Queen of Spades (House of Car...

Alice woke up in hte early morning hours when Malcolm tried to slip out of bed. "Go back to sleep Ace. I just realized that if Salali comes home to find us naked in bed together, she might get suspicious." he explained.

They stopped at his apartment so he could grab a change of clothes before heading the school. Alice ended up getting dropped off a block before htey arrived so no one saw them pull in together. Despite Malcolm's worries that morning over getting caught, Salali never came home to catch them together. As Alice walked up hte front steps, West swooped inbeside her, throwing an arm over her shoulders.

"Good night?" he asked casually and laughed as Alice's face flamed red. "I'll take that as a very good night." he teased as Alice walked to her locked. The door had been repainted, but no new attacks had been scrawled across the front. Then again, Alice suspected that her blossoming friendship with West had more to do with it than the student body getting bored with it. West hadn't actually done much to the three boys that had attacked her, but what little he had done landed them in the hospital.

"You need to shut hte h*** up." Alice muttered to him. "Besides, my friends all think I'm dating DJ Mask." she remembered.

West smirked at her. "Unless Reaper's been moonlighting, you lied to them." he tsked jokingly.

Alice turned to face him with a grin of her own. "Actually it's not a total lie. DJ Mask is a part of my relationship, but it's 'Reaper' who is dating the DJ." she informed him, trying to keep the nicnames straight. West already knew her secret about Malcolm, letting him in on her DJ id was a no brainer after that.

"S***, can I get an autograph?" he asked, making her laugh as he scrambled for a pen like a fanboy. The bell rang and he gave her a quick hug before disappearing.

Alice walked into English class and tried not to stare at Mr. Vega like he'd rocked her world last night. But now she was wondering just what he meant by his ami amor comment. Was he falling in love with her, or was it just that they were lovers? And more importantly did she love him? It was a confusing swirl of emotional weight and she shrugged it aside as best she could to focus on classwork. They were grouped together to help go over the exam preparation sheets. But when Alice sat down with her designated group, the first question asked had nothing to do with Hamlet.

"Are you really sleeping with DJ Mask?" one of hte girls asked in a low voiced whisper.

"Ah..." Alice was caught off guard.

"That is so cool. He's totally hot, even though you never see his face, you can totally tell." One of hte other girls gushed, taking Alice's stutter as confirmation.

"Do you think you could convince him to do our prom so it's not lame like last year's was?" one of the guys asked.

"I don't even know when prom is." Alice retorted, feeling lost.

"June eighteenth. We get to party after our exams and the Gala are finished." another guy explained.

"That doesn't sound like exam preparation to me." Mr. Vega's voice made them look guilty as they were caught.

"Sorry Mr. Vega." One of the girls apologized, smiling and batting her eyelashes at him. Alice's jaw clenched over her jealous reaction but eased as she noticed that he was oblivious to the other student's attempt at flirtation. He eventually wandered to the next group, where they were agitatedly waving hteir arms in need of his assitance.

"Oh my god he is so dreamy!" one of the girls whisper squealed. They guys all groaned and Alice tried not to roll her eyes, wondering why she felt so much older than her contemporaries. She caught Malcolm's eye as the bell rang and the smile on her face held the weight of their secret. She stepped into the hall, one of the group she'd sat with asking her to ask DJ Mask if he'd be willing to do their prom.

Like Monday, Butch walked with her to her science block. Gabby met her at the door, laughing as Butch formally handed her over. "You're such a tool." Alice laughed at him and he shot her a wink. Ace and Gabby chatted before class started and as they both studiously scribbled notes from the board, they also passed the occasional missive to each other,

So is DJ Mask as hot as he seems? Gabby asked via note.

How the h*** did it get out that I was dating him? Alice asked back.

Heard it from a friend of a friend. Spill. Gabby cheerfully replied. It was as good a cover as any, so Alice decided to go along with it.

I met him when I worked as a stripper. He hadn't known my real age then, but was cool with it. Not been together long though. Alice confirmed. At least she wouldn't have to create an excuse if anyone recognized her at one of her own sets. They'd all assume she was there to support 'him'.

