Still Into You

5

The next morning she woke up did her hair in a messy bun and put on trackie set with her nike dunks. The minimal effort was for the better she thought. She stared at herself in the mirror, the appearance of a blind pimple had appeared on the side of her nose. She went to pick at it and thought better not. She grabbed her tote bag with her set of books and headed to school. She didn't hear from Amelia, which was honestly surprising but then again who was she to know what was going inside Alice's head. She got to school and reached for her locker, taking the books she needed for next class. As she went to close it, Chris was standing there. Alice was shocked to see him after all they weren't all that close but she still considered him a friend.

"Chris! Hey what's up?" She said with a genuine smile.
"I just was wondering if you could come and talk for a second.. alone." Now Alice was a little confused, but she was always there for everyone so she didn't mind, so they headed upstairs to the library. They sat down and Chris had looked unsettled to the eye.

"Listen whatever it is-"
"It's Amelia.. I don't know what to...I really like her." He said with a soft tone anxiously.
"Yeah we know." Alice confirmed.
"What do you mean we know..who knows?" His face was red in concern.
"Oh you know what I mean. Like I know, I can tell." Alice quickly tried to save herself from foot in the mouth syndrome.
"Is it that obvious?" He brushed the back of his head and looked at his feet.
"Yes the way you act with other girls compared to her is obvious. But she's with Brad again" Alice felt bad for Chris, he was good for Amelia, what she needed in a guy.
"I know I know, but after that night I thought maybe she would have considered things between us, like you...I see the way you look at Connor."
"No that's different.." She looked away in embarrassment hoping no one heard. She never acknowledged her feelings, those small baby feelings you develop for the guy best friend that you share a lot of your time with.
"I don't know what else I can do." He crossed his arms waiting for Alice's response.
"Have you told her how you feel?"
"No of course not, it's not even an option especially now. I just had to tell someone cause seeing them together was driving me insane."
"Yeah I get it, you know what... Come hang out later we might be doing something." Alice offered.
"Listen I'll see but if you know who, are there...I'd rather not."

They both walked back to class and saw Brad and Amelia walking towards their direction. Brad mumbled something in Amelias ear and they both snickered. Amelia nudged Alice as they crossed paths and whispered, "I see how you like my sloppy seconds."
It was an off putting and unnecessary comment but before Alice could say something they both walked away laughing. Wtf? Alice couldn't believe she would say something like that, she knew she would never. But she also considered the fact she was dating Brad and he brought out the worst in her. Sarcastic, rude comments on a daily. She had class with Amelia next, although her and Brad were going a different way. She gathered they'd be heading somewhere, probably to fool around.
Chris couldn't hear anything he just kept his head down. Chris and her parted ways and Alice went quickly to her locker on the other side of the classroom to grab the book she forgot. Knew she probably would be running late. She found herself in Science, a subject she actually could be interested in. They had a chemistry lab experiment to do and lucky enough she sat down and saw Amelia. That's when Alice rolled her eyes and Amelia looked at her confused. They sat next to each other in Science so they were bound to have a conversation.

"Okay..what did I do now?" She played with her hair and chewed on her gum obnoxiously.
"You know what you said, and why are you acting like that?" Alice hoped she would quit acting like a smartass and be a real friend.
"Well, what were you two doing together?" Amelia raised her eyebrow and looked up at her apprehensively.
"First of all don't make comments like that, I'm your friend okay I don't deserve that. Don't assume."
"Okay so what then?"
"He was asking about you, wanted someone to talk to and he's cut... about you and Brad isn't it obvious? Of course you know he likes you."
"Oh my god! I can't deal with this it's too much and I haven't even told Brad about him and I at my house. If he found out he would be so angry and things are going good now. We're back together."
Alice knew Amelia meant well she just hoped she was doing the right thing for herself and not for someone else.
"Is that what you really want, are you happy? I've seen the way he treats you."
"Alice... I know how it looks but he's maturing and we're working on things so it's good."
"Okay babe, then are we good?" Alice wanted to move on from the conversation, there was no way convincing her otherwise.
"Yes I love you, I didn't mean what I said,  I was acting a total bitch." She smiled and gave a Alice a genuine hug.

They both continued with their experiment and laughed the whole way. Making spills, joking around and getting yelled at by the teacher. Alice was glad they had hashed out that issue and that it was behind her but then she thought about Jake and another thing she had to worry about. When was she going to tell her or wasn't she? She couldn't help but wonder if that would be the end.