Too Young and Blind (High School Hamilton)

It's Really Hot

Alexander

I woke up and the first thing I noticed was that my storm alarm was off? Father had installed it after I told him how I was terrified of storms, it had a red light that would be on to tell me it was on and it blared an alarm noise if a hurricane or tornado or anything of the sort was coming so I could prepare. Anyway, it was off.

I sat up quickly and ran to it, was it broken?! I shook it and then noticed I was sweating buckets, what the fuck?! I looked to my room's thermostat, blank. Was that broken? Why were my electronics off?! I grabbed my phone to see it hadn't charged all night.

Oh

Wait.

I went and found father, not bothering to put a shirt on. It was so hot! Father was in a suit though he was obviously very hot. "Why is it sooooooo hot?" I asked while sweating more by the minute.

"It appears the electric company decided to cut off our electricity for reasons unknown. Don't worry, I'm trying to sort it. Can you go get Laf and Jack?" He spoke quickly and concisely despite the major uncomfortability we were all experiencing.

"Um sure?" I hurried off and got them, John was holding Rebel because the turtle's cage was becoming too cold for him so it was safer for John to hold him, as the cage lights were off and the water wasn't being filtered anymore either.

"Boys." Father said once we'd all come to the living room, the couch was a no-go as it was leather and attracted heat to it, "I'm going to be gone all day and I want you all to stay home. Don't invite anybody over. I'm going to go see what the issue is."

"Kay." John replied, "Is the water running at least?" He asked, obviously worried for the turtle friend.

"Yes? Why?" He then noticed John holding Rebel, "Oh I see. Don't open the fridge either or the freezer. And if you keep the doors closed it'll probably be better considering how hot it is outside. I'll be back in a few hours. Any questions?"

"Non."

"No."

"Can I put Rebel in a bowl?" John asked innocently.

"You may." A few minutes later Father left, John set Rebel up with a bowl of cold water and a plate the turtle could hang out in, and Laf had braided our hair so we weren't as hot. None of us had a shirt on and John was only in boxers (being hot as fuck) Laf was in sweatpants because he wanted to die apparently, and I stuck to my shorts.

"Is Rebel okay?" I asked, watching John as he stared at his (or is he ours?) turtle in concern

John put a lettuce leaf on the plate, Rebel crawled out of the bowl to eat it, "I think he's good." He replied, watching Rebel eat. "But I don't think he can stay like this for longer than like four hours."

"Reptiles are weird." I said and sat by John but quickly I added onto that after seeing John's look of betrayal, "I meant their bodies! Like, being cold-blooded and all. I'm just glad we're not." Imagine if we were cold blooded...we'd probably die.

"Oh." John shrugged and ran a finger down Rebel's shell, "Well they can't control how they're built." He leveled.

"C'est chaud!" Laf yelled from the dining room, he'd figured it was cooler in there though John and I decided to stay in the parlor because we didn't want to move.

"No shit, Laf!" I yelled back. I watched John silently watching Rebel. Huh, so I'm watching John watching Rebel watching a piece of lettuce.

"He said it's hot, right?" John asked, as there was a scrambling noise in the dining room that should concern me but I've got no energy for that.

"Yeah." I said as Laf appeared in the doorway, panting.

"Is this the 'eat death of the universe that everybody's always bringing up?" He asked, "I might actually die!" So melodramatic.

"Me too." John replied though he wasn't as into the whole 'death by heat' thing as Laf was.

"This isn't even that hot actually." I told them and they looked at me like I was crazy, "What?" I asked and then remembered, "Well yeah it's a bit but it was worse than this in Nevis and we didn't have air conditioning like ever because we were broke." I looked down and thought of how hot it was when mother and I were in bed sick.

"Alex?" I looked up, when did Laf get in front of me? "Are you okay, mon frère?" He asked and scrunched his eyebrows together as he looked me over.

I shook my head to clear it and smiled, "Yeah I just...I got hung up for a second. Memories and stuff." I don't like how every time I think of home it always goes back to the bad times instead of the fun times, like mother falling down when we went swimming in the ocean and then complaining about how it stung. It sounds bad but it was really funny when it happened and she was laughing too so it was fine.

"Memories?" John took my hand supportingly. 

"Oh." Laf looked around the room and I knew he was thinking of the time my biological father was in here, "Was it 'im?" I then thought of the bad times with father and felt a bit upset again.

"Sort of." I felt sorry for John, he was so confused, but I didn't want to explain it right now.

"I'm going to kill 'im." Laf stated plainly, "Leaving his family like that. Méprisable." I agreed with him.

"What's that?" John asked, wanting to be apart of the conversation.

"Contemptible." I replied and when he looked even more confused I almost laughed, "Despicable."

"Oh right." He looked over me, "If it wasn't so fucking hot I'd hug you, by the way." So caring.

We laughed for a moment, "Fuck it's hot." Laf said when we'd breathed out the laughter.

"It has to be climbing the 90s." John whined, "It only got this hot in South Carolina in the Summer and even then we had AC!"

"It was always Summer in Nevis." I said, "I think that's just a Caribbean thing, always being hot."

"Actually." Laf spoke up, "I think that's an equator thing." Nerd.

"Shut up." I responded causing them to laugh again. I tried not to smile but watching them laugh made me anyway, "You two are the worst."

"Oh sure, honey." John replied, the smile across his freckled face never failing.

"If I die I want you two to get a tattoo of my face." Laf said and groaned, laying back, "IT'S SO FUCKIN HOT!" Because saying it over and over again will make it suddenly less hot via the magic of complaint.

"You saying that is making me think about the heat more and therefor making me hotter." I said and crossed my arms. Offense taken.

"You're always hot, Alex." John said and I stuck my tongue out at him as he finger gunned towards me.

"Stop being so GAY!" Laf shouted and we laughed harder. He wishes he could be gay right now, but, unfortunately, Herc also has a life.

Then the lights turned on and we heard the AC kick in causing us to yell in excitement. We weren't going to die inside this heat death contraption!

"Welcome back to civilization!" John shouted and danced around the room happily.

"Nous allons vivre!" Laf shouted back, joining him.

I laughed and got up, quickly taking Rebel back to his cage before joining John and Laf in dancing around the house to celebrate the electricity being back. We really do take electricity for granted, don't we?