Alex Ham the orchestra man

Untitled Part 5

Lafayette grabbed his sleeve and yanked him out into the hall.

"What are you doing?" they hissed. He tried to look as innocent as possible.

"What?"

"Why are you going out with Eliza?" He noticed that their French accent became more pronounced when they were angry.

"Because I like her, Laf. Is that so difficult?"

"Non, Alex, it is John you like! You two look at each other with the most helpless, how you say? Lovey-dovey eyes? What are you doing to our John?"

"I'm allowed to like whomever I want, Laf. You don't control me," he said defensively. Yes, he knew perfectly well that there were ulterior motives in accepting Eliza's date (maybe John would be jealous?) but Eliza was a nice girl and he would like to get to know her better. Even if it was under the pretense of a date. He tuned back in to see Laf shaking their head grimly.

"Eliza does not deserve you, mon copain. And if you hurt her, Angie will kill you."

Alex nodded. "Yeah, I know. She gave me a preemptive shovel talk the first day I was here. It was... intimidating, to say the least," he said.

Laf narrowed their eyes. "When Angie is done with you, I will be next. Treat her well, Alex," they warned. Alex swallowed uncomfortably. "Understood. I will."

They turned and stalked back into the cafeteria without another word, leaving Alex in the hall, staring after them.

***

Alex perched up in his chair, watching the clock. Books precariously laid on his desk in a pile at least a foot tall.

The bell rang.

He flew out of the room.

His locker was all the way across the school, though - he'd been at his Latin class, since he already knew French and Spanish, and it was in a separate wing of the school - so by the time the small ball of energy had fought his way back to his locker, Eliza was already waiting there, hair pulled back in a French braid. She was texting someone on her phone, slight furrow between her eyes. She looked up when he came to an abrupt stop by his locker, panting. The furrow smoothed out and her face lit up. "Hey, Alex."

"Hi," he gasped in return, spinning the combo into his lock and pulling open the little door. He heaved binders out of the cramped space and stuffed them into his backpack, explaining as he did, "sorry I took so long, I was at Latin and it's all the way across the school, I ran all the way here though -" He was cut off by her quiet laugh - a lot of things about her were quiet, actually, he liked that about her, she was so peaceful, an eye of the storm in his mind - "calm down, Alex, it's fine. I've only been waiting for like two minutes."

"A whole two minutes of your life I've wasted, Eliza. Please forgive me," he said dramatically, laying the back of his hand over his forehead and swooning. She giggled.

He finished packing his backpack and slung it over a shoulder, grabbing Eliza's hand with his free hand. "Let's go!" She nodded her agreement and they headed towards the front doors, Alex chattering amiably and Eliza speaking much more calmly.

It was a greyish day, clouds hanging over the sky and making everything a lot cooler than it would usually be in September. The leaves hadn't started changing yet, resulting in a muted, dull-green color with flashes of grey-brown bark. Eliza sighed happily. "I love these days, they're so much quieter than sunny days. And they're not too hot, either... I was getting tired of the heat."

Beside her, Alex shrugged and said "I dunno, I like it when it's sunny... it's so much easier to do things. And the world feels a lot more open even if you're just inside all day working or whatever."