1~ Final Goodbye

     Outside the window, Rosalie could hear the wind howling its lullaby, throwing the rain against her window as if it were mocking her. These are the tears you’ve shed, you weak, weak little girl, it would say. Pathetic child, helpless, pathetic, whispering that word over and over again. Pathetic. And so she cried; cried her heart out. She cried because she felt alone, despite the friends that flocked around her every day. She cried because she felt helpless, lost, pathetic. She cried because she was afraid to sleep; afraid of the nightmare, the one that kept coming back. She cried until she could not produce tears and she drifted into a place between sleep and consciousness.  Prince slept at the foot of her bed, guarding her in the dead of night.

     In this state of sleep, she is able to still control her thoughts, and what comes to mind is what happens next. The upcoming day is going to be her last day in Barrow, and beyond that, what? She didn’t want the only thing that changes to be her location, she wanted to be a new person; someone she liked, that wasn’t so shy and dark and quiet and straight-laced. She wanted to start having fun. So she made a mental to-do list:

 

Things to do to remake myself

 

Make wardrobe more attractive to the male eye

Learn to do makeup so that it makes eyes pop

Learn what lip colors compliment skin

Buy push up bras

Work on flirting

Research male thought process and tendencies

Learn what guys want

Learn to manipulate the human mind

Find a sport enjoyable, and start doing it

 

 

     As soon as the list was made she moved on to contemplating how all this was to be done before she started her new life in Sumner, Washington. She needed all of that list to be completed by the time she started her first day in her new school, but couldn’t even begin until after her last day in Barrow, Alaska.

     Hours later the alarm went off, screaming its high pitch beeping noise until Rosalie rose from her almost-sleep and turned it off. Today was a funeral. Today was the day that Rosalie Takashi died, and gave her place to a complete stranger, Rose Takashi. Rosalie dressed, appropriately, in all black. A black, long sleeved turtle neck, dark blue skinny jeans, black stiletto boots with silver buckles, and a black headband, complimented by a thin layer of black eyeliner and black mascara, a black leather purse, and her favorite custom, form fitting, black trench coat that brought out her curves in a modest, elegant way.

     She looked around at all of the sealed boxes and emptiness that surrounded her, thinking only for a second that she would miss Barrow, and the people in it, but that soon was replaced by a glimpse in the mirror and the thought of how she would change her physical appearance when she got to Washington. She stared blankly for a while before deciding she would cut her hair, maybe put some more color into it, and she would work on a tan; Rosalie was considerably pale for an Asian. Soon her mind was completely consumed in options for her hair, because that was the only way to make herself look different on the outside.

     “Rosalie, honey, you’re going to be late for the bus!” Amanda yelled down the hallway, her voice full of second-guesses and worries. Amanda had been all against the move, but the fact of the matter was she could work anywhere, being a psychologist and all. Her husband, though, had to work slightly harder for work. Yes, doctors are always in demand, yes he had plenty of experience in the field, but his boss had him transferred, and Sean wasn’t the type to argue with authority.

     “Hm? Oh, yeah, sure. I’ll be right out.” Rosalie snapped herself out of her self induced trance and grabbed her backpack, rushing out of her room and out of the living room door, not even bothering to say goodbye to Amanda or Sean, who were both in the kitchen packing the last of their things. Naturally, Kyle was waiting for her at the bottom of her sidewalk, just like he had every morning for the past six years. Kyle was a very attractive guy, broad shoulders, perfectly toned body, perfect tan, perfect teeth, perfect dark hair, perfect everything. His eyes were a dark green and sparkled when he smiled, but Rosalie didn’t notice any of this. All she noticed was that he was her very best friend, which meant more to her than anything else about him. She didn’t have many female friends, so she wasn’t good at socializing with girls, most often she just hung around with guys who loved to flirt with her and hit on her, even if she didn’t flirt back. They didn’t mind, she was hot and that’s all they seemed to care about. Except Kyle, who seemed to see right through her, no matter what’s going on. Which is exactly why it didn’t surprise her when, only seconds after he saw her, he noticed something was off.

     “All right, are you going to tell me what’s going on or am I going to have to force it out of you?” He took her backpack, like he always did, and swung it over his shoulder, looking down at her; even though she was in five inch heals he was still eleven inches taller than her.

     “I swear you’re some kind of psychic. And fine, I’ll tell you. When I leave here I’m going to work on myself and make myself someone more… I don’t know, more likeable.”

     “You’re already perfectly likeable. You and I both know how many guys we know like you.”

     “No, we both know how many guys we know want to f**k me. They don’t even know me as a person.”

     “You don’t let them.”

     “Exactly. So, since no one but you knows me, not even Sean and Amanda, I’m going to create a me that I can use for people who I don’t want to know me. This way I don’t feel like I’m wasting my high school years, and Amanda stops worrying about me.”

     “All right, reasonable enough. But you have to make me one promise.”

     “Depends on the promise.”

     “Never use that façade around me.”

     “I promise.” She looked up at him and gave him her beautiful smile, the one that made his heart skip beats and his body feel like it’s melting. Of course, she didn’t know this; she just thought it was a smile, nothing more. The rest of their walk to school was spent in silence, though their arrival… not so silent.

