Astronomical (girlxgirl)

Chapter Four

Chapter Four (Skye's POV)

No wonder you were almost jumped by that man, you have zero sense of stranger danger, I scolded myself as I walked in companionable silence with Rose. Flowing on from the shock of what happened in the alleyway, was the disbelief that I was letting a near-total stranger walk me home.

A stranger that can beat up a guy three times her own age and who had a knife, I scolded myself.

Rose's tall frame shaded me from the bright morning sun as we made our way out of the town, and the surroundings shifted to the residential area. The longer I was around her, the more it struck me that she wasn't just tall – Rose was almost gangly in a sweetly awkward way.

"Do you go to Westwood High?" The tentative question from Rose pulled me from my musings about the possibility that I was strolling down the street with a serial killer.

I - again throwing caution to the wind - replied, "Yes. I just moved here with my Aunt a few months ago. What about you? I haven't seen you around before..." I left the question unfinished, worrying that I sounded too interested in her.

Rose squinted down at me and smiled. Surely she couldn't be a serial killer with a smile like that... "Don't laugh; I'm home-schooled. I did attend Westwood for a year, but my parents decided in the end that it would be better to keep me at home. I may have... ah... gotten into a few too many fights", her voice was frustrated and embarrassed by turn.

I returned her smile wistfully, "That's a shame - it would have been nice to have a friend at school". Way to sound like a pathetic loner, Skye.

"Well... ah... actually, my Mum was considering picking up extra shifts at work - and has been worried that it will cut into my schooling. So, I'm trying to convince her to let me go back to 'normal' school", Rose replied in an optimistic voice. That's awfully convenient – maybe the universe is trying to make it up to me for the alleyway incident...

I tried not to let her hope infect me. Even if we went to the same school, it was unlikely that Rose and I would ever cross paths.

She seemed too... confident, too extroverted to ever be my friend.

We turned onto my street, and I could see my house in the distance. The cookie-cutter two-story house blended in with the rest of the houses, only differentiated by the bright flowers in the small front garden bed.

It looks like little Ben next door has been picking my tulips again - I hope his Dad grabbed him before he could eat them, I noted as we got closer.

When we first moved in here, I had tried to be neighbourly and landed myself an informal babysitting job. Rob, our next-door neighbour, was a single father and worked most of the time, so I sometimes looked after three-year-old Ben for him.

I felt a small part of myself deflate to see the empty driveway - I guess Aunt Lauren was back to working on the weekends. I had hoped that moving to a new town would give us a fresh start, and she would want to be home more often.

Gosh - I forgot to get more milk while I was in town... I guess I'm having toast instead of cereal tomorrow, so Aunt Lauren can have her morning coffee, I thought glumly to myself.

Rose stopped as I turned towards my house. "Well, this is me. Thank you so much for today - you've restored my faith in humanity". I tried to make light of the situation, to cover up how disappointed I was that our time together had come to an end.

Rose snorted and muttered something that sounded like "right - humanity", and smiled at me. "Maybe we will see each other around, sometime..." It made me blush, and my heart thump to hear how optimistic she sounded.

I didn't really know what to say after that, so I just smiled and waved a small, dorky wave at Rose before stepping up my front steps.

I quickly unlocked the deadbolt and glanced over my shoulder in what I hoped was a casual manner.

Rose had already turned away, and the last thing I saw before I closed the front door was her dark brown hair fluttering as she walked away.

I sighed and slumped against the white oak door.

You just let the prettiest girl you have ever met walk away from you without asking her on a date, I told my reflection in the hallway. Leaning forward, I noticed the puffiness and redness around my eyes.

Deciding to distract myself from my gloomy mood, I made my way upstairs to have a shower.

I set my bag down on my bed, glancing automatically at the photo frame on the bedside table. It was a split frame - with one picture of a very young me, covered in flour and grinning, as Mum and I tried to make pancakes for Father's Day. The other photograph was of me, Mum and Dad sitting under the Christmas tree opening presents. Dad was holding the picture I had painted him of a reindeer in daycare, and Mum was opening the book Dad had let me help pick.

I felt a twinge of sadness, but after all of these years, it was easy to crush it down and ignore it.

I thought about calling Aunt Lauren and telling her about the man in the alleyway; considered sharing the fear of being jumped and held at knifepoint. I pondered what she would say if I asked her to come home early so I wasn't alone – probably something along the lines of, "I'm at an essential consultation and can't leave just to come hold your hand". If I really made a fuss about it, she might tell me to call Dr Cassidy and speak about my feelings to her.

Then she would probably insist on calling the police and making a formal report, and that wasn't something I felt comfortable doing either. That man was probably now so scared of Rose that he would never think of stealing again, no matter how much he needed the money.

I sighed, shaking my head and deciding against telling Aunt Lauren at all.

I stripped out of my clothes and stepped into the shower, using the expensive body wash Aunt Lauren had gotten me for my birthday last year. The scent of apples and cinnamon made my tense shoulders slump, as I just stood and enjoyed the hot water.

I decided to get straight into my pyjamas because I had no other plans for the day - other than to proof-read my English essay and cook myself dinner. If Aunt Lauren were to come home on time for once, she would scold me on "dressing like a slob" - but I wasn't in the mood to care.

I wonder what Rose is doing right now, I contemplated as I sat at my desk. Probably hanging out with her friends, or riding a motorbike, or something else really cool.

I made myself focus on the essay, and before I realised, it was dinnertime. I made fried rice because it was easy and delicious; there was enough for leftovers for school tomorrow too. Then I climbed into bed with a tub of chocolate ice-cream.

Sometimes having Aunt Lauren as a guardian was great - I could eat what I wanted and practically do what I wanted, as long as I didn't break anything or shirk my chores or skip homework.

But it does get lonely sometimes...

I put Netflix on the TV, hoping the noise would fool me into thinking I wasn't alone.

It did help a bit, and the ice-cream didn't hurt either.

The alleyway seemed to have triggered all of my old anxieties about being around other people – about not being able to defend myself or control what happened to me. I was worried that I would be up all night reliving the nasty look in that man's eyes as he held a knife to my throat.

But, exhausted from all of the adrenaline and crying, I quickly fell asleep.