In the Eye of the Hurricane

Chapter 4

A/N: This one's a little shorter, but I wanted to get it out.

The meeting had been scheduled to end ten minutes ago. Most people had left already, but a few stayed behind to see the outcome of the debate. John stood at the front of the room, Alex standing just a few feet away. He had been sitting earlier, but the spirit of the argument had won over apparently. Initially Thomas had thought that the two of them might get along. He couldn't have been further from the truth. Neither of them would give up and at this point they were both starting to recycle used arguments, but it didn't seem any less heated than when it first started.

Abigail had come in about five minutes ago for John, but he hadn't seemed to notice. Ten minutes after was when Lafayette came in looking for Alex. Abigail was usually content waiting for her boyfriend to finish as long as it didn't keep going forever (which it seemed to be doing), but she was on her feet and heading towards John just as Laf came in.

"Alexander, I've been waiting in the cold for fifteen minutes," Laf shouted over the argument, successfully getting his friend's attention.

"Sorry, Laf. I had to educate Adams on a few things."

John opened his mouth to retort just as Abigail put a hand on his shoulder. He looked at her and the tension in his shoulders seemed to melt away.

"Well, this was fun."

Alex turned to Thomas. "You just kept quiet halfway through."

"Exactly," he said. "Arguing is so tiring. Watching others do the arguing is more enjoyable sometimes."

Alex rolled his eyes. "You're weird."

Thomas' attention was quickly drawn to a buzzing in his pocket. His phone's screen lit up with a text from James.

Thomas collected his things and departed quietly. Ordinarily he might have taken the time to say bye to the people there, maybe say hi to Laf; this was t one of those times. Although he had been feeling better, he still felt an empty sort of weight in his chest. He left the classroom and went out into the bitter cold where he found James waiting with John.

Unless you counted his therapist back in Charlestown, John hadn't ever had someone to talk about his mental issues with. He started to think that maybe that could change, though he didn't get his hopes up.

He had decided to skip debate club, and it turned out ot be better that he did. When he got back to his room, James was lying in his bed; John had thought he was asleep. He sat down in his own bed and looked over to see James' eyes open.

"Didn't feel like going to debate either?" John asked.

James stayed quiet for a moment, as if it was taking him longer than ordinary to process the question. "No."

"You all right?"

Again, he was quiet for a few seconds before answering. "Just one of those days."

"Did you go to class?"

"I made it through them."

John tried to think of what his sister would have been asking him. "Have you eaten today?"

"Not really."

"How about this; you go take a shower and I'll go get some food and come back."

James looked at him with his eyebrows raised. "You usually do this sort of thing for people?"

John bit his tongue. He took a deep breath and said, "My sister would help me out on bad days before I moved out. I figure I can repay the compliments." He saw a small smile begin on James's face.