It's My Fault

Chapter 9

By the time lunch came around I was sitting with Rose at our tree. I was leaning back while we both enjoyed the silence. Watching people walk by having their own conversations, people who read outside enjoying the weather, people who start all the drama for the school, and the athletes which surprisingly haven't bullied me in quite a while. They seemed to have found another target. I watch them while they start to follow a couple until they are out of view. "Why do you think they stopped?" Rose caught on to what I was talking about and answered with, "Maybe they finally figured how much of an amazing person you are." I smiled and looked over at her. She smiled back at me and put her head on my shoulder. Taking a deep breath I looked back out to the yard. We stayed like that until the bell rang and we went to our separate classes. I walked into my class with a smile on my face and sat down next to Grace. She gave me a confused look and asked, "What's got you all smiley Ellie?" I only looked over at her and winked. The teacher then started class and everyone got quiet. Grace and I had small talk throughout class while continuing to do our work. Then the bell rang and I sighed. One more class to go. I groaned internally and went to my last class for the day. Class dragged on and so me being uninterested, I looked out the window. From where I was sitting I could perfectly see Rose's and I's tree.

Flashback
It was our first day of freshman year. Rose has our arms connected while we walked around the campus trying to find somewhere to eat. "Ugh there is so many people. It seems like everyone has a spot." I heard Rose sigh next to me. She tugged on my arm and said, "Let's go outside it's loud and hot in here." I agreed and led us both outside. It was a great day outside, there was a perfect breeze and wasn't hot or cold outside. We both took a deep breath and looked around. Some of the benches right outside the door were taken but there was no shade over them at all. We looked at each other and shook our heads. We continued to look around and spotted a tree a little ways away. We both nodded and walked over there. We sat down and leaned against the trunk looking out. Rose let go of our arms and started eating. "I think we found our spot." Rose leaned her head on my shoulder and nodded while continuing to eat her sandwich. I smiled and leaned my head against hers and took a bite out of my sandwich. "Our spot until the end?" I looked over at Rose and she looked up at me smiling. "Until the end."

I smiled at the memory then the bell rang. I quickly packed my stuff up and left the room. Everyone was walking down the halls talking with friends or just walking as fast as they could to leave. I walked out the front doors and saw Rose waiting for me at the corner. She waved at me and I smiled and when I was just about to walk over when I heard my name being called from the right. I saw Grace walking over smiling at me. I looked back at Rose and mouthed 'give me a second'. She nodded at me and looked out to the street. "What's up Grace?" She asked, "I was wondering if you wanted to hangout?" I gave her a apologetic look, "I'm sorry Grace I have..." was I really going to tell her about my mom. No not yet at least. "To meet my dad at my house he wanted to do some things at home with me. Maybe another time?" She nodded and smiled hugging me, "See you later then Ellie." I waved and walked towards Rose and started to walk to my house so I could drop off my stuff before we visited my mom. "So how was class?" I shrugged and answered with, "Wasn't really paying attention. I was daydreaming the memory of how we claimed our spot freshman year." I looked over and saw her smiling at the floor. "Wow now that's a throwback." We both laughed and then walked the rest of the way in comfortable silence. When we got to my house Rose walked in with me while I went to my room and dropped off my stuff. Rose leaned against my doorframe and said, "So do you want to stop by our spot to get some flowers?"

I nodded and walked back out so we could leave. We quickly walked to our spot and I grabbed a handful of flowers. "This would work right?" Rose nodded and we took the shortcut to the back of the cemetery. Rose looped our arms together and leaned against me. We passed a few people one person in particular should out to me. It was a girl in about her mid twenties. She was sitting alone in front of a gravestone. She was leaned over hugging it but with a smile on her face. I was confused but I looked away and at the floor. About a minute later we turned and made our way to my mom's gravestone. I set her new flowers down and sat down in front of her. Rose sat next to me resting her head on my shoulder. I looked down at the grass in front of me, "Hey mom, how have you been? I hope you've been having fun up there. And that Betsy is keeping you company. I have been making new friends as well. They are good people I think you would of liked them." Rose chuckled on my shoulder and I looked at her. She only smiled at me and I looked back at her stone. "I hope you have new friends there as well. Who am I kidding of course you do. Who wouldn't like you mom." I chuckled and looked up. "Well it seems like it's going to rain." Rose took her head off my shoulder and looked up, "We should start heading back." I nodded and started to get up. "I'll see you later mom." I looked around and saw people starting to leave noticing the clouds as well. "Ellie we gotta go the storm is coming faster." I looked behind us and saw the clouds rolling in.

We started our walk to the back going towards the storm. "There is no way we are going to beat the storm Ro." She nodded and then we started jogging when the rain started to fall. "Snap I am going to get sick." Rose laughed next to me while we continued to run. The rain came down harder and we were nowhere near home. I huffed and stopped running. Rose stopped a little ahead of me looking back at me. She raised an eyebrow and I walked closer to her. "Why did you stop?" I shrugged and said, "We are already soaked and nowhere near home. I am most likely going to be sick so I figured why rush anymore. I like this kind of weather anyway." She shrugged and we walked side by side. She curled into me and I sighed continuing to walk. We were both soaked and dripping wet by the time we reached my house. My dad wasn't home so we both walked in and walked to my room. "Ugh we should go to the bathroom so my room floor doesn't have water all over it." Rose nodded and we walked out of my room to the bathroom down the hall. I took off my shirt when we reached the bathroom and wrung out the water in the bathtub. Rose did the same and then we peeled off our pants wringing those out as well. "Oh my gosh everything is cold and sticking to me." Rose laughed and wrung out her hair. "Hey you're the one who stopped running and started to walk." I purposely flipped my hair in her face. I turned and started laughing when I saw the face she made. "Now come on Ro we need to dry off."