Nothing Less than Extraordinary

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Alice stepped away from Cheshire, but he still reached out to her so he could explain.

"No," she told him. "I get it now, okay? You don't want to be with the person who's been with you almost your whole life who...who would do anything for you all because you're interested in someone new."

"Alice..."

"No, that's what it is, right?" she asked. "She's this beautiful, new object of your affection because she's—let me guess—pure enough for you to admire but powerful enough for you to really challenge yourself."

"That's not—"

"Well then the joke's on both of us because I'm obviously getting the short end of the stick but you? You're dumb enough to fall for a girl who's in love with Zaine Union of all people, someone who actually loves her back who isn't, you know, an antisocial murderer in denial. He has way more of a chance of being with her and actually making her happy in the long run than you."

Now I really wanted to present myself to the both of them to defend myself and my relationships with all three of the guys she mentioned. And I did just that while they commenced in their argument because it took that one insult for Cheshire to start yelling at her.

"What's dumb is the fact that you don't understand that I'm breaking up with you because Aspen reminds me of you!" Cheshire revealed. "Not this tyrant you that I couldn't stand after a cross-country road trip—the you who I spent three years with on the run with and didn't have to give a shit about anything that didn't have to do with us. And yeah, Aspen is beautiful and pure—sometimes naïve—and powerful, which is great, but I thought you were too—you still are! But your little power trip that's absolutely tainted the Alice that I love is causing me to break up with you, not Aspen."

Now, I had reached them and I couldn't tell if it was the best or worst timing. Alice, who I could officially see was crying, looked at me and wiped her face.

"Oh of course you're here right now," she sniffed and slightly turned away from me.

"I was just checking to see if he was alright considering he was just told he was on trial and assumed to be a flight risk and nobody knew where he went," I lied...considering I really just followed him to berate him and then stayed to eavesdrop. Cheshire finally stopped gazing at Alice in order to turn to me. His blue eyes were as dark as they've ever been.

"We all know I'm not alright," was all he said to me with the same coldness from before. He sighed and briefly closed them before trying again. "We'll be fine. Go back inside."

"I just—"

"Just leave us alone," he almost growled and I was beginning to see his eyes lighten into a dance of lavender before I looked over at a sniffling Alice and decided to retreat back towards the mansion. I only wished I had given Alice a condolence hug (or choke around the neck) so I could spirit walk right back over there to spy some more.

=XXX=

When I got back inside, I couldn't shake the feeling that something had happened in my absence. The downstairs rooms were empty aside from Wib setting up his bedding on a couch in the den and I knew not to go over there because he would probably go off on me and I didn't think I could handle that at the moment. I really just wanted to talk to Cariba, but with one glance outside towards the pool I could tell she was swimming laps on top of laps with Warren sitting at the edge of his lounge chair with his hands folded as he waited patiently. I wondered what was in her file that was causing her anxiety, but again gave her space.

Maybe I just needed to talk to the one person who could ease all anxiety and fears: Sumer.

I began climbing the stairs in pursuit of Sumer's room, but to my surprise, I was met with Zaine who had a duffel bag in his hand and a backpack on his shoulder. He stopped walking now that I was in the way of blocking the stairs