The Dare • Jamilton

Good. I Mean Okay.

"Sooo Thomas" John says looking up from his phone "You and Alexander sucking each other's dicks."

I can't help but let out a howling laugh. Alexander turns beet red and throws a pillow at him while I continue to laugh.

Alexander's friends were being actually kinda cool and wanted to get to know me since I was 'dating' Alex. So Alexander, John, Lafayette, Hercules and I sat in an awkward circle on the floor of Johns small bedroom. Mostly everyone just scrolled through there phone and every now and then someone would look up and make some comment.

"Well what does Alexander say when you ask him?" I say casually wrapping my arm around Alexander's shoulder, which only makes him blush more. He is stiff not relaxing in my embrace.

"He doesn't tell us shit. Which is very unlike him." Hercules stays "Lafayette I just sent you the funny meme about French people check your Instagram dms"

"Well I'm gonna respect his authority to tell you what he wants to tell you." I say smiling at him. This seems to calm him as he smiles back and rests his head on my shoulder.

"Thanks" Alexander mutters into my shoulder which makes me want to shiver but I hold my breath and let the moment pass.

"Well how about you guys?" I ask running my fingers along Alexander's arm in little circular movements. "Any cuties on the horizon?"

"Well" Alexander says lighting up "Lafayette gets a boner everytime he looks at Washington. Hercules loses the ability to speak English when he sees Angelica. And John is definitely gonna die alone."

Alexander's friends all reply loudly at the same time which makes it hard to heard what each of them said. But Lafayette and Hercules blush make it clear to me that Alexander was telling the truth.

"Youre too picky" Alexander says to John who is complaining about his comment.

"I'm not too picky everyone is just ugly" John says.

"Honestly before I won your heart" I say winking at Alexander "I thought the two of you were dating"

I gesture between Alexander and John. And an awkward silence settles in the room and everyone goes back to their phones except John who looks at Alexander and says.

"You didn't tell him?" John asks confused.

"Umm not so much" Alexander stutters raising his head from its place on my shoulder.

I feel a pit in my stomach forming. Did John and Alexander date? Why didn't he tell me? But mostly I just think about why I care? This wasn't a fucking relationship, Alex and I aren't dating. I shouldn't care if he is going out with John.

"Well" I say "it is not important. But I should go."

I squeeze Alexander's shoulder before getting up. Just as I'm about to leave the room, I feel fingers wrap around mine.

"Give me a ride home?" Alexander says looking at me and smiling. Smiling his smile.

"Of course" I say smiling back.

We wish his friends goodbye, before exiting the room. Even once alone in the hallway Alexander doesn't drop my hand and I don't force him to. It was calming. And we were friends. Friends can hold hands, right? We eventually get to my parked car and have to drop hands so I can drive.

"So you and John?" I ask.

"Uh yeah well no" he says "it was stupid sometimes when we were drunk we would make out. But we haven't since we started, Well he thought we started dating. We weren't dating or anything."

I pull out of the driveway and start on a route to Alexander's place.

"You know if you want to do this in a way that'll make him jealous, we can do that" I say "so once the dare is done you guys can get together."

"Oh" Alexander says in an unusual tone "no. I'm not really interested in dating John. It's honestly probably good we stopped we worked better as friends"

"Good" I say before blushing and attempting to recant my statement "I mean okay"

"How about you?" Alexander asks.

"What about me?" I ask.

I pull up to a red light stopping the car. I look over at him in the seat next to me but he seem intent at looking at his hands in his lap.

"Oh come on don't tell me you and James are just friends. He is still pissed we are fake dating. Friends don't act like that." He says

The question doesn't catch me off guard. People did sometimes think of James and me as more than friends due to our devotion to each other and lack of other significant relationships. But the truth was we were just friends. I'll admit he was acting weird about me and Alex but we were just weirdly close. It wasn't romantic.

"Sorry to be a bore, but James and I are just friends" I say and he looks up at me and smiles.

"Good. I mean okay." He says repeating my awkward phrase.

We sit there smiling at us until a loud noise shakes me. I remove my eyes from Alex and see that the light has changed. I quickly slam on the gas and we jolt forward.

"Thomas you should have turned there for my street." Alexander says gesturing at the street we just sped past.

"You don't need to go home do you?" I ask.

"No, not right away" he says.

"So let's just drive."