Chlorine

Alice was on the phone with Laura Higgins as she watched Anita skillfully applying some nail polish on her toe while she’s watching chick flick. The sisters were having a sleepover at Alice’s dorm room just like Anita mentioned this afternoon. Alice knew the main reason why Anita wanted to sleepover at her place. It’s not just some two sisters were catching up, it’s more like Anita snooped around Alice’s life that she couldn’t help to say no to her.

“She’s there now?” Laura asked through the line referring to Anita as Alice only replied with simple uh-huh. Alice wasn’t comfortable to talk about Anita with her friends because she felt horrible. Since she’d come clean to Amelia about how Anita treated Alice’s crushes. Amelia told Laura and Beta’s sister about how awful Anita was to her own sister. Alice felt guilty about it, and today at her class, she met Amelia and told her not to talk about Anita anymore. After all, she’s still her sister.

“Amelia said hi, and she also said hi to Anita. Meaning, she wanted you to tell her to stay away from Gustav.” Laura added, she sounded annoyed.

“Can we please not talk about this?” Alice said and it made Anita turned her head to Alice briefly before she came back to the screen. “He’s not even my boyfriend.” Alice added with whispers, hoping Anita wouldn’t hear.

“But you called dibs on him! Anita and Gustav had known for two years, she never showed any interest on him. But since you came and obviously have a crush on him, she suddenly wants to claim him? It’s even worse when I heard from Amelia when you’re still in high school. That’s not a nice thing.” Laura ranted breathlessly. Under different circumstances, Alice was happy that someone cared about her, but this was Anita they’re talking about. As much as Alice hated Anita’s behavior taking her crushes, she loved her sister and wanted to make her happy.

“I never called dibs on ….him.” She lowered her voice when she said ‘him’ as she saw Anita’s still applying some nail top coat on her brand new nails. Alice sighed in frustration. Why did she always put her heart on sleeves? She didn’t like when people could tell who she was crushing on especially if Anita found it. “Look Laura, I’m kinda busy now, okay? I’ll see you soon.”

“This isn’t finished, Alice. I’ll see you on Monday at Beta’s house. Bye girl!” and then the line went dead. Alice locked her cellphone and put it on her nightstand.

“Some trouble with Laura?” Anita asked in concern.

“Nahh. It’s uhh.. Laura’s been talking about this guy... nonstop.. that she… she’s crushing on and she keeps forcing me to hear about it. No biggie.” Alice tried to stay calm about it as she saw Anita nodded slowly. Anita would throw a fit if she found out that Alice’s Beta’s sisters hated her guts because they knew about Anita’s behavior on Alice’s crush since high school. Anita got off from where she sat and joined Alice who was sitting on her bed. Anita grabbed a handful of Alice’s hair and began to braid her hair.

“Lish, you know that I broke up with Logan, right?” Anita began when she was making a French braid with her skillful fingers on Alice.

“Sure, it’s all over the internet.” Alice chuckled and was followed by Anita’s giggle.

“I just want you to know why I broke up with him. He’s forcing him on me last night.” Anita confessed and it made Alice’s eyes darted to her sister.

“Oh my God, Ani. I’m so sorry. But I thought you like it with him?”

“Yeah, I did. Last night I chatted up with Gustav, and I kinda flirted with him. Logan saw it and after Gustav left, we argued. He was jealous, when things were heated up, he got horny, he’s forcing it on me…” Anita spoke up hesitantly and let out a long sigh. Alice gritted her teeth together when she learned that Anita flirted with Gustav but she was more concerned about Logan was most likely to rape her. It was horrible.

“Oh, Anita…” Alice said leaning on her sister and gave her a tight hug. “I’m sorry. At least you got rid of him now.” She added followed by Anita’s nod. Pulling away from the hug, Anita watched Alice and showed her genuine smile to her younger sister.

“But there’s more Alice,” Anita started again, making Alice arched her eyebrows. “I talked to Gustav at the party and… you know we flirted…” at this moment, Alice’s ears perked up, she swallowed hard because the way Anita talked about Gustav was different.

