Chapter Six

Alice

I let the water wash over me whilst I stared at the basin of the shower. I watched as bits of debris, sticks, leaves and muddy water fell from my body and spooled at my feet. I was exhausted, and if I could have, I'd have collapsed into my bed the second we'd gotten home. Seeing what I'd been carrying around with me now floating away, I realised how disgusting my bed would have been when I'd have woken up tomorrow.

One of the first things I'd done when I'd gotten home was check my mobile. My friend Tia had sent me, and our other friend Rachel, an array of screenshots she'd taken of a conversation she was having with a boy. I scrolled through, catching up on the back and forth between the two of them.

Tia: This guy!

Rachel: I think he's the one.

Tia: The lucky guy I'm going to marry?

Rachel: What does he look like again?

Tia: Like this... He doesn't photograph well but I swear he's hot.

Rachel: Okay okay. Has he asked you out yet?

Tia: Nah, just this back and forth flirtatiousness for the past week. I don't get why he bothered asking for my number if this was all we were going to do.

Rachel: Has he sent you a dick pic yet?

Tia: Ew, no!

Rachel: Honestly, in our generation it's basically a bunch of roses. It is, "Hello, nice to meet you, here is my penis."

Tia: He's special, maybe even a good guy. He isn't going to show me his penis unless I ask him nicely.

Rachel: Girl, there is no such thing as a good guy. Alice got the last one.

It was as if the world hadn't stopped whilst the car had been tumbling through the air like I thought it had. I guess life goes on. I wondered if I could avoid anyone finding out about tonight. I was pretty sure that Owen wouldn't be too keen for anybody to find out either. The girls hadn't even noticed my absence from the conversation, maybe they'd never have to know.

I padded back to our room in my dressing gown, my hair hanging wet against my neck. I had shortened it to my shoulders over winter, just after Cat had turned her brown hair blonde. It still felt a little strange but if Cat could be different, so could I.

"That's better," said Cat as I sat down on my bed, opposite hers. "You look less like you've been wrestling babes in mud now."

"Yeah, just more like I've been through the most traumatic experience of my life," I nodded in agreement.

"Well if you're going to do something crazy, might as well go all out, right?" Cat pushed back her duvet and flopped against her pillow. "Seriously though, what were you thinking?"

"I guess I wasn't." I paused, grabbing a brush from my bedside table and running it through my hair. I'd felt bad that he'd come all this way and I guess I'd felt responsible, like he was there so we had to both be in it together now. I thought we would just drive a bit and then come back. I just assumed he knew what he was doing. He said he could drive, so I trusted him. Why wouldn't I?

"And that's exactly the point where you went wrong."

"By not thinking?"

"Exactly."

I sighed, pulling out another piece of twig from my hair. "I love him Cat, of course I trusted him when he asked me to go with him. Still trust him in fact. He loves me too. You'd get it if you had a boyfriend."

Cat scowled across the room at me. "Jeez, don't tell me you plan on continuing to date him."

"Of course I am," I stammered in surprise. "He basically saved me you know. He hurt all his hand from smashing glass and all his ribs are cracked, I mostly came out unscathed."

"And only missing a pair of shoes?"

"That's right." It was a shame though; those were some great shoes. "Look, I know it was stupid, but it's not like it's not normal for people our age to do stupid stuff without thinking. I mean I'm really ok, and he looked out for me."

"Uh huh," she replied, rolling over to face the other way. "Some hero."

"He is." Cat didn't respond. "He's the last good guy," I exclaimed, repeating Rachels earlier words.

I picked up my phone again, choosing to assume that Cat had fallen asleep and wasn't just ignoring me, and typed out a reply to the girls.

Alice: You should totally just ask him out. You're a strong independent woman Tia, you totally got this!

I paused, re-reading the conversation before adding;

Alice: Maybe block him if he sends a dick pic though...

It was kind of hypocritical of me, being the one who was asked out not the one doing the asking. Then again, Owen didn't so much as invite me on a date, as he had asked me to be his girlfriend. It had just kind of happened. Me being part of a group of girls who just so happened to hang out in the vicinity as him and his group of friends. It hadn't been a coincidence, we knew they were watching us, and of course we wanted to be watched. We all wanted hot boyfriends and Owen and his friends were just that. It had all but been expected that me and him would pair up. Which we did. Our dates were just us meeting up and hanging out in different locations, rarely alone, our friends were a package deal. So really, there was no real "dating" involved.

I brought up my chat with Owen on my phone. No new messages after the stream of expletives he'd sent earlier that evening when he'd been trying to track me down. I typed out a message and hit send.

Alice: How did it go with your parents?

Plugging my phone back onto charge, I lay down, staring up at the ceiling. A sudden unpleasant squirming in my stomach sent me flying from my bed, out of our room, across the hall and into our family bathroom. I had just enough time to kneel in front of the toilet before I expelled the contents of my stomach. Once finished, I sat back on my heels, pushing my loose hair back behind my ears. Well that had been unexpected.

My stomach rolled and I threw my head forward into the toilet bowl, lurching as I emptied a second round. This time I stayed hung over the bowl afterwards, not even caring that my cheek rested against the seat where most of the family's butts had been that day.

"Kill me now," I mumbled to myself.

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