Smol Fry | Hercules X Lafayette

C h a p t e r F o r t y f i v e

Laff's POV

Sometimes, I regret being born.

I felt it productive to check my instagram, just so I would not be on my phone all day instead. Had I anticipated just what would be on my feed, I might have just stayed in bed and died. I had left the payment rather late, and by that I mean ignoring it for a whole month. It was safe to say I thought that Reynolds must have put it past him, decided that he could get more money from other people instead.

No, he did not.

I opened up the app and scrolled through a couple of 'meme pages' Alexander suggested I should follow. After a good ten minutes of looking at other people's achievements, I scrolled past an image that looked rather familiar, so I went back up... and there it was. Staring me straight in the face, the image of me and Maria, posted so anyone could see it. I checked the account - just some mutual 'friends' from college, not James Reynolds himself, so it must have spread. How long had it been going around? And just who had seen it?

I shuffled myself around to face Hercules. What in God's name was I meant to do? If he found out, there was no explanation I would be able to come up with. That would mean telling him... everything. He would not even want to listen to that after seeing the picture, who would blame him?

"You starin' at me, Laff?" A voice mumbled. I turned my phone off and tucked it under my pillow.

"Not intentionally, I promise," I replied, with a tired smile.

"Hmmm, yeah sure," he smiled, looking half asleep, "I'm gonna get a shower, anyway. Don't eat the breakfast Al's made, it smell's shit."

With a small kiss planted on my head, he left the room, and a few seconds later the shower started to run. I looked at the mirror - my hair looked half-okay, and I had a shower yesterday night: I would be fine. Or at least I would until Hercules checked his Instagram. Could I intercept it somehow? No, that would be stupid - I was not going to look through his phone. Instead, I put some comfortable enough clothes on and headed to the kitchen.

"G'mornin', Lafayette," John called from the sofa, "We, uhhh, burnt the toast, so d'you want some pop-tarts or something?"

Anything but pop-tarts.

"I'll just have some juice," I smiled, grabbing some apple juice from the fridge.

Alexander nodded a good morning, with some burnt toast  stuffed in his mouth, I returned it with a nod, holding up my glass of juice. For a minute, out of the corner of my eye, I saw him shoot me a strange glance, but quickly resumed his toast. When I sat down on the sofa, John seemed a little quieter than usual, not commenting on a tv show we watched last night, or an upcoming movie. Surely, surely they had not seen the post already? No, there was a chance they had. Maybe they read the comments. Maybe they commented. They could have reposted it? Or sent it to Hercules.

Shut up, its you who is in the wrong anyway.

After a while, John 'broke' the silence and tapped me on the shoulder, signaling for me to follow him. We went into their room and he sat on the bed.

"Are you okay, Lafayette?" he asked as I sat on the bed.

"Wh- yes, yes of course," I replied.

No you are not.

"You seem off. Not very smiley... Al and I have been noticing a lot lately, d'you wanna talk? Is it something between you and Hercules?"

"No, no, nothing has happened between us, I just-" Before I said anymore, I stopped myself and shook my head.