hey, lover! [lams//college au] // completed

Chapter Seven

Alexander woke up with a pounding headache and a dry mouth. He opened his eyes, just to wince and close them again as the morning sunlight creeped into the room through partially opened blinds. He then opened them again and blinked in surprise because his dorm was not in the direct line of the sunrise.

The events that had happened after he'd gotten a call from his mother's doctor the night before were fogged over and blurred; he vaguely remembered a pricy cab ride back to King's College and John inviting him to spend the night, but everything else was lost to the depths of his mind.

Oh. So this was John's dorm, then.

The dorm itself was tidy and clean, and smelled like lavender multi-surface cleaner and timberwood cologne. Alexander couldn't tell if anyone else was in there with them, so he went to sit up, and—

"Whaa..."

Alexander winced, looking over to his side. John was there, blinking at the too-bright sunlight.

"Hi."

John whipped his head towards Alexander, staring at his face for a moment before seeming to come back to himself.

"Um.. hello? Why are you in my dorm?"

"Uh... you don't remember?"

John leaned back, biting on his lip as he thought through the events of last night.

"Oh, yeah, I guess I do. You couldn't get into your dorm, so I let you spend the night... then we watched The Witcher, and you kissed me, and then we conked out at, like, one a.m." John nodded to himself, relaxing onto the bed. Then his words hit him and he sat up so quick he almost fell off the bed.

Alexander watched as all of this happened, amused.

"Wait! You... you kissed me!"

Alexander paused, thinking over it, and—

"Yeah. Yeah, I guess I did."

"Huh." John slumped down a little, rubbing at his forehead tiredly. "Wh—why?"

"I don't know, why not?" Alexander responded, before wincing a little. "My head hurts. I feel like shit."

John was, apparently, not over the whole kissing thing.

"Would you— maybe... like, wanna do it again? The kissing stuff, I mean."

Alexander hummed, before beginning to look around on the bed for his phone. "Like, yeah, I guess. You're cute, and I like you." He paused. "How about you? Would you like to do the kissing stuff again, sometime?"

"Yes!" John said, a little too fast. Alexander snorted. "I mean yes."

"Okay, cool." Alexander finally found his phone, grabbing it to check the time and— "Shit, I have a study group with some kids in my Calculus class in twenty minutes— I have to go!"

Alexander stood, glad that he hadn't taken much to the bar and hence to John's dorm. He was about to grab the door handle when John called out, "Wait!"

Alex turned, antsy to get back to his room.

"Yeah?"

"Well, I was just wondering if— well, you said— but—"

"John—"

"Would you like to go to Reyonalds' Coffee with me next Saturday? As like— a date?"

John had squinted his eyes shut, a wince on his face as if he'd expected the worst.

Alexander smiled.

"Yes! That sounds fun. What time though, like— eleven?"

"I— uh— yeah. That works." John blinked at him once, twice, before smiling shyly.

Alex nodded. "Okay. I'm going to assume that I'll see you before then, as well? Maybe you'd like to study with me some time this week?"

"Uh— of course! Yeah!"

Alexander nodded. "I'll text you," he said, before leaving the room.

It wasn't until he'd gotten back to his own dorm that he'd fully realized what had just happened.

He'd just gotten a date. With the cute guy next door.

He couldn't help it— he squealed. Like, a high pitched, girly, "Eeeeek!" squeal.

"Shut up," one of his roommates— James Madison— said groggily. Alexander winced, slightly mortified.

"Sorry."