John
Tears still steamed down his face as Angelica opened the door from the Schuylers dormitory. Her face was bright and lively, as if she was in the aftermath of hearing a funny joke, and her elated expression fell instantly as she caught eyes on John. she automatically threw a hand to her mouth with concern furrowing her eyes, and held the door out wide for John. "Shit, John! Are you okay?"
John hiccuped, unable to speak. Angie placed her arm around his shoulders and shut the door, leading him to the living room. Eliza sat on the couch cross legged, and wearing light blue pjs with bunny patterns around the hems. Peggy, who still had her shoes on and had obviously just arrived, sat at her feet on the soft, fur carpet. The two looked up and their eyes widened, muttering questions of concern to him. John shook harder as he caught another glimpse at Eliza.
If he told the whole story, he would have to explain the part when Alexander told confessed to him, which John could stil not believe. If he shut them out or made up a lie as to why he was crying, he would be acting unfaithful to his friends.
Reliving the moment where Alex confessed to him, John felt a peculiar but shameful glimmer of hope as the words started hitting John like tiny bullets that pelted through his skin.
Alex loves him.
Wait, but he has Eliza? But does he love Eliza?! Wh-
"John!"
John snapped his head up, his eyes widened and delusional of fear and confusion. "H-huh?"
Eliza knelt down in front of him, taking his hands. "Hon, what happened?"
His mouth started to move, unable to drag the words back into his mouth. "I got into a fight with Alex."
Eliza's pity and concern in her eyes trailed and evolved into a bubbling agitation. "What?"
From behind her, John caught sight of Peggy holding both her hands to her mouth with a mellow gasp, and Angelicas grip in her fists visually tightened.
"I-i got into a fight. With Alex. Yeah."
"What happened?" Peggy piped up and asked John with a quizzical tilt of her head. The other sisters nodded eagerly.
John shrugged and rubbed his eyes, "It's nothing."
The girls shrieked. "I call bullshit, john!" Peggy screamed out to the thin air.
"John, tell us what really happened."
"I don't want to!" John yelled, straining his voice even further. He took a moment to grab his breath. "I just... I don't want to talk about it now. Can i just crash here for the night?"
Eliza nodded simply and turned to her sisters, who exchanged threads of approving glances.
"He can sleep in my bed tonight. Seems fitting, I'm the only one with a double bed." Peggy added, receiving nods of appreciation from John.
"T-thanks."

John tossed and turned with undeniable thoughts twisting through his mind not ceasing to let him sleep. Throwing his curly hair over his shoulder, he closed his eyes momentarily before snapping them open gain in disarray, as Peggy beside him groaned and tossed to face him. She lifted her eyes open. "You can't sleep."
John shook his head, and Peggy sighed, twisting and folding the baby yellow doona between her thumb and finger.
"I just got a lot on my mind."
"Can you tell me what happened? Please, i want to know."
John thought for a moment, contemplating the ceiling with such wonder. "I... okay." Peggy sat up, looking down at John with curiousity flickering through th pupils of her eyes.
"During the last episode, i completely zoned out. I was just... swallowed in different thoughts. So after you left, i was still a bit... distant, and Alex had noticed.
"He confronted me about why i was so closed in, why I wasn't talking to him as much. And i just burst. I asked him why he cared about it, and i told him that h-he should just mind his own business.
"W-went back and forth, over and over until..."
John stopped as Alex's words echoed through his mind. He bit his lip, tears filling his eyes but not daring to repeat the deemed words out loud. "Until i-i left. Then i came here." He lied.
Peggy's eyes lowered and filled with unspeakable frustration and gloom. "Thats all?"
"Y-yeah. I told you it wasn't that big. J-just, don't tell your sisters, please?"
Peggy suddenly shook his shoulder slightly. "I wont, yet; but John, this is serious! He doesn't understand your sensitivity! No offence. But still, we need to confront him about this."
"Okay, but can we discuss this in the morning?"
Peggy nodded, and slowly spooned John to comfort him. He sighed, and snuggled into her arms, wondering how lucky he was to get such friends that treat him like an own brother.

