Rosie came home well after midnight. As I lay in bed, anxiously waiting for something unknown, I heard the door open; Rosie padded in first, followed by Dad’s heavy footsteps. I listened to Mom hug Rosie and then exchange news with Dad before taking her to the bedroom that I currently slept in. While I pretended to be asleep, Rosie got her pajamas on and hugged her sock monkey as Mom put her to bed.
‘‘Zebra laughs, Zebra plays,’’ Rosie chanted softly.
Mom shhhed her sympathetically. ‘‘Jared’s sleeping. And you need to sleep, too. Love you, sweetheart.’’
‘‘Love you, too, Mommy.’’
Mom left. For a minute, it was just Rosie and I in the room, breathing silently, aware of each other’s presence but doing nothing. And then:
‘‘Jared?’’
I sat up. Suddenly I wasn’t tired anymore. The air was freezing cold and I could only see so much from the nightlight on her bedside table, but she was there, and I was there, and that was all that mattered.
‘‘Rose,’’ I whispered.
She said, ‘‘Jared? Do you think I’m going to last?’’
It took me a minute to figure out what she meant, and even then I wasn’t sure. ‘’Um,’’ I said, ‘‘what do you mean?’’
‘’In the hospital, I heard Daddy talking to a doctor. And I heard her saying that I might not last. Jared, what does that mean?’’
Oh, no. No no no. God. Screw doctors. Screw adults. Screw her sickness and her youth and her innocence. No. She couldn’t be ruined like this. I wouldn’t allow her to be ruined like this.
I might not last.
This goddamn creature called fate was such a bastard. Don’t ruin her mind don’t shatter her hopes don’t do this to her please don’t—
‘‘Rose.’’ I sighed. ‘‘It’s nothing to worry about. They just—it just meant to say that you might get more sick. But you’ll be okay.’’
lies lies lies lie to me
Rosie said, ‘’Oh. Okay.’’ Then, a minute later: ‘‘Doctors are weird.’’
Doctors are bastards, I rephrased in my head. Screw them. Screw everyone.
‘‘Yes,’’ I told Rosie. ‘‘Yes, they are.’’
YOU ARE READING
Hiding From Us
Teen Fiction❝We can't win. We're fighting a spherical war. We're hiding from us. And we're losing.❞ This is the sequel to Looking At Us, where a new generation of teens come into Shain and Erick’s lives, and love becomes a force of power and weakness.
