Saving Rose

Chapter Five

"Ally? Don't you need to go pick up Rose?" Sydney asked me. I was sitting out front at the daycare on one of the couches, zoning out.

I had barely gotten any sleep last night, well since Saturday. I couldn't stop worrying about Ethan and if he was done with me or not. I hadn't seen Jacob since Saturday either. I was avoiding him.

I know he had been crazy before we broke up, he would get drunk and smoke, but I would make sure he stayed away from me when he was like that.

"Oh," I was broke out of my thoughts by Sydney and glanced over at the clock on the wall. "Oh!" I repeated. It was past time to leave to pick up Rose. "I need to leave. Are you okay by yourself? I was going to bring Rose back to her house to start going through things." I asked, while quickly grabbing everything I needed and putting it into my purse.

"Yes, I'm fine. We only have one kid."

I told her I appreciated it and was out the door. It didn't take me long to get to her kindergarten, but I didn't want her to think I forgot about her or anything.

I parked and jogged up to the door, opening it.

"Ally! I had so much fun today," Rose told me as soon as she saw me, running over and grabbing my hand, pulling me outside.

"Wait a minute, I need to check out with your teacher." I found my way to her desk where she was sitting. "I'm really sorry about being late, hopefully it won't happen again."

"No worries, really. I enjoy being with Rose." She replied, smiling at me.

"Thank you, see you tomorrow." I smiled at her and I grabbed Rose's hand and made my way back to my car.

"Rose, are you ready to go back to your house? We need to look through some things so we can start getting ready to sell the house?"

She looked over at me with a look of horror written on her face. "You're going to sell my stuff?"

"No, just the house. I don't want to live in it, then someone else can have a nice home to live in."

"But," she stuttered, her lower lip trembling, "I love my house."

"I know sweetie, I'm really sorry, I really like that house too." Part of me wished that she was older so she could understand better what had happened to her parents, but at the same time, it would be a lot harder for her if she was any older.

We pulled up into the driveway and I got out of the car, walking over to where Rose was, opening the door and picking her up out of the car. She had started to cry silently, tears running down her face. "I'm sorry princess. I wish I could make it better. But I will let you help me pick out our next house. We can't stay in mine forever, so I need to start looking at new houses, and I'll let you look with me."

"Okay!" She wiped the tears off her cheeks and smiled up at me. I set her down and we made our way up to the front door.

As soon as I stepped foot into the house, I could just feel sadness seeping into me. Everything was exactly the same as when I came here the last time. There was even a cup of coffee on the table that I bet had Sarah's lipstick smears on the rim. I tried to fight the tears back so Rose wouldn't see me cry.

"So mommy and daddy are never coming back?" She asked, looking at me with big, curious eyes.

"No princess, they're in a better place. Remember, I told you that you were going to be staying with me from now on?" I wasn't going to be able to hold in the tears much longer.

Rose just turned her head towards the ground, sniffling, "okay..." she trailed off.

I knew she was crying, and so was I. The pain was unbearable. I just couldn't believe my sister was gone. Both Sarah and John were some of the sweetest people I had ever met. What did they do to deserve this?