Heart Of Iron (GirlxGirl)

A Boring Backyard with One Boring Tree

Alice's backyard was always pretty boring with only one boring tree at its corner, but it seems she and Dylan found a way to make it look nice with some lights and other decorations. I decided to hang out beneath the boring tree, far enough from everyone to not have to interact with them and near enough to use them as my live entertainment.

This was nice. It was cool, comfortable, and relaxing. Perfect for me, so perfect that I felt content and pretty damn happy at the moment. Got to witness my daily dose of cliché drama where a girl dumped her drink on her boyfriend for a reason I don't know and someone else kill the grass with their vomit.

It was perfect until I felt a presence beside me.

Alice smiled awkwardly. "Hi."

In response, I gave her my most polite, 'go away' smile. She made the atmosphere weird and I didn't like it.

"I know you hate me and I deserve that."

I rolled my eyes. "I don't hate you."

"How could you not?"

I shrugged. "Just don't care anymore."

"Well, I'm sorry." She looked at me. "And I really mean it, not being fake here."

I studied her face, trying to find any sign of insincerity. I could not find any, which kind of surprised me.  "Alright."

"That's it?"

She looked too surprised than she should be. I thought she'd be relieved, and then leave. Then it would end happily. That would be really nice.

"Mm-hm."

"Okay... so we're good then?"

I shrugged for the second time that night. "Well, I'm not gonna say it isn't gonna be super awkward." I looked at her, moving my hand in a way to gesture towards this conversation. "This, is awkward for me."

Alice pulled on a face of determination. "Then let's just make it not awkward. Start over?"

I narrowed my eyes. "What's with you now? D'you have some sort of revelation today or something?"

"No, it was actually a bit after the janitors closet thing." I noticed the slight flash of discomfort on her face as she turned her head away a bit. "I realized that I was wrong and now I want you to know that I know." She turned back to me. "I also want to go back to before, being friends, I mean."

I looked up at the dark mass of leaves above me, thinking. "Maybe... how do I know this is not some elaborate plan or something?"

"Trust me."

My face dropped as I looked at her with bored eyes. "Trust you? Should I really?"

"I've got nothing to gain from this except being friends with you again."

"Maybe... maybe you're trying to ruin my reputation by getting close," I accused.

It was her time to roll her eyes. "Everyone's already seen you get all heart eyes with Julie, I've got nothing to ruin."

Oh, now everyone's just gonna point that out then? That'd just cheap, real cheap.

"Not jealous are you?" There was a slight taunt to my tone but I tried not to make it obvious.

"No." Alice's head tilted to the side. "Okay, maybe a bit — but not as much as before."

Oh. Oh. What Dylan noticed earlier finally made sense. That means I'm safe.

"So, this got anything to do with the girl you were kissing earlier?"

Her body tensed for a fraction of a second but she kept her composure in a typical Alice fashion. "Um, yeah."

Alice spoke again. "Which is why you should trust me. I have no more motivation."

Maybe Julie's rubbing off on me. I suddenly want to give people second chances. Super weird.

"Alright."

"Really?"

I flashed her a tight-lipped smile. "Yeah, but we're not close anymore. Starting from the very beginning."

She nodded, this actually genuine smiling spreading across her lips. "Okay, I'm fine with that."

_____

A/N: Been a while hasn't it? Yeah, whoopsie. I hope the fact that I stayed up on my phone to make this makes up for it. I mean, it's not like I had to, but to make it seem like I put more work into it than I actually did. You get me?

I've been waiting to end the pretty unnecessary Alice drama. Felt pretty bad from the start 'cause it's really lame drama. Probably 'cause I ain't that good at making good drama. It started out so edgy, ugh.

Anyway, thanks for reading! Here's a smiley face :)