Chapter 2: Rosalie

It was only a couple hours into our long drive that we made a pit stop and I was with my brother, which I always enjoy more. I love spending time with my mom but like she said this time is Barrett and I’s time to decompress and just get out what we are feeling or whatever we need to talk about. Which we don’t have a problem talking to our mom, that’s another thing about moving so much, your family is very close knit together because your all each other has almost all the time.

“You better not be falling asleep over there” Bett says tapping me on the shoulder.

“Don’t worry, I’m just taking in all the scenery, maybe I’ll see something that I will remember for the next time we move across the country”

“Listen I know you hate moving but can’t you try to just see this in a good way for a second, we are going to a new place we are going to meet a lot of new people, and we are still going to see dad.”

“I’m trying Bear but isn’t hard knowing you don’t have a best friend or anything permanent in your life, don’t you feel like you are missing something.”

“Of course I do, but I also have a best friend, I have you.”

I look over at him and see the sadness on his face and know he feel what I am feeling too

“Don’t you want a best friend that isn’t your little sister that you are stuck with.” I turn back to look out the window feeling the tears swell in my eyes.

“I’m not stuck with you Ro,” I hear him holding his emotions back, I feel bad for what I said. I’m not stuck with him either, but I wish I had someone else I could feel close to because it won’t be long and he will be gone, and I’m by myself.

We don’t talk for a while after that, we just listen to our music keeping right behind our mom. I spend most of the drive looking out the window imagining all the things that could be different. Imagining friends that I probably won’t ever have and seeing myself in relationships I won’t ever have. It makes me even more sad, and I don’t know why I do it to myself. I close my eyes and get some sleep and hope that I wake up feeling better.

When I wake up, I notice it is dark, I look at the clock on the dash and see it is 9:30, my brother looks exhausted and still sad. The music isn’t playing anymore and its very silent in the car. I sit up and take a deep breath.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to sleep so long, where are we?” I ask rubbing my eyes and stretching

“We are in Mobile Alabama ” he says keeping his eyes on the road “It’s fine it was nice to just think to myself for a while. You were right Ro; it does suck not having anyone else but our family. I wish I could grow relationships with people and know they will be in my future, but that’s just not the life we were given, and I hate to say this, but we just have to deal with it.”

I’ve never seen him react this way, he is normally the very calm and collective one out of the both of us, he’s usually optimistic about things and always looking to the bright side of it. It hurts to see him this way, I wonder what bothered him so much about this time compared to any of the other times we’ve, maybe I just pushed him too much.

We watch our mom pull into a Days Inn shut her vehicle off, Bett pulls up and parks next to her. She gets out of and walks over to his window.

“I’m getting pretty tired so I’m sure you are as well, let’s stop here for the night and then we can finish the drive tomorrow” she says, I can see the tired in her eyes, I can also see the red like she has been crying which hurts my heart that she was by herself.

“Sounds good, I’m ready to sleep” Bett says looking at my mom “This one over here has already taken a decent nap” he points at me over his shoulder and laughs, which makes my mom smile.

“Shut your truck off and get your bags I’m going to go inside and get us a room” she pats the window and starts walking away.

“She looks sad” I whisper to my brother.

“Don’t say anything, that’s why I tried to make her laugh.”

“This place looks sketchy.”

“Just stay by me and nothing with happen!”

We both get out and grab our bags from the back seat and stand together in front of the cars waiting for our mom. I’m standing there looking around seeing all the things that just make my skin crawl. Eventually my brother taps my shoulder, and we look over and see our mom coming from the lobby with a set of keys. We rush over to her and go inside the room we have been given.

We all take a shower and then crawl into bed, my brother sleeping in one bed and my mother and I sleeping in the other. I take this opportunity to be close to my mom since I didn’t get a chance to make her feel better before.

When we wake up in the morning, we all just get ready and get back on the road. Again, I started off with my mom and then after a couple hours I was back with my brother.

This last stretch felt like forever and that we were never going to get to where we were going. Then finally after hours I finally could smell the farms, and the breeze felt different when I rolled my window down.

There it was I could see the sign

‘Welcome to Wimberley!’