“Yeah?” Alice gulped.

“I’m not really sure if you have a crush on him, but I need to be honest with you, Alice… I think after the party I start to like him. Is it okay with you?” Anita slowly whispered indistinctly. Alice clenched her teeth, it was suddenly difficult to breathe but she knew this would be coming because it wasn’t hard to fall for Gustav’s charm.

“He was amazing last night, I really enjoyed his presence and also he has a good sense of humor. He’s also a gentleman. When I flirted, he flirted back. Does it mean there’s a chance he’s interested in me, Lish?”

All of sudden, Alice’s heart felt constricted. It was painful. She realized that her crush on Gustav had already grown into something more. It wasn’t just juvenile crush, but it was useless and only one-sided. It already hurt to know Gustav fell for Anita, and it became worse as Alice learned that Anita would return the feeling. It’s happening all over again and Anita always made good to snatch the good ones.

“I don’t know. Maybe…” Alice chocked and she looked away from Anita.

“Is it okay if I try my luck on him?” Anita’s pestering talk had turned Alice into a sour mood. She wished she had a backbone to tell her to stay away from Gustav just like Amelia and Laura said, but it was no use. Alice didn’t have a heart to tell it on Anita’s face.

“I don’t really know about boys unlike you, Anita. How would I know if it’s okay or not?”

“Okay, I’ll try it. He’s so hot and nice, Alice. I need someone like that.” Anita giggled and then engulfed Alice in a hug. “Thank you, Lish. Thank you for listening to me. It’s so great to talk to you.”

Alice could only return the hug and smiled weakly at her sister. It wasn’t Anita’s fault for liking Gustav, because since the day one it was always Gustav who’s interested in her and he even asked Alice to help him. Gustav was meant to date Anita with Alice’s help. It always had been Alice’s luck to lose a guy to Anita even it was really painful.

---

It was eleven in the morning after Alice had ended her first class. Her first class was environmental system with Prof. Auburn. That class was never boring because Prof. Auburn was a good teacher and Alice enjoyed every second of it. Now, Alice was sitting on the bench outside of her faculty building while she was waiting for Ryder to pick her up.

Since morning, Ryder had been pestering Alice to come with him. He assured that Alice won’t bail on him, so he kept sending her text messages. Alice checked her watch and found that Ryder was ten minutes late, it made her irked at him. When she was about to call him, she saw a sport car was approaching the sidewalk and stopped in front of her.

It was Teddy and Ryder was sitting on passenger seat next to him. Ryder rolled down the window and grinned to Alice. Alice could see that his platinum blonde hair was gone, it was replaced by chocolate brown hair that probably was his natural root.

“Get in.” He said as he motioned his finger to Alice. Alice got off from her seat and walked toward Ryder with annoyance on her face.

“You’re late.” She huffed and glared at Ryder meanwhile Ryder only laughed at her. Alice climbed into Teddy’s sport car and literally slammed the door.

“Hey easy with my baby, Waterville.” Teddy warned playfully and then began to drive away. Alice only said her low sorry and scooted over so she sat in the center of backseat. She observed the interior of Teddy’s car and how it was organized neatly. There was a car radio and Ryder was putting on some rock music. “Buckle up, Alice.”

Before Alice could comprehend what Ryder was saying, she was jolted on her seat and the bike was moving fast. Alice gasped at the speed that Teddy was taking so she quickly buckled the seatbelt.

“Can you just drive like a normal people, Teddy??!” Alice yelled and it was only followed by Teddy and Ryder’s manly laugh. Teddy kept driving like he was in racing tournament and then slowly picked up the speed. “We could get caught, Teddy! Darn it! Slow freaking down, will you?!”

Teddy snickered, “I’m just showing you a good time, Alice. Girls love the speed.” With that Ryder agreed and tossed his highfive to Teddy with a ‘damn right’ answer.

