Alex was pacing the entrance of the airport. He wasn't sure what was going on and he didn't know if he was going to find out.

He knew that Laurens was coming back early. That was it. Although he was glad in some ways – Aaron was decent company, but he was mostly ditching Alex in favour of Theodosia – he was scared to find out why.

He figured that the best case scenario was that he'd forgotten something important, like a sketchpad. However, deep down, Alex knew better. He knew there had to be something wrong.

The half hour he spent waiting felt like an eternity, but eventually the person he'd missed most walked out of the luggage collection area, looking exhausted but just as gorgeous as the last time Alex had seen him.

"HI FAVOURITE ROOMMATE!" Alex yelled. He hadn't exactly been starved of human contact, but hanging out with Aaron had meant he'd had to act like a normal person.

"Hey Alex. I thought Laf was your favourite? He can cook.". Laurens grinned at him.

"Yes, your cooking is diabolical, but takeaway doesn't kill you. It's actually quite nice. In all seriousness, are you okay?".

Laurens sighed. "Not in the slightest.".

"Are you going to talk about it?".

"Nope.".

"Fair enough. I'm assuming you want to head home, so we might want to go find the car.".

"Alex. Since when can you drive?".

"Erm... Since Laf didn't take his license to France with him?". It came out more like a question, but Alex didn't really care.

"Alex, just call a Uber if you can't drive.".

"It's fine. Angelica actually showed me how, I just never got round to taking the test.".

"Alex-".

"Seriously. I can do this. And it's not like you're particularly bothered about the law anyway, so...".

Even with the Manhattan traffic, it took a surprisingly short time to get back to the university. They didn't speak until they were inside their dorm.

"I know something happened, are you going to tell me what or...?". Alex broke the silence.

"Maybe later. Can we just do like anything else?".

"Harry Potter movie marathon?".

"I've heard of those, are they any good?".

Alex could hardly believe his ears. "You've never seen Harry Potter?".

"Apparently it has witchcraft in it and my parents thought that would be enough to make me convert to Satanism. That pretty much sums up how much faith they have in me.".

"I can't believe I live with somebody who has never watched Harry Potter. Get on the sofa, I'll get the laptop.".

Alex usually found it easy to lose himself in a movie. This time, he was only half paying attention and felt uneasy.

A/N I haven't updated in so long! I'm so sorry about that! Basically my drama and dance schools both made the rehearsal schedule more vigorous, and my school's doing a load of stuff about Options (yes, miss, I already know what I want to take, are four after school sessions in two weeks really necessary?) and then I went and got the flu, so this took so long and it's hardly great but it'll be fine.

So, yeah, back to Alex's POV with this one. A bit of mystery with this, and all should become clear next chapter.

QOTC: Marliza - Yea or Nay?

AOTC: MARLIZA IS SO CUTE! They're not quite OTP level - I have a strict one OTP per fandom limit and my Hamilton one is Lams - but they're SO ADORABLE together! And Maria Reynolds deserves a happily ever after.

Thank you for reading!

Kitty :)