Alex
Alex sobbed heavily on the heartless, wooden floor, for what felt like hours on end; as if he had an endless supply of tears. He could not get John's broken yet agonised face out of his head- as if his mind took another picture and painted a delicate painting of him on a canvas to memorise every stroke and tear on John's face.
Still in a lap of racked sobs, Alex thought as to why John was so upset with him. Had he been too harsh? Had he said something wrong? Had-
"Oh my god." Alex whispered to himself in realisation. He's mad at me because I'm in love with him. And he told me to cautious not to hurt Eliza, he told me!
Now I fucking messed it up.
I-
Alex could hear his cellphone ringing from the kitchen bench. His heart in his throat with curiosity, Alexander heaved himself off the ground heavily and stumbled to the kitchen.
Lafayette was calling.
Shit.
This made Alex wonder where John wondered off to once he stormed out; seeing how Laf was calling him, he must have gone to his dormitory- Alex honestly thought that John would've turned to the schuyler sisters.
Alex quickly threw the phone to his ear, realising he had not yet answered it.
"H-hello?"
"qu'est-ce qui s'est passé ?! Je jure devant Dieu, Alex, tu dois me dire ce que tu as dit à John?!" Laf shrieked through the phone, causing a sharp buzzing sensation to fill Alex's ear. (I wanted to put the translation at the end of the chapter, but i actually forgot what I wrote and I can't rely on google translate to swap it back XD)
"I'm sorry! Where is he?!"
"Vous n'avez pas besoin de savoir! pour l'amour des dieux, Alex! que s'est-il passé qui l'a tellement secoué?!"
"I don't know what i did wrong!" Alex yelled in defense, but truly having a full understnding of why John was mad. He then exhaled and rubbed the bridge of his nose.
Lafayette sighed from the other line. "Look, can you just meet me at my dorm so we can talk about it?"
"Fine."
Alex sighed, pulling the phone from his ear to his chest and bitterly enjoying the dead silence that crept through the room.
He had completely and utterly messed up.
Tears threatened harshly to fall, but Alex dismissed the tears and gathered his things together, then wrote an apology note to John to inform in that he would be at Laf and Herc's dorm if he ever returned.

"You did what?!" Herc yelled in disbelief as Alex recited to them how he had questioned John after the girls had left.
Alexander threw his hands up in defence. "I didn't know it would upset him!"
"Alex, John has a very- ah, how you say- sensitive heart! You cannot yell at him like so and except him to...rebound!" Laf reasoned loudly while flailing his arms around.
Alex's eyes widened as Laf continued to talk to him, "you must be careful about what you say to him, mon ami! The subject that you brought up to him is not one to dwell on. He is a... a delicate flower, he is glass that is already broken."
Alex stopped, snapping his head up. "Broken glass? What does that mean?"
Hercules groaned in realization. "Oh my god, we never told you!" He ended his pacing route and sat down next to Alex and turning to him. "John's parents were... complicated people, to say the least. They were very posh people, very rich. Henry Laurens was once partnered with one of the largest slavery workshops in his day, much to John's dismay and disaproval. Look, it's not my place to discuss how and what, but basically, when John's mother passed away when he was young, his father got really abusive. Starting hitting and beating John and his siblings for years until John moved out into college. I'm not sure how his siblings are doing now, but I don't think it's good."
Alex placed a hand over his mouth and his shoulders hunched in dissapointment. "What the hell? How could he do such a thing? I mean, if anyone found out about this, his political reputation would be ruined, being the president of Congress for gods sake!"
"I know, I know. But the yelling and hitting has damaged his personality, so he really, like, really doesn't take yelling well. It has really effected him. He was also very manipulative of of John, forcing John to study law and urging him to do all these things that if he didn't do them, he would threaten to abandon him and hate him. He doesn't even know that John decided Marine Biology instead of law, that's how bad of a father he is."
"Oh my god, I didn't know..." Alex held his head in his hands shakily as he once again hurried tears away from his stinging eyes.
"It's... fine." Laf had mumbled out loud, hardly audible to hear.
"No, it's not! John might hate me now for yelling at him, John might hate me because I said-" Alex haulted as a sudden realpse overcame him as he recalled the day when he had sat with John in the kitchen once he had finished cooking bacon and eggs.
"Please, tell me you love her."
John's words sruck through his heads as a single though came to mind, hitting harder than a bullet striking him in the head. John didn't love me. He doesn't, and never will.
"You said what?" Herc raised an eyebrow.
"I... Nothing." Alexander dismayed. Herc was about to push the matter further, but Laf suddenly objected through.
"Are you sure that's is all that happened, mon ami? I feel a bit uncertain about all this. Although John is sensitive, I am sure that he would not get upset this easily."
Alexander shrugged, knowing fully what he did wrong, but not wanting to share his secret to his friends. "That was all."
Laf hummed in response, then pulled up the couch as a bed. "You should sleep here for the night, just in case John decides to- ah... return to your dorm. We do not want anymore commotion happening tonight."
Alex sighed and withdrew back on the couch. "Yeah, i suppose you're right. I'll get my books for class when i wake up."
Laf and Herc nodded and filed into the kitchen an talked quietly while washing up dishes. After so, they walked back to the living room.
"Do you need anything, Alex?"
Alex lied back onto the couch, his arms over his eyes to shield the light that blared in his eyes. "No, i... just want to be alone."
The two boys nodded in understanding, exiting the room and leaving Alex alone, unable to hold back his tears that were begging to be release.

