Alice helps Chris into his home, he's hobbling on his leg, heavily bandaged. He has a cut in his lip, and he just looks like hell, to be frank. She helps him onto his couch, her teeth clenched.
"Thanks Alice." Chris says, laying back on his sofa, his long hair ruffled.
"No problem." She chokes on her words, "Are you okay? Do you need anything?"
Chris shakes his head, though his eyes clench in pain at the motion, "Nah Alice, I'm fine, you can go."
She glances down at her converse, shyly kicking the ground, "You're mad at me."
"You couldn't have done anything."
She bites her lip, looking away, refusing to argue with him when he's in this condition. He's laying on his couch, having trouble breathing, because Alice was scared. She couldn't keep Francis at bay. She was so helpless and so fucking stuck in her own world she couldn't see the people she was hurting outside of it.
"Well.. see you around then." Alice grumbles, turning on her heel towards the door.
"Hey, Alice."
She whips around.
"Don't blame yourself." Chris says, "I hate it when you do that. You look like a wounded kitten, and that hurts a hell of a lot more than this." He nods towards his body, "Don't beat yourself up over it."
Alice nods, giving him a small smile, "Feel better."
She leaves with a knot in her stomach and tears in her eyes.
Alice goes home, dropping her leather jacket on the ground. Jon stares at her from the couch, his eyes glassy and the entire room smelling like booze and sadness. She doesn't want to join his pity party, so she storms into her room.
She's shocked when she sees a blonde head similar to her own sitting on her bed, ruffling through her drawers.
"You still draw?" Elena asks, her voice scratchy and her arms dotted with tracks.
Alice shuts the door, quietly, "Not as much. What are you doing here?"
"You let him out." Elena's voice chokes up, "How could you? Why didn't you just give them our story?" Elena stands up abruptly, "I bet you couldn't wait to tell those pigs just how awful your whole fucking life has been, boo hoo. We could have had it, our revenge, our justice. And you went, and you fucking spat on it."
Alice looks away from her, biting her lip, "I think you should leave."
Elena takes a step closer to Alice, "What? So Francis can jump me in a corner? You have no idea what you've done."
"You really thought the cops would believe some drug addict and poor excuse of a woman? You really fucking thought they'd believe you? Come on Elena, I know you used to be brighter than that."
Key words being, used to be.
Elena looks down, her words visibly effecting her, "You did a really good job, didn't you little sister? I mean, you have it all, don't you? Living in someone else's apartment, beating up people day and night. Well gee, aren't you just the model sibling? Look at you, little miss perfection. Don't act all innocent. Don't act like you're better than me, because you're not."
Alice raises an eyebrow at her, "Please enlighten me as to why some drug addicted, chain smoking, drunk bitch thinks she's so much better than me. Please, tell me! I'd love to hear it."
Instead of replying, Elena slaps her. It stings so badly it brings tears to Alice's eyes. Alice holds her cheek, turning back to her sister, with a deadly glare in her eye.
"You know, you probably shouldn't hit people who have been trained to hit people harder." Alice flies at her, fists and slapping and scratching, pent up anger and just fucking wrath and fury. She can't stop hitting her because if she stops she'll regret it later.
Alice's door flies open and Jon Moxley stumbles in his drunk stupor. Grabbing Alice around the waist, ripping the screaming wailing woman off of Elena Evans. Alice flails in his arms, considering switching her attack victim to him.
Elena takes the chance to dart out the door. Alice tries to shift to go after her, but Jon keeps her tight against him. Alice hears the front door slam and she knows it's over. Jon drops her and she doesn't prepare herself. She just hits the floor, a mess of a woman, just crumpled. She curls into herself, putting her head against her knees.
Jon just stares at her, setting his beer on her dresser. He sits down next to her, not saying a word.
"You shouldn't have ripped me off of her." Alice says, breaking the silence.
"You're bleeding." He says instead. He idly pokes her wound on her cheek, "Not that bad, probably going to get infected." He stands up then, leaving her for a few moments to grab the first aid kit.
