John Laurens loved summer in NYC. He liked the stifling humidity, the warm rains, and the grumbling thunderstorms, making him possibly the only person in New York City who legitimately enjoyed the weather. He liked the long days and short nights, because being awake more often gave him more time to draw outside on his fire escape. And boy, did he draw.

He drew everyone who walked under his apartment, from the lady with the blue and purple waist length cornrows to the guy who always had a parrot on his shoulder.

But by far his most favorite person to draw was his best friend, Alex. Whenever John sat down with his sketchpad without really paying attention, he would look down a few minutes later to find Alex's face looking up at him.

He couldn't help it; Alex's profile just came to him naturally: his straight nose, crooked grin, messy hair, and his eyes. Oh God, his eyes. John could write poetry about those eyes (not that he'd ever tried, because that would be weird). They sparkled when he laughed, burned furiously when he was angry, and lit up whenever he got a new idea, which was just about every other minute. His eyes were deep and blue, and-

Snap out of it, dude! A part of his brain commanded, and suddenly John was whisked back to the present, where another picture of Alex had miraculously appeared in his sketchpad. He shook his head at his own hopelessness, but continued to sketch Alex's laughing face.

"Hey, J-Lo, whatcha' drawin'?" said a voice from above. John's lips quirked at the nickname.

"Don't call me that," he said, purely out of habit. His heart did a backflip when he glanced behind him to see Alex grinning at him upside-down from the fire escape ladder. Alex lived in the apartment directly above him, and he was known to visit via the fire escape and into John's bedroom window, which John did not mind at all.

"You know you love it," Alex shot back as he climbed all the way down the ladder.

"Do not."

"Do too."

"Do not."

"Do too."

"Shut up." Alex grinned and propped his arm on John's shoulder, whose heart sped up more than he was willing to admit at the contact.

"You know that's never gonna happen." He peered at the sketchpad, "Is that me?" John felt his face heat up.

"Uhh, Maybe."

"Man, that's really good. I mean- wow, I wish I looked that good in real life," Alex muttered, leaning further over John's shoulder to scour the image.

You look even better in real life, John thought to himself. Wait, what?

"I'm glad your dad is finally letting you take classes," Alex said. He stood all the way back up and looked John in the eye. John could only nod in response to his statement as he immediately got lost in Alex's ocean eyes. He was dragged out of his trance when Alex cast his eyes upward at Johns hair. He reached up with the arm that wasn't leaning on John's shoulder and pulled back one of John's curls, watching with a smirk as it sproinged back into place.

"Will you ever stop doing that?" John asked, amused. "You've been at it since kindergarten." Alex grinned again.

"I will never be satisfied," Alex declared. John snickered.

"You are so weird."

"Yep, that's why you love me." John felt his face flush suddenly. Did Alex really just say that?