“Well, I’m not like the other girls! God damn it, Teddy! Pull over this instant moment!” Alice screamed at the top of her lungs which suddenly made Teddy hit the brake making Alice’s body was pulled forward with a force. When the car stopped, Alice unbuckled her seatbelt and threw a disgusted look at the boys. “I’m outta here!” She said and get out from Teddy’s car.

Alice walked away while she hugged herself, feeling anxious about what just happened to her. It was probably too dramatic for her but she felt so scared, she could have died in an accident, for God’s sake! Agreeing going with Ryder was a mistake.

She heard Ryder and Teddy were calling her names but she ignored them and kept walking through the neighborhood. She hoped she would find a bus to get back.

“Alice… wait! Wait please…” she heard Teddy breathlessly ran up to her and stopped her from walking. “Wait, please…” he now was facing Alice.

“I hate you, Ryder. I really do. I’m going back to my dorm.” Alice bitterly spat to him.

“I’m so sorry, Alice. It was my idea. Teddy was just showing off. I thought you’ll like the speed.”

“Well you guessed wrong.” She glared at him and then started to walk again but her arm was pulled by Ryder.

“Come on, I’m so sorry. I promise, Teddy and I will behave, okay? Will you forgive me?” he tried again and this time his eyes were focused on her in solemn look. It was weird to have this conversation with Ryder because Alice rarely got an apology from Ryder. It was seriously out of character of him.

“Okay. But I’m still not going.”

“Please… I need you to come… besides you owe me lunch, right? I paid the session last week. It was expensive, and you could just buy me a lunch which probably won’t even reach like 100 bucks. Please Alice.” Ryder gave his puppy look and begged as if this errand of his really needed Alice’s assistance. His puppy look was failed but Alice secretly found it was cute. Under the bad-boy-like-with-anger-management exterior, Ryder could pull something like that.

“Ugh! Fine, I only come because I feel bad about you’re paying your PT session.” Alice stomped on the ground and pouted which Ryder found adorable. “Also, you need to work up your puppy look to be more assuring.” Ryder grimaced even widely and ruffled Alice’s dark brown hair that felt soft under his hand. He liked being with Alice. It’s frustrating yet fun.

---

It took around twenty minutes to take to the city with Teddy’s sport car. After arguing about keeping it low, Teddy finally stopped the car in front of a biker shop. Teddy and Ryder climbed out from the car and told Alice to stay in the car because it probably would take time with the bargaining.

Alice sat in the car silently while she watched the buildings around her. The last time she went to the city was two years ago. She went with her family for the New Year’s. She remembered when the fireworks and noises filled the cold night. It was beautiful, she liked it more in here in Ridgeley than when she went for a Thanksgiving in New York.

Ridgeley was a port city, it was surrounded by sea and its major income came from the sea. Alice was looking out through the window straight to the sea where she could see some doves were flying above. She was smiling watching the view in front of eyes and didn’t realize her eyes were dropped.

“Alice, hey… Alice.. wake up..” it was Ryder’s voice that woke her up. She saw Ryder was smiling down to her innocent face. Alice couldn’t believe she just drifted off to sleep, maybe because Ryder and Teddy took it long. “I’m sorry, the vendor guy was persistent with the price. Come on, let’s get out.” Alice turned to the driver seat and saw Teddy was ready to drive.

“Get out? What about Teddy?” she pointed to Teddy who smirked at her.

“He’s gonna bring the spare parts back to the Omicron for my bike. They’re heavy so I need his help to get it.” Ryder explained and grabbed Alice hand to pull her out from the car.

“But how do we get back?”

“We’re gonna take bus or taxi. Don’t worry it’s on me. Come on… you must be hungry. Let’s get something to eat…” With that Alice and Ryder said their goodbye to Teddy and they walked down the sidewalk, looking something for eat.

Ryder walked quite fast and Alice needed to keep up, he was saying that he’s starving and seriously in need for food. As Alice found it’s hard to keep her pace, Ryder noticed and interlocked their hands together so she would keep up. Alice saw their interlocked hands and felt weird about it, thinking that Ryder was slowly turning into someone she didn’t know. Ryder was a rude mouthful guy, he didn’t go all mushy with girls. Except for Michelle.

