Chapter 6

Alexander's heart was beating beyond all control.
He'd woken up in his bed and, still half asleep, turned on his side. Something soft had brushed against his cheek and he'd slowly opened his eyes. And found himself looking straight at a sleeping John Laurens.

John's head was resting on his arm, his hair spread out behind him like a fan. His mouth was slightly open and he breathed slowly, causing the blanket covering him and Alexander to rise and fall. The freckles on his nose and cheeks stood out clearly in the morning light and Alexander thought they looked like tiny stars.

As they lay like that, faces mere inches apart and with Alexander's heart fluttering furiously in his chest, one of John's curls fell into his face. Without thinking about it Alex reached out and brushed it away. His hand lingered for just a moment, the other boy's hair soft against his fingers. For a moment he thought he saw John's eyelids flutter and his breath caught in his throat, but John just turned in his sleep, rolling slightly closer to a blushing Alexander.

Alex had almost dozed off again, perfectly happy to be snuggled up where he was, when John woke up. His brown-green eyes were cloudy with sleep, and it took all of three seconds before his face turned flashing red.
"Oh, um," John said intelligently.
"Um, yeah," Alexander responded, completely unable to form a sentence while looking into John's eyes.
"I guess we fell asleep," he finally said, and immediately cursed himself. Like that wasn't obvious.
"It seems so." Alexander would not have thought it possible, but John blushed even deeper.

After about ten seconds of silence, in which neither boy moved, Alexander finally said; "Should we get up?"
John groaned loudly at this, turning to bury his face in Alexander's pillow.
"But it's warm here!"
Alexander did not argue.

The only reason they finally got up was that the smell of pancakes drifting into the room was way too inviting to ignore. The two boys, both still blushing, glanced at each other.
"Pancakes?"
"Pancakes."

The rest of the day progressed fairly normally as none of the four boys really felt the need to do anything. They spend the day playing cards, snacking on oreos and watching bad comedies. Alexander and John did seem to have a tendency to touch more than was really necessary though, and when they brushed hands for the fifth time in three minutes Lafayette quietly muttered "juste embrasse."

It was pretty late into the afternoon before anything exciting happened. The four were lounging in the living room when there was a muffled shout from the neighbouring dorm.
"We're not having mac and cheese again Thomas!"
The response was inaudible through the wall, and the boys looked questioningly at each other.
"Do you think we should introduce ourselves to them?" Hercules finally said.
The others shared a quick glance and simultaneously responded:
"No."

The short outburst had reminded them that they needed to make dinner though, and they decided to get started on it. John claimed that they had to make something special, as a way to celebrate their last night before college started, and after a short debate - which mainly consisted of Lafayette suggesting different French foods - they decided on tacos.

As the mighty dictator of the kitchen (and also the only one who could actually cook) Lafayette assigned the others their cooking duties. Hercules was in charge of baking the tortillas, John of cutting the vegetables and Alexander of making the guacamole. The task of cooking the meat Lafayette assigned to himself, as "something needs to turn out edible".

It didn't take long until the kitchen was bustling with activity. The space was way too small for four people, so Hercules took to using the dinner table as a working bench for his tortillas. As Lafayette took up almost all the space standing by the stove John and Alexander ended up standing shoulder to shoulder at the tiny workbench, hacking away at tomatoes and avocados.
"Ow, you got tomato in my face!" Alexander suddenly exclaimed, wiping away the juice from his cheek.
"Oh sorry," John said, looking up from hs cutting board. "I didn't mean t-"
His apology was cut short by Alexander flicking a piece of avocado at him.
"Hey!" John dragged his hand along his face, only resulting in creating a green streak across his nose.
"We're having a food war? Sweet!" Hercules' voice sounded from the dinner table.
"No!" Lafayette exclaimed. He turned from the saucepan, spatula in hand, and glared at them
"No food wars!"
Hercules threw a piece of dough at him.

The tacos got done, eventually. The boys proudly placed the bowls of food on the table and got to eating. The tacos tasted amazing, probably thanks to Lafayette, and were gobbled down in record time. As far as celebrating your last day before school goes this truly was the way to do it.
"Raise a glass to freedom," Lafayette laughed, lifting his glass of coke.
"Something you will never see again, Laf," Mulligan joked. John and Alexander joined in on the laugh and jokingly lifted their own glasses.
"Ey Alex you've got sauce all over your face," John chuckled, putting down his glass and throwing a napkin at him.
"Yeah you're the one to talk Laurens, you've still got avocado on your nose," Lafayette teased, causing John to furiously rub his face with a napkin.

They went to bed not long after, all of them wanting to be rested for their first day of classes. Though when Lafayette strolled off to his room Alexander was pretty sure he went through the door that led to Hercules room, but he promptly decided that he really wasn't the one to say anything about this. Besides, he wasn't sure if it was physically possible to sleep in Lafayette's room, due to it being so full of French souvenirs.

John stayed in the kitchen for a moment before heading off to his room. He turned at the threshold and gave Alexander a small smile.
"Well, goodnight Alex."
Alexander returned the smile.
"Goodnight John."

As always, huge thanks for reading this! I apologise if I got the french wrong, but I hope it's correct. this will be that second to last chapter, and I hope I can get the final one up by tomorrow. Take care!