Quicksilver - Jamilton -

Chapter 29: Halloween Party part 1

"I mean, there's no way anyone will have a better costume than Hercules!" John says, doing random poses in front of the mirror.

"People tend to be creative-"

"Don't move!" Lafayette stresses, trying his best to not mess up Hercules's makeup.

"Hey Alex, I don't mean to be a bitch, but you should, maybe, get dressed up?" John glances at me with a smile, still facing the big wall-mirror, which perfectly let him see me on Lafayette's bed, eating chips.

"Ugh... No! You're all gonna laugh, I know you." A chorus of no follows, which I don't believe in, in the slightest. Lafayette, all tall and proud as always, chose a disco costume, managing to stay fancy and yet rocking far too shaded sunglasses. Hercules, on the other side, planned his costume months in advance, making it from scratch, and he chose a werewolf, with a complex and aesthetic design of clothing. John, him, couldn't care less and dressed up as a ninja turtle. But even he can't compare to how much my costume sucks.

I sigh, and get up, to the joy of them all, and take my plastic bag in which I threw my "costume". I go into the little bathroom connected to Laf's bedroom and put it on, before getting out of it, eyes staring at me. Their first reaction is, of course, to start laughing.

"Oh god, Alex, this is by far the worst costume you've done." Laf' says through fits of laughing. Basically, I got a white t-shirt and then scotched the word "Life" on it, and I got lemons in a little basket.

"It has its charm." John nods in agreement at Hercules' statement.

We stay a little more in the room, the time for us to finish preparing, and afterward, we go to the living room, chilling right before people start to get in. All sorts of people arrive, and more and more as time passes. Lafayette, in that singular way, talks with everyone, asking insightful questions and being a social butterfly. He was always this way, he makes friends like he buys food. More than that, this party was always an event that nobody wants to skip, it's "Lafayette's Halloween Party."

I spot King George in the crowd and regret telling Lafayette to let him in. In a corner, Burr and Theodosia are talking on a couch.

The doorbell rings, and since Lafayette is talking with someone, Hercules goes to open it. Moments after, Angelica, Jefferson, and another guy enter. After a second of looking at them, and at their costumes, I can't help but wheeze. Jefferson is disguised as Thomas the Tank Engine. What an epic move.

I go over to John, and he gives me a red cup. I don't really know what is in it, but drink it anyway. Someone puts the volume of the music up. someone screams and laughs very loudly while entering. Folks appear like out of nowhere, and soon you're lost in a never-ending sea of people. The heat goes up, and I hardly find my friends to go over to, so I stay close to the counter.

"When life gives you lemons?"

I turn around, and Jefferson is right there with the same guy as before, which I'm sure I've seen before.

"... You make apple pie, of course." I snicker. "You want one?" I hand one out to him.

"No, no, I'm great!" He giggles. I shrug and give it to a random person passing by, and wink to them, making Jefferson crack up even more.

Regaining composure, he clears his throat. "Gremlin, I present you James Madison, Maddy-James, this is Alexander Hamilton."

"You were obligated to use this stupid nickname, Thomas?"

"Yeah, duckling, how dare you to humiliate me like that?"

Madison frowns at me. "Duckling...?"

"You're in a good mood today, Ham."

"This is daytime for you, Jeff?"

"No, seriously, nobody's gonna explain to me why he said 'duckling'?"

"You're despicable."

"Am not."

"Sure are."

"Am not-"

"Alexander, come here, look at what's happening!" Johns screams out to me.

"Ah, I gotta go!" I wave them off. "Nice to meet you, Madison-guy!"

I come to John and see two peeps dragging one of their friends to Laf's pool. I interrogate John with a look. "He lost a bet! The idiot."

"I should've known, haha!"

Hercules takes our arms from behind and showcases shots of alcohol.

"Oh no!"

"Oh yes!"

At the count of three, the vodka is already burning our throats and blurring our minds.

After dancing for a while, and losing my basket of lemons, I try to make my way to the counter again, maybe Jefferson would still be there, but someone grabs my shoulder, and it's Laf'. He has a worried look on his face, but I hardly notice it.

"Alexander," He tells me in my ear since the music is far too loud to talk normally. "A neighbor found my dog, and it's bad. He needs to go to pet care." His voice is crushed by sadness, but I can't help but not care.

"... And?"

"And?! Alex, my dog is badly injured! I don't know what to do! I'm so sad, poor him." The heat of the room takes up all my senses, and I haven't even finished to process what he says that words are already out of my mouth.

"What do you know?" A sarcastic laugh gets out of my mouth. "It's just a dog!"

His eyes widen. "And-" His voice suddenly takes a different tone. "And what do YOU know?!"

"I-"

"It's not like your very good at caring for anything, except yourself!"

I feel my mouth getting drier and drier.

"Said by the guy who never stopped a second what he's doing to care about me!" My blood starts boiling, and my hands curl into fists, and the music soon becomes a distant and disordered sound.

"Me, me, me, will you shut up?!" I don't realize how our voices turned into screams, and how people start noticing it.

"It's a dog! A DOG! You'll get another one! You could get hundreds of other ones!"

"Am I at fault for loving my goddamn dog?!"

"And why the fuck do you even care?! Somehow, you manage to seem to love that dog more than your friends!"

"And YOU? You don't love your grades more than us, maybe?!"

"OF COURSE I FUCKING DO!"

"OKAY THEN, YOU UNGRATEFUL," he emphasize more and more each words. "STUPID," I inhale a sharp breath. "BASTARD-"

I punch him right in the face, and he's thrown back, other people getting surprised and things falling down. He puts a hand to his face, and then directly looks up, running toward me and pushing me down on a table, I take him by the collar, he punches me too in the nose, and before I can do anything else he's grabbed from behind by Hercules, and John does the same with me.

"What is wrong with you two?!" I try to get out of John's grasp, but he only makes it harder as I do. Only then I realize how heavy my breathing is, and how many people are looking at us. Also, I feel a liquid dropping from my nose.

When John finally lets go of me, after a little while, I take a final look at Lafayette, and then run out of the house, finally getting the fresh air to hit me. I let myself calm down, the adrenaline in my vein dissolving and letting me feel the pain in my knuckles and face.

I honestly don't know why I reacted this way.

Maybe was it alcohol?

Or my stressed, sleep-deprived mind?

The only thing I can say is probably that two days prior, I just had learned that my mom was ill, and it was far worse than I thought. And the thing probably was that, as I was sad and felt like the world was crumbling on me, I texted Lafayette and tried to hint to him everything wasn't alright.

And he talked about his dog, not caring in the least.

Maybe that's why.