At lunch time she got a chance to ask her friends about prom. She discovered that Lexi was the Captain of Prom Comittee. There wasn't a chance in h*** that Ace was going to try asking Lexi if the school would allow Mask to DJ the prom. Maybe she'd suggest it to Gabby that she ask. Alice eyed the hostile blonde in the performance hall, knowing that even if it was a great idea, Lexi would veto it just because Alice had mentioned it,

West was more relaxed around Alice after yesterday's little chat. He kept being more hands on, drapping an arm over her shoulder, resting a hand on her arm or leg if they were sitting and even slapping her bottom, though she'd smacked him for that one. The worse part was that he would be playing Oberon in the play, and their characters were supposed to be touchy and flirting so he had an excuse to do it! Her phone buzzed with a message when she dug into her bag for her bottle of water.

ppl r going 2 think that the 2 of u r sweet on eachother. Malcolm had texted about five minutes ago.

Alice looked up to see Malcolm standing in the performance hall, talking to another student. Ace recognized the kid from the class just after hers and smiled. Sleeping together hadn't diminished the happy flutter seeing him gave her. THat sounded sappy and romantic though so she just admired how good he looked in the black shirt he was wearing today.

She smirked and sent him a text back.You keep coming to this class looking that good and people will figure things out real quick after I jump on you.

She saw him glance down at his phone and then back to his student. A few seconds later and her phone buzzed again.

got exam prep w studts after class all wk, wed till exams.

Disappointment stirred in her but but she realized it was a necessary break. Ok, I have to study anyways, looks like you get me on weekends only. she replied.

:'( I have 2 get wrtn exams ready on wknds no free time until xmas. he replied back and hte smile left Alice's face but she nodded when she caught him watching her.

It ended up being a good thing that Alice and Malcolm decided to play it cool for the next while. Alice's report with the police and SSA went through so while she studied for exams, Alice had the added stress of answering private questions repeatedly by sometimes hostile people. Despite her reluctance to talk about itm she was forced to go over every incident she could remember, in detail until there was a complete list of Stuart's continued abuse and rape. Alice just wanted to get this over with and have some kind of guarantee that none of the Walter's would ever try to bother her again. She could die happy if she never had to hear about them again, but the Justice system was getting involved on her behalf. Unsurprisingly Ace found herself with the screaming terrors everytime she drifted asleep, added onto the insomnia caused by exam season and Alice had totaled six whole hours of sleep in a five day stretch. Salali was worrying over the bags under her eyes and her generally listlessness when she wasn't doing a task that required her focus, and she worried at how hard the younger woman was pushing herself during those two weeks, needing the physical exhaustion to distract herself from the pang of missing Malcolm. Seeing him in class and the occasional text message did nothing to ease the pain.

Thankfully Alice survived the winter exams despite the stress and lack of sleep, and even though Salali hadn't been told they were together, the sneaky Native woman conviently disappeared for the weekend once the investigators finished and exams ended.

It was December 22nd and the two lovers were finally getting to spend an evening together. For the first time in weeks they could hold a conversation face to face instead of via text message. "My parents want to meet you before Diego's wedding." Malcolm finally blurted out.

Alice was in her pajamas and they'd been cooking a meal together so she was caught a little off guard. "What have you told them about us?" Alice asked, helping him make dinner. For some reason Malcolm thought it was romantic to try and teach her to enjoy cooking. She appreciated them taking things slowly now that they were together again, but cooking still wasn't her thing.

"In all honesty, as little as possible." he gave an apologetic smile. "They know you're younger, but not by how much. And I've told them all about your socialization of Monster." That made sense, Monster was probably one of hte few topics he could gush about that didn't give away her age.

"When did they want to meet me?" Aalice asked, nervous at the prospect of meeting his parents, The only advantage to being an orphan was that she didn't have to worry about her father disliking her boyfriend or his family. Though she had a feeling that despite the age difference, her father would have approved of a man like Malcolm. Though he probably would have appreciated them waiting a couple of years before getting to this stage.

