Rupture

Chapter 5

                                                                      Angelica's POV

The next day, I'm in the room that all of us girls except Edith share, playing with the girls. 

Chloe is playing with Rosie, making dolls talk and walk around the wooden floor.

Tatum is sitting next to me, playing with a box she found. They all come up with the weirdest games.

Rosie reaches for one of the dolls, and Chloe reaches out a little hand and stops her. Rosie looks up at her, and tries to reach for it again. Chloe blocks her off.

Rosie's brow furrows, and her lip starts to quiver. "Tha-that is my doll-" She says quietly.

Chloe lifts her chin. "It's mine now." She snatches the doll off the floor, and goes to another corner of the room to play with it alone. "Come here, Tatum! Come play with me!"

Tatum looks up and scurries over, happy to be included. Rosie looks at me then, furiously wiping her eyes.

"Chloe, give Rosie her doll back. It's hers." I demand, moving over to get the doll back.

"I said, it's my doll now!" She shouts, but her face remains blank.

"Chloe, Rosie got that from her parents when she was a baby. It's very important to her, she doesn't have much to remember them by, but she likes that doll a lot."

"NO! IT'S MINE NOW!" screams Chloe, though her face doesn't take on the same expressions that angry women did. She must be raising her voice to try to seem powerful. 

Unfortunately for her, I'm 17, and she's 6.

I bend down and gently pull it from her hands. She's reluctant, but she knows I'm older than her, and I'm the one in charge without Edith in the room.

I turn around to give it to Rosie, and suddenly she's bawling, hot tears running down her face.

We all three stare at her, our jaws dropped.

"Rosie, Rosie!" I try to talk over her loud crying, and she finally looks up, her face puffy and her face wet with tears. 

I wave the doll in front of her. "I got it back for you. It's okay now." She takes it from my hands, hugs it so tight her knuckles turn white, and climbs on top of her bed, still wrapping that doll in a tight hug.

Chloe and Tatum are still staring at her, the toys forgotten momentarliy as Chloe slowly stands up, and walks to the door. "I'm going to tell mommy!" She yells and rushes out the door, her tiny footsteps flying down the stairs. 

I take off after her, knowing she's going to try and find Edith and tell her about Rosie crying. People cry when they have a wound. They can't get their feelings hurt, because they're not supposed to have any. But Rosie just did.

I slide into the living room as soon as Chloe does, already running up to her mom. "Mommy! Mommy! Rosie, she-"

"Hurt herself!" I finish, before Chloe can tell her she cried without having a boo-boo.

"But mommy! She was crying!" Rushed Chloe, trying to get her point across.

"Well of course, she hurt herself!" I tried to cover up.

"No she didn't-" Chloe insisted, but her mom held up a hand before she could finish.

Edith looked back and forth between us.

"Rosie got hurt? Is she okay?" She asked plainly, in a straight tone.

"Yes. She cried, but she's all better now. It's nice Chloe was trying to make sure she was okay," I stated.

Chloe tried to object, to say that Rosie cried without getting hurt, but Edith nodded her head and waved us away.

I tiredly climbed the stairs, entering the room to find Rosie cuddled up, her eyes big and darting around. What kind of face expression was that? She almost looked scared, her face sure matched the picture in our school book. 

No, I thought, That's not possible. Is it?...