Just a Rose

The small, practically empty room never looked so inviting. The young woman sighed and dropped all of her books on the rickety desk and fell back into her bed. She closed her eyes and reveled in the silence. It was calming, comforting and short lived.

The phone on her nightstand rang, shattering the little pieces of sanity that Elliot Miller was just beginning to piece back together. She picked up the phone and asked, "Hello?"

"Ellie!" Her father's voice worked wonders. The anxiety and stress from the long week washed away at hearing that simple word. "How's college going for you?"

Elliot frowned then and sat up, her back against the wall. "It's going all right. I'm having a lot of fun, meeting new people and learning a lot."

Lies! They're all lies!

"That's great!"

Elliot instantly felt bad for lying, but it would crush her father to know that she hated school. Her father always wanted his girls to go to college, since their mother never got the chance.

Jamie Miller had died when Elliot was nine. Her sisters were only four and two, so they didn't remember, but Elliot did. The days before she died were almost as bad as the death itself. The sparkle had left her bright eyes and her face was so pale, making all her freckles stand out like crows standing in the middle of a snowy field. Jamie had been a calm and quiet woman, but that didn't mean she wasn't any fun. She would take Elliot in the backyard and they would spin until they were too dizzy to stand. She taught Elliot how to climb trees and hang upside down from the branches. But Jamie wasn't a wild, flighty person like her eldest daughter. She wanted to be a teacher, but they didn't have enough money for her to go to college, and even if they did, who would watch the girls?

Marly, the youngest sister, probably did want to go to college, but she was too rebellious to admit it. If their father said walk, she would run. If he said sit, she would stand, and probably jump around the room as well. She loved her father, but she had always wanted to be her own boss. She didn't want to be a "puppet", as she put it.

Sammy, the middle sister, believed that she was too good for college. She's been a model since high school, often appearing in magazines and on billboards, advertising the newest dress or makeup. It made Elliot sick to see her sister selling herself like that. She was paid to wear the skimpiest outfits… but Sammy loved it, so Elliot never said anything.

Elliot never wanted to go to college, either. She was the opposite of both her parents. She was an adventurous girl with her head in the clouds. For a year before she went to college, she went on a road trip across the states, doing odd jobs in small towns to make enough cash to buy gas and food. She slept in her van and sometimes went weeks without bathing. She went weeks without seeing people too, so there was no one around to tell her how bad she smelled. She was too flighty for college. She didn't want to stay in one place for longer than a year, and she had no idea what college would do for her. She had no idea what she was going to do with her life, a fact she would never tell her father.

She often found it strange. She loved to travel, but she hated being away from her father. She was always calling him and when she was out of town she sent him letters. Even though she had two siblings, her father was all she had.

"I wanted to talk to you in person," her father said, "but I'm on a very tight schedule, and I'm sure you are too.

"Remember when I told you about the conference in New York? I wasn't supposed to go, but Ronny got sick. I was next in line to go."

Elliot's eyes widened. "You're going to New York? For how long?" A tiny part of her was jealous, but the rest of her was worried and anxious. Her father hated traveling, and as flighty as Elliot was, she had to be away from her father for too long. She called her father twice a day while she was on her road trip.

"Only a week. I'll call you every day."

"I'll still miss you, Daddy."

Roger laughed. "And I'll miss you. Now, what is it you would like me to bring you? Marly wanted me to get her some books, and Sammy wants more jewelry." Elliot rolled her eyes, and she was pretty sure her father did as well. "Tell me what it is you want."

"I'm not a child. You don't have to bring me anything."

"Ahh, but you still insist on calling me Daddy."

Elliot laughed, running her fingers through her unruly hair. "All right, all right." She thought about it for a moment, but she knew that there was nothing she wanted. Books and jewelry meant nothing to her. "How about… a rose."

"A rose?" her father repeated, perplexed.

"A rose. Just a rose. If you must get me something, then it is a rose I would like to receive."

