When Rose Wakes (21 page)

“Oh my God!” she said. “Are you guys going to finish what you started in the chem lab?”

Rose stared at her, feeling all the blood drain from her face. “Kylie!”

But Kylie glanced around, forcing Rose to do the same, and it was obvious that if anyone had overheard, no one had paid any attention. Kylie got back into position and they both watched the ball sail back and forth over the net. The next time it came toward Kylie, she missed it.

Victoria served again.

Kylie shuffled closer to Rose. “So? Are you?”

“Are you talking about what I think you’re talking about?” Rose asked.

Kylie rolled her eyes. “Yes!”

They both laughed, excitement mixing with Rose’s embarrassment.

“Then no,” Rose said. But even as she said it, she could not help remembering the way Jared’s hands had roamed over her body and the way her whole body had gone weak when he kissed her. Just the memory left her breathless.

“You don’t look sure about that,” Kylie said, smirking.

Rose ran two steps forward as the ball came toward her and slapped at it, then watched in amazement as it actually made it back over to the other side. She retreated to her position.

“Dodging the question, huh?” Kylie teased.

“Playing the game,” Rose replied.

“Well,” Kylie said. “I know what I’d do.”

Rose glanced at her, intrigued. “Okay. What would you do?”

Kylie laughed. “What do you think I’d do? I’d do Jared!”

Rose’s mouth hung open a second, then she whacked Kylie on the arm. The volleyball hit Kylie in the shoulder and they both turned to stare at it, then started laughing together.

“Come on, girls. Get it together!” Mrs. Garvey called.

They tried to muster some self-control, managing to hide their smiles. Victoria was about to serve again and then there would be another rotation. It wouldn’t be as easy for them to talk, so Rose wanted to get a definite answer.

“Seriously,” she said. “Can you cover for me tomorrow if I tell my aunts I’m going out with you?”

Victoria served, only just clearing the net.

“Yeah, of course,” Kylie said, rushing up to stop the ball from falling on their side, popping it up high so that Amiko Tanaka could slam it back over. Kylie turned to Rose wearing a salacious grin. “As long as you promise to tell me all the juicy details.”

“There won’t be any,” Rose assured her with feigned confidence.

“That’s a shame,” Kylie said.

Rose felt her smile vanish, deeply conflicted. “Are you
just saying that, or are you seriously saying you think I should…”

The rest remained unspoken but Rose knew the words were unnecessary. Kylie understood. But then Mrs. Garvey called out to shift positions and Rose had to move forward to the net. As she did, she glanced back.

“Well?” she whispered.

“Dead serious,” Kylie told her.

“You really would?” Rose said.

Kylie nodded with grave sincerity. “In a heartbeat.”

“Miss DuBois!” Mrs. Garvey snapped. “The other team is over there!”

Rose spun around and the game resumed. If she had proven herself uncoordinated earlier, from that point on she was even more hopeless with the ball. Kylie’s emphatic reply remained with her, and for the first time she really considered the possibility of allowing things with Jared to progress that far. That he would want to she had no doubt. First of all, he was a guy, and even if she hadn’t heard it from her aunts and seen it reflected in books and TV and movies, instinct alone was enough to tell her that guys
always
wanted to. In the chem lab, she had felt the desire radiating from Jared.

Not just Jared,
she thought. The desire had been in her, too. God, was it ever.

But she had been thinking entirely in terms of not getting carried away, not letting things get that far, not rushing into anything. Kylie’s nonchalance left out any
sense that having sex with Jared might be wrong. Rose had already been wrestling with thoughts of sex and morality, heightened by her aunts’ old-world obsession with her staying far, far away from anything with boy parts. Their attitude seemed so absurd, but was the opposite—surrendering to desire without thought of consequence—any better?

What consequence?

A good question, and one that whirled around inside her head for the rest of gym class. She’d known Jared a little over a week. Tomorrow would be their first opportunity to really be alone together, not counting the chem lab. Only a total slut would have sex with a guy she had just met.

Right?

It had been easier to answer that question before she had talked to Kylie about it, but the conversation wasn’t over. She needed to make sure she understood what Kylie was really saying. Did she mean eventually, if Rose and Jared began to build a real relationship, or did she mean Rose should just go ahead and do it?

Confused and frustrated, knowing that she would be distracted all day instead of focusing on her schoolwork, she somehow managed to make it to the end of the period. As the girls all hurried into the locker room to fix their hair and towel off their faces and change their clothes, she tried to find a moment to talk to Kylie, but every time she thought she might safely whisper to her
friend she turned to see someone else close enough to overhear.

They left the bathroom together.

“Hey,” Rose said, tugging Kylie’s shirt. “I need to talk to you.”

Kylie nodded with the sweet sincerity that was so unique to her. “What’s wrong? Still worried about tomorrow?”

“Not really. I just—”

“Rose.”

Both girls turned to see Amiko Tanaka coming toward them. She had her backpack over one shoulder and her shirt half-untucked, like she’d hurried to catch up to them. In her right hand was a cell phone.

“Hey, Amiko,” Kylie said.

The girl nodded at Kylie but focused on Rose.

“Hi,” Rose said, wondering what made the girl seem so uncomfortable.

“We don’t know each other,” Amiko said. “I mean, you’re new, obviously. We’re in a couple of classes together, but… look, I know you don’t know me, or what kind of person I am. Not that I’m like Little Miss Perfect or anything. I’m not saying that.”

“Damn, spit it out, girl,” Kylie prodded.

“Just shut up a second, Kylie!” Amiko snapped.

Rose flinched, staring at her. “Maybe you’d better say whatever it is you’re trying to say.”

