Ready? Not Really.. (Fem USUK) •IN EDITING•

Maddie

It was a really strange few days that followed the whole moving in incident.
Alice refused to talk to me, and Amelia occasionally popped up at my door to just take a nap in my room. She said it was "impossible to sleep at night when fucking Alice is ten feet away." I didn't really bother mentioning it. I assumed she was just over thinking the whole situation to the point where she stayed up all night.
In a really weird way, it was pretty peaceful. Gil and I spent a lot more time together than usual since I wasn't playing wingwoman for my little sister and my best friend. Even when Amelia was over, she slept hard enough to sleep through World War III, so Gil could still come over and talk to me. And of course, my roommate was extremely annoyed that my twin kept coming over and disturbing her. She quickly changed her mind when I gave her a twenty dollar bill to shut the hell up. But Emily was still Emily, and I could occasionally see her give Amelia dirty looks out of the corner of her eye whenever she was trying to do homework.
It was a calm Monday despite all the drama happening between my sister and the love of her life, as she always called Alice. I hadn't heard much from either of them all day. Even in the math class we had together, they didn't say a lot. Amelia sat next to me and had her head on my shoulder the whole time, and Alice sat silently in front of us. She was wearing Amelia's letterman jacket, which was really weird, but when I asked Amy about it, she just said Alice looked better in it than she did.
After class, Amelia disappeared to go do whatever cheerleaders do. Maybe go get Starbucks or whatever since the entire team consisted of white girls.
I just went back to my room and did my homework. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I worried about my baby sister. She was so immature. I had no idea how well she was really coping with the whole Alice thing. I hoped she was doing as well as she told me she was.
Emily sat beside me on our floor, helping me with my science work since she was a year ahead and had already gone through the class. "Alright, Maddie," she said, flipping through a few pages in the thick, school-issued textbook. "So question one: what does the 'c' stand for in Einstein's theory of relativity?"
I opened my mouth to answer the question, but there was a knock on the door that saved me the trouble of trying to think. "One second." I heard her sigh when I got up, but I chose to ignore her. Not exactly sure who was at my door since no one had contacted me or anything, I opened it.
Oh.
"Alice?" I asked, frowning. She was still wearing the jacket. The sleeves went well past her hands, and she fiddled with the fabric. "What are you even doing here? I thought you hated me or whatever."
Alice looked surprised. "I didn't say that."
"You implied it." I leaned against the doorframe, not entirely sure I should let her in. What if Amelia popped up and saw me chit chatting with the girl that broke her heart? She would probably never talk to me ever again. "What do you want?"
She cringed at my tone of voice. I should've felt guilty, but it was pretty hard when the memory of my sister's face when she told me about Fran and Alice was still fresh in my mind. "I just wanted to talk to you."
Emily slammed the book shut. "My god," she grumbled. "It's like you're the campus therapist."
Alice narrowed her eyes.
I just waved my roommate off. "Can you leave for a little bit?" She looked furious. "Please?"
Emily got up silently and pushed past me, not even looking at Alice as she stormed away.
"She's pleasant as ever," Alice commented.
"Just get in," I sighed. She hesitantly stepped through the door, and I shut it behind her. "What is it, Alice? Amy is still not over you, you know, and my patience is running pretty thin."
Alice sat on my bed. "It's not my fault."
"It kind of is." I picked up my homework from off the floor. "Again, what is it you want?"
She shrugged and played with the zipper on her jacket. "I just... didn't want our friendship to be ruined. You're one of the best mates I've ever had." I blinked. Alice didn't look up at me. "I'm sorry about upsetting Amelia, but I do have a right to doing whatever I want with my body, whether it's how I dress or... or sex, or... yeah." She shrugged. "So I don't feel bad about anything."
"It was with Francine though." I shook my head. "Anyone else and maybe it would be better, but our cousin... that's pretty low."
She rolled her eyes. "It's not like I did it because she's related to Amelia. I didn't even realise she was until a few months later." Alice glanced up at me. "But are you still mad at me?"
I bit the inside of my cheek. "Kind of. You really messed with Amy's head. She still can't stop thinking about what you did."
"She stole my journal," Alice reminded me. "I'm not totally the criminal here."
"She didn't-" I sighed. "Whatever. Just when are you two going to make up?"
Alice frowned. "I have nothing to make up for. She's the thief."
"You're the one that was screwing her cousin."
"Again, it was just sex and I'm allowed to have fun." I narrowed my eyes. She deflated when she saw that I wasn't going to totally forgive her just yet. "Anyways, I was thinking of getting a job."
"A what?" Alice? Getting a job? Sure, she was well organised and devoted, but she was pretty spacey and easily irritated, too. I didn't exactly know how well it would go with her working under somebody, especially if her boss had opinions that contradicted hers. "Are you sure?"
"Yes, I am sure," she said, starting to get annoyed. "I'm not a five year old. I can work if I want to. And besides, I figured I could start saving money to possibly buy a home after this year."
That was even more surprising. "You want to buy a house?"
"A house, probably an apartment." She lifted a shoulder. "Just somewhere I can live on my own."
"What about Amelia?" I asked.
Alice wrinkled her nose. "I should really start to get over her, Maddie. It obviously won't ever work out. Maybe moving into a place of my own will be good for me." She smiled sadly. "It's okay. I know we won't get together, so really it's for the best that I move on."
Wait.
What?
Shit.
"But-" I started, although Alice had already turned her back to me to leave the room. "Wait-"
"I'm applying for jobs this weekend," Alice called over her shoulder. "Gil's brother owns an antique store, right?"
I felt horrible. I was supposed to be the super awesome sister/best friend that hooked up two of the most important people to me, and here I was, watching them fall apart. "Yeah," I said. "He does. Outside of campus."
"Excellent." She pulled out her phone to presumably text my girlfriend. "Thanks, Maddie. I can always count on you."
"Sure." As soon as the door closed behind her, I groaned and face planted into a pillow. Everything was going horribly! This wasn't even my relationship and I was freaking out about what was going to happen. I really needed a vacation from everyone before they drove me insane.
When I thought about it, though, Alice never took off Amelia's jacket. She had every opportunity to do so, and I knew she was always feeling overheated.
That must've been a good sign, right?