All Lafayette had wanted to do that morning was go for a run.

It was a pretty simple request, he thought, but his life was far too dramatic for that. No amount of bass-heavy music could get him back in the zone after Eliza Schuyler had frantically phoned him asking if his roommates were okay. He barely knew Eliza, but he knew she was dating Maria, whose soon-to-be-ex husband had put two of his closest friends in hospital. That made him panic, because he wasn't there to hit a psycho with a rolling pin.

If James Reynolds was angry again, his friends were in danger. So he began running back to Columbia. Until he got a phone call from Thomas.

"Hey Laf, can you meet me at the ER? And bring mac and cheese?"

"ER? Thomas! Qu'est-il arrive?"

"Cette chienne m'a frappe au visage!"

"Que? Thomas, did you just say a female dog punched you in the face? Are you concussed, my friend? Dogs don't have hands."

"The other kind of chienne, Laf. Obviously. Eliza Schyuler. She was outside your door and she just attacked me!"

"Okay. Thomas, I'm coming".

Laf sighed. There was never a dull moment, being friends with the two biggest personalities in the freshman class. He barely knew Eliza – he wasn't completely sure how she got his number – but he did know she'd dated Thomas before he came out. Needless to say, she'd been more invested in the relationship than him./span/span/p

He tightened his ponytail and started jogging in the opposite direction, towards Thomas' favourite mac and cheese place to get a to-go box. The girl serving him wrote her number on the box, which he found rather amusing, considering he was wearing a gay pride t-shirt. Or maybe she was just perceptive enough to pick up on his bi vibes and realise he'd 'borrowed' it from a friend – he wasn't even sure which one anymore. Probably Thomas – the only other guy tall enough to share clothes with him was John, and all of his had a permanent home on Alex's bedroom floor.

"Laf's coming, so you don't need to stay".

Eliza was sitting in the ER, with Thomas. She'd driven him there, but she wasn't entirely sure why. To say sorry? She could hit him a thousand times and he'd still be the one having to apologise. No, it was because she couldn't stand seeing anybody in pain. She would do anything to stop someone else hurting. Angelica always said that would backfire one day.

"I'll stay till he gets here. I'm really sorry about, y'know, your face". He almost laughed at that. She snuck a glance at him. He was holding a damp towel to his eye, which was swollen and bleeding slightly. Holy shit, I cut him? Then she realised, of course she cut him, she was wearing three rings. There's a reason Peggy takes off her jewellery for martial arts. Her mind was going haywire and, out of nowhere, she found herself leaning into Thomas' shoulder and crying.

"Oh, crap, um, Eliza, are you okay? Look, I'm really sorry about everything, and I totally deserved it when you hit me".

"How did you do it? The whole suddenly coming back to America as someone who dates guys thing?"

"He was taken aback by the question. Eliza was – on the surface at least – the epitome of heterosexuality. It was one of the things that drew him to her in the first place, when he'd been trying to convince himself he was too.

"You want the truth?". She nodded. "Um, well, I got really high and kissed Laf in Paris, and everything that felt wrong with – y'know – you and me – just sort of clicked. Which was weird, because he's not my type, but... Why? Is something up?".

She sighed. "I'm dating a girl. Well, a woman, I guess. It's just she's getting divorced right now and I'm a high school senior. Like, she got married. That's crazy. And I met her because of Alex which is weird because I used to like him which I shouldn't have because he has a boyfriend and then Lafayette attacked her ex husband I have no fucking clue how to tell my parents". She was full on crying at that point.

"Eliza. Eliza, look at me. Stop spiralling. Go and call your lady love, and then do something to really annoy Alex. He'll tell them for you".

Eliza nodded slightly, grabbed her phone and walked out to call Maria. Which she was about to do when a tall, slender man with platinum blond hair walked straight into her, knocking her phone out of her hands. She knew she'd seen him before - she couldn't place his face, but everything about him made her uneasy. She wished she had one of her sisters to tell her what to do, but they weren't there.

What would Angelica do? Angelica would follow the guy and figure out why he made her heart hammer against her chest. So, Eliza followed him into the slightly foreboding main entrance of the hospital.

Ooh, a cliffhanger! Maybe our horrible TJeffs isn't quite so awful after all? Also, I just remembered that I used to do a Question of the Chapter, so let's try that again.

QOTC: What are your other favourite musicals?

AOTC: I love anything by LMM, so Bring It On and In The Heights, but at the moment I'm really into Everybody's Talking About Jamie and Newsies.

Thank you for reading!

Kitty xxx