Rose's Rush Hour.

Chapter Two.

“Well, what was I supposed to do?” I whined like a baby. “She was really getting on my nerves.”

Ed nodded. “I understand.”

“If you understand, then why didn’t you stop me?”

“Because I understand,” she repeated. “I was angry and upset as well and I understand that the spirit of sticking it to her took you over. When you started to lie, I couldn’t contradict you because we’d both look like idiots. At least now, you alone are the idiot.”

“Ed!”

“But bonegirl doesn’t know that yet,” she was quick to add.

“I still lied, Ed, and now I’m in a panic because I have no idea what to do!” I grabbed at my braids and slid my hands down to my cheeks, massaging them. “What am I going to do?”

“My sister,” Ed started. “You should be asking ‘what are we going to do’ because I am a part of this mess by association.” She looked up to the sky with a pleading face. “Dear Almighty, tell me why did I have to befriend a dumb girl like this one? And now I have to fix her mess like I always do!”

I rolled my eyes. “False, that last statement.” I grabbed a samosa and munched on it in frustration. “Will you help me or not?”

Her grey eyes lit up. “You mean I actually have a choice in this?”

I scowled at her and she lifted her palms in surrender.

“Okay, then let’s just think about this for a minute. One minute of silence, and we produce solutions,” Ed stated. With that, she placed her hand on her chin and her face twisted in contemplation.

But whichever way I thought about it, I didn’t have options. I wasn’t going to laugh off what I said to Poppy as a joke and have her taunt me for the rest of my life.

By the end of the brainstorm, Ed and I had come to a consensus on one solution – I’d have to live my lie.

*****

“Where am I supposed to get such a boy, Ed?” I asked as we walked on the cobbled street in town and towards my home.

The Town was not so busy. People were always inside their shops or buildings, some seated or standing outside, engaged in discussions. A few either strolled around, rode on their bicycles or travelled by horse-driven coach.

“Every boy I know likes Poppy. The ones who aren’t interested in her are adult men and I cannot go with an adult man as my date!”

Ed was busy counting her fingers as she looked at the sky. After a while, she shook her head with a desolate sigh. “It’s no good. Poppy is too popular in this town, and there’s not even that many people to consider in the first place. She’s won enough pageants to make her name famous. Even the few boys I know who’ve never seen her still like her.”

“And then there’s me,” I stated, begrudgingly, gesturing down myself. I was wearing a simple long light blue dress with short sleeves and ankle-height dark brown leather boots. I looked like a farm girl and didn’t have a lot of friends. I had acquaintances, but the only person my age I opened up to was Ed. “No way would anyone choose me over her. Even if they didn’t know her, they’d go running the minute they saw her and I’d be left dateless. Again.”

It hurt to be even remotely reminded about the past. Cyrus had come to stay with his uncle at LightHouse last summer. He and I became fast friends, since we were both sixteen and I knew his uncle as a tenant. We knew each other for about two months, and I liked him. I thought he liked me too but when I asked him to go to Establishment Day with me, he said he was going with Poppy –whom he’d met the day before.