Chapter ten - crying over spilt coffee

Rose’s point of view

(This chapter’s gonna be continued in Rose’s point of view. I couldn’t just leave you hanging there.)

I just started my NaNoWriMo and I’m having so much fun with it. I set a very achievable goal at 15000 words, but that makes it all really easygoing and relaxed while still pushing me along a little. Basically, it means that by end of the month, I’ll have a few chapters of a new fic ready to post. It’s about pirates, so prepare yourselves.

Also, hi mom. I know you’re still reading my stuff.

Anyways. Read on, my pretzels. Read on.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

I felt like my lungs were full of sawdust. I couldn’t breathe. Everything was a blur. It almost didn’t feel real when the boy lunged at me, trapping me in the corner and pinning me against the wall. I sobbed weakly, desperately hoping that papa would suddenly arrive, but my pleas weren’t fulfilled. The boy clutched at my shoulders, smiled slyly, then crashed his lips to mine.

I choked and grasped at his shoulders in a feeble attempt to push him away, but my efforts were futile, and only served to push him closer to me. He held me in place for a few moments, one hand anchored firmly on my shoulder and the other ghosting over my neck. His mouth stayed latched on mine long enough to deprive me of air, but soon he pulled away and severed all contact. I gasped for air and scrambled away from him. I wanted to shriek at him, to ask what the hell was going on, but my mouth tasted like someone else’s saliva and I could still feel an echo of his hands on my shoulders and I just couldn’t seem to find the strength.

The boy smirked at me, then swiftly turned and slid through the window again. I slammed it shut after him and vehemently pulled the curtains closed, then wiped my mouth on the back of my hand and shuddered, backing into the middle of my room.

Everything felt surreal. Like in a dream. Or a nightmare. My head was spinning and my mind was reeling, and all I wanted to do was scrub my face clean and pretend that this never happened.

I traipsed into the bathroom and slumped onto the closed toilet seat, my body sagging down. I reached up and turned the taps on, and the sink started to fill with water. Sighing, I stood up again, and splashed the icy water onto my face. The cold was uncomfortable, and I shivered a little from the shock, but it was cleansing, and I felt like I was washing away what had just happened. I let the cold burn a little, and spat into the sink.

I scrubbed my face dry on the towel, ignoring the way the rough fibres scratched my skin, and exhaled slowly. Everything was fine. There was no reason for me to feel on edge. There wasn’t anyone stalking me. Everything was fine.

I glanced up to check that I looked composed and collected in the mirror, and screamed.

“Rose?” I heard a yell from downstairs. It sounded like papa. I tried to call back but I was terrified, horrified, and just a cracked whisper came out.

Footsteps padded up the stairs, and I heard the sound of a door softly clicking open. “Rose, honey?” Dad’s voice this time. He knocked on the bathroom door, but I didn’t respond. The door was ajar, and he pushed it open. “Rose, are you– holy motherfucking shit!”

“What? Gee, what is it? Is she okay?” papa asked worriedly, hurrying into the bedroom after dad. He followed into the bathroom, and the moment he saw me, his coffee mug slipped from his hands onto the floor and shattered into pieces.

Fragments of crockery flew across the floor, and coffee soaked into the carpet, but dad didn’t even glance down for a second. His eyes remained wide and confused, and fixed on me.

“What happened?” papa asked in a tiny voice. “Did someone touch you all over?” he asked, wincing. “Or did– did you–”

“I don’t know,” I said weakly. “I– all he did was kiss me, I don’t know how it got– I don’t understand how it could have possibly–”

“But– you’re white,” dad whispered.

“I know,” I squeaked. “I noticed! I think we all noticed.”

“Whoa, whoa,” papa said shakily. “Who kissed you?”

“Just, some,” I said feebly. “Some kid.”

“You just let some random kid over here and kissed him?” papa frowned. He looked kind of mad now.

“No,” I said weakly. “Julian and I saw him at the park the other day. I barely talked to him. But then, tonight, he kind of climbed through my window, and, um, kissed me.”

“He climbed through your window?” dad squeaked. “You do realise that’s illegal, right?”

“He just kissed you out of nowhere?” papa asked, shocked. “Forcibly?”

“Yeah,” I mumbled. “But we don’t need to focus on that, I’m fine.” I didn’t want to look like a victim. I just wanted to work out why I had suddenly turned white from head to toe without warning.

“No, no, no, but this is important,” papa insisted. “He didn’t do anything else, did he?”

“No,” I muttered. “He just left after that.”

“Then why is there white all over you? How is that even possible?”

“I don’t know,” I said, frustrated. “I’m trying to work that out. And you two are not helping.”

“Sorry,” dad mumbled. “We’re trying as hard as we can.”

“I’m sorry,” I said haughtily. “It just feels like you could be doing a bit more.”

“Rose, we don’t know any more than you do,” papa said defensively. “We already told you everything. You don’t still think we’re holding stuff back, do you?”

I made an unintelligible sound. I was confused and stressed and didn’t know what to say. I wasn’t actually sure whether I believed what he said or not. “I want to go to sleep,” I said, shaking my head dismissively. “Maybe it’ll be gone by morning. I don’t know. Can we just stop talking about it?”

Papa sighed. “If that’s what you want.” He turned to leave but his foot squelched into the coffee-soaked carpet and he shuddered. “It’s five in the morning,” he muttered to himself. “I’ll clean that up tomorrow.”

----

Tomorrow came. I was still white, and there was still coffee rotting my carpet.

I got up, hopped over the broken mug in the doorway, washed and dressed, and ended up downstairs half an hour early. Coffee was always a good call regardless of the time, so I downed a couple of mugfuls in preparation for school.

I was in an oddly optimistic mood this morning. It had dawned on me as I was falling asleep that staying like this forever could actually be really great. As a white, I wouldn’t stand out anymore. I could be normal. Ish. Nobody would even question me being adopted if they saw papa.

It would look a little odd, however, if they found out that both my biological parents were black. It was already awkward explaining to people that my dad was actually my biological brother and his boyfriend was now my adopted stepfather dad person. Or something to that effect. It was a difficult thing to put a name to.

Oh well. I supposed I could just tell people at school I’d had surgery or something. Skin transfusion.

I left for school early in the hope of catching Julian before lessons so we could decide what I was going to tell people. Unfortunately, he was nowhere in sight, so I quickly slipped inside before the popular kids started to arrive. They always hung out in the playground, so I always tried to stay indoors if possible. I got called a vampire for it, but I didn’t care. Vampires were cool.

Suddenly I was reminded of how vampire-like that strange boy had looked at the park. Shit, I bet he’d gone and turned me into a vampire too. That was it. I was a vampire now.

Eh, I didn’t even care. Vampires were fucking cool.

------------------------------------------------------------------

fucking crappy ending i know but eh i'm lazy

love ya my pretzels

xoxo