Break

Chapter Ten

Friday comes faster than I expected; Wednesday and Thursday flew by.

HE hasn't even crossed my mind since the day that I met Alice. Thoughts of him have been replaced by thoughts of her. I no longer hurt or long for him when I see him. He has managed to become just another person, acting as a background character in my life. 

Alice's neighborhood is within walking distance from mine. Her house is small and cozy. Boxes are stacked on top of each other in the living room; some are open and half-unpacked. Cans of pain are lined up next to the front door. Half of the wall across from the entrance is painted sky blue; the other half is still white and unpainted. The only unpacked furniture in the room are a brown leather couch, sitting to the left of the room across from a brick fireplace, and a small table with a sea-foam green lamp, placed to the right of the couch. Warm light pours in from the window to the right of the front door.

Alice leads me down a wide, white hall and pulls me into the last door on the left. Her room is lined with boxes and cans of lilac paint. Black curtains hang from the window on the far side of the room. To the right is a bed with plain, black sheets, beside a black desk. On the desk are a black desk-lamp, a stack of binders and notebooks, and a small red laptop. The mirrored doors to her closet are slightly ajar, revealing the contents. her clothes mostly consist of dark charcoal grays, burgundies, and blacks.

"So, I was thinking that tonight we could just watch movies and hang out, and we can start painting and unpacking tomorrow. Does that work for you?" 

"Whatever works for you, works for me," I smile. 

She throws her backpack on the floor by her closet. I drop mine next to hers and sit on the edge of her bed. She flops down beside me and falls onto her back. Her legs dangle off the side of her bed as she places her hands behind he head. Her blue hair lies in snake-like tendrils around her face and over her bed. I lean back until I am also lying down; I turn my head and look at her.

She turns to look at me and raises her eyebrow, "Hey," she bites her bottom lip and winks.

Laughing, I wink back, "Hey babe."

"Oh, so I'm your babe now?"

We erupt into laughter. Alice's laugh is clear and musical. It fits her smile perfectly.

She sits up and grabs her laptop. Her fingers fly over the keyboard as she types in password. She pulls up a Netflix account full of horror movies and foreign films.

" What should we watch?" She asks as she absentmindedly scrolls through her queue.

"Let's watch something funny," I reply, wanting to listen to her laugh again.

We end up choosing Mean Girls, something we have both watched and loved. She stands up and looks at me. 

"Popcorn?"

I nod eagerly as she takes my hand and pulls me up, leading me back down the hall to her kitchen. I lean against her kitchen counter as she takes out a bag of extra-butter popcorn and shoves it in the microwave. She begins to run water through a navy blue coffee maker and pulls out two mugs from one of the many boxes stacked in the kitchen. I watch as she takes out two packets of Swiss Miss hot chocolate mix.

The popcorn finishes popping at the same time the water finishes heating up. She takes out the popcorn and I move from my position against the counter to pour the water into mugs and mix in the hot cocoa powder. She dumps the popcorn into a large red bowl and grins as I pick up the two mugs.

We make our way back to her room. We sit on her bed, a mug in our hands and the bowl placed between us. She puts her laptop on a stack of pillows and plays the movie.