Peeping Alice pt.10
She keeps her head there, on his shoulder for just minutes. He lets her rest, and tries to keep silent, barely breathing. When he feels her at last relaxing and her breathing slowing and regular, he lowers his shoulder slightly trying to move and wake her. She does not respond immediately, but sidles closer getting comfortable. He slowly pulls away, arm and shoulder sliding out from under her resting head. Nimbly, he pries her fingers off the coffee mug before it spills over, and tumbles to the ground. Once her head slides down and lands on the warm cushions of the sofa, she startles awake, righting herself.
"Vincent?" She mumbles quietly to the air. Clinking noises from the kitchen answer her before he does.
"Finish getting ready, I will clean up." She hears running water, and more clinking noises from the kitchen as she stands and puts the phone back in its cradle.
It only takes her moments to grab her coat and bag for work, and she's back in the living room. Vincent is there waiting, front door partially open as he leans against the door frame.
"Ready?"
She nods her answer, not meeting his pale blue eyes as she slips through the doorway and heads down the stairs. He follows quickly behind her after securing her door, and his.
The car ride is quiet, the air tense between them. Vincent concentrates on driving, back straight, head grazing the padded ceiling of the vans interior. Alice gazes out the window as they drive through the surrounding neighborhood, noticing that Vincent deliberately avoids Meadow Lane on their way to the city.
Alice stares in facination at the changing trees, many of them still hanging on to their last vestiges of the spring and summer. Green leaves knocked by the wind off the bough before they even have a chance to change. Some looking more worn, more old and tired than their counterparts, have already surrendered to the erratic and sometimes harsh weather by shedding their crinkled brown leaves.
"It's so pretty...the leaves changing."
Next to her, Vincent just nods more out of acknowledgement than agreement with Alice's statement. He spares a glance for her as she stares wide-eyed at the scenery.
"It's a nice city, I'm glad we came back." She tries to keep the sadness out of her voice as she says it, but doesn't entirely succeed.
"We could have stayed in the desert a bit longer, Alice. You do not need to keep up this charade."
"No. Vegas is nice, but this..." She tears gaze from the passing treelines of the neighborhood to look at Vincent's road-focused mein. "I think I missed it, even if I don't remember it."
Outside, the scenery changes from tree-lined neighbourhoods to the landscaped highway, as Vincent maneuvers the black van into the merging flow of traffic. As they drive nearer, the tall downtown buildings seem to become more substantial, forming on the horizon out of the clear fall sky.
"It's like I've always known that this was home, everything seems familiar somehow," she says with a faraway look in her eyes. "Does that make sense?"
He gives a brief nod. "It is always like that..." he says hesitantly, "many places feel like home when you have been there before."
"But I don't think that it's because I'm from here...it's more like I wanted to be here, even though I didn't know where here was until recently." She scrunches up her face in annoyance as she continues, "And I'm not going to stop working, just because you think I don't need to."
A small chuckle forces it's way from his lungs before he can hold it in, and Alice rests her head on the seat grinning slightly.
"I resent that you call it a charade anyhow. Work makes my life a little more normal. You don't. Besides, the work is easy."
"It does intrude on your time, Alice."
"I know that," she replies in a most child-like sing-song voice. "I just feel like I should be doing something else. I can't spend all day waiting for someone to need me."
"It is not always like that."
"Well, it feels like it sometimes." She turns to watch out the side window so she cannot see him from the corner of her eyes. Her whole body is tense, and she tries to use the quiet passing moments to calm herself as she listens for the simple steady pattern of the tires on the highway. She senses the rhythm of his breathing behind her as they both settle into an uncomfortable silence.
The rest of their drive stays silent, only the whirling sounds of wind and traffic intruding. When at last, Vincent parks the van into an underground lot, Alice is out of the car before he can completely pull the key from the ignition. Bag and coat thrown over her shoulder, she makes her way to the personnel door swiping her passcard over the security pad as she goes.