Rose's wheels made a tic tic on the sidewalk for every line they hit. The consistent rhythm distracted her from what she was about to do. She had no idea how she was going to approach Eli. All she knew was that she had to fix them. She couldn't leave the country on bad terms with her best friend.
Leave the country.
She lost control of the skateboard. It flew out from under her feet and skidded onto the overgrown lawn of a wood panel one-story in need of a little TLC. She lay there on her bruised tailbone, stunned. I may never see Eli in person again.
She shook her head. No, that would be stupid. Unchi Nicu would let me visit...and if it's about the money, I'll save it up. I'll get a job. Yeah. Preferably one that doesn't require talking. Library, maybe?
Still, the prospect of leaving her hometown was daunting. She had lived in that house her entire life. Her mom had talked about moving ever since...ever since her dad died. But they just couldn't bring themselves to leave. Now she was leaving. For good.
Rose had a great view of the sky from this angle. Well shit, that cloud looks like an airplane. Oh wait, that is an airplane.
Grumbling slightly, she gingerly stood up, brushing dirt off of her jeans. She went to retrieve her skateboard from the lawn, but froze when she saw the house.
It was a hideous, filthy thing. And that was the polite description. Ever since they were kids, her and Eli had pretended the house was a cross between Boo Radley's and Nebbercracker's from Monster House. It was ridiculous and childish, but the old suspicion remained.
She lifted her skateboard off the poorly manicured grass and hurried off, not looking back.
********
There he stood in the doorway, taller than Rose, but just as sorry. Yet still he smirked.
"What took you so long?"
She raised an eyebrow in way of saying excuse me?
He laughed as he took in her astounded expression, and sheepishly ran a hand through his already disheveled hair. "Ms. Barringer called, letting me know that you were going to 'drop by'. She told me to be nice. Ever the peacemaker, she seems..."
Rose shot him a half-grin and nodded in agreement. That, Caroline was. With a dash of sass on the side.
His laughter dissipated suddenly. "I just wanted to say I was sorry. For everything. I'm sorry that I hurt you, and I'm sorry for thinking I could tell you how to live your life. I was just worried about you...I still am, actually. You can do whatever you want to do."
At that, Rose held up a hand to stop him. She whipped her phone out and proceeded as she had with Caroline.
Why, how generous of you.
He sensed the sarcasm, at least, and had the decency to look guilty. She nearly laughed at the rapid change in his expression.
I'm just kidding.
He chuckled nervously. "Yeah...anyways--" She jokingly rolled her eyes.
You never were a man of many words, Eli. Don't embarrass yourself.
His eyes widened dramatically. It took a whole of five seconds for him to realize, by the grin on her face, that she was joking. Again.
She sobered up once more and bent her head back over her phone.
I'm sorry too. I'm sorry for saying such hurtful things to you, and for running off like I did. I also accept your apology, and I hope you accept mine.
He scratched the back of his neck, seemingly uncomfortable at her act of sincerity. But his eyes never wavered from hers. "Of course I do, Rose! I couldn't possibly stay mad at you for long. But to be honest, I thought you weren't even going to talk to me again. I know how you can hold a grudge..." At this his eyes left hers, and Rose knew exactly what he was talking about.
Rose was that kid who got picked on. Eli was that kid who beat the living crap out of anyone who picked on her. They made an odd pair, but they had one thing in common. They both stuck out like sore thumbs.
Anytime she was insulted, he was there. She had always said that she didn't need him to stand up for her, and she was quite right. But on the other hand, she couldn't exactly stop him. His anger would overcome him, and no words she could say would falter his steps. However, he would usually forget even the name of the offender, while she would never forget. She remembered every single one of them, and what they had said to her. She just didn't feel particularly inclined to any violent action against the people who had done her wrong.
Having Eli by her side often made her even more disliked in the eyes of her school. Don't mess with her, Eli will beat your ass... Oh, so she's the one with the bodyguard freak of a friend. Think she hired him?
This prevented her from having any friends other than Eli, but she didn't mind. They had known each other since they were toddlers, and he was all she needed.
Drawn back to the present, she nodded.
We've never fought, not like that. I didn't know what I would do either.
She took a deep breath.
But I learned that I could never stay mad at you for long.
He grinned widely and wrapped her in a hug. He was warm, and she had to stretch on her toes to hug him back. She smiled into his chest. After a couple of seconds, he pulled back. He puffed up his chest and put his hands on his hips in a superman pose.
"So," he started, his voice mockingly arrogant, "I'm a man of action, eh?"
She laughed and flicked him in the forehead with her pointer finger, causing his eyes to cross. She moved into the house and grabbed onto his wrist as she passed him, yanking him along behind her.
She greeted Eli's mom, Margo, who was reading a novel in the family room. Margo Ashford was a petite blond woman with a shockingly upfront attitude accompanying her usually soft countenance. Thus said, she didn't take any crap from her husband or her son.
Next she waved at Eli's dad in his study. Jarvis was a skinny, mousy looking man, but apparently he was a force to be reckoned with in court. One of the best lawyers in the region, he was a friend of Rose's family, and was overseeing the will and Rose's future arrangements.
He waved with a soft, "Good to see you, Rose," before turning back to the glowing beacon that was his computer.
Eli had gotten his directness and lack of tact from his mother, and his unsocial tendencies from his father. Apparently the uncontrollable temper and fiery hair color came from his great-grandfather on his mother's father's side; an army man with as many stories as he had had tattoos. He had died a while back, though. A shame; Rose thought he'd seemed cool, and would've liked to meet him. But she believed his spirit lived on in Eli.
