Maybe After Tomorrow (Hatchetfield)

Chapter 13

"Alice, please..."
"I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry.'"
Alice backed away in fear from the back wall of the shopping centre. But she couldn't keep her eyes off of Deb. She lay there on her side, staring up, her eyes pleading. Screaming.
She could hear the screams. But she couldn't see Deb's lips moving. Another scream.
And another.
Then she realised that her throat was burning.
It stung. Badly.
Then the screaming stopped.
And she realised the reason she couldn't see Deb's lips moving was because dead people don't scream.
But living people can when they lose the ones they care about.
That's when Alice backed away even further, looking at Deb laying lifeless on the ground.
Then her head slammed against the wall.

Alice blinked once and suddenly she was back in her bedroom. She looked around, checking the room for dead bodies. Of course, there were none. Not even a fly on the window ledge.
She lifted a shaky hand up to the back of her head and, much to her horror, pain shot through it, making her wince and curse under her breath. If that part of the dream was real...
But then she realised she was sitting upright and there was a wall right behind her. She guessed it was responsible for the searing pain. Not a wall behind the shopping centre. She didn't even think there was one in the position her dream had put it in.
So, the pain was explained, there were no dead bodies, plus the obvious, she wasn't at the mall.
'It was definitely a dream,' she whispered to herself as she tried to steady her breathing.
After brushing her hair and tying it in a side pleat, she threw on some clothes and went downstairs for breakfast.

The second she walked into the room, she felt Lex's eyes dart toward her and she rolled her eyes. They had been broken up for ages. Why did she still seem to care so much? Especially when she had Ethan there with her. She had the person she was in love with. What more could she possibly have wanted?
She had to take part in a mind-numbing conversation with Bill about how she was doing to get her mind away from another internal rant about Lex and Ethan. She hated every second of it, but it was better than having a repeat of the previous night's dinner. That had been really tedious. And tiring. She wished her frustration and worry about Deb could find a way to exist in her mind that wasn't a comparison of herself to her ex-girlfriend. But maybe it was easiest for her to feel her pain as jealousy, because at least that way she wasn't feeling it as pain.
"So, we're thinking Hannah and Tim will probably be waking up pretty soon."
"Hm." Alice, who only tuned in at that moment and had no idea why they thought that, tried to think of an appropriate response that wouldn't lead to any questions. And failed miserably. "It'll be nice to see Hannah again. It's been a while."
Lex cleared her throat, "I'm sure she'll be happy to see you."
Alice felt her heart start to race. She hadn't spoken to Lex in over a year.
"I doubt she remembers me well."
"You'd be surprised."
Alice could feel herself involuntarily smiling. She had missed Hannah after moving to Clivesdale and breaking up with Lex.
     "How's Ziggs?" Lex asked.
     "Oh, they're fine. They're on holiday with their family at the moment, so they're not caught up in all of this."
     Lex nodded. "Good."
"Well, as I was saying," Henry cut in, sensing the awkwardness between the two girls, "Considering the time it took all of you, I'm guessing they should be up soon. So, just be ready for that."
"I really hope you're right," Tom said.
"Have I been wrong before?"
Tom smiled.

After breakfast, Alice ran back up to her room, desperate to escape from the constant worried glances from Lex and her dad. She understood that they were just worried and had every reason to be considering the circumstances, but that didn't make it any less irritating.
She fell back on to her bed, staring up at the ceiling. After a minute or so, she started to zone out and all she could see was that dream.
Deb was on the ground, pushed up against the brick wall and screaming for help.
She had no idea where in her mind that had come from since, on the night the meteor hit, they were never together. She guessed she just felt bad about the fact that she was okay and really had no idea if Deb was even alive.
She didn't even realise there were tears on her face or that she was shaking until she heard a voice.
"Alice, are you all right? What's going on?" The voice started off tentative but became more frantic and worried as it grew closer.
Alice looked up, her eyes immediately locking with Lex's.
"Lex, what are you-"
"You seemed sort of ... freaked out during breakfast. I just wanted to make sure you were okay."
"We haven't even spoken in over a year. Why would I-"
"Stop it. I don't know why you seem to hate me all of a sudden, but you're clearly not as okay as you keep saying you are and you can't just keep to yourself all the time."
"I don't hate you," Alice said, sitting up and trying not to cry. "It's just ... It's hard to see you so happy with Ethan when Deb is just ... I don't even know..." She couldn't hold back the tears anymore.
"Okay, okay..." Lex hesitantly put her arm around Alice, who, after resisting for a second, quickly relaxed and lay with her head over Lex's legs as she sobbed.

A few minutes later, there was a knock on the door, which would have startled Alice slightly had she not been asleep.
"Come in," Lex said in a loud whisper.
Ethan cautiously walked through the door and he pulled Alice's desk chair over so he was sitting opposite the two. He sat with his elbows on his knees and his head resting over his hands which were clasped.
"Is everything all right?" he asked quietly.
"I think Alice is just upset about Deb."
"Oh. Well, I just came to say I was gonna make french toast for lunch and see if you want any."
"Sounds good."
"'Kay." He stood up.
"Oh, Ethan?"
"Yeah?"
"Could you make some for Alice too? She hardly ate at breakfast."
"Sure."

He came back a few minutes later and saw that Alice was laying on the bed and Lex was sitting looking at her phone.
"Hey," she said, smiling when she see him.
"Hi." He handed her the plate and sat next to her on the edge of the bed, feeling slightly uneasy.
"Ethan, what's wrong?"
He sighed, "I'm sorry. I know it shouldn't but seeing you two together-"
"Ethan, you don't have to worry-"
"Don't I? I came in and she was asleep on top of you. Plus you've seemed really distracted ever since she woke up."
"I swear, Ethan, I don't feel like that about Alice anymore. I've just been distracted because it's strange being around her after all this time and because I'm worried."
"How come?"
Lex sighed, "She... She has anxiety. It's kind of the reason we broke up because it got really really bad when her parents got divorced and she moved to ... you know. I suspected everything going on would probably have made it get really bad again. I just didn't want her to be alone during all of this. Especially when Deb is missing."
"I get that. But it still feels weird seeing you two together."
"Well, you don't have to worry about anything. We've both had a long time to move on and I can't imagine being with anyone other than you."
"Okay."
Lex turned round when she heard Alice starting to move slightly. "Hey."
Alice sat up, stretching and rubbing her eye with the end of her sleeve. "Lex? What-"
Lex took the other plate off of the desk and handed it to Alice, "You want some lunch?"
"Uh, I don-"
"You've got to eat something."
She groaned and took the plate, "Fine."
"Do you guys wanna watch a movie or something?" Ethan asked.
Alice and Lex nodded so he turned on the TV and they all sat on the bed, eating lunch and watching a Disney movie.
Despite how strange it felt to be talking to Lex again, Alice couldn't help but feel a sense of relief. She thought it should have been awkward, but it actually just felt normal being around Lex again. She realised that it had actually been far more strange without her. She didn't still like her in that way, but she had really missed having her as a friend.