2 After College, Monday

"God, I have the weirdest dreams."

My sister chuckles, "You don't seem rested for someone who slept for two hours."

"Two? I thought I slept for half an hour?" I screech

"It kept ringing, but you wouldn't wake up, so I came in, sorry!, and set it for later. The alarm, I mean."

Rosie's clearly a bumbling goofball. So, it's no wonder why teachers, children, and just people in general take an instant liking to her.

She's beautiful, with light brown hair compared to my black, with the same big blue eyes we inherited from our mother, and a slightly crooked, but dimpled smile, with a personality to match.

Basically, she's everyone's darling. Even mine.

"I'm going to the store. Might stay a while at Creevey's." I tell her

" 'kay. Mr. Grant will be here in a bit. Are you sure you don't want to say hi?"

Did I forget to mention? Professor Grant is also my sister's therapist.

"No, I met him in college anyway."

Just because he's her therapist doesn't mean I need to talk to him though, but it sure means he keeps trying to get me to tell him what's going on with me too. Says it's a coping mechanism I developed and that's why I don't like to talk about it.

I take my bike and hop on, cycling away quickly so I don't run into Professor Grant.

Sadly, he sees me at the end of the road, but I just wave and take the turn, going the other direction.

Picking up chips and sodas, I make my way over to Matt's house.

"Hey," the only boy in our year that's shorter than me says

"Hey," Although, that's not his fault, I'm pretty tall; almost as tall as most other boys.

"My sister's upstairs," he says as I park my bike.

I nod, and walk in.

"Snacks?" He questions, already walking into the kitchen with my stash

"Thank you." I call and follow him

We get some more to add to the pile and go up.

"Derek's here too. They're having a fight." He informs in a whisper but, as we reach her room, we hear happy laughs.

"At least they were fighting, " he shrugs and I chuckle.

"Let's go to your room then if there's no drama here anymore."

"Yeah, gee, we have to find better entertainment than their relationship!" We both laugh.

I settle on his bed and he turns on the TV and sits on the floor at the foot of the bed.

"What happened with Professor Grant?" He asks, remembering college

I sigh, "Ugh, he wanted to remind me not to study so much. As if I'd lose sleep over that!"

He laughs, " Is he at your place now?" He asks instead since I won't tell him why I haven't been rested lately. I shrug and nod at the same time.

He hands me a chip, and says, "To all kids with awful, awful, awful dads!"

I roll my eyes and crunch down on the chip.

Matt is one of the only people other than Professor Grant who knows about our parents. Nor just their deaths, but even before that. Because, he used to be our childhood neighbor.

He'd seen the fights, the beatings, heard Rosie's screams and cries. In fact, it was his parents that paid for Rosie's therapy until she could afford it.

His dad left them last year with just a note with two words: 'so long'. That explains his dislike of fathers.

I couldn't help but think that the note was totally his dad's style, but, yes, it still was wrong.

We catch a rerun of some old show that neither of us really paid attention to because we were more interested in the angry yells coming from across the hall.

When I left, Matt promised next time we'd get front row seats to their fight.

"Vanessa, Ruth left a message for you." Rosie told me when I got in.

I hit the button on the answering machine and her static voice hollers, "Hola, guys you need to join us at Berme's Bar tonight. Vanessa, girl, we need you guys if we want any guys to talk to us." Followed by a click.

Rosie looks at me, "9 o'clock?"

I shrug, "sure."

"Do you need some cash on you? I know you don't like asking in front of your friends--"

"Rose, I'm fine. I work too remember?"

"Yeah, but, I'm not able to really give you all that you want, and I feel like you're missing out on too much."

She sounds very sad, like she's remembering how our parents died and she had to care for her younger sister and just didn't know what to do for her. Professor, you aren't doing a very good job.

I walk over and hug her, kissing her hair, "You've given me more than anything I've wanted. It's time for me to give you what you deserve now."

As her breath hitches, I feel myself tearing up, thinking if how much she's gone through, how much she's sacrificed and how she still tells me happy stories of our parents so I wouldn't hate my dad. She'd still tell me every day how much our mother loved us, so I'd never forget her.

I love my sister very much, but I also love the mother she described ours to be.

"Come on." She says, standing to pull me into a hug as we laugh together.

Ruth runs up to us, "You're here!" She immediately pushes Rosie inside, "Go, find boys,"

My sister awkwardly goes off to a side and sips at a coke.

"Seriously, how does she get any guys?" Ruth asks

"Has she ever had a boyfriend?" Georgia asks from behind her.

"No." She never had time.

Dani, my senior, spots me and calls me aside.

"Hey, didn't expect you guys to show up. Especially you." She smiles

"We had nothing else to do. Besides," I turn to look at Rosie who's caught the attention of a group of guys who my classmates immediately grab at. "That one's 24, and she still is so awkward around couples and guys trying to hit on her."

She laughs and offers me a drink.

"I'm underage," I remind her

"Hm, your sister's brought you up well."

I smile politely and walk over to the bar.

The bartender grins at me, passing me some chocolates that I hid the last time. I move to the restroom and break off cubes of my chocolate bar, eating quietly.

I sit down, resting my head on the wall and am so tired that, once again, I fall asleep.

He's there again. This time, at the foot of a waterfall. He's standing close to it, but it's as if the water is bouncing off his skin.

On an impulse, to see if I could alter the dream or interact with the boy, I picked up a stone and aimed beside him and threw.

Ack! It hit him! Now he looks pissed. Quick! Quick! Wake up!

I wake up with a start and excuse myself, saving Rosie from the vultures.