Page 10 of Saving Graces
“It’s amazing you’re even walking,” Kinsey breathed. “Have you still got your own teeth?” Rosalie spluttered out a laugh and Kinsey pushed her advantage. “Have a drink with me.”
They reached the office and Rosalie seemed to be wavering. She hadn’t yet said no and Kinsey really wanted to know which way she was going to fall.
“Listen,” Rosalie said, “you’re very beautiful, as you clearly know.” Kinsey shrugged and smiled, not denying it and Rosalie rolled her eyes. “You’re friends with Lane,” she pointed out, “and I’ve known them since they were fourteen. They still seem like a kid to me, in some ways.”
“So don’t go on a date with Lane.” Kinsey tucked a lock of hair behind her ear and watched Rosalie watch her fingers. “That would be inappropriate and frankly it’s weird you’re even considering it.” Rosalie choked out another small laugh and Kinsey grinned, pressing further. “What are you doing right now? Like right this minute, on a Saturday night, now your work day is over?”
Rosalie hesitated.
“Not,” she said, “that it’s any of your business, but I’m headed home, for a quiet night. Alone.”
“That sounds boring,” Kinsey pointed out. “I actually have a thing,” she remembered, checking her phone. “I have to be on stage in twenty minutes, but it’s like a half hour set. And it’s barely ten minutes walk from here. Come and listen to some music, on a Saturday night, in Nashville. You can walk out at any time. But if you don’t, we’ll have a drink together and you can tell me more about your prejudice towards younger women. I’ll listen, I promise.”
Rosalie shook her head even as she smiled. Kinsey chanced a step closer to her and watched as she looked up.
“Rosalie,” she said, her voice low. “Live a little.”
Before
Rosalie lay in bed that first morning, still half-asleep, a mysterious excitement sparking through her veins. Seconds later, her alarm went off and Savannah jerked awake beside her like a fire alarm had been pulled, her feet already on the floor before her eyes had fully opened. Rosalie half-sat up and stared at her.
“Relax,” she said, remembering the tears in the night. There were no signs of them now on Savannah’s face, her features even prettier without the circles under her eyes.
Rosalie snuck back extra pop tarts from the breakfast table, her mom giving her a firm look - not of suspicion, just of judgment - and Rosalie had rolled her eyes when her back was turned. Savannah demolished them like she hadn’t had a proper meal in weeks. Oh shit, she probably hadn’t had a proper meal in weeks. Why hadn’t they thought to feed her? Rosalie snuck out again, her mom thankfully off getting ready for work, and this time returned with a plate of toast and a lunch bag filled with two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, a pack of crisps, two apples, a banana and a wedge of cheese.
“For your day,” she explained. Savannah cast her eyes down and murmured her thanks. Rosalie offered her more clothes, but just as Savannah was uncomfortably surveying her wardrobe, Rachel arrived. Savannah blinked at her appearance this morning and Rachel shrugged sadly, her school uniform looking like an ill-fitting clown costume compared with her cute party outfit of the night before. She came bearing gifts though: a snug fitted t-shirt and a pair of jeans.
Rachel was similarly skinny but at least two heads taller than Savannah. Still, when Savannah came out of the bathroom she looked transformed, even with her jeans rolled up. She looked like a regular girl, or at least, the regular kind of beautiful girl that could go to Rosalie’s school, the kind who’d look through her like she was invisible, or say something snide to reinforce the hierarchy between them.
Savannah picked up the small bag of food Rosalie had packed and the jacket she’d offered then looked down at the desk.
“Do you need this today?” she asked. Rosalie frowned at her history textbook and shook her head. Savannah smiled and tucked it under her arm.
“Have a good day,” Rosalie said, like someone’s mom, and Savannah slipped out the window and back out into the world.
All day Rosalie felt bright. Having a secret - an important secret that actually mattered - seemed to make everything sparkle just a little bit more. Her best friend, Travis, had gotten annoyed with her as they sat in the lunchroom.
“What are you all daydreamy about?” he’d finally asked when she’d barely listened to his story about his soccer game that weekend.
“Nothing,” she said. “Just tired.”
It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Travis - they’d been friends since grade school - but something about Savannah felt private. Just hers - well, hers and Rachel’s - and she liked it that way.
After school the day seemed to drag. She and Rachel huddled up and strategized some more, coming up with code words, hiding places and how to work out what food they could pillage without raising suspicion. Finally darkness fell. They ate family dinner in the usual stilted awkwardness, their parents trying to make normal conversation as if nothing was wrong, Rachel refusing to answer and Rosalie responding just enough to keep the peace.
Afterward, they rushed back together to Rosalie’s room. They'd left the window ajar, but the room was cold and empty. Evening turned to night, the two of them starting to snipe at each other as they hid their worry. By 10PM Rosalie couldn’t tell if she was more freaked out for Savannah’s safety or more disappointed that maybe she had just decided not to come back.
By eleven-thirty, Rachel had convinced her to get ready for bed, her obnoxious older sister routine firmly back in place. Rosalie had just come out of the bathroom, pajamas on, shoulders drooping, when the tap at the window came. She ran over and wrenched open the window and in slipped Savannah.
“Where have you been?” Rosalie cried before Savannah’s feet had even hit the floor. “We thought you were dead!”
Savannah bit her lip, a slight glow hitting her cheeks from the warmth in the room.
“I didn’t want to come back too early and make it awkward for you,” she said, straightening up. “Like with your parents being awake.”
“We don’t hang out with our parents,” Rachel told her. “I thought that was obvious.”
“I didn’t want to get in your way.” Savannah looked at Rosalie from her perch on the window sill, the dark night behind her. “It’s your bedroom.”
