Home

She felt like drowning again and she didn't know how to pull herself out.

She got up and ran outside and sat in the sun. She closed her eyes, she kept shaking her leg. It was the only thing that eased the feeling a little bit.

She tried to think of anything but what she was feeling.

Then the only thing that came to her mind was her little yellow toy car.

It was the only toy she had as a kid. Noah's mom, Lorelei had given it to her. She had named him Sunny and had tied a white shoelace to it and she loved running and pulling it by the shoelace.

The wheels made a little noise on the concrete path back at the house , so one morning her mom, hungover from the other night had come outside and broken the car into pieces as Rose watched in terror.

Then she remembered Lorelei had run to her rescue hearing Zoë's screams.

She remembered her mother screaming at her as Lorelei carried her in her arms.

- Don't bother bringing her back, that rat better stay away from me.

Lorelei had taken her home to Noah and Hunter, braided her hair and taken her with them on a trip to the waterfall in the outskirts of town.

It had been the first time she ever went anywhere outside Pine Hills.

The waterfall had looked magic. Then the tiny insects kept flying around. She and Noah played around trying to catch them .

- They're called dragonflies, you know if one touches you it means you'll have good luck for the rest of your life.

Lorelei had told them, just as one had landed on Noahs hand.

Looking into Roses puffy eyes from crying, Noah had said;

- Here you can have my dragonfly

She smiled to herself.

The dragonfly had once again helped her out of a crisis.

She breathed deeply once more remembering today she would get to reunite with the others.

The thought made her feel better and she went back to writing the letter.

Miles away from it all Alison had only just woken up, it was a sunny morning .

After spending years away from home, it was the first morning that in some weird way felt nicer than the others. She was a morning person. Was..before the mornings turned into reminders.

Reminders that she was away from everything and everyone she loved.

Before the morning sun shined on all things unfamiliar.

After the accident her parents had found a mental health retreat clinic of some kind. They didn't talk about it, as they never did about anything important. All of Pine Hills were under the impression she left to attend some private school. She didn't ask anything about home, so her mother would still, in her own way, try to give information here and there and she would pretend she wasn't interested. But she was.

But this morning felt a bit better so she didn't even check the newspapers. She wanted to enjoy that peaceful feeling for as long as it lasted.

- Maybe its over, all the homesickness and sadness, maybe this is how its going to feel now on..

She thought to herself before the knock on the door.

She was too far away from home to have someone visit and too antisocial to have made any friends worth giving her address to.

And to no surprise it was the mailman. She had been sent a letter.

She knew one day that phone would ring and she'd say "hi" from the other side. And all the anger she had suppressed throughout the years would rush back. And this time she wouldn't hold it in. She wouldn't even give her the time to say anything. She would lash out and hang up.

But she had forgotten Rose's selfish ways, she thought to herself.

- Of course she would know better than to give anyone the chance to throw her mistakes in her face.

She sent a letter. A letter that I can not scream at.

" Hey Al

Hope you're doing okay.

I know you probably don't feel like hearing from me .

But I got your address from Annie.I am staying with her for a few days.

I wanted to be the one to tell you that I am back in town, nothing would make me break our promise, but I couldn't miss saying goodbye to Mr.P as I hope you won't either.

I was with him a few days ago. He kept talking about us, the old gang.

I will be here for the funeral. Annie was nice enough to let me crash on the big red.

hoped maybe we could at least be together for the ceremonies.

I would love to see you and talk. I really hope we can mend things.

R "

There she was, the Rose she knew, coming back from the dead. Coming back on the one day that felt a little lighter.

" The old gang" she read again

-Yeah some fucking gang alright..

She meant the old friends from Pine Hill. Aliyah, Connor, Hunter and Noah.

The gang..

Even her signature little twirl of the R made Allison mad. The thought of her staying with her mother back home made her sick.

Her calling Allison's mother Annie had always bothered her, but their friendship frustrated her now more than ever. But she was used to everyone always treating Rose differently.

"Apparently having an alcoholic mother with a bunch of boyfriends who beat the shit out of you now and then made you more worthy of love from everybody."

She thought.

Yet nobody did anything to help.

Nobody wanted to mess with the train wreck Rose had for a mother. So they just made up for it by being extra nice to her. And Allison hated it.

-"crashing on the big red" you big coward.."

She purposely used the nickname they had given their living room couch, she was letting Allison know, that she wasn't sleeping in her room.

She had known this day would come. And she knew what she would do.

Mr.P was a retired teacher that lived alone in a nice house on the top of the neighborhood. He never remarried after his wife's Eloise's passing. They never had kids so he was pretty lonely after her passing. They would go to him for homework, problems, anything. They loved his house and the huge backyard it had with so many peach trees, they played there almost every day. He was always nice to them and Allison always thought they somehow helped him feel less lonely.

Rose's father had been his student. And Rose would often hide away at his house when her mom was too drunk and she got scared of her boyfriends. He had tried his best to help Rose but she never told him anything and he knew she would never come back if he asked. So he had to make due with knowing she was safe when she was over sleeping on his couch.

She was heartbroken over Mr.P's passing, but too much time had passed, too much things had happened and she didn't feel like going back to Pine Hill and seeing all of them.

Especially Rose. She knew she was after something gathering them all together, and she wasn't going to serve whatever plan she had now. Whatever it was that made her break her promise , she didn't want to know.

The rest of the day she kept imagining them all together again. She knew for sure that Noah would be over the moon to have Rose back.

She felt even angrier now.

The rest she had most probably met already at Mr.P's. Aliyah would never miss his funeral and Noah had most probably dragged Hunter with him. And Connor was probably the first one there.

She hadn't seen any of them in 4 years. Aliyah would call now and then, but they would always go back to why she had left and how much she wanted to have one more day with all of them. So sometime last year Allison stopped answering her calls and would shoot a text with a poor excuse now and then, she knew her well enough to know she didn't want to talk and she loved her enough to respect it. She had never asked if she kept in touch with Rose, she probably did, but then again you never know with Rose.

But however it went they had most probably met now. They might just be together already, back home in Mr.P's living room.

All of them who couldn't even get together to have a normal conversation for years, would now be together in a big couch sharing the grief. The thought made her feel uneasy.

She wondered if they would question Rose about the accident.

Connor was making coffee for everyone in Mr.P's tiny kitchen. Aliyah was resting her head on Noah's shoulder on the brown couch in front of the three huge windows overlooking the blossoming peach trees.

Hunter kept swinging on the chair across the room as they stared at Eloises and their childhood pictures on the walls. They were all together in the same room again, thinking the same thing. How sad they were that Mr.P was no longer there.