Four

Alice

Alice woke up smiling. Even if her brain was still half-unconscious, the joy was too strong not to seep through all the layers of her mind. She was so used to waking up being the hard part, the moment when she’d have to remember it had all been a dream. That she wasn’t Jack’s girlfriend, that they hadn’t made love all night, and that he’d never see her that way.

Not today.

Today reality surpassed all fantasies. Her toes curled under the sheets as memories of how they’d spent the night IRL flashed before her eyes. Yeah, definitely better than every dream could ever hope to be. For a brief moment she doubted herself; could that really all have happened? Slowly, Alice lifted her lids, eyes focusing at once on the very naked proof that, yes, it had been real.

Jack was lying on the bed next to her. Head tilted to the side on the pillow, dark hair ruffled in all directions, and not a sock on his body. She ran her fingertips down the length of his collarbone and arm, all the way to his wrist and back up. She needed to touch as well as see before she could let herself believe Jack was in love with her after they’d been just friends for three years.

A pang of fear made her chest contract. How would their relationship change now? How would they transition into being boyfriend and girlfriend? Would everything be different? Better? Worse? Would sex ruin everything?

Her mental rant was interrupted when Jack opened one eyelid to peek at her sideways. “Ice, I can hear you thinking too much.”

“I’m not.”

Jack turned sideways to stare at her properly, elbow bent on the pillow, head propped on his hand. “So you weren’t getting all inside your head worrying about how our friendship is ruined forever, and how we’re doomed, and wondering how long before we break up?”

“No?”

“Good.” He pushed a lock of hair away from her face. “Because we’re never breaking up.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“I love you.”

Alice’s insides melted. It wasn’t the first time he’d told her, but the words were still so new on his lips. She reached up to touch his face, again wanting to make sure he was real and not just a dream. “I love you, too,” she whispered back.

Jack pulled her into his arms. “Now that you’re mine, I’m never letting you go, Ice. Deal?”

“Deal.” Alice giggled. “But at some point, you’ll have to let me go home.”

“Why?”

Alice pointed to the floor, where her cocktail dress from the wedding lay in a pool of blush chiffon. “As lovely as that dress is, I can’t go around all day wearing it.”

Jack’s mouth curled at the corners. “Fine by me. I prefer you naked anyway.”

“You have a roommate,” Alice chided. “And I need to check on Blue. Remember the little guy who introduced us?”

“Remind me to buy him some expensive bunny treats.” Jack smiled. “Can you have breakfast in a cocktail dress?”

Alice’s stomach grumbled in reply. “Starbucks’ patrons don’t judge, and I’m starving.”

She’d eaten plenty at the wedding, but they’d skipped dinner altogether last night. They’d been too busy doing… what Jack was starting to do now…

Alice’s body tingled under his touch, and with a playful smile, she said, “Now, now. Just because you got lucky once…”

“Oh, yeah?”

Alice squirmed under his gaze.

Jack’s grin was wicked. “So it was just a one-off?”

Whatever sassy reply Alice was trying to come up with was silenced by Jack’s lips. Oh, gosh, he was so going to get lucky any time he wanted.

***

Alice was fighting hard not to sing her joy to the world as she unlocked the door of her apartment. With a full belly, the phantom of Jack’s lips all over her body, the more visible trail of beard burns all over her face and neck, and the echo of those simple, life-changing words—I love you—ringing in her ears, Alice was walking on a cloud and sporting a smile so wide her cheeks ached.

The smile, however, was short-lived. It died on her lips as she spotted Haley’s anxious expression. Her roommate was standing in the living room holding her chin with one hand in a pensive pose. When she heard Alice come in, instead of saying “Hello” Haley pressed a finger to her lips and pointed at Madison’s door with her other hand.

“What’s going on?” Alice whispered. Haley closed the distance between them and made to push her back out the door, but Alice resisted. “Wait, I have to get changed and take a shower.”

