ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING
Chapter Sixteen
Friday, April 27, 2006
Autumn’s cousin, Cassandra, had
finally left, and everything was back to normal for Rose, Jack, Autumn, Tommy,
Fabrizio, and Adrienne.
Now, Rose was sitting with her parents
at dinner. She wasn’t expecting the news she was going to get.
Rose and her parents were having
a normal conversation until Ruth suddenly spoke up. "Honey...your father
and I are getting divorced. After your graduation on May twenty-fifth, you and I
are moving to New York City with your Uncle Bert and Cousin Cora."
Rose gasped. She knew her parents
had been fighting lately, but not this much. She felt like her life was falling
apart now. Her eyes filled with tears, and she screamed, "Mom! You can’t do
this to me! I have friends and a life here...and I have...Jack. How can you do
this?"
"You’ll make new friends,
and you can even go to college here, even though I want you to go to a New York
college for at least a couple of years."
"Mom! You know I already
filled out the forms for UCLA...and if I get accepted, that’s where I’m going!
Forget it. Don’t even think about trying to get me to move."
"Rose..."
"Mom, no. Don’t make things
worse than they already are." Rose ran up to her room and flopped onto her
bed, sobbing.
She rolled over and looked at the
pictures on her dresser. They were ones of she and Jack and of all six of them.
She realized that she would be leaving that all behind in a month, and she
cried harder. A few minutes later, she heard a knock on her door.
"Who is it?" Rose
asked, her voice shaking.
"It’s me," her father
said through the door.
Rose was relieved that it wasn’t
her mother, for she was the last person that Rose wished to speak with.
"Come in."
William Bukater came in, sat down
next to Rose, and wrapped his arms around her. She looked up at him and
realized that she had to move away from him. She cried hard on his shoulder.
"Dad...why do I have to
move? Can’t I stay here with you?" Rose asked, looking up at her father.
"I mean, we just moved here last summer from San Francisco, and I have
made better friends here than I have ever had there, and we lived there since I
was born."
"I’m sorry, honey, but
that’s just the way it is. You know your mother would be devastated if you
stayed here. I’m sorry."
"But...Dad...I’ll miss you
so much, and all of my friends, and...Jack. Don’t you miss me, too?"
"Yes, my Rose, but you are
required to go with your mother, since I’m not your biological parent. I’m
sorry, but I have to go to a meeting for work now."
"Okay...bye, Dad."
"Bye, Rosebud."
After her dad left the room, Rose
lay back down on her bed. No more tears came down her face, but all she could
think was, I just can’t believe we’re moving.