Alice remembered the night at the party when Ryder confessed how he’s in love with Michelle but she was off limits. She felt sorry about him but it was disgusting when Ryder kissed her. It was a slobbery kiss, it tasted bitter from the alcohol and Alice didn’t like the smell of it. When she knew Ryder was kissing her like a fish, instantly she punched him on the face. To remember that night she punched him, it made Alice chuckled.

“What’s so funny?” Ryder suddenly asked, they were walking toward a food truck that was parking near the beach.

“Nothing, it’s just I felt so damn good when I punched your face.” Alice let out a girly laugh which made Ryder stared at her in amusement. “You’re a horrible kisser, Ryder.”

Ryder snapped his head at Alice in a second, “what?? I am a good kisser! I was drunk that night.” He defended. “Wait, is that why you punched me? Because I’m not a good kisser? I could show you the real kiss…Now.” Ryder wiggled his eyebrows at Alice and burst in laughter.

“Ugh. Stop it! I punched you because you kissed me. It’s because you were the ‘one’ who kissed me.” Alice explained as they reached the food truck. Ryder ordered seafood burger, French fries and orange juice for two. After Ryder took their order number, Alice paid for the lunch and then Ryder brought Alice to sit on the vacant park bench.

“What’s wrong with me? Is it because I’m not Gustav?” Ryder tested as his eyes focused on Alice’s growing red face. Her heart suddenly hammered hard inside her heart and she chuckled nervously. “I’m not stupid, Alice. The only one who’s stupid enough is Gustav for not realizing your little crush on him.”

Alice began fidgeting her fingers nervously, “I don’t have a crush on Gustav, Ryder.”

“You wear your heart on your sleeves, Alice. No, don’t deny it. It’s pretty obvious that you like him. I know the way you look at him isn’t friendly. It’s love.” Ryder snickered making Alice pinched his hand that was followed by Ryder’s moan.

Alice covered her face and exhaled in frustration, “Everyone knows that I like him! I hate this!”

“Not everyone. Gustav doesn’t know.” Ryder shrugged off his shoulder and then got off from his seat when their order was up. Alice watched Ryder taking their order from the food truck and then sauntered toward Alice with a smirk. He put all of the food on the table and took a quick bite on his seafood burger.

“But you do know that Gustav is like falling head over heels with your sister, right?” Ryder said with a mumbling but Alice could catch it. Alice only nodded and slowly chewed on her food. “That sucks. I think you’re prettier and nicer than Anita, Gustav can’t see that.” He added innocently and sipped on his drink.

Alice’s mouth was wide agape when she heard Ryder. Did he just compliment her? Ryder Cooke thought she’s prettier than Anita? The hell’s freezing. Alice couldn’t hide her blushes as Ryder noticed it. That jerk only gave her his infamous smirk and suggestive wiggle brows that made Alice threw some of her French fries on him.

“I’m being serious. I personally don’t like girls with too much make up on and sexy outfit, it seems desperate.” Ryder shrugged. “Just don’t make your sister lets you down easily. To be frank, you’re cooler than her. Gustav is stupid, I bet there are guys out there who would kill to have a chance dating you.”

The tint on Alice’s cheek grew redder. She looked down and silently couldn’t believe that Ryder said those nice things to her. I wish there were guys who would after her genuinely, but unfortunately since high school, she only had one chance to date someone for real. It was Connor Walker, he was a nice geeky guy who worked at local bookstore but they broke up when Connor had to move out of States. Their relationship only reached friendly base.

“Thank you, Ryder. It’s really nice of you. You didn’t hit your head on something, right?” she chuckled and followed by Ryder’s childish grimace, she could see some sauce on his upper lip.

“You’re gonna be okay, Alice. Trust me.” Ryder told her as they tried to finish their lunch. The two were talking about themselves, sharing some stories and learning about each other.

