Till all the stars go blue [Chaennie]

Chapter 5

Once the dinner dishes had been cleared away and the horses bedded down, they sat together in front of the fire – legs extended out in front of them, heads leaning back against the bench. Rosie was still cradling her hand in front of her. It was more to remind herself not to try and use it than from actual discomfort.

"Does that hurt," Jennie asked, doe-eyes staring at her bandaged hand. "That must hurt." She winced.

"Not really, it's fine as long as I don't put a lot of pressure on it," Rosie answered honestly.

"I'm so..." Jennie started in but Rosie cut her off.

"Jennie Kim, so help me, if you apologize to me one more time...," Rosie snapped much more sharply than she intended, one eyebrow arching to a fierce peak.

Jennie looked at her, then folded her arms across her chest and stared sullenly into the fire.

Oh lovely, Rosie thought to herself, pouting.

"I'm sorry, Jennie," Rosie said after a moment. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean for that to be so...harsh. I don't know why it came out like that. I'm not used to people being so attentive. I'm not very good at being taken care of, I guess."

She saw Jennie shift her weight, cross her legs and trace her tongue across her top lip. After a moment, her shoulders softened.

"What were you going to do?" she asked, flickering her gaze over at Rosie.

"What do you mean?" Rosie asked cautiously.

"You said, 'So help me' like you had a... punishment in mind. What was it," Jennie queried, her voice more curious than curt.

Rosie chuckled softly. Of all the questions.

"Gosh, I don't know. I hadn't really gotten that far," Rosie admitted.

"You weren't going to put a spider in my bed or a snake in my shoe or anything like, were you?" she implored.

"Of course, not," Rosie remarked, seriously. "That would be mean. And, well...totally lame. I'm sure I could come up with something better than that."

"Oh, swell," Jennie muttered, then chortled softly.

The fire crackled and sputtering sending sparks swirling up into the darkness over their heads. Rosie watched them float out of sight, disappearing into the endless spray of stars stretched out across the sky.

"I miss..., Jennie started and then stopped.

"What do you miss?" Rosie asked after a beat, recognizing the pattern now.

"Just noise, I guess. It's so quiet. I miss conversations going on around me. I miss music. I miss my cell phone, " Jennie whimpered. "Don't you miss things?"

"I don't live in a cave, Jennie." Rosie chuckled, "I'll have you know I like music and movies and all those kinds of things. I just find this all peaceful, soothing, relaxing."

Jennie stared at her as though she'd just eaten a bug.

"Do you even have cable," Jennie asked pointedly.

"Um, no, " Rosie admitted reluctantly."But I'm hardly ever there."

"I suspected as much." Jennie chuckled knowingly. "And a cell phone?"

"Yes, but only because it's a necessary evil." Rosie confessed. "I will admit that I do like Twitter."

Jennie gasped audibly in mock surprise and Rosie rolled her eyes.

"Hey, wait a minute." Rosie said suddenly and jumped up to rummage through her things. She came back a few moments later with a deck of playing cards.

"Really? Oh, so exciting," Jennie smirked.