A Hole in the World (13 page)

‘Bianca! If Alex wants to stay it’s her choice...’ Cory grabs Alexandra’s other hand as Bianca attempts to pull her away.

‘Look, she’s an innocent girl from another land. I’m not going to let you corrupt her!’ Bianca tugs on her arm. ‘And we really should get home.’

‘Bianca, you’re hurting me!’ Alexandra squeaks.

‘Sorry.’ Bianca lets go of her and the blonde takes a stumbling step backwards towards Cory.  ‘You know what... just do what you want. But if you’d rather be dancing with Cory then maybe you should be living in his bedroom instead of mine.’ She turns away, stalking off across the dance floor, towards the nearest fire exit.

‘Bianca!’ Alexandra exclaims. She looks at Cory. ‘I’m sorry. I should...’ She gestures towards Bianca.

‘Of course.’ He smiles at her and lets go of her hand. ‘Go on.’

She runs off towards the fire exit too and Cory sighs, turning around.  He catches sight of Daisy at that moment, the redheaded girl walking towards him from their table.

‘Wanna dance?’ she says, with a smile, once she gets up to him.

‘Nah.’ Cory shakes his head. ‘Done dancing for now.’ He drapes his arm around her shoulders. ‘Let’s just go drink until we’re comatose.’

*

‘Bianca!’

‘What?’ Bianca stops walking and turns around to face Alexandra. ‘What do you want from me?’

‘I left Cory to come to you. Is that not what you desired?’ Alexandra says.

‘No! I mean yes, but no... I just...’ She fists a hand in her dark hair and shakes her head. ‘What is it that you want from me, Alexandra? You and he... You’re so close. You like him more than me and that’s fine but don’t expect me to like it.’

‘He is, perhaps, my Prince Charming. Since
you
are not.’ Alexandra glances down at her feet. ‘I am meant to meet my Prince Charming in this world, after all, am I not?’

‘Says who?’ Bianca snaps. ‘Why does it have to be in this world? Hell, you’re, what, seventeen? Why do you need to meet your Prince Charming
now
anyway? Why can’t you just live your life? Party? Enjoy yourself?!’

‘Because I am Princess Alexandra. It has been foretold since before I was born that my Prince Charming would rescue me and take me back to the kingdom where we are to be wed.’

‘Great.’ Bianca turns around, walking down the pavement under the dull orange street lights ahead. ‘So go marry Cory then if that’s what you want. I’m sure he’ll make a
great
husband and give you lots of perky little princes and princesses.’

‘I do not understand your issue with Cory and I,’ Alexandra calls after her. ‘You say you are not my Prince Charming, why can no one else be either?’

‘I don’t know,’ Bianca mutters.  She turns around and looks back at the blonde, who looks completely out of place, standing in a darkened alley in her pretty pink dress. ‘Look,’ she says. ‘Go back in. You know where I live... Come back when you’re ready.’ She tosses her key at the princess in front of her. ‘Just... try not to get caught.’

‘Okay...’ Alexandra looks down at the shiny silver key in her palm.

‘Okay then.’ Bianca walks away, ignoring the sound of the fire exit opening in the building behind her and Alexandra walking back inside.

When Bianca opens her eyes the next morning, she doesn’t think she’s going to find Alexandra, asleep beside her, sharing her bed as always. She expects to begin to panic, to call Cory and to find out it’s all okay... that Alexandra is living with
him
now, her Prince Charming. Bianca inhales slowly, the breath calming her raw nerves, removes her face from her pillow and turns around.

‘Good morning,’ Alexandra says, cheerily, from beside her. Her shiny, wavy blonde hair is splayed out over the pillow around her head and she looks tired from the night before, but none the worse for wear.

‘Hey.’ Bianca cringes in the sunlight coming from her window, glad the pain from her headache hides her relief. ‘What time is it?’

‘Five forty-six,’ Alexandra says, smiling. ‘We shall have to rouse soon for school.’

Bianca shakes her head. ‘Inset day,’ she says. ‘No school. We get the day off.’

‘No school today? Much like a weekend, yes?’ Alexandra says.