Amiko adjusted her backpack. “I was at Chloe’s
birthday party Saturday night when the whole thing went down with you and Courtney. I’d had a couple of drinks. When you took your shirt off, I thought it was awesome. Wicked funny and cool. But I did what anybody would do. I mean, lots of people did.”

Rose shook her head. “What are you—”

“She took a picture,” Kylie interrupted. They both stared at Amiko. “That’s what you’re saying, right? You took a picture on your cell?”

“Yeah,” Amiko said. “But it gets worse. This morning before school I was showing Chloe the pictures I took at the party. I mean, it was her birthday, right? When I got to that one, she snatched the phone out of my hand. First I thought she just wanted a better look—she was laughing, y’know? But then she started hitting numbers and I realized she was texting the picture to someone. I tried to stop her, but…”

Amiko shrugged.

Rose felt her skin go cold. “She sent it to Courtney.”

Amiko opened her phone, scanned for the picture, and held it out. “She did. And a little while ago, Courtney sent it back. But not just to me. To, like,
everyone.
”

Rose stared at the photo of herself. Her bra, soaked through by the punch Courtney had spilled on her, left nothing to the imagination. She hadn’t even considered that when she had taken off her shirt, so angry and determined not to let Courtney get the better of her. She remembered people taking cell-phone pictures, but hadn’t
given them a second thought. At the time she had not cared whether or not anybody ever saw those pictures.

But she also hadn’t thought about the fact that the wet bra would have been almost completely see-through.

And by now the entire school would either have seen this picture or have it waiting on their cell phones the next time they checked their messages.

“I’ll kill her,” she whispered.

“You won’t have to,” Kylie said.

“Rose, I’m really sorry,” Amiko said.

“No,” Rose replied. “I mean, I wish you hadn’t taken the picture, but I don’t blame you. Crazy new girl whips off her shirt in the middle of a party, why wouldn’t you take a picture? This isn’t your fault.”

“I wish there was something I could do,” Amiko said.

“There is,” Rose replied. “You’re going to come with us to talk to Sister Anna, and make sure she knows exactly how this happened, and what Courtney did.”

“Yeah. Of course.” Amiko nodded. She looked nervous, but determined. “I’ve known Chloe a long time, but no way am I going to protect Courtney. I just wanted you to know it wasn’t me. But, yeah, I’m in.”

Rose gave the picture a last glance, then closed the phone and handed it back.

“Let’s go,” she said. “I’ve had enough of this.”

It rained on Tuesday, and Rose walked to school amidst a sea of business black umbrellas, avoiding puddles and the spray thrown up by passing cars. Gusts of wind changed the direction of the falling rain, whipping at her, pattering off of her not-quite-waterproof jacket. The weatherman had claimed Boston had already reached fifty-five degrees, despite the rain, but with the wind and the damp and the cold gray skies, the day felt like a warning shot from winter.

The cold seeped down to her bones as she walked up the front steps of St. Bridget’s school with other students who seemed similarly grim thanks to the rain. Dour faces hid beneath hoods and under umbrellas. But once Rose reached the door and hauled it open, fighting the wind, she forgot all about the rain and the churning gray sky. She stepped inside and closed her umbrella and forced herself not to hang her head. The people who had passed the photo of her around, forwarding it on their cell phones, they were the ones who should be ashamed.

At least she wouldn’t have to see Courtney today, not if the rumors were to be believed. Even before the end of the day yesterday, the rumors had started to spread that Courtney had been suspended from school. Rose had even heard that there might be criminal charges, although that didn’t seem likely as—no matter how revealing it had been—she hadn’t been naked in the picture. But if it was true that she had been suspended, for once Courtney wouldn’t be getting away with tormenting someone.

Rose had not said a word about the incident to her aunts. She recognized the possiblity that they might learn about it eventually, but no way would she be the one to tell them. The deed had been done and there would be no undoing it. She had no idea how they would respond to the photograph being texted around school. Would they show up in Sister Anna’s office and cause havoc, embarrassing her? Or would it force them to consider once again the possibility of returning to France? Either way, Rose would not like the outcome. Yet she knew that whatever their reaction to the picture, it would pale in comparison to the anger and panic that would ensue if they learned that she had taken her shirt off in a room full of people, guys included.

No, the quieter the incident could remain, the better off Rose would be. She had already decided that if the police spoke to her about Courtney, she would insist that she did not want to file charges. But Kylie had explained to her that it might not be up to her, and that worried her.

As if she didn’t have enough to worry about. Her dreams were as awful as ever, and still she had little to no memory of her life before the coma. She had begun to despair, to think that she might never remember. A part of her had already moved on, to plan for the here and now, to make a future in Boston with her aunts and her new friends, and maybe with a boyfriend as well. If she had lost her old life forever, she was determined to build a new one.

She hurried up the stairs, the closed and dripping umbrella in her hand. There were a ton of students still arriving, which meant she had plenty of time, but she wanted to organize her locker and try to shake some of the rain off of her coat before she hung it up. She made her way through the morning rush of students, chin high, not averting her eyes. Some people looked away. Others acted as though they had suddenly become friends. Several guys gave her lascivious looks and nods. Girls snickered and whispered to each other. But Rose had begun to get used to high school now, and she only sighed and walked on, aided by the realization that the majority of people who passed her seemed as gray as the stormy day, made weary and grim by the rain, and they had no interest in her.

She kept an eye out for Kylie—they’d been up late the previous night texting about the day’s events, Kylie being crude and making her laugh—but saw no sign of her. Amiko and several other girls clustered around a water fountain and Rose slowed down a little, hoping to catch her eye and nod hello, but Amiko didn’t see her.

“Rosie-girl!” someone said, and she felt him bump into her.

She turned quickly, ready to tell him off, but then she saw that it was Dom.