Alice walked towards her new home, her heart racing with anticipation.
As she turned a corner, Alice saw the boy from the train station standing a few feet away. She considered turning around and walking in the other direction, but her curiosity got the best of her.
"Excuse me," Alice called out, causing the boy to turn around. He looked at her with a curious expression, wondering why she was speaking to him.
"Are you following me?" the boy asked, eyeing her suspiciously.
Alice raised an eyebrow, surprised by the boy's accusation. "What? What are you talking about? I'm just going home."
The boy rolled his eyes and turned back around, walking a few more steps before stopping. He then turned around and glared at Alice. "Why don't you go first, and I'll see if you're following me," he said angrily.
Alice was taken aback by the boy's aggressive response, but she decided to ignore it and continue on her way. She made it to her new home and rang the doorbell, hearing the familiar sound echo through the halls.
To her surprise, the boy from the train followed her all the way to her home. As she turned to confront him, she saw the door to her house open, revealing a woman standing in the doorway.
"Alice?" the woman asked, a warm smile on her face. "I'm so glad you're here! Come on in," she said, stepping aside to let Alice enter.
The boy was stunned, unable to believe that Alice was going to live in his house.
Alice had just finished unpacking her things in her new room and was walking down the hallway when she heard a voice from behind her. Turning around, she saw Leo, the boy from the train station, leaning against a wall with a stoic expression on his face.
"What do you want?" Alice asked, feeling a twinge of frustration. She had already put the whole train incident behind her, and she didn't want to dredge it all up again.
"I heard you talking to my mom," Leo said, still maintaining his emotionless demeanor.
Alice sighed. She could see that Leo was not going to apologize on his own accord, so she decided to take matters INTO HER OWN HANDS.
"Look, Leo," she said, trying to keep her voice calm and reasonable. "I know you couldn't have known, but you scared the hell out of me when you were so cold against me and I just think it would be helpful if you apologized. We're going to be living in the same house, after all."
Leo crossed his arms over his chest, making it clear that he had no intention of apologizing. Alice felt a surge of anger rise up inside her, but she refused to let it take over. Instead, she took a steady breath and tried one last time to appeal to Leo's sense of reason.
"Fine," she said through gritted teeth. "If you don't want to apologize, that's your prerogative. But I want you to know that we need to learn to get along, and that means respecting each other's boundaries."
Leo just stood there, staring back at Alice with his cold, expressionless gaze. Alice felt a twinge of sadness at the thought of starting off on such a contentious note with her new housemate. But she also knew that she had done all she could to clear the air, and it was up to Leo to meet her halfway. With a final nod, she turned and walked off, hoping that they could find a way to make things work.