The one thing to Jefferson didn't lie about was that he was coming back.

Jefferson came to back the morning before school started. And of course, the only one that was capable of getting him to campus was James.

He had to get up extra early that morning just to be at the airport at seven-thirty. Only to pick up a person he didn't want to see.

When James arrived at the airport he recognized Jefferson as soon as he was within eyesight. Of course he had changed a bit since the last time, but James was still positive that it was him.

All it took was a wave in his direction for Jefferson to notice James. He looked happy to see James and ran over to him, but when he came close enough James bent over and picked up Jefferson's suitcase. Jefferson looked quite uncomfortable, but James didn't care. "Follow me," he said coldly as they left the airport.

The ride back to campus started really awkward as neither of the men was talking to the other. Eventually, Jefferson decided to break the ice. "So, how is school going?" he asked.

"It's going good, but you would have known that if you held your promise," James replied back just as cold as before.

Thomas didn't know how to react to that. He knew that there was no good excuse to do what he did.

"Look, I'm sorry James. I didn't know what to say to you,"
"You could have said anything,"
"But the longer I stayed silent, the worse it got,"

The speed of James' car had increased. At this point, he was incredibly mad. Jefferson didn't forget about him at all, he just never replied.

"What about the first month? I sent you messages almost every day!"

Thomas knew he had to avoid that question. Because in reality, he had been out making friends and partying all night long.

He had seen James' messages but had always delayed them to the next day, until he stopped.

"Look, James, I don't really have a good reason for not responding to you, but I'm willing to make up for it. I'm willing to do whatever you want if you just-"

"Shut up Jefferson!" James screamed.

Jefferson was startled because for starters he had never seen him so aggressive before, and had known James for fourteen years (seventeen including the years he was in France). Secondly, James had never called him by just surname. Never. Third and last because he knew that this was a buildup of years of ignoring him.

"You called me Jefferson," he said so weakly that it was almost impossible to hear.

"Yes, I am very much aware of that,"

James was trying to calm down, he was the driver and needed to focus on the road in front of him.

"Um...why did you call me Jefferson?"
"Cause that's your name?"
"My name is Thomas, James,"

James had a quick glance at Jefferson. He sounded distant and needed to confirm his beliefs. He was right about Jefferson not looking at James. He was looking out of the passenger window.

"This guy Hamilton, at our school began doing it in Junior year and it kinda rubbed off onto me,"
"Is he a friend of yours?"

James sighed. "Was," he said after he finally calmed down. "Oh, what happened?"

James realised that he finally had someone that he could tell this story to whom could possibly take his side. So he decided to tell him it.

"During spring earlier this year Hamilton, Jay, and I was working on a personal project that could possibly change the rules on campus. It started out as a great project. We had the headmaster on our side, he has a kind of 'father-son' relationship with Hamilton."

Jefferson saw as James found the last sentence quite funny. He understood that this was probably the first time James had told this to anyone.

"Anyway, the project consisted of 35 points that were going to be split over 25 pages, which again was going to be split among us,"

"A week into the project Jay broke his arm and was unable to write more. He had written five essays which left ten to me and ten to Hamilton. But I decided to take matters into my own hands and wrote a total of 29 essays,"

"But that's more than what you planned to write in total,"
"I know. When I was done I delivered them to Hamilton, but,"
"What?"
"He had already written 51 by himself,"

"51?!"
"He writes a lot,"
"Got that,"

"Anyway. I didn't see it as a big problem, in the beginning. I saw it as an improvement. However, later I found that he had included points that weren't supposed to be there at all. Not only that but he had taken credit for all of the essays,"

"That's pretty dumb,"
"You should have heard some of the points he had included by himself,"
"Any examples?"
"He wanted to close down the library to use the money on 'something more useful' and banning alcohol for the seniors,"

Jefferson knew that the library was James' safe place to go whenever there was something hard that he had to deal with. He didn't want to focus on that point and decided to bring up a new subject.

"So, did you do any dating while I was gone?"
"Yes, I was introduced to this girl by a friend of mine,"
"Are they still a friend?"
"Yes, but I think he is siding more with Hamilton,"
"You think?"
"He is not very open with his opinions, not as long as I've known him at least,"

"About the girl though?"
"Well her name was Kitty. We met at a party during freshmen year. Began dating a week later, but ended it this summer,"

"What happened?"

James didn't know if he wanted to tell Jefferson about Kitty anymore. But by the look that Jefferson gave him, it didn't seem like he had much of a choice.

"Right after school ended I decided to propose to her,"

James could see Jefferson in the corner of his eye and Jefferson didn't look pretty happy about the words that came out of James' mouth.

"Yes, I know that three years is a pretty short time since we are in college, but it felt right,"

"I assume that something bad happened,"

"If you consider running out of the restaurant while I'm still down on one knee, then block my number and never see me again or tell me why you left. Then yes, something bad happened,"

After that the men sat in silence for the rest of the ride. Jefferson had given James signs of comfort but had never opened his mouth.

When they arrived on campus around eight-thirty, James helped to get Jefferson's suitcase out of the back seat. It had gotten suck somehow.

"James, I'm willing to do anything to fix our friendship,"

"Well, you can start by carrying your luggage by yourself," James said handing him the suitcase, which by the way was quite heavy.

He smiled at James and said:" I better head of to find out where I'm going to stay,"

James grinned. "No need I've already been informed that you are staying with me,"
"What?"

"My friend informed that I already knew you so they decided to put us in the same room,"
"Oh! Can you show me the way to our room then,"

"Sure,"

As soon as they got Jefferson's luggage sorted out James decided that he needed to take a break. "So, Jefferson," he started as he made himself comfortable on the couch. It was going to Take Jefferson some time to be called that. "About that forgiving thing,"

Jefferson's face lit up. "Yeah?" He asked with a lot of hope in his voice. "I've been thinking about it and I actually need your help,"

"Whatever you need," he said. It sounded really needy and desperate. "I was going to have a debate with Hamilton tomorrow, but now you are,"

"What? Tomorrow? I don't know anything about it,"

Forget about sounding needy before this was way worse. "Are you taking your statement back?" James asked not even batting an eye in Jefferson's direction. "No, if this is what it takes then I'll do it,"

James smiled. "Great, and don't worry about what you need to know. I'll stay up the whole night to help you if that's what it takes,"

James caught one look at Thomas before he left to research in the library.