FIXATION

EIGHTEEN

EIGHTEEN: MAGNETS
november 7th, 1984

"Start talking before the buffer gets here."

Genevieve has never been one to shy away from confrontation. Especially when that confrontation was with her daughter. Who was currently backed into a corner or at least until, as her mother puts it, her buffer gets here.

"Steve isn't a buffer," Rosalie pauses to taste the sauce she had just whipped up with the contents of the refrigerator, "he's a guest tonight."

"A guest who is here more than the person who pays to keep the lights on," she mutters angrily before crossing her arms. Her eyes don't leave her daughter as she turns the oven light on to check on her chicken for the third time in five minutes. "Spill. Where were you all weekend?"

Here goes nothing. "I was helping Steve with Dustin's science project," she recites her lines as she pulls the oven door down to pour the sweet smelling sauce over the chicken. And just ask she suspected, her mother doesn't believe her.

"All weekend?"

Rosalie shuts the oven door, "that's what I said first, too." When her mother gives her a questionable look she adds, "when Dustin asked us to help he forgot to mention the project would take all weekend. He had to study moss in its natural habit and how it responds to change in the environment. Then Dustin lost his cat and we spent most of Saturday looking for Mews." Now she was improvising, hoping that the attention to detail wasn't too much of a stretch. When the tight look in her mother's eyes don't soften she lowers her shoulders and takes a deep breath, "look Mom, I'm sorry if it felt like I was keeping things from you. Everything happened so quickly this weekend and Dustin really wanted to get an A."

The eyes that were prying into her back with suspicion don't give up until she's tossing the salad, spilling carrots on the counter due to her nerves. But regardless of how much vegetation she spilled, she was grateful for the ring of the telephone that eased the tense situation. Rosalie doesn't move from her place as her mother goes to answer the phone until she hears her mother's smirk, "hello Steve, Rosalie was just telling me about your eventful weekend. Mind catching me up?" She crosses her arms, eyes never leaving her daughter.

But Rosalie's breath doesn't falter, she's grateful her and Steve got on the same page before her mother decided to interrogate them both. And by the sound of her mother's uneventful hum it seems that she's in the clear. "Here, he wants to talk to you," Genevieve motions the phone towards Rosalie after a moment. Before she takes it, her hand cups her cheek and she sighs, "this boy really must be smitten with you." She can tell her mother is referring to something she doesn't quite understand. But she's walking away before Rosalie can ask for an explanation.

"Hey," Rosalie can hear Steve's smile through the phone.

"Hi," she replies then glances over her shoulder as her Mom continues to chop more carrots, "dinner's almost ready, are you close?"

"About that," her heart sinks as she guesses the next words from him. He isn't coming. "Looks like I'm gonna have to stick to left overs after all tonight." She can't ignore the drop of her serotonin levels when he announces the bad news.

Her finger wraps the cord around itself without her realizing. "Is everything okay?" Her mind races, beginning to fear the worst.

"Yeah, my parents are back early and at the same time which is a first... so, save me some left overs and I'll just swing by a little later than intended." She hears his voice fade as he looks over his shoulder, no doubt at the clock across the kitchen. "How's ten sound?"