Tattoos (Lams coffee shop AU)

Ghosts of the Past (XIV)

(A/N: dramatique title, right? ;)

"It all started at the beginning of junior year- 11th grade." Jefferson began.

"I know what junior year is, Jefferson."

"Just making sure. You don't hide your spanish accent very well. Anyways, junior year at a boys only private school a few hours away from this tiny ass town. You can imagine how great it was to be surrounded by only guys all day every day." Alex couldn't tell if that last sentence was sarcastic or not.

"But, surprisingly," Thomas continued, "Not many seemed gay. Actually, none of them seemed gay. So I spent all of high school in the closet. It really sucked, especially because everyone's favorite activity was watching lesbian porn between class."

"What the fuck, Jefferson? One, that's over sexualizing lesbians which is NOT okay, two-"

"I know, Hammy! You don't need to give me a 'woke' rant. Guys shouldn't sexualize lesbians, blah blah blah, I know. All I'm saying is it's awkward to be the only guy in the room without a boner, y'know?"

"No, I don't know." Alex was beginning to regret his decision to ask Jefferson about his history with John. "Can you please just get on with the story?"

"I'll tell the story how I want, Hass."

"What? Hass?"

"Hamilton and ass, Hass."

"I- ok then..."

"Anyways, Hassy, one day while we were all hiding in- ironically- a closet, watching porn, I noticed one other kid also didn't have a b-"

"I get it!"

"-oner. We made eye contact and I noticed he had cute freckles, and from that day on, I had like- a huuuuuge crush on him. I had no idea if he liked me back, though. Although, who wouldn't? I'm frickin' gorgeous. But he could've been straight. But then, after a big football game, he came up to me in the locker room. We were both just wearing towels, and the room was suuuper steamy. Literally and metaphorically." Thomas winked at Alex, who rolled his eyes for what felt like the billionth time just since Thomas' arrival in the coffee shop.

"At that point, everyone else had left besides us. And we were just standing, staring at each other for a moment, when suddenly he shoved me into a locker and started kissing me. Honestly, he wasn't that good at kissing or being all dominant and stuff so I flipped us around and-"

Alex held up his hand. "Spare me the details, please."

"Damn. That's the second time you've said please to me today. Johnny boy must've gotten better at kissing." Thomas smirked and Alex blushed against his will.

"Anyways, we ended up suc-"

"I said, spare me the details!"

"Fiiine. Well after that, we made out a lot. Like, a lot a lot. In between classes we searched for unoccupied closets and just went to town. We seriously just went at it for hours every day. Like we really-"

"Jefferson." Hamilton said warningly "I'm this close to kicking you out of this shop."

"You're no fun, Hasshole!" Jefferson groaned. "But anywayyyyssss, we were dating. We did everything together, honestly, it was pretty great. Then we got to parents day, when everyone's parents would come up to the school and visit their kids. John had been asking his dad to visit for months, and he finally agreed."

Alex felt a sharp pang of sadness in his heart. John's dad had literally made his own son beg to see him. And even worse, John had been abused before this. Yet he STILL was holding onto hope that his dad would be better... he really was too kind underneath his asshole-ish facade.

"My parents were off in London on a business trip, so I agreed to spend parents day with John and his dad, even though I thought it would be a little awkward, because I knew it meant a lot to him." Alex looked so shocked that Thomas scoffed, "What? I'm not a complete asshole."

"I don't believe that." Muttered Alex, and Thomas pretended not to hear him.

"So parents day came. John's dad showed up three hours late, and spent the first thirty minutes he was there just making a ton of business calls. I could tell John was annoyed, so obviously we went into a closet and made out for a few minutes."

"That's your solution to everything? Just making out?"

"Hey! It's a very effective way to distract someone. After his dad was done with all the business calls, and we were done making out, John and I showed his dad around the school a little. It turned out he had never ever visited before."

"Never?!"

"Never."

"That absolute-" Hamilton let out a long string of obscenities that was conveniently censored by the sirens of a few passing police cars.

"I'm just going to assume you said something along the lines of 'asshole' and move on. Hey, looks like asshole is word of the day. Anyanyways, the whole time we showed Henry- John's dad- around, he was being super annoying and asking John questions about girls and if he had a girlfriend. That is literally all he asked about. After 2 hours of hearing the same girl-related questions over and over, John suddenly shouted, 'Sir, I'm gay!' And kissed me right there in front of his dad."

"Woah. That's brave."

"Mhm. But his dad immediately yanked him away from me and literally dragged him out of the school by his ear. He didn't come back for 2 months, and when he did, he was super quiet from then on, and didn't speak to me or anyone else for the rest of highschool. It's only recently that we actually started talking again. So, yeah. That's the cute and also depressing story of my relationship with John Laurens." Thomas finished, and finally took a sip of the Frappuccino Alex had handed him a few minutes ago.

Alexander stood there, speechless for a few moments. "I- Wow... Now I understand the asshole act..."

"Yep. Anyways, I gotta run. I'm helping Jemmy with this new art thing he's doing. It's cool. See ya, Hasshole." And with that, Jefferson took his Frappuccino without paying and left the shop, leaving Alex alone with his thoughts...

For about five seconds, until John re-emerged from the kitchen with an expression Alex couldn't read.

"So? How did it go?" Alex moved a little closer to John and resisted the temptation to give him a hug and tell him he was so sorry that he had ended up with such an awful dad.

"Well..." John began.

To be continued

A/N: Howdy y'all. The next chapter will conclude this seemingly very long day haha. Then we'll get some spicy stuff! What type of spicy? Who knows? ;) ;)

On a different note (the note no one cares about) I'm literally soooo tired right now but I really wanna finish this little three part mini series within the larger story. Does that even make sense? I don't know, I'm tired.

ALSO! Earlier in this story, you may have noticed that my little Author's notes at the end of each chapter seemed sort of alarming. Don't worry about that! My mental health is much better now, as is my relationship with food. It's all good :)

Anyways, if anyone ever wants to talk to someone, my instagram is @zz.as.pie. Hmu!

Ok, enough rambling. Onto the next chapter! <3