we will seek my buried inheritance

[self_composed]

Bella fixes French toast for breakfast to salvage stale bread, and, having seen Charlie off to work, hops in her own car and makes for Alice's house. She arrives at nine-thirty, and goes up to the doorbell and rings it.

Comments

[self_composed]

"One. Two. Th -" Bella's face twists up in the way that indicates a square messing with her brain. "Wait," she blurts.

[edgeofyourseat]

"...Yeah?" he asks, obligingly doing nothing.

[self_composed]

"It just occurs to me," she says with a rueful laugh, "that we have never come into any physical contact. At all. And that if the first time we touched each other was you holding my leg down so you could pour lye on it, that would be pretty fucked up."

She laughs a little. And she reaches out her hand and lays it against the side of his face.

[edgeofyourseat]

It is unexpected, and like most unexpected things Bella does, fills Alice with unexpected feelings. He closes his eyes and leans into her hand, much in the attitude of a happy kitten.

[self_composed]

Bella wasn't planning to sit there with her hand on his face for long, but, well.

It's very cute.

And then the square wears off.

Bella's hand falls away with a full-body shudder and she grabs her sock and her shoe. "I can't do this," she mutters. "Not with squares, anyway. I can't do this."

[edgeofyourseat]

"Okay," says Alice. He closes the jar.

[self_composed]

Bella gets her shoe back on and her pant leg rolled back down.

She folds her arms over her knees and drops her head onto them.

"Ugh."

[edgeofyourseat]

Alice shrugs.

"So we won't do it today," he says.

[self_composed]

"Right."

She chuckles darkly. "Maybe I'll come down with shingles or something. Wouldn't that be handy?"

[edgeofyourseat]

"Come down with what?"

[self_composed]

"It's a disease. I think it has something to do with chicken pox, which I had when I was like four. And it's supposed to involve a rash that hurts really badly."

[edgeofyourseat]

"I find it so weird that you can wish you'd get hurt, or risk getting hurt, but not just plain hurt yourself," says Alice.

[self_composed]

"I don't think it's that uncommon. People do dangerous things and don't self-injure in large numbers. Kids who resent their parents say things like 'but if I cross the street to return the neighbor's loaf pan and get hit by a car then Mom will be sorry and I'll never have to do chores again'. And you know what? If I get hit by a car, and it creams me good and proper, that will predictably lead to a state of affairs in which I'll never have to do chores again." She hefts her invisible necklace, twirling the coins around on the chain. "So to speak."

[edgeofyourseat]

"...well, I like that mental image in entirely predictable ways," Alice reports.

[self_composed]

Bella snorts.

"Yeah. I walked into that."

[edgeofyourseat]

"I'd say I'm sorry, but I'm not, so."

[self_composed]

"Right."

She leans back against the pillar.

"I didn't get any homework done yesterday or today." She pokes her backpack. "I could use a dose of normalcy right now. Are you going to be bored out of your skull, if I work on trig?"

[edgeofyourseat]

"Nope, go for it."

[self_composed]

Bella produces the materials with which to do trigonometry homework.

She doesn't really like trig, but oh well.

After a few problems have fallen to her mighty pencil, she absently reaches out and starts petting Alice's hair.

[edgeofyourseat]

He leans into her hand again, wrapping his arms around his knees.