Bad Liar

Chapter Fifteen

~Alice~

My feet padded along the damp concrete as I took the final left up to the allotments.
The air was cold, it wasn't fresh it was bitter, it was the kind of cold that hurt your skin, the kind that somehow felt like it had buried deep down to your bones.

I stuffed my hands into my pockets, my index finger tracing the edges of my phone that was becoming colder under my touch the longer I was outside.

"Alice." A low voice called out my name and I spun round trying to identify the person calling it, I could feel my heartbeat in my ears and my once calm still hands were shaking like an addict going through withdrawal.

Chris walked forward and his face became illuminated by the orange light from a street lamp - which I do not understand why is in an allotment - my heart dropped back down to a relatively normal pace, and my cold hands stopped shaking.

"Jesus man, what are you trying to do? Kill me?" I snapped, scowling at him. He shook his head, a smirk playing on his lips and walked up to me, he stood nearly toe to toe with me his soft features seeming less distorted than they did before.

"You're freezing." He cupped my face, my cold face, in his warm hands, my chattering jaw vibrated against his palms and no matter how hard I clenched my jaw I couldn't seem to stop it.

"Oh really? I hadn't noticed, I thought I was quite warm really." I snapped sarcastically, trying to hold back a smile.

"Come on let's go to the car." He snaked his hand into my pocket and wrapped our fingers together before leading the way to his car.
Once he unlocked it I eagerly climbed in the passenger side, waiting for him to put the heating on.

"I didn't think you'd come." He sighed, looking across at me coyly.

"Neither did I." I muttered back my gaze shifting to the black night sky.

I heard him sigh deeply and I fought the urge to look across to him, knowing that if I did that I'd break. That's something I couldn't do.

"What's been going on Al, I've had emails of your parents worrying themselves sick about you." I kept my face firm, tears welled in my eyes and I knew if I moved my head they'd fall.

"Look at me." His large hand grabbed my delicate chin and turned my head, his green eyes bore into mine, pleading with me to open up.

"We'll know by tomorrow, my therapist has asked them to come for a meeting." I briefly closed my eyes, upon opening them I expected Chris' eyes to have moved, they hadn't, they still carried on being locked to my face.

"What about?" He asked carefully, like he knew how little it would take me to snap.

"She has a diagnosis, she thinks she knows what's wrong with me." I sighed, rubbing my eyes trying to force the tears away, but they just sprung straight back again.

"That's a good thing though, it means they can treat you, get you on the right meds. Al they can help you get better now." He moved his hand now, it rested on my cheek, the warmth radiating onto my cold face.

"They can't do anything." I scoffed angrily.

"Yes they can." He countered, I pulled back from his hand, my cheek crying out for the warm contact to be back.