Favorable (Jamilton)

6. Hamilton

Alex wasted the majority of the day with John and his friends until he decided that the rest of the time could be spent taking a nap at his dorm. 

It worked well enough. When he finally decided that he should get out of bed and actually call the Mystery Girl, the sun was setting. He sat up and stretched, accidentally catching in on some of Thomas's conversations.

"No, Liz, don't do that, it'll just provoke her. Okay, put her on the phone." Thomas waited a few seconds and apparently didn't notice Alex staring at him. "Martha, why don't you want to go back to school?" 

"Who are you talking to?" Alex asked. Thomas held up a finger to silence his roommate. 

"High school kids are dicks, that's a part of life. The more you read, the smarter you get, the more successful you are, but the more people are going to envy you. Okay, that doesn't give you the right to be a dick to Liz on her first day of taking care of you on her own, does it? Imagine how it is for her." 

"Who?" 

Thomas glared at Alex through the side of his eye. 

"I don't care how far away I am, you've been her shadow since you were born, you need to consider that." Thomas waited another few seconds. "Keep in mind that I won't hesitate to ground you, young lady." 

"Is it your kid?"

Thomas put his hand of the speaker. "Hamilton I swear if you don't stop butting into my conversation I will end you. Shut up." He moved his hand. "If I drive six hours just to make sure that you're listening you'll lose a lot more than your freedom for a week. She is the boss of you and you will listen to her or I will drive down there and it will not be a fun visit. This attitude isn't your usual one, would you rather me ask about your problems and give you a therapy session?" 

It was silent for a second before Thomas started talking again. 

"Great, now go get your homework done. I want you to you apologize to her. Yes, you do have to. Thank you, I'll talk to you tomorrow. I know. I miss you too. Yes, I'll visit soon." Thomas hung up the phone. 

"So was that your kid or. . .?" Alex grabbed the napkin from the back of his pants. 

"Even if it was your business, which it's not, why would I tell you?"

"Because we're going to have to get used to each other if we're going to be staying together." 

Thomas pinched the bridge of his nose and let out an exasperated sigh. "Those were two of my sisters, actually, but I still care about their day so excuse me if that came off as me being an overprotective father," Thomas muttered. 

"Two of? How many sisters do you have?" 

"Six." 

"You have six siblings?!"

"No, I have six sisters. I have," Jefferson hesitated. "seven siblings total. My older sisters go here too, then I have four sisters younger sisters at home, and one younger brother." 

"How old are they?" Thomas glared at Alex again. "I'm just trying to get to know you." 

"Seventeen, fifteen, nine, and five. Those are the ones at home. Here they're Twenty-one and twenty."

"Wait, you said you had five siblings at home. You only gave four ages."

"How did you get into college?" Thomas rubbed his temples and closed his eyes. "Let's think for a second. If there are four ages, and five siblings, what do you think could possibly be an explanation?"