"I hope you're okay with walking a bit," John said to Alexander after a few minutes of walking.

"Hmm?" Alexander had zoned out, staring at the back of the woman walking in front of him. "Oh, yeah, I am fine with walking," Alexander snapped back to reality, processing what John had said. Alexander scoffed to himself, he was more than used to walking, sometimes more than an hour early in the morning and again late at night to get to and from school.

"Okay, good. We could've taken a train, but I don't particularly care for the subway, too crowded," John shook his head at the idea of the subway, a look of distaste on his face.

Alexander laughed lightly at the boy's words, and laughed harder when he saw the way John's face was all scrunched up. "You're not from here, are you?" Alexander questioned the boy. He could detect a bit of a southern twang in his voice, so Alexander was not surprised when he heard John's answer.

"Is it that obvious?" John grinned sheepishly at Alex. "I'm from South Carolina, actually," John continued so Alexander did not have to ask. "I moved up here for school, been here since two Augusts ago," John finished.

Alexander jumped on this opportunity and shifted the conversation from their backgrounds to their present lives. "Oh, you go to school here? Where?" Alexander asked, realizing how very little he knew about the boy walking beside him and how little the boy knew about him, and yet here Laurens was taking him to his apartment. He made a mental note to watch out for this overly trusting boy if they continued their friendship. He also said a small prayer on John's behalf giving thanks that he was not a serial killer.

"I go to Columbia, I'm majoring in biology," Alexander noticed how John's eyes lit up a bit at the mention of his major. Passion was a trait in someone Alex had a large appreciation for.

"I go to Columbia, too!" Alexander bubbled, confirming what John already figured. "I'm about to finish my second year of law school," Alexander excitedly spoke of his future. John nodded, showing his approval.

"Oh, okay. I'm a junior, not done with my bachelor yet. So I guess you're almost all done with school," John noted their slight age difference.

"Yeah, sorta, but I still have a long road of school ahead of me with law school and all..." Alex trailed off. "So obviously, I want to be a lawyer, what about you?"

"Doctor," John answered plainly. "An orthopedist, actually," he elaborated as to spare Alexander the common follow-up what kind of doctor question. Alexander hummed his approval, nodding his head and contently smiling.

Eventually, the conversation died out and the boys continued to walk in silence, occasionally commenting on passersby or a particular restaurant they heard was good. Usually, Alexander found silence uncomfortable, but he felt no awkwardness walking quietly with John. It was actually refreshing to not have to try to force a conversation. After a half hour of walking through Manhattan, John lead Alexander into a building, up two flights of stairs, down a halfway, and to the door of his apartment. Fumbling with his keys, John eventually got the door unlocked and ushered Alexander inside.

"You can sit if you want. I'm going to get some water, want any?" John gestured to his navy blue couch to their left before walking to the kitchen and grabbing a cup from a cabinet.

"No, thank you," Alexander answered, taking a seat on the end of the couch. He looked around the apartment, taking it in. It was a lot nicer than most college students in New York City had, Alex was sure of that. The couch he sat on was flanked by two matching chairs and faced a stone fireplace with a large flat screen TV mounted above the mantle. There was a white, wooden coffee table in front of him and a matching couch side table to his left with a very expensive looking lamp sitting on top. To his right, there was built-in seating fit to the corner, it cushions the same navy of the couch. Alexander also noticed more typical things to see in the apartment of a college student, such as textbooks on the coffee table and lecture notes laying on one of the chairs. Alexander leaned back into a fluffy white pillow and stared at a set of photographs of beach scenery hanging on the light gray wall, awaiting John's arrival.

"You want to take a shower and maybe borrow some clothes?" John asked Alexander as he leaned against the armrest of the opposite end of the couch from where Alexander was sitting.

"Sure," Alexander hopped up, and John took that as a cue to start leading Alexander towards the bathroom. They walked towards the back of the apartment, John stopping at a small closet to pull out a large green towel for Alexander.

After a few more steps, the boys reached a door, and, pushing it open, John spoke, "The only shower is in the bathroom attached to my bedroom, so this is what this room is." He waved his arm around, gesturing to his room. Alexander didn't even have time to observe the room before John opened another door and said, "This is the bathroom," ushering Alexander inside. "So, um, that's the shower," John pointed to a stand-up shower on the side of the fairly large bathroom. "Or if you want to take a bath, there's the tub. And there's the sinks. And there's the toilet," John pointed to everything in the room as he named them, trying not to sound awkward. "But, I mean, you have eyes, so you already knew all that," John laughed lightly at himself.

"Thank you," Alexander's words were filled with laughter after he had joined in with John as he grabbed the towel from John's outstretched hand.

"Don't sweat it, feel free to use whatever you need," John answered nonchalantly and turned to leave Alexander alone in the bathroom. "Oh, yeah, I'll leave some clothes for you out here sitting on my bed, do you have a class later you have a particular want to look nice for?" John popped his head into the room after almost completely shutting the door.

"No, Tuesday's I have no classes at all," Alexander answered, standing stiffly in the bathroom trying to come to terms with the fact he actually did not know this person at all, and, yet, he was about to get naked in his shower.

"Wow, lucky!" John exclaimed before closing the door, leaving Alexander alone. He waited for a few moments, listening to John's soft footsteps away from the door. Once he heard the bedroom door be pulled shut, he let out a sigh and turned to face himself in the mirror. Pulling the elastic out of his ponytail and shaking his hair loose, he observed himself in the mirror. His brown eyes were dull, making them look more boring than usual, and accented by large shadows due to his extreme tiredness. He needed to shave and his hair was extremely greasy. Add these things to his stained shirt and wrinkled pants, he looked like someone John could have randomly pulled off a street, and, honestly, he had.

