A fractured fairytale

64

I jumped out of my car at about eight o'clock. It had been raining all day but now the sun had come out for another hour or so before setting, causing the sidewalks to glitter. The smell of the rain was pungent and I breathed it in. Despite the damp in the air, it was warm. A kind of sticky heat that clung to my clothes as I dragged my bags out the trunk of the car.

Rose had been trying to talk me out of this all day. First, she told me that she'd found a couple of the windows broken in the apartment. I found that interesting considering she'd also told me she hadn't left her bed all day. She then started to babble about how there wasn't any food in the kitchen as her mother didn't go shopping before she left for her grandmothers. That either meant that they didn't have the money to buy food right now or her mother was so ignorant to the fact her daughter was in too much pain to go food shopping and simply abandoned her to get away for the weekend. Neither option sat right with me.

I crossed the street, bags and boxes in hand, and made my way up the stairs. As soon as I stepped inside, I heard Kelsey's crying even three floors below. Rose had also tried to use the excuse of her crying echoing through the walls all night to try and prevent us from spending the weekend here but I didn't care.

When I reached her door, I knocked and waited for her to make her way through the apartment to answer it. When she did, I felt my heart stutter. Pain radiated in her eyes and the bruise around the left one had only darkened since I last saw her. She was a little breathless but her lips curved upwards into the most beautiful smile when she met my gaze. "Hey."

"Hey beautiful."

Her smile widened but it only made me angrier about the bruise on her face. Something so dark and ugly didn't belong on the face of someone so perfect. She shuffled backwards to allow me inside and I immediately dumped the bags on the kitchen counters, alongside the two huge pizza boxes I carried up. "Hungry?"

"Starving," she answered instantly without any thought. I, however, couldn't help but think about the truth behind the word.

I did a quick survey of the room. There were four or five kitchen counters and a rusty old stove in the kitchen on one side of the entrance. On the other was a small wooden dining table with two chairs either side, neither of which looked like they could support my weight. Across the room on the far side was a faded leather couch facing a television that was smaller than my laptop. It seemed like the best option.

"Let's sit and eat these before they go cold." I gestured towards the couch and she followed behind me, sucking a breath between her teeth as she lowered onto the torn leather. I dropped the pizza boxes onto the coffee table and went back to grab the bottle of soda I'd also picked up. "Any glasses?"

She flushed. "Uh, there might be something in the cupboard on the left."

I opened the door to reveal a glass with a crack down the side, a brownish mug, a plastic champagne flute and a wine glass. I grabbed the wine glass and the plastic flute and filled them both up with soda. I carried them over and handed her the wine glass. "Here."

"Thanks."

I hadn't been expecting much from Rose's apartment. I assumed it would be small and there wouldn't be anything luxurious about it. I didn't, however, expect to find it so lacking in personal touch. My house felt like home because of the photos on the walls, the fresh flowers my mother always put out, the cosy blankets she kept everywhere for when winter rolled in.

But here, the walls were whitewashed and bare, the paint chipping in places to reveal the plastering beneath. The floors were hardwood and seemed to be rotting in places, without any rugs or anything to make it more comfortable. The kitchen was old and empty, the couch had no cushions or throws. The only sign that there was even someone living here was the pile of beer bottles spilling out over the top of the garbage.