Stories Undone, Scars Unseen // Hamilton College AU

John (44)

GUESS WHO'S BACK MY DUDES??! hint: it's me and C. yea boiiii have some brave johno -L

"Check mate," I snort, having cornered Peggy in chess again.

She sighs. "That's so cheating. Rematch."

I groan and stare out the window. There's a tree branch hitting the glass because of the wind, it sounds kind of like someone rude who's knocking on the door. Of glass. I give up. "No Peggy, that was like the fifth round," I groan.

She pouts, letting her bottom lip tremble. "You're always too busy with Alex to play with me now. All of you have date mates, and I'm so horribly lonely like... All the time."

I know she's kind of messing with me but I still feel guilty. "I'm sorry, you're right. How about a different game though?"

"We could go find Jenga or something. Eliza stored all kinds of 'family' games. Heck, we even had Twister at some point." She sniffles at the memory, clearly not fond of the game.

"Jenga makes me nervous," I complain. I start putting the chess pieces away. "We could do Connect 4?"

"Sure! Wish we could do something outside too... But the wind's picking up. Stupid wind." She rolls her eyes, glancing back over to the window. For a moment, Peggy looks a little worried. Then, she's back to all smiles and sunshine.

I turn my attention to the window and the howling winds again. It's getting dark, we wouldn't want to go out there anyways. "Maybe tomorrow we can go build snow forts," I say.

Peggy squeals. "Yes! Anything to avoid the thought of going back to college. Stressful things are coming up."

James comes down the stairs looking disheveled. "Do you guys have sleeping pills? Like, the almost-illegal-because-they're-so-strong kind?"

"Ask Maria. She seems like the type of a girl to have them." Peggy pauses. "That sounded a lot meaner than I meant it."

James shrugs and almost runs into a wall on his way back out.

"Anyways," I draw out my phrase slowly. "You say you're single, but anyone on your mind?"

Peggy pauses. "Well, first part of the year, I had a crush on you. Teased you about Alex to see if you liked him. You did. So, clearly, my crushing skills are better made for matchmaking. Guess I'll probably remain single."

I laugh at that. "Oh Peggy, you know I'd be a terrible boyfriend. No clue why Alex sticks around."

"Trust me. I get it." She winks at me dramatically before giggling.

Then I'm laughing too, and it feels really great to be laughing with Peggy again.

That is, before the branch hits the window so hard it cracks.

Peggy jumps, swearing under her breath as the wind intensifies. "It's never been this... Strong before! Go find Ang! She'll know what the crap to do!"

I run around the house a few minutes before finding Angelica. "Hey! Angie! The window's cracking!"

She looks at me for a long moment before she realizes I'm serious.

"Crap! Okay, everyone, get away from that window!" She screams, running out of the room. I follow her and see that it's started... hailing? Is that hail? I can't tell. Whatever it is, it's coming down hard. It sounds like a thunderstorm through the roof. Or, even better a hurrica-

Oh no.

I immediately start shouting for Alexander, desperately looking in every room I can think of. He never told me why this bothers him so much, but if it's anything like last time...