Where Two Collide

Chapter Sixty-One - Alice

Chapter Sixty-One

Alice

A few weeks later I am sitting on my bed, folding t-shirts into my giant suitcase, when Cat comes into the room waving an envelope with a panicked look on her face.

I eyed her expectantly. "What's that?"

Cat sat down on the bed beside me, worrying at her lip. "Possibly the end of all my future hopes and dreams," she said frantically, which was not at all like her. Then again, she had been different since Addie, it was like she suddenly had opened up to the world and all its possibilities. Including the drama.

"Huh?" I pulled a face and waited for her to explain.

"It's a reply from the committee regarding my submission to their art program," she said with a big sigh, pointing to the address stamp on the back of the envelope. "I don't want to open it, what if they didn't like my work?"

I reached for her hand, linking my fingers through hers. "Guess you won't know until you open it then."

"Damn you and your logic," she said, laughing a little. She disentangled her hand from mine and tore into the envelope, taking out the letter inside and scanning her eyes quickly across the page. The huge smile taking over her face told me that it was good news. "I got in! They chose me. I got into the program," she squealed excitedly.

"That's so awesome," I squealed back at her, honestly so pleased for her. She'd spent months and months preparing her submission and the waiting had almost killed her. Luckily, her new relationship with Addie had been a decent distraction in recent weeks, but that hadn't diminished her obvious nerves.

"I'm not ditching you, but I'm just going to go call Addie and tell her, I'll be back in a sec to help you finish packing," said Cat, her grin getting wider by the minute.

"Yeah sure, go, go," I said waving her off as she skipped out of the room.

It was such a relief knowing she wouldn't be alone, that she had someone. It would be a few months before I would be back, and I'd been terrified Cat would be lonely. Addie's arrival was a stroke of luck, as well as the fact that of course, I wanted her to be happy, and I'd never seen her as happy as she was now. And that was more than enough for me.

I'd only met Addie the one time, but she seemed like exactly the kind of person I'd expected my sister to be with. Her fun, easy-going attitude was contagious, and she brought out the best in my sister. I knew I was leaving her in good hands.

"I'm back," announced Cat, gliding back into the room again with all the grace of a newborn duckling. "Addie said hey by the way."

"I'm so proud of you," I said, adding my folded pile of t-shirts to the suitcase.

She gave me a sly smile. "Because of the art program, or because I have someone to make out with now?"

I laughed. "Both. But I was talking about the first."

"Speaking of having someone new to make out with." Cat started piling pairs of socks into her arms, she crossed the room and dumped them into my suitcase. "How is Damien, you sure have been hanging out with him a lot recently." She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively at me and I couldn't help but laugh some more.

"He's just a friend for now. It's nice to have someone to hang out, who is a genuinely good person. Someone who doesn't know Owen and doesn't give me that weird look of pity whenever he's brought up. Which everyone is doing at school by the way."

I was so lucky I was leaving in a few days, in fact, I was lucky I had not been too late to apply to study abroad at all. I still couldn't quite believe I'd be jetting off to Italy the day after tomorrow, and to Rome of all places. I was beyond excited.

"It'll all have been forgotten by the time you're back, there will be some new drama and you'll be forgotten," said Cat, and I nodded back at her. "Are you going to keep in touch with Damien while you're gone?"

I started organising my bath stuff into a neat little bag. "Of course, we're going to video chat, and you and me will too," I said. "I'm going to call you every night before bed."

Cat rolled her eyes, but she is smiling. "Maybe some nights you can just text me."

I laugh as I dropped the bath stuff into my suitcase and go to our wardrobe, throwing open the doors and sliding the coat hangers across so I could work out what I wanted to bring with me. I hesitated when I came across the cream blouse, I'd worn to meet Owen's parents. The memory still stung, and I winced, pulling it off the hangar and dropping it into our wastepaper bin so I didn't have to look at it again.

There was a lump in my throat, and I gulped it down. There was a shadow that had been left behind by Owen's presence in my life. It was a sense of fear and worry that I saw in the corner of my eye, waiting. I tried to ignore it, pretend it wasn't there, yet I could always feel its presence following me around.

I wondered how much time it would take before the anxiety I felt faded away, though I knew it would take time. All I could do was live my life, love my life, and know that if I took every day one at a time, eventually I would get there. Because I was okay, and okay was enough for now.

**THE END**

***Head on over to the next part for my final notes on the book :) ***