Alice just knew that Ryder once went to a juvenile, she wasn’t surprised. Ryder was also the only child. His parents divorced and now he lived with his father but he rarely got home because he’s sick of watching his father was sleeping a gold-digging bitch. Ryder tried to warn about her, but his father was too blind. Tired of arguing with his father, Ryder rarely got home, he would usually go to Gustav’s house at holidays.

Ryder also asked about Anita, he noticed the change in Alice whenever Alice around. Alice quietly told Ryder that she felt intimidated by Anita, she also told him about herself being a half-sister between Anita and Aaron but her father never distinguish between her and her half-siblings. Alice wasn’t ready to tell Ryder about Anita’s interest on taking over Alice’s crush, also she thought Ryder didn’t need to know about it. Alice knew that her choice of telling about Anita to Amelia was already wrong, she told her close friends at Beta about Anita. Alice felt she betrayed her own sister. Aside from that, Alice shared some of her family stories about how happy she was with her family. It was a contrast with Ryder’s family.

Alice was happy that she could go civil with Ryder. What everyone said was right, because by the time she knew Ryder more, the nicer he got.

After they finished their lunch, Ryder took Alice’s hand in innocent manner. They walked down to the sidewalk with a hope they would find a taxi or bus soon. Alice checked her watch and her eyes were widened. It was three in the afternoon and they hadn’t found any transportation back to their campus.

“This is your entire fault. Now I’m gonna miss my class…” Alice groaned in frustration as she found a bench next to a bus stop. Ryder chucked his hands inside his pocket and exhaled a long breath. Alice massaged her bridge of nose and covered her face as Ryder decided to sit next to her.

“Come on, it’s just one class… it’s okay if you skip it once.” Ryder said trying to encourage Alice while he patted her shoulder with a light chuckle, but only to get a death glare from Alice.

“You promised, Ryder! You promise that I won’t miss my class!? Ugh! I should have not listened to you! Darn it!” Alice started to yell and punched Ryder, hoping that he would take it. But Ryder’s left shoulder was made of iron since he’s an athlete. “Ugh. I hate you, Ryder. For real.” Alice stood up and tiptoed while examining the street. None of it was public transportation, she really hoped she would get a glimpse of yellow taxi somewhere.

“Alice, I’m sorry… I don’t know that this will happen…” Ryder tried but Alice ignored him. Ryder rolled his eyes and spun her shoulders so she would face him. “Look, I’m really sorry. I’m sorry that you miss your class, I’m sorry that I broke my promise, but truthfully, I’m not sorry that I took you out on a date.” Ryder’s eyes were silently observing Alice’s blue ones intently meanwhile Alice was struck by what Ryder just said.

“A date?” she squeaked, her jaw was on the floor.

“Yeah, I mean we had lunch together, got know each other, and we definitely flirted a bit. What do you call it? Of course it’s a date. This date is fun, don’t you think?” Ryder grinned from ear to ear as he watched Alice’s growing anger face, she was an amusement for him.

“Ryder Cooke! It’s not a date. It’s just two friends going out, you forced me. It’s not a date. Ugh.” Alice grumbled defeated. She saw Ryder who didn’t stop grinning like an idiot and then threw a few harmless punches for him.

“I’m real sorry, Alice. Will you forgive me?” Ryder started to pull his puppy eyes again and it’s still failed, Alice thought.

“Whatever,” Alice said and stuck her tongue out at him.

“But thank you for today, I had fun.” Ryder confessed in honesty making Alice sighed.

“I also had fun.” She said weakly and pouted against looking at Ryder. Ryder chuckled, he thought she really was interesting.

---

Alice reached her dorm at six in the afternoon. Not only they waited for forever for a taxi, also the way back to their campus site happened to blocked and they had to find an alternative route. Alice was exhausted, she really needed some rest. After Ryder dropped Alice in front of her dorm, Alice thanked Ryder and jogged back to her dorm.

Alice passed some people who blocked the corridor to her room and then she stopped when she saw Gustav was leaning on the wall next to her door. Alice slowly approached him with confusion and her heart started to hammer inside her chest as she saw Gustav’s handsome face.

