𝐒𝐇𝐄𝐒 𝐆𝐎𝐍𝐄||𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐎𝐃𝐎𝐑𝐄 𝐋𝐀𝐔𝐑𝐄𝐍𝐂𝐄

001

CHAPTER ONE
•
SHES GONE
"Alice?"
-
It has been around 7 years since Alice moved. Laurie was obviously devastated, his best friend moved thousands of miles away from him, and he just missed her.

He sometimes wished that she never left and wished that she was next to him right now.

Currently Laurie was getting ready for a party tonight. Whilst looking at himself in the mirror as he adjusts his collar. While adjusting his collar, his mind starts to wonder off, and started to imagine what Alice would look like at this moment.

He imagined her hair to be longer, maybe even down to her waist. He also imagined her to have stronger cheekbones with pale skin.

After finishing his collar, he moved onto his hair, brushing it with his hands.

"Welp, guess it's time to attend this party" he mumbled softly to himself as he grabbed his hand watch before walking out the door. When he walked outside, he noticed a car in Alice's old home, he just guessed that it was possibly new neighbors and didn't think of anything he then went into his carriage.

While arriving at the party, Laurie thanked his driver, then slowly started to walk inside.

The first thing he noticed was the subtle music, it had a nice rhythmic tone, making him smile a bit before he started to walk around the area.

After a couple of moments Laurie started to feel sort of awkward because he didn't know anyone there so he decided to go into a separate room.

He looked around the place for a moment before deciding to sit down onto one of the chairs. Laurie then started to fiddle with the armrest for a moment before he saw another woman walk into the room.

She seemed to be quite tall and she also looked quite stressed. Before the male could say anything, the young looking female accidentally slipped and had fallen onto him.

"Deer me! I didn't know that anyone was in here!" The female said. Laurie looked at her for a moment, looking at her facial features before getting up from his seat to speak.

"Don't mind me, stay if you'd like" Laurie said, shrugging his shoulders a bit.

She stared at the male for a second before speaking. "I won't disturb you?" She questioned.

Laurie shook his head, reassuring the female that she won't disturb him.

"Not at all, I don't know many people, and felt rather strange at first, you know?" Laurie said, his tongue grazing across his lower lip.

"So do I" she spoke, giving the male an awkward smile as the room started to become quite silent.

Laurie started at the female for a couple of seconds, squinting his eyes a little before opening his mouth.

"Miss March, isn't it?" Laurie questioned, his tone of voice getting a bit higher in pitch at the end of his question/sentence.

She stared at him for a moment, nodding her head. "Yes Mr.Laurence, but I'm not miss March, I'm only Jo" Jo spoke, nodding her head once more with a slight smile on her lips.

Laurie chuckled a little, shaking his head in amusement before he nodded his head like Jo did. "And I'm not Mr.Laurence, im only Laurie"

They're first conversation seemed to have been great, they both had smiles on their faces as they stared at each other.

The room once again was silent and it was quite awkward.

Jo couldn't take the awkward silence anymore so she tried to think of something to say.

"Don't you dance?" She blurted out, it being the first thing that came to her mind.

Laurie thought for a moment, biting his lower lip for a moment. "I don't know how you do things here yet—you see, I've spent most of my life in Europe"

Jo's eyes widened as she stared at Laurie, she couldn't believe what she heard. "Europe? That's capital!" She blurted, but caught herself.

"Sorry, I shouldn't say things like that" Jo said, quite flustered nonetheless.

Laurie looked at her, confusion in his eyes as he tilted his head to the side. "Says who?" He asked, being curious as to why she thinks that.

"Meg, she's my older sister" Jo spoke, spreading the curtains a bit to show Laurie who her sister was.

"That's her, see? The girl in the violet dress"

Laurie looked at Meg, his eyes staring at the way she danced for a moment before looking back at Jo.

"Very pretty"

"She reminds me to be good so when my father comes back he'll be proud" Jo spoke with a smile on her face at the thought of her father coming back.

Laurie tilted his head to the side a little when he heard 'comes back'.

"Where is he?" He questioned, stuffing his hands into his pockets.

Jo signed a little before looking down. "Volunteered for the union army. I wanted to go fight with him. I can't get over my disappointment of being a girl" Jo said, shaking her head a little.

Laurie furrowed his eyebrows, poking the inside of his cheek a little. "Jo.. would you like to dance with me?" Asked Laurie out of the blue.

Jo's eyes widened before shaking her head harshly. "I can't, because.." she spoke, debating on whether or not she should tell him.

"Because what?" Laurie asked, raising an eyebrow when he heard Jo trail off mid sentence.

"Promise you won't tell?" She asked, desperately, quite pathetic in her opinion.

"Never!" Laurie said in a playful tone, making Jo laugh a little.

"Well, I scorched my dress" she said, showing off the area.

"Meg told me to keep still so no one would see it" she paused for a moment, thinking back at the situation.

"You can laugh if you want, it's kind if funny" she said, kind of embarrassed at her story now.

Laurie shook his head, he didn't laugh but he looked quite tender.

"Nevermind that, I'll show you how we'll manage" Laurie said with a smile on his lips.

Jo raised an eyebrow as Laurie dragged her outside to the porch. He gently bowed in front of her, making her blush quite a bit before bowing as well.

They danced under the moon light for a bit, they kept staring at each other in the eyes, and Laurie just couldn't help but sometimes feel his heart skip two or three beats.

While spinning Jo, he heard a familiar yet unfamiliar voice in front of him.

"Excuse me?" The voice was quiet and so delicate, it almost seemed as if it were glass. Laurie looked up, and almost dropped Jo when he looked at her familiar facial features and hair.

"Alice?"