Ingrained Couple

The phone clicked off, and Alice realized that he hung up, and she sighed knowing that it was very much his style to not even bother saying bye before ending the call. She flopped back on the sofa with her phone out to the side, and Claudia came back walking out curiously before sitting down next to her and leaning her head on Alice's shoulder.

"Who was that?" Claudia asked.

Was Alice going to confess that it was Noah? Was it really the best action to take? After everyone started sending her the knowing glances when she said that fact. Not that she would care too much if Claudia did the same, but Alice was trying to keep the scrap of her pride that she had left considering how everyone liked to see them.

She didn't judge them for doing so, because there was literally a couple of poster of them up around the hallways of the school and even in the quad where everyone saw them while coming inside. 

Then again, it was a really good-looking photo of them for sure, being ingrained in their minds for a while as a pair. She didn't want to think too much about it, because at the end of the day, all she could say was that Noah was a person who intrigued her. Alice sighed, and Claudia flicked Alice's forehead.

"Ow," Alice whined. "What's wrong?"

Claudia laughed. "I'm wondering if it is worth asking you."

They sat down at the table to eat, and Alice brought her hands together grateful that they were able to hang out without the disturbances of other people for the first time in a while. It wasn't in a relaxed way, but rather a jumbled mess like when they were at school or when they tried to hang out after school when they barely had enough time.

Claudia did go reheat the curry once more, and Alice had chopsticks in her hand ready to dig in. While she was waiting, Alice continued to watch the show that was up and yawned with the late night hours now hitting her. 

She could hear Claudia running up the stairs which made Alice laugh, and she looked over her shoulder when Claudia came back into the room with the food in tow. 

Chewing on the large glass noodle, Alice smiled over at Claudia and took a large sip of her water bottle to try and calm the heat that was blazing her tongue. The curry was spicy and potent which was exactly how Alice liked it. 

The girls watched the show in silence while laughing at the couple's antics on screen. She finished her plate and wiped her mouth with a napkin only to choke when a raunchy scene came up that she didn't remember being there. Claudia snorted at Alice's reaction, not even bothering to help as Alice choked down some water. 

"Let's clean up so that we have more table space for the notes," Alice said.

"Can we at least leave the TV on?" Claudia asked slowly as she moved to clean the dirty napkins.

"If you promise to not get too distracted," Alice agreed, and Claudia nodded vigorously.

"Yes, yes. I promise."

Alice laughed. "Sure, I'll believe it when I see it."

They threw away the trash before taking the leftovers and putting it in a different container so that the scent wouldn't be too strong before putting it away in the fridge. Alice quickly helped Claudia do the dishes placed them into a round of the dishwasher and headed back up the stairs after Claudia did a double check of locked doors.

Alice went over to her corner to pull out the textbooks and notes that she hauled with her in the morning but dumped out later when she arrived so that she wouldn't break her back and placed the materials down on the clean and sprayed-down table and flipped to the page where they needed to dissect today.

Grabbing a pen out of her pencil case, she started to outline the topics that they needed to review along with information that stuck out to her such as it needed to be defined better or just needed a longer time to grasp the concept. Claudia sat down across from her with the television to her back, and Alice slid the textbook so that they could both look at it.

"How are you going to watch TV if your back is facing it?" Alice asked.

"I have my ways," Claudia said slowly making Alice roll her eyes.

"Okay, we need to study this for the test that is going to be on Monday."

Claudia placed down her pencil in shock. "There's a test on Monday? Who even does that? How did I not know?"

"Mr. Rios said so before class ended."

"That's horrible," Claudia groaned. "I have never even seen these graphs before."

"If you looked at them rather than your phone then you would see them," Alice sang.

"Oh right. You've already done this portion haven't you?"

Alice nodded. "I have, but it's a good review for me as well."

"Well do me the pleasure of teaching me, Ms. Marozi."

Alice wrinkled her nose. "I wouldn't be suited for a teacher."

"Then tutor me, my dear, Alice."

Alice sighed. "You're so stupid."