“Gustav? What are you doing here?” she asked as she tried to unlock her door. Gustav looked surprised when he saw Alice. As Alice opened her dorm room, she let Gustav in.

“You missed your basic math. I was just worried about you and you didn’t return my call either.” Gustav admitted as he watched Alice rummaged her fridge to get a carton of milk. As Alice heard him, she cursed and went to her purse and pulled out her phone that looked dead.

“Ugh, I think the battery died. I forgot to charge it.” Alice told him and brought her phone and plugged it on so it’s charged.

“Where were you? You don’t normally skip classes.” Gustav questioned and silently sat on her bed watching Alice busied herself by trying to boil two mugs of milk.

“I don’t skip classes, Gus. Your homeboy happened to break his promise! He said that I’d get back here before my class started, and then suddenly it was really difficult to find a taxi to get here.” She explained while she watched the milk boiled. She put her stove off and then slowly poured the milk into two mugs.

Gustav knitted his eyebrows together when he heard Alice went out with Ryder. It was weird that one moment, these two would hate each other and the next moment they bonded like they’re best friends. He didn’t know Ryder had a gut to ask her out. Wait, did it mean they were dating?

“Ryder? Where did you guys go?” Gustav couldn’t help but wonder. He suddenly felt his stomach went unwell.

“Teddy was there, but only to bring back the spare parts for his bike to Omicron’s. After that, we had lunch together and just talked.” Alice said and sipped her mug. She watched Gustav who ignored his mug and looked as if he was thinking hard.

“So you two went out for a date?” as the words spilled out, Gustav felt his stomach was burnt. His stomach felt twisted in a wrong way. He thought maybe he had a bad lunch. When he guessed, he saw Alice’s cheeks went red and looked down. She was nervous and the sight of her red cheeks made the acid reflux on his throat.

“No, of course it isn’t!” she chuckled tried to cover her nervousness. Gustav picked this up, he saw how she blushed.

Gustav sighed in defeat and thought that Alice must have liked Ryder. She was blushing! It was evident that Alice had fun with the date and she was embarrassed to admit that she’s on a date with Ryder. Gustav inwardly groaned and couldn’t help but imagining Ryder and Alice dated. Did he kiss her?

“Did he kiss you?” he was beyond curious and it bothered him much. Alice snapped her head to Gustav and her eyes were gloated.

“What???! No!” Alice shrieked. She couldn’t believe that Gustav could guess that such thing. Ryder and her kissing? When the hell’s frozen!

“I’m just worried. Ryder liked someone else, I just don’t want you get toyed by him. I don’t want to see you get hurt. Just don’t get too easy on him.” Gustav admitted referring to Michelle as Alice let out a gasp.

Alice couldn’t believe what she heard. Did it mean that Gustav thought Alice was easy? He also had no right to interfere with Alice’s love life and he sounded like he’s a jealous boyfriend. If only she wanted to date Ryder, it was her choice! What did he think? He’s already got Anita, their feelings were mutual, what more could he ask for?

Alice had enough with the bullshit, she didn’t want to hear from him anymore. It made her brain went haywire. She hated the fact that she’s deeply in love with Gustav. If only he knew she was hurt to see him with Anita. Ugh!

“I think you should leave now, Gustav.” Alice stood up and walked to her door.

“What? Why?”

“I’m tired. I need some sleep. Just leave now.” She said bitterly. Gustav looked taken aback but he understood. He slowly got off from his spot and walked to her door. Gustav watched Alice’s sour face and he sighed.

“See you tomorrow, okay? Get some good sleep.” He said and unexpectedly he put an innocent kiss on Alice’s cheek. Alice’s jaw was dropped as she felt his kiss on her cheek, she watched him who silently passed her and walked out from the door. Alice gulped and shut her door.

She touched her cheek and felt useless. She hated Gustav, the more he got closer to her, the deeper her feelings for him. She just wanted to get a normal love life. For once she wanted the guy she liked would return her feelings. After Gustav left, Alice threw herself to the bed and buried her teary face on the pillow, sobbing.