‘Yeah.’ Bianca yawns. ‘We just spend today doing our extra homework and try not to take too much advantage of a week day in which we don’t have to go to school.’

‘So... instead of rousing and proceeding to school, what shall we do?’ Alexandra enquires.

‘Well,’ Bianca says. ‘Those of us with hangovers are going back to sleep. It’s up to you what you do. Go see Cory if you want.’

It wasn’t meant to come out dripping with so much poison, but the words hurt her throat as she says them.

‘Sorry,’ Bianca mutters. ‘I didn’t mean it like that. Last night... I was drunk. I didn’t mean to be so mean.’

‘It is understandable,’ Alexandra says. ‘You have been my Prince Charming since you rescued me and now I am attempting to find my real prince. It is completely understandable that you would not appreciate this and find it... offensive.’

‘Eh.’ Bianca groans and rolls onto her back, pulling her arms out from under the duvet. ‘It doesn’t feel understandable,’ she says, fiddling with her nail polish. ‘It feels dumb.
I
feel dumb. I feel very,
very
dumb.’

Alexandra smiles softly at her, reaches across the duvet and places her dainty hand on top of Bianca’s. ‘If there is one thing you are not, Bianca Western, it would be lacking in intelligence.’

Bianca looks across at her. ‘You sure about that? ‘Cause I got a really low IQ score way back when. I couldn’t be arsed to actually do the silly test right.’

Alexandra keeps on smiling and Bianca sighs. ‘So, do we go back to sleep?’ she says, stifling a yawn.

‘Yes,’ Alexandra says, rolling over. She scoots closer to Bianca, pressing her front against the dark-haired girl’s side, head resting on her shoulder. ‘Let us sleep.’

*

The second time Bianca wakes up, she’s chest-to-chest with Alexandra, the two girls entwined in one another, curled up in bed.

She thinks she should probably be disturbed by this. Worried that she’s woken up wrapped around the girl she can’t be with but loves so damn much.

‘Oh, Bianca,’ she mutters to herself, ‘you really
are
stupid.’

‘Not stupid,’ Alexandra mumbles from where her mouth is pressed into Bianca’s shoulder, still very much asleep. ‘Very intelligent. Practically a genius.’

Bianca smiles and goes back to sleep.

*

‘Bianca, are you awake yet?’

Bianca shoots up in bed, ignoring the muffled squeal of Alexandra rolling off the bed next to her and hitting the floor with a thump. It only takes her a second to scramble back to her feet and then the blonde is running for the wardrobe and diving inside, pulling the door closed behind her.

‘Yeah, Mum.’ Bianca swings her legs off the bed. ‘I guess I am now.’

‘Oh, sorry.’ Julia pushes open the door and walks in, holding a laundry basket. She smiles at her daughter as she approaches the bed and places the basket down on the end of the mattress. ‘Party good?’

‘Eventful.’ Bianca sighs, rubbing her eyes. ‘But yeah, good. I don’t
think
I lost any friends. Although Scotty might be annoyed I didn’t say goodbye before I left.’

‘Why didn’t you say goodbye?’ Julia asks, pulling the clothes out one at a time and folding them into a pile.

‘I left in a rush...’ Bianca shrugs. ‘It’s nothing, Mum. Just some boy trouble.’

Julia raises an eyebrow at her teenage daughter. ‘You’re only fifteen,’ she snaps, ‘you’re too young to be worrying about boys!’

‘Sorry,’ Bianca mutters. Her eyes widen as she sees her mother turn towards the wardrobe to put the clothes away. ‘Mum! Don’t!’

Julia pauses. ‘Why not?’

‘Bomb zone. I wasn’t very delicate when I went through everything last night...’ She shakes her head. ‘I don’t want you to see it like that.’

‘Fine.’ Julia sighs as she moves to leave the room. ‘Just make sure you put your clothes away
properly
, okay? Don’t just throw them in there and say it’s done.’

 Julia closes the door behind her and Bianca sighs, relieved. ‘You can come out now.’

Alexandra all but falls out of the wardrobe. ‘I believe the inside grows smaller each time I have the need to hide.’

‘Probably.’ Bianca shrugs and sighs, reaching for clothes. ‘Wanna go out? Or should I do homework?’

