Soulmates Are Harder Than I Thought • Lams

Chapter II: Bathroom is the safest place

John hid his hand as quickly as possible, and before he went completely non-B&W, he stood up. "Hold that thought, I have to go to the– to the bathroom!" he didn't even let Alexander answer before he sprinted off to the bathroom. Of course, he had to check which one was the bathroom, and once he found it, he locked the door and looked at himself. He was color, everything was color now.

"No." he whispered. "No, no, no, no, no, no!" he ran his hands through his hair, cheeks, neck, arms; all over, while repeating the same word over and over. "No! Fuck no!" he groaned. "What the fuck does this mean!?" he asked himself in a desperate manner.

Alexander just discovered his soulmate. It was Elizabeth Schuyler! Then why did John got color when he touched Alexander's hand!? This couldn't be possible, or it probably could be, John was never a big fan of soulmates, after 18 years of looking and touching every single guy he liked in an awkward manner, he gave up and decided to live a normal live in black and white, all good and dandy. But fate and the universe decided to give the gay man a soulmate that also has another soulmate; was the universe homophobic?

Yeah, John's mind was a mess. He was about to enter until full panic mode, when he reminded himself to breath deeply. 'Okay John, everything's okay, don't freak out. Just think how to solve this.' One thing was for sure, he couldn't go to Alexander and say: "Hey, you know about how you just found your soulmate, well guess what! I'm also your soulmate, date me." He couldn't do that so, obviously he had to make something up.

He stayed in the bathroom, pacing and thinking, doing his best not to look at himself in the mirror, that somehow made him freak out more. He luckily had his phone, so he took it out, when a sudden idea came to mind. If he couldn't tell Alexander he was his soulmate too, then he would just have to make up a fake soulmate. The idea sounded hard, but it wasn't impossible. So John instantly went through his contacts to find his most trustworthy friend, when he landed on the 'F: Frenchguy 🥖' If there was anyone he trusted enough with this, was Gilbert, his friend since he was 15 years old.

He quickly dialed the number, and held the phone close to his ear, as he slid down the wall and sat on the floor, waiting and stressing.

"Bonjour, c'est Lafayette." he answered with his heavy accent after a couple minutes, and John let out a breath of relief.

"Hey, Laf it's me." he mumbled nervously, his free hand going up to his mouth as he started biting down his painted nailed, picking at the nail polish with his teeth.

"Oh, John! How's college going, you're graduating soon? Right?" there was a couple shifting in the background, and Lafayette's voice sounded a bit more cheery now. He spoke perfect English, but because he spent most his time in France, his accent always stayed.

"It's going great... academic wise." he said, biting his lip. "But that's not why I call—" he was interrupted mid sentence.

"I remember when I graduated, those were the good days." he said as he sighed in remembrance, a faint: honey that was five months ago was heard in the background, and John knew that was from Hercules.

"Yeah, umm, Laf, I have something important to say." John said a bit more desperate now, but Laf wasn't even paying attention to John anymore, although he still had the phone close to his ear because he could hear him loud and clear, arguing with Hercules that five months is a long time ago and it's worth of remembering. "Lafayette, listen to me I have to–"

"–because five months is quite a long time! Just do the math!" Lafayette's concentration stayed away from John's not even bothering to at least pretend to pay attention to John.

"Gilbert! I'm trying to talk!" John snapped, clearly annoyed at this point. But still, Lafayette paid no attention, concentrated on Hercules. "Gilbert du Motier de Lafayette, I found my soulmate!!" he said a bit louder into the phone, this time, Lafayette stopped arguing with Hercules, but he also didn't answer John.

Finding soulmates was something pretty hard to do. The universe didn't placed them strategically so you could find them at some climax in your life, some people lived their whole life without a soulmate and they were okay with that. Sometimes soulmates lived in the other side of the world, sometimes they were a block away from you; so when someone found their soulmate, and found themself to be surrounded by full colors, it was a moment of celebration. So John understood Laf's silence.

"John! That's amazing! Nous devons célébrer!" he said in excited French, and thanks to John's elite pass card, he knew that meant 'We have to celebrate!'; but John found this situation anything but a cause to celebrate or be excited.

"No, Laf, it's not like—"

"I remember when I first touched Hercules's hand and I saw color! It was a wonderful experience! We were in the–"

"Yes!" John interrupted. He loved Lafayette, but he had the habit of interrupting people, and John really needed support right now. "You were camping in the woods and your hands touched each other while reaching for the same marshmallow, very romantic, but you don't understand, my soulmate already has a soulmate." he emphasized every single word, his voice cracking at a time. People always had amazing stories from when they met their soulmates, why couldn't John's be like that one. He was already at the verge of tears, when Lafayette spoke up.

"Already has a soulmate? John, je suis confused." there was dead silence on the other line, but he could hear the echo, he was now on speaker phone.

"My soulmate, apparently is my roommate. His name is Alexander Hamilton, great guy, but he overworks himself a lot, so I dragged him to a party, and yes, I hate parties, but I had to get him out of that stupid chair. So in the party, he starts talking with a girl, and at one moment, they touched hands and everything went color for them, all goody and dandy for now, right? But when he comes back, he high fives me and I-I-I... Laf I need you to pretend to be my soulmate." he said, biting his lip nervously.

"What!? John, chéri, I love you, but I don't know if I could do that!" Lafayette said, his voice sounding extremely worried.

"Then Hercules! Anyboth of you!" he said desperately. "I'm not stupid, he'll notice I found my soulmate but I can't tell him it's him!"

"It sounds like you have feeling for the—"

"Okay! I might've had a slight crush on him, but now that he's my soulmate, I mean I don't love him but it's not– it's not a slight crush anymore... Gilbert, that's not the problem!" he almost sobbed. "How would you feel if Hercules had another soulmate and he just decides to go with them instead of you, and you're also his soulmate!"

It took a couple second of silence, but Lafayette answered a simple: "Devastated."

"Well that's how I feel right now... except worse!" there was silence in both lines, John could only hear his own heavy breathing. He smiled as going to hung up the call in disappointment and cry, when Lafayette spoke up.

"I'll do it. I'll pretend to be your soulmate."

"Fuck, merci Laf." he sighed in relieved and a lot of tension and tears of desperation disappeared from sight.

"But I won't do it for the rest of my life, Hercules and I will see what we can do." Lafayette said. "I have to go now, bonne chance et bonne nuit." And the call ended.

John stayed a couple minutes more in the bathroom, mind blank, but he kept fiddling with his hands. When he finally had the courage to stand up, he looked at himself in the mirror one last time, and walked out of the bathroom, back to Alexander.

"Good gracious, John!" said Alexander once he saw him. "You were there for– You got color!" he said excitedly. John forced a smile.

"I found my soulmate!" It's you. "Right when I was walking out of the bathroom!" It's you! "His- His name's Gilbert, he's French." It's you! For fuck sake, Alexander! Why do you have to be so god darn complicated!?

"Hey I was planning on calling Eliza for a date, maybe you and he could come along and make it a double date!" said Alexander, and grabbed John's forearm to drag him out of the party. "What do you say?"

"Great!" John faked enthusiasm, but smiled nevertheless. He made a mental recap of what just happened: he fucked up; he fucked up real big.