Homework (Lams AU)

Doing John's Homework

"What do you guys think I should do?" I ask, scrolling and refreshing Instagram constantly. 

"I..I don't know, honestly." Lafayette admits. 

"I think you should talk to John." Hercules suggests.

I shake my head. "I don't want to worry him. Not if I can stop him from posting it before hand." I say, refreshing the page again.

"Well, what are you planning on doing to stop him, then?" Herc sighs. 

"I..I don't know.. Report his page so his account gets taken down?"

"Even if you did that and it worked, he would just create another account. How do you even know he's going to post it on Instagram?" Laf asks. 

My face drops and I look up at them finally. "You're right. Do either of you have him on Snapchat? What are some other ways he can post it?" 

"Alex, take a deep breath." I hesitate, but do as instructed. "Now, think this through. What's the best way to make sure Jefferson doesn't expose you and John's relationship?"

I stare at the Irish man a little longer before a light bulb goes off. I look at my phone and start to pull my favorite photos of John and I from my Snap memories, as well as screenshotting the photos Jefferson sent me. 

"What.. What are you doing?" Laf asks, walking over to look at my screen. 

"I'm going to post it before Jefferson can. That way, he can't have the satisfaction of posting it himself." I start to put all the photos into one post and Hercules takes my phone from me. 

"Hold on, are you sure you want to be doing this?" He asks. "You're going to expose your own little "affair?" Out your own partner before you even consult him?" 

"I don't know! I.. I just don't want Thomas releasing information before we come out and tell everyone. It's not his place to tell everyone-"

"And it's not your place to tell everyone for John." Herc states, looking at me sternly. I sigh and hang my head low. 

"You're right.. I have to go see him." I stand up and Herc hands my phone back to me. I exit out of Instagram and then nod at them. "I'll talk to you guys later. I'm going to meet John at the park, so we can talk about this."

Timeskip brought to you by Usnavi being the Caribbean island type (but he can drive you wild all night)

"Hey, Alex, what did you want to talk about?"

I turn and see the smiling, freckled boy walking towards me. He sees my frown and freezes in his place, staring at me a bit longer.

"What's wrong?" He asks, cautiously sitting next to me.

I sigh and open Instagram, reluctantly showing the conversation where Jefferson sent the photos and threatened to release them. I see John gulp and he looks up at me.

"He...He knows?" John asks.

I nod slowly. "I'm so sorry...I know I should have told you sooner, I just thought maybe I could keep him from posting it and we wouldn't even have to worry about it."

"Alex, you should have told me." He says, frowning a bit more. "He's going to release these photos, which is a part of my business, too."

I look down at my lap, ashamed I didn't tell him. Hercules and Lafayette were telling me the whole time to tell him, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. "I.. I thought I could protect you. I didn't want you getting hurt."

He sighs. "Whatever, that's not the main issue here. Jefferson is." He takes my phone and looks through the messages. "What are we going to do?"

"I..  I was thinking we post it before Thomas can. That way he doesn't get the payback, and it won't be blown way out of proportion." I suggest. He looks up at me with a horrific look. 

"You want us to tell everyone? I thought we were going to wait.."

"I want to wait as long as you do, believe me. I just.. I don't see it going well if Thomas exposes our relationship first, you know?" 

He looks down at my phone and then back up at me. "There has to be another way."

"John, he's going to release them-"

"Maybe he's bluffing!"

"Do you really want to chance that?"

"He hasn't released them yet. Maybe he just wanted to scare you into exposing yourself-"

"I don't think he would go through all that just to lose his leverage in the end." I tell him. 

"Leverage. He has blackmail. He's going to ask a favor or something, that's what he is waiting for." John says, having an aha moment.

"And I can't imagine it'll be a fun favor. We have to take away his advantage before he can use it against us." I explain. 

"Alex, you don't understand.. This can't get back to my dad. It would be bad if it did." He looks as if he's going to cry and I sigh and pull him into a hug.

"John, I'm only suggesting it because I don't see any other way. Besides, wouldn't it be nice, to be able to talk to each other at school? For your friends to finally stop bullying me? For everyone to finally see we're a couple?"

He shrugs and looks to the side. "It might be nice.." He mumbles.

"John, I think we have to, and I think you know that, too." I say, holding his hand.

He looks up at me and sighs. "Fine. So we post it. But what photos?"

I pull up the draft and we go through the pictures, choosing the perfect ones, and then work on the caption for the post. We didn't want it to be obvious someone else knew, so we just put something cheesy like "my one and only." I made sure to tag John in it, and also tag Thomas so he could see that if he were to post it, it would be old news. I hover over the post button and look up at John. 

He kisses me quickly and then looks down at the screen, nodding. "Do it." 

I nod and press post, and we wait for it to upload. 

1048 Words