Said best friend sat all by his lonesome on the kitchen counter, stuffing his face with cookies from a jar. Rose snuck up behind him and grabbed the jar from his grip, nearly dropping it in the process. His muffled protests were lost as she hid the jar from sight, but not before snatching a couple for herself. Margo's chocolate pecan cookies were killer.
Turning back to Eli, she saw that his jaw was still hanging open in silent objection to the cookie jar theft, so she placed her fingertips under his chin and gently pushed his jaw upwards before the crumbs could tumble to their deaths from his open mouth. He chewed dejectedly.
Mouth full, he mumbled, "So what actually took you so long? Ms. Barringer said she had called as soon as you left, and it should've only taken you ten minutes on your longboard. It took you twenty-five."
Rose hopped up on the counter next to him and smirked. Perceptive much?
Uncontrollable skateboard. Monster house.
Eli tipped his head back and laughed, choking on crumbs in the process and nearly hacking his lungs out. Rose smacked his back as he recovered and he shot her a dirty look.
"You're still scared of that place?" he said, a smile in his voice. She nudged his shoulder lightly.
Shut up, don't pretend you're not.
"Okay, okay, fine. I admit it, that place still creeps the crap outta me."
Rose nodded. Uh huh, that's right.
They fell into a comfortable silence only broken by the unmistakable sound of cookies being devoured by two ravenous teenagers. Suddenly, Rose tapped his shoulder.
I'm going to miss you.
Eli smiled sadly and ruffled her drying hair. "Let's not talk about that, yeah? Let's just spend the next two weeks causing as much hell as possible. We can save the goodbyes for when you're actually leaving." Rose grinned and nodded.
A yell came from the family room. "I can hear you two eating all my cookies!"
Eli and Rose looked at each other with slightly horrified looks on their faces. Shit.
********
This time, Rose died with them.
Her past night terrors usually ended with her brother's hands around her throat, or her mother carving words into her flesh with a dull kitchen knife. But she had never died before.
It was refreshing.
The dream started as it usually did, with a presence behind her that she instinctively knew was her father. She kept turning, and spinning, and clawing at her shoulder blades in an attempt to get the feel of his eyes off of her back. A sense a raw disappointment hung in the air like a bad stench, and suddenly it disappeared. But not before she heard words whispered in her ear that made her shudder violently. "They didn't deserve what you did to them."
She stood stock-still in fear, cold sweat running down her back like clammy fingers. And then it was fingers. And then hands. Cold, grasping hands that snatched at her t-shirt and dragged her backwards. She thought she was screaming; she could feel her open mouth and her throat getting more and more sore, but no noise came out. This was where it got especially odd.
Usually she was dragged on until she was thrown back, stumbling and struggling to stand but failing and ending up on the ground staring up at whichever family member was dealing out the well-deserved punishment that time.
This time however, she broke away from the hands, and spun around to see both her mother and her brother standing there. In an odd moment of lucidity, she noted that it was almost always one or the other.
She drowned in the image of their flickering forms. Her mother's once-beautiful face was purple and swollen, while her brother's neck was twisted at an odd angle. His face was so like her own, despite that grotesquely twisted neck.
He had been her twin. Rose and Andrei, always fighting but nearly inseparable. She did this to him, and they were twins. Brother and sister. Family.
She did this to him.
She nearly broke down then and there, but then Andrei drew something from behind his back. She caught a flash of silver. A razor.
He tossed it to her, his face expressionless. She almost dropped it, but managed to keep her grip. The sharp end dug into her palm and she winced. Her mother watched on quietly.
Mechanically, her hand came up and placed the razor at the thick vein in her wrist. She unceremoniously drew a red line with the slick metal, and quickly did the other wrist.
Everything was red. Crimson pain and red, red, red. Screaming and pain and the dull, cold red faces of her family. She was cold. So cold. Still screaming.
Her family.
She woke up screaming and drenched in sweat. She threw off her covers and stumbled to the bathroom, flinging the door closed behind her. She gripped the edge of the toilet and heaved up the previous night's frozen pizza.
When she finished, she wiped her mouth and stood on shakey legs, moving to the mirror. Her eyes were dark, her skin pale. She felt a desperate need to brush her teeth.
She opened the cabinet to reach for a toothbrush, but froze when she caught the familiar flash of silver. Her father's old razor, soon to have been her brother's. She choked on her own saliva.
What was it her father had said once? If you die in a dream, you've died in real life.
Rose's hands shook as she reached for the sliver of metal, bypassing the toothbrush. As per fleeting thought, she walked to the door and locked it. She rushed back and snatched up the razor. She settled into the bathtub, her arms shaking and her breathing heavy. The razor grazed her skin lightly, and she shivered. Suddenly there was a pounding on the bathroom door.
"Rose? Rose, are you okay? Honey, open up!" Caroline.
Rose gritted her teeth and took a deep breath. She pressed the edge against the skin of her left wrist.
Do it. Do it for them.
(A/N: I had to leave it there... *evil author grin* Sorry, that's actually not funny at all. I apologize if this chapter was too graphic, or if it hit a bit too close to home. But I'm not changing it.
P.S.- If a sentence is bold, you can assume it means she had taken out her phone and was writing with the notepad. If it's in italics, she's either thinking or writing, and I'll say if she's writing or not. Author's notes are also bold, but it'll obviously say A/N. Thanks for tuning in, Ciao!)