why would you even bother telling someone your secrets before killing them

[self_composed]

By the end of Bio, the halls are full of people eager to inform Bella and everyone else within earshot that her friend is a murderer. They have entirely the wrong attitude to have formed the impression because he just now murdered someone, and also her father hasn't come looking for her yet, so this is probably nonsense.

Bella goes to gym.

Comments

[edgeofyourseat]

Alice is chatting amicably with Ms. Finch. If the rumours have reached him, he's showing no sign of it. When he spots Bella, he waves and abandons his conversation to head for her corner.

[self_composed]

"So, you're a murderer, now," she says without preamble.

[edgeofyourseat]

"What, seriously?" He laughs. "Wow, some people do not know a joke when they hear one."

[self_composed]

"Well, perhaps the original people did, but it's gone a few links down the chain since," Bella sighs.

[edgeofyourseat]

"Fuck it, whatever. Think your friends'll still let me come on their beach trip?"

[self_composed]

"If I had to guess? Jessica will gather some people who don't care - which won't include Lauren or Mike - and you'll still be invited because she wants to use my car."

[edgeofyourseat]

He laughs. "Nice. What's Mike's problem, anyway? He ask you out or something?"

[self_composed]

"No, never. Didn't even propose marriage," says Bella with a withering but amused look. "But perhaps he imagines he would have worked up to it eventually." She shrugs. "It's a small school, but not so small that I need to latch onto the first people who talked to me. Angela's great, Jessica's fine, I can live without Mike and definitely without Lauren. No idea where Eric stands but I wouldn't miss him much."

[edgeofyourseat]

With a wry, crooked grin: "So, not gonna ditch the fuckup and get all your nice, normal friends back?"

[self_composed]

"I would not advise you to antagonize Angela," Bella says evenly. "But I've been here less than two weeks. I'm still the new kid and I still have time to meet more people."

[edgeofyourseat]

"Okay," he says cheerfully.

Which is... not exactly a promise not to antagonize Angela, but might be an acknowledgment of the consequences.

[self_composed]

"If we can factor out the consequences of apparently-you're-a-murderer-now, is there anybody in school who'd be particularly likely to tolerate you and might get along with me?" Bella asks.

[edgeofyourseat]

Alice considers this.

"Dunno," he says. "I don't pay that much attention. What kinda people do you get along with?"

[self_composed]

"Angela's great. Jessica's fine, Eric's fine - although it's possible he has a crush on me too, and it's starting to get kind of ridiculous; do I correspond astonishingly closely to some regionally popular fetish? Mike was okay when he was just showing me how to get to classes and not coming over all creepy-possessive." She shrugs. "And you're interesting."

She gauges how long she has before gym starts before continuing to chat, and decides she's got leeway. "In Phoenix I hung out with the book club and sometimes a cluster of girls from my geography class, but I didn't like anyone enough to have second thoughts about moving when that was expedient."

[edgeofyourseat]

"Yeah, all I can tell you about that is the reason I've got a crush on you is nnnot the same as the reason anybody else does," he says, grinning. "Maybe there's somebody in Art."

[self_composed]

"I couldn't get into art class; this school has different requirements from my old one, Art's pure elective, and I have to spend this semester catching up. May have room for it next year though." She shrugs. "I can get along without a vast collection of friends. It'd just be kind of depressing if I somehow wound up without any."

[edgeofyourseat]

"So I'll look for some," he says.

It's something he's never done before, which is an automatic plus.

[self_composed]

"Not strictly necessary - Angela continues to exist and I haven't yet met everyone in my own classes - but it would be nice of you."

She tilts her head. "What has you convinced that the etiology of your crush is different from Mike's or maybe-Eric's?"

[edgeofyourseat]

"Because I like you for weird reasons," he says serenely. "And 'cause if Mike liked you for the same reasons I like you, he wouldn't act like he wishes he could pee on your leg to scare off all the other dogs."

[self_composed]

"Well, that's a grotesque mental image," Bella remarks.

[edgeofyourseat]

He laughs.

"Yeah, get used to those."

[self_composed]

Bella rolls her eyes. "Anyway. Weird reasons? You're a mind reader now? The inner workings of the median human are transparent unto you, and your own clockwork is wound backwards?"

[edgeofyourseat]

Cheerfully: "You called me a freak on purpose when you knew I hate it; you told me you don't care what I want and you looked like you meant it. Those sound like normal reasons to you?"

From across the room, Ms. Finch calls, "While we're still young, Hammond!"

Alice grins. "Hold that thought," he says, and turns to join the rest of the class.

[self_composed]

Bella smirks to herself and does her stretches and other relatively safe exercises safe on her mat.

[edgeofyourseat]

And at the end of class, there he is again.

"So where were we?"