In New York You Can Be a New Man

Chapter Twenty-Five

"Thomas, stop overreacting. You literally have a headache. Are you kidding me right now?" Alexander snapped, waving his crutch at Thomas.

"Hey, chill. You aren't the one with the head that feels like its about to blow up." Thomas snarled while clutching his head in his arms.

"Well, if I stay here any longer, I just might get a headache from being around you and your annoying voice!" Alexander called as John glared at him.

John turned to James, who was panicking in the corner. "Hey, this time might be a little stressful. Do you want to go catch a movie or something to distract yourself?"

James met John's gaze with wide eyes. "B-but, aren't we like enemies?"

"Sure, but since you have a wounded member, we can call it a truce."

James nodded but then glanced at Thomas worriedly. "Are you sure we should let him stay alone for a long time? I don't want anything to happen."

"Oh, right. Who will take care of Thomas? Oh, I know just the perfect person." John said, slowly turning around to face Alexander.

"Don't you dare, Laurens. No."

"Hey, Alex. What do you say? All you have to do is take care of Jefferson for 3 hours while James and I take a stroll."

"John. You know I can't stand being around him."

John unleashed his puppy-dog eyes and leaned down so he was in front of his boyfriend's unyielding face.

"H-hey! You can't do that face! It's cheating!" Alexander stuttered, averting his eyes.

"Please? Can you watch him for me?" John pleading, praying his stubborn boyfriend would listen.

The little voice in Alexander's head said: Say no! But of course, Alexander being Alexander, he completely ignore all his logic so that his boyfriend would stop teasing him with those eyes.

"Sure, what could go wrong? We have Mr. Crippled here and Mr. I-Think-I'm-Dying-When-It's-Actually-Just-A-Headache over there. I don't think we have the energy to fight." Alexander confirmed, immediately regretting his decision.

"All righty. Shall we go, James?"

"U-uh, okay?"

--

"Thomas, stop breathing so loudly! I can't focus!"

"Oh, if you would just shut up, maybe you would realize that your voice is like 50 times louder than my supposed breathing!"

"Thomas, I swear–"

There was the sound of a scuffle and then silence.

John and James shared a worried glance.

"A-are you sure you want to do this?" James asked John. "They might kill each other."

"Alexander wouldn't kill him, he already broke his leg. He's too tired to do anything–that's probably why he's yelling." John said, glancing back at the door from which the voices came through.

After seeing James' face relax, John smiled. James was actually a pretty nice kid, except that he hung out with Thomas too much.

"C'mon, what do you want to go do?"

"Could we go get creampuffs? It's kind of my comfort food, and–"

"Let's go!"

--

An hour later, John and James stood outside the door listening to the ruckus from inside.

"Thomas Jefferson don't you dare hit me with th–oof!"

"How did that feel, Alexander? Being taken down by the lightest thing in the world–ow!"

James and John swung the door open to find a whirlwind of feathers floating in the air. Alexander was lying on the floor with a layer of feathers on him. Thomas was sitting victoriously on the bed with feathers stuck in his curly hair.

"What did you do?" James yelled, rushing to Thomas' side and hugging him. "You aren't hurt are you?"

James was fawning over Thomas' afro and plucking out the feathers while Alexander groaned on the floor.

"Wow, John. We're supposed to be dating and I'm collapsed over here on the floor and you aren't even helping me up."

"The one thing I told you was to not hurt him! And what did you do?" John said irritably.

Alexander sighed and rolled over. "Hey, it was just playing. What ever you are mad about, Jefferson started it. Blame him."

"I'll forgive you if I can get a photo of you with those feathers in your hair."

Alexander sighed and stood up as John snapped a picture.

--

To: "the revolutionaries !!"

johnny-boy (me!): alex and jef got in a pillow fight

baguette-man: wow so immature

johnny-boy (me!): alex got feathers like everywhere and it was like in his hair and everywhere i just

HERCULES-MULLIGAN: pic or it didn't happen

johnny-boy (me!): [Attached: Photo_1776]

hammy <3: This is harassment. You all owe me some food or else I won't talk to you for the rest of the day. :)

baguette-man: is not talking to us a bad thing? i would like a shut-up hamilton button

hammy <3: Hey!

johnny-boy (me!): we love you ham

hammy <3: I love you guys too.

--

Later that night, the Revolutionary Squad was sitting John's dorm as they all scrambled to get a start on their final class projects.

"Que diable! Pourquoi dois-je faire toutes ces recherches culturelles ? Je formation pour être un traducteur , pas un anthropologue!" Lafayette almost screamed, throwing his papers into the air. "What the heck! Why do I have to do all this cultural research? I'm training to be a translator, not a anthropologist!"

"Lafayette! Relax. Once we graduate, we won't have to do anything else. All you'll have to do is be a translator, not an anthropologist." Alexander said encouragingly, collecting Lafayette's loose papers.

John was frantically painting in the background and turned around to tell Alexander to quit talking and get back to working, but Alexander was both talking and working.

John rolled his eyes and went back to painting.

--

"Hey, Alexander. Doing anything tonight?" John said absentmindedly, walking behind Alexander and massaging his shoulders.

"Working."

"Done for the day?"

"No way."

"Cause, we've got a date"

"Okay!" Alexander tilted his head to catch John's gaze.

"Great!" John murmured, pressing his lips to Alexander's nose.

Alexander closed his laptop and stood from his chair. Linking his arm through Alexander's, John walked side by side with the shorter man to the door.

"So where are we going?"

"Just you wait. You'll see soon."