Okay, here's the next chapter for you guys!
Alice spends the next few days going through the motions, avoiding Pogue, not answering texts anyone from Spencer sent her, working, and going to school. She avoided looking at her back, thinking about her seizures, or anything out of the ordinary about her life. The sensations on the back of her neck happen frequently, but she ignores them too.
"Hey, bitch," Alice gets shoved to one side by one of her classmates, a guy she didn't remember the name of, "Fucking move,"
"Fucking make me," Alice finds herself saying, planting herself in front of the guy in a flash, her eyes burning, "Dumbass,"
"You wanna fucking go you, narc?" The guy shoves her backward, and she returns by pushing him as hard as she can into a group of lockers.
"Like you could take me you hunk of meat," Alice cocks her head to one side. The guy thinks for a second before slamming his fist into her face.
The fight is fast and dirty, over with Alice and the guy being torn apart by teachers. He's got a gash on one side of his face from her fingernails and bruising along his collarbone and around his neck. She's got a black eye forming, along with a bleeding nose and a shoulder half out of the socket.
Alice is escorted to the principal's office after admitting she started the fight, while the guy is brought to the nurse. Alice is suspended for 3 days for fighting, but since she's 18 her parents won't be informed.
Great, Alice thinks grimly, it's not like they could be informed anyway. Her shoulder pops back into its socket painfully as she's in the office.
She doesn't mention that to the principle or the office secretary, who hands her the slip to let her off campus early. She doesn't even go to the nurse.
Alice leaves campus in her truck, her eye starting to hurt and her shoulder numb. She drives around, not really knowing where she's going until she ends up at Spencer.
It's snowing outside, and there are groups of students on the lawn making snowmen and snow angels. Alice watches them from her car, thinking about using the snow to calm her swelling and bruising face.
The blood from her nose has already dried and caked, but a little bit of blood from where she bit her lip after being punched the third time is leaking out of her mouth. She laps it up with her tongue, keeping her eyes on the student in the snow.
Something bangs on her window and Alice turns with a start, the face of Reid going from smiling to concerned in 2 seconds.
He opens the door roughly, "What the hell happened to you?" his voice is laced with concern, his eyes burning in a similar fashion to when they fought a few nights ago, but this time it's not directed at her.
"Reid, what are you- Oh," Pogue comes up behind him, his eyes staring at Alice's face, "Who the fuck punched you?" He's instantly in protective older brother mode, moving Reid aside to get a better look.
"Jesus Christ!" Caleb and Tyler round the car, seeing Alice's face for the first time, "Holy shit what happened?" Caleb exclaims.
"Guys, let her breathe," Tyler tries to pull the boys back. Alice continues staring at all of them, her eyes flitting between their appalled and angry face.
"I take it it looks bad, right?" She says after a second, her words slurring from the stiffness of her face and the pain.
"It looks like you died and came back to life," Reid exclaims, "Who the fuck did this to you? I need to kill them, immediately."
"Alice, what happened," Caleb says softly, putting a hand on Reid's shoulder to calm him. The sensation flits across the back of Alice's neck for a second. "You don't have to be afraid of telling us, whoever did this to you won't do it again."
"A guy at school," Alice says, "He shoved me in the hallway," She shrugs. Pogue's expression changes slightly.
"And?" He asks, his voice harder than before.
"I kinda blew up at him," Alice looks back at the students in the quad, "I taunted him into shoving me again, then I shoved him into some lockers, then he punched me, I punched back…" She trails off, "I'm suspended for 3 days. He's got 1 day, I think, if any."
"Because he punched you?" Reid sounds outraged that he doesn't get any time disciplined, "That's fucking outrageous!"
"I said it was my fault," Alice shrugs again, "They only gave me 3 days because I was honest. Typically the suspension is a week for fighting."
Pogue looks at her, a mixture of hurt and fear in his eyes, "Why Alice?"
"I needed to feel something," Alice says softly, looking down at her hands, which are shaking. After a second she looks back up to see his eyes, more concerned than ever, "I was just driving around when I ended up here. Sorry for bothering you guys, I'll head home, you probably have class." she tries to close her door, but is stopped by both Caleb and Reid, together.
"You need medical attention," Caleb says, his voice strangely calm, "Stay. Reid and Tyler share a dorm here, and Pogue has a single. We can get medical supplies from the nurse no questions asked."
"You can also sleep a little," Reid adds.
"You look like you haven't slept in a while," Pogue examines her closely, "I'll carry you to the dorms, you can't walk on your own."
"But it's my face that's messed up not anything else," Alice tries protesting but he unbuckles her and picks her up in the same motion. Tyler moves forward to turn off the truck, grabbing the keys before closing and locking the door. Reid and Caleb share a look as Alice, strangely not protesting, is carried into the dorm hall by Pogue.
They reach Pogue's hall and turn around as a group of students comes down the corridor Pogue's room is on, and stop in front of its door, chatting.
"Shit," Pogue curses and Alice groans, giving him the stinkeye. It simultaneously says 'get on with it asshole' and 'I told you so dickhead' without saying both. Pogue gives her a glare back.
"Reid and Tyler's room," Caleb offers, and they go up a flight of stairs.
Surprisingly, when they get to Reid and Tyler's room, Reid's bed is the only one made. Pogue sets her down on it, and Alice rolls over before sitting herself up and clutching her head.
"Tyler, go get medical supplies," Caleb orders, "Pogue, go back to her truck and grab anything with her school's name on it, I'm going to call them," Alice mutters something like 'Don't' but it's so slurred no one knows what it means, "Reid, go into the bathroom, grab Tylenol and a bucket. I know you have one, you come home drunk enough times."
"Why a bucket?" Pogue asks as Tyler throws her keys to him before leaving the dorm.
"If she got hit in the stomach she's going to want to puke," Caleb nods toward him to go. Reid returns from the bathroom, placing a towel down on the floor next to his bed, next to Alice's head, before putting the bucket down. He put a bottle of water and two pills on the bedside table.
Alice drifts in and out of it, a headache appearing and her vision going fuzzy, while the two boys look on.
"You think she's depressed?" Reid asks in a low voice, as not to wake her. He looks to where she's floating in and out of consciousness, the aftermath of the fight all over her face and neck, "I mean, what the fuck? She looks like she's gone 10 rounds with Muhammad Ali,"
"Keep your voice down," Caleb whispers harshly, "I don't know. She looks terrible, but she might just be in a funk."
"Caleb, the last time we spoke she screamed at me, out of nowhere," Reid persists, "And now her face is all fucked up, and you heard her! She said 'I needed to feel something' as if she doesn't regularly! I'm telling you, she's depressed."
"And I'm saying she might not be," Caleb puts his hands on Reid's shoulders again, using to calm him down like he did before, "I'm not against you Reid, no one is, but jumping to depression is a big leap."
"I know what it looks like," Reid looks into Caleb's eyes, and the brother realizes that Reid's scared for Alice.
"I know you do, I do too." Caleb reminds the younger gently, "We'll talk with the guys when they get back. You help Tyler with her bandages, I'll call her school and talk to them about the suspension and the boy she got into a fight with, okay?"
Reid doesn't say anything, looking back down at her before looking at Caleb, "Okay." He nods.
"Good."
Wow, this is picking up speed. I hope y'all like it and that my characters aren't too OOC. Remember to R&R!
-Margii