Squealing as Helena gently grasped her neck and rocked her to and fro
with false aggravation, Alice gasped through her giggles, “It’s not my
fault! You said it, you said it!”

“You are a horrid influence,” Helena announced as she released her hold
on Alice’s neck, smiling when the blonde fell against her shoulder with
a groan to rest her head there. She lifted a hand up to play with
thoroughly messy blonde hair then said, “Your looks are terribly
deceptive. They make you appear innocent when in fact you are anything
but.”

“I know,” Alice grinned impishly up at Helena. “It really does rock.”

“I’m not quite sure I agree with that assessment,” Helena replied,
chuckling. Scowling slightly as she watched Julia begin to have *****
with the scruffy man who picked her up. Only to then have her eyes
widen when she watched the scene turn violent as they began fighting
and Julia called Lena on her cell phone. “I think that this doesn’t
bode well,” she murmured.

“Yeah,” said Alice, frowning and instinctively moving even closer to
Helena, causing the brunette to wrap an arm around her shoulder. “This
is going from ***** drama into Cops drama. The dude is even without a
shirt and breaking stuff.”

“Perhaps we ought to flip the channel as you say?” offered Helena,
wincing as she saw the man press Julia forcibly down onto the floor.
This echoed far too much of the rape stories she heard and dealt with
because of The Foundation and it wasn’t something she particulary
needed to see in her spare time. Especially when the spare time is meant to be enjoyable.
Which it always was when she spent that time with Alice. “This doesn’t
appear to be turning out as you hoped.”

Watching Julia continue to fight the man and Lena rounding street
corners in her Camaro at top speeds, Alice shook her head and looked up
at Helena and offered a weak smile. “Nah, it should be fine. Lena will
show up at any second and save Julia from this joker and they’ll drive
off all sunsety but without the actual sunset,” Alice assured while she
moved closer to Helena and turned her attention to the screen.

For some reason Julia was now holding three bullets in her hand,
something that Helena noticed but Alice did not and watching as Lena
rounded yet another corner in her car, Helena said worriedly,
“Darling… I think we really ought to flip the channel now.”

“What do you mean?” said Alice in confusion, keeping her eyes fixed
forward on the television screen as Julia pulled out a gun from
seemingly nowhere. “Holy *****,” Alice breathed, her eyes going wide as
the music went completely silent and the brunette shot the man in the
head, his blood spattering all over the white sheet inexplicably
hanging from his wall.

Releasing a shriek on seeing this, Alice buried her face in Helena’s
chest and the British woman hugged the blonde to her while
simultaneously scrambling for the remote she flung to the other side of
the couch. Remote safely in hand, Helena immediately turned the video
off although it was at its end with Julia having climbed down the fire
escape to be met with the sight of Lena driving up in her Camaro to
return the smile mysteriously. Bemused, she shook her head and tossed
the remote onto the floor. Helena then slid down the couch, causing
Alice to lay with her on their sides, the blonde still hiding her face,
pressing into Helena.

They remained like that for several moments, Alice hiding and Helena
reminding herself that the writer was her friend. Only her friend and
that she really should stop enjoying the fact she was holding her in
this manner. Wanting to distract herself from these thoughts, Helena
said in a playful drawl, “Have we changed our minds about possessing
fondness for false ***** Russian musical duos now? Those poor girls
have clearly had their minds warped by that horrible manager of theirs
if they are able to produce such a video, don’t you think?”

“Tatu bad, Helena good,” Alice mumbled into Helena, remaining in her
hiding position against the brunette’s chest and snuggling closer for
good measure.

And for the third time that day, Helena felt friendship turning into
something else but for the first time she didn’t regret that it was
happening. Instead she welcomed it and hoped the day would come very
soon when she could act on these changing feelings. Until then she
would enjoy moments like these, the ones where she got to hold Alice
close and pretend, much like the girls they had just finished watching,
that their relationship was something more.

To be continued…