Alice looked at herself in the mirror, the steam from her hot shower sticking to it. She wiped her hand across, allowing only her face to be visible while her naked body was a blurry reflection. Her blue eyes were dull, her skin was pale and lifeless. Her hair was a dark brown, going just below her shoulders with a slight wave.

She stared obliviously into her own eyes, her expression sad, like she was disappointed at who she was standing in front of; Herself.

Her thoughts wandered off to past events. Things she's never told anyone, not even her sister, who she tells everything to. The other, more horrible reason why she came home. She wasn't just coming home to be with her family, but she was running.

A knock at the door sent her out of her thoughts. "Be out in a minute!" she grabbed a towel and wrapped it around her, holding it securely under her arms. She grabbed her dirty clothes and opened the door, nearly dropping everything when she almost bumped into the new house guest.

"I- I'm sorry, I just get lost in there sometimes," she explained. His lip curved in the slightest bit, "don't worry about it." She didn't know what it was that he did, or how he even did it, but something inside of her was curious about him. Maybe it was his voice, or the way he smirked at everything as if he knew what was going on at all times. He made her nervous, but she couldn't tell if it was in a good or bad way.

She went into her room and closed the door behind her. The dim light created a sad atmosphere, causing her emotions to come out. It finally hit her, at this very moment, that her brother was never going to call her. He was never going to shoot her a text, he was never going to come home.

She sat on her bed, still in the towel, lifting her knees to her chin. She bit hard onto her bottom lip, trying to hold back the tears that already slipped out. She turned her head on her knees and noticed her phone beside her on the bed. She put her legs down and grabbed it. She went into her contacts and went down the alphabetical list until she reached "C." She paused on Caleb for a moment and clicked to call. Her hand was shaking as she raised the phone to her ear and listened to the ring. His phone was still on.

She knew there would be no answer, but something inside her hoped, wished, prayed that he was going to pick up on the other side.

"Hey, it's Caleb. I can't answer the phone, you know how it is. Leave a message."

The tears were flowing like waterfalls now. She sobbed uncontrollably, throwing the phone to the floor. Her head buried into her blanket, and towel unraveled from her body. She allowed everything to come out, all the deep emotions, the reality of everything.

Eventually the tears slowed. Her face was puffy and her eyes were sore and red. She stood up, the towel dropping to the floor. She grabbed clean clothes, throwing on a black pullover hoodie and leggings. Her appearance made her sick, she didn't want to be seen with a post-crying face. She threw on some makeup and left the room.

"Oh, Alice. David is going to be spending the night in Caleb's room. Why don't you show him so he can get comfortable?"

Alice's mood changed dramatically since before her shower. First the guy run's here, smirks at everything, and now he gets to spend the night? In Caleb's room?

"It's this way," she started to walk towards the room, not caring if David was following or not.

"Excuse her, she's not usually like this," she could hear her mother say. "It's not a problem, Mrs. Peterson." There he goes with that voice and his nonchalant, everything's-gonna-be-alright attitude.

He walked over to Alice, who was leaned on the frame of Caleb's door. "Hope you're comfortable. In my dead brother's room." She pushed herself from the frame and walked away, passing her mother and leaving the house. Luke and her dad had just came home. "Hey, sweetie."

"Hi," she walked passed, not even sure where she was going. She walked to the road and shook her head, "what the fuck am I doing?" her arms flailed beside her. She sighed and took a seat at the edge of the road, where the grass meets the dirt.

You're 23 and you're acting like you just hit puberty all over again. Get yourself together, Alice, she scolded herself.

She felt a presence behind her, they walked close and then took a seat next to her.

"You," she looked at him.

"You," there's that stupid smirk. Alice rolled her eyes.

"I didn't mean to impose on you or your family. If you're not comfortable with it, I won't stay."

She sighed, closing her eyes and putting her hand to her face. "No, no. It's not you. I'm sorry for that..before."

"I understand."

"We can forget about the whole thing and I can show you to the room again, if you'll let me," she suggested, looking into his blue eyes.

"I can accept that," he looked at her. How does he do that?

He got up and held his hand out. A wave of nerves went through her and she was hesitant momentarily. She took his hand and wasn't expecting to be pulled up so easily that she almost fell into him. "Sorry," she said. He just smiled, letting go of her hand and walking towards the house. She stood there, watching in awe. She didn't know what to make of things still.

Hope you liked the chapter! I actually got really sad writing the part where Alice faced the reality of her brother. I don't know if any of you play Minecraft, but I love the soundtrack to that game as well. I was listening to it while I was writing that scene and it just fit so perfectly that I fell into it. I switched to Rammstein after that to redeem myself lol

Anyway, I'm really happy that a few more people have reviewed that they are a fan and like the story so far (: Go check out d0 it like a dude's fic for the movie titled Love Is Like War!

And I picture Alice as Milla Jovovich, as Alice from Reisdent Evil. I fell in love with the name and I really like the her appearance as well.