Dearest, Soulmate (Jamilton)

7. Dearest, Lunch Mistakes

Jefferson

On the days that Thomas had the first scheduled lunch, he sat with his only friend in that lunch and his group of friends. Of course, that meant Thomas had to sit at the same table as Hamilton, which was annoying but still more tolerable than having to sit at a table with someone he liked even less. 

Along with sitting near Hamilton came sitting near Elizabeth Schuyler, which was a painfully obvious reminder of what Thomas couldn't have.  They'd spend the entire lunch period laughing with each other and making jokes that literally nobody else at the table understood. It was so much that, whenever he would imagine himself with a soulmate, Thomas would actually imagine himself in a relationship with Hamilton. Not particularly because he had a crush on the kid, he just saw how Alexander treated Eliza and Thomas wanted that for himself. 

Not with Hamilton, just like Hamilton, if that made sense. 

"Laf, what're you doing?" Thomas asked, forcing his thoughts away from Hamilton before it got weird. His friend was looking down at his phone like it was his soulmate, which wouldn't be all that surprising with how well he operates on social media, but his focused expression told Thomas that something actually did have his attention. 

"Watching this thing," he muttered in response. "Someone sent me a livecast of something going on not too far from here. . . I guess someone actually tried taking out their chip."

That was something that only happened in the movies. Thomas never really heard about people taking out their chips, it'd always been something that frowned upon. He did know that very few people have done it, but they lost everything. Most lived in a part of town that he wouldn't even dream of going. It was mostly homeless and jobless people that couldn't find anything because of their chips. 

Everyone at the table stopped their conversations, even Alexander and Eliza, to look at Lafayette. Feeling the pressure of a full table of watching eyes, he put his phone on the table and immediately everyone stood up or sat on their knees to see what was happening. 

It really wasn't that far away, ten minutes maybe, so Thomas had the great idea to actually go and see what was happening. Their school had open lunch, so as long as they were back in time for their next class he figured it'd be fine. 

"That's the stupidest idea I've heard today, Jefferson," Hamilton muttered, still looking at the phone. 

"Good thing I didn't ask for your opinion," Thomas responded easily. "Laf? Wanna go?"

The other boy nodded immediately. Eliza stayed at the school while everyone else (John, Alexander, Lafayette, and Thomas) decided to go. Alexander only wanted to go to cure his curiosity and made it clear that he wouldn't go if it was just Thomas, which he thought was a little dramatic, but he didn't say anything as they left the cafeteria. 

They all piled into Lafayette's car. Thomas and Laf in the front, John and Alexander in the back. The drive was shorter than Thomas expected, but by the time they got to the neighborhood was going on, the police cars were still parked outside. 

"Why're there so many cars?" Alexander asked, leaning as close to the window as he could to see what was happening. 

John answered him. "Because messing with your chip is sort of as bad as seriously threatening the government."

"What's gonna happen to them?" Thomas asked. He had as much curiosity as Hamilton, that was evident, and he wasn't going to pretend like he didn't care so Alexander could look like he cared most.

"They're gonna go to jail for a bit. After they get out, if they haven't severely damaged the chip, it's either going to get shut off or removed completely, so they get what they want, but it goes on their record so their job has legal rights to fire them. If they have kids, they can get taken away under the claims that the parent is too. . . well, insane to take care of them. . ." 

"So soulmates are pretty important then, huh?" Thomas clarified. He hoped none of that could be applied to someone born without a soulmate. He didn't want his life ruined before he had a life to ruin. 

"Pretty much," John muttered. 

The group watched in near silence as almost nothing interesting happened. The quiet gave Jefferson time to think over what John had said and it made him want to ask for more details. If anyone knew about soulmates, it'd be John. Working high up in Soulmate Assignment had to give him some sort of extra information, but that would also require Thomas to at least put himself in suspicion of having no soulmate. He didn't mind John knowing as much as he was worried about not knowing what would happen to him if the authorities knew and what Hamilton would do with that kind of sensitive information, though, so maybe he'd give it a shot. 

Thomas hoped more than anything that he'd just never have a family of his own. He could deal with that. He had enough siblings to count as a family of his own. He just didn't want to lose everything like the poor son of a bitch in the house. 

Suddenly, a flash of light illuminated the window with a barely audible (Thomas didn't even know if he actually heard it) thudding sound. Everyone in the car ducked down so they wouldn't be seen as officers came out of the house. Jefferson peeked just enough to see most of the officers leaving. An ambulance arrived just a few minutes later and Thomas had never seen Laf get out of a situation faster.

Lafayette drove as fast as he could legally go and got back to the school just as the lunch bell rang. 

"What the fuck just happened?" Alexander asked the entire group and no one at the same time. 

"I think they died." John looked ready to pass out and Thomas hated how he said died. If the person was dead, it was because he was killed. They'd all seen the light in the window, how quick it flashed and how quickly the officers fled the house. It was no question. 

Eliza came out of the cafeteria and Hamilton ran forward. Thomas wished he could go to his soulmate like Alexander could. He wanted someone to tell him that he wouldn't end up like the person in the house. He wanted comfort and reassurance from someone that wasn't his older sister. 

The rest of the day was a blur as he went through classes. He wanted to go home directly after school, but he still had football practice to worry about. Even then he wasn't as into it as he usually was, he played it by the ear and dealt with things as they came but he couldn't get his mind off the house and what he'd witnessed. He had no idea what the context was, maybe the person held a gun at the officers or maybe he was attacking one of them. 

Maybe the flash of light wasn't even a gun! Maybe it was just a taser or something and the accused was just a criminal and deserved what happened. 

As likely as any of those were, Thomas couldn't shake the thought that maybe the person was just a regular citizen that loved someone he couldn't have. Maybe soulmates weren't as great as everyone thought. 

Still, though, as Thomas went through practice and the rest of his night, he couldn't help but think about how much he wanted a soulmate to tell him he'd be okay and that nothing like that would happen to him. Of course, if he had a soulmate to tell him that, he wouldn't be so worried in the first place.

//Bonjour Bitches!
(stickin to tradition bitch)
so no one told you school was gonna kill you heeeeeey (sung in the tune of the friends theme)
anygay, im trying to get the story like a little more? fast paced? ig? idk yall have to wait and see w me.