"They have asked if you would come over for dinner the 26th. It's the day after Christmas, but I will warn you, everyone will still be there so they're tricking you into meeting the whole family." Malcolm explained. Alice realized that he was as nervous about this as she was!

"Ok, I'll go." she agreed. He gave her a surprised look. "Mal, it's not like I've got any plans of my own or family to spend it with. Salali has already offered to take me with her to visit Honon's family over the holdiays so I'm not alone, but I didn't feel right imposing on their grief." she shrugged it off. Like many things, Alice had a skewed experience when it came to family holidays. She had great memories of the years with her father and his friends, then as many memories that at best were uncomfortable. Her most tolerable Christmas with the Walter's involved them leaving her behind as they went to visit their family. She'd spent the day alone, ordering in Chinese food with cash slid under her door, presumably from Mrs. Walter and remembering her father.

"I should warn you now, my family is... huge. There are going to be a lot of questions aimed your way. Whatever you decide to tell them, I'll back you up." Malcolm offered as he cooked beside her.

Ace grinned. "So if I tell them that I was a seventeen year old ex stripper that seduced you away from your long time girlfriend..." she trailed off laughing.

"I would tell them that every word was true, then grab you and run." he laughed with her. "I'm not actually sure how my family would react to the truth. I'm pretty sure my brother would just shrug and say if it makes me happy, abuelo and abuela wouldn't understand the issue, there's 12 years between them. It's my parents and everyone else that might not be as understanding." he mused with a soft smile. Supper was ready and they sat at the kitcehn counter, using hte stools for their intended purpose.

"I'll keep details about my age and the fact that I'm your student to myself, but I'm going to try and avoid lying to your family. If they're going to like me, it's going to be for who I am and not who they think I should be." Ace warned, still nervous over the prospect of meeting his family. She'd never really done the traditional dating thing and had no real experience with meeting the in-laws. Even though they weren't anywhere near seriuous for THAT level of committment, it was faster to think that way than 'my boyfriend's parents and family.'

"Did you want to come over for Chirstmas?" Malcolm asked. "My family wouldn't say no to extra company, I just didn't want to pressure you into anything." he added on, watching her for a reaction.

"I'll be ok, thanks. You spend Christmas with your family. Help them prepare to try and deal with me in all my fabulousness." she joked and Malcolm laughed with her. Christmas time was hard for Alice, the one time a year outside of her birthday when she missed her father so much it reduced her to tears. And she had no desire to burden Malcolm with that knoweledge. Ace knew she was too messed up to handle normal well just yet, and Malcolm and his family were the 'normal family', as far as she was was concerned. "Besides, Salali left me a set of keys to the shop so I offered to keep an eye on the fuzzy wuzzies." she added in.

Malcolm slid off his stool to collect the dishes, but set them aside to hug Alice from behind. "So you'll be spending Christmas looking after the wild things." he joked in her ear.

"And the next day handeling the dangerous predators." Alice teased back. "What do they know about your past?" she asked, not wanting to let anything slip.

"Everything." he whispered into her hair. His lips pressed a light kiss just behind her ear and she shivered, no longer worried about asking questions. "They know all about my past transgressions." he continued, whispering kisses down her neck. "They seem relieved that you know about my hi온라인카지노게임." he kissed her pulse.

Alice was breathing heavy, finding herself leaning into his lips. "Malcolm you're supposed to be prepping me to meet your family, not distracting me like this." she breathed, not wanting him to stop. He stilled one hand on her back under her shirt, the other tilting her head away to let him nibble on her neck. He didn't even bother replying though, after hesitating for a moment, he pulled her head back and hungrily claimed her lips. She moaned as he devoured her with his kiss. They never did get back to discussing Malcolm's family, he had thoroughly derailed that conversation.

That night Malcolm discovered first hand that Alice was still having screaming nightmares. He woke up to her whimpering and twitching, then she started to struggle and cry out. Malcolm woke her up and sat with her until she calmed down. When he asked what it was about she told him that she didn't want to talk about it and just cuddled against him, pretending to sleep. But even with his heart beat under her ear, Alice never got back to sleep that night.