Soulmates Are Harder Than I Thought • Lams

Chapter V: Double Date, Double Mess

The drive over to the pizza place were the most awkward ten minutes of his life. He spent half the ride on his phone, but then they started trying to include him in the conversation.

"You two haven't met, have you?" said Alexander from the passenger seat, Eliza was driving. John just looked up and shrugged.

"I saw Eliza around campus but—"

"We worked on a project together! Don't you remember John?" she said looking at him through the rear view mirror. "For biochemistry, we had to–"

"Oh right! I remember." John said and smiled faintly. "That was one of the hardest things I had to do... there was a lot of fire too." he looked out of the window.

"Fire? Were you hurt?" asked Alex. John was about to answer, but Eliza answered first.

"Oh, no really." she smiled, Alexander smiled back, and the car was left in silence. John sighed, of course the question wouldn't be directed at him; Alexander doesn't know they're soulmates, Alexander only knows of Eliza. 'Remember John, nothing will happen, he's already happy with Eliza, you can't just tell him; it would stress him out completely.' he kept telling himself.

The rest of the ride, he spent it in silence, his headphones on, blasting his music as loud as possible, not caring for anything else that happened in the car. He looked out the window, by the reflection he could see Alexander's face clearly, a bit blurry since it was just a reflection, but it was enough for him.

It took a couple more minutes, but the finally arrived. He was quick to get out of the car and close the door, he crossed his arms and kept listening to his music. He felt a hand on his shoulder and quickly turned around, it was Alexander. John was quick to take off one of his headphones. "You said something?"

"I was just gonna ask if you've seen Lafayette, or is he inside?" he asked smiling, John shrugged.

"I think he's inside, so we better enter." he said walking over to the entrance, doing his best to avoid physical contact with Alexander. Once he opened the door, arms wrapped around him.

"John! Mon chéri, I'm glad you're finally here." he said loud enough so Alexander and Eliza heard, they were currently asking for a table for four. Lafayette leaned in John's ear. "Fix it soon." he whispered. John just looked at him with a shy smile, and chuckled. They were led to a booth. Alexander and Eliza sat side by side, so John and Lafayette did the same. "So, you're Alex, John's roommate! Right? You were also at the party I met him, if I'm not wrong."

"Yeah." Alexander nodded and chuckled faintly. "I also met Eliza there. So, we both found out soulmates at that party. I'm glad John dragged me over to that party,"

'I'm not.' John thought bitterly.

"I was also dragged to that party." said Eliza with a chuckle. "My little sister, Peggy, was overly excited to go to the party, apparently she had friends that were going."

"Parties have never been my thing." John said casually, shrugging and playing with the straw on his drink, a lemonade.

"Then why'd you dragged me to it?" Alexander asked with a small chuckle.

"I had to get you out of that desk somehow." John said, finally smiling brightly since they walked inside this pizza place. "And the party was the first thing that popped in my head."

The waiter arrived and they all agreed on a pepperoni pizza, and they said it would be ready in half an hour, they shrugged, they had a few appetizers so they weren't very hungry.

Eliza's phone chimed in and she gasped. "Oh shucks! I have to go now, Angelica just texted me, she needs me, I'm sorry I really need to go." she stood up and looked at Alex. "I'm sorry, I promise that I'll pay for the next date." she blushed.