Orphanage AU: Lams

Chapter 23: Hamilsquad hangs out

So proud of this chapter title. Sarcasm? Never heard of her.

---John's POV---

Alex often had bags under his eyes, though he did send off a very energetic vibe. I was nervous Alex would be mad when he woke up, but I didn't regret it: Alex needed sleep

Alex, though, wasn't mad. He was fine with it. And looked even better well rested, unfortunately for me. I couldn't stop looking at him.

Suggestions of gans were thrown around after Alex woke up, as rapid fire as their texting. I was still shell shocked by the sheer speed at which they attached each other virtually.

I mean, crap. Whoa. They were fast and furious as soon as the clock struck four and the bell rang. I figured this was actually a bit normal, I was just very socially cut off after I came out to my family. Which was just about the dumbest thing I'd ever done, seeing as Father was openly homophobic and already beat Mother for believing in "liberal bullshit".

"Truth or dare," Peggy suggested slyly, a wicked glint in her eye.

With all my trigger subjects and all the things I couldn't do without thinking about Father, I preferred not to play games like that. Still, I didn't want to be the person to ruin the fun, especially since this was practically my first impression for most of the group, so I kept my mouth shut.

"Nope," Alexander vetoed from beside me, saving me. "No way José." The group laughed too much and I realized it was probably another inside joke or something.

Peggy sighed resignedly. "Ok José."

Elizabeth nudged her sister gently, poking her tan cheek. "Hey, you know Alex doesn't like to play. Let's get a nonpersonal game." She smiled around at everyone and people nodded. I envied how easily she made peace between her friends. If I could do the same with Mother, Father, and I...

"Maybe..."

"Peggy, no." Maria sounded firm, taking Elizabeth's nad.

Peggy persisted, "If we don't touch any trigger subjects, and, you know, just ask questions like 'who's your best friend..."

I winced. I actually didn't have any because Father kind of cut me off. They hired a private tutor for my college education so I wouldn't start hanging out with any guys. Like, who does that?

"-And then it'll be had Washington ever rescued you from hell, yeah, no." Angelica's sharp tongue cut the chatter like a knife.

What did she mean, "rescued from hell?" For the first time, I wondered about what Alex had gone through. I had been able to tell he didn't like to speak about where he came from, but I didn't know why. And the fact that it was Mr. Washington that helped him brought in a new possibility. What if Alex was an orphan?

Elizabeth came back with a small, dark red box with orange lettering.

"Exploding kittens?" Alexander, Peggy, and Angelica groaned in unison.

"Hey, I love kittens." Maria pointed to the box. "'A game for people who love kittens and explosions.'"

"I love explosions," Lafayette offered.

Hercules snorted. "Babe-"

"Chill." Lafayette shrugged him off and opened the box, dealing the cards.

They explained the rules to me, though it was very hard to understand with them talking over each other, making comments about the rules, and interrupting each other.

Finally, Alexander snapped loudly in the middle of the circle. "Guys, you're worse that for Jared clones. This explanation is legitimately shit."

"There's more than four of us," Hercules observed.

"Five points to Gryffindor for stating the obvious. John, basically, you draw a card from the pile in the center each turn. You might get an exploding kitten card, which will blow up and you're out of the game. There is one way to counteract this, which is a defuse card. We all start with one defuse, and there's a few more in the deck. If you defuse a kitten, you put the kitten back in the deck and the dfuse in the discard pile. The other cards you have tell you what they do on the card and are all for helping you avoid getting a kitten, like the skip, where you skip your turn and don't have to risk drawing a kitten. If you have questions, you can ask me. The comical blurbs on each of the cards are of no concern, they are only there to provide humor."

We began to play, and I caught on as we went, though I still exploded close to first. Peggy went first, me second, and the last three standing were Alexander, Angelica, and Elizabeth.

Alexander exploded. Then Angelica. Maria grinned and kissed Elizabeth, laughing.

Wow. What. I blinked. I totally thought they were both after Alex... clearly I couldn't be further from the truth. They liked girls (although they could be bi, pan, or anything) and they were together. Oh wow. John. I couldn't help but feel esastic. Ok, I needed something to distract myself from this miracle of miracles before they caught me grinning stupidly at they newly revealed (to me anyway) couple.

I pulled out my phone. "Six o'clock guys." Several heads snapped up.

"Shit." Hercules jumped up, pulling Lafayette with him. "Marliza, let's go."

"Double date." Maria replied to Angelica's confused expression, hurrying out the door. "Someone accidentally booked 7:00 table."

She looked at Hercules, who had the decency to look meek. "Sorry."

"Seven o'clock is a reasonable time," Alex said, voicing my thoughts.

"It is and hour and a half away because he didn't check the location." Lafayette laughed and pecked Hercules' blushing cheek. "It is fine mon cher, we are teasing you. Let's go!"

We watched as they traipsed out the dorm. "Well," Alexander said, clapping his hands and standing up abruptly. "The people with significant others are gone. How's single life treating you ladies?"

Angelica snorted. Peggy rolled her eyes. Angelica left the room. Peggy followed suit.

"That worked better than I expected," Alexander remarked, dusting his hands with the air of a scientist satisfied with the results of their experiment. "If you don't mind, I'll be working right now, but if you have any questions, feel free to ask."

Shit, he was talking to me. "Oh, yeah, that's fine, thanks!" I approved in a rush.

I sat down on the bed to sketch, letting the art flow from me, and soon the pleasant quiet of the room was filled with the steady tapping of Alex's quick typing.

As I drafting this chapter, me and my friend are sitting in the theater for my 3rd viewing of Bindspotting. Daveed Diggs is in it. Go figure.

-The Worst Writer on Wattpad

(1004 words. Sorry for the short chapter. Schoolwork...)