"Hey, you."
Alice looked up from her book and gave Eric a smile. "Hey yourself." She carefully adjusted her position. "School out?"
"Sure," he said as he came to stand beside her bed.
Alice shook her head, smirking. "Eric, you should be in class."
Eric sat down beside her and pulled a bunch of wildflowers from behind his back. He handed them to her. "I'm on an errand for the class."
"They're nice." Alice took them with a disinterested look. "Thanks."
Eric raised an eyebrow as he watched her set them beside her on the bed. "No problem." Then he looked to her bandaged wrist and gestured to it. "How's it feel?"
"It throbs sometimes, but I'll live." Alice cleared her throat and stared at the flowers. "How's Gau?"
Eric shrugged. "Don't know. Haven't seen him since he brought you here."
Alice looked up. "What? He wasn't in class?"
Eric shook his head. "Nope."
She changed her focus to the flowers again. "I hope he's okay."
"No kidding. What happened?"
Tears and embarrassment rushed to the surface. "We went for a walk. I guess we had so much on our minds we didn't notice the Adamant following us."
"Gau? Gau didn't notice an Adamant?" Eric shook his head. "Man. He's got it worse than I thought."
Alice lifted her eyes. "What?"
"Don't worry about it. You just get better. The Figaros are coming tomorrow."
Alice gave him a half-smile. "Thanks, Eric. I'll sneak out and be in class before it starts. Okay?"
He grinned at her and stood, giving her knee a pat. "Yeah. Right. I won't hold my breath."
Then he left the room and Alice's smile faded. She gnawed her lower lip and lowered her eyes. Then she smacked the bed with the flowers and tossed them away, covering her face with her hands to cry.
"Alice?"
Alice rolled over. "What, mom?"
"Gau's here to see you," she said through the door.
Alice sat up, quickly brushing the hair out of her face and the tears off her cheeks before trying to straighten the wrinkles in her heavyweight t-shirt/nightshirt.
"Alice?"
"Okay, mom. Come ahead."
Alice cleared her throat, pulling the covers up to the waist of her flannel 'nightpants' just as the door opened and Gau walked in. He wore his usual leather-like trousers, but this time he also wore an animal-skin shirt... and one arm was in a sling.
Alice's heart fell to her ankles with guilt as she lowered her eyes and began to gnaw on her lip. "Hi."
Gau ducked his head in way of a greeting and moved to stand beside her bed to her right. "You better?" he asked hesitantly. "No hurt?"
"I'm fine." She glanced up. "You?"
"Look worse than feel. Get better all time."
Nodding, she shifted her gaze back to her bandaged wrist. "Good. Good."
Silence.
"Alice, you angry... me?"
She met his eyes. They were filled with concern and a little fear... She looked back down. "No. I'm just tired." She sniffled and glanced toward him again. "Can we talk later?"
The color of his eyes changed as he nodded, backing away like a whipped dog. Alice lowered her eyes, giving a wince and another sniff when she heard the door close after him. Then she lowered herself deeper and the covers and rolled onto her side, ignoring her tears.
The door opened and Alice quickly sat up. Eric entered the room with a smile. "Hey, you."
Alice laid back into the pillows. "Hey yourself."
He raised an eyebrow and closed the door after him. "You sound miserable."
She looked up, frowning. "Do you blame me? Gau's arm is in a sling and I put it there with my idiotic notion for a midnight walk on the Veldt!"
"He could have said no, Alice." Eric sat on the side of her bed. "He's a big boy."
Alice's frown didn't lighten. "Well despite what he looks like, that 'boy' is a 'gentleman'. He could see that I was upset and needed to talk... Or maybe it was the other way around. Geez! It doesn't matter. I asked for a walk and he gave me one. Sure, he should've known better, but so should I!"
Eric crossed his arms. "Cut yourself some slack, will you?"
"Cut myself some slack?" Alice's jaw dropped. "You've got to be joking. You want me to give myself a break when I nearly got him killed!"
"Alice, give it a rest. I know for a fact that he's come to visit. Would he have done that if he blamed you for anything?" Alice looked away. He smirked. "See? You just want to feel sorry for yourself."
"Yeah. I'm really accomplishing a lot by doing that," she retorted.
"Hey, everyone's got to be good at something."
Alice grumbled.
Eric shook his head as he stood and made his way to the door of her room. He opened it. "I only stopped by to let you know the Figaros are here a little early. They're getting checked into the inn as we speak. Thought you'd want to know."
The door clicked shut as Alice sat up. She pursed her lips a moment- She slid out of bed and slipped into her jeans and a shirt, wincing as she did so. Then she turned and headed for her window, grabbing her essay as she went. She struggled with the lock, pushed open the window, and then carefully exited her room.
There was no one in sight on the way to the inn, much to her surprise, but what shocked her even more was that no one was in the lobby of the inn trying to strong-arm their way to the Figaros' room. There wasn't anyone. Not even the innkeeper.
So, Alice made her way up the stairs without mishap or mayhem and headed toward the best room at the inn. Once she got to the door, she took in a deep breath for courage-- and froze, eyes wide.
"Gau not know what feel. Not breathe when see smile. Not talk, too. What Gau feel, Terra? Gau sick? Gau dying?"
Alice heard the rustle of skirts.
