Alice POV

“Alissa! No running in the house!” The eldest of my aunts reprimanded sternly. How could she muster such strictness in her voice early in the morning was beyond me.

“Yes, Aunt Azalea!” I answered absentmindedly without slowing down my pace; I was already running late.

It was Monday morning and I’d overslept thus the reason why I was currently scurrying round our house haphazardly.

“Ouch!” I cried out, when I couldn’t quite make it round the kitchen corner and bumped my hip against the doorframe. That was probably the tenth injury I self-inflicted in my haste today.

It started with me waking up and looking at the time on my phone only to realize I should’ve been up twenty minutes ago. So I jumped out of bed… Well, at least I tried to. What I actually did was to topple off its side and onto the floor, involuntarily taking the sheets with me. Then I got up and attempted to untangle the fabric from my body. That was yet another unsuccessful experience as the darn thing clung to me, refusing to let go. I tugged at it once again, this time more forcefully. Apparently my sheets did not appreciate such rude behavior as they made sure to take revenge: they tripped me over, causing me to gracefully headbutt the floor for a second time that morning.

But that was only my first ordeal.

When I finally managed to free myself from the bedsheets, I faced the unavoidable task of getting dressed. Yesterday, I’d decided that it was time to tidy up my room. My resolution may or may have not been somewhat influenced by Aunt Azalea’s constant nagging about my bedroom resembling a lost and found bureau. My resolve evaporated after about an hour of sorting my possessions. The end result was such that I had magically turned a “lost and found bureau” into what now resembled a hurricane-stricken site. Yes, my room was even messier than when I started. A very pleasant side-effect of that was that I couldn’t find my clothes. So getting dressed today resembled an Easter egg hunt with the sole difference that what I was searching for was not tasty, chocolate-filled, egg-shaped candy, but whatever was clean, ironed and presentable enough for school. And then there was the small matter that I was a bit pressed on time…

After a quick evaluation of a pair of light blue jeans that I found under my bed and a green tank top, which had somehow made its way to the top of my desk, I deemed them suitable and swiftly dressed in them. The process took slightly longer then usual due to putting on the jeans inside out and having to remove and don them again, but at least this particular task did not lead to any injuries.

I ran downstairs unshod and passed aunts Azalea and Rose, who were on their way up. I vaguely registered the former throwing some sort of remark my way and I’m pretty sure I answered her on impulse. I then made my way to the kitchen, continuing my streak of bumping into inanimate objects with an elegance rivaled only by that of an elephant in a china shop.

“Thank God for Aunt Flora’s love of cooking!” I thought as I entered the kitchen and saw two nice ham sandwiches waiting for me on the table.

“Thanks, Aunty!” I exclaimed, sitting down and shoving the food in my mouth. “I-im-wait-anneed-da-foot!” I stated through a mouthful of ham, bread and cheese, making my aunt laugh at me.

“Oh, dear, I didn’t manage to make out a single word you said, Alice!” She answered through her giggles, while I vigorously chewed down and accidentally bit my tongue.

“Darn!” I shouted, some of the food bursting out of my mouth.

“Oh, what a lady you are, Alice!” I self-ironized in my mind and swallowed what was left of my bite.

“Sorry, Aunt Flora, but I bit my tongue.” I explained, swiping the kitchen table of the chunks I'd spat at it. “And I meant to say “I’m late and need the food” when I spoke earlier.”

“Oh, my, how unpleasant! Do you fancy a lift then?”

“Really?” I asked enthusiastically and accidentally dropped the crumbs that were in my hand. I groaned in frustration; this was so not my day!

“Sure!” She smiled warmly in response. “I forgot to pick some kitty litter on Saturday, so I planned to swing by the pet store. I can drop you off on my way there.”

“Thanks!” I responded with my eyes slightly narrowed at my aunt in order to asses her better.

Had she really forgotten the kitty litter or did she just want to see William again?

*****

“Thanks again, Aunty!” I uttered as I unbuckled the seatbelt once we were in the school parking lot.

“No problem at all, dear; it was my pleasure! And I did enjoy having company on part of my way to the pet shop. It was a pleasant little chat we had.”

I smiled, remembering our conversation. We’d started with some small talk but then moved to a more interesting subject: the publishing of Aunt Rose’s third book. As usual her publishing company was going to throw a big banquet with Aunt Rose as the guest of honor. I’ve been to the previous two and I had to admit that the first time I was rather apprehensive about the whole thing; it was just before my twelfth birthday and I was scared I’d get bored or that I’ll do something immature and embarrass my mother and aunts. It turned out my fears were completely unjustified. Aunt Rose’s publisher was a really nice man and it was a pleasure to chat with him. There were also many other writers apart from my aunt and some of them had brought their children along. So not only did I not get bored but I actually made a few new friends, kids and adults included. Needless to say, I was bursting with joyous anticipation when Aunt Rose invited my mother and me to the banquet in honor of her second book. Now with celebration number three roughly a couple of weeks away I once again felt gleeful.

