Forever and Ever // Lams

The Fire

ALEXANDER'S POV

I woke up extra early on Monday morning to make everyone breakfast. I made each person a cheese, veggie bacon, and egg sandwich on a bagel.

"Alex?" I hear John call from our room.

Our room! It felt so nice to call it our room again, and not my room.

"In here, John!" I called back.

He came out to the kitchen at the same time as Herc and Laff.

"What is zis? Alexander, Mon ami! You... cooked us breakfast?" Laff looked amazed.

"I'm surprised you didn't burn down the house!" Exclaimed Herc.

"You guys seem to forget that I lived on my own since I was 12, I had to cook for myself then!" I was joking around, but everyone looked at me with pity in their eyes. "Guys, it's not a big deal! I'm just saying that to make a point!"

The atmosphere became slightly more relaxed in the room and we went about our sleepy morning banter as we all ate our sandwiches. Well, Herc, Laff, and Jacky ate. I convinced John that I had already eaten. I had, but it was just a couple carrots. I couldn't lie to him without him figuring it out, so I had to eat a little bit to get away with it.

I left while everyone was still eating to change. I couldn't let John see that I was still so skinny, when I had supposedly been eating for the last few days.

I was changing my shirt when John walked in with no warning. He was smiling, but it faded quickly when he saw that my ribs still were painfully obvious.

"Alex, have you really been eating? Because you look no different than before!" His voice was full of worry, and it made me feel guilty.

I stared at the ground. "I have..."

"You haven't! Alex, I don't know what to do to get you to eat! I've tried everything, and you still won't! Why won't you? Why do you feel like you can't eat? Because you've been skinnier than me since the first day of school!"

I sighed. "I will never see myself as skinny, Jacky. Please just accept that. And please, don't try to tell me when to eat! I'm perfectly healthy!"

"Do you really believe that, Alexander? You really think starving yourself is healthy? You watch everyone else eat three times a day, sometimes more, yet you still think eating, like, once a week is healthy? Well, it's not! I just wish you could see that!" His voice cracked.

I looked up and saw tears were silently flowing down his face. I couldn't believe it.

"My health really matters to you?" I asked.

"Of course! I've said that to you a thousand times, Alex!" I looked back down again.

"John, I'm sorry, but I can't do it. I..." I trailed off. We had made eye contact. I cursed myself silently for looking up again. "Fine. But on one condition."

His lips formed a slight smile. "Anything."

I rushed forward and began kissing him. He seemed surprised at first, but quickly melted into the kiss.

I kept kissing him, and I tugged at his shirt slightly as I broke apart from his lips and began kissing his neck.

"Alex..." He murmured "School..."

I stopped. "Oh yeah, sorry Jacky, just got wrapped up in the moment." I said quietly.

He looked into my eyes. "It's ok, Alex we--"

He was cut off by Lafayette slamming the door open, yelling, "Where it it?! I can't find it anywhere!"

He turned and saw us against the wall.

"Oh... uh... sorry monsieurs, I was ju--"

Laff was cut off by Herc storming in. "Did you find it?!"

He looked at where Laff was staring. "Oh... sorry... uh..."

I backed away from John. "It's fine, what were you looking for?"

"We were looking for our towels, our clothes, most of our ownings in general!" Exclaimed Laff.

"Belongings." I corrected quietly.

"What do you mean? Were we robbed or something?" John walked over to our closet and checked inside.

"All of our stuff is still in here. Are you sure you're not just forgetting where you put your things?"

"I am CERTAIN! Do you think I, moi, would lose my clothes?! Style is so important, to 'ow you say... make a good implication!"

"Impression?" Herc asked playfully and began tickling Laff playfully.

"HUNKULES!" He couldn't stop laughing "STOP! IT!"

"Ok." Hercules stopped and Laff eyed him suspiciously.

Suddenly Herc's hands were back on Laff and he began tickling him again.

"CASSE TOI, HUNKULES! CASSE TOI!" Yelled Laff, and they slowly moved out of the room, Herc still tickling Laff.

"Kinky." Laughed John.

I laughed along with him, hoping the whole ordeal had made him forget that I needed to ea--

"Ok, what do you want to eat?" Asked John.

"Nothing." I muttered.

"Ok, left over Chinese food it is then!" Exclaimed John.

I sat down at the table, and Jacky put a large plate of noodles and a couple egg rolls in front of me with a fork.

"Comer, mi amor!" He kissed me on the top of my head and sat down next to me.

I reluctantly began eating, and the more I ate the hungrier I seemed to feel. I ate the whole plate and my stomach was still growling.

"Wow, that was fast." Chuckled John.

"I guess I was hungry." I admitted. I sort of wanted to eat more, but we were already 10 minutes late to school.

"HUNKULES!" We heard Lafayette say loudly from behind their closed bed room door.

John walked over, he put his ear on the door and his eyes widened.

"We should probably just go ahead and take my motorcycle to school." Said John and I began laughing so hard I nearly fell off my chair.

We got on his motorcycle, I nearly hesitated, but I decided to trust Jacky again. I mean, I trusted him earlier when he had told me to eat and now my stomach no longer hurt so bad that I felt like I was going to die. Maybe I would start eating again...

We were in math class when it happened. The fire alarm began ringing loudly in our ears. We thought it was a drill at first, but then the sprinklers began going off. We all ran out of the classroom, I nearly got trampled.

When we got outside, we saw the principal yelling angrily at a tall student. A familiar student. I squinted my eyes to try to figure out who it was.

It was Thomas Jefferson.