Chapter 4 Truth

"ROSE!" Came a voice from behind said person. "I leave you for one minute. One minute and you start to annoy other customers." The voice sounded a little familiar. Seeing the face of the person, I instantly realise why.

"I'm sorry, Tommy. But you're my 'bro tho'. And 'bro tho's stick together!" All Tommy- I mean Thomas- did was roll his eyes, as if her behaviour was completely normal.

"Listen, I'm really sorry about h-", his apology stops in the middle as his eyes look up at me, from Rose, for the first time. "Damien , right? From Galactic Empire and the new one. What's it called, again? Uhh."

I decide to stop the guy from embarrassing himself and tell him the name of the movie I'm doing with Melanie. Or Diva. Whatever you want to call the b*tch.

"One Day with Her? I didn't take you for one to watch a chick-flick." I say with a chuckle. The tip of his ears, as well as his cheeks, immediately turn a light pink colour.

"He watches every movie. I watch them too. Like How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days, and The Last Song, and the one about the kitchen. I can't remember the name! The one with the girl and the boy and the bread and-", Rose seemed to be getting really frustrated by not knowing the name of the movie. I already knew there is something not normal about her, but I just couldn't figure out what that something is.

I put my hands on her shoulders, releasing the trolley. "Hey, Rose. It's fine. I can't even remember my own name sometimes. And Lily," I say looking down at her, she looks up as she hears her name, breaking out of her daydream, "don't you forget the letters in the alphabet, sometimes and Daddy has to help you, right?"

Lily nods enthusiastically. "Yes, and Momma says 'if at first you don't wemember, do and do it again.'" I laugh at my daughter's attempt in saying my mother's favourite quote.

"Exactly, Rose. Even the little girl and her dad can't remember. And I can't remember the orders at the ice cream shop remember?" Thomas continues at her nod, "And who's the one who reminds me?"

"It's me! Me! Because you're so silly and you always forget. I never forget." Wasn't she just throwing a fit about forgetting the name of a movie? Like I said, not normal.

"Of course you don't, Rose." Thomas assures her before sending me a warning glance. I'm guessing I shouldn't say anything about it.

"Daddy, can we go to the cookie shop?" Lily says, interrupting our conversation. There isn't really a shop that sells only cookies around here, but I do take her to a cafe a few blocks from our house sometimes.

"Sure, Princess. Why don't you ask them if they want to join us?"

Lily looks up and turns her head from Rose and Thomas repeatedly. "Would you get cookie with us? I get lots of cookie for you! My favourite is wainbow cookie, it's yummy!"

Rose's eyes expanded. "Cookies? Rainbow cookies! That's so cool!" I didn't want to tell them that the cookie isn't really rainbow, it's just Smarties flavour. She suddenly gets a sad look on her face. I didn't like that look on her usually bubbly face. "Thomas, can we get rainbow cookies with Princess and Damy?" Damy? Why did I like that coming from her mouth and not Melanie's?

So here we are. Sitting in the outside section of the cafe.

After Thomas agreed, (due to Rose's guilt tripping) we all went to check out our groceries and left in our own cars to the cafe.

Rose and Lily got their rainbow/Smarties cookies and when Thomas and I got a muffin and coffee, they called us boring. Go on, you can too. You know you want to.

"She wasn't always like this you know?" Thomas says, averting my eyes from Rose to him. At my confused expression, he continues. "Mom and Dad adopted her when I was 12 years old and she was 8, so about thirteen years ago. She used to be normal apparently. Before she was sent to the care home, she lived with her family. If you can even call them that. They didn't care for her, she went on hungry for days and would show up to school covered with bruises. There was only three of them, her mom, dad and herself.

One day at school, she fell and scraped her knee. When the nurse went to check on it, she noticed how many scars and bruises she had. She decided she would call her parents. They never answered. That was expected of them but she didn't know that. Rose's parent never answered that day. They didn't pick her up, they just left her at school, for them to deal with her. She was taken to the care home when she was 6. For two years she never spoke. That was until she became my sister, and eventually broke out of her shell. At least that's what we thought. As she grew older and started to talk more, we realised that she might have been growing physically, but mentally, she was stuck at 6."