     Dion came running to Rosalie in a gay fit of tears and sobs and incoherent mumblings. Dion was 5’7”, two inches taller than Rosalie in her heals, had natural bleach blonde hair, and ice blue eyes. He would have been a real heart breaker for the girls, if he were straight, that is. You could always count on Dion to make a scene. Especially considering Rosalie was his very best friend; granted she didn’t find him all that close of a friend, she was the only person he had to talk to about problems, and have sleep overs with, and have “girl time” with. He was genuinely upset when he saw her coming down the road, even though he told himself he’d keep it together.

     “Calm down, DD, I can’t understand you,” Rosalie used the nickname she had given Dion when she had decided that he was like a male, gay DD from the cartoon Dexter’s Laboratory.

     “Okay…” Dion replied, but it came out more like, “O-o-k-a-a-a-ee-ee.” He dried his tears on his neon green and black leopard scarf that hung around his neck. He wrapped his arms around Rosalie’s shoulders in an almost suffocating hug. “I can’t believe you’re leaving me!!” He shouted into her ear just as she cringed for the inevitable yelling fit. Truly Dion was a nice guy, and not too bad to be around, but when he threw a fit, he really threw a fit.

     “Neither can I, but it isn’t up to me, now are you going to share me or keep me all to yourself?” She said smiling softly at him as he slowly let her go.

     “Yeah, you’re not the only one who’s going to miss her,” Michael smirked and his words sounded like honey coming from his sugar sweet, deep voice.

. Michael was tall, always dressed in dark, simple clothes, and he had the kind of personality that made nearly every girl he spoke to melt; save for Rosalie of course. She was really never interested in guys who used girls like Michael did.

     “Is that you admitting you’ll miss me?” Rosalie said in a mocking tone, walking toward the dark womanizer.

     “Maybe, but if you tell anyone, I might just have to kill you.” He smiled a full smile now and wrapped his arms around her, picking her up like she was a doll.

     “You can’t blame Dion for not sharing when you don’t plan to!” Marissa whined from behind Rosalie and Michael let her down. Marissa was a short girl, only about 5’3”, but still three inches taller than Rosalie when she didn’t have any heals on. She had shoulder length curly brown hair, big brown puppy-dog eyes, and slightly messed up teeth that gave her an adorable charm. She and Michael were currently dating, which was good because she was the only girl in school who could keep him in check. “Come her and give me a hug, Shorty.” With a smile Marissa opened her arms, waiting for Rosalie to bury herself in them. Sure enough, Rosalie did as she was told.

     “You could try asking you know.” Rosalie’s voice was soaked in sarcasm, which made Marissa lightly slap the back of her head.

     “Don’t think you can tell me what to do little girl.” Mockingly Marissa teased back. She had always used names like little girl and shorty for Rosalie, because she was the only girl in the whole school shorter than she was, and Marissa loved it.

     The rest of the day went just like that; sad goodbyes here, tears there, little farewell gifts and big hugs. Things that really didn’t mean much to Rosalie. In truth, she had been dying for the day to end. She couldn’t wait to spend a few hours at Kyle’s house just spending time with him before she had to leave. So, when the ending bell rang, she was extremely quick to meet him outside of the school. They didn’t hang around with their friends like they would on a typical day, instead they just went straight to his house, small talking about how her day went, joking about how emotional everyone was getting. Every second they were spending together meant another second closer to when she was leaving him, and by the time they got into his room and locked the door behind them, like they always had, he couldn’t take it anymore. He had to do or say something before she was gone forever.

     “Rosalie.. have you ever thought about what would have happened if you and I became more that just friends?” They were sitting facing one another in his bed now, her with her feet out in front of her and between his legs with her arms wrapped around her thighs just under her knees, and him with his arms resting on his knees and holding one of his wrists.

     “Not really, I’ve never actually thought about anyone that way, honestly.”

     “But you’ve had boyfriends before,” he asked sort of confused.

     “Yeah, but only because I didn’t want to be going out in the world not knowing what kind of guy I don’t work well with, and not knowing what to do when certain things pop up.”

     “I guess that makes sense…”

     “Why bring it up all of a sudden?”

     “I don’t know. I guess I’ve always kind of liked you as more than a friend, and the emotions are just more prominent now that you’re leaving.”

     “Reasonable, and not shocking. We’ve spent almost our entire lives together for the past what, five,  six years?”

     “Just about.”

     “So the emotions are justified.”
     “But unreturned?”

     “Regrettably, no.”

     Beep beep!! Amanda’s car screamed it’s high honking noise out front of Kyle’s house. It was time for their last goodbye, and the death of Rosalie Takashi.

     “I guess I should be go-“ Her words were cut off with his lips pressed against hers, if only for a brief second. “I’m sorry…” Was all she whispered before rushing out to meet her adoptive parents to leave for a strange place. And what she left behind was the girl Kyle loved, what she took was Rose, the stranger she would soon get to know.

Reviews

[Syldor]

Amazing! I love the story line and characters. I can't wait to see what happens next!

[DeathByChoice]

I like it! Very catching and emotional. Rosalie/Rose describes the depressed, locked-out girl that wants to be normal very well. The conversations between Roes and her friends are also very well diaglouged. Great job!