In New York You Can Be a New Man

Chapter Four

Hey readers! Here's my part four!!!

***

"There is no way you're going to survive that." John said warily, eyeing his roommate chugging his 15th cup of coffee.

It was winter, meaning the mid-term time. Most of the student body had moved into the library, and the ones like Alexander became complete hermits and studied non-stop. Fortunately, Alexander had recovered from his slight illness (not that John had missed sick Alexander; after all, all Alexander wanted to do was sleep and get his hair braided).

John watched again as Alexander downed his cup and held it out toward John, as if to say "Refill, please."

Alexander had a giant pile of textbooks and notes scattered around him in what John saw as a mess, but Alexander somehow found whatever he needed.

"John, I know I'm being loud and obnoxious. And if you aren't going to sleep, you might as well help me." Alexander said, speaking the first words John had heard out of him the whole evening.

John sighed and sat down next to Alexander, in the midst of the piles of papers. 

"What is the chemical formula for glucose?"

"C six, H twelve, O six."

--

Around 11, John retired to bed, leaving Alexander to study for himself. In the morning, he found Alexander still reading more textbooks. Alexander's hair was pulled into a messy bun, and his eye bags seemed to have eye bags of their own. 

"Alexander, you need to get something to eat. You can't live off of coffee."

"Who says I can't?" Alexander responded, not even taking his eyes off the papers. 

"What ever, I'm going to get some food for you and me."

Without waiting for a response, John pulled on a sweatshirt and sweatpants and left for the dinning hall. John knew he should be studying, but he knew that he would end up pulling all nighters just before the tests anyways.

The hall was chock full of students, all of them with a plate of food and a computer or textbook that they were reading from. 

Spotting his friends in the corner of the room, John quickly shoved his way towards them with a few "Sorry!" and "Excuse me!" phrases. 

"John! I didn't expect you to make it to be sure, but I am surely glad you decided to join us! We have been waiting for you!" Hercules bellowed, clapping John on the black and grinning. 

"Shouldn't you be studying or something?" John asked his friends, who just shrugged in response. 

"How's the roomma-"

"I came here to eat, not talk about cute roommates." John said, the fork half-raised to his lips. 

Hercules and Lafayette shared a look and promptly broke out into laughter.

--

John reopened the door to his room, and found three boys sprawled out on the carpet surrounded by books and empty coffee cups. 

"Alexander, what is this?"

"Ever heard of study groups, John?" Alexander said, mentioning to the other people in their room. "John, this is James Madison. James, John. That's John Jay. Um, John, meet John?" Alexander felt his cheeks flush. 

"How many coffee cups did you drink, exactly?" John asked, looking at the cups scattered next to the three studiers. 

"He drank five," Alexander said, pointing at John Jay first and then James, "he drank twenty-nine, and I drank fifty-one."

"Fifty-one?"

"Fifty-one."

John blinked, and started laughing. "I don't think I can trust you to your own device anymore. I don't think that drinking fifty-one cups is going to help you." 

Alexander shrugged, but accepted the plate of breakfast from John's hands. 

"Thanks, and they have already eaten breakfast." Alexander said, meeting John's eyes. 

"No problem."

--

"Take a break. You are going to kill your eyes if you read too much."

"John, we've already gone over this. I can't take a break. I've gotta get this whole textbook into my brain in time for the mid-terms."

There was an awkward pause, in which both John stared at Alexander's silhouette created by the lamp. 

"At least tell me why you study like crazy and don't bother to take care of yourself."

Another pause, this time, Alexander turned towards John. 

"I-I don't like talking about it."

John rolled over in bed so that his back was to Alexander. He heard Alexander sigh and continue to flip the pages of his notebooks, sometimes scrawling things onto a piece of paper. 

Yes, John was starting to dislike his roommate. To the extent that he was considering moving in with Lafayette and Hercules. He knew he couldn't do that, however; Alexander needed John more that Alexander was willing to admit.  

***

And the end of chapter 4! Yay! Well, this big school project is coming up, so prepare for less often updates! Sorry about that, because school can't be helped. Thanks for 100 reads by the way! Keep reading/voting! Katherine xxx