Something About Alice Murphy: BOOK 3

P A R T - T E N

Chapter Ten: The Snow Ball
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Monday, 22nd November

The world seemed a little bit extra quiet that morning as Alice got ready for her first lecture... it had rained all weekend, muffling the sounds of the small city as the clouds loomed over it. Alice twisted her hair up into a bun, securing it with a clip as she got ready for her morning class. Dressed in simple tight, two-toned blue jeans and an oversized cream knitted sweater, Alice started on her make up, keeping it minimal since she'd overslept slightly and didn't have much time.

She was mentally exhausted, having spent the majority of the weekend combing through every thought she had with a fine toothed comb. What Magnus had expressed to her in such a raw, vulnerable way and out of character way had really shocked her, and not in the sense that she wanted to gasp and gossip, but more in the sense that she seemed to feel... an immense feeling of guilt and empathy and wanted to reflect on it. She hadn't expected it, and she felt stupid for thinking back then that she knew him so well, when in a lot of ways she evidently didn't.

She had begun to question everything, sorting through her memories of them together, trying to figure out if the signs had been obvious. She put herself in his shoes, replaying the lengthy conversations about the future they had over meals, during hikes or exploring rural towns in the French countryside... she remembered once thinking that he was just doing it to entertain her, and felt bad that she'd assumed that. She replayed his reaction when she had shown him the test, placing herself exactly where he had been sitting, replaying the way he had sat up, put his book down, and taken it from her to check it himself. He hadn't said anything for a exactly minute, then simply asked her what she wanted to do. What had crossed his mind in those moments? And was it a mistake of hers to get caught up in her feelings for him and even start the conversation about keeping it when she knew deep down it wasn't a realistic option for her.

Alice was evidently distracted as she came downstairs and filled up her reusable cup with coffee. Amara had just finished hers, and saw Alice aimlessly staring down into the liquid as it filled the cup... "Morning," she greeted, finding it strange that Alice hadn't looked up once.

"Hm? Oh- Morning," she replied after a few seconds, glancing over towards Amara and seeing that she had her hair sleeked up into a high pony tail. She was dressed a similar way, but had a blazer over her sweater to pull her look together well.

"Are you having breakfast?" Amara asked as Alice added almond milk and sugar to her coffee and began stirring it.

"I'm not hungry," she replied quietly, "Are you ready?" She then asked as Amara placed her mug in the sink.

"Yup," she replied, grabbing her bag and following Alice out the side door and into the garage. "Are you okay?" Amara then asked after a few seconds. "You've been really quiet the whole weekend... if you want to talk, you know I'm always I'm here to listen." She added, looking over at Alice with a subtle expression of concern now that they'd gotten into Alice's car and watched her push the button to start the engine.

"Thank you, but I'm alright just... thinking through some stuff. Sorry." Alice replied, glancing behind her to wait for the garage door to rise before she began reversing out and into the late November dreary morning weather. She hadn't shared many of the more intimate details of her and Magnus's past relationship with Amara or Lucas, simply because some of them were too personal. She wasn't proud of or pleased with herself either... and knew it would save her stress by not sharing.

Amara sighed very quietly, wondering if it had something to do with Magnus's late night visit to the house a couple of days ago. She'd seen him leave when she was about to come downstairs to get a drink, and ended up keeping that information to herself... since she vowed not to get involved. However she did note that Alice didn't bring it up either, probably assuming neither of her friends knew he'd been round and didn't want to talk about it.