Coffee (Lams)

Chapter 1

(BACK AND BETTER THAN EVER, BABY!)

Laurens pours another cup of coffee, and sighs. His shift was only beginning, and he'd already nodded off twice. Yawning, he slides the coffee over the counter. There weren't that many customers at this hour, mostly just college students and the occasional struggling writer who claims that they "just need a change of scenery." Laurens is about to fall asleep again, but jolts awake at the sound of the door being flung open.

"Hey John, isn't it past your bedtime?"
"Hello, Mulligan." Laurens answers, rolling his eyes.
"Awwww, don't be that way, Johnny-boy, you know I'm joking." Hercules chuckles, grinning.
Laurens can't stop himself from smiling. Hercules' grin was infectious.
"Hercules, mon amour, isn't it getting late?" murmurs someone from behind Hercules.
"Hang on a minute, Laf." Hercules says. Addressing Laurens again, he asks, "I'll talk to you later, John. I have a paper due tomorrow, and I don't want to prevent Laf from getting his beauty sleep." He gestures to Lafayette, who'd been half asleep this whole time.
"Fuck you." Lafayette murmurs.
"All right, I'll see you guys later!" Laurens says, laughing, "Thanks for keeping me from falling asleep!"
"No problem, Laurens!" Hercules calls over his shoulder as he turns around and leaves.
Laurens sighs. He knew the rest of his shift would be boring. The friendly banter of his two best friends had been the only thing that was keeping him awake, and the lack of customers was a death sentence. He rests his head on the counter, unable to even keep his head up. His eyelids were drooping, and he was almost asleep, when the bell dinged and someone asked,
"Excuse me?"
Laurens jolts upright, almost falling off the stool he sat on. The man at the counter laughs. Laurens looks at him. He looked like he hadn't slept in days, with light brown hair pulled back into a tight ponytail. He's holding a laptop under one arm, and a stack of papers under the other.
"College student?" Laurens asks.
"Hm? Oh, yeah." He answers.
"So, what do you want?" Laurens yawns, grabbing his notepad.
"Just a coffee, I need something to keep me awake."
"Cream or sugar?"
"No, thanks."
Laurens writes down the order on his notepad.
"A name for the order, sir?" Laurens asks.
"Alexander Hamilton."

Laurens flops onto his bed and groans. In hindsight, maybe a night job wasn't his best idea, but what else could he do? He needed what little money the job paid, and he'd survived so far.
"Shit, what time is it?" He mumbles, fumbling for his phone. Six A.M. Wonderful. He sits up and sets the phone back onto the nightstand. Although he desperately needed the three hours of sleep before his first class of the day, he wasn't tired at all. Laurens takes his hair out of its ponytail and pulls the hair elastic onto his wrist. Suddenly, his phone screen illuminates, bathing the small room in a pale blue glow. It's a text from Hercules.
Mulligan: laurens oh my god
Mulligan: i was trying to do my lab write up and laf fell asleep in my lap
"The hell, Mulligan?" Laurens whispers as he locks his phone and places it back on the bedside table, face down. Ignoring several other notifications, he rolls over, desperately trying to rest. But alas, sleep wouldn't come. Laurens' mind kept drifting back to the face of the man at the coffee shop. For someone who looked so sleep deprived, he was quite attractive. Somehow, the dark circles under his eyes made him look even more handsome... Laurens shakes his head. What was he thinking? I mean, he'd run into quite a few attractive people before while working, but none of them stuck in his brain like... Hamilton, wasn't it? And, it wasn't like he was questioning his sexuality, either. He was bisexual, and he'd known that since high school. He'd just never believed in love at first sight, or whatever. He'd heard people attest to its existence, but had most of those relationships failed? They had, just as Laurens had expected. With all these thoughts bouncing around in his head, Laurens didn't even notice that he was slowly growing more tired. Before he knew it, he was out like a light.