Alice's Umbrella

Chapter 17: Trapped

Alice was studying for a test in her room when her mother found her Tuesday night. She knocked on the door to announce her presence, and Alice looked up from her desk where she was poring over her notes.

"Do you have a moment?" Ms. Young asked, and Alice nodded, spinning her chair around. Her mother sat down on her bed. She was in her scrubs, as she was about to head to the hospital. "Can you watch Clary Wednesday night, make sure she eats dinner and everything?"

Alice wanted to point out that she already did that most nights but held her retort. Instead, she frowned thoughtfully. "Sure. I don't have to be at the theater that night. Why do you ask, though? Work?"

Her mother smiled slightly but hesitated. "No, I work in the morning. No, I...Mr. M and I are going to get dinner that night." She paused before unnecessarily adding, "Together."

For some reason, Alice had not been expecting that. Her jaw went slack. "Oh," she said dumbly. That was fast. Right? She felt like that was fast; she hadn't expected them to hit it off so well, so quickly. She'd thought she and Elliott would have to do a lot more reconnaissance work to hook them up. "Oh," she repeated.

Her mother looked worried. "Are you-are you okay with this? I know this will probably be hard for you," she rambled. "How do you feel about this? I haven't dated since you were little, obviously. I just wanted to know how you felt first."

Alice wasn't actually sure, now that she was faced with the very real truth of them dating. She just felt confused, and there was a weird sinking sensation in her gut. She didn't know how to process the information.

But she didn't want to discourage her mother; this was the plan, after all. She licked her dry lips and forced a tight smile, lifting her shoulder indifferently. "Yeah, I'm fine with it. Mr. M is cool. That's cool."

Her mother looked relieved, and her smile widened. "Okay, good. I just wanted to make sure. But...well, it's not a big deal yet. If you start to feel uncomfortable about any of it, please let me know. I want to be able to talk to you about this, if you feel the need to."

But Alice just shrugged again. "I'm fine. I swear. I hope you guys have fun at dinner," she said evenly.

Ms. Young stood up. "Okay, well, I need to get to work now, but I might see you in the morning before you go to school," she said, crossing over to her to kiss her forehead. "Good luck with studying."

"Thanks. See you later," Alice replied, watching her mother walk out of her room. She didn't move for a moment as she thought. Then she pushed out of her desk chair and covered the distance to her nightstand, picking her phone up. She started to call Elliott, but her thumb hovered over the "Call" button, unwilling to push. For some reason, she couldn't do it.

Instead, she scrolled through her text messages and pulled up a different contact entirely. Gale. She nearly changed her mind again but forced herself to send the text: What are you up to?

She sat down on her bed to wait, but his response was almost immediate: Nm. You?

Just studying. She chewed her lip, raging an internal debate, but her fingers were already moving. Do you wanna hang out sometime?She held her breath, anxiously anticipating his answer. When she got it, she sighed-in relief or from dread, she wasn't entirely sure.

Absolutely :) When?