The Girl Behind The Mask | Chaelisa

Chapter 19

Thank you for 10K reads 💕

“We will talk about this once you’re home from practice, Axel, now go! Jennie is waiting on you to start practice!” Roseanne ordered, gripping the steering wheel a little tighter as she fought the temptation to hug the sadness out of him. She knew she needed to be tough. To be harsh right now. Otherwise, how else was he supposed to learn?

His cheek was bruised, but it wasn’t serious. The swelling had improved with the ice and the cut was bandaged and covered.

Still…she wanted to cover the area with kisses instead. To shower him with hugs and ice cream and endless cupcakes, but she already knew Jennie would take care of all of that. She needed to be his parent right now. Not his friend. Not his loving big sister. She needed to remain firm.

“Ok, but… it wasn’t Lisa’s fault. She was only trying to protect me, Rosie.” He said for the 50th time since she had entered the car. Imploring her to put all the blame on him instead and let Lisa off the hook. Yet how could she?!

“Axel… don’t keep Jennie waiting any more than she already has. I said we will discuss this later, so go! Now! Please!”

Axel nodded and stepped out of the vehicle with a bowed head. “Bye, Rosie. Love you.”

“Love you too. Now, go.” She drove off with a new layer of guilt on her already loaded shoulders, shedding a few tears on the silent drive home. It was impossible to prevent her mind from wandering to faraway places in such moments; when a quick escape was all she craved. She especially enjoyed dwelling back in time; back to her favorite era… when her father was alive and her mother was around. A time when decisions consisted of petty things like, what to wear that day or what movie to watch with Jennie that evening.

Yet there were other moments that brought happiness to her gloomy life that she also often visited; more recent memories that she fought to suppress but kept resurfacing every now and then… a picnic over a floating rock. A masked birthday party and a mask-less dark brown-eyed stranger. A helicopter ride. A star-dotted sky. Starbucks coffees and library encounters with delivered lunch and smiles…

She was lost in these peculiar memories when she reached her driveway, parking her crumbling sedan and walking up to the front porch when she realized she had company.

Lisa sat on the top step of the porch, a bouquet of roses rested on her lap, and she slowly stood when she saw Roseanne approach. Both women froze in place. Neither really knowing how to react.

“I couldn’t leave things off the way we did back at the school…” Was the only explanation Lisa offered.

Roseanne nodded, climbing the steps slowly, almost cautiously. “There’s nothing left to discuss… I thought I made that perfectly clear. You should go…”

She stepped around Lisa and entered through the front door, moving to close it behind her, but Lisa wasn’t having it. Something clicked inside the brunette and she jolted forward, kicking the swinging door back in, startling them both. “Is that your answer for everything?! ‘Leave!’ ‘Go!’ ‘Disappear from my life’… I’m just trying to have a normal conversation with you! Jesus Christ, Roseanne… are we really incapable of that?”

The question wasn’t unreasonable, Roseanne granted Lisa that…but the anger still fervently simmered within for her to just relent. “If only you LISTENED the first time, I wouldn’t have to keep repeating myself over, and over, and over again! What part of what I said to you was unclear, exactly? Don’t play the victim in all of this, Lisa, you’re the one to blame for putting us both in this fucking mess.”

“Oh, get real, Roseanne! Me?! So you’re pinning this all on me?! You know what… I TRIED to follow your wish; to stay away from you. But YOU were the one seeking me out! Yea, no, don’t you DARE roll your eyes, you KNOW it’s true!” Lisa exclaimed, unbothered by the searing stare the blonde was shooting her; that alone told her she was on the right track. “YOU were the one chasing me after class, and in the library! This whole week, I did nothing to go after you. I kept my distance, I respected your wish, yet YOU were the one to break it. So do NOT throw this on me when you’re the one to blame!”