Slipping Through My Fingers

Chapter Twenty

Chapter 20

Rosalie's POV -

It's been two weeks since I left Brooklyn. Two very long weeks. The first night I left, I went straight to the DVD store and sold all of the DVD's that I owned. This earned me $350. I found a pretty cheap motel to stay at and spent the first few days there. I turned my phone off too. I couldn't speak to anyone and pretend that everything was okay. I spent most of my time analysing the daily newspapers to see any available apartments. Unfortunately for me, all were out of my budget.

I didn't really have an income anymore anyway. Mr Ashford had gone MIA on me. I tried calling him multiple times and when I was at the local library, I'd email him too but I never received a reply. I didn't have Adam with me to help me out, too. That was really hard. So at the moment, I was homeless. Going from motel to motel until eventually, I had left New York City. I was in Vermont now. Properties were said to be cheaper anyway.

But eventually, after paying off the money for the motel and food for the boys, I was left with no money. So I had to go and sell all my books. That only earned me $150. It was still cash though. Anything was better than nothing. In my free time, I'd home school the boys. All I needed to do was look at their previous worksheets to see what kind of work they had been doing and I'd come up with activities myself. They still needed an education despite the crap situation we had ourselves in.

However, like everything, money went. So there was only one option left. I had to sell my phone. It was harder than selling the books and DVD's. Those had been gifts too, yeah, but from people that I weren't exactly close with. The twins and Chris had become really good friends of mine. Adam was like a brother. And Nate...

I didn't even want to think about how they were all reacting at home towards my absence. They must be pretty worried. I did indeed leave home without notice and I never answered my phone. Before I sold my phone though, I turned it on for one last time and found that I had 753 missed calls and 438 unread messages. I scrolled through the lists and saw most of the calls and messages came from Nate. The other majority was Adam and a substantial percentage came from the twins and Chris.

So, before selling my phone, I sent a quick message:

I'm okay.

I sent it to Adam. And I only did that because if I sent it to Nate then I would have wanted to say so much more. So, I sold my phone and received $290. That got me a few more nights in a motel and would pay for food.

"So, have we figured out what we're going to do yet? No offence, but you're an annoying teacher. Are we ever going to go back to a real school?" Jace asked, plopping onto the couch beside me.

"When we find an apartment, I'll enrol you in the nearest school." I answered, looking through a newspaper.

"And what about you?" He asked me.

"I'm not going to school anymore. I need to find a full time job to support us." I replied.

"What happened to Mr. Ashford's money?" He frowned.

I shrugged and circled an apartment ad.

"He isn't answering my phone calls or emails. He stopped sending the money. It's like he vanished."

"But Rose, you need to have an education." He scolded.

"Jace, I managed to get a scholarship to a prestigious private school. I'm in my senior year, I think my learning experience has finished." I replied glumly.

"So that's it? You're just going to sacrifice everything for us?" He frowned, getting a little frustrated.

"What do you suppose I do, Jace? There is nothing else I can do." I tried to keep calm.