Some reviewers reminded me to update.. x] Thanks for the reviews!

Chapter 4

"One date, promised." Xerxes pleaded. Alice was annoyed. She shouldn't have let him in even though the shop was closed.

"I don't do dates, you know."

"If you want to get straight to the point that's fine with me as well!"

Alice blushed and fisted his arm at that. Stupid clown. Yeah, she developed a nickname for him now. It had been about a month since they officially met, Alice already had ten more flavors down her throat and he seemed to come up with dumber excuses to hang out with her by the day.

Well, he did accomplish some stuff with that. Unbeknownst to Alice, the whole point of this deal had been to know more about the girl. And to make her see ice cream really was delicious. But, in fact, he now knew her age, what she studied, why she worked here and what food she really liked most.

"We have the whole afternoon for ourselves, and it's sunny!" He whined as Alice closed the door to the shop behind her.

"You might have free time, but some of us actually have to study."

"You can't make me believe you have to study when you don't have any exams or projects coming up~" Alice looked at him with a shocked expression. She'd been caught! How did he know that! He grinned knowingly and linked her arm with his, much to her dislike.

"I heard that there are concerts in the park! Let's go there!" It wasn't much of a request because he immediately started dragging her in the direction of the local park. Alice sighed; so much for lounging on the couch today. Now she couldn't particularly say she hated his company, but she'd been getting more than enough pointed stares from Sharon lately and she really wasn't in the need of a cat fight.

She didn't even like the guy! Counter-attack to that was that his presence made her feel slightly happier, like the gleeful feeling she got when Oz would praise her and pat her hair, when Sharon would hug her tightly or when Glen would come home happily after making someone's life a little better.

That kinda feeling. She adored it, but she wouldn't let him know. He would come even more often if she did!

But he was right; it was sunny and there were concerts in the park. She could be there for an hour, or so, it wouldn't matter much. They found a spot to sit in the park and Alice didn't bother to sit on her coat, instead lied down immediately and enjoyed the sun in combination from the music coming from the front. She loved these kind off days as well. Xerxes sat down next to her, however, he did take of his jacket and sat on it, giving her a pointed look when she purposely rubbed her hands on the grass so she'd get light stains on them.

"Didn't think you were the mud-wrestling type." He thought aloud and Alice hummed in disagreement.

"In your dreams. And that doesn't even come close to lying in grass." She countered and he snickered. Alice closed her eyes after rolling up her sleeves.

"Why don't I live in a country where it's warm all the time?" She sighed disapprovingly and Xerxes agreed with a hum.

"You're eighteen, go and move if you like."

"It's not that easy and you know it." She shot back, frowning before relaxing her face again. "Besides, Glen would kill me if I even thought of moving out of the country. He's already having trouble with me considering to move out."

Xerxes smiled and looked at her face. As long as she didn't see it he could stare at her for days, but he guessed she wouldn't be an eternal sleeper. He ran a hand through his hair, noticing someone familiar. That familiar someone noticed him earlier.

"Hey Xerxes, what's up?"

Alice opened on eye to look at the four-eyed guy she recently met. She thought his name was… Liam. Yeah, that was it!

"Hey Alice." Alice grunted in response. Out of the four, he was the least bad. Besides being serious he had a playful side which intrigued Alice because it would come out at the most weirdest times. Like when she practically bashed Xerxes' head into the counter because of his pervy remarks.

After a while he left again and Alice's stomach had begun rumbling. She sat up and rubbed it, before noticing Xerxes absentmindedly touching, itching at the left side of his face, underneath his hair. She frowned and reached out to pull his hand away (scratching was bad! It left red marks.) and he winced back, out of her reach. He gave her an apologetic look at her surprised look.

"What, hiding some huge badass scar beneath that hair?" he didn't respond and Alice sighed. "You know, nowadays it's not so cool as an adult to have haircuts like that. At least I think so."

"It's not something I chose, Alice." Xerxes responded mysteriously and she was silent, thinking that over, until her eyes widened.

"…What happened to your left eye?" She asked him seriously, staring him right in his other eye so she was sure he would have to answer. She faintly heard the band changing in the park but wasn't focused on them.

"I got into a fight. That's all." He answered dimly and Alice shook her head disapproving, indicating she wanted to know more but not asking how, when or why anyway.

"So you are blind on one eye?"

"Perhaps." He shrugged it off, ignoring her stares and watching with curiosity as her expression grew from confused, to realization, to uncomfortable, and lots of other emotions.

"…You lost sight with that one, didn't you?" His silence confirmed her answer. "Was it a birth dysfunction?" He shook his head and laid back down on his elbows. Alice frowned. "So it was from a fight?"

"Quite frankly said, it was cut blind." He said and she looked at him in horror, before she remembered it was rude to gape at someone like that.

"That must have been horrible." She muttered. "It must have hurt a lot."

He shrugged again, feeling awfully dense about the subject. Perhaps he should take his leave for now; he didn't want to ask her why he ever got in a fight like that.. and he couldn't bear confessing that he was slowly getting blind on the other eye as well. He objected against leaving when she placed her hand on his arm and looked at him worriedly.

"Does it still hurt?"

"Sometimes it itches, but that's about it."

Alice nodded and looked around. Seeing no people nearby, she leaned in. "Can… Can I see it?"

"You wouldn't want to see it, trust me." Alice pouted defiantly and he shrugged, allowing her to come a little closer and push his hair out of the way. Her face obviously told her she was surprised with seeing something like this, but at least she didn't cringe. Of course, what he didn't know, is that Alice, whose stepfather worked in a hospital, had seen quite some horrid things in her life, in real and in pictures.

Curiously she let her fingers wander over the outlines of some of the scars it left, not touching the glazed eye. It looked an abnormal mix of blue, but she could definitely see that it had once too been the same red as his other eye.

Normally, he'd have it bandaged, it was a nuisance anyway, but sometimes it would get itchy and he'd wear it without bandage for a day.

He closed his eyes as her fingertips delicately danced over his skin, and she took it back quickly. "Sorry."

"It's okay." he smiled and shook his head, so his hair hid the left side of his face again.

She frowned lightly and gave a small smile. "And here I am complaining because I hit my little toe on the table." Well, that did hurt as well, he had to admit.

"Umm…" She caught his attention with her fiddling and when she noticed he looked at her she blushed lightly. "I guess I can tell you something more, if you'd like." He remained silent but grinned nonetheless. Alice bit her lip before slumping her shoulders.

"I'm not gonna tell you twice, clown." Ah, her usual behavior. "I live with my stepfather Glen. My mom died, and supposedly I had a twin who died at birth. I hate snow because I once got caught in a snow storm and I am afraid of heights." That was enough for the day. Alice frowned distastefully as he smiled widely at her, happy with the extra information.

"Afraid of heights you say? That's too bad, I wanted to go bungee jumping with you some day." Alice shuddered and fixed his laugh with a pointed glare.

"What happened to your father, then?" He carefully asked and she huffed.

"That's none of your business." Ah, he prodded to far. He smiled when she looked at him apologetically and ruffled her hair. They talked a little more about their situations and the weather, all those things, before Alice stood up and dusted her jeans.

"I should go home." She said after a while, not complaining when he walked with her to the point he had to take a different direction.

R&R! :D