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Aaron Burr should not be surprised to be excluded in his own friend group. He had earned it, he was just getting what he deserved.
He'd met Lafayette, Laurens and Mulligan in highschool, and he'd stuck to their side until college. He considered himself to be close to them, even though he was often subjected to their technically friendly jokes and jabs. That was what being a teen boy was, and he didn't even have the right to complain, not having defended himself once. He never even mentioned how much it bothered him.
First year of college. All four of them had gone to Princeton, and shared a few classes. In one of the lectures Aaron had on his own, a disheveled kid sat down by his side. Soon enough, he'd started asking questions, practically forcing Aaron to interact. It was fine, he just had to keep his composure, avoid taking a stand, remain nice and formal and soon enough he'd be rid of that guy.
Except he wasn't. The kid - Alexander Hamilton, he was named - had decided to follow him like a stray puppy. Therefore, in the end Aaron had no choice but to introduce him to his friends.
He fit in as if he were the one and only remaining puzzle piece. They were loud, and so was he. They were opinionated, and Alexander was more. They hung out at night, laughed and reached for a glass whose contents they shouldn't drink until they were a couple years older, and Hamilton reached for a glass of his own.
He joined Laurens in his activism to stop homophobia on campus, preparing speeches every single day. He talked to Lafayette in French, cackling about jokes nobody else understood. He let Hercules use him as a human mannequin for the clothes he'd tailor, talking non-stop about whatever topic had caught his interest while Mulligan fit the cloths covering him. Alexander was truly the only thing they needed.
Burr despised him for it.
Mind you, he never let it show. He was still as kind to Alexander as he’d been when they’d met, avoiding getting closer to the boy but not pulling away either. He remained part of the friend group, if only because one of them - Laurens, typically - would grab his sleeve and drag him to whatever they were up to. He could’ve been part of any other clique, if only hadn’t he been stuck with the ones nicknamed (by some affectionately, by others not so much) the “Revolutionary Set” since the very beginning. Because of his friends, he was no prim and proper Princeton student, he was none but one of the rebels who likely would’ve been banned from campus were their GPA to be anything but perfect.
It made him want to puke.
He swallowed it, rejected the offer to have a drink of something he shouldn’t drink until he was twenty-one, and smiled quietly. He took the jabs. He filled the fifth spot.
Aaron was aware his friends didn’t need him. They were the ones who had yet to find out.
* * *
Second year of college, he was still stuck with them. Alexander had gotten a girlfriend, and so had Lafayette, even though the latter’s was long-distance. Aaron had a short relationship with a girl, but she eventually quit the college and moved away, and they therefore broke up. Hercules and Laurens’s love lives were composed of nothing but one-night stands.
They kept going. Burr still felt like an outsider.
* * *
Third year came, and their grades hadn’t yet taken any hits. Hamilton had cheated on his girlfriend - which Burr learnt by gossip, not by his once self-proclaimed “best friend” telling him - yet she forgave him, their relationship not taking much of a hit besides for her sister’s backlash. Laf’s girlfriend had come to visit twice, and she was overall a good girl, even if she was as loud and opinionated as the guys in the group. Laurens had fought some guy - Charles or something, he was called - and two days later he’d been caught kissing him in a storage closet, which was an… interesting development. Hercules and Burr, meanwhile, stayed chronically single.
Aaron kept smiling, nodding, and never speaking. He spent more and more time in his dorm, studying, avoiding hanging out with the rest as much as he could, uncomfortable with the mere idea. He still loved them as his friends, but every day, he felt more like he did all but belong. He didn’t know how they hadn’t seen it yet.
* * *
Fourth year. The last straw was the final law project.
Aaron and Jefferson were the only people Alexander ever talked to in that class. Having to partner with someone for the task, Burr was certain Hamilton would choose him, even if he'd been pulling away for quite some time now. Hamilton had never liked Thomas. He and Aaron worked well together. It would be an obvious choice.
And yet, the unimaginable happened. He went for Jefferson. His enemy. The man he'd despised since the very beginning.
“Alexander!” Aaron walked up to the man after the lesson, stopping him in the middle of campus.
“Oh, Burr sir, uh. Hi” Alex stopped awkwardly, softly chewing at his lower lip.
“Drop the niceties. Why'd you pick Jefferson for this project? Did you not hate him?” He questioned, attempting to keep himself calm.
“Look, Aaron, just-” Alexander took a deep breath. “I value you. A lot. However, you have not voiced an opinion once since I have met you. This assignment is worth far too much of our grades to trust you with it, as I have no idea how you will fill your part. Yes, I do dislike Jefferson, and it is mutual. However, I know how he thinks, I know how he works, and I know him far more than I know you. He has shown his beliefs time and time again. You? In the four years since I met you, you have not”
Aaron had never been a violent person.
Yet, at that moment, he saw red.
He didn't even feel anything but satisfaction when he heard the sickening crunch Alexander's nose made as it came in contact with his fist.