Chapter's song: Fuck You - Lily Allen
Frances arrived at the newly built building early in the morning just as the principal ordered her to, and he was waiting for her at the door. They exchanged some silent hatred glances as he pulled a pocket watch from his suit and looked down at it, "6:30... Not so good for a first day, uh, Laurens?"
She simply stared at him with her mouth slightly twisted in a scowl. The man retrieved his watch to his pocket and then unlocked the door to a cold, dark, and dusty ambient. The only light coming in was from the door, but the sun had barely risen at the horizon at that hour. Every tall window in the two-story building was closed by wooden planks and thick two layers of curtains, many of which still needed to be put up into place.
The air felt stale and the paint smell was still strong once the doors and windows didn't seem to be left open for long after the walls were painted. Dozens of large boxes filled the center space and there were more empty bookshelves than Frances could count, covering every inch of both floors' walls in the huge building except for the one with the door, and by the look of which seemed incredibly encrusted with dust.
Mr. West handed Frances a lamp and a small matches' box, "You'll find the needed tools somewhere in there. The whole place must be clean, the books organized in their designed categories, and I expect you to put the tables and chairs into place as well. I'll be checking your work every day at 6 p.m so I expect to see some improvement by then or I unfortunately will have to ask you to redo it all." He explained monotonously with his hands behind his back, to which Frances rolled her eyes with a huff. "Any questions, Laurens?"
"Whatever, Wilbur." She called him by his first name in a scornful manner as she walked into the empty expected to be library.
"Just gained another week, Laurens!"
Frances grumbled and cursed under her breath as she walked into the room. The doors were slammed close as the principal went away; classes wouldn't begin within another two hours and so he was clearly irritated by that fact of having to arrive so early, and left the girl in the dark without the dim light coming from the door.
She placed the lamp over one of the boxes in the middle of the room and sneezed before she managed to light up the lamp, the sound of her sneeze echoing for a while before stopping once the huge place was so incredibly empty. Looking around, she noticed there were three long tables placed against the door's wall that would be completely impossible to move any on her own. Many fancy chairs fit over each other, which looked more like a puzzle at Frances' eyes, and other prompts such as globes and book holders. She scoffed and began to explore the rest of the building, a chill running down her spine the longer she looked around with the creepy vibe that the place had.
She yelled when stumbled in a rolled rug completely forgotten in that place and fell loudly on the floor face first, miraculously, the lamp in her hands didn't shatter once it hit the rug and slid safely to the ground. "URGH. Lee is gonna pay so much for this... ACHOO!"
Deciding to start with finding something to take those planks off the windows and provide some light, it took her about 15 minutes with many sneezes caused by the dust and strong paint scent until she could find something useful, the tools apparently were all scattered around the place to make the work even easier.
"Now we are talking." She spoke to the hammer in her hands. She went to the nearest window, the empty building echoing her footsteps, and placed the lamp at the windowsill before start working on the first nail in those planks. With some force, it swiftly popped out and she smiled at it before working in the rest of them.
The third plank was thrown aside carelessly and Frances grumbled irritated at herself as she worked at the fourth plank, "This is fucking useless, it isn't even making a difference... But I already started it, let's just finish this then-"
Frances turned around when the door cracked open and the dim sunlight came in as the door opened further, even if it still didn't illuminate where she was standing, it was of great difference and she had to blink a couple of times, "YO! Leave the door open, please! It's really dark in here!"
"Sure thing, love!" The voice responded and Frances growled and rolled her eyes. Alfred took two chairs and placed them in front of each half of the heavy double-door to leave it open.
"What in hell are you even doing here?" Frances complained as she turned her attention back to the metal nails, pulling them with more ferocity now, "You were supposed to only show up after class, you fucking idiot! You aren't even able to understand a simple coordinate?" She groaned when the hammer escaped the nail and she had to reposition it.
Alfred rolled his eyes as he made his way towards her. "Yes, I understood that. I only thought you would appreciate some help. Ya know... To finish it quicker?"
"I prefer to take longer on my own than to work with you." She shot back, groaning when she pulled the nail out and took a few steps to the side to reach the other nails at the plank.
The boy chuckled with crossed arms, "Just as charming as usual, uh, Laurens?"
"I'm not charming. And keep the small talk to your hoes, you apparently need it if this is the best you can do." She said working on the new nail.
"Ok, OUTCH?" Alfred placed a hand over his heart as he chuckled lightly, "Now you're just being mean."
"No, I'm not, just stating facts."
"How so? I'm not-"
"Mary." Frances simply spats back and the boy clears his throat in awkwardness.
