18 Years of Bonnie & Clyde

[26] In This Together

Year 11...

Alice knocked on the door of FP's apartment on the Southside, which he quickly opened. Usually, he greeted her with a sweet smile, but today he had a big frown on his face. He seemed to be everywhere, but on earth.

"Hey, I'm here to pick up Charles." Alice chirped, as she followed him inside.

"Sorry, he's still out with a friend of his. I should have called you." FP said absentmindedly. He had been thinking about so many things, that he had forgotten to give Alice a call.

"Oh, I can come back later today." She said, a little disappointed.

However, he was human and he could forget to call sometimes, that wasn't a big deal. But her own emotions faded away when she saw that FP sat down on the dinner table, his sorrows written all over his face.

"FP, are you okay? Your mind seems to be somewhere else." Alice sat down opposite of him and tried to catch his eyes, something he avoided at all costs.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine." He brushed it off, without looking at her.

However, he locked eyes with Chloe, who gave him a stern look. FP instantly looked away. He didn't need a lecture.

"What was that?" Alice eyes switched between the two, noticing something they weren't telling her.

"What?" FP asked, shortly.

"That look." She cleared up, something that was clearly there.

"I'm just tired, Alice. May I?" FP was growing annoyed and stood up to grab himself some water.

"FP, a word?" Chloe didn't wait for his answer, instead dragged them into his bedroom.

"You have to tell her!" She said instantly, as she was slowly growing angry with him.

"Why? I can deal with my own problems." He argued, as he shrugged nonchalantly.

But Chloe wasn't buying it. The last year she had seen with her very own eyes that FP and Alice were inseparable, and that he was hiding something from him was highly disturbing.

"It's okay to admit that you can't. She is the mother of your son, she deserves to know. This impacts Charles too." She tried to reason with him by being soft, but it was exactly the mention of his son that struck a nerve.

"I can't tell her, okay?! I'll fix this myself."

The vein in his forehead was bouncing dangerously, but the lips quiver showed her that he was vulnerable too. His anger was just a wall to protect what he was really feeling.

"FP, please." She took his hand in her own and locked her eyes with his, making him see that she was begging him to open up to Alice.

"Fine..." He sighed as he dropped her hand.

Of course FP knew that that he couldn't keep his problems to his own, especially not when Alice was his family.

When they walked out of the bedroom, Alice looked up immediately hoping to find out what was going on. FP looked at her with a soft, vulnerabale expression, one she couldn't read just yet.

"Hey, I'll give you a call when Charles is home." He told her, more calmly than before.

The last thing he wanted was for his frustration to be outed on Alice, therefore he cared to much about her.

"Okay, good..." Alice nodded a little suspicious.

"Let me walk you out." FP placed his hand on her lower back to guide her towards the door, mostly to have some privacy.