The Place To Be ✔️

chapter 17

28th October 2016

John's POV:

"JOHN YOU BITCH, WAKE UP!" Alex shouted, sitting on my chest.

"Good morning to you too, baby." I groaned, shoving him to the side and rolling over, trying to get more sleep before class. He fell to the floor with a thud, yelping as he did so.

Perfect, maybe he'll finally be quiet.

"JOHN!"

Maybe not.

Groggily, I leaned my head over the edge of the bed to where he was sat.

"Alex, what do you want? It's literally..." I paused to check the time "6:13. Class doesn't start for another hour."

He smiled and blushed slightly before mumbling something.

"Sorry, what did you say?" I said, raising an eyebrow.

He twiddled his thumbs and looked away from me. "Well, I wanted to give you your birthday present before class."

My eyes widened and I looked around frantically for my phone before spotting it on the nightstand.

"Birthday? Shit, is that today?" I grabbed my phone and saw that yes, today is my birthday. Huh. Also, I have a fuckton of messages, wow, since when do I have that many friends?

"Yeah baby, how did you forget?" He looks at me with an expression that reads as 'how could you be so stupid?'.

"Uh, I don't know honestly. I guess since I got that job with you and Laf, work has been piling up more than usual and I've just lost track of what day it is at this point. Oh shit, I'm 21 now." I mumble awkwardly.

We laugh a little as he stands up and walks over to his desk, picking up a small box that is awfully wrapped.

"Damn Alex, I didn't know you were so good at gift-wrapping!" I exclaim, pretending to admire the box.

He rolls his eyes. "Whatever, don't judge it just yet, at least see what's inside before being too harsh on me."

I pat the bed next to me, signalling for him to sit down. He does so and wraps an arm around my waist, snuggling into me.

"I hope you like this, I've had to cut down on buying coffee from work to pay for this." He chuckles.

I unwrap the box to reveal a camera with a note attached to it-

My dearest, John,

I bought you this camera so that you can take high quality photos for your art rather than using your shitty phone one. Seriously, with that and a cracked screen, I'm surprised how you can still get your work so good. So, instead of that, you'll now be able to upload your pictures to your laptop and

I stopped reading. "Alex, I don't have a laptop, that's why I got a job in the first place."

"Well... I was supposed to wait until we're with the others at lunch, but we've all put money together and bought you a laptop, the sisters have it right now though." He said timidly.

My confused expression turns into a huge grin and I pull him into a hug.

"Thank you Lexi, for the camera and for everything. I love you." I whispered, kissing his cheek.

"You're welcome John, I love you too." He returned, pulling our faces together in a kiss. Even now, whenever he kisses me, holds my hand or says he loves me, my heart beats faster and I can always feel a blush form on my cheeks.

We break apart and look at each other lovingly, still holding one another.

"Well, I guess we should get ready for class." I sigh.