after alice; book three {5sos}

three

(2 months after the disappearance)

the curtains appears stained with the stench of smoke and the coffee table is scattered with flicked ash and cold, crushed cigarettes.

the television flickers, the vivid blue dress and the white fur leaving the walls seeming as though they are glowering.

"i don't understand," laura chokes out, surpressing her sob with a sniffle. she takes a long drag on her cigarette and tilts her head back, her eyes still glued to the television. "fucking boys. why didn't they just listen?"

she cries with frustration and throws herself from the sofa and onto her feet. ejecting the tape from the player with damp, tear drenched fingers, she firmly holds her cigarette between her lips angrily pursed together, before vigourously jabbing her finger into the white hole of the tape. she begins to twist and twist, the tape unravelling before her eyes. the cigarette falls from her lips, staining the carpet as smoke curls from the butt of the cigarette.

the anger, the sadness, the disappointment, the deep feeling of being distraught and losing your mind; everything felt when one loses their twin sons; bubbles beneath her skin. the tears fall, her trembling fingers angrily tearing at the tape. the tape sticks to her damp fingers and becomes entangled.

the tape hits the wall where the wallpaper is already peeling away. she doesn't understand where she ever went wrong or where she ever neglected them.

"fuck you, alice." she cries out, reduced to fragments of speech. "fu-uck you."

(2 months before the night)

we lie beneath
the same breathing stars;
lost souls
floating upon ripples

you're like midnight sunsets
at the break of dawn
and tired eyes at noon

you understand me
and encourage me
to adore the world
around me

you look at me
with those eyes
that have stolen light
from the evening sunset
locked away

and all i can do
is smile back at you
as we lie
beneath the same stars.

sophia rests her pen against the paper, her cheeks flushed with thought. she cannot stop thinking about him. he is riddled between her bones and plucking at the strings of her heart. whenever she reads a book, she thinks of him. whenever she listens to a playlist that he threw together, she cannot stop thinking of him. all she can do is smile and smile, smiling at the sunsets and the grass, smiling at the flowers and him.

she hopes for a future with him.

her phone begins to persistently vibrate on her bed. she scrambles around for it and hits answer.

"luke?" sophia asks with perceptible worry in her voice. it's 2am, why would he be ringing her at this time of night?

luke quietly laughs into the speaker. "what? why do you sound worried?"

"well i thought something was serious," she laughs, leaning back on her pillows beneath the dim glow of her lights. "what do you want?"

"a chat," luke murmers. "i knew you'd be awake. that's why i like you."

"that's an odd reason to like someone but i'll take it anyway."

"why are you whispering?" luke asks her, laughing.

"my mum is asleep," she whispers back. the line falls silent. they cannot maintain the silencee, their held laughter erupting into the thick air of their rooms in the early morning. "i'm in a giggly mood now thanks to you, fuck off, won't you?"

"no," luke laughs back. "you're stuck with me. i- i was just listening to this fucking bomb ass song, okay? and i wanted you to hear it too."

"is this why you've rang me?"

"well i wanted to hear your voice too."

"oh," sophia's eyes widen slightly and she stares up at her golden lights, a smile lingering on her lips. "okay, go ahead then."