John
Waking up to a stir from his left side, John tossed himself over sluggishly and peeped an eye open to reveal a grumbling Peggy. John smiled to himself, recalling the fact that Peggy was most known for her hate of mornings. A slight sense of comfort washed over the events of the previous night, which had left a tinge of uneasiness and guilt that lingered in the back of his head dangerously.
"Pegs, wake up." He shook Peggy softly, daring himself to wake her up just to annoy her.
Peggy's face scrumptled up unconsciously and groaned. "Ughhh, stop it Angieeeee."
"Wake up!" John giggled softly, poking at her cheek.
Peggy sighed exasperatedly. "Fuck offffffff."
John burst into a fit of chuckles, throwing himself face first into his pillow. Once Peggy was awake at any point, there was no turning back for her. Peggy will murder him for this. He then grabbed his pillow and slammed her on the back with it; not too hard, as he was too scared that he might hurt her.
She finally cracked an eye open and slumped her head in her pillow. "Oh my god, John. You asshole."
"I'm sorry, i had to! It's too funny!" John snorted, Peggy sitting up along with him and rubbing her eyes.
"I hate youuuuu." Peggy whined.
John smiled and shook his head, the shifted his eyes to the bunk beds opposite Peggy's own bed. The strawberry themed bottom bunk was empty, and its covers were neatly made and creased carefully. On the top bunk, a light blue cover was flopped at the end of the bed, hanging of the edge. Peggy sighed behind him, slumping back onto her pillow. "They're in the kitchen, i can hear them."
John perched his ears up and heard soft and barely audible voice from the kitchen, as Peggy suspected. Slowly standing up and reaching for his phone to check the time, notifications flood his screen. Many from Alex (which he had ignored for the time being), a few from Laf and one from Maria asking him what had happened, as she had been missing out on all the "action".
The clock on his phone told him it was 7:57. He thought for a second, remembering he didnt have classes. John turned to Peggy. "Do you have classes today?"
The honey tanned teen glared up from her pillow as if she was about to shoot him, then shook her head before groaning yet again and flopping onto her belly and moping into her pillow that seemed to be quite unhelpful.
"Aw, Pegs, do you need your comfort cushion?"
Peggy yelled like a young child, making John wonder if she really does belongs in childcare. "Yes, you fuckstick! I want my cushion!"
John sighed and grabbed her comfort cushion- a golden cushion that had beads handing from the corners and oddly smelt of fresh lavender constantly- from the ground, then tapped her on the back lightly with it. She groaned again. "Don't hit me!"
John laughed as she stuck her hand out for the cushion. "Come on, get up."
"Nooooo."she snuggled closer into the cushion and turned her back from John. He sighed, standing up and entering the kitchen. Eliza was leaning on the modern marble kitchen bench, sipping on a cup of what smelt like, peppermint tea. Angie was rummaging in the fridge, her back turned to John until he heard him enter. She looked out from the fridge. "Oh, hey John."
Eliza set her tea down and swept up to John, cupping his cheeks. "How are you feeling?"
John looked down. "I'm doing better, to be honest."
Eliza sighed, concern still flickering through her vocals. "Alright. What do you suppose we do now? We all have classes except Peggy starts hers a while after us. Do you have classes today?" John shook his head, making Eliza hum in response and return to her tea. "Well then, what do you want to do now? Can you tell us what happened?"
John cringed, knowing that out of anyone in the entire universe, he would open up to Eliza. But that was impossible to do. He had to keep his mouth sealed until the whole commotion was solved. "I'm sorry, i can't tell you yet." Eliza nodded in understanding, and John continued to talk. "If its okay, can i spend another night here? I don't really want to go back yet."
"Thats fine, hon. But won't you run into him at one point?"
John thought for a moment. "Have you talked to Alex yet?"
"No, but I sure as hell will. If you want, i can tell him to try and avoid talking to you so you can have some space?"
"Yeah, that would be good. Thanks." John smiled with gratitude as an uncomfortable tingle silently slipped though his stomach. Angie had made herself a coffee and was silently pitching in nods and shakes of agreements.
"You might need to get some stuff from your dorm, if you are staying the night." Angie suggested, taking a sip of her coffee. John nodded, but suddenly turned his head to the bedroom along with the others as a loud thump submerged from the doors. Peggy soon appeared, with the most sour expression in existence and the postured so slumped and hunched over it looked like she could murder a cat.
"Good morning, angel." Angelica smirked and Eliza giggled along with her. Peggy ignored them and sat at the kitchen bench, munching on an apple.
"Anyway, yeah, that's a good idea. Maybe Peggy can go with you, seeing how her classes aren't for a while." Eliza added, turning to Peggy. All Peggy did in response was flip her off.
In translation- "Yeah, sure. But let me get my shit together before i snap someone's head off."
John shivered, remembering how dangerous Peggy can be in the morning.
"Alright then, its settled. I'll text Alex, asking him to meet me up soon so that there wont be any chance of collision- then I'll talk to him."
The freckled teen sighed, not wanting Eliza to discuss the matter with Alex, but, knowing that Alex wouldn't really explain what really happened, felt a sense of security. "Okay then."

