Still Into You

8

As minutes, hours went by school had finished. Alice was up in her room, painting her toe nails white. She thought she'd ring Amelia after she hadn't seen her at school and Brad had ditched school she thought they had left together.
She dialled Amelia on her phone and it rang a few times before it went voicemail. She thought it was strange because Amelia was quite punctual with answering her phone by the second ring. It still had been a couple of days since Jake texted Alice and she thought it was time to respond but what was she going to reply saying. Hundred different responses went through her mind 'can't wait to see you x'. Nah definitely not. 'Hey, we need to talk.' Too intense she thought.
She read his message again;

Jake: Hey it's Jake, I'm coming back this week & I'm hoping to see you x

Alice: 'Hey, Amelia told me are you coming this Friday?'

Short and simple, no flirting in the message as she sent it, she got a call from Connor.
She answered, "Hey, what are you doing?"

"Oh not much, just painting my toe nails."

"Oh yeah, what colour? White, I hope." He said in a flirty manner.

"Yes it is white. What's with you guys and white toes?" She shook her head and started to smile into the phone.

"You know how it is, it's just attractive." He confidently said.

"Oh my god, what are you doing anyway?" Alice started to blush. Anything Connor would say even when he would flirt, she couldn't handle it for too long and wanted to change the subject.

"Quick to change the subject aren't you?" He said waiting for her response.

"Uhh I mean, do you want me to say thank you?" She played with her hair and tilted her head slightly.

"Yeah why not. I am giving you a compliment. That's the least you could do." He was so flirty but never made a move, the games he would play with her kept her on her toes. Maybe the reason why she liked him so much was the fact that she liked the chase. He'd give her a little that she could run with and she didn't mind.

"I can't with you..."

They started talking a little more about the day. Then got to chat about the whole Amelia and Brad thing and how weird their dynamic was becoming in the group, something was off lately between them.

"I'm gonna go past Brad's tonight for a bit see what he's doing."

"Yeah I'm gonna ring Amelia again, she wasn't answering before."

"That's weird, maybe Jake came back earlier." Connor said.

"Oh, yeh. I'll call her and see."

They hung up and she dialled Amelia's phone again. She answered and Alice was relieved until she heard her voice trembling on the phone.
"Alice I.. can't talk..."

"What's wrong are you okay?" Alice started to freak out.

She sat in silence and couldn't get her words out. Alice getting worried she quickly responded with, "I'm coming over right now."

She hung up in a flash, got changed into her Pajama satin set with her robe and headed downstairs to the kitchen. She grabbed a whole bunch of junk food Oreos, Maltesers, chips everything you needed from a phone call like that.

She left a note in the kitchen for her Dad,
Hey have to go to Amelia's house she's not doing so well. I'll be back by 9.

She got in the car and drove at a good space. She knocked on the door, Alice could hear her pacing down the stairs and opened the front door slowly. Alice saw her face all red, bloodshot eyes, shaking immensely.
"I don't... I uh.." she started to cry whilst hyperventilating.

Alice hugged her tightly and kissed her forehead. Reassuring she was going to be okay over and over again. Amelia needed someone and she was lucky for Alice to ring up and make sure she was okay.
They sat down in the living room and Amelia told her about the two instances and the past with her and Brad. Alice's face went from sad to angry, she couldn't believe he would ever put his hands her, she was disgusted and wanted to punch him the face. Beside herself, a friend that was always around acted like top shit was even worse than she imagined him to be.

"You need to tell someone." Alice suggested calmly.

"No way, no way in hell, I don't know what he'll do and his parents are lawyers. There's no fucking chance. I just don't want to see his face again, at school he took the chance of somebody seeing. Usually it was always behind closed doors but this time the risk in public was worse than I feared." Amelia said angrily.

"Okay, okay what you feel is right do, is what will be." Amelia reassured her.
She hugged her again for a couple of minutes and they began to watch a chick flick which was their favourite thing to do. Hoping to take her mind of Brad and his bullshit. Alice would comfort her best she could but couldn't fathom the thought of what he'd been doing. She was running through her mind all the times they'd look like they were arguing over something stupid, that it was worse than she expected.