Another Scottish Tragedy [LAMS AU]

1

John Laurens felt like he'd been hit by a truck. 

He had a terrible migraine, his head pounding so violently he had to close his eyes against the light that only made the agony more unbearable. 

This ordeal had begun when he'd felt nausous after dinner last night. He'd gone to bed early, believing that he would feel better in the morning. 

He was wrong. 

When he'd woken up, he'd felt a million times worse. 

Now he was lying in bed in a sweat-stained hoodie and no pants, sweating in the sweltering South Carolina heat. 

Not a good day. Not a good day at all. 

Groaning, John rolled over and picked up his phone. The light hurt his eyes, but if he spent one more minute lying there doing nothing his head was going to explode from boredom. 

When he opened Instagram, he was shocked to see a DM.

At first he thought it might have been Peggy. A few months ago her father had forced all of his daughters to delete their Instagram accounts after he found out that Angelica was tricking stupid horny boys to send her nudes via DM and sending those nudes into groupchats with her friends to laugh at them. Maybe she'd finally convinced him to let her use Instagram again. 

But when he clicked on the DM, it wasn't Peggy. It was someone named AnotherScottishTragedy. 

AnotherScottishTragedy: Your entire account is pictures of your turtle and I love it.

John smiled as he looked to the tank where his turtle Lin lived. Gosh, that turtle was adorable. 

John wasn't sure if he should respond to this message. Sure, it seemed innocent enough, but conversations always started out innocent. That was how they lured you in, they came up to you all innocent and sweet and caring to gain your trust, and then out of nowhere they stopped being nice and you had nowhere to run because you had already told them too much. 

John shuddered at the unpleasant memory. 

Everybody told him that he shouldn't think like this. 

"Charles Lee was just one bad person. Not everyone is like that." 

"There are tons of nice people on the internet, you just got one bad egg." 

"Don't let one mean person ruin the entire internet for you." 

John knew he shouldn't be bitter, but he couldn't help it. All of his friends loved the internet. They all had amazing internet friends. Hell, Lafayette had met his boyfriend via social media. They'd messaged for a year and had grown really close. When Lafayette had seen Hercules on their first day of college he'd shrieked "SACREBLEU"  loud enough to rattle the stars and started making out with him in the enterence the design building. 

Sure, Lafayette used social media, he got a hot boyfriend who sewed him pants. 

John used social media, he got Charles Lee. 

Don't be bitter, John. Turtles aren't bitter. Be like a turtle. Be happy. 

John decided to check out this guy's profile. He clicked on his page, which seemed to be nothing but aesthetically pleasing photos of his aesthetically pleasing desk setup and some of his poetry, which John had to admit was quite beautiful. His bio said he was a college student, which meant he was probably around John's age. 

John didn't know what to do. He felt bad for ignoring him, but he didn't need another Charles Lee. 

Come on, it's been two years since you even talked to Charles Lee. What if this guy is a really lovely person? You don't want to throw away your shot at making an amazing friend because you're afraid of someone you haven't spoken to since high school.