“The shower can wait,” Haley whispered back. “We need to talk. Put something on and meet me on the roof. Please be quiet, I don’t want Madison to wake up.”

Begrudgingly, Alice shuffled into her room and changed into a pair of sweatpants and a T-shirt. She checked Blue’s cage. It had already been cleaned and the bunny fed. Well, even if they didn’t let her shower, at least her roommates were good for something.

That’s when Alice remembered Madison had come home from the wedding in tears yesterday and she’d left Haley to deal with the mess, not sparing the matter a second thought until now. She hadn’t even texted Madison to ask her how she was. And from Haley’s urgency, the issue was far from solved.

I’m a horrible friend.

Now filled with worry, Alice hurried to the rooftop.

“What’s going on?” she asked as soon as she set foot outside.

Haley turned to face her, eyes positively murderous. “I’m going to kill David Williams. I hate him, Alice, I hate him so much.”

“Why? What happened? What did he do?”

Haley sighed. “I’ve been authorized to tell you everything, since Madison wants you to know, but she’s not in the right state of mind to repeat the whole story…”

The more Haley talked, the more Alice started to connect all the dots from the previous day and weeks. The blue shadows under Madison’s eyes. Her pale face, newly cynical view on weddings, and general subdued attitude. Madison pretending the breakup with David had been unimportant, and her refusal to discuss it. Alice had blamed Madison’s sudden reticence on their argument over Jack, but deep down she’d known something else had to have happened. It seemed David Williams had happened! And one of her best friends—yours truly—abandoning Madison at a time of need had happened. Even after she’d learned about their breakup, Alice hadn’t asked, because her pride and heart were still sore after discovering Jack and Madison had had a one-night stand in freshman year. And Haley had probably been too clueless as usual to notice—they usually had to spell things out for her where people’s feelings were concerned. Haley could talk to robots, but she found people much harder to read.

As Haley wrapped up the full story, more pieces fell into place. Madison’s sudden disappearance from the wedding the day before. Ethan, Vicky, and Rose confabulating in a close circle. Ethan’s homicidal expression when he looked at Tyler. And the groom’s pale and frazzled appearance.

What. A. Mess. No wonder Ethan was giving me attitude yesterday, Alice thought. At least now it made sense.

“…And then there’s Scott,” Haley concluded. “Madison likes him more than she’s letting on, doesn’t she?”

Well, ding-dong, Haley. That took you long enough to grasp.

“Mmm,” was all Alice mumbled, not wanting to confirm Haley’s fears, regardless of how well-founded they might be.

“Mmm?” Haley turned toward her, crossing her arms over her chest. “Is that all you have to say?”

No, Alice thought. I want to tell you how happy I am. How crazily, stupidly in love I feel. I want to savor the joy at least for twenty-four hours without being pulled into more drama.

Alice chided her inner self for being so selfish. One of her friends was in pain and all messed up. No matter what Madison had failed to confess, she’d always been there to support Alice through every Jack crisis. They had spent endless movie nights in whenever Jack had a new date and Alice was too depressed to go out. And Madison hated watching TV, she only loved books.

“We have to do something,” Haley insisted.

“Yeah, but…” Alice pulled her hair up into a ponytail. “What can we do? I mean, other than being around and being supportive?”

“I don’t know, Alice. I feel so guilty. She’s in love with Scott, isn’t she?”

“I can’t honestly say,” Alice said vaguely.

Haley threw her a no-bullshit look.

“Okay,” Alice conceded. “I suspect she’s more into Scott than she’s letting on.”

“Wonderful!” Haley pressed her hands to her temples.

“Hey, it’s not your fault. You don’t have to feel guilty about dating him.”

“But how could I not? I’m his girlfriend. Remember how much you used to hate Jack’s girlfriends? How can Madison stand to live with me?”

“First, those are a lot of questions, and second, I’m sure Madison doesn’t hate you.”