"Ok, so... That happened, but-"
"That-" She says and cuts her own sentence by letting the new plank fall to the ground at her feet and she turns around, pointing the hammer threateningly at the man who lifted his hands in defense. "Is just another strong reason for me to despite you. So can you just shut up and go away before I hate you more than I already do and hit your head with this thing?"
"Ok. I will go. But first let me just explain that the thing with Mary-"
"Lee, here's the thing," She waves the hammer carelessly as she spoke, "I don't give DAMN of who you do or do not fuck."
"WHAT?" Her sentence startles him, as if the mere thought of doing what she implied never crossed his mind before, but it just causes the girl to snort.
"Come on. Look at yourself." She says with a scornful expression, dropping the hammer to her side and stopping point it at him, "All confident hunky athlete, who needs to minimize the weaker ones to feel better about yourself but people still somehow think you're attractive doing so. Honestly, you and Mary make a perfect pair. Neither of you gives a shit to other people's feelings."
Alfred bitterly chuckled, hurtfully smiling for a mere second before he spoke, "If you think that, you truly know nothing of me at all."
"I don't. And I don't want to. Now can you get out already before I lose my patience?"
They stared at each other until Alfred spoke quietly, almost in a murmur, "Alright." He walked back towards the door but soon stopped after a few steps, "Just one last thing before I go."
"What?" She asks harshly, crossing her arms in annoyance.
"You're taking the planks off from the wrong side. The sun rises at east." He points towards the complete opposite wall on the other side of the long room.
Frances simply cocked an unamused brow at him as she still scowled at him, and Alfred pressed his lips in a thin line before walking out of the building. After a couple of minutes to be sure he was truly gone, Frances ran and only pecked her head outside the building, looking to her right and finding the sun truly rising into the sky from there.
"Son of a bitch..."
...
In the short two hours spent there, Frances barely got the chance of making any progress but taking a small portion of the planks from the windows, four and a half in total if you counted the one she left untouched after Alfred brought to notice she was doing it at the wrong side.
Even if she didn't care about it, she received many judgmental looks along the day by her dirty dress. What actually bothered her was that her palms were sore and aching for dealing with wood for so long, and the splinters in her hands didn't make it any easier, which even after Theodosia got them all out carefully, she still felt her palms stinging.
"AW!" She yelled when her friend pulled another splinter out.
"Come on, Fran, this was a superficial one." Theodosia brushed the complaint aside, not even looking up from Frances' hand at her drama.
"Still hurt!" She complained back.
Faster than she wanted to, she was already back at the dirty library building after their classes were over, aware that now she wouldn't be able to kick Alfred out doesn't matter how much she wanted to because they were forced to be doing that together.
Alfred was already there when she arrived; up on a medium-sized ladder taking more planks out of the windows and the place was much more illuminated by then. They exchanged a quick look when she entered, but he turned back to what he was doing and she huffed, marching to where she found cleaning tools earlier that day and grabbing a bucket, then leaving the building.
The boy continued working and after a while, he heard Frances returning and the metal bucket clanged by being placed on the floor. The last plank from that window was finally free in his hands and Alfred carefully climbed down the ladder and placed the item down in a pile.
He heard Frances loudly hiss, and he couldn't hold himself back at looking in her direction, finding her standing by a bookshelf and blowing one of her hands with a painful expression. Alfred walked towards her in worry, "Hey, wha- GAH!"
A sharp hit at his throat made him stop talking and gag, coughing after it while the girl shouted. "WHAT THE HELL, LEE?! You don't just approach someone like that! Why do you keep on doing that?!"
"I just came to see if you were alright, damn it! Fuuuck..." He sighed at the last word, caressing his throat and recomposing himself.
"Just get back to work and stop annoying me. I'm fine." She groaned, turning her back at him and grabbing the wet cloth she dropped on the floor. The soap in the water made the soreness in her hands by dealing with wood from earlier that day sting, but nothing that would be unbearable, she was just caught out of guard by the sudden pain.
Alfred also groaned as he stepped away, annoyed by her attitude.
...
The following two days would run exactly like that. Both ignoring the other's existence or yelling at each other. Alfred actually fell asleep a couple of times in his shift at his parent's shop due to all the extra work he had been doing, Violetta luckily being around to cover him up. He usually was just as busy on common days; college classes by the morning and afternoon, soccer practice in selected days after it, and work at the flower shop until late and weekends. The only difference was that now his shift was cut shorter to fit in this detention time, which turned it all worst for him once he had to do much more hard work than before.
At first, Alfred thought it would be his golden chance and worthy all the extra work to finally get Frances to just talk with him, but at every given chance she would shot him down instantly with every drop of rudeness in her body, and he was in fact starting to get fed up with that.
