Helpless- A Lams Modern AU Fanfiction

Chapter Five

Alex's Perspective

After school a few hours later, John and I are in the car, singing along to the radio and holding hands over the gear shift. After a minute, I turn the radio down a little.
"Bet you like my rust bucket car now," I tease, grinning at John.
"Never!" He shouts, sticking his tongue out at me. He changes his tune after a minute, though, when I turn to the world's worst country radio station. "Fine, your car is good, but it's still a pile of junk," he laughs.

"Hey, at least it's a working pike of junk," I offer.
He seethes. "Will you come visit me when I'm in jail because Peggy's dead?"
"I'll send you a file baked into some pancakes," I promise, laughing at his serious face. "How was school today?"
"Alright. I got an A on my math test! How about you?" John is such an adorable geek, getting excited about math and turtles. Even now, his face is glowing with pride.

"School was good. In Mr. Washington's class I got in an argument with that awful Jefferson kid. We were doing a debate exercise for Political Sciences, and we were assigned the topic of women's rights throughout history. It was really interesting, until he went and talked about how people were right in thinking that men are the dominant sex."
"What did you do?" John looks fascinated, probably hoping that Jefferson got shouted down by the whole class.
"I started my side of the argument, but it became a little...personal. We got in a bit of a battle. I may have punched him. It's a blur."

I feel kind of bad now that I picked on Madison. He's barely five foot six, and really skinny. He carries around this inhaler all the time, and he's always sitting out of P.E. class. But come on! Jefferson can't do anything without Madison darting along behind him like an overeager puppy promised a treat.

"Jefferson's kind of mean. He picks on all of the freshman students, and he's got all of these two hundred year old ideas." John begins to climb out of the car. "Don't let him bother you."

The café that John wanted us to visit is an up and coming hipster place called Digg This, after our town of Diggs, New York. It's steamy and warm inside, with windows fogged up as rain patters down gently outside.

"What's good here?" I sit down at the table by the window, relaxing in the warmth and gentle music that fills the building. The chairs are all salvaged armchairs. Mine is patterned with roses and smells like cheap perfume.
"I always get hot chocolate," John says, smiling.
"What, no coffee?" Coffee is like my lifeblood. It's how I get most of my life done.
"Coffee makes me hyper. I drink hot chocolate. With marshmallows." He sticks his chin out defiantly, as if daring me to pick on him.
"Dork," I tease, giving him a kiss. "Go get two hot chocolates."

A few moments later, the door swings open and an ethereal chime sounds through the café. I look up to see an unfortunately familiar mop of dark curls and a long purple coat that seems to shimmer under lights.
Great. Thomas Jefferson's here.

"Hamilton." His voice rings out as he walks toward me. I say walk, but it's more of a pompous sashay. He steps high in his preposterous shoes, finally coming to rest by my table.
"Jefferson."
The two of us glare at one another, each daring the other silently to back down first. He finally breaks contact, looking me up and down appraisingly.

"How are you?" His words are courteous but his voice is full of acid.
"Fine. I was good, until you came flouncing in here." John, who has returned with our drinks, gives me a high five under the table.
"Sure, that's mature of you." We glare at each other again.
"What, no Madison here to make up your clever remarks for you? He's probably on his deathbed somewhere."
Jefferson blusters for a moment. "So, what, you're dating this loser now?"

"He's not a loser!" I'm standing up, fists clenched. John tugs the hem of my shirt and tries to pull me back to a sitting position.
"Don't fight, Alex. While I agree with you that I'm not a loser, I don't want to get kicked out of the coffee shop for him."
I roll my eyes but sit down with John.

"So if you're dating him, that means Peggy's single now?" Jefferson smirks. "I'll have to talk to her tomorrow at school..."
Somehow, that's John's snapping point. He leaps to his feet and, before I can stop him, punches Jefferson in the nose.
I physically have to (mature, I know) pull John off of Jefferson and sit on him. I feel like a six year old fighting with the other kindergarten kids, but John's a scrappy fighter.

In the car, the two of us laugh hysterically for a while. The expression on Jefferson's face was just too funny. A moment later, though, I sober up.
"John, what made you snap and lose your temper? You're usually so level-headed."
John looks a little annoyed. "What he said about Peggy. He's been harassing her since middle school. He's got some sort of weird crush on her, and it really bothers me. He scares her, I think. That's why I punched him."

I spread my hands out like a headline. "John Laurens: Lover of Turtles, Boyfriend of Alex, Defender of Peggys and Puncher of Jeffersons."
"Stop it!" He's grinning, though, and happy.
"Aww, darn!" I've suddenly realized something.
"What is it? Are you okay, Alex?" There's concern in John's voice.

"I never got to drink my hot chocolate."