write something that doesn't involve blood or gore... But who else is going to give me that to read while I'm having breakfast?
Oohhh!! I love it. It has the exact same vibes Lee has been writing the past blurbs! They're all doomed by the narrative, including Mrs. Lavey, but at least here Heaven got her happy ending with her handsome Devil😌.
I loved this, Shark!! The moodboard, too. Very very her!
Promise to read the Amos one when I'm back.
ps: Have you considered a Carrie!Heaven? Kill 'em all 😌.
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