Chapter 5:

The four boys stayed in Alexander's room for a long time. Hercules procured a deck of cards from his pocket and it wasn't long until they were all sat on the floor. The cards weren't familiar to Alexander, but John told him they were called "UNO-cards".
"Just team with me Alex, I'll teach you!" he said and Alexander happily obliged.
It turned out to be a seriously intense game, as both Hercules and John were skilled players. Lafayette, well he got by on sheer luck and "French" rules (though Alexander suspected that they were very much his own).

"Watch this," John whispered to Alexander.
His head was so close that his curls brushed Alexander's cheek, which caused Alexander's heart to flutter beyond control. He forced himself to focus on the game, and watched as John picked a black card with the number 4+ printed in the corner.
John grinned. "Pick four, Mulligan!"
Hercules gave him an angry glare and muttered something about revenge as he added cards to his almost empty hand.

They ended up winning, much to Lafayette and Hercules' disdain. It was hard to tell who was angrier; Hercules, who lost by one card or Lafayette, who lost by twenty. Neither of them was happy, that was for sure. In contrast, John seemed almost unreasonably happy as he high fived Alex with a huge smile.

Hercules wanted to go again, but John claimed he was way to hungry. Ignoring Herc's "Just afraid you'll lose!" he turned to Lafayette with huge puppy eyes.
"Will you cook Laf, pleeease?"
How Lafayette resisted those puppy eyes Alexander couldn't understand, but the French boy just leaned back and fanned himself with his cards.
"Cooking's hard, mon ami, and I had to carry that chair up all those stairs. I'm exhausted!"
He emphasised the last word, making it sound like he had accomplished a marathon.
John, clearly not impressed just rolled his eyes before taking out his phone.
"Fine then, I'll call for pizza."

The pizzas arrived not much later and the boys had just crammed into the sofa, ready to enjoy their smoking hot food and a movie when there was an ungodly noise from outside their door.
"What in the hell was that?" John and Alexander said in unison. Lafayette just shook his head, hand frozen in midair as he'd been about to grab the TV remote. Hercules, being the person closest to the door, got up and peered out into the corridor.
"People moving in next door." He shook his head as he sat back onto the couch, causing Alexander to be slightly squished where he sat between John and Lafayette.
"I've never heard three people make such a noise before," he continued before grabbing hold of a pizza slice.

The four boys had just begun to relax, content to enjoy their pizza and movie - and, in Alexander's case, the seating arrangement - when they were interrupted by three very loud bangs.
"What are they doing?" Lafayette asked. He'd barely finished his sentence before a loud screeching noise cut through the air. "This is ridicule!"
Alexander had to agree. "How much stuff are they even bringing?"
"Hella," John muttered.

After ten minutes spent trying to watch their movie and becoming increasingly annoyed by their new neighbours Alexander proposed an excellent idea.
"Hey, there's a study room downstairs right? Why don't we eat there?"
"Sounds good to me," Hercules answered.
And out they went.

As they walked down the corridor, pizza boxes and all, they caught glimpse of their neighbours. A tall boy with amazingly curly hair - quite similar to Lafayette's - was trying to carry a huge box into his dorm. He was wearing fuchsia coat that reached past his knees, and Alexander privately thought that he was dressed like fake royalty.

The boys made it to the study room and could finally enjoy their pizza. Though cold, it was still pretty good.
"See Laf, this is American cooking," John joked.
"Pizza's italian, you idiot" Hercules retorted. His eyes caught on something standing on the other side of the room.
"Hot chocolate!"
The guy practically jumped from his chair, leaving the other three to stare at each other in bewilderment.

After Hercules had downed three cups of the stuff both John and Alexander decided that they needed to try it too.
"You've drunk like two pints of that stuff," Alexander laughed. "I guess I've gotta try it"
"Bring me too!" Laf said, apparently too lazy to walk the five meters to the hot cocoa machine himself.
"Should he bring you?" Hercules teased, playfully punching Lafayette's arm. "What, you want him to carry you over there?"
"Casse-toi, Mulligan."

It was late at night when the boys finished their meal and returned to their dorm. Thankfully the neighbours had finally stopped moving their stuff and the corridor was quiet. The four bade each other goodnight, practically buzzing from all the sugar they'd just consumed. Damn, that hot cocoa had been good.

While Lafayette and Hercules went into their bathroom to get ready for the night John followed Alexander to his room, claiming that he had to grab the sketchbook he'd left there earlier. It didn't go as quickly as he had thought though, because Alexander wanted to see his drawings. The two boys lay on Alexander's bed as John showed him the pictures, after shyly mumbling that they "aren't that good".
Alexander had to disagree, and they spent a long while looking through the sketchbook, John occasionally inserting comments or stories behind the drawings.

And if they ended up falling asleep like that, cuddled up beneath a blanket and with John's head resting on Alexander's shoulder, they didn't tell anyone.

Huge thanks to you for taking the time to read this! I'm having so much fun writing it and I hope I'll be able to have the final chapters up soon. As always, please let me know if you have any thoughts or comments, I really appreciate it. Take care!