Orphanage AU: Lams

Chapter 19: First Day of Class

Ok fam, we're finally on day two. Maybe I should capitalize that: Day Two. Lord knows my writing skills need work. What else is new?

---Alex's POV---

When I woke up, I blinked repeatedly at the bright sunlight streaming in from behind the French curtains on the windows. My eyes fell on Laf and Herc, curled adorably together on the other bed in the dorm, still sound asleep.

Smirking to myself, I grabbed my phone off the stand beside my bed and pulled out the charger they were kind enough to lend me. After a couple of adorkable photos, I slipped out of bed and checked my texts absentmindedly as I padded out the door after slipping on my shoes.

HelplesslyBi: Kevin's all excited bc Nina flew in at 3am last night

AndPeggy: Bet Benny's more excited {smirk face}

My eyes flickered to the white numbers at the top of my phone screen and I almost choked. 7:31?!?! Holy fuck it was late! Within seconds I was out their dorm, down the hall in my dorm, getting a change of clothes out-

John.

John. Was. In. My. Bed. My mind began snickering about how gay that sentence sounded, but I just stared at John.

Corkscrew curls spread across the creamy white pillow, a rich, dark brown. A sweet, happy, innocent expression that was the facial expression embodiment of a cupcake. A splattering of freckles, light brown, that perfected his already perfect face, which was peachy white with enough color to not look ghostly or unhealthy.

He was so adorable, it hurt to look at him but I couldn't stop.

His perfect, thick brown lashes fluttered and I snapped out of it, shooting off to the bathroom to shower, almost slipping on the gleaming white tiles in my haste.

By the time I exited the bathroom, after an excessively long moment of looking at myself in the mirror, John was up and dressed.

He was excited and nervous, I could tell. "Hey, classes at 9:00. We should unlock the bathroom, supply cabinets, and get coffee," he said in a rush. He'd clearly been going over this in his head, scrolling through the list of things we needed to do. He immediately looked regretful at blurting this out. Why was he so uncomfortable with making decisions?

"Wow, you're really on top of things," I appraised him earnestly. "Let's go."

~shortest time skip ever~

"Alex!" I immediately identified the shriek and spun around, beaming.

"Nina!" I hugged her tightly, muttering, "We missed you!"

She smiled brightly, fixing the pencil behind her ear. "Missed you too. How've you all been?"

I waved her off impatiently. "Nevermind that. How was California? What'd you learn at Stanford? Are you staying with your parents or Benny?" At the last question she blushed and quickly changed the subject.

"Who's this kid?" She gestured to John, who was standing slightly apart from us, looking undisturbed by the fact that he'd barely been noticed. Nina nudged me playfully as the three of us entered the coffee shop together. "Aleeex. Did you finally get a boyfriend?"

I lost all ability to speak and opened and closed my mouth wordlessly as my face took on the brightest red you've ever seen. Nina turned to John, who I refused to look at, but John didn't seem capable of speaking either. Probably too shocked by the fact that I was gay. Well, bi, but he didn't know that.

Nina introduced herself and went on to talk about how much she missed the coffee shop and Eliza and Maria, trying her best to counteract the extremely awkward vibes I couldn't seem to stop sending.