"Gau, you're not dying," Queen Terra Figaro said, chuckling. "It sounds like you've got a crush on someone."
Crush? You're kidding...
"Crush--? No! Gau not want hurt."
The Queen laughed and a male voice spoke. "No, no, Gau. She means that you care for a very lucky young lady. Deeply, it would seem."
Care? Alice blinked. For Carol? Already? She frowned.
"Same as you for other?" Gau asked slowly.
"Maybe," Queen Terra said.
"Quite possibly," the King offered.
"How I tell other?"
Alice's mouth went dry. ...other?
"Does another girl like you?" the Queen asked.
"She no say, but I think is true. We have much fun. Talk long, but different than other."
'Different.' Alice felt sick. 'Different.'
"There is the challenge, Gau," King Edgar said. "You should tell her as delicately as possible, of course, but you must remember that no matter how tender you are in your choice of words, you will most likely hurt her feelings. Situations such as this always do."
Alice leaned against the wall outside the door and closed her eyes, balling her hands into fists. 'Different.'
"She nice person, Edgar. I no want hurt. No other way?"
"I'm afraid not, Gau. Unfortunately, life and love have their conspiracies of agony."
"Alice? What are you doing here?"
Alice pushed from the wall without a word, looking into Carol's eyes with a blank stare. Then she moved past with a barely audible, "Leaving," and went back down the stairs, absently placing her essay on the innkeeper's counter before heading toward the door. She stepped out into the afternoon air and silently made her way home.
"Alice?"
Alice blinked. "Yeah?"
Her mom opened the door to her room, entered, and closed it again. "Alice, Gau's here again. He's brought you some samples from the Deep Veldt as well as something he said you'd wanted. Something about flowers?" Alice cringed and tucked her knees to her chin. "Are you sure you don't want to see him?"
Alice's eyes clouded with tears, and she gripped the corner of her pillow but didn't roll over. "Yes," tone blank.
"Alice, what's wrong?"
"Nothing."
"But this is the third time he's tried to see you." Alice didn't say a word, so her mom sighed. "I'll tell him you're sleeping, but next time I'm sending him in."
The door clicked shut as a tear fell onto her pillow. Alice rolled onto her back. What's so great about Carol? She's a fluffy make-up head who doesn't do anything but hang out with giggling nothings with less on their minds than a Flan. Alice felt a pang of guilt and threw the blankets off to sit up. She dangled her feet over the side of the bed. Hey, I can do a Paytha! I can giggle like some well-trained monkey and flutter my eyelashes! I can doll myself up and look at math problems with an empty stare!
Alice made a face and slipped out of bed, kicking at her slippers before leaning against the wall by her window to stare outside. When she saw Carol and Gau gathered underneath the tree ten feet outside her window, she grimaced and turned away, stubbing her toe on the leg of her rocking chair.
She swore.
"Do you eat with that mouth?"
Alice sent Eric a glower. "Not today, Eric," she growled. "Believe me, you don't want any of this."
Eric examined her expression as she limped to the bed and sat down. "Whoa."
"Considering the piss-factor in this room," she said as she glowered at the window, "I would suggest you leave. Fast."
Eric actually took a step backward. "Alice..." He cleared his throat and tugged at the belt of his trousers before stepping forward again. "Alice, I might be taking my life into my hands, but... what's wrong?"
Her frown deepened. "Look out the window. If you can take the sugar-shock."
Raising an eyebrow, he made his way to the window to look out with a shrug. "Carol's sitting under the tree with Gau." He looked over at her and stepped away from the window. "What's the big deal?"
"'What's the big deal?'" Alice heard a pop in her brain as her face flamed and her temper sparked. "She's been throwing herself at him from the day he got here You'd think she didn't already have nearly all the guys drooling their lives away No, she's got to have him too, just to prove she can do it But what does he know about girls like her that are only interested in having another mark on her list or whatever it is the hell they have nowadays I swear, she's worse than all of them over there at the pub!"
"Geez, Alice. Carol's not that bad."
Alice's eyes pinned him. "'Not that bad'? She 'oohs' and 'ahhs' over the stuff he loves just because she knows that it'll supposedly make him look at her as more than a girl that doesn't make a blasted bit of sense - at least not to him - with her talk of scarves and curtains and boots What the hell is she thinking hanging around with Gau when she doesn't even know the first thing about what makes him tick and I swear if I hear One more melodious laugh and I will rip out her vocal chords!"
Eric's eyes widened as he stared at her, speechless. Then there sounded the faint sound of laughter.
Alice bolted to her feet. "Right. She's mine."
Eric straightened sharply, dashing after her to grab her arm. "I don't think that's a very good idea."
Alice slapped Eric's hand off her arm. "Back off, Trugate."
"Or what? You'll scratch my eyes out?"
Alice clenched her jaw and strode to her window to glare outside.
Eric stared at her a moment longer before turning to leave. A few moments later, he strode up to Carol and grabbed her by the arm, lifting her to her feet as he pointed at Gau and then at Alice's window, his mouth moving quickly. Gau stood and turned, looking toward her window for a long moment before turning and following after Eric and Carol.
Alice turned away, slipping back into bed and rolling over onto her side. Different? I'm not that different. I'm just... I'm just Alice.