‘If you have work yet to complete, work is something you should do.’

‘Meh.’ Bianca pulls a face. ‘When did you become Princess Conscience, eh?’ She sighs as she pulls her shirt on over her head, sliding her other top off underneath.

Alexandra smiles and sits down on the bed behind her, wrapping her arms around her shoulders and letting her cheek rest against the back of her neck. ‘You’re very comfortable,’ she says.

Bianca swallows as the feelings from earlier in the morning come rushing back. The feelings of contentment and
love
.  Overpowering love.

She shrugs the blonde away. ‘Nah, I’m not,’ she says, standing up and pulling her jeans on. ‘I’m just... padded.’

‘Padded?’

‘Yep. Padded.’
And definitely not in love
, she thinks to herself as she reaches for her bag.

‘I see.’ Alexandra sits up on the bed and watches her. ‘You are to do homework now?’

‘Yeah.’

‘Should I continue to sleep?’ she suggests. ‘And thusly not disturb your work?’

‘If you want. I’m not bothered.’ Bianca sits down on the middle of the bed, spreading her work out around her.

Alexandra curls up in a ball on the bed, watching her. ‘I do not believe Cory is my prince,’ she says, quietly.

Bianca doesn’t reply, she just smiles to herself and keeps on working.

*

Alexandra’s plan to sleep more fails after a while having slept too much already. Instead, she sits beside Bianca and watches her work, questioning the science of her world and enquiring as to how things work. After a while she sighs, bored, and stands up.

‘Is it permissible for me to permeate the air with that astonishing music-delivery system you demonstrated to me earlier? Your ‘iPod’?’

Bianca looks up, pen pausing over her notepaper, a smirk playing against her lips. ‘Go for it.’

She looks back down at her work as Alexandra moves across and flicks through the iPod, before landing on what seems to be her favourite song.

Bianca laughs as John Barrowman’s ‘Uptown Girl’ starts playing. ‘Seriously?!’ she says, still laughing. ‘It’s not even the original!’

‘I think it is remarkable,’ Alexandra says, turning around, swaying to the music. She’s coordinated, moving with the beat, foot tapping against the carpet in time to the music. Bianca watches her, eyes losing focus for a moment as she observes her fluid movements. ‘Dance with me?’ she requests, proffering her hand downwards towards the girl on the bed. ‘We did not get chance for a dance ourselves last night.’

Bianca rolls her eyes, accepts the hand and stands up, dancing like an uncoordinated crazy person and singing along. ‘
She’s been living in her white bread world, as well as anyone with hot blood can, and now she’s looking for a downtown man
,’ she sings.

They do a little jig through the chorus, laughing together and then catching each other’s hands as Bianca sings, ‘
She’s my uptown girl, don’t you know I’m in love with an uptown girl?
’

They stumble backwards and land on the bed together, Alexandra bouncing for a second on top of Bianca before falling sideways onto the mattress beside her, the two girls still laughing like it’s the funniest thing they’ve ever done.

‘Thank you,’ Bianca whispers, after a moment.

‘What for?’ Alexandra enquires.

‘For being a princess. For letting me rescue you... For... For everything, really. Just thank you. In the two weeks you’ve been here... you’ve become my best friend.’ She smiles across at her. ‘I can’t imagine life without you.’

Alexandra smiles back at her. ‘Me, too,’ she says.

‘Bianca, Alexandra, could I talk to you, please? Together?’

‘Yes, sir.’ Bianca looks up at Sands, who is standing at the front of class peering suspiciously at them both as the rest of the class file out, leaving only the two girls and the teacher.

‘Alexandra, how old are you?’ Sands enquires, walking across.

Alexandra mouths like a fish for a moment before sighing and saying, ‘Seventeen.’

Sands nods. ‘Why aren’t you in college?’

She looks to Bianca, who bites her lip and says, ‘She’s not enrolled here.’

Sands looks at the dark haired girl. ‘I know. I did some checking,’ he says, with a nod. ‘So, why has she been attending my class for the last month?’

‘You wouldn’t believe us if we told you,’ Bianca says.  She glances towards the doorway; Scotty, Cory and Daisy are there, watching, listening and waiting.