Reborn Deceit

CHAPTER SIX

Rose

The rain beat down on the window, the small droplets of water racing their way down the cool glass in a battle to see which could escape their predestined path first. Fall from the heavens, live freely on this earth for just a little while, then get sucked back up just to do it all over again.

For a second Rose found herself envious of those little balls of moisture, because at least they knew what their basic path was in life. They could be anything they wanted, even for just a small amount of time. A puddle, a drop in a lake, anything. And every drop of water had a purpose. Rose was stuck in a life she didn't even understand. No family, at least none that she knew of, a dead-end job at a small bookstore in an even smaller town, and no college education to even help guide to her calling in life. Did she even have a calling in life? Even a rain drop had a calling in life.

Sighing, Rose tore her eyes away from the window and erased her nonsense thoughts. She returned her focus to the book in front of her. It was a slow day at the store and just like she always did when there were no customers, Rose had walked blindly through the shelves and picked a book at random. This one was one of her unluckier finds—American History Until 1865. Not the most interesting choice for a dreary day.

Thankfully, Roses phone chirped from where it sat buried in her bag, distracting Rose from her very intriguing lesson about Bacons Rebellion. Rose hurriedly grabbed her cell phone, looking to find anything to save her from death-by-boredom.

Call me?

It was from Mira, the two words being the only thing on the screen. Rose glanced at the clock to see it was finally closing time, so she slipped the phone into the back pocket of her jeans with the promise of responding to her friend later, and began closing up the store.

Rose made her way through the bookstore, disposing of any leftover goodies, rinsing out the coffee pot, closing and locking the windows, and shutting off all the lights. Once she had stepped outside and double checked that the front door was locked, Rose began her walk to her apartment.

Thankfully the rain had let up and the only thing Rose had to focus on was avoiding the large puddles as she made her way across the town and towards her apartment. She unlocked her phone and clicked Mira's name, bringing the phone to her ear as it began ringing.

"Hey pretty lady!" Mira greeted her after just two rings. Rose couldn't help but smile at her friends cheery voice.

Truth-be-told, Rose had been avoiding Mira—and the rest of the Nikolaidis—for five days since the dinner on Saturday. At first Rose was mad at Mira for lying to her, but now she was just irritated. How could someone possibly hate another person after only meeting them once? Rose understood that she reminded them of someone they were once close with, but how did that make it okay to hate her?

"A group of us are going clubbing tomorrow night. You should join!"

Rose groaned into the phone as she narrowly avoided another puddle. "Who's the group?" She asked, fearing that she already knew the answer. But did it even matter? Rose wasn't a big drinker, and the last time she let Mira give her alcohol she ended up making a fool of herself. Rose plus alcohol was not an equation that anyone wanted to solve.

Mira sighed from the other end of the call. "Just a bunch of people from town."

Rose almost snorted at that, but managed to hold it back. People from town? Mira was usually a better liar than that. For goodness sakes, the town had less than a hundred people in it, and a majority of them were either young parents or elderly couples. Not the clubbing type.