Sixty Days

Chapter 2- Day 00

Rose Duvall pushed her brown, unwashed hair out of her face as she finished vomiting. It was the third time this week. She gave a tired sigh and rested her head against the adjoining bathtub. Rose was tired. These days almost anything sapped her of her meagre strength. She sighed once more and flushed the horrid stuff that she just retched.

"It's going to be one of those days" Rose thought tiredly.

Rose heard shuffling outside of her door but ignored it. It was probably her mother hovering as usual. Any other day she would express annoyance at her mothers constant hovering over her but today Rose was too weak. She waved aside the fact that her mother probably had her ear pressed up against the door, waiting as usual for her daughter. Honestly Rose couldn't blame her, if she had a child like her she would hover like a pesky fly, but still, it irked her. Rose heard her little brother repeatedly calling her mothers name.

Rose weakly called out through the door "You can go now mom, Adrian needs you."

"Are you sure you'll be okay?" Rose's mom chirped.

"I'll be fine, its nothing I haven't dealt with before"

Rose listened to her moms soft pattering as she walked away to deal with Adrian. she weakly tied her hair up and hoisted herself up, using the sink as support. Roses eyes lowered, she  intentionally ignored the mirror in front of her. Rose did not need a reminder of the past, not when she couldn't support her own body weight. Not now. Rose was too tired to wash her mouth, so she opened the door and fell onto her bed. Opening the door and walking to her bed had drained her of whatever little energy she had left, so Rose laid in bed quietly for a couple of moments, counting her breaths;

Inhale,

Exhale,

Inhale,

Exhale.

Rose wondered about the day when she would stop counting her breaths because there was none left. She chastised her self, she couldn't think of these kind of thoughts. Those kind of morbid thoughts are what will ruin her mind.

Rose's shaking hand sought out for her night table drawer, her hands searched inside of it finally hitting a small, hard rectangular parcel. Rose drew the small black book out of her drawer and grabbed a pen laying on her nightstand. She flipped all the way to the back of her Little Black Book hungrily searching for the one thing she needed the most.

Finally Rose flipped one last page and her bucket list stared back at her. Rose drew in a sharp breath, she lived in probably the most visited and awed country but she had never been able to leave her little suburban city in Birmingham. She had never been given the chance of lazily floating down a canal in Venice, or lounging on the crystal, almost ethereal beaches of Greece. Never mind that though, she had her dreams and they were lively enough to send her all the way to Germany hiking up a mountain, or sipping tea in a sun drenched cafe in Italy.

But tomorrow Roses fantasies would become real. Her parents finally agreed she earned the right to travel on her own, to find out who she is. Rose slipped the book back into the drawer and slowly sat up. She had to show her parents she wasn't getting sick again, and that she was fully able to travel. Rose stood up, her thin frame shaking with renewed energy. 

She slowly walked downstairs only to discover her mom leaning against their kitchen counter and pinching her nose. Rose noticed her moms once strong built frame was sagging with more weight that average moms should carry. Roses mother looked up and locked eyes with her daughter, her green orbs flashing with a terrifying emotion which held promises of bad news.

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