Falling to Pieces

“We’re going home to South Carolina,” I said, then lied, “I want to see mom.”
“Rose,” Kyle sighed.
“I just wanted to call you, I haven’t heard from you in awhile,” I whispered.
“Yeah well whose fault is that?” He snapped.
I sighed, “I'm sorry Kyle, I really am, I just…”
And then the phone went dead.
Joel hand pushed the button that hung up the phone. “We have to go. And you shouldn’t be using the phone, they could be listening.”
“Who knew this would become an episode of CSI,” I muttered.
Joel laughed, of course he heard me.
“Come on,” he said.
He picked me up and ran out of the house, and put me in the backseat of the car.
“Stay down,” he whispered before climbing into the driver’s seat.
I heard Nethiel’s and Devon’s cars’ tires scrape the driveway. Joel drove out of the driveway and down the side roads to get to the airport.
Joel had planned it all out in that smart head of his. He switched his scent with Devon and made me switch with Ivy by using her perfume and wearing her clothes. And then they wore our stuff. But just to be sure, Joel made me take a shower, he said water hides the scent for a little while.
Long enough to get out of town.
Once we got to the airport, it would go downhill from there, it wasn’t like they could attack us once we are in the air. Or could they?
The drive was the most dangerous part.
I looked out the window and let out a shaky breath.
“Wont they see you?” I whispered.
“Lets hope not.”
Once we got to the air port he got me in quickly. The security lines were slower than usual. Joel kept looking behind us, making me nervous.
We got on the plane and I sat next to the window. Joel sat next to me and took my hand.
“It’s alright now,” he said.
I nodded. “Okay.”
I plugged into my IPod and went through the songs that I thought would calm me. I fell into “Under my Skin” the second album by Avirl Lavigne. I hit play when I came upon “Fall to Pieces.”
…When I come undone
You bring me back again
Back under the stars
Back into your arms…
I turned and looked at Joel. He smiled out of habit.
I handed him the earphones. “Listen to this.”
I restarted the song and watched his expression.
After awhile he said, “I like it, it sounds like you, like us.”
And that’s what I thought. I smiled because it really did sound like us. And it felt like this was another ending, like the one before, only this one wasn’t so swift. It was kind of just there. Like chronic leukemia, it started out slow, and you couldn’t even see the symptoms, but it was there. Over time it would kill you, kill the time, take it away.
But it could be a beginning to Joel, maybe it will be like in one of those sappy books where the girl gets dumped, but she realizes that she’s okay. But Joel wasn’t getting dumped, he was watching me die.
We landed in my small town called Darton. It even had a gazebo in the middle of the town like in Gilmore Girls. Nice, huh?
“Small place,” Joel murmured in my ear when we got in town.
We walked from the bus stop, we didn’t have a car.
I walked down the street then turned right and went into my old neighborhood. I heard once that places held memories like people did.
They were right because I could see my childhood unfold in front of me.
“This …” he began.
“Is my mother’s house,” I said, walking onto the porch.
Joel followed me up the porch. “Are you sure?”
I pulled out the key from under the door mat and unlocked the door.
The living room was exactly the same. There was one white leather couch against the wall with the windows. The T.V. was in the same spot, even the game we had played that night two years ago was hooked up.
I quickly ran and threw it against the wall.
Joel didn’t move, he understood the anger, and the satisfaction of throwing stuff had.
“Come on Rose,” he said, “We can get a hotel or something…”
“No,” I said, “I’m fine.”
“Right,” he mumbled.
“I feel safe here.”
“Ok, I’ll get the bags,” he said.
I walked up the steps and walked into mom’s room. She had the prettiest room, and when I was little I thought it was a princess room. The walls were a pale lilac color and the trim was white. All the fabrics were white lace: the bed spread, the curtains….
I walked to her dresser where she had all her jewelry and clothes. Kyle got the car and the stocks, all the boring stuff. I got her clothes and jewelry. We split the house. Kyle said I could have it, said he didn’t think he could live where mom was. I understood because places hold memories…
“Rose,” mom said “Hand me that bracelet.”
It was the one I held in my hands now. It was silver and it had Kyle’s and my birthstones in it: emerald and sapphire.
I looked at Joel through the mirror. He held the bags in his hands.
I turned away from the mirror and walked into the next room, which was mine. I sat on my bed.
Joel put the bags down and walked to the shelves, where all my pictures and trophies and whatnots.
“Pigtails?” He asked, holding up a picture.
I laughed. “Leave me alone I was five.”
He smiled.
“It feels good to be home,” I said, “Despite what’s happened.”
He looked away. “Don’t you think because of what you went through, because of what has happened, you’re stronger than you use to be, enough to deal with this?”
“I suppose,” I said, then, “Yes, I do.”
He looked through my book collections and CDs.
“Amazing, you still have a huge collection here,” He said.
I stood up and walked to him. “Well most of them are my mother’s and I couldn’t take them to New York—“
“You said New York,” he laughed.
“New Yuck and I made a lot of copies of my favorites and took them with me,” I said.
He smiled and took out a CD.
“Who’s U2?” He asked.
I gaped at him. “You really were deprived, weren’t you?”
I took the CD from him and stuck it in my stereo and hit play.
I went back and stared at my walls.
“Will you paint them?” I asked.
He looked back at me. “They already are. They’re blue.”
I shook my head. “They’re boring.”
He laughed. “Yeah, I’ll paint them.”