Soulmates Are Harder Than I Thought • Lams

Chapter IX: The Ride To The Ball

That night, all that John could think of was Alexander and the ball. Why did everything had to be so complicated? He was just starting to get over the fact that Alexander was Eliza's, and now he had to spend a whole eleven hours in a car with him. Alone.

John hugged himself and breathed deeply. Nothing important would happen, it was just a car ride, and that was more than enough time to prepare himself. Alexander would pretend to be his soulmate, the problem was that if John told the truth to Alexander, it wouldn't even have to be pretend. Alexander could go in as his actual soulmate, not a 'pretend' one,

He put on his headphones, the Bluetooth ones, and decided to fall asleep while listening to music, trying to forget everything that happened that afternoon. But besides Alexander, his biggest worry was his father. His homophobic father.

His father knew John was gay, his father knew John's soulmate would be a man, and for that reason, he treated him badly, he tried to manipulate John into thinking his lifestyle was wrong. He tried to get into John's head and make him do whatever he wanted, John was always oblivious to his hate, he thought his father only wanted the best, but when he lashed out, called him a disappointment of a son, faggot, and many, many, many more things, he turned to his mother and did the best to get out of South Carolina over to New York. He worked harder to find his soulmate, to probably don't be as alone, but he convinced himself it was to start a family.  What did his father wanted? Why contact him now by inviting him to the biggest social event in the elite in his family and friend. Something didn't seem... right.

The next day, John woke up by Alexander shaking his shoulder. Alexander didn't slept that night, so when it was about 4:00 am, he went down to the empty school cafe and bought three coffees, so that when John woke up, he had a coffee ready for the curly haired boy.

"The ride is eleven and a half hours, so if you do the math, we'll be arriving in South Carolina in the late afternoon." said Alexander already drinking his coffee. "I packed your stuff too, which wasn't a lot, you had everything inside." he looked over at John's desk. "The only thing left are these papers and shit, want me to—"

"Don't touch the papers!!" John quickly stood up, awake as ever. "I can take care of them." he pushed Alexander away and held the papers close to his chest. Alexander just shrugged it off.

"Whatever, your coffee is ready." said Alexander as he picked up a suitcase.

"My coffee?" John asked blushing faintly.

"I bought you coffee." said Alex shrugging. "Is what... umm, friends, do." he smiled shyly at John. 'Don't smile at me that way, it's to early for the gay.' John groaned mentally and looked down. 'And too early to be fucking put down so stop.' "Also, no time to take a shower so get dressed and–"

"That's disgusting, Alexander." John scrunched up his nose disgusted.

"Want to arrive early to your house or not?" Alexander raised an eyebrow. "Just put on some deodorant, or cologne, and lets go. It's an eleven hour car ride so it's your best option to go in your pajamas." Alexander teased, John raised his eyebrow.

"Fine, but if I smell, it's definitely your fault." John smiled at him. "Your hair down suits you."

"Your curls are adorable." Alexander smiled at him and ruffled his hands on John's hair, making him blush madly.

"Stop it, don't touch my hair." he groaned and pushed Alexander's hand away. Alexander laughed and walked over to his suitcase. "I'll be in the parking lot, yeah?"

"Sure thing." John nodded and watched as Alexander walked out of the dormitory. He breathed deeply and gathered the rest of his private things. He picked up his turtle plushie, and the walked down to the parking lot of the campus. He entered Alexander's car after putting his suitcase in the trunk, and smiled faintly. "Ready." he said, hugging the turtle plushie.

Alexander smiled at him and started the car. The start of the ride was silent, but it wasn't an uncomfortable silence, but a very needed one. John kept thinking about his father, he made a huge mistake not reading the e-mail, if he just read it, he would be such a mess right now. Alexander noticed John's worried expression, and spoke up.

"Hey, Laurens, is everything okay?" Alexander asked, both hands on the wheel, but eyes on John's side profile.

'No, everything is not okay! We're both alone in an eleven hour ride. Once we get to South Carolina I will have to face my dad again, and lord knows what he wants! He could be there to try and force me to marry Ms Manning, no matter what; worst of all it's that no one, not even my mother or siblings know how much I suffered at hands of my manipulative father, I finally got enough money to leave, and now I'm being called back, to the place I've been trying to escape ever since I was barely sixteen, have you ever tried escaping a place only to be summoned back by the threat that if you don't go, you'll be stuck in the streets with no education or future, have you ever had to decide between emotional abuse or destroying your future? I don't know what my father wants! And to top it all, I'm going to tell everyone that you're my soulmate, which I wouldn't have a problem with, because you are my soulmate, the only problem is that you have no idea of it, you know. You think my soulmate is my best friend, who already has his own soulmate, and they're very happy together before all of this stupid drama happened. You're happy with Eliza, I get it, but it wouldn't hurt to just pay attention and notice that I'm also your soulmate! In fact, now that I think of it, if you ever found out, you could be so angry at me for not telling you sooner and hiding it that I could loose your friendship all together! So no, Alexander, everything's not okay. Everything is falling apart and I have no one to turn to.'

"I'm fine." John looked at Alex after a few seconds of silence. "I'm still a bit tired, I have my coffee, but I think it's going to take a few moments to make its effect."

"Then do you want to listen to some music? I have an aux cord in there, somewhere." Alexander pointed to the backseat, John took off his seatbelt and reached over to the backseat, completely forgetting the fact that now Alexander had a perfect peripheral view of John's ass. Alexander didn't knew why he was slightly turned on by it, but he did his best to ignore it. 'Stop it, Hamilton! You have Eliza, and she's your soulmate!' he thought to himself.
They were in for a hell of ride, considering that John couldn't find the aux cord, and Alexander had still John's ass in his face, this wasn't very good for Alexander, so he decided to do something. "Forget it! We'll see what's on the radio, we'll look for it when we stop at a gas station." he grabbed John's arm and pulled him back on his seat.

"Oh, okay." said John smiling faintly, rubbing his eyes still. "I'm still tired, do you mind if I take a nap?"

Alexander smiled. "I don't mind." he shrugged. John laid down and fell asleep.

'Alexander, John isn't your soulmate! Behave!'

~Sarah !!
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