Something About Alice Murphy: BOOK 2

P A R T - T H R E E

Chapter Three; Revelations.
Wednesday 6th March, 12:10pm
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Thunder rumbled loudly throughout the skies as Alice and Fei sat in the library, eating home made lunches as they talked over coffee. It had been stormy like this for a few days now, but as others fussed over the weather, complaining about the rain, a small collection of students barely noticed the chaos. It was almost nothing in comparison to things they'd seen an experienced recently.

"So did she say anything?" Alice asked carefully after a topic of conversation had finished... "-about us hanging out." She added before putting some pasta into her mouth as Fei finished her mouthful of salad and sipped her coffee.

"No," Fei murmured, "She just kind of... I don't know, brushed it off. then didn't reply to my next message." She continued. "I get it, but also... not. At the same time. Like say if you don't like it, don't pretend as if you're fine and mature then ignore me."

"Maybe she got busy." Alice replied quietly, then could almost imagine Magnus's stare if he would've heard her making excuses for her.

"Maybe." Fei mumbled.

"Candice has this tick with loyalty like if she doesn't like someone you can't talk to them... but she won't ever tell you it's not okay she'll just stop talking to you." Alice explained. "It was always like that during freshmen and sophomore year like, she was always in charge of who spoke to who and who did what when, you know?"

"Oh," Fei hummed, "So you guys were like... the cliché popular kid trio?" Fei giggled softly.

"No," Alice laughed softly. "She was popular I guess, I wasn't really. I only had my minor status glow this last year, but Candice always been a low key socialite because of her brother... But no one is ever truly like the shit until you're a senior." Alice replied, furrowing her eyebrows as she realised how superficial she sounded... but she didn't care. "Like for example, Magnus's group? You wouldn't find a junior or sophomore group of that kind of status, if that makes sense." She continued to explain. "They're a weird exception though because they've always had this kind of vibe from since I can remember."

"Maybe it's because of the thing." Fei said quietly, her eyes quietly twinkling with interest. "Like... I don't know if it's just me but people have this way of behaving around them without realising they're doing it. Like even the kids that claim they don't care about the social hierarchy in this school can't look any of them in the eye."

"I did notice that." Alice mumbled, thinking about it deeply. They did have this aura about them that made people behave like they were inferior without realising they were doing it. Even with Noah, who was possibly the runt of the group. No one could look him in the eye for long, even when he was being shy. "Interesting." Alice hummed, wondering if there was some primal instinct that made people subconsciously aware of when they were in the presence of a killer.

"Very interesting." Fei mumbled, watching Alice as she glanced at her phone and began typing a response back to a message with one hand. "Magnus again?" She asked with interest.

"Yeah, sorry, he was asking if I needed lunch." Alice replied, locking her phone again as she looked back to her food.

"That's so sweet that he does that everyday," Fei smiled, her thoughts drifting to Trey for the second time that lunch period. "So... do you think that what they do affects how people see them?" She asked after a few moments silence and Alice reframed from looking at her phone again as it chimed so that she could focus on her lunch and her conversation with Fei.