Puppies Bring Love (A Jamilton College AU)

Chapter 19: Visitors, Early Returns, and Talks

~~~

A knock on the door interrupted Alexander’s second day of sobbing. Alex sniffled and tried to wipe away his tears before standing and answering the door.

“James? Aaron? Wh-what are you doing here?” Alex sniffled and wiped his red, puffy eyes.

James only glared angrily, tears almost leaking through. Aaron sighed, “Hamilton, let us in.”

Alex gulped, knowing exactly what this was about. He moved aside to let the two guys in. Once the door was closed, Alex sat on his bed as James and Aaron sat themselves on Thomas’ bed. It was quiet for a moment, James still glaring, but tears were rolling down his cheeks, and Aaron was close to him, comforting him.

After a solid thirty minutes of complete silence, Aaron took a deep breath and began to talk.

“How could you?” he asked. “Why would you do this to Thomas? You know how much he loves you, and now you up and do this to him? Come on, haven’t you learned from the last time!? How dare you?!”

“You can’t possibly think that I wanted this for a second!” Alex cried. “I love Thomas with all my heart, and I did something so stupid! I overworked myself just like I promised I wouldn’t and it caused this mess! I’m so sorry! I wish I could change what happened, but I can’t.”

Aaron and James watched Alex break down in front of them. They were conflicted. How were they supposed to know if this was real or not? James suddenly got a text.

To James: hey, jem, can u pick me up from the airport?

To Thomas: i thought you weren’t coming back til Friday…

To James: yeah, well something came up. I need 2 see Alex now.

To Thomas: no no, we’re handling it now. You don’t have to end your vacation yet.

To Thomas: wait...why do you need to see Alex?

To James: i would assume that you know what he did.

To James: look, i don’t want to get into details until i hear the full story, so can you pls just pick me up?

To Thomas: sure, are you there now?

To James: i’m a half an hour away.

To Thomas: ok, i’m on my way.

To James: thx, jemmy, i really appreciate this.

To Thomas: anytime.

“I gotta go pick up Thomas from the airport,” James said to Aaron.

“I thought he wasn’t coming back until Friday,” Aaron scrunched his eyebrows in confusion.

“I dunno, says he has to see Alexander for some reason.”

“Does he know?”

Aaron and James turned to Alexander for the answer.

“Y-yes, T-Thomas knows,” Alex whimpered. “H-he knows b-b-because I-I t-t-told him y-yesterday a-after it h-happened.”

“You told him?” Aaron asked shocked.

Alexander nodded and broke down into more tears. “A-a-and the w-worst part i-i-is...I s-still don’t know h-how he’ll r-react.”

“Well, I’m going to the airport, call if you need anything,” James said, kissing Aaron’s forehead before leaving the room.

Aaron watched his boyfriend leave before redirecting his attention to the sobbing mess on the bed. He sighed, not wanting to deal with this mess.

~~~

James and Thomas rode home in complete silence. The radio wasn’t on, no one was talking, and the only noise was the wind from the windows being down. The quiet was killing James, and that was saying something. James was always one who preferred quiet more than rambunctious surroundings, but a little noise would be okay. With Thomas, there was expected to be noise, the man always talked about something. Sure, he wasn’t Alexander, that guy could talk for days, but he could still hold a conversation for a long period of time.

“Thomas?” James tried, but Thomas only grunted and looked out the window. He could see how hurt he was. He was trying to hold back tears, he knew it. He was very good at reading people. “How was Paris?”

“Good,” he replied quietly.

“Bring back any cool souvenirs?”

“Yeah,” Thomas said with a sniffle this time.

“Did-”

“James, please.”

Wow, he didn’t call him by his nickname. He must be really upset about this. Well, who wouldn’t? If Aaron had cheated on him with someone else, he’d be devastated.

“Sorry,” James sighed and continued the silent drive to the campus.

~~~

“John, what did you do?” Lafayette asked.

“Yeah, I'm curious too,” Hercules crossed his arms. “You better have a solid explanation. Why was Alexander running out of here sobbing yesterday?”

“He was upset that he cheated on Thomas,” John replied, hugging his knees tightly.

“Something else is going on, I know it,” Hercules raised an eyebrow.

“I agree, mon ami. You are Alexander's best friend, he wouldn’t just friend dump you like that,” Lafayette agreed.

“Did you force him to have sex last night?” Hercules inquired.

“He did it on his own will,” Laurens growled. “I didn’t force him to do anything. I was insistent, I’ll admit, but I would never force him to do anything.”

“But John...you knew that Thomas and Alexander are dating,” Lafayette said confused. “Why would you keep trying to be with him?”

“I love him, Laf...I love him so much and he goes and falls in love with someone else,” Laurens cried in his knees.

“John, that’s life,” Hercules stated bluntly. “Listen, you gotta get over it. If Alex didn’t choose you, then it wasn’t meant to be.”

“Exactly! You can’t just force him to love you by forcing him to have a one night stand with you,” Lafayette added. “Move on, find someone else to love.”

“But I want Alex,” John sniffled.

“You can’t always get what you want, John,” Hercules placed a hand on John’s back. “That’s not how life works.”

“Why is life so unfair?”

“If life was fair, it’d be too easy,” Lafayette answered. “Don’t worry, mon ami, you will be fine. You’ll get over him eventually.”

~~~

(1002 words)

Thank you all for over 600 reads! I'm happy you all are enjoying this story! We have one more chapter to go after this and then on to the next book in the series! I'm currently obsessed with Dear Evan Hansen soundtrack. I just started yesterday. I've always been interested in checking it out, but I didn't do it until I watched them win 6 Tonys with Lin-Manuel Miranda handing them the award (what an honor!!). I love this soundtrack so much and I really wanna see the show, but I don't have that kind of money. Anyway, I'm rambling, sorry. I'll get out of your way now! I hope you all enjoyed this and if you did, you know what to do! I'll see you guys on Friday. Love you guys, bye!