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.
She laughs a little. And she reaches out her hand and lays it against the side of his face.
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.
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."
She folds her arms over her knees and drops her head onto them.
"Ugh."
She chuckles darkly. "Maybe I'll come down with shingles or something. Wouldn't that be handy?"
"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."
"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.
"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."
"...well, I like that mental image in entirely predictable ways," Alice reports.
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?"
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.