Living Next Door To Alice

1/ Moving on, moving In

Another Step. And another. A few more left. Normally, walking the stairs wasn't a big problem for Betty, but today she was carrying a few heavy boxes which made the task a little bit more difficult. If she'd miss the stair, she'd fall down with a lot of fragile stuff. There was sweat forming on her forehead, but she didn't have her hands free to wipe it away.

"How many stairs do we have left?" The girl groaned, shouting at her mother who was in front of her and had already carried a few boxes inside.

"We're almost there, honey!" Alice encouraged her with a smile, even though it was everything but genuine.

Still, if she was the one mocking all day that would guarantee that her two daughters wouldn't be smiley either.

The woman who normally wore pastel pantsuits had changed into the more suitable clothes for an activity like this, and so she was wearing her denim jeans and a plain white t-shirt. She pushed a few more boxes inside and almost ripped her jeans and sighed quietly before she turned around to the hallway again.

"Moving here is fun already." Polly complained, as she was behind Betty and carried a few (less heavy) boxes upstairs.

She had promised herself to do as less a possible, since she didn't even want to be here in the first place.

"I don't like the attitude, young lady. You better help us instead." Alice stated firmly and handed her one of the boxes that was standing out in the hallway that could be carried inside to her own bedroom.

She understood where Polly's behavior came from, but that wasn't something she could use today. One more snap, and she felt like she was going to lose it. Not because she didn't feel like the way her daughter felt was valid, but because part of her felt exactly the same. The girl's frown was raised till into her hairline, but she walked inside nevertheless. In the end all her stuff needed to be in her room, so she'd better to that now.

"It isn't that bad, right?" Betty tried to ease the situation as they looked around the apartment, which was seemingly smaller than the house they used to live in.

"It's absolutely lovely!" Polly chirped sarcastically as she walked back into the living room.

She earned another eye roll from her mother, who had given her already too much today.

"I will get some bags from the truck." The girl sighed and turned around with her eyes spitting fire.

Not that she was mad at her mother for the situation, but it was her only way to let out any of the rage she was feeling inside. Alice knew that, since that was a quality she had gotten from her, but that didn't made it any less difficult to deal with.

"Mom, I have to admit... carrying all those heavy things on the stairs is kind of a shitty start." Betty said quietly, as she didn't want to put more on her mother's plate than necessary but also feeling that in a way she needed to back up her sister.

"I know, Betty. It's not like I asked for the elevator to be broken." Alice sighed and walked out the door again, gesturing to the broken thing that could have saved them a lot of trouble.

Across of them, another door opened, revealing a man with brown hair and a beard. He was wearing his jacket, probably on his way to something. Alice didn't give it much attention, since she had bigger things to focus on-- her moody daughter for example.

"Moving day?"

Fred gestured to the few boxes that were still in front of their door, trying his best to make light conversation with the people that seemed to be their new neighbors. The apartment had been empty for a while, so he was happy to see that it was occupied again.