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“Stop looking at me like that, Jamie. Just ask already.”
“Is that why?” I point at her eye. “Because you asked him to sign?”
“No. It’s because I was at the house when Bianco showed up without warning. I forged Nate’s signature. The tournament is four days. As if he would let me out of his sight for that long.”
I struggle to swallow and have to grab a glass of water. My throat always tightens up when she mentions Bianco. I can’t imagine what it does to her. I wouldn’t know, she’s too strong to show that kind of weakness. That drunken moment when she spilled everything was only because she was on the verge of overdose.
“Are you okay?” I ask.
She runs a hand through her hair. She’s gotten even skinnier in the past two months. Chris has been trying so hard to get her to eat but he’s getting more and more frustrated each day.
“I’m fine,” she lies.
“Please, eat,” I insist. “Let’s celebrate that freakin’ lacrosse slip.”
She smiles and goes into her jacket pocket. She pulls out an already rolled joint. “Did you just say celebration?”
“Promise you’ll eat?”
“You know I get the munchies…bad.”
I eye the joint in her hand for another second before sighing. “Fuck it, yeah okay,” I tell her.
“Language,” she grunts as she gets up.
When Mom walks back into the house, Rose and I are cuddling on the sofa, her flowery scent lulling me to sleep. Our plates are empty. So are the packets of chips and the microwavable pasta dish for four that we ate our way through.
“Jamie,” mom scolds as she approaches the sofa. Rose and I are sluggish in our movements. The giggles and red eyes are long gone, we’re just walking zombies now.
“Oh hey, Mom,” I yawn.
“Gosh, ‘Me, I said to make food for us, not for a whole regiment.”
“Hi, Mrs. Williams,” Rose says as she sits back up next to me.
“Rose,” Mom coldly replies as a hello.
She’s so conflicted when it comes to this White. She knows she hates Jake and Nathan. She hates them deeply within her soul for what they did to her little girl.
Rose, however, mom isn’t sure how to feel about her. She knows she doesn’t have the best influence on me. She knows she’s up to no good most of the time, that she’s rough on the outside, and has limited social skills.
Thankfully, she is also painfully aware that Rose is just a teenager who grew up abused, who’s currently going through a rough phase, and is an orphan who’s been ripped away from the only family who ever truly loved her.
I never went into details of what Nate has done to her in the past or anything regarding my friend. I only ever covered my side of the story, but she isn’t stupid. She’s a mother, after all, she feels these things deep down even when she doesn’t know the details.
Mom turns the living room lights on and we both wince.
“What have you two been up to – Oh dear Lord, Rose!” Mom’s eyes widen as she notices my friend’s bruise. I turn to her, her eye has doubled in size on top of the ugly dark purple color.
Rose seems to remember she was hit and brings her fingers to her eye, feeling the swell. “Oh, shit,” she mumbles.
“Language,” Mom snaps.
I laugh as Rose loses her sass. “My bad,” she says as she rolls her lips inward to stop herself from cursing again.
“I’m guessing you didn’t put ice on this,” mom asks as she opens our small freezer. She gets a bag of frozen green peas out and hands it to my friend.
“Thanks, Mrs. Williams.”
