Just Rose

Chapter Eighteen

From that moment on, my weekend dramatically improved. Thanksgiving with Sarah's family, Yvonne, and Alonzo was very fun and filled with delicious foods. It was made even better with Julie's announcement that we were all going to take a trip to visit the sisters she'd met up with in Nevada for Christmas. Apparently it was something that they did every year. Josh, Max, Sarah- who knew a few of my "cousins"- and I were going to drive down and walk through a few colleges on the way while the rest of the family was planning to fly. On Friday and Saturday I was able to just stay home and do things with my family- and Eddie, who Julie invited over to play games with us on Friday evening. It wasn't until first period on Monday that I remembered that there was a single bad thing in the world.

When I slid my calculus notebook out of my backpack, a white envelope slid out. Within seconds, it was safely stowed away in my pocket. Hopefully no one had read the writing on the front. I raised my hand.

"Mr. Nelson?" I asked. "I don't feel very good. May I go to the nurse's office?"

"Oh, yes, of course. Kiana, go with Rose. Class, we're starting on page 96 today, since we're starting our new unit on..."

"What was that about?" Kiana asked as soon as we were in the hallway.

I fingered the envelope in my pocket. "Nothing."

Kiana looked at me. "You've lied to me enough," she said, folding her arms. "What's in your pocket?"

I sighed. "Follow me," I said, leading the way into the girls' bathroom. After checking to see that no one else was inside, I pulled out the envelope. "Someone's been sending me letters. I remember getting them when I was living... down South. They were threats back then. They're part of the reason I left. Whoever was sending them found me here, and now they've been sending them to me again."

Kiana's eyes widened, the anger in them replaced with concern. "That's really bad," she said, taking the envelope out of my hands and turning it over in her own. "Really bad. What kind of threats?" she asked after a minute.

"I can't remember what they were when I was at my old house," I said. Kiana looked at me. "Long story," I sighed. "I'll explain all that later. There haven't been many threats yet, since I've only been sent a few letters. But this person- whoever it is- arranged for the brakes in Sarah's car to give out when I didn't follow their instructions."

"Sarah's brakes gave out? When?"

"The Friday that you found out about... everything, and Sarah found out about you and Max. She was driving me to your house so that I could talk to you, and we were going down the big hill and all of a sudden the brakes didn't work. She had to do some crazy driving to keep us from crashing."

"I think Max tried to tell me something about that when we were at the aquarium," Kiana said. "You tried to talk to me way back on Friday?"

I nodded. "Obviously, it didn't work out like I planned. Anyways, this person has access to my house and I've been getting letters about every week since Josh got here." It felt good to get the truth off my chest.

"Do you think Josh is the one sending them?" Kiana asked.

"Maybe," I said, "but I don't think so. M- that's the person sending the letters- made it sound like she only found me by following Josh here."

Kiana nodded. "How do you know M's a she?" she asked.

I had to think about that for a minute. "I don't know how," I admitted. "I guess I just... know."

"Weird. So... do you want to open the letter?" Kiana asked, handing me back the envelope.

"I'm as ready as I'll ever be," I said, taking it from her and carefully tearing it open. Kiana and I read the writing on the familiar stationary side by side.