Be Your Everything

After Alice left Harry she decided it was time to go home. Time to stop being a coward and woman-up. And that's where her feet took her - to her front door.

"Alice, oh, my baby!" her mother cried as she flung her arms around her daughter. It took a few moments for Alice to hug back. She was in shock. It hadn't even occurred to her that her mother might be worried. "Where on Earth have you been?!"

"Er... around..."

"Around?!" Liz screeched. "You've been gone nearing on three days and you tell me you've been around?"

"Sorry, mum..." Alice looked at her feet, unable to look her mother in the eyes. It wasn't because she was ashamed of staying our for days. No, it was because of the giant, purple and yellow bruise that was covering Liz's left eye.

"Right, well... come inside and get something to eat. Oh, you look freezing!" she fussed in true motherly style and pulled Alice almost roughly into the kitchen where she forced her to sit down as she busied herself with making scrambled eggs. Liz wasn't an excellent cook - the extent of her culinary skills was spaghetti and rice. Sometimes she would go all out and make a roast, but the last time she had tried that she had smoked the whole house out.

"Let's go to dinner tonight. Get out of the house."

Apparently she had forgotten that Alice had only just got back. Nonetheless, she nodded her head slowly. "Okay... any reason why?"

Liz shrugged nonchalantly without glancing up from the sizzling pan. "Thought it'd be nice."

Alice had an inkling that it had something to do with wanting to get away from Rick for a while, but said nothing of it. If that's what her mum wanted then that's what she would do.

And that's why she was standing in front of the full-length mirror propped against her bedroom wall. She was pulling at the hem of the dress she was wearing, feeling incredibly self-concious. She hadn't worn a pretty dress in at least a year. When she'd finished school everyone had stopped talking to her, so she had stopped receiving invitations to places where she could wear pretty dresses. She didn't feel deserving of them anymore.

"Alice, my darling, are you ready?" Liz called from down the hall. Rick had gone out to the pub for the night (he said he would be gone a few hours but usually he stayed at a friends because he was too drunk to stand up) so neither of them had to watch how loud their voices were. See, when he was home and they spoke to loudly, he would complain that he just wanted some peace and quite... while turning the T.V. up to full volume and cracking open another beer.

"Almost," Alice replied, taking one last look at herself and sighing. This was as good as it was going to get.

When she stepped into the entrance hallway and saw her mum she had to do a double take. Where had the bruise gone? There was thick makeup spread over Liz's face to conceal the hideous memory of the other night from prying eyes. She had done a spectacular job too.

"Mum-"

"Let's go then!" she chirped in a ridiculous attempt to sound happy and excited. Alice shook this off and followed her mum to their small car. It was an awkward drive; neither woman said anything at all for 5 whole minutes, and by then there was only 30 more seconds of traveling left. "Is it a boy?"

Alice almost choked on her own saliva. "What? Mum, no, I-"

"You can tell me, you know. I won't tease."

"It's not a boy!" she spluttered, shaking her head. It wasn't a lie. She had stayed away from home because of Rick, and Rick was not a boy. Of course, as soon as her mum spoke her mind immediately flickered to Harry.

"So you don't know that boy who's flapping his arms at you?"

Her eyes bugged out and she looked up to see that the boy in question was indeed who she had feared. "No," she told her mum and, once out of the car, attempted to avoid him. It was fruitless though, as he was in front of her in seconds. "For god's sake, what do you want from me?" she snapped, though regretted her attitude straight away. She knew she shouldn't snap at him, he was just trying to help. But she didn't want his help.

"Would you please just talk to me?" he pleaded, and she would have walked away right then and there had he not been looking at her with puppy-dog eyes that made her heart want to melt.

A sigh escaped her lips as she looked from Harry to the hopeful look on Liz's face. Her mum had been waiting for her to get involved with a guy since she was 15 but it had never happened. Alice would swear this was because no one was interested in her but everyone knew she pushed boys away, afraid of getting hurt. She just didn't trust men. The only person who knew why was Liz.

"Fine," she breathed finally, letting her hands drop to her sides in defeat. "What...?"

"Will you give me your mobile number?"

She was tempted to snap again but, remembering that her mother was standing right next to her, watching her every move, she rolled her eyes so that only Harry could see and held her hand out. He passed her his iPhone and she touched the keypad to put her number in.

"Come to my house for tea tomorrow?" he asked, eyes pleading with her. Alice, for the life of her, couldn't work out why he was so determined to talk to her. But she had now resigned herself to the fact that he wouldn't leave her alone, so she should probably just show her true self to him to scare him away faster. That's what always happened, she thought.

"Alright, alright. Text me the address later and I'll be over at 10."

"That early?"

She gave him a look that told him he wasn't in any position to negotiate. He was lucky she had ever stopped to talk to him.

"Point taken. Ten it is," he grinned and stuffed his phone into his back pocket.

"Yeah. See you..." Alice mumbled before leading her mum into the only restaurant in town that, of course, Harry just happened to be dining at with his friend.

"Why don't you join us?" Liz suggested, much to Alice's horror.

Harry had looked about ready to accept the invitation, but at a warning look from Alice he held his tongue. "Er... no, thank you. We've got uh... reservations at another table. Nice to see you. Bye!"

The rest of the evening passed in a blur of food and wine, and before Alice knew it she was completely sloshed. Liz, being the responsible mother, had only had one glass, and so they arrived home safely. Alice silently thanked her stars that Rick had, as they'd thought he would, stayed out all night. She didn't want him to see her drunk. Because, even though he could get as blinded as he wanted, if he knew she'd had any he would entirely lose his shit.

Just as she slid under her -incredibly- comfortable bed sheets her mobile vibrated on her bedside table. It took a few seconds for her eyes to focus on the screen, but when she did she saw who it was from. Harry had texted her his address and signed it with 2 X's. She sighed heavily and set the phone down again without sending a reply. She'd see him tomorrow anyway.

And with that, she drifted off into the deepest sleep she'd had in months.