"Okay, Ellie, I'll get you a rose," Roger said while chuckling. "I have to go. A taxi is coming to pick me up in twenty minutes and I haven't finished packing."

"You're leaving tonight! I was hoping we could go out to dinner or go skating before you left."

"We'll do that when I come home. I promise. Cross my heart."

Elliot smiled and nodded, even though her father couldn't see. "All right. Have a safe trip, and don't forget to call me. I love you."

"I love you too, sweetie." Elliot took the phone away from her ear and hung up. She really had no right to feel so upset. How many times had her father watched her walk away? Ever since she was in elementary school she loved to travel and she went on every school trip she could go on. But what if something happened to her father? New York wasn't a very safe place to be….

She chuckled and shook her head. "I should stop watching so much T.V. I've never been to New York, how do I know if it's safe or not?" But a nagging feeling in the back of her mind told her that she should be worried.

It was a Friday night. She was sure that there was a football game her friend wanted her to go too, or was it some club? Elliot couldn't remember, and in any case, she was too exhausted to do much of anything. She had been finishing up projects and trying to catch up on schoolwork all week. Thankfully, it was spring break now so she didn't have to worry so much. She did have more catch up work to do… but that could wait, right? She nodded to herself and prepared to go to bed.

The phone rang again.

She growled and picked up the phone. "Hello?" she asked, trying her best to keep the annoyance out of her voice.

"Ellie!" Elliot groaned. Only two people called her Ellie, and she only wanted one of them to.

"Hi Eric." She didn't sound very happy, but he didn't seem to notice.

"Where are ya, girl? We're all down at the bar."

That's where I was supposed to go! "I'm really not up to umm… bar hoping. That's not my thing."

"That's cool," Eric said, and Elliot thought he would say good night and hang up. She wasn't so lucky. "We can meet at the bar and go skating. I heard you loved it."

Elliot did love to skate, but she didn't want to go with Eric. He was a nice young man, but he was also a player. Everyone on campus knew that he had dated almost every girl at school. Elliot knew for a fact that he dated three girls at the same time. For some reason, the girls never found out about each other. Elliot didn't know what Eric wanted with her, but she wasn't curious enough to ask. He might think she was starting to come around.

"Thanks for the invitation, Eric, but I'm really not in the mood to go out today. I'm really tired."

"No problem, Ellie."

Elliot didn't have the heart to tell him not to call her that, so she said goodnight and hung up.

Across town Eric Dawson and his twitchy "shadow" stood outside a lively bar. The boy behind him kept shifting his weight from his left side to his right, then standing on one foot and then hopping to the next. James always followed Eric around, even when Eric threatened to "knock his front teeth out" if he didn't go away. Therefore, James was dubbed Eric's Shadow.

"Dude," James drawled while pushing a thick, oily strand of blond hair out of his face. "Why do you bother with that girl? It's not like she's pretty."

"What are you talking about?" Eric's words were much smoother than James', and had an angry edge to them. "She's gorgeous." He could picture her now and he smiled at the sight. She had a well-developed body, even though she insisted on wearing loose, stained pants and ratty tee shirts. Her hair was short, reaching her earlobes at its longest, but the auburn strands were wild and curly. Her eyes were the best. They were a brown green color, but were orange near the pupil. "Her eyes are wonderful…"

"They're scary." James bit his lip and looked up at the dark sky as if he were wondering when it had all gone black. "I take that back. It's not just her eyes that are scary, man. I think she's mental."

Eric whirled on his friend, anger in his eyes. "Have you seen her? She wanders around the city staring at nothing. I swear, her head isn't screwed on quite right. She's going to lose it one of these days."

Eric smacked James upside the head. "Moron. She's wild and free, and I must have her! But why does she keep turning me down? I want to be the man who tamed Elliot Miller." He stalked down the street, trying to figure out how to get Elliot to see what he was offering her. His shadow followed close behind.