Rose Blossom - By Renee Travis Page 0,40

and all I felt was the chilling wind and hard texture of Julian's chest under his shirt.

It was over too soon. We stopped, in a fluid motion, and I opened my eyes. The sun set was beautiful, orange with deep splashes of crimson. We stood there for a while before I noticed we were outside my house. A couple of the lights were on and I knew my parents were home. Nothing seemed hectic, so I figured Mel had covered for me and vowed to make it up to her later.

"No, I don't want to go in, I don't want to leave you," I told Julian as he set me down on the lawn. The grass was dry and crinkled under my bare feet. I was sleepy and had to rub my eyes, feeling about four years old.

"Oh I'm not leaving you, but love; I'm not welcome in your parent's house. So you go in and upstairs to bed, I'll wait for you there." Julian wrapped an arm around me as I almost sagged to the ground tired, I was surprised that I wanted to sleep.

I managed to stand up straight and take a step away from him, once I lost the contact I felt sad again and was worried, what if he wasn't in my room, what if he left again?

"Go on I'll be there," he kissed my lips, soft and tender. He gave me a little push toward my house.

The front door loomed in front of me, I grabbed the silver knob and pushed, the door was unlocked. I dropped my back pack; the house was warm and smelled like basil. At first I wondered if my mom was gardening again, she used to when I was little and our home always smelled like herbs. But then I smelled the garlic and realized she was cooking her famous tofu casserole. For a second I almost gagged but controlled it, all thoughts of my earlier hunger gone.

As I reached the stairs dad popped his head out of the kitchen door,

“Did you get your project finished?" Ah, so that was the lie Mel gave them.

“Almost.” I replied.

So you want some dinner?" He asked

"No, I'm tired, thought I'd go to bed early." It was a sign of how much they'd been worried that he didn’t glance at the clock and ask me if six wasn't a little early. Instead a look of relief covered his face.

"Ok honey, well goodnight."

At the top of the stairs I thought I was home free and would make it without dealing with my mother. But my luck had run out, right as I was about to open my bedroom door she came from the bathroom and called my name.

I just wanted to ignore her, but ignoring her would have made it worse, instead I turned to her and gave her my best what-I'm-tired-leave-me-alone look.

"A letter came for you today Rhodanthe," she smiled, strained thin, and handed me a letter.

"Thanks Mom," but I was talking to the back of her head she was gone so fast. Flipping over the envelope my heart stilled in my chest, skipping two beats before catching up with itself. I knew the hand writing, had done homework and wrote papers with the owner too many times to not know it. Athol.

Taking a giant gulp of air I leaned up against the wall. If I didn't calm down Julian was going to be able to tell I wasn't okay, even through the plaster and paint. I ripped open the envelope and on very generic notepad paper in pencil was one sentence: Eventually Rho, it'll just take time.

I crumpled it and carefully made my way to the bathroom; I tossed the offending ball into the trash can. I'd known Athol had gotten out of Juvie, but I had a restraining order against him. But I didn't know if it covered letter writing. Going to my parents wasn't an option. I didn't want Julian to know especially not after having just gotten him back. It would scare him and make him angry.

Finally I was able to open my door and walk in. Julian, shoes off, was lying on my bed. I shut the door and clicked the lock behind me.

"Your heart rate is too fast, and I heard it skip a couple of times in the hallway, anything wrong? You look agitated," he said, worry creasing his forehead.

"Oh you know, mom, she gets me so upset sometimes," I explained away carefully trying to conceal my