Frances was at the top of a ladder that moment, putting the missing curtains at the rods above the windows at the second store. Sure that she would fall at any minute from there once she sometimes gave little jumps to reach but still not saying a word to no start another argument, Alfred started stalling at what he was doing in the second store just to be nearby if anything happened.
He started putting some books into place, not giving much care if there was a specific order, once Frances had already cleaned those shelves the day prior just to be more distant from him while he handled the first floor. By the time she was working at the last curtain, there weren't any more books in the box up there, meaning Alfred would have to go downstairs to grab more. However, he had a bad feeling about that situation, and so he decided to stall some more and covertly put some books back in the box and started pulling it to the other side, nearer her.
She pressed her lips together at the irritant and loud sound the box made when scratched against the floor, echoing in the place even more, then concentrating on her job when it stopped, but it started again right after and sounded louder the closer Alfred got. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a moment and the sound stopped once again. Whenever it started for the third time, she turned around and shouted, "CAN'T YOU JUST PICK THAT UP?!"
Alfred looked up at her and pointed at the box, "Seems like I can pick it up?" He was lucky someone before they left that one box on the second floor for some reason; those were way too heavy to carry up the stairs even with two people.
Frances growls, turning away once again, "URGH. Whatever. Just stay away from my stuff and don't break anything."
He widens his eyes at the sight of her leaning way too forward and the sound of the ladder lightly cracking. "A-Ah, what about I hold this ladder, uh?" He runs and does what he said before she could respond.
"Fuck off! What are you doing?!"
"Uh... Making sure you don't fall?"
"I know what I am doing, Lee. And I don't need your help! I prefer hanging out with Todd again rather than it! Wait in fact I don't- YOU BOTH SUCK!" She corrects her own thought and stretches one of her feet towards his face, but he was too far to reach, "GET OooFF!"
Alfred gets annoyed, he presses his lips tight and let go of the ladder, arguing with his hands, "You know what?! I don't know how I've got to like someone so unbearable, irritable and bossy as you! FUCK, GOD, WHY?!"
"I NEVER ASKED YOU TO!" She shouted back, hunching down to be closer even if she was still high above. "I just can't understand how you did all of that shit and expect me to simply forget?! CAN'T YOU GET A HINT AND LEAVE ME ALONE?!"
"NO, BECAUSE I LOVE YOU, DAMN IT!" He shouted back, his eyes practically begging at the following sentence as he lifts one finger, "Just give me one chance, just one! I'm not as terrible as you may think?!"
Frances' expression scrunches in a scowl, remembering the last time a boy told her that. She straightens her posture and shakes the curtain roughly to fix them, visibly angered as she shouts, "BULLSHI- SPIDER!"
She screeched the highest her vocal cords could handle when a spider fell from the rail right in her forearm, it was a small one, but the girl was absolutely terrified of them. She shakes her arm in despair as she yelled but her foot slips forward at the ladder, she shrikes while grabbing the curtains to hold herself back in pure panic but it just leads to her pulling the rail from the wall as she still fell backward. It all happened way too fast, but gladly, Alfred predicted something like that would happen and just took some steps to the side right before she fell into his arms, knocking both down and the curtain engulfing them, the rail hitting their heads and then loudly falling to the ground.
They whined and groaned in pain, both panting with the adrenaline. Just a couple of inches to the side and Frances could have had a fall of more than 49 feet.
"A-Are you ok?" Alfred asked finally opening his eyes. Frances' blushed when took knowledge of the situation they were at and sharply hummed in affirmation. "Good..." He sighed in relief.
"Can you- Like- Let go of me now?" She asked, unable to meet his eyes.
"Oh- Sure..." Only then he seems to notice he was holding Frances' body tightly against his even if she was already safely sitting in his lap, and suddenly chuckles.
"What's so funny?" She asks grumpily.
"Nothing, just... I can't believe you fell for me."
"You have exactly three seconds to get out before I punch you."
He smirks, "I don't know if you noticed it yet, love, but... You kind of is the one trapping me down here."
She gets redder and tries to push the curtain right away, but it seems to be tangled under their bodies somehow once it had two layers of different fabrics and both give quiet complains as they try to move but it only seemed to make them come closer, Frances stumbling and hitting Alfred's shoulder with her nose.
"Fuck off..." Frances complains pushing him away from her, but not in the demanding manner she shouted previously, but in a flustered way, which he clearly notices and smiles at. He bites his lip, finally finding a way out and pulls the thicker layer, providing both a gush of fresh air before they take the thinner fabric from over their heads.
They brush the curtains aside for a moment of pure embarrassment before fixing their hairs, which were a true mess. "Are you really not hurt, love?"