“Would you not hate me? Just a few weeks ago you wanted to claw her eyes out for sleeping with Jack, once, three years ago. And I’ve been with Scott for the past six months, right in her face! And I’m not even considering giving him up because I’m just so in love with him… but then, it’s impossible not to feel guilty about how happy I am.”

Alice nudged Haley shoulder-to-shoulder. “So is Scott the one?”

Her friend smiled. “I suspect he might be. I’ve never felt this way for anyone.”

“Not even for the infamous masked dude from last summer?”

“Please don’t remind me about that.” Haley hid her face behind her hands. “I dance with a masked stranger at a party, kiss him, never learn his name, and spend the next six months obsessing over him. How lame is that?”

“Sounded pretty romantic when you were telling us the story.” Alice started talking using what she called a “movie trailer” voice. “A lonely dame at a ball rescued by a mysterious masked gentleman who sweeps her off her feet, leading her in a passionate dance—”

“He was a horrible dancer.”

“It’s the thought that counts.” Alice continued talking in her movie voice. “A romantic stroll in the gardens under a thousand fairy lights, and then, at the stroke of midnight, an epic kiss…”

Haley laughed at her theatrics, but said, “It wasn’t midnight, I’m no Cinderella, and it’s the dude who fled the ball without telling me his name. Sometimes I even wonder if that night was real. You know when something seems so ‘too good to be true’ that you ask yourself if it wasn’t all a dream?”

Haley had just described how Alice had woken up that morning, and she couldn’t suppress the little smirk that escaped her lips. “I know.”

Haley caught the smile and flashed a grin back. “Tell me, Miss Brown, are those beard burns all over your face?”

Alice couldn’t keep it inside any longer, she told Haley everything. How Jack had waited for her in front of their building, how he’d told her he was in love with her, and how they’d spent the night and the best part of the morning.

“Great!” Haley scoffed sarcastically. “So we’re both the happiest we’ve ever been and our best friend is at an all-time low. Alice, I love Scott so much… and he loves me back… a-and I don’t know how to shield Madison from all that.”

“For one, we don’t rub our happiness in her face.”

“And for two?”

“We have to avoid becoming two of those cheesy couples that do things only in pairs. We have to keep going out with a wider group of people—singles and couples—and include Madison as much as possible. And when she has a low day and needs a girls’ night in, we tell the beloved boyfriends to beat it.”

“And you think that will be enough?”

Alice shrugged. “It’s the best we can do; we can’t fix her love life for her. When Madison’s ready, she’ll find the right guy. In the meantime, our job is to be around as much as possible and to force Madison to be social.”

“She likes parties more than I do.”

“True, but what guys do you usually pick up at parties?”

“The wrong kind. Gotcha.”

“Anyway, there won’t be many parties, at least for a while.” Alice sighed. “Not with almost everyone gone for the summer.”

“Right. Only the best are left.” Haley smiled, staring at the Boston skyline in the distance. “I could never spend a whole summer home.”

“Me neither, I’d be bored out of my mind.”

“And also lovesick over Jack.”

“Especially lovesick over Jack.” Alice flashed her friend a megawatt smile. “So how’s your schedule for summer break? Are you going to be super busy?”

“Nah.” Haley toyed with a lock of hair, curling it around her fingers. “I’m taking three summer courses, but I should be able to stick around a lot. You?”

“Same for me. I’m doing an internship at a pharmaceutical company downtown, but it’s mornings only.” Alice grinned. “Jack applied for the same program without telling me, you know, when we weren’t speaking…”

“I like his style.”

“Yeah, me too. You know what Madison is doing?”

“A literary research project for her department.”

“And Scott?”

“He applied for a few internships, something to do with pre-med school. But no answers so far, I think. We haven’t really discussed it yet.”

“Okay, so everyone will be here for the summer,” Alice said. “Now that we have a plan, can I go shower?”

“Yeah, thanks for the pep talk.” Haley pulled her into a hug and added jokingly, “Now you can go wash Jack off.”

They both laughed and stumbled toward the elevator, still hugging each other. They were a team; they could solve any problem if they stuck together.