"Josh!!" I screamed, tears already streaming down my face as I pulled him into a hug like I'd never given before.
"What? Who? How? Wait. Rose? You? Here?" Joshua exclaimed, still obviously confused.
"I'm so glad we finally found you," I managed through sniffles and tears.
"We? Miriam's here?"
"Oh, no. See... I kind of ran off to find you, Travis here, helped."
"That doesn't sound like the Rose I know at all!" he exclaimed, finally releasing me from the tight hold.
He was right. It wasn't the Rose he knew. She'd long been gone, ever since this invisible thing I was certainly going out of my way for people; surprisingly my sister, even. I was stunned in this moment at how self- centered I used to be.
"Why're you here?" he said, bringing me back to reality and the issue in our midst.
"Oh. Yeah!" I said enthusiastically, hesitating briefly before I let out a long stream of tangled words," So Miriam's been really depressed and I was worried and she wouldn't eat and I got worried and well I had to find you. She's been writing sad songs and listening to country. And- And... She missed Olivia too!" I blurted out, not expecting this to come from my mouth since I wasn't even sure I believed it. What if he wanted to bring back Olivia with him to see Miriam and she didn't want to see Olivia?
"Okay, calm down. You're getting yourself worked up again," he said in the slow, sooting voice I knew him to have years ago. "After this class I've got one more. But then we can go eat lunch, catch up a little. Then, I can take you over to my place and you can see Olivia," these last words hit me hard and took the wind out of me. He was living with her? Maybe this mission was a fail.
Travis was still standing off to the side, awkwardly during this whole little reunion. He now stood closely by my side, one of his strong hands in the small of my back. It wasn't an aggressive touch or anything weird, it was more reassuring.
We all agreed to meet at the pancake house right outside the university at 1:00 to have lunch. With Travis's arm now around my waist, we walked outside the building and into the fresh air while a light breeze brushed against our faces.
"I'd say that went well," he said, looking down upon my face since he was quite taller than me.
"No, not at all," I threw back at him, full on sarcasm in my voice. I wouldn't let him know that I was worried about meeting Olivia, he'd tell me not to freak out.
For the remaining two hours until we were to meet up at the pancake house with Josh, Travis and I walked around the campus, talking about nothing but everything at the same time and coming up with various inside jokes, so many that we lost count after five. We also drove around the town a bit. I figured we might want to get to know the area in case they wouldn't come back to California and I had to take Miriam here sometime.
"Table for two?" questioned the middle- aged waiter almost as soon as Travis put his foot through the door.
"No, three please," answered Travis. The waiter grabbed another menu and hastily led us to a booth by the far wall.
"Someone else will be your server," and then the man walked off, almost angrily.
"What's his problem?," I said in a low whisper across the table to Travis as I saw Josh walk through the front door and be escorted to a table by the same angry waiter.
Josh echoed the same thing I'd said only moments earlier and all three of us cracked up as Joshua grabbed his seat next to Travis. I was on one side by myself.
I ordered the blueberry crepes, Travis the double chocolate pancake stack, and Joshua a large hot chocolate ( I hope he knows he lives in Arizona and currently it's in the high 90's), and a "farmer's breakfast" which consisted of: two scrambled eggs, two bacon, two sausage, and two buttermilk pancakes.
One enjoyable lunch later all of us were stuffed and I had a thought in the back of my head that maybe Travis and Joshua had just started a bromance almost. Then my stomach did a backflip because I knew I'd be seeing Olivia in like 15 minutes. Terrific.
"Then you'll take Honey St. down till Maple Way and make a left, our house is 2nd on the right. Meet you guys there. See you guys soon," explained Joshua, giving Travis a bro hug and then gave me a tap on the shoulder, walked to his car and took off.
"Alright, I know the way," affirmed Travis.
"Guess we better head out then,"
"Don't be nervous. I know you think I'm just saying that there's nothing to worry about but most of the time I'm right," and he winked as we started to drive off.
"Most of the time..." No more was said until we reached their driveway. It was a small, brick house with a one- car garage. It was very neat and unkempt. There was a small flower box in front of the tiny porch where there were flowers galore and I thought even looking at them might destroy their beauty. Must have been Olivia. She had a part- time job at a flower shop downtown before she ran off with Miriam's boyfriend. I couldn't let feelings of angry continue to boil, I mean I didn't even know the story behind everything.
"Go on in," and Josh held open the door. "You might want to stay quiet though, she might be sleeping,"
Who sleeps in till 2 in the afternoon?, I thought to myself.
When we all got inside, I noticed it was really modern. The couch was a short wrap- around that was navy blue with sky blue pillows that matched the walls almost perfectly. On the wall were simple, but nevertheless beautiful, paintings. There was a somewhat small T.V. a few feet from the couch with DVD cases scattered around the desk it was sitting on.
"Sorry, I didn't have time to clean up and wasn't able to answer the phone right away so I only had an hour and then, yeah," came a female voice from behind a wall from what looked like the kitchen. My heart stopped. Out came a gorgeous woman, even though her features were changed pretty drastically. I barely recognized her. Her blonde hair that was always so vibrant was now only a memory, it was a faded blonde. Her eyes were the constant that I remembered, a deep green. She looked a good size weight wise and she was a bit taller. She had the essence of being years older than she really was. She still had a considerable amount of natural beauty left though.
