Rumored Nights

Alice sat on the comfortable mattress of her sister's bed in the dimmed afternoon of her room quite simply because she couldn't stand.

"You're leaving?" She whispered, somewhat horrified.

"I've had enough money for rent with Maria for a while now, I only stayed because I thought you needed me." Caroline replied as she folded a stack of t-shirts into a box. "After this weekend I think you'll be okay without me."

Alice couldn't find the words to tell her sister just how wrong she was at seeing the hurried expression she wore.

Whatever mission that had drawn her into the room had vanished, the pain from the afternoon gone, replaced by a hole already forming from her sisters absence.

For anyone else close to a sibling this would've just been something for them to accept.

For Alice it would mean having the rug pulled under her once more.

There was no pattern for every time she lost someone important in her life, from innocent, to content, to shaken, it seemed it was a rollercoaster she hadn't topped yet.

As she watched her sister pack away her worldly belongings Alice began to wander more into her thoughts.

The list of people she had lost, her father, brother, William, and now her sister, were only gone because she let them go.

Caroline's pull to escape was desperate, but so was Alice's grasp on her sister.

"You'll visit right?" She asked, cringing at how young she sounded.

With a pile of shirts in her arms, Caroline stopped.

"Of course I will." She replied with a warm, yet strained smile. "Christmas is coming up, and Ryan will be back, we should try and make it a family event don't you think?"

Alice nodded, twisting her fingers through her hair as her sister continued packing.

It would be an adjustment, walking by her room and knowing she'd find no warm embrace or comfort in it's walls like she had done for so many years.

She watched on in vague interest as Caroline continued packing, pairs of jeans, skirts, a black beaten jacket folded between two t-shirts...

It was the jacket, so out of place that caught her attention and put the rest of the already gathered pieces together.

She didn't want to tarnish whatever time she had left with her sister, but there were questions on her mind that needed answers.

"Caroline, I need to ask you something." She murmured, transfixed on the nondescript piece of fabric.

Glancing up from the box she had just opened, Caroline held her tape roll at her hip expectantly.

"Shoot."

By the time Alice spoke her hair was knotted with all the nervous twisting she had done.

"Did Bill take me home from the party?" She finally asked in a surprisingly steady voice.

Caroline didn't answer at first, turning her back to fuss over the already finished box.

It was her unintended answer of yes until she finally drew the words she meant.

"Uh, what makes you think that?"

"My friend overheard his... girlfriend in the bathroom talking about how he left the party a-and came back later, and then I realized I'd never asked how I got home. Combined with my friend's increased worry I drew the likely conclusion." Alice explained, trying to keep the bitterness from seeping into her words. "And you were holding his jacket."

Caroline hesitated, setting the tape on the box and turning her attention to the jacket in question and her determined sister.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Alice asked.

Slowly, Caroline walked over to where Alice sat, setting herself a little apart as she manipulated the jacket in her hands.

"It's hard to explain... when he brought you back from the party I had my suspicions that something happened between the two of you. I asked him and after a while he explained it all." She muttered, clearly shaken. "I promised him I wouldn't tell you until the right time, because I thought he had good reason for leaving you like this... but it's gone too far."

With both her curiosity and temper peaked Alice leaned closer, intent on soaking up every word she was about to hear.

.<^>.<^>.<^>.

If Friday was known as date night among high schoolers, this particular Monday must've been movie night as William had his arms around an unfamiliar warm body while he took part in a movie at her home.

"This is nice." Avery sighed, snuggling closer to him in the light of the romance movie she had chosen.

It would've been nice, William thought, if there had been a change in scenery perhaps.

Every touch and kiss with Avery felt like a betrayal to the friend he had abandoned.

His guilt was a constant burden, catching him when he let his guard down in a brief moment where he'd forget everything.

Alice haunted his every thought and step, the more recent image of her stunned face that afternoon replacing the memory of her at the party forever burned in his mind.

Did he really do the right thing?

For so long he had watched Alice shielded from anything that could hurt her, the best intentions smothering her with love.

How could she live if she never got the chance?

Though Caroline had been hesitant, she'd had the same worries as William and wanted what was best for Alice.

They had both known it wouldn't be easy, but their love for this one girl had been enough reason to endure it.

William could lie and say these were the reasons he did what he did, but it would be just that; a lie.

William was no saint, he told Caroline this for his own selfish reasons of not wanting to be thought selfish.

Those were the reasons he had come up with after he had made his choice, they were the right reasons and they should've been his.

His had been the wrong.

For far too long he'd had these feelings for Alice, feelings that continued to drag around that afternoon memory with it when he'd first kissed her.

No one wants to be rejected and for William that was his biggest fear with Alice, to lose her.

Regardless of his actions and fears, he had done just that and lost her.

Avery snuggled closer to William, drawing him out of his mind and into the consequences.

As the characters on-screen declared their love for one another William wondered aloud.

"Do you think we'll ever have that?" He asked, questioning ever finding an epic love like theirs, or even a normal one that could last till old age.

Avery laughed lightly and pulled his arms tighter around her with her reply. "We can have it. We already do."

As William paled in the light of her overwhelming and overly obsessed emotions, he never realized Avery was telling the truth.

She just didn't know it was about William and Alice, not William and her.