Alice’s POV
“So,” she began, placing one leg over the other, “shall we talk?”
“What about?”
“You, of course. I’m not trying to find something to argue about, Alice,” Elanor added when I pursed my lips. “I just want to know how you’ve been. Do you like Aberville so far?”
“It’s fine,” I replied.
“How about school?” She tried again.
“Fine,” I responded.
“And what about work?” She barely managed to hide her annoyance at my curt replies.
“Fine.”
I knew it wasn’t fair to give her one-word answers but I was afraid that if I gave her longer ones, she’d find something to reprimand me about; even though she said she wasn’t looking for a fight, I’d had to face her judgmental attitude for years.
“And your… relationship with the boy?”
“Caden,” I emphasized the name she avoided using, “and I are doing better than fine; far, far better.”
“I see,” she uttered quietly, her hand reaching for her brown hair again.
“Margie is giving me a raise,” I announced a few minutes later in an attempt to break the silence that had fallen between us; we were here to talk after all.
“So, you are achieving something.”
“Finally, you mean?”
“I told you, Alice, I’m not looking to start a fight,” irritation crept in her voice again.
“Prove it,” I dared her.
“How?”
“Let’s talk about Caden.”
The curiosity on her face was replaced by barely contained annoyance.
“What about him?” She asked in that flat tone of hers.
“Why don’t you ever pronounce his name?”
“You know how I feel about that boy, Alissa.”
So we were back to “Alissa”?
I had not heard that from her in a while.
“But why?” I leaned forward in my sofa. “Why do you hate him so much?”
He was so good to me, why couldn’t she see that?
“He’s not good enough for you,” she stated, as if she’d read my mind. “You two will never have…”
Elanor placed her delicate hand over her lips to keep herself quiet. A moment later, she lowered it to her lap and looked away from me. Her fingers were intertwined but occasionally one or more of them would twitch nervously.
“Will never have what?” I asked slowly, surprised by how unsettled she appeared all of a sudden.
“You two will never have what your father and I did,” she finally concluded.
“Which father?” I sneered. “Your first husband? Your second one? Third? Number one hundred?”
Her head snapped my way, her eyes narrowing as she looked at me.
“You only ever had one father, Alissa,” she commented coolly.
“The one whose death you blame me for,” I murmured quietly.
YOU ARE READING
Frost on the Green (The Green Girl sequel) ✓
Teen FictionAfter getting shot during a burglary some months ago, Alissa Clover Green is on her way to full recovery. She has the love of her three aunts, she's slowly mending her relationship with her estranged mother, she has the support of her loyal friends...
