Critical (Jamilton)

25. Correction! I'm DrinkING. Present Tense. Grammar, Thomas.

Hamilton

For the first time since seeing King again, Alexander found himself sitting cross-legged on the couch of one of his best friends at what he could consider a second or third home, in comparison to Eliza's home. To keep the sappy descriptions low, he was chilling on Peggy's Goodwill couch again. 

The only difference being that as he sat, he started thinking. Not useless thoughts about various scenarios that could or couldn't happen, not he was really considering something that would either kill him or prove him right. He was weirdly okay with either one, so he ditched the consideration and called Peggy into the room from whatever she was doing in the kitchen. 

"Whatcha need, Lex?" She asked as she came into the room, wiping her hands on her yellow jacket. 

"I need you to let me leave," he said casually.

"I dunno, Jeffershit said something about you having some, uhm, you know, pretty bad episodes. Maybe we should--"

Hamilton shook his head, determined to get what he wanted. "I need to talk to Andre about this one."

"By yourself?" she clarified. "You want me to let you leave with Andre by yourself when we don't know if we can actually trust him? And I'm assuming you want all that on top of me not telling Thomas about it?"

Alex nodded. 

"Alexander Hamilton, you are one crazy dude, you know that?"

"So I've been told. If it makes you feel any better, I can talk to him here, I just need to talk to someone that was actually there, you know?"

Peggy nodded slightly after a second of consideration. "Yeah, I'll call him over here. I can leave if you want? I gotta get some shopping done anyway, but I'd feel better knowing that I can at least tell Thomas that I didn't let you leave with Andre. Deal?"

"Sounds like a plan." 

The Schuyler smiled and pulled out her phone, calling Andre and telling him to come back over. Alex decided to lean back and rest before he actually arrived, trying to calm his nerves more than he was planning on what to say. 

Peggy left before John came, leaving Alexander to invite him inside and initiate the conversation. 

"So," John said before Ham had a chance to talk. "Where's Thomas?"

"I don't need him to talk to people, you know," Hamilton said. He imagined Thomas sitting next to him though, muttering about how much he wanted to 'beat him down'. "No, I need to talk to you though." 

"Why?"

"As much help as Peggy is, you were there and you know how everything looked. Maybe not from my end but you were still there." 

Andre nodded for him to continue. 

"Okay. So about that episode that you saw--"

"The one at the band concert?"

"Yeah, that one, where did King go?"

"Wait," Andre said, leaning forward and resting his elbows on his knees. "King? What are you talking about?"

Hamilton was more than confused at the thought that one of King's workers wouldn't recognize him in the school setting. He looked exactly like he did when Alex escaped, and it wasn't like there was much of a change throughout the years. 

"King," Ham repeated. "He was in the bathroom."

"No, he wasn't," John explained. "Alex are you okay?"