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

Chapter 8

The rest of the night, until about 1 in the morning, was spent playing Mario Kart with John, the only other sober one, and a very drunk Laf, accompanied by an even drunker Hercules. I had to say, John was right; Hercules was absolutely hilarious to play against when he was drunk.

His coordination had gone out the window with his sobriety, but he didn't seem to care that he was losing. The entire time, he made commentary over the races, which had us all doubled over in laughter. Everytime Herc passed on of us, he loudly exclaimed "HERCULES FUCKING MULLIGAN!"

At one point, Herc and Laf formed an 'alliance' against John and I, which Laf eventually broke by throwing a squid at Hercules, who seemed both jokingly and genuinely pissed off and betrayed, and who swore revenge upon Laf.

When Laf and I finally got ready to leave, John stopped me and handed me the worn copy of Zodiac that he'd read from earlier.

"Take it," He said with a kind smile. "Borrow it for as long as you want."

"Thank you," I replied, returning his smile.

"Wait, before you go, let me make a note in the book," He held his finger up to signal for me to wait, and quickly got a pencil off of the coffee table in the living room. He walked back and took the book, flipping the inside cover open and scrawling something down before he closed it and handed it back to me.

I gave him a smile and a wave and walked out into the cold night air, which had been progressively been getting a little bit warmer as winter came to an end.

-

Laf and I walked into our apartment, him stumbling forward as he leaned on my shoulder for support.

"Get changed and go to bed," I instructed.

"But I'm not sleepy, ma petite pasteque," Laf replied in a giggly, bubbly voice.

A giggle escaped my mouth before I spoke. "Do you want to have a horrible headache tomorrow, Laf?" I raised an eyebrow as I spoke.

"Non," He sighed in defeat, picking himself up off of me and walking into the bathroom. I walked off into my bedroom, sitting down on my bed and opening the book that John let me borrow. I saved his number in my contacts list and sent him a message.

Alex: I just got called a 'small watermelon' in French.

I worried for a second after I realized that I didn't give any indication as to who I was, but he seemed to know it was me.

John: Is this how Laf typically shows affection?

I giggled as I typed my reply.

Alex: I've heard a lot of odd shit from him, but I've gotta say that this one's a first.

From there, our conversation flowed, going on and on like a song that I never wanted to reach the end of. We talked and talked, losing track of time until John pointed out that it was nearing four in the morning, and he had class 6 hours from then. I told him goodnight, although I wanted to do anything but quit talking to him, and sighed as I turned off my phone screen.

I got up from my bed and walked out of my room, quickly peaking my head into Laf's room to make sure he was asleep before I walked out into the lounge and then into the kitchen to make myself a cup of coffee.

When the machine was done pouring out my drink, I picked it up and moved to the living room couch, placing my cup on the glass coffee table before I sat down on the couch.

I flipped open to the dog-eared page of Zodiac and picked up where John had left off.

It was a good book. The writer was intelligent in a way that made his words appeal to me. I didn't find that all too often, so it was always nice when I did. It made the book feel more natural, as if the writer was really speaking to me. The attention to every detail of every one of the murders that he could get his hands on made the whole book feel so much more real.