Just You and I, Your Starless Eyes Remain

”This hole you put me in”

“You let them take her away,” I snarled. I felt every word slide out of my mouth, dripping with the venom I tried to hold back before. But now nothing could stop me. I slammed my chair back out from under me and ran out of the office.

The last sight I registered in my head was my principal’s shocked yet painful expression. I knew somewhere in my thoughts that it wasn’t his fault, but I wasn’t going to convince myself of that; not yet.

I didn’t stop running until I found myself going up the steps that led to my door. I pulled it open and threw it back shut after I got in. My mother was there, sadness coating her eyes.

“Frank,” she pleaded sympathetically. “They called me…I know about Alice.”

I wasn’t ready to listen to her either. I slammed my door shut and threw myself onto my bed. There next to my bed was her bag of clothes that she kept at my house; the clothes she would never wear. I would never see her again.

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Alice’s P.O.V.

The town was small, a boring type of small; but I wasn’t about to worry about such petty things such as entertainment. My whole life and happiness had been ripped out from under me in a matter of seconds. Even though, just earlier today, Frank was telling me he loved me in art class, it felt like forever since I saw his face.

We pulled into a long drive way and the car pulled to a stop.

“We’re here,” the stranger said with a false tone of happiness.

I just barely looked up at her as a response.

“You ready to meet your new family?” She played up the happy-go-lucky facade.

“I have a family.” I stated bluntly and blankly. I felt no desire to be polite with this woman. After all, she was the one in charge of the agency; she was the one who ripped me away from Frank and his mother; from the home that showed me the love that I hadn’t seen for years. She was the one who ripped me away from that; away from my happiness.

Her false smile turned into malice. There it was; her true face.

“For all I care you could be living in the streets. I’m sending you to a home so that I don’t get sued for every thing I have,” she glared at me. “Now get out of the car and put a smile on your face.”

I sighed and got out of the car. I didn’t do it because she told me to; I did it so I could get away from her. But to no extent did I smile, I wasn’t going to give her that.

I followed her to the door and waited as she rang the bell. A woman answered the door.

“Why hello there,” she said with a cookie-cutter smile. “You must be Alice.”

“Mhm,” I sighed.

“Oh, how delightful,” she smiled broadly.

“Mrs. Freemont; I’m going to need you to sign here,” the stranger handed over a clipboard.

I felt like some UPS package being delivered. I was just a package arriving at their doorstep. The kind they had to sign for.

“Thank you, that’s all,” the stranger said taking back her clipboard. Mrs. Freemont put on a huge smile.

“Wonderful! Well, good bye, then.” She waved out from the door step to the stranger.

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The house, plain and white, looked cookie cutter perfect; matching the other homes that lined the street precariously like doll houses in a store front window. The whole house had this facade placed over it like a veil. Yes, on the outside from a passerby’s point of view it looked perfect. Perfectly boring, it was; but that’s not all. I still felt the sense that I had since I pulled into this drive way.

Something is terribly wrong.

“Alice,” My new ‘care taker’, Mrs. Freemont called. She was around the height of 5’5”. She was average looking with average, long brown hair and average small brown eyes. They were nothing compared to Frank’s magnificent eyes. She fit right into the cookie-cutter neighborhood with her cookie-cutter looks and her cookie-cutter smile. But even though she was so cookie-cutter perfect, she was beautiful.

I made my way out of my new “room”, if you’d like to call it that. I prefer the term cell. It’s four walls painted in the whitest white with a boring small dresser filled with boring new-to-me clothes and a boring bed in the middle with white sheets decorated with flowers and a cream colored iron bed frame. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t ungrateful for any of this; I was very thankful. I was just still bitter from being taken away from Frank. I couldn’t have any contact with him; the stranger took away my phone before I got to the house.

We pulled into the drive way of a white house.

“May I please see your phone?” The stranger asked while extending her arm out to take my phone. She grabbed it from me, took the battery out, and proceeded to threw it into the confines of her dashboard compartment.

“It’s just easier this way,” she justified herself.

