Dearest, Soulmate (Jamilton)

14. Dearest, Oh Shit

Laurens

John never thought he'd actually prefer to be at a party than at his job, but something told him that he needed to be there instead. Something more than his dad saying that John would definitely rather be there after he figured out what was about to happen. 

So he sat in a swivel chair, twirling until it got painfully boring. He wanted to call out to Martha, but at the same time, he was done trying to be there when she never made the effort. It was stupid. It was petty. But it was also exactly what he planned on doing so whatever it was considered didn't make him change his mind at all. 

Finally, Henry came to get John. It was the biggest moment of relief John had felt in a while, especially since he was sure that if he took one more spin in the chair, he'd end up throwing up on whose ever work that was. 

Without a word, only a scarily mischevious smile that no father should ever wear, Henry nodded his head for the boy to follow him. Needless to say, John was very confused as he was led past his dad's office and through hallways he'd only ever run papers down. They went past everything that John was allowed to see as an intern, which lit a fire inside the kid that made him forget his previous troubles. He was going farther than he'd gone before, who wouldn't be excited about that?

As they walked to an elevator, John's phone chimed in his bag. 

"Answer that if it's important, then put it on mute it turn it off," Henry ordered. Whatever they were doing, it was obviously important enough to require no distractions. John quickly responded to Jefferson's text without really reading it and turned his phone off.

The elevator went up to the top floor. John hadn't ever been that high up. In his building, the high the floor you worked on, the higher your status was. The Laurens worked just a few floors below, but it still felt invigorating to be going up. 

The walked down more hallways and, as they did, John couldn't help but notice how high the building stood above the city. Few buildings matched its height, everything else resembled stars dancing below instead of above. Somehow, that made him want to rethink his plan about soulmates. Then he remembered why he wanted to do that in the first place. After that realization, the lights didn't look like stars anymore. 

The two finally arrived at their in-building destination. 

Right outside the head of their branch's office. 

John had never seen him in person, he'd only ever seen pictures or watched him give speeches on the news, but never in person. He realized that he was about to do just that. 

Henry stood at the door and motioned for John to go inside.

"You aren't coming in with me?" the boy asked nervously. 

Henry shook his head and smiled proudly. "No, he wanted to see you specifically." Again, he motioned for John to go in. 

Hesitantly, he knocked on the door, adjusted his bag, and walked in. 

The office was everything he thought it'd be. Two cornered walls of windows, a neat desk, pictures of previous heads of the branch. . . And one swivel chair sitting in front of a desk. There was a door to John's left and nobody in the room, so he assumed that's where the current boss was. For some reason, he took that as permission to quietly snoop around in hopes of finding something to help him. 

He didn't really think it was all that sloppy of a plan, so he was lucky he didn't get caught. 

He went over to the desk and quickly scanned over the folders and files. He wasn't even sure what he was looking for exactly, just something. He heard the toilet flush in the other room. Not wanting to waste the opportunity, Laurens quickly snatched up a folder with the word "Experimental" printed neatly in big, black, bold letters at the top. He hoped it wasn't anything too important as he hastily shoved it into his bag. 

"Ah, you must be Henry's boy!" The man cheered as he came out of the built-in restroom. "He's said so much about you that I just had to meet you for myself." 

"Nice to meet you, sir." He didn't know what else to say, so it seemed like that would suffice in his head. 

"Please, sit! I just have a few questions for you, then you can get to that party of yours." the older man must have seen how confused John looked since he waved it off with his hand and said, "your father told me you mentioned it." 

John sat without a word and he was starting to feel like the folder in his bag was going to tear through his bag. 

"First off, you go to the district school, right?" The boss asked, sitting himself down behind the desk. John nodded. "Okay, well we've gotten word that someone in that school has actually been actively considering or trying to remove his chip." He kicked his feet up like it was the most relaxing conversation he'd ever had. "You wouldn't know anything about that, would you?"

"No, sir," John replied as smoothly as he could. 

"You're right, it's a rather large school. We have a name, if that might help?"

Trying to keep the suspicion off of himself, Laurens nodded and looked at the slip of paper that the other man slid over. He didn't have to lie to say that he didn't recognize the kid. He might've seen him around the halls a couple of times, but nothing more than that. 

The man nodded. "Alright. Well you can expect him to be called out publicly. We can't have things like that happening, not when we have a working system. Right?"

"Right." 

The rest of the questions asked were just about how he felt about the system and how long he planned on staying in his internship. John thought over each question carefully and answered with what he thought the boss might want to hear. Apparently, it helped him get out earlier. 

On the way back down to the car, Henry asked what everything was about. It was much easier to lie to his father, so John kept his cool a little easier. He didn't mention anything about the snooping or the weird question about his school. Henry seemed satisfied with the answers, though. 

Halfway to the party, John changed his mind about going. He asked to be dropped off at a friend's house, which Henry gladly obliged to. 

As soon as the car was stopped in the driveway, John was out and in the house. He was close enough with his friend that he could just run in, yell a quick hi to the parents, and race up to the bedrooms. Which was exactly what he did. 

He barged into his friend's room without thinking and jumped onto the bed, all the while Lafayette was sitting in front of his computer, horrified. 

"Why are you in my room!?" He screeched. 

"I bailed on a party. And I think I have something that'll make you want to help with this soulmate thing." 

"Oh, no I am not—"

John pulled out the folder, hoping again that it was something worth showing. 

"—Passing up the opportunity to see what's in that." 

The Frenchman came over to sit next to John on the bed. They opened the folder and sifted through the surprisingly many papers insied. On each one, John had to explain something that only someone that worked there would understand but the gist of what he stole was pretty simple. 

He had something that could help him more than he could imagine.

//a.n.
Bonjour Bitches!

new game: how many times can i double update and have a crappy cliffhanger