Sitting down on the tiled edge surrounding the large Jacuzzi tub, Alex pulled off his tattered loafers he had found in a second hand store. Actually, now that he thought about it, his entire outfit had been purchased at a second hand store. Standing up, he unbuttoned his shirt, folded it and set it on the edge of the tub where he has just been sitting. Unbuckling his pants and taking them off, he left them beside his shirt. Now in his underwear, he trekked over the the shower, the tile floor cold under his feet. Pulling back the curtain, he turned the water on, turning the faucet almost all the way to the end of the red line that indicated the water temperature - Alex liked hot showers. After waiting a few, what seemed like very long, moments he stuck under the water to make sure it was warm enough, and when the water temperature was at a satisfactory level, stripped off his boxers and stepped inside the shower. Tugging the curtain back into place, he let the water warm his body, and became lost in thought as steam rose around him.

Now out of the shower with the green towel wrapped around his face, Alexander once again stood in front of the mirror. Reaching a hand out to rub off the fog that had condensed on the mirror, Picking the left, and less crowded of the Jack-and-Jill sinks, Alexander grabbed the razor and shaving cream sitting on counter top among the hair products that littered the space. 'Gotta keep his curls looking good, I guess,' Alex thought. He hoped John wouldn't mind too much if he used his razor, even if it was seriously unsanitary. Spreading the shaving cream onto his face, Alexander carefully ran the razor over his jaw and cheeks, rinsing it off in the sink every few strokes. When he finished, he rinsed the remaining shaving cream and stray hairs off, grabbed his clothes from where they sat, and walked into John's bedroom.

In front of his, a stack of clothes sat on the sheets of John's unmade king sized bed. Alexander decided to put his own underwear back on - the line had to be drawn somewhere, and that's were Alex drew it. Picking up and stepping into the black name brand athletic sweatpants, he took in the airy feeling of the bedroom. The light green walls reflected the light being let in by the four large windows spread out on two walls. The all the furniture in the room was white, along with the aforementioned sheets on the bed. The black and white striped comforter was strewn on one side of the bed and the top of the bed was filled with pillows of various shades of grays and greens. Pops of color were offered in photographs and art hanging on the walls around the room; in fact, the walls of John's room were covered in paintings and framed photos and random wall decor items that looked like they were straight out of a Pottery Barn catalog. Pulling the soft and worn Columbia t-shirt in Columbia's classic blue laid out for him over his head, Alex caught a whiff of vanilla, which he figured was put on the shirt by John's shampoo because he had just used the boy's shampoo in the shower. He walked over to the dresser, and pulled open the drawers until he found the drawer were John kept his underwear and placed the unneeded Calvin Klein boxers on top of many others like them. Alex's eyes rested on a photo setting on the dresser as he knocked the drawer with his hip to close it; it was the only personal picture Alexander had come across in John's apartment. John and four others, two boys and two girls, smiled up at Alex. Everyone picture had some degree of curly hair and the same beaming smile, so Alexander settled on the deduction they were John's siblings.

After walking back to the bathroom to hang the towel over the rack and make sure his damp hair was decent enough to keep down, Alexander exited John's bedroom and wandered back into the living room area, carrying his clothes, where he found John lounging on the couch, eating pizza from a box that sat on the coffee table, and watching some show on the Discovery channel about the Galapagos Islands. "Everything go okay?" John asked, his mouth full of pizza, as Alex plopped down in the chair not occupied by John's papers. John nudged the pizza box with his foot as a way of offering it to the other boy.

Alexander lifted a piece from the box, took a quick bite, and answered, "Yes, it did. Thank you. For everything," after swallowing.

"It's really no trouble," John replied. "Actually, I enjoy charity cases," He joked, earning a self-depreciating chuckle from Alexander.

"I'll just finish this pizza, and be on my way back to the place I hang around with all the other unfortunate, down on our luck people, then," Alexander retorted after taking a few more bites.

"Stay as long as you want, no rush," John let his southern hospitality shine through.

The new friends sat and watched TV, devouring the pizza, for a good thirty minutes until Alex stuffed his last piece of crust into his mouth and rose from where he was rather comfortably seated on John's chair. "I really ought to be going, now," he smiled towards John after picking his clothes up off the ground and started for the door. "Thanks, again," he turned towards John once the boy was beside him and offered his hand. John took it and the boys shook hands. Alexander relished in the touch of the other boy's hand for just a moment, before catching himself and shaking the thoughts of John out of his mind.

"No problem, Alexander," John said, once again letting Alexander know he hadn't troubled him.

Alex flashed a quick smile, "I'll return your clothes to you, that's a promise," he told John, with a sincere look in his eyes. Then he turned, opened the door and walked out. "Bye, John."

"Bye, Alexander," John called after him.

Alexander walked down the hallway, letting his face break into a smile when he heard the door of John's apartment click closed.

Inside his apartment, John's hand lingered on the doorknob as he smiled to himself. He turned and trudged back to his seat on the couch, still warm after being vacated for only a short moment. He shook his head lightly to shake the thoughts of Alexander out of his head, and to shake Alexander's presence from the room. It was almost silly how frequently John found the dark-eyed boy in his thoughts. "You don't even know him," John whispered to himself, sighing. Then he turned his attentions back to his program on the tortoises of the Galapagos and eventually dosed off.

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John has a corner apartment, so that's why he has windows on two walls of his room, if you were wondering. Also, Alex is like 24 and John is like 21.