Work Text:
Alice is a rebel. Alice draws deep on her cigarette and breathes out hard. Billows of noxious fumes. Right into Misaki's face. Alice watches her big brown eyes tear up. Watches her small pinched face as her narrow shoulders shudder with coughs.
"Stop," Misaki chokes out. "Alice. Stop."
But Alice won’t stop. Because when she leaves class to come up to the rooftop to smoke, goody two shoes class representative Misaki follows. And they stand like this. Face to face. Alone beneath piles of summer clouds. Like the protagonists of a romance at the moment of truth. And Misaki is unable to meet her eyes, just like the bashful love interest before the confession. And Misaki's voice breaks, just like it ought to when speaking the lines “I like you”.
So Alice sneaks packs of cigarettes. So Alice slams doors. So Alice runs. Relishes the sound of Misaki's frantic feet pitter pattering up the stairs behind her.
Alice smokes.
She can feel her lungs turning black next to her red red heart beating too hard beating too fast. It’s very fitting because the first time she walked into the classroom and saw the bright-eyed girl with the small earnest smile, Alice had forgotten how to breathe.
Who needs these useless lungs.