two moons ❦ calum

❦ chapter fifteen ❦

idk why dylan obrien is in this but ok

Flossy could have just as easily stayed home that next day. she didn't have any real reason to go to school that day, other than the fact that she wanted to prove that Calum hadn't affected her as much as he thought. she didn't get up until five minutes before he would have come over to wait for Gif and Cricket, which she already notified one of the two to skip her house for pick up. she simply stayed with the covers tucked up to her chin and looked out into the open hallway. her father didn't say anything to her, mostly because he was probably hung over from the previous night, she figured. Chessie almost was never downstairs until she absolutely had to grab the bus.

she was almost back to being asleep when her mother walked by her door as she put in a pair of post earrings and then slowly walked back. Rosemary looked at the child with confusion laced in every cell of the tissue on her face.

"are you not going to school today?" she inquired to the teenager that consisted more of sadness than water in her body. she wasn't making an accusation or trying to start a fight with her like usual. she was simply trying to figure out the situation which caused Flossy to be even more confused than her mother.

she shrugged to the adult hovering in the hallway and then rolled her body to face the window instead. for some reason, this was Rosemary's idea of permission to enter her sanctuary.

"do you want to talk about it?"

there were a million things racing through Flossy's mind at that moment. she wasn't sure what she wanted to actually speak of; she wasn't even sure what she was feeling about all of those things in her mind. she decided to just say the second most recent predicament to come to her mind.

"sorry, but it's really hard to love you," she blurted and immediately shut her eyes as if she could see Rosemary's reaction. "ever since I met you, you've given me a lengthy list of reasons not to."

"I understand that," Rosemary replied after some time, "and I can agree. every single time I said something horrible to you I immediately wanted to take it back and hold you in my arms and make you believe that you were mine and I loved you."

"but I'm not," she was reminded, "and you don't."

"you're right. you've been a living, breathing example of your father's infidelity and there were times when I had stop being so mean purely because I can't hate you."

"is that why ever since I started high school you've been trying to be nice to me?" Flossy always wanted to know the reasoning behind Rosemary's sudden change of attitude those few weeks when it felt like everything was changing. she had been too scared to even muster up the words but now that everything was being thrown out in the open, she desperately wanted to know.

"I realized even before then that I shouldn't hate you. I just looked at you and all that hatred just bubbled up in my throat and the meanest of mean things to say came out instead. I shouldn't have acted like this for the duration of your life. I couldn't ask you to forgive me because it isn't something you can just look away from. what I'm asking you to do is just look past all of that negative energy and we can hopefully start a new relationship."

despite herself, Flossy softly smiled as she finally threw her duvet off her legs and stood up. "can we start with you driving me into school?" Rosemary didn't respond, though she did smile and shake her head as she exited her daughter's safe haven. it was enough of an answer to get her out of bed and into a combination of clothes to nearly pass as presentable.