Heart Of Gold

An Ultimatum

Rose woke to the sound of her mother shouting.

For the first time in two nights, she was back in her own bed. 

Cursing, she burrowed under her pillow and duvet in a half-hearted attempt to dull the noise. For the first time in almost a week, she had the morning off. 

And she was determined to enjoy it, no matter how hard her mother tried to ruin it. 

I could be three days dead on the side of the road and my own mother wouldn't even notice.

At that thought she reached under her bed for the book she kept there. 

More a random collection of pictures than an organized scrapbook, the book was filled with pictures ripped from the homemaker magazines her mother bought but never opened. The pictures were everything she dreamed of having one day: an apartment of her own with a kitchen bathed in sunlight, a little balcony overflowing with fresh blooms. A partner there to bring her coffee in adorable, handcrafted mugs.

Rose wasn't sure how to go about getting any of those things but she knew she couldn't sit around waiting for a guy to help her get them. 

She had to find a way to build the life she wanted for herself. 

Besides, it wasn't like any of the boys in Summerland were worth getting involved with. They either drank too much, fought too often, or drove too fast to hold on to a steady job.

Over the last six months, the escape plan she'd been working on since she was fifteen had changed more times than she could count. Six months ago, Rose thought she would stay at home for a year to save money while she worked, then head out to Vancouver to any college with a writing program that would take her. 

Now, she wasn't so sure. The idea of leaving Mike alone felt cruel, and she couldn't imagine not seeing Gail anymore. They were the only things really keeping her in Summerland.

Sudden silence in the house broke Rose out of her thoughts. 

She listened carefully, before settling on a cause.

Ron must have finally gotten some kind of job, and driven them both off for work.

She threw back her duvet and tiptoed across the carpet, careful not to hit the creaky floorboards underneath in case her mother was still downstairs. Rose peered out at the driveway below. The angle of her bedroom window made it so that she could only see the right half of it - luckily, that just happened to be the side her mother parked on. If Rose strained her neck a little, she could see whether the car was sitting there or not. 

Today, it was gone.

Rose opened her bedroom door and stood at the top of the stairs. Silence. She crept down to the living room and wandered into the kitchen. It was peacefully empty but the coffee machine had been left on. 

She clicked it off and poured herself a leftover cup. There wasn't much in the cupboards but she found a piece of bread that didn't taste too stale. Sticking it in the toaster, she searched the fridge. Soon the aroma of coffee and scrambled eggs filled the kitchen, masking the smell of cigarettes. 

Her toast popped a few minutes later and Rose wandered into the living room. There wasn't much on TV but she enjoyed flipping through the channels, catching pieces of Food Network and HGTV.

The weatherman predicted rain in the evening, and Rose groaned. Danny's friend Aaron Parker lived on a farm outside Summerland's town limits but was a notorious partier. His parents were in Banff for the weekend and everyone knew that meant the place was open for a party. 

Rose was no stranger to driving home late at night, but doing it when the winding roads around Summerland were slick with rain was just asking for trouble. 

She would have to walk home or sleep over.

The afternoon passed without anything exciting happening. Rose watched TV and had lunch at Joe's with some high school friends while Gail was in Vernon. When she got back from Joe's later that afternoon, Rose was surprised to see Danny's car parked in her driveway.

"What are you doing here?" Rose tapped the glass window where Danny sat bundled up in a gray sweater and his leather jacket. Catching sight of her, he jumped and stepped out of the Camaro.

"What are you doing here?" she repeated. "How did you know I had the day off?"

"I didn't," he said sheepishly. "I was kind of just going to wait here until you got home."

"Danny -"

"Look, Rose. I know you've been avoiding me since we did it. I'm not pretending to know why." 

Danny rubbed his hands together and tucked them in the pockets of his jeans. "What I do know is that this isn't just all in my head. You blush when I tease you but if I even put my arm around you, you flinch away. I don't get what you can't talk to me about. We've grown up together, Rose. I'm not some random guy you screwed in Parker's field."

Danny suddenly seemed a lot closer to Rose than he had a minute ago. A breeze blew loose a lock of Rose's hair from where she had tucked it behind her ear and Danny reached out to brush it back.

"I don't know what else I can say to you." Danny's breath tickled her neck as he moved in to kiss her cheek. His lips traced a trail of tiny kisses from the tender skin in front of her ear and across her jaw before settling on her mouth.

His kiss sent sparks through Rose's veins. Danny teased her, gently biting her lip before pulling back.

"I want you," Danny said, "and I don't think I can make it much clearer than this. I know that you're afraid of this, Rose - of falling for someone here and never getting to live the big life you've been dreaming about. But you need to think about what you're willing to sacrifice to get that life. You're running away from the people who love you and I think you need to stop running for a while."

Danny kissed her again, deeply this time. "I want an answer, Rose. By the time I get back next week."

It took Rose a moment to catch up to what Danny was saying. She was still trying to process what he had just said to her. Her brain was stuck, unable to generate a response to Danny's declaration so she asked a simple question.

"Where are you going?"

Danny grinned, the corner of his mouth turning up mischievously. "My brother's moving into his new place in Calgary. Figured I'd hang around a while, see just how strict his new landlord is about partying."

He ducked into the driver's seat, flicking the dice dangling from the rearview mirror. 

"Think about it, Rose."

Danny revved the engine and backed onto the street, narrowly missing a lamppost in the process. He grinned, zooming up the road and around the corner, leaving Rose standing on her driveway completely bewildered and at a loss for what to do next.

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