Free Flicker by Arreyn Grey

classmates muttered as he sidled past them, heading for the door. Elise met Alex's eyes and they both burst out laughing.
                  “You walked into that one,” she chucked, swinging her bag over her shoulder.
                  Alex walked her home that day, and Elise slowly relaxed as they chatted about normal things-- her favorite color (forest green), his favorite movie ( 12 Angry Men ), and whether physical activities that didn't involve running after balls could still be considered sports. As the conversation turned to music, Elise suddenly remembered her earlier nerves, and turned to him somberly.
                  “So, did you hear about the riot this weekend in some club in New York?” She asked him, trying not to betray her burning curiosity about whether or not he'd been there. Now that she knew he was all right, she was more intrigued than worried-- after all, she was a complete stranger to that sort of wild lifestyle.
                  Was it just her imagination, or did Alex suddenly look distant? He blinked down at her, but he was smiling in a decidedly self-deprecating manner. “Is that what all the sirens were about? My cousin was all for going to check it out-- we heard what must have been half of NYPD from a few blocks away. But I figured whatever was going down, it would be best to keep my drunken family out of it.” He laughed. “A riot, really?”
                  She nodded, returning his grin. “My dad was reading about it in the paper this morning, and my mom got all upset. I suppose she's worried that next thing we know, big city gang hooligans are going to start bashing in our windows with bricks or something.” She snorted. “You know, being a social worker, you'd think she'd be a little more understanding of the underprivileged.”
                  “Nah,” Alex laughed. “It's just the opposite, really-- you always think the best of people until you really see them at their worst. After that, it's hard to see the good in anyone. I'd imagine that after some of the crack dens she's probably taken kids out of, she's started seeing evil everywhere.”
                  “Wow, aren't you the philosopher?” Elise forced herself to continue smiling despite the goosebumps that had suddenly spread down her arms. He had no idea about the worst of people...
                  Alex distracted her from her ruminations by insisting that they take a quick detour down the main street in town so Elise could point out good places to get ice cream or takeout Chinese, and startled her when he greeted the lady at the takeout counter in fluent Mandarin. That quickly sparked a discussion about his love of languages, which evolved into a debate over literature. They spent the last ten minutes of the walk arguing the classics verses modern novels, and Elise laughed more than she had in a long time as she found herself playing devil's advocate just to watch Alex's face turn blotchy when she resolutely insisted that Dickens was an obsolete fraud. He turned the tables on her, though, and despite the fact that she could see the smile he was trying to suppress, she still couldn't help spending an extra five minutes on her front walk ranting at him after he told her that One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest was, in his opinion, a complete waste of ink. It was nice, she reflected after he'd finally admitted defeat and left her on her front porch again, to just have a generally frivolous conversation with someone. She'd almost forgotten what it was like to have regular friends.
                  “So who was that?” Her mother's voice startled her as she came through the front door, and she jumped, almost dropping her books for the second time that day.
                  “Mom!” Elise gasped, her smile abruptly gone. “You scared the heck out of me. What are you doing home this