Teardrops of Roses [Completed]

Chapter 5: Stairs

Maybe this was all nerves from being back at this place, so close to when the incident happened. I shivered at that thought and at that moment whilst leaning against the toilet stall, it almost felt like I was leaning against the wall of the old sports shed instead.

I held my head in my hands as I sobbed silently.

___~❤~s2~❤~__

I stared at myself in the mirror.

I felt so silly worrying over what I was wearing. Long-sleeved shirt and khaki pants right down to my ankles. Not to mention two strong belts around my waist, layered over each other. I didn't care if it would take me 5 minutes to take off to use the bathroom, it made sure my pants were not going anywhere!
Doing this extra step also helped ease my mind a little.

It was either that or not going at all.
I was trying to improve. It didn't matter that it was literally the middle of the Australian summer and all the layers were overkill, but I was taking baby steps with this. Entering a man's house where I presume we would be alone could go all kinds of wrong.

After returning from school yesterday, I asked Mum if she could perhaps just join me for the first day of the piano lessons, but I already knew she was unable to take time off so suddenly when I'd previously told her I would be fine on my own. Running a restaurant and a bar with Dad was a full-on job, especially considering how busy the weekends get. I've always understood that, however just this once I wished that I could have someone to tag along.

She was worried I was getting cold feet, and I did too. But then I saw the bags around her hollow eyes. With how hard she worked, I bet she was exhausted. I shouldn't worry her more than I'd done.

After some more fretting, I decided I had better get going. I jumped awkwardly across the pile of clothes on the floor which hadn't been there 15 minutes ago to get to the door and checked the time on the clock on my bedside table.

Jeepers! I was going to be late!

I quickly ran down the staircase, grabbed my bag, and hurried out the door. I huffed quickly to the bus stop down the street to see the bus just leaving.
"No, no no!" I groaned and plonked myself down onto the seat at the bus stand. Damn it, if I hadn't spent that much time getting ready I wouldn't be in this predicament.

This is great.

After 10 long minutes, the next bus finally arrived. I stood up and got on the bus. "Rose!" a familiar voice called out excitedly. I looked around the bus and in between people's heads as we swayed around.

"Rose! This way!" the person called again. Finally, I saw Mandy and a guy called Luke I had met very briefly at school the day before, up the back of the bus.
I gulped taking big a big breath as I began to make my way down. I kept my eyes down to avoid contact with the other passengers mumbling "excuse me" a couple of times as I passed.

Luke was one of Mandy's best friends. He'd had been away on a ski trip and had missed the very beginning of the school term returning just late last week when we met.

Mandy had mentioned him in our conversations a few times prior to his return so I was glad that I had some time to get used to the idea of adding a guy to our group dynamics. In fact, I was determined to make it work. 

I got excited at the thought of actually having a platonic male friend and I tried my ultimate best to bury any nervous energy I had. So far, things had been going smoothly. Thinking of him in a brotherly way helped a lot, very much like how Mandy was slowly becoming like a sister to me. 

"Hey!" She exclaimed hugging me. "Sup," Luke nodded.

I returned Mandy's hug and gave Luke a wave.
"So where are you off to?" She asked me excitedly and instantly I felt a lot better. It was hard not to smile around her, she was just a bubbly person.