ALICE Ch 88

“Yes!” Faye squeaks. “I don’t know. I’ll look.” She hops off the bed and trots to the mini fridge, where she gets down on the floor to open it. Alice doesn’t know how she can be blamed for this; her eyes are drawn naturally to Faye’s hindquarters and the way that her tee is not long enough to cover this situation. Alice sees just enough to know that Faye is not wearing underwear before Faye realizes her mistake and corrects her position.

She brings back a beer, which Alice takes gratefully. This situation is fun when she’s tipsy, but it would be dire if she were sober.

“How long have you been into this?” Alice asks.

“Forever, I suppose.”

“Oh, I see now,” Alice says, pointing at several covers. “They all have this same thing on the front.”

“Yes. It’s an event,” Faye explains patiently.

“Neat. How many of these do you have?”

“With me?”

“Total.”

Faye hesitates. “Quite a few,” she says at least.

“Neat.” Alice has never collected anything really, but Faye definitely… collects stuff. Toys. Comics. What else?

“You mustn’t tell anyone,” Faye frets suddenly.

“What? About like the toys? I wouldn’t do that,” Alice assures her.

“No, about this. That we do all this,” Faye says, gesturing toward the comics everywhere.

“We?” Alice frowns. “You mean you and your mom? She reads this stuff?”

Faye shakes her head vigorously. “Not this. Other things, though. If it got out she’d be livid. She needs to be seen as a serious leader.”

“I don’t think there’s anything unserious about reading in your spare time,” Alice says with a yawn. “But I won’t tell anyone.”

“Thank you.”

“You really don’t care about what happened today?” Alice forces herself to get serious for a second, and that means eye contact. She gets direct with Faye, moving her face close so that she can stay focused. This is a serious subject, and she doesn’t want her eyes to slide out of focus and for Faye to think that she’s being mocked.

“I’m…” Faye swallows nervously, looking up into Alice’s eyes. “I wish I’d been quicker. But you got the points, Alice. That’s what matters. Mum needs those points.”

“Wow.” Alice cocks her head, her expression softening. “Really? You’re just worried about her? What about you?”

“What about me?”

Alice smiles. “Never mind. You are too cute.” She snorts and takes a drink, then goes back to her comic book. It’s getting hard to read the words, though. And it’s a little annoying; these babes on the pages are such teases.

“OK, fuck, marry, kill,” Alice says. “I’ll marry her.”

That brings Faye out of the weird way that she was staring at Alice. “Who, Maddy? Don’t marry her, Alice.”

“Well, how about her?”

Faye winces. “No, not her either.”

“Are they at least safe to fuck?”

“Er… depends on who you ask.”

“OK.” Alice closes the book, drains her beer, and hands both items to Faye. “I guess I’ll get out of here. Sorry to crash your whole wind-down thing, and I’m sorry I messed up the order of your books. I’m drunk. And American. You understand.”

Faye’s looking rather stiff. She places her hand on Alice’s thigh, a little hesitantly.

“Do you have to leave?” she asks.