She grabs at the wound, realizing how badly they beat the shit out of each other. Alice is fairly certain Elena is going to have trouble walking for a few days. Alice can feel every spot where Elena's nails dug into her. Alice takes her hand away, seeing her hands stained with red.
Alice looks down at the floor, angry at herself. She let herself lose control again. All because of Francis. This was exactly what he wanted. He wanted her to turn on everyone who gave a shit about her.
Jon comes back in, dropping himself on the floor beside her. He dabs at her wound with disinfectant, it stings, she clenches her teeth but refuses to let it bother her.
"I didn't expect that." Jon dryly jokes, "I was expecting a lovely heart to heart conversation."
"You obviously don't know me that well then. I'm more of a fist to face type of chick."
"Yeah, I can see that." Jon grabs a band aid, putting it on her face, "All fixed up, Nurse Jon to your service."
"I fucked up again. I seem to be making a nasty habit of that."
Jon looks down at the bloodied bandages in his hand, throwing it into the garbage can. "Nah, everyone around you seems to be fucking up. You're just getting lost in the chaos."
"Another nasty habit of mine."
Jon stands up, grabbing the first aid kit, "At least I know one thing after tonight."
"That would be?" Alice asks, looking up at him.
"You're the toughest chick I'm ever going to meet." Jon winks at her, stumbling out of the room, his signature smirk on his face.
Alice hates the smile that comes to her face.
Alice wakes up and sees Jon laying on the couch nursing his hangover. "You might want to quit drinking."
Jon looks over at her, shaking his head, "Nah, you just need to stop fighting everyone in your path. I can't tear you off of every stupid bitch."
"Don't call her that."
"Why not? You did, quite a few times actually." Jon stands up, walking over to her, "Want to tell me what that nasty bout was about?"
"Take a wild guess."
"Francis?"
"Ah, how'd you know?" Alice pours herself a cup of coffee, leaning against the counter, "I thought I was hiding it so well."
Jon gives her a little smirk, placing his hands on either side of the counter, "That's not all is it? You're hiding something from me."
Alice innocently drinks her coffee, "I have no idea what you're talking about."
"You're doing it again."
"What are you talking about?"
"Looking at me all funny."
"Maybe this is just my, 'I'm trying not to slap you' face. I tend to use it quite a bit around you."
"When we had that conversation in the parking lot, you had that same face."
Alice rolls her eyes, sighing, "Jon."
"Alice." He says, a smirk on his lips, "Are you starting to, god forbid, like me?"
Alice chokes on her coffee, nearly spraying it everywhere. Jon gives her a little smirk, completely pleased with himself. "Jonathan Moxley, I'm fairly certain you've completely lost it."
Jon takes a step closer to her, hard to understand how he could get any closer since he was already pressing her against the counter. He blinks, his piercing blue eyes creating a hole in her soul. "So have you." His lips slowly curl into a smirk.
Alice has the strange urge to grab his face and kiss him madly.
She dismisses the thought as soon as it comes, dubbing herself 'absolutely bonkers'.
"I have places to be. So if you mind..." Alice makes a small shoving motion with her hand.
"No problem, kitten." He steps away from her, but before doing so, he places a light chaste kiss on her cheek, "Who knows, you might be worth the fight after all." He breathes against her skin.
She feels a huge lump build in her throat. As he pushes off of her and walks away.
This can't be good.
Oh shit.
This really can't be good.
As he walks away from her, Alice feels her eyes widen in panic. Holy shit, she was not starting to like him. She hated him, she wanted to rip his tonsils out and feed them to carnivorous turtles. She did not want to feel his skin against hers - shit. Oh shit.
Alice storms out of the kitchen, rushing to her room. Leaving the coffee on the counter, forgotten.
She quickly punches in Saraya's number.
She gets Saraya's voice mail.
"So yeah, things might have gotten a little beyond crazy. By beyond crazy, I mean me, I've lost it. Call me as soon as you get this, no matter what time." Alice says hurriedly into the phone. She hangs it up quickly.
She sighs, leaning against her wall, sliding down to the floor. "God damn it, Alice. You couldn't have had worse timing for this."