“Happy birthday!”

I chuckle gently and shake my head. “A surprise party? Wow, I wasn’t expecting this at all!”

A scoff was heard. “Okay, who spilled the beans?” Peggy asks, getting out of her hiding spot.

As everyone slowly emerges from their spots, I look over at Aaron, who brought me back to the apartment. “I may have interrogated the driver. I’m in my third year of law school, you’re not supposed to be able to hide stuff from me.” I say.

Aaron shrugs. “Sorry guys, I really tried.”

Theodosia giggles and walks over to Aaron, wrapping an arm around him. “I guess that’s our fault for sending Aaron of all people. He doesn’t know how to keep a secret.”

“Hey! That’s not true!”

“Hon, I told you I wanted to wait to announce our engagement, and the next day I got congratulations texts from everybody.” She says, giving him a stern look, then laughing softly. “It’s okay, I still love you.”

Angelica dusts off her skirt. “Alright, alright, can we just get on with the party? It’s Alex’s twenty-first, we gotta celebrate!”

“For once, I actually agree with Angelica.” Lafayette chuckles as he holds Hercules next to him. ”Que la fête commence!”

We all drink as if we’ve never drank alcohol before, and talk and hang out as music plays on my speaker in the background. I look around at the people surrounding me. Lafayette and Hercules were flirting with each other at the end of the couch, Theodosia and Aaron were acting just as newlyweds would over in the kitchen, Angelica and Eliza were sitting in front of me, chatting about some nonsense topic, and Peggy was sitting with Victoria on the other end of the couch. It was nice to be surrounded by people who cared about you.

Now, I know what everyone is thinking. ‘Where is John?’ Well… We broke up. We were still friends, but we found that it just wasn’t working between us. I ended it, because we just kept hurting each other. We were better off as friends.

I wasn’t sure if he got an invite or if he would even come if he did, but it didn’t matter. I didn’t care if he came or not, I was surrounded by the rest of my friends anyway.

The party continues with different games and such for a couple hours. Theodosia and Aaron were staying in a hotel nearby, so they left early. Peggy and her sisters were staying with Victoria since Carrie was off on vacation, but they were planning on staying only a half hour more. And Lafayette and Hercules were staying with me. We were all pretty drunk, but I still had my senses enough to tell what was happening.

Soon there was a knock on the door and I look around at the people next to me. They were laughing about something stupid, so I took it upon myself to get the door. It was probably Theo saying she forgot something. I walk over to the door and open it, seeing John standing behind it with a wrapped box in his hand. My eyes widen slightly and he rubs the back of his neck. “Hey, Alex, sorry I’m late, but I wanted to wish you a happy birthday still.”

I smile softly and open the door. “It’s alright, thanks for stopping by. Come in, everyone’s kind of out of it right now.”

He walks in and we walk back into the livingroom, and everyone cheers. “John, you made it!”

“Took you long enough!”

They laugh some more. I think they moved on to playing truth or dare or something, but I wasn’t interested in playing. I turn to John. “Do you wanna move to somewhere quieter?”

He nods. “Yeah, I think I’d like that.”

We head to my room - which we used to share -  and I sit on the bed. I pat the spot next to me and hesitantly sits down. He looks around. “I like what you did with the room.” He says quietly.

I nod and look around as well. “Thank you, but I feel like it’s so empty.. I can’t explain it.”

He looks to a specific spot on the wall. “You kept all my paintings up.. And your flower as well.” He smiles softly.

“Yeah.. I liked the flowers. And I don’t have the artistic ability to fix that flower. You’re welcome to come over and fix it any time you like.”

He shakes his head. “No.. That one’s my favorite.” He says, looking at it a little longer.

I tilt my head as I look at the flower. It was a big red blob honestly, I don’t know why he liked it so much. “Out of all these beautiful flowers, the terrible one is your favorite?”

“It’s not terrible, you painted it.” John says, looking over at me. “Nothing you do is terrible.”

I blush gently and then laugh, shaking my head. “Oh, John, you’re funny. But we both know I suck at art.”

He chuckles softly. “Okay, you’re right, you kind of do. But that doesn’t mean I love that flower any less.”

He stares at me a little longer and then looks away, blushing a bit. I raise an eyebrow and then realize what was going on. “You’re not really talking about the flower, are you?”

