Alice

Push

Sam didn't force the topic, she just hugged her. It was almost señora like. Alice didn't object, but she didn't return the favor. She wasn't whole. She wasn't herself. She was a shell, just a shell.

"Good morning," said Mr.Rye as they passed him in the hall. Sam waved, but Alice said nothing. They made it into the gym to find Lucas already waiting there. He must have gotten there very early to beat them out.

Alice sat down next to him and for a while, neither said anything. Until lucas looked at her with an ominous glare, "I hate you."

"What?" She cried, she expected him to be harsh, but not in that sense.

"I fucking hate you. Never speak to me again. You, you-"

"IT WASN'T MY FAULT! HE SHOULD HAVE BEEN MORE CAREFU-"

But she was cut off when the cold fist came into heated contact with her face. Like all the anger he'd been holding in now flow out through his fingertips. He drew back, panting, and dropped his weapon of malice. A small trail of blood trickled out from her left nostril, but she didn't cry. She wasn't going to cry any more. She wiped it with her jacket sleeve, uncaring if it left an obnoxious stain, and calmy walked out and into her favorite thinking spot- the main bathroom.

She looked at herself in the mirror and ran some water, splashing it on her face, then getting a dry towel for her nose. She stood there waiting for it to stop, but the footsteps behind her told her she wasn't alone.

"You okay?" Sam said.

"I'm fine," she threw the bloody napkin in the trashcan and washed her hands, "what, you aren't mad at me too?"

"I don't blame you for what happened."

"According to Lucas, you should."

"You think I'd side with Lucas over my best friend?"

"Best friend?"

"One of them."

"I had no idea. "

"Jeremy was also one of them, but what he did was his choice, not yours."

Alice withheld the unwelcomed tears and embraced Samantha.

"I care about you," Sam told her.

And Alice didn't fight back anymore, "I know."