Thorns On My Rose: A Story of the Daughter of Robert Downey Jr. (EDITING)

Chapter 6 - Spending Time With Susan

ONE MONTH LATER.

So it's been about a month since I got here with Robert and moved into his castle in The Emerald City, in the Land of Oz. And believe it or not, I have been something close to happy this entire time. Which is strange 'cause ever since my mom croaked, I'd been pretty anti-social and experienced some sort of depression. But now, I experienced little bitty bursts of happiness that had to do mainly with Robert and my little half brother. It was a feeling I was slowly starting to accept, happiness, though I would be lying if I said I wasn't trying to get rid of it every now and then. I mean I was so fricking happy all the time that I would smile! I would smile. Me. Smiling. It's beyond weird but there ya go.

Susan wasn't around as much as I thought she'd be. She was a movie producer and the executive president for something called Team Downey, something her and Rob started together that I honestly thought was pretty lame, but she was really more like the working dad and Rob was more like the stay at home mom, at least for now. Rob was on break at the moment, having taken time off to help get me settled in and would resume his acting career in about a year. Which, though I would never admit it, made me happy (there's that stupid word, again). He was the reason that I got out of bed every morning. Like, literally, if I wasn't up by ten, he'd drag me out my room and make me eat breakfast (Poptarts usually, but occasionally I could eat a Toaster Strudel).

A constant presence in the house were The Cats, which I was still considered to be the devil's spawn. And it turns out that the reason I felt this way is because one time my mother left me at this random woman's house and the women had like ten cats. It was pretty traumatizing.

And I remembered this all by myself, I'm proud to say. I hadn't had a flashback in the month that I've been here, which is pretty awesome because my flashbacks fricking suck and aren't exactly the most pleasant surprises, considering I can't control them and have no idea what I'm going to transport back to.

Susan still thinks I'm kinda loopy, which I am, I mean come on, Suzy, you're more than a little late with your thesis. But she is pretty tolerant of my bluntness, which Rob appreciates since I will probably never change. Also, the handsome black guy, Duke. He is always here. Like all-fricking- ways here. His presence is sort of like The Cat's... except a bit more human. It's more than ridiculous. He eats here, he swims here, he watches TV here and all that shit, and it's like "Dude, Duke, go effing home, homes. You're a grown-ass man."

Anyways.

The highlight of my day is definitely either swimming (No shit, Sherlock... which is actually funny because Robert is Sherlock Holmes.. or at least, one of them), or riding Robert's horses, which he doesn't really ride. My favorite horse by far is this yellow mustang that has a black tail and a black mane. Since Rob' s careless ass hasn't even named them, I named the yellow one Spirit, because there's a horse on a movie called Spirit that looks exactly like this horse.

I ride Spirit every day for about an hour and a half, sometimes twice a day, depending on if Susan is home or not. Usually, if she is home, I will ride for two hours. She keeps telling me she wants to take me shopping (just like Rob said she would) so every time I see her car pull up, I 'involuntarily' disappear.

I usually take Spirit down to the beach, since Robert lives only a mile away from one. There's an isolated spot where paparazzi usually don't go or even know about that I take Spirit because the cameras and crap make him so nervous sometimes he pees himself. It's pretty gross.

I've only experienced the paparazzi twice while I've been here. The first time was when Rob took me to get some groceries with him. We'd left Exton at home with Loren, one of Robert's assistants, and as we're walking down the sidewalk to Sprouts, this guy comes up with a camera. And then, there's, like, five of them, all snapping their goddamned cameras. Rob cursed for a few seconds before he grabbed my hand and pulled me inside the store. I pulled my hood further down onto my head while Rob began to shop like a suburban housewife.