Living Next Door To Alice

41/ The Girl Next Door

"I'm fine, Mom. I can take movie night." Betty chuckled a little as Alice wouldn't let go of her hand.

Fred and Archie had invited them to come watch a few movie, since everybody had a night off. All day Alice had been asking her daughter if she was feeling alright enough to be around this many people at the same time. She still had a serious concussion. Preferably, she wanted for her to stay in bed today.

"Honey, if you want to rest that is fine, too." She reminded her once again, as she helped her to escort her to the couch. Alice wasn't risking Betty falling down and hurting herself even more.

"And missing watching Dirty Dancing? I don't think so." Her daughter laughed, as she finally sat down on the couch and snuggled up to her boyfriend.

"Do you've got some extra soft pillows, Fred?" Alice turned around to face the man of the house, who was preparing some snacks.

"Sure, you can grab them all." He answered and earned a thankful nod from her.

She rushed over to Fred's bedroom and snatched the throw pillows from his bed and made her way back over to her daughter, who playfully rolled her eyes when her mother was putting the pillows behind her back to give her more comfort.

At the same time, FP came out of his bedroom and stopped in his tracks when he saw that Alice was there as well. After last night, he hadn't expected to see her.

"So you do know to find our apartment." He stated, still a little careful.

Alice looked up from her task to tuck her daughter in as securely as possible and met his eyes, a little confused.

"Uh, yes, I've been living across of you the past one and a half years." She shrugged and avoided his look again, as she continued giving Betty another blanket.

"Strange, I thought you got lost." FP mumbled a little annoyed this time.

"What are you talking about?" Alice turned around, a little irritated.

"You were gone this morning." He shot back, now fully facing her.

Alice's face softened as she realized what he was talking about. She had sneaked out after he had fallen asleep. Sharing that night with him was confusing her, even when she was the one who took initiative.

"I couldn't stay. You know that." said Alice quietly. The tears stung in her eyes, but right now wasn't the moment to give into these emotions.

"Why not, Alice?" He asked, a little softer this time.

FP truly didn't have any idea of why she felt the need to go away without even waking him up. At least he thought that she'd tell him, if she had been uncomfortable with them sleeping together when their relationship was hanging by a thread.

Alice stayed silent, because honestly? She couldn't answer. She knew exactly why she panicked and ran back to her own apartment. Not because it had felt wrong, but because falling asleep in his arms had felt so right.

"Are you going pretend it didn't happen? That we didn't make love and that you didn't sneak away as if I had just dreamed it?" He raised his voice, but his cracked nontheless, betraying how hurt he was with what she had done.

Fred, Archie, Polly and Sweet Pea shared a look, surprised to hear what had happened after they had been fighting for over a week.

"What did you think? That one night together would suddenly make all our problems disappear?" Alice shot back as she shook her head sadly and bit on her lip to stop herself from crying.

"At least I thought you'd be mature enough to actually talk to me about it, instead of pretending it meant nothing." He huffed lowly, now averting his gaze from her because he couldn't look at her any longer without bursting into tears.