Everything Has Changed || 3

Chapter 21 A Rock And A Hard Place

"I'm up, I'm up!" Jonathan yells at the person knocking on his door at two am.

With a tired rub of his eyes, he opened the door to reveal the young blonde girl that he hadn't seen in days.

"Rose?" He asks tiredly as the girl played with her hands. "It's late, what are you doing here?" He asks before noticing her fidgeting.

"Can we talk? For just a minute?" She asks glancing up at the man.

"Yeah, sure." He says opening the door for her to come in. "Want something to drink?" He asks and she shakes her head as she follows him to the kitchen.

"No, thank you." She says as she rubbed her hands together, standing at the kitchen island.

Her eyes were on her hands as the man started the coffee pot. Her brain was going a mile a minute, not even noticing that Shawn wasn't there.

"Everything okay?" He asks making the girl look at him.

"Why did you do it?" She asks quickly.

"Do what?" He asks confused as he sat across from her at the kitchen island.

"Why did you leave Connecticut? Why didn't you just work for your father?" She asks as she looked at her hands again. "How did you get away from it?" She asks playing with her fingers.

"How did you— never mind, I don't want to know." He says still questioning how she knew about his former life. "I left Connecticut because it wasn't what I wanted. I didn't want that life, I didn't want to work for my father." He tells her as he watched her continue to fidget. "It was during my first year in college when I chose to go my own way. I went home one day, after thinking about it for a while. I had a long, hard conversation with my folks. Once it got heated, I left, went back to college and changed my major." The English teacher tells her.

The girl was quiet as she sat there picking at her nails. The older man was a bit worried about her as well as confused.

"Rose, what's this about? What's on your mind?" He asks her and she sighs before looking at the man.

"For the past like ten years, I've had it in my head that I'd graduate high school, go to an Ivy League and get ready to take over for my Dad. I've prepared myself for it since I first started working for him. But now I just—" Rose says as she dropped her shoulders. "I don't know if want it anymore. And I'm scared to talk to anyone about it because, no one else would understand. I mean why would they, I have everything, my entire future right there on a silver plater and I don't want it. I don't want any of it. Who does that? What kind of person just leaves an opportunity like this?" She asks and he gives her a sympathetic look, knowing exactly how she felt.

"I took care of everything for so long. I kept everything afloat. I did everything. Whether I was supposed too or not, I did it. I did everything right or at least I thought I did." She says looking back down at her hands. "I hid everything. I didn't tell anyone about anything. No one knew what was going on in that house." She tells him as she started to play with the salt shaker. "I was just a kid." Rose says looking back up at the man.

"But, I kept all that hurt, all that pain hidden. No one ever found out. Not until, we got to Minnesota. Minnesota was just— everywhere." She tells him and he raises an eyebrow.

"What happened in Minnesota?" The man asks looking at the girl. "I know you've said a few things about it." He says before she cuts him off.

"In Minnesota, something just snapped. The fights got louder, the beating got worse, everything just got harder. He broke my collarbone. I couldn't talk for a week, I could only eat soft foods. Another time, I couldn't see that well and I'm pretty sure I had a concussion. Several plates, cups, objects in general got broken. There was a lot of screaming matches." Rose tells him tapping her fingers on the kitchen island as she had put the salt shaker back. "I went to parties as often as I could. I drank at all of them, smoked weed, did some other questionable things with questionable people. Like the few times I drove while under the influence or even just drank while I was driving." She tells him before thinking about that one night.