One of these days I’d sneak a letter for Frank over to the post office.

I proceeded from my room, down the stairs, and into the kitchen.

“Yes, Mrs. Freemont?”

“Bill is finally coming home and I’d love it if you could help me prepare a nice dinner for him. He’s probably so excited to meet you, Alice,” Mrs. Freemont responded. “You know, you don’t have to call me Mrs. Freemont. You can call me Cathy; my first name.”

“Thanks Cathy,” I smiled. I did like her even though I hated having to live here. She was a very nice woman whose husband, Bill, was frequently out on business trips. “So, what are we going to cook?”

“Hm, I’m thinking,” she paused as she reached out for a cookbook. “We could try home made pasta with fresh chopped tomatoes and a fresh spinach salad.”

“Mmm, sounds delicious,” I smiled.

“And if all else fails and we learn we can not cook, I have the delivery number for the best sushi!”

Cathy and I laughed as we set the table together. Diner actually was a success; or at least it seemed like it so far. Everything looked and smelled delicious. I actually had a pretty good time cooking with Cathy. She told me all of her stories about her times growing up.

“Woah, you seem like such a fun loving adventurer,” I laughed. “How’d you end up settling down here?” She really was quite different than the neighborhood suggested.

“Well, it was Bill’s choice. He wanted to settle down here. Alice, we have to make sacrifices for the people we love.”

I nodded thoughtfully.

“Have you met any one special?” Cathy asked curiously.

“Well, actually, yes; there is. I just hope he waits for me. I had to leave Frank- that’s his name- when they brought me here.”

“Oh,” Cathy’s eyes suddenly drained of the happiness that had flooded them before and concern took its place. “Well, when Bill goes on another trip I’ll just have to take you to visit him.”

“Really,” I nearly shouted. “Oh, I’d love that! I’d love that so much!” I couldn’t hide the huge smile that plastered itself on my face.

Cathy was about to say some thing when we heard a car pull into the drive way. Suddenly Cathy’s face drained to a deadly, pale color.

“Wha-”

“Look, I didn’t tell you, and I’m probably just over reacting, but,” Cathy began in a jumbled rush. Hysteria was taking over her. “Bill drinks, a lot, and, well, I mean he stopped, but occasionally he’ll come home after having a little too much to-”

The door flew open.

“Cathy,” a man slurred.

“Oh,” Cathy gasped a little.

“Cathy, where the hell are you,” he stumbled into the dining room where we were. “Cathy, who the fuck is this?” He started to approach me.

I froze.

“Um, Bill, this is Alice. Remember, our foster ch-”

Bill knocked some plates off the table as he clumsily staggered towards us with great force. He was a wrecking ball. A plague to anything he touched.

He made his way to Cathy and looked at me.

“Bill, please don’t-”

“Don’t tell me what to do you little bitch. You’re the filthy whore who couldn’t have a child,” he hit her with such force she fell to the floor.

Cathy was left cowering in the corner. Her face cut from the fall; already bruised from the hit. Her eyes were filled with tears and, at that moment, I realized that the words sliced into her and hurt more than the hit.

He turned and slapped me.

“You little bastard,” he snarled at me as he stumbled back to the door and slammed it.

I helped Cathy up off the floor but she insisted she needed no further help.

“Maybe you should just go up to your room; in case he comes back.”

With out protest I ran to my room and locked the door. I picked up a pen from the desk and I tore a piece of paper out from my notebook and scribbled down frantically the words I so desperately wished Frank could hear.

“Frank-

I wish I could tell you where I was right now, but I fear that only bad could come out of it. I also wish I could tell you that I am fine. I’m not.

I’m not okay.

Please, I don’t know how, but please help. I don’t even know if this letter will ever reach you.

I guess all I could hope for is that it does.

I heard banging on the front door and a panicked yelp from Cathy.

I love you,

Alice

I quickly sealed the envelope and noted it with Frank’s address. I couldn’t include a return address though. I couldn’t begin to imagine what would happen if Bill found out.

I pulled open the bedroom door and raced down the steps.