Mark My Words

40 | Putting On A Show

Rosalie spent the next morning contemplating Joanna's reaction. It was the morning of Sami's art show, so Rosalie spent the hour before gathering her thoughts amidst her clean sheets, untampered by Khoshekh's thick black fur. She curled up in her blankets with her phone in hand, and a mug of coffee in the other. She flitted between photo filters, stopping at one with hearts bubbling in a crown around her head. She angled the camera up to the string of photographs mounted on the wall overhead. The hearts collected around a photo of her holding Khoshekh to her chest, the white dot on his forehead pressed to the underside of her chin.

    A knock sounded her room's doorframe, and she put her phone down at the sound of her mother's voice accompanying it. "Morning, Rosie. Bee's stopping by for coffee in a few minutes before we head out."

    Rosalie smiled, head tipping back against her headboard. "Okay. I'll be down in a bit."

    She went to pick up her phone again, only to realize that her mother had no intention of leaving. Rosalie looked up at her again and waited for the script her mother likely had equipped in her head.

    Her mother took a deep breath and a step into the room. She folded her sweater coverup over her chest as she crossed her arms and said, "Are you... doing okay? We haven't really talked this week."

    "Yeah, I'm fine," Rosalie said, though she realized her eyes were wide. She probably looked like a deer in headlights. She closed her eyes and sighed. "I mean, we've kind of had a Hell Week with practices, but... school's fine."

    "And Sami? How are you two doing?"

    "Better, I think."

    "You think?" she said with a smile. Rosalie rolled her eyes. "What about your other friends?"

    Rosalie groaned. Of course, it never took her mother long to nail the culprit of her problems. It was pointless to argue against it. "Well... I wouldn't say friends, exactly. Lennie broke up Harper and... I'm kind of anxious for what's gonna happen on Monday."

    Harper and Lennie were easily the most well-known students throughout the school. Considering the size of Bradshaw, it was a lot of power, enough to put them both on the Homecoming Court. With them separated, Rosalie could only speculate the power dispersal. The Bradshaw population might sway one way or the other, and the swarms of guys flocking Harper's locker were sure to devastate Lennie—or, alternatively, the hatred for Harper would deflect all advances (aside from Jace), and be dispensed towards Lennie's side. Hordes of girls pitying him, knowing that the gap in his heart was... "available" for filling.

    Rosalie shifted awkwardly at the thought. She was starting to understand, in a small way, what Lennie had done in the previous years to stop the soccer guys from advancing on her romantically.

    She shook her head with a disgusted look on her face. "Anyway, there's gonna be a power vacuum of some kind and I really don't want Harper to take the glory, you know what I mean?"

    Her mother pursed her lips, clasping a hand beneath her chin. "No, not really. I thought that... tacky bitch Whitney had the power."

    "What? No, Stud.Co. president is just a title. She doesn't have any real power," Rosalie explained.

    Her mother put that hand to her heart with a feigned sigh of relief. "Well, thank God for that."

    Rosalie laughed, surprised by her own smile. Her mother turned with a grin and went for the door. She rose from the bed with enough momentum to change for the day and hurry downstairs with her half-finished coffee. She could hear Tante Bee's loud, exciting voice from the foyer where Rosalie spun around the stair railing and slowed to a walk down the hall from the kitchen. Tante Bee spied her instantly from where she sat at one of the counter stools.