Aunt Flora on the other hand was anything but cheery. She had always been there to support her older sister, albeit somewhat reluctantly. Not because she didn’t appreciate Rose’s work or because she was jealous of her success, but simply because large gatherings of people made her uneasy. So even though lately she made steps to overcome her terrible shyness, she was still anxious about going to the banquet. And that is where I stepped in and attempted to sooth her apprehension. To my utter surprise, I had somewhat succeeded. After we talked it over on our way to the school, my aunt admitted that she was feeling much calmer and more self-assured.

“Well, I guess one more good thing came out of driving you here today.” Flora’s voice brought me out of my thoughts.

“What do you mean?” I questioned, scrunching my face in a confused expression.

“I got to see your Caden again,” she explained and tilted her head to the right, in the direction where my three friends stood in between Cade and Ash’s cars. “But who are those other two handsome boys?”

“Those are my friends. The brunet is Keegan and the blonde’s name is Asher.”

“Are they just friends like Caden?” She asked in a tone clearly indicating she did not believe the whole “just friends” thing.

“So are you and William just friends?” I spoke in turn, with the same inflection to my voice.

“No need to get catty with me, dear,” she said but the fact that she did not give me a straight answer only served to further ignite my curiosity on the matter. “Now run along or you’ll be late for your class!”

“Fine!” I gave her a brief hug and got out of the car. “Bye, have a nice day Aunty,” I wished her, closing the door and heading towards the boys.

I could feel nervous twinges in the pit of my stomach and they grew more and more prominent with each step I took. I was so anxious to see them that I focused my gaze on my feet, too scared to look at my friends.

It was the first time I’d be speaking with Caden after he invaded my room on Saturday morning. How would he react?

Knowing him, he’d probably pretend it never happened. Unless of course, he was still upset. But he didn’t look upset when he left that day. Not with me anyway. But what about Keegan?

Had they met during the weekend? Had they talked about it?

Oh, God! What if they got into a fight about the whole thing? What if they were now angry at each other? They were best friends, so they wouldn’t stay angry for long… Would they? Plus they didn’t seem cross now…

I craned my head up as the jolly laughter of the three boys reached my ears. I looked at Cade and Keegan: they were both casually leaning on the former’s car with no visible signs of hostility between them. I let out a huge relieved sigh that caused the boys to finally notice my presence and turn towards me.

“Morning, Alice!” Asher greeted and the other two nodded in acknowledgement.

“Morning, guys!” I said, taking a few more steps and standing next to Ash, who was leaning on his own car.

“Was that one of your aunts dropping you off?” The blond asked and I murmured a positive reply, my eyes assessing the two boys in front of me. Now that I had taken a closer look, I realized something was off about Cade… Something that had to do with his posture. It looked unnaturally stiff today. Was I the reason for that? Was it Keegan? Or was it the combination of the two of us in the same place?

“Which one?” Ash questioned and I responded with an absentminded “Huh?”. “Which of your aunts was it?” He repeated and I snapped my head away from Cade to face our blond friend.

“Oh, it was Flora. She had some errand to do anyway.” I grinned as usual when I thought about her and Will. “And by an “errand” I mean visiting William.”

“William?” Both Ash and Keegan exclaimed surprised.

“As in our William, the one from Cillian’s pub?” The brunet went on.

“Yep.”

“But what does she have to do with him?” He inquired.

“Well, as you might know the guy owns a pet store so she goes there to shop for Chess every other day. Now don’t get me wrong, Flora is very forgetful but even she’s not that careless!”

“You think she goes there because of Will?” Asher questioned.

“Oh, I know she goes there because of him. And I also know that he likes her back, he told me so himself. But they are both too shy to make the first step,” I kept talking, a slight frown now wiping the smile from my face.

“Wait, wait!” Keegan started exhilarated. “Will… Our Will… The 6 feet 6 inches, 260 pounds, leather-clad, tattoo-covered biker Will is shy?!” I nodded in response. “God, I’ll have a field day peeving him about it next time we meet!”

“You will do no such thing, Keegan!” I protested sternly, surprising (and slightly scaring) myself with how much I resembled Aunt Azalea right now. Well, we were related after all. “If you say or do anything… And I mean anything… to jeopardize William and Aunt Flora getting together, I swear I’ll learn how to drive for the sole purpose of running you over with a car!”

My tone must have been more threatening than I’d give myself credit for, because both the boy in question and our blond friend stared at me in awe. Caden on the other hand probably found it amusing because he let out a small chuckle.

“Now, now, kids… Play nicely!” He said in an elevated intonation and pushed himself away from the car. “Let’s get going; class already started.”

I groaned in response. For all that I somehow managed to be late today?

I stalked towards the school with Cade next to me, and the still stunned from my outburst Keegan and Asher trailing behind us.

“By the way, little Alice…” Cade spoke quietly so that only I could hear him, “I do admire your enthusiasm to learn to drive and would gladly give you a few lessons myself. After all, it is for a noble cause…” He trailed off, the playful fires in his bluish eyes as clearly evident as the smirk on his lips.