On The Break Of Darkness.

Chapter 9

Xander sat down at the lunch table. Shayla is quietly reading on her phone while eating her salad. Eric was writing in his journal. Alice was no where to be seen.

"Wheres Alice?" Xander asks curiously.

"Library. She said she didn't want to eat with all the noise and that her head hurt. I offered to eat with her but she just told me to not," Shayla answers.

Xander looked at Eric. He was frantically writing.

"Dude," Xander says to Eric.

Eric looks up. "What??"

"Alice is at the library?"

Eric sighs.

"Alice sometimes likes to be by herself and away from people. You've been seeing her when shes been having really good days. She texted me she'd be in the library today. That normally means she wants to avoid people."

"Will she be okay?" Xander asks in concern.

He knew leaving a person by themselves Isn't always the smartest thing to do. Sometimes people think they want to be alone when really they need someone to be there for them. Loneliness often leads to someones demise.

"Probably. I'm gonna check on her before the end of lunch," Eric tells Xander trying to reassure him.

Xander nods but starts walking away from the table.

"Where are you going?!?" Shayla asks.

"To the library."

Xander gives Shayla a warm smile. Xander waves goodbye and goes to the library.

"This is gonna end up bad. He barley knows her. He's gonna make it worse." Eric grumbles.

Shayla smirks. "You'd be surprised how much he's helped her the past days."

Eric doesn't respond. He continues the write. He wears a frown as he avoids eye contact with Shayla.

"Their gonna end up together," Shayla mentions.

"You don't know that," Eric grumbles not looking up.

"I do. I know these thing." Shayla says while taking a bite of her salad.

Eric angrily looked up. "And what do you suppose I do? Push Xander into a hole and bury him?"

"Although that would be delightful and interesting to watch, no you shouldn't do that."

"No shit."

"But that doesn't mean you shouldn't be completely nice to Xander."

"He's my neighbor."

"He's also you competition."

"So?"

"So you should do something. You can't keep doing what your doing. What you were doing before was getting you there slow. But now that he's here, he's gonna beat you to it."

"Shayla..."

"You know I'm right."

"So what do I do my all mighty queen?" Eric says sarcastically.

Shayla throws a cherry tomato at him. Eric easily caught it and ate it. Shayla scowls at him, annoyed he fended off her attack. Shayla points her fork at Eric and says,

"You start off with telling her."

*********************************

Xander peeks into the library. Alice was talking to Phoebe. Phoebe was waving her fork in the air. It looked like she was casting a spell. She looked very angry and frustrated. Alice seemed to be keeping her head down. She poked at her food.