AnOther Alice: A Novel

Chapter 05

Leighton woke up to the sloppy tongue of his one-year-old, black and white husky. The wet kisses were a part of the pooch's morning ritual, which annoyed him, but on the other hand, since he lived by himself, the attention was nice.

"Alright, alright," he said, grinning. "Odin, can't you just let me get ready first?"

The excitable one-eyed pup wagged his tail, prancing back and forth on the bed. As Leighton rose, he rolled his shoulders, stretched his arms over his head. He disconnected his phone from the charger, pressed the power button and checked the date: Saturday, 17th September, and he'd woken up at seven-thirty. He had several new notifications, with numbers going into the thirties. Leighton skimmed through the messages with no intention of commenting—well that is, until he landed on a new post from Alice Gordon.

It was a selfie of Alice, and there were two pictures side-by-side, one featuring her in simple navy beanie. The other, a cloudy gray-colored beanie with cat ears. He read the caption of the post: Navy or Gray? I can't decide.

"The gray one really brings out her eyes and it matches well with her red hair color. You agree with me, don't you, Odin?"

The husky plopped down, laying his head over Leighton's thigh. Leighton brought the phone closer to Odin, who leaned closer, nose touching the screen with the picture of the cat-eared beanie.

"Guess both our votes are for the gray team," he said, before hitting the like button. "You feel like bacon, boy?"

Odin ears immediately perked up as he heard the word "bacon". He got onto his feet, barking eagerly. However, Leighton was puzzled something on his phone: the Like icon wasn't lit, but the heart one was. He'd sent her a Love instead of a simple Like.

"No, no, no." Leighton said, turning to Odin. "If I unheart it, you think she would notice?"

Odin cocked his head.

"The notification should have already been sent," he muttered. "She'll definitely notice if I take it back now."

Sighing, Leighton took his phone with him and headed into the washroom. He used the toilet, brushed his teeth, then stood in front of the sink's large rectangular mirror. Before him was a tired-eyed youth, with terrible bed hair. He looked like he'd had a rough night, but Leighton noted to himself that no one looked one-hundred percent all the time. He peeled off his shirt, revealing some tattoos, along with a raised pale-pink scar on the left side of his chest.

He touched the scar, tracing it with his fingers. He remembered the blood seeping out of the wound on his side, the sound of a knife clattering to the floor, people herding through the exit doors, fire consuming everything—then, a chocolate-eyed young woman standing over him, her hands on his chest ...

Suddenly he was drawn out of the memory, as something wet and soft touched his feet. Leighton looked down at Odin nipping at his ankles.

Leighton smiled, picked up Odin up and gently pet him. "I get it. I want bacon too."

He placed Odin down next to his dog bowl and soft toys, then moved from the living room into the open kitchen. The flat screen beamed on with the faces of two news anchors. As they spoke, Leighton grabbed the bacon from the freezer and the egg carton from the fridge, all before turning on the burner under the frying pan.

As he cracked eggs into a ceramic bowl, his smartphone vibrated on the kitchen counter. Please, don't let it be Alice, Leighton thought. What if it's about why I hearted her picture? Should I say it was a mistake? No! I'll say it was Odin.

Leighton cautiously turned the phone around. The incoming call was from DON'T ANSWER—a.k.a Sloane. He was both relieved and disappointed it wasn't Alice.