Tomorrow's Blues

24. Drunken Games

Alice, who had gone in search of blankets and extra pillows, soon reappeared in the living area. I couldn't even see her face, she was carrying so many blankets.

"Alice, you are aware that it is August and rather warm at the present?" Ellie reminded her, eyeing the huge bundle in Alice's arms. Alice dropped the blankets with a huff.

"Well, excuse me for trying to make our girls' night cosier." She stuck her lower lip out at Ellie, then glanced over at Joseph. "Girls' night, Joseph." She made a shooing motion.

Joseph rolled his eyes at her. "I'm going." He headed towards the stairs and called behind him, "Enjoy whatever trashy movie you decide to watch."

Even though he couldn't see, Alice flipped him off. "Ugh. He's so annoying."

"Maybe so, but – I know this is inappropriate – your brother is very attractive, Alice," Ellie said matter-of-factly.

"What?" Alice exclaimed incredulously. "Gross. Why would you say that?"

"Objectively speaking," Ellie held her hands up defensively, "He is. Ana, back me up here."

I shot her a look. I was not going to back her up. "Uh... I don't know. He's Joseph."

"She just doesn't want to admit it because she lives with him," Ellie said, flicking a hand at me in dismissal.

No, I didn't want to admit it because I had a huge thing for him.

"That's just weird," Alice said, shaking her head.

"Maybe so. But it's true. Even Sam said so."

I laughed. Alice looked like she was holding back a smile, and said, "Shouldn't you be concerned if Sam is saying that boys are attractive?"

"Nope," Ellie said confidently. "He is just very secure in his masculinity."

"And rightly so," I said approvingly.

"Still," Alice grumbled. "It's weird when my friends say Joseph is good looking."

"You know what else is weird?" Ellie grabbed a chocolate bar and broke off a bit, popping it into her mouth. "The fact that we never actually met Joseph until recently. Except Ana."

She was right – it was weird. Sure, I'd met Joseph when I was younger, but he disappeared once we'd all gone to secondary school. And I had thought about it but had never really asked Alice.

"Yeah, I don't really know," Alice said sincerely. "When we got older, Joseph had a lot of friends, and he was always out and about seeing them. Never bothered to join in when we had other families over, and stuff. And then he went to boarding school, so he was barely ever home. It's not like there's some big secret reason why he was never around."

"That's disappointing," Ellie said with a sigh. "I was hoping he was a secret agent."

Alice hit Ellie with a cushion. "That's because you have an overactive imagination."

"You're one to talk," I said, pointing at Alice. "You have the most overactive imagination of anybody I know."

"Not true," she protested.

"Oh come on," Ellie said. "You're always off in Alice-land." Suddenly she gasped. "Wonderland! You are Alice in Wonderland."

"Have you only just made that connection?" I said drily, but Alice gasped, too.

"Oh my god! I am Alice in Wonderland!"

I huffed in amusement. "I can't believe you two."