The Place To Be ✔️

chapter 10

September 20th 2016 (back to the morning)

Lafayette's POV: (Finally someone other than John or Alex)

In the past few weeks John and Alex have been quite distant from our group. In the first week, before classes started, we spent quite a lot of time together, but we all noticed that even when we were with the whole group, John and Alex had their own conversations, their own jokes. None of us have seen them much since classes started, save for a few lessons that we had with either or both of them. They'd stopped sending as many messages on our group chat, it's like they've forgotten about us.

Hanging out with everyone else feels...strange, to say the least.
John had always been the one to ease the tension, or make jokes when everyone else was quiet.
Since Alex joined our group, he had told us all pretty long, yet captivating anecdotes. Once, we went to a meal and Alex was telling a story that took from the car journey there to when our meals arrived, and that restaurant was packed.

So, it's not really like I have to point it out, the 'group' has been completely the opposite of that name.

One perk that has come out of this is that I can spend more time with Hercules. We really clicked when we first met and he has become one of my best friends. I really trusted him from the moment we met, and luckily we had very similar classes, all in the mornings, the only difference being that when I have French he b
Of has some fashion class, where he's the only boy there.

I haven't yet told Herc one very important thing, and that's the fact that I'm gay. AlsoImayhaveaminilittlecrushonhimbuthedoesntneedtoknowthatbecauseImprettysurehesstraight. (ten points to you if you can actually read that)

I just can't help it okay, have you seen him?

Flashback

I was the first one to arrive to the dorm, and when I first set my eyes on him, I felt my heart drop to my knees. He gave me a shy smile and introduced himself to me, and in response I spoke... well, not anything really. I just made noises, he made me speechless, and I usually try my best to be as well spoken as possible, so his laugh was understandable.

"I'm guessing you're...um, I'm not sure how you say your name."
"Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier de La Fayette, Marquis de Lafayette. Usually just Marquis de Lafayette, but you could call me Lafayette or just Laf. Whatever you prefer." I managed to get out.
He looked back at me like he'd never heard French before. I just blushed in response and he just laughed and walked past me into our dorm, tugging his suitcase behind him

Flashback over

"Hey Laf, do you think we should visit Alex today, after what happened yesterday. I heard John just took him back to their dorm so they're probably still there."
I heard Hercules' voice creep into the room as he emerged from the bathroom....oh merde he's only wearing a towel. I somehow managed to keep my eyes fixed on his face, and muttered out a response whilst trying to refrain from blushing.
"Yeah, we should probably check he's alright and see if they're coming to class, but John will probably stay there if Alex is."
He glanced down to the floor and scanned the room, probably for some clothes.
"Yep, you're ready right?" He said, I nodded in response, "Cool, so let's go when I'm dressed?"
"Sure." I said smoothly.
He put his thumbs up at me and walked back into the bathroom. God, he makes me melt. I lay back onto my bed, which I was sitting on, and let out an exasperated sigh.I can't just come out to him and tell him my feelings, there are so many flaws in that. As far as I know he's not even gay.

A few minutes later Herc comes out wearing a red and blue flannel shirt and skinny jeans. He tugs on a pair of blue Adidas superstars and motions towards the door, indicating that he is ready to go, so I promptly stop drooling over him, stand up and follow him to the door.

---

Hercules' POV:

We arrive outside of Alex and John's dorm and I raise my arm to knock, but Laf swiftly grabs it and turns to me and beckons me closer to whisper in my ear-
"Don't knock, lets spy on them instead." He looks at me with a grin and motions to the peephole under the door number, 46. I give him a quizzical look and he explains.
"This was mine and John's dorm last year, and we found out that the idiots who put this door together managed to put the peephole backwards, so now we can look in and spy on them."

He gives me a mischievous smirk and rests his hands on the door and looks through into the room. Quickly, he withdraws, blushing profusely, and claps a hand to his mouth to stifle a blush and stumbles back a bit.

"What? What's going on in there?" I whisper shout. He shakes his head vigorously and manages to form a sentence through laughter, which to be honest, was pretty cute.

"Ju-just look, look for yourselfff." He snorts at the end.

I repeat the process that Lafayette had taken just a few moments ago and rest the palms of my hands on the door and look through the hole. I instantly feel my cheeks get hot with a blush similar to the one displayed by Laf.

On the bed, John is lying on top of Alex, straddling him with his fingers tangled in his hair, whilst Alex has one hand gripping onto John's waist and one wrapped around the back of his neck. They are engaged in a passionate make out session and are completely oblivious to Laf and I outside their door, despite his pretty loud giggles. I push myself away from their door and turn back to face Lafayette, who is now pointing at the blush on my face and is in hysterics, which makes me blush even harder.

"Wait-wait-wait. You're not against stuff like that are you." He says to me in a dead-serious tone. I shake my head and reply-
"No, of course not. If you haven't figured it out by now, I'm like, very gay."
Smooth.
I see his eyes light up for a second as he smiles.
"Oh cool, me too."
My heart flutters for a moment and we stand there just staring into each other's eyes.

"Um," Laf breaks the silence, "we should knock on and, you know, actually check how Alex is. And ruin their moment they're having." He gives me a toothy grin that I reciprocate. "Okay, do a neutral face, don't let them know what we know."

Lafayette steps towards the door and does three short knocks and steps back from the door, landing him next to me. We hear a groan of annoyance come from behind it. He pulls a slightly tired expression which looks pretty natural and I retain the neutral one.

The lock clicks on the door and opens to reveal John standing there and Alex still lying down on the bed.

"Hey Laf, Herc, you alright?"
"Oui, John. We came to check le petit lion is alright, you know, after the fight." Laf replied.
"Yeah, and also we came to ask if you're coming to class, but you're probably staying here with Alex, right?" I added.
"Yeah I was going to, I need to make sure he's resting and that he doesn't overwork himself. He needs to stay safe, you know?" He says with genuine concern for Alex, which seems sweet.
"Sure, we get it. Get well soon Alex, mon ami."
"Thanks Laf, I'll see you two in class tomorrow."
"Bye." Laf and I said.

John closed the door and as we walked away we hear John's muffled voice quickly say something from inside-
"I totally ship them."

Laf and I turned to each other and blushed and I directed my attention to my shoes but heard Laf mutter "Moi aussi." which made my breath get caught in my throat. I don't know much French, but I can remember the basic parts from High school, and I know that means me too. Time for a risky move.

"Really?" I turn my head back to his.
"I didn't know you knew French." His eyes widen in embarrassment.
"Only the basics."
"Oh."

I slip my hand into his to show that he isn't the only one who feels this way. I didn't know if he would think this is weird and reject me or be glad I did this, but luckily he went with the latter and stood closer to me as we walked to the elevator back to our dorm together.

28th July 2017