Too Many Drinks | Lams

Chapter 5

Alexander sighed, sliding into the passenger seat. Buckling his seat belt, he felt something land in his lap. John's phone.

"What the hell, John?" Alex asked, picking it up.

"Finish that level I'm on," John motioned to the screen, a game pulled up on his phone.

Alexander quickly found the word John could not get, "It was 'truce' John, how could you not get that?"

"Do you want tacos or not?" John smirked knowing the answer.

"Just drive already," Alexander hugged, slouching back.

John twisted the dial, turning up the music, he bounced his head to the beat, even tapping against the steering wheel. Alexander sat quietly pressing his thumbs together fidgeting his finer he watched as John swayed, as all of his worries washed away into the music, music never meant to him what it meant to John, at least not in that moment. The music gave John hope and Alexander honestly loved how at peace John was with it.

  They pulled up into the parking lot, yet there weren't many cars, for a Saturday especially. They walked in, taking a moment to breathe in the smell of food, there stomachs rumbled at just the smell. Alex scanned the room, a normal thing for him to do, somehow his friend Hercules, usually was here when they were, but not today. Today Alexander saw the person he hated most, the person he was not ready to bicker with at the moment, the royal pain himself, Thomas Jefferson. Alexander felt his confidence grow small and he pulled at the cloth of Johns shirt, "John," he whispered.

"What?" John looked over to Alex, tilting his head slightly.

"Can we go somewhere else?" Alex tried to smile, but failed, his emotions falling blank.

"Why?" A sadness was sewed into John's voice.

"I don't feel like dealing with Jefferson," Alex glanced over to the man in line in front of them.

"Okay," John's voice trailed slightly, Jefferson wasn't as awful as Alex thought, sure he was stuck up, but when he was relaxed the man wasn't so bad, "Burgers sound good?"

Alex nodded. They walked out of the establishment, slipping back into their places in the car. They drove for another ten minutes, Alex now observing how focused yet relaxed John had been driving with music, maybe he should get John a small speaker for their dorm, after all Alex didn't mind the music.

John parked the car in front of a little dinner smiling proudly.

"What's with the smile John?" Alex asked curiously.

"Oh, uh, nothing, we just came here a lot last year, remember?" John looked down at his feet, ridding the smile from his face.

"Oh yeah, we did," Alex smiled goofily, "Come on I'm starving now," he dragged John onto the sidewalk.

"I can walk Alex," John huffed.

"Not fast enough," Alex spoke entering the diner. They took a booth pressed up against the window.

A few minutes past, a waitress had come and gone asking for drinks. She had come back with two lemon-lime sodas, asking them what they had wanted to order. They listed off what they had wanted on their burgers. John going with pickle but no cheese, and Alex going for cheese, and no pickle. They laughed at, the waitress included. The two talked lightly classes, not being able to go into depth before the waitress came back. Handing them their burgers, she left them alone for a while.

They continued their talks, laughing as they usually do. Finally finishing up the waitress came back handing them the bill. Alex grabbed it before John could, he pulled at his wallet grabbing the cash, and he scribbled down something at the bottom of the bill, John glanced over at it, a pang of sadness hit him, it was Alexander's phone number.