EPILOGUE
John stepped through his dorm cautiously and closing the door, blankets were still laying were they once previously used the night before. Wanting to go back outside were Peggy stood waiting, he pushed himself to go further. Why am I even scared? There's nothing to be afraid of...
Stepping through to the kitchen, he caught sight of two notes stuck to the signature bench. He gasped slightly, rushing up to read them. He read them one by one.
John, I'm sorry.
I know what i sad was wrong, but i cant help it. I'm sorry.
Im heading over to Herc and Laf's dorm, if you don't see me.
I'm sorry.
Alex
John's hand started to shake and he struggled to pick up the second note.
John.
I didn't know about your mother. I didn't know about your father.
You probably don't know about mine, either.
The point is, i didn't know what he did. I didn't know that you were so sensitive.
Please, forgive me.

I love you.

John broke down after reading the last line, a exasperated sob slipping through his consciousness. Tears spilled down his cheeks silently, shaking onto the note and dampening it.
Guilt guttered his stomach and replaced any other emotion that filled any part of him as it spread into every corner of his body furiously.
Falling to his knees and clutching the note to his chest, he forgot about the world around him and sobbed the hardest he ever had on the cold, marble floor.

Because I'm lazy, i'm going to put my updates into dot points.
1. I don't really like this chapter.
2. Angst.
3. I am in an unproductive mood today.
4.

I love you already XD
4. Thank you Sarahishamiltontrash , berrymermaid and lokilokiloki26 for helping me through "you know what" you guys are awesome, thank you so much
5. I have more than 5k views. Cool.
6. You are welcome.
Thats all, peeps!
Thankhuuuu
Chazz 💜💜💜