Falling To The Sun | B. Swan + E. Cullen

vingt-neuf

There had never been any doubt that there would be consequences to what had happened in the forest, Roman just wasn't sure how she was going to be able to explain everything properly without sounding crazy.

So of course, when Charlie finally caught up with her, cornering her at the station when she began to fill for her mothers shift, she didn't know much else to do other than to ramble out some partially true story about the woman running off with Julius, weaving him the story of how he wanted to take her along and she had refused adamantly to so much as leave Forks with the pair of them.

He had been very professional about the whole thing. Taking a statement and going through the process of pressing charges against the pair so if they were ever caught or decided to show their faces again...

Well, Roman didn't plan for it to get that far, not when she knew that he would be caught by the pack or the Cullen's before he could ever be seen by a human.

But it was a nice and touching sentiment, even when it made her uncomfortable and antsy, even after he left, deciding that she didn't need to worry about Marnie's shift being her responsibility any more than they were his.

Someone else would deal with it for now, and even then, they were suitably staffed. They were fine.

It didn't feel fine.

She wasn't sure if it ever would feel fine, taking over pieces of her mother's job because she had run away to become crazy.

Nudging a rather large branch with her foot, Roman wondered how it was that Marnie was only ever responsible for following the upkeep of five trails but they were all in complete disarray. They were thrashed and dangerous for such open beginner trails. She tried to swallow the urge to just scream into the blanket silence.

Roman was doing so much on her trails, putting in so much work to make sure people stayed as safe as she could make them — and this is what she was left with, this is how all her hard work was reflected.

Her jaw clenched at the sheer weight of the thing. She was going to have to arrange for someone to come and move this now.

Sighing, she glanced at her watch, trying not to cry at the time. She was going to be here a while trying to get everything sorted out again.

One week she doesn't come to work and it's like everything falls apart.

It moves, tossed to the side like it's nothing, and Roman jumps, tripping back into the dirt. Rosalie looked out of place in her ethereal, enchanting beauty, stood perfectly on the path. She's struck with the image of Venus or Minerva.

"What?" She breathes, a hand coming to rest over her racing heart. "What are you doing here?"

The blonde blinks pretty gold eyes. "Alice sent me to pick you up."

"Why?"

"You're spending the night, apparently," she says sounding incredibly bored.

She stands, brushing off the back of her pants. "But I'm supposed to be spending the night at Bella's..."

"She's coming, too."

"But, um, okay? Isn't Edward not home, though?"

"Are you going to keep asking questions?"

"Are you going to give me answers?"

Rosalie stares her down, unwavering, and Roman strengthens her stance, clenching her jaw.

"Edward didn't want either of you running off the see the dogs. He bribed Alice to keep you occupied and I was roped into doing her dirty work," the vampire drawls.