He doesn’t look at me. “You said this room feels empty. Do you mean you don’t have it decorated enough or do you feel like you're missing... someone?”
“John, I thought we agreed-”

“Just answer the question, please.” He sighs. “I.. I need to know.”

“Need to know what?” I ask.

He looks at me. “If you miss me the same way I miss you.”

I stop and stare at him. Why was he doing this? We agreed that being friends was ultimately better for us.

“John..” I expect him to stop me, but he doesn’t. He just sits there, waiting for an answer. I sigh softly. “I just don’t have enough stuff to fill the room. Like the closet, my clothes don’t take up that much space.”

He scoffs. “Almost two years together, and you just end it between us? Now you’re trying to tell me you don’t miss it?”

“John, we both agreed we couldn’t continue on the way we were. We just kept hurting each other, we weren’t enough for one another.” I explain.

“No, you agreed. I just didn’t want to argue. I thought.. I thought you’d come back.” He says sadly. “Because you have always been enough for me.”

“John, please don’t do this.” I say, shaking my head.

“Don’t do what? You can’t tell me that after all that time, you just don’t love me anymore.”

“I do love you, and that’s the problem! I love you too much to keep you in this toxic relationship.” I say, biting the inside of my cheek. I had to remind myself to stop.

“If you love me, then we can make this work. We can go to couple’s therapy or something, but we love each other, we can continue on!”

“No, John, we can’t. We have to move on.” I tell him. “I want to stay friends, but if it’s going to hurt you to do that, maybe we really should part ways once and for all.”

John stops and shakes his head. “No, no I don’t want that. I want to be with you.”

“If you truly loved me, you would let me go, just like I’m doing for you.”

He nods. “Right.. That’s your solution..”

“John, don’t say it like that..” I frown.
“No, it’s fine, nevermind.” John stands up, looking at the present in his hand. “Look, I’m sorry things never worked out between us. I really thought we had something special. Guess I was wrong.”

I sigh and look down at my lap. “John, I’m sorry, too…”

I look up to see him smiling sadly at me. “Don’t be. We tried our best.” He looks at the box again and holds it out. “Here, happy birthday.”

I don’t exactly smile, but I do give some expression that shows I was grateful as I grab the gift from him. “Thanks, John.”

“Goodbye, Alex. I’ll miss you.” He says as he walks out of the room.

I furrow my eyebrows as he leaves, sighing to myself. This was for the better.

I unwrap the gift and see a familiar binder.. Actually, it was the binder that he used in high school that I took home everyday to do his homework. Except it was painted now, covered with some nice designs and patterns.

I open the binder and the first thing I see is a picture of John and I at a carnival we went to a couple years ago. I smile gently and flip to the next page in the binder. I see more pictures surrounding big, blue letters that read, 'To The Man That Changed My Life.'

I bite my lip and flip the page to see one of those pencil cases you could put inside binders. I unzip it and see a bunch of small envelopes in there. I pull them out and see they all have words written on them.

'Open when you're feeling down.'

'Open when you need a friend.'

'Open when you get married.'

'Open when you have your first kid.'

'Open now.'

I raise an eyebrow and grab that one from the pile. There were still many more, but John wanted me to open this one now, therefore that's what I needed to do. I open the envelope and read through it.

"My dearest, Hamilton. I love you dearly, and if you are reading this letter without me, then that means the feelings are no longer mutual. But that's okay. I know we had some magic together, but if you truly believe it's better for us to be separate, I'll do as you wish. It's crazy how we went from the bully and the nerd, to the inseparable couple, to this, but I believe everything happens for a reason." I pause and take a deep, shaky breath before continuing. "Just know that because of you, I have become a new person I never thought I could be. You'll always be in my heart, even if you're not in my life."

I set the letter down and see a tear splatter onto the paper. I hadn't even realized I was tearing up, but here I was. I flip the pencil case over and flip through the rest of the pages to see photos and papers and such, including notes we wrote to each other in school. It was a sweet gift, quite possibly the best one I've ever received, but it had a sad meaning to it now.

I guess I'm just another who got hurt doing John's Homework.

The end.

1816 Words

Picture above drawn by hailstorm3729 who is an amazing artist btw