College Life Was Never Quite My Style || Lams {Hamilton} Modern AU //ON HOLD//

Chapter 1

Turning around and closing the tan coloured front door of my apartment, I took in the scent of New York City: the faint smell of the hot dog stand a block away, the undertone of gasoline, and the smell from the Starbucks across the street, which was my current destination. Pulling myself out of my observant state of mind, I began walking across the small road, observing the cracks in the patches of cement that were still visible, the sound of the crunching snow under my feet, and the smell of coffee beans and sugar that became stronger with every step forward that I took.

Laf and I always joked about how whoever ran that place must've been pretty smart to keep their doors open for all of the college students in the apartments across the street to smell. "It is how they keep this place running!" Lafayette would exclaim in his thick French accent, gesturing towards the little building as we walked past it. It was a joke, but I believed it to be an actual possibility after thinking about the fact that at least one of the baristas at that location was a student that I recognized from school, an Art History major, if I remembered correctly, and that he probably knew the reliance that many college students had on caffeine and figured that he could capitalize off of that and make himself some extra money.

My eyes scanned the shop as I walked in, scraping the snow off of the bottom of my boots, searching for any sights that were new. I saw the typical Literature major typing away on his Macbook and occasionally taking sips from his hot drink that no longer had the lid on it, the two girls in sweatpants with hair that was tied up messily (something that my experience of wrangling my own shoulder-length hair had made me very familiar with,) and the line of people waiting to order, which was a few people shorter than usual.

Realizing that I'd been doing the 'standing in one place for so long that I probably looked lost' thing again, I walked over to the line and stood behind the last man, who wore a trench coat and dark coloured jeans, had messy black hair, and was probably about 5'11. I pulled my cracked iPhone out of the back pocket of my loose jeans and checked my emails and texts, only seeing a new assignment from Professor Washington and a picture from Lafayette, which was a beautiful picture of the view over Paris from the top of the Eiffel Tower. Deciding that the picture warranted a call rather than a text, I resolved to call him later tonight, which would be the morning for him.

"Next!" The barista called out in a rather grumpy tone of voice. Startled, I looked up from the screen in my hand that currently displayed my notes from yesterday's lesson to see that I was the only one left in line. Heat rose to my cheeks as I clicked the button on the side of my phone to turn off the screen and slid it into the back pocket of my jeans, rushing up to the counter. The barista's eyes were filled with annoyance as he twirled a bit of his loose, curly hair, which strangely showed resemblance to Lafayette's on the rare occasion that he let it free from the ponytail he insisted on keeping it in.

"Sorry," I said quickly. "I'll have a grande Caramel Macchiato, please," I rushed, pulling out my wallet and grabbing my card, as well as an extra dollar bill.

"That'll be $7.84," He said, a bored look on his face as he looked at me with an expression that read 'well? Pay me already,' so I swiftly swiped my card and typed out my pin number, and then handed him a crumpled dollar bill.

"For your time," I said. He snatched it from my hand without a word and put it in his pocket. Slightly put off by his attitude, I sat down and waited for my coffee, further observing the people around me and thinking about what their lives could be like.

It was odd, but one of my favorite things to do had always been people-watching. It was nice to observe the body language and mannerisms of different people, because it taught me a bit more about the human mind and just how peculiar it is. One big part of debating is paying attention to the body language of your opponent. Sadly, that wasn't my sharpest skill, which was problematic in the face of my goal of becoming a lawyer. Going out more often and sitting down in crowded places and just studying the people around me, seeing what their nervous ticks were, how expressive they were, and how different emotions affected that had really been helpful, and Professor Washington agreed after noticing that I'd been more keen on body language after a demonstration debate in class. "You're doing better at reading people, Alex. Good job," He'd said to me after class. I smiled for the rest of the day after that.

"Caramel Macchiato!" A perky barista called out after sliding my drink out to the serving corner of the front counter. I slipped out of my tall chair and landed quietly on the ground, and then hurried over and grabbed my drink before walking out into the cold weather once again, a breeze of frosty air coming over me. I stepped forward and turned to face the street sign that read "Miranda Rd," the street that my college was on, plugged the cord to my headphones that rested around my neck into my phone, turned on Spotify and put my songs on shuffle, and quietly walked down the brick path that was blanketed in snow.

As I scanned the mostly empty snow-covered quad, my eyes caught sight of a new student that I'd never seen before. He was tall and lanky with pale brown skin, a mess of freckles that I barely noticed from that far away, which stretched across his cheeks and his nose, and thick, wavy hair that was messily pulled back into a low ponytail. He wore a sweater that looked about two sizes too big for him, which was green with a turtle on the front, and dark blue skinny jeans with black high-top Converse. He was looking down at a piece of paper in his hand and occasionally looked around with a confused expression on his face. The poor kid was probably lost.

Remembering the feeling of being so horribly lost on my first day at the magnificently big school in front of me, I took pity on the kid and walked across the quad to where he leaned against a rail, trying to find out where he was.

"Hey, you lost?" I asked him with a friendly smile.

"Yeah," He admitted, his voice mid-ranged and smooth, "Can you help me? Do you know where this is?" He gestured to his schedule as he handed it to me. I took the horribly crumpled paper from his hand and looked over it. "I'm heading to Marine Biology 1," He said.

Marine Biology, I thought to myself as I navigated my mental map of the school, interesting.

"You're at the right building. Biology classes are on the 5th floor. You should be able to find the door number once you get up there," I said with a kind smile as I handed back his schedule.

"Thanks, man," He smiled back as he pushed himself off of the railing. He waved at me as he rushed to his class, and I waited a second, taking in how fast the whole thing had happened and just how cute he was, before walking into the same building and taking the stairs up to the third floor.

~

Ayye, look who's back. *finger guns*

Okay, so you've probably noticed that One New Message, Darling We'll Carry On, and A Symphony of Broken Chances are gone. I unpublished them because I don't want my page to be filled with uncompleted work. I'm focusing on this book for now. After, I will focus on only one book as a time so that I don't overwhelm myself. Sorry if I took down your favorite, but it will be back.

- Chase