The next morning Alice slowly crawls out of bed and slips on a huge t-shirt to head downstairs. It's 10:30 already and both parents are at work. She goes to the fridge to find a note from her mother. It reads, "Got a call from Chris last night. He's worried about you and will be spending a week here." She sighs. Of course he had to spend the whole week... She drinks straight from a 2 liter bottle, feeling only numb from what the previous day held. If only my parents kept alcohol around the house.... She's startled by the ring at the doorbell. "Fuck, really Chris I just got up..." she glances down at her absence of clothing and shrugs it off. He's seen me nude more than once, She counters. she opens the door to let him in after checking the widow to make sure it wasn't just some salesperson. Chris is a bit dumbfounded by her absence of pants.
"Uhm, Alice, dear, why aren't you wearing pants?"
She shrugs. "Don't fuck with me today, okay?" She turns and heads upstairs to her bedroom, expecting him to follow. Chris follows her upstairs and shuts the door behind him.
"I figured I would get your mind off of it by taking you out today, are you okay with that?"
Alice shrugs "I guess. I'd really just rather spend the day at home, maybe tomorrow? Mum told me you'd be staying all week." she crawled back into bed and wrapped herself in covers. Chris sat down on the bed next to her. "Tomorrow is fine. maybe today we can play halo like we used to? Or watch stupid kid movies all day? You just need to get your mind off of it. I know how heartbreak feels."
Alice nods. "Yeah.... thanks for taking care of me, Chris." She faked a smile and leaned over on him.
"I'm gonna go downstairs and get something, set up the xbox?" Chris asked. Alice nodded and got up to turn it on. Chris got up and headed downstairs.
He came back upstairs with two bowls full of ice cream. "I brought your favorite, mint chocolate chip!" he said, his voice full of enthusiasm.
"Thank you..." she replied with an empty voice and accepted the bowl from him. She took slow, exaggerated bites. "I just don't feel anything, today.... no heartbreak, no leftover love, no regret, no hatred... I'm just numb...." for a moment her brain flashed back to the dream--er, memory, from the night before. she pushed it out of her brain quickly to avoid falling for him again. Chris crawled into bed with her and ate his ice cream quite quickly. "remember that time we quit talking for like six months before you got with Adam?" Chris asked. Alice looked up in a hurt way "Yes?" her eyebrows went up in sadness, "Please don't dig up old wounds." she avoided his gaze.
"no, look at me." he grabbed her face gently and looked into her eyes. "There's a reason I told you I hoped to see you again. I was getting over a drug addiction, and so many other things were going wrong in my life."
There was a long pause before Alice responded. "Why didn't you tell me.....?" a slow tear fell from her face.
Chris stared at her for a long moment and kissed her nose. "Because I was in love with you. And I didn't want to hurt you." He brushed the tear from her face and kissed her lips. "I love you, AliCat." Her face displayed shock, she stared at him and tears started to roll down her face. "I love you too, Chris." She wrapped her arms around go evil and sobbed into his shoulder. "Please don't leave me again....... Please, please.... Please don't leave me again....."
