About halfway through the day, Alex took it upon himself to go and ask Eliza for advice. They had the same lunch break, and she was one of the only people he could trust with relationship stuff. He was thinking about asking John to go to dinner, or to get some drinks, or just do something to hang out after work. Alex liked spending time with John, and he decided that even if he didn't have chances with him, that didn't mean he couldn't try to make John like him.

When all of the students were at lunch, Alexander walked over to Eliza's classroom. But of course, Eliza wasn't alone. She was discussing something with Lafayette, who taught French. As soon as I walked in Eliza perked up, almost sounding fake, and Laf muttered something in French along the lines of 'parle du diable'. Wait, what?

"Hey, Alex!" Eliza greeted me cheerfully. "What are you doing here?" She laughed nervously.

"Well, I came to ask you a question, but now I want to know what you were saying about me," Alexander furrowed his brows. Parle du diable means speak of the devil, so what were they saying about him?

"You'll be annoyed," Eliza said shamefully. "We were trying to figure out how to set you up with... somebody... and that somebody might have been John.." She grimaced

Alex shook his head, almost laughing out of annoyance with those two. He started to walk out of the room.

"Mon amie, what question were you going to ask us before..?" Lafayette called after him.

"I'm asking Angelica. You lost your chance," Alex stated, not even turning back around. He loved his friends, he really did. But he had told all of them that he is the only one who can meddle with that stuff. He shook it off, though. They meant well, and it wasn't like they actually did anything.

He reached Angelica's room and knocked. He probably could have just walked in, but she kept her door closed and he thought it more polite to knock. He heard her call out saying it was open and he gently opened the door and then closed it again. She looked up and smiled at Alex, genuinely this time.

"Hey, Alex! Do you need someth-"

"ithinkimgonnaaskhimtodinner" Alex blurted. He didn't normally talk to Angelica about this stuff and he didn't know how to approach it, nor how she would react. She furrowed her brows like she didn't know what he said. He sighed and repeated himself, slower this time. "I-I think I'm gonna ask... I think I'm gonna ask John to d-dinner..." He stuttered out, but getting more comfortable with what he wanted to say. Angelica was listening attentively. Alexander decided to continue. "Um, not really in a date way, but in a 'I really wanna hang out with him" way. But, I don't know, what if he's busy or he says no."

"If he's busy then you just say that you'll ask somebody else, and I'll be your backup. If he says no, then you never give him a second thought. Seriously, who the hell turns somebody down without a good reason," Angelica began helping Alex plan this whole asking situation. It's ten minutes before lunch ends, and they hit the next dilemma.

"But, what do I ask him to do? I can't ask him to go out for drinks in the middle of the school week!" Alex exclaimed. Angelica looked puzzled.

"Well then ask him out to dinner.. did that not occur to you..?" she still couldn't understand why that hadn't come to mind for Alex. But it had.

"Well, I mean, I thought of it, but..." he trailed off with a sad look on his face. Angelica rubbed his arm, more concerned than confused.

"But what, Alex?" Angelica asked softly. Alex shook his head. It was ridiculous, and even if she didn't think it was, he didn't know how vulnerable he wanted to be at the moment. He looked at Angelica, and she raised her eyebrows. He decided to spit it out.

"But... I don't want him to see me eating..." He looked down and instantly regretted saying anything. He felt his eyes welling up. He knew Angelica felt bad, he could sense the vibe of the room get messed up and sympathetic and sad. Alex cleared his throat. "I had better get back to my classroom. The bell will ring any second now and.."

"Alex, we have eight minutes and we need to talk about this. You can't be thinking this way. It's not healthy and you don't deserve to be treating yourself this way," she says sternly. She is such a mother sometimes, it's crazy, Alex thinks to himself. "Okay, so, I think I know this answer, but I need to know for sure. Why does that make you uncomfortable?" She asks gently, with a slight hesitation. Alex just raises his eyebrows at her. "Okay, yeah, I thought so," She said admittedly.

For the next five minutes they worked through this, Angelica telling Alexander that this wasn't something that he should let stop him from doing this. They made some progress in the little time they had, but in the end Alex agreed that he would just get a salad if he was still uncomfortable. He walked back to his classroom feeling satisfied, and feeling like a weight had been lifted off of his chest. these next few hours would be dreadful, but then he would ask.

A/N from the future: I was reading through and I literally had an entire paragraph in this chapter that was first person pov. this is why you proofread, kids