Frances tiredly exhaled with closed her eyes, dropping her hands at her lap with a huff, "I already told you to please stoooop calling me that..." She begs tiredly.
Alfred looks down, "Sorry... I... Am really sorry..."
She huffs again, opening her eyes and looking up at the ceiling, "I guess it was my fault this time. You tried to warn me."
"Not only by that, I mean... For everything." He says looking at her and she turns her head with narrowed brows. "For the way I treated you and your friends for so long... The things we did to each other... What I did and hurt you even if I don't know about. It was cruel of my part being..."
She cocks an eyebrow, "An asshole?"
He scratches the back of his neck with a small nervous smile, visibly ashamed, averting his gaze from her. "Heh... Yeah... Basically." He finally returns his eyes at her and she is paying attention to his actions. He knew that would be the best shot he could get to make things right. "Look, you can have your doubts about this, but I'm really, really sorry... When it all started, we were still just kids and... It was partially due the pressure to "be a Lee" and mess up with you guys, and to be seen as cool to my friends-"
Frances tilted her head to the side in a skeptical way, "Well, you looked pretty alone when you threw my sketchbook at Susan."
The boy snickered, "That was an accident." She cocked an eyebrow at him, doubting his testimony. "For real. I didn't intend in doing that to her."
Frances bites the inside of her bottom lip, nervous about what she was about to say, and leans forward, hugging her elbows as she firmly stared into his eyes. "I have one question." Her voice left her mouth quietly, the bare thought of the question she had in mind seeming too tight around her chest. That reaction called Alfred's full attention and he nodded. "Susan said that remembered you were there in the night of her assault but knows nothing else... What happened?"
Alfred widened his eyes, hesitating when heard the question in pure shock. He then released a long breath and turns his face away, looking down at his legs before speaking slowly. "It was a Friday night, and the guys and I went out to go to a bar to celebrate... Jason's birthday I guess? But along the way there I saw her... I even had to look twice to be sure it was truly her." He just glanced up at Frances to be sure she was listening before looking away again, slowly shaking his head a few times, as if it was hurtful to remember. "She was... Curled up in an alleyway. Catatonic. She didn't respond when I called and... I- Just knew something was wrong." He swallowed hard at the memory. "After I saw the state she was in, I helped her up and... I will never forget the way she looked at me." His voice lowered and he brushes his hand along his face quickly, but Frances noticed it was because he was getting emotional.
"Anyway I..." He says back to his usual tone, obviously not wanting to get into detail, which Frances didn't push him to. "I got us a carriage and luckily remembered the Lafayette's address somehow. I walked her to the doorstep, knocked, and ran to the other side of the street, just... Like... To be sure she would be ok? Then when her parents took her inside I left." He sighed deeply and placed his hands behind his body to rest his weight, offering Frances a tiny and sad smile even if he still kept his gaze away from her, "I guess this is it." He chuckled humorlessly, "Was... That good enough for you, Frances?"
She stood in silence, taking it all in. Not only by his apologies previous to that and the small fact that he called her by her first name for once, but the whole complement of her friend's blanks in story. After a silent while, she spoke again, "Why did you never tell any of us?"
"Would you have believed me?" He lifted his face at her and she lowers hers along with her shoulders in shame at herself, shaking her head.
"No."
"You may still not believe in me... But I swear. I swear on my mom's dead body-" He speaks with conviction and the girl looks up at him again, "That I never touched her or any other girl in that way."
She takes a pause looking into his begging eyes, "And the second part?"
"Uh?" Alfred asked confused.
"You said that picked on us partially because you were being pressured. What was the second half about?"
"Oh." He says in shock that she remembered what he said and that he actually said that, "Uh..." He chuckled nervously, averting his gaze from her again, "I did that to... Uhm... Rytobretyoruatetion." He mumbled, red flushing in his cheeks to admit that.
"What?" She asks confusedly, leaning closer to hear better, and he sharply exhales.
"To- Try to get your attention, ok?" He says in visible cringe at himself before covering his face with one of his hands, "Uuuugh, can we please pretend I never said that? It's pathetic..."
Frances also blushed lightly as she looked away, scratching the side of her head nervously, "I think it doesn't work like that..."
Alfred sighs to recompose himself and looks straight at her face in an attempt to meet her eyes, feeling his heart almost jumping out through his throat as he spoke, "So, if I may ask again... Could you, please, just give me a chance?"
She held his gaze and bites her lip, apprehension and regret almost killing the man in front of her until she sighed. "Very well..." He opens a big smile but before he could say anything she lifts up a threatening finger. "But you only have one shot! ONE! And I won't make any promises! It's only an armistice to see if you're really worth it!"
"Seems perfect to me!" He responds with an even wider and bright smile.