Love You More

chapter three - jay

Alice felt like the embodiment of every stereotype of a teenage girl, obsessed and lovesick, doodling hearts on her assignments and daydreaming about Vincent.

She tried not to think of him, but neither her boyfriend nor any celebrity could fill his role in her reverie.

She pictured herself with him, in his home that she'd somehow memorized after only being there a few times.

She imagined how it'd feel to hold his hand, and to kiss his stubbly cheek.

She kicked her feet beneath her desk, glancing at the clock above the classroom door.

It read 1:55, she had only five minutes before the bell would dismiss her to walk home with Grace and Charlotte.

She looked down at her paper, filled only with drawings and void of any real answers to the many questions printed on it.

Her mind was preoccupied; she was far too busy thinking about Vincent to work on the assignment she'd been given.

She unzipped her bag, pulling out a simple and bland white folder from its confines.

She returned it once she'd neatly placed her paper in the right side pocket: the pocket dedicated to works in progress.

She saw Grace doing the same as she sat in the very front row of the class; the girl looked back at Alice and smiled in anticipation.

It was a Friday afternoon and the girls planned to spend an elaborate weekend together, gossiping about the school's drama and crushes while painting each other's nails and watching the latest season of a crime related show they'd been keeping up with.

And though Alice enjoyed these weekends with her friends, she always felt like she was missing some part of her life while partaking in these typical activities that were taken straight from a movie depiction of a group of girls.

Grace and Charlotte were crazy about boys and they'd been experimenting with them since freshman year, and that wasn't all they'd been experimenting with.

They'd also tried cigarettes, drugs, and alcohol. And Alice felt like she was losing touch with them, when she realized that she had none of these desires that she associated with her friends.

All she wanted to do was graduate high school with high marks. And she felt fine doing so without drinking or smoking or experimenting with John.

The shrill noise of the bell rang in Alice's ears, startling her.

She grabbed her bag and hung it around her shoulders when she stood up from her seat, holding the few binders that didn't fit in her bag within her crossed arms as always.

She approached Grace as she was waiting by the doorway.

"You okay?" the girl asked and moved a piece of her curly blonde hair away from her face as the two began to enter the clearing hallways.

Alice awkwardly laughed, "I'm great! Just excited to see John. He's coming next week, you know?"

She came up with the best excuse she could.

John had left for college that fall semester and was coming back to visit after being away for almost three months. Of course, he'd called and texted Alice, but being apart had started to take its toll.

Being excited to see him would've been a believable explanation for her jittery behavior had she not been such a horrendous liar.

"Yeah," Grace dragged on. She wasn't convinced. She knew something was up with Alice, but she figured it was just another fight with her family or a stressful test that had her so spaced out.