"It's- It's fine. The place is lovely," I stammered.
"Oh, Rose!" she shrieked as she walked quickly towards me, pulling me into yet my second really tight hug for the day, the first coming from Josh. Letting go off me she sighed and sank down into the blue couch. I followed suit, sitting down on her left side, not knowing whether to save room for Josh to sit by her or not considering I had no idea what the situation was.
After an hour or so of talk of the weather, sports, and latest trends, I moved onto the harder part of this day, which was going deep into conversation and figuring out what happened and if they'd come back or not. Josh was in college here, surely he wouldn't want to leave. And who knows what Olivia's up to? Right as I was about to ask what had happened years ago I heard a faint wail from a room farther back in the house. Olivia or Joshua didn't look startled like Travis and I were. She stood up, muttered "excuse me, please," and went to the source of the noise.
"Uhmm, Jo-" I spoke softly but was cut off.
"You'll see. I know you've been wanting to know what happened, if Olivia and I are a couple, ect. But just wait." Joshua replied.
Just as he said this the wailing stopped and footsteps came back down the hall. Olivia was carrying a squirmy blanket in her arms. A baby.
*************************************************
"But- But- But,"
"Yeah, you must be confused a bit, Rose. Before you assume anything let us tell you the story. And hold questions till the end if possible," said Olivia in a soothing voice, calming me down only a minuscule amount. I was thinking "Are they really going to tell me how this baby was born? I'm not in 5th grade. I know what happens...
"Back freshman my life was pretty hard," Olivia paused, looking back into her past must have taken some effort, " My mom and dad had always been religious. Still are, to my understanding. But you see, my older brother, he's about, er..., 24 now. Well anyway, he lives in Texas. He came home for a weekend. He's a real rebel. He brought in all kinds of things mom and dad wouldn't approve of. Drugs, alcohol, even the illegal stuff. Well I was making dinner and accidentally used the drug spice stuff instead of the spice for the casserole I was making. And well it only to one use, even though accidental to get addicted. I got into a half- day program and was off the stuff easily. My brother went back home and only him and I knew about what happened because if my parents found out I'd be dead. But uhmm... Josh could you continue, I- I don't think I can finish,"
"Of course," said Josh, resting a hand on her knee while she wiped away the few tears that were beginning to fill her eyes.
"So," he continued for her, " She'd gotten through that. She felt like she could conquer the world. But three months later or so things took a turn for the worst. She's still traumatised but things continue to improve. See, Olivia was raped one night," Joshua paused, expecting sounds of shock from Travis or me but I was just speechless, as was he.
" And this man got her pregnant..." he fused, obviously still irritated with whomever had caused her pain. " Anyway, her parents believe in abortion and would have made her do it. But Olivia confided in me one day when I saw her crying out by a bench near the greenhouse. She confided in me and I knew I needed to help her. I took her with me, here, in Arizona. I would have told somebody but she was so afraid of her parents getting the information from someone from school or around town. She needed me and I wasn't going to break her trust. Otherwise, her parents would find out and deal with it in their own way. That's it. And since you haven't asked it's a girl. Her name's Anastasia. I knew you'd be wandering," he finished, clearly out of breath by the end.
"Wow. I'm so sorry, I had no clue. I was judging you these past years. Oh gosh," I whispered under my breath, only loud enough for them to all hear. Then I started to cry. Travis slid in beside me and wrapped his right arm around my back and his left arm around the front of me, so they met in the middle on my side. I curled into him, still sobbing. I heard Joshua go bustle around in the kitchen for something and come back, standing directly in front of my blurred vision.
"Here's some water. Now calm down. It's okay. Honestly. We know we raised a lot of suspision and I would have told you and Miriam but we couldn't risk her parents finding out," Joshua patted my head and sat down across from the three of us plus Anastasia to a short stool.
10 minutes later all the tears were gone and I had drank two glasses of water. "Would you like to hold her?" asked Olivia as she saw me looking continually over at the bundle. Shifting only slightly in her seat she put Anastasia into my open arms. I cradled her for at least 5 minutes before Travis finally spoke up.
" Rose... Wasn't there something you wanted to ask them?" he said sympathetically, knowing perfectly well what I wanted to ask but knowing the answer was no.
"Well I know the answer so not anymore. I was going to ask if you two or should I say three wanted to come back. But I could just bring Miriam up for a visit. You two already are settled in down here. I couldn't ask you to move,"
They both looked quizzically at me then turned to each other. "I'd love to go back home!" said Olivia enthusiastically. " Mom and Dad can't stop me now. I think they'd just melt for Ana too. I could live with them, I'm sure."
"I wouldn't mind going back either. I'm close with a professor up here. He was paying me to go to school. He owes my family a favor from the past. He didn't want me looking suspicious around here so he told me to come to classes and just act like a student, he would pay me so that I could pay the bills for the house we're living in. Of course he paid much more than he should have. Once he saw Anastasia his heart was warmed,"
"So- so, you'd come back with us?" I asked, still a bit nervous of the answer.
"Yes!" they both shouted joyfully at the same time. My heart lurched forward. I'd done it. I mean we'd done it. Travis and I.
"Let's get this show on the road ladies and gentleman," said Travis, looking just as happy as I was. Maybe it was because I was happy that he was. So we all loaded up his truck and Joshua's car and started back home.