Sons of Liberty University | Hamilton College AU

Chapter 11 - You and I

John

"Wow," I said softly. "Those three weeks flew by really fast, didn't they, Alex?"

"Yep," he said from his bed. He had borrowed a school laptop for his work in the first week so he could get all of his stuff done.

There was a quick knock at the door. We didn't even have time to respond to it before the door busted open. Herc and Laf barged in, holding cartons of ice cream.

Alex and I looked at each other simultaneously.

A second later, Eliza came in, followed by Angelica.

"Today is the day, folks!" Eliza shouted at the top of her lungs.

"It's time for you to confess!" Angelica said in a sing-song voice.

I groaned. Not again.

Alex immediately shut his laptop and buried his head under his pillow. "Please stop, guys," he said, his voice muffled by the pillow. "We'll do it on our own terms."

And then sweet little Margaret Schuyler came in and launched herself on top of Alex. He let out a yelp of surprise before attempting to get up, but failing miserably.

"Come on, Johnny boy!" Laf said, his french accent poking out. "You need to say something to him!"

"Doesn't this defeat the purpose of a surprise confession if he is here to hear it?" I asked.

Peggy grabbed another pillow and shoved overtop of Alex's head. "NOT ANYMORE!"

Alex started struggling even more underneath her. He tried to push her off, but he wasn't strong enough to.

"Peggy, stop," I said seriously. "Get the pillow off of his head."

She looked confused, but removed the pillow covering Alex's head and climbed off of him. He gasped for air and looked around wildly until his eyes fell on me. He bolted over to me and latched onto me and took several frantic breaths.

I quickly wrapped my arm around him and tried to comfort him. "Hey, you're okay. She wasn't trying to hurt you, you're okay."

He stared at the wall, wide-eyed and afraid.

During the second week of college, he explained to me why he had these sudden panic attacks.

His father, James Hamilton, had seriously abused Alex during his childhood and would frequently try to kill him. The pillow thing was a particularly nasty one, as his father had almost succeeded, if not for Rachel, Alex's mom, coming in and pulling James off of Alex.

The others look at me in confusion.

Later, I mouthed to them. For now, Alex needed me.

They all left the room a few seconds later.

"Are you okay?" I asked carefully. "If not, we can chill for a while."

He took a couple of deep breaths. "Yeah, I'm fine," he said. "Besides, I wouldn't want to put off our date."

I had asked him on a date yesterday, and to my delight, he had said yes.

And then he promptly kissed me afterward, but THAT'S NOT THE POINT.

I smiled softly and leaned my head against his. He was warm and comforting.

But frail. Incredibly and horribly frail.

We had been messing around after classes a few days ago when I had picked him up around his waist, just to see how heavy he was. But when I picked him up, I could feel his ribs poking out of his abdomen. He was incredibly light like he hadn't eaten in years.