“Then why did you make up that story about me being a sorority sister?” Green eyes looked at her, revealing the confusion and hurt.
“I don’t know,” Ronnie sighed. “I am not ashamed or embarrassed by you. If anything I’m embarrassed by my family.” She pulled her hand back and ran her long fingers through her dark hair. “Susan didn’t believe me anyway.” Realizing she still owed Rose an explanation, she continued. “I guess I just figured it was easier.”
“Then telling them the truth? That I’m just a poor bum with nowhere else to stay?” Rose turned her head away, blinking rapidly to keep the tears in check.
“No. That’s not it at all.” She reached out and captured the young woman’s chin with her fingers.
“You are here because I want you to be here, not because there was nowhere else for you to stay,” she said emphatically. “My family wouldn’t understand that. I’m sorry if my attempt to protect you made you feel that I was embarrassed by you.” She released Rose’s chin and looked down.she thought to herself. “You know how everyone acted toward you because you were in a wheelchair?”
“Yeah?”
“If they knew that you didn’t come from money, it would have been much worse. You would have been the topic of conversation instead of the hors d’oeuvres.”
“So instead of being the cripple, I would have been the poor cripple living off you,” the young woman clarified.
Ronnie chewed her lower lip, trying to think of a way to deny the truth in Rose’s words. Finally she gave a defeated nod. “That is how they would have seen it, yes, but that’s not how I see it and that’s all that matters.” She patted Rose’s hand and stood up. “Right now, I think we’d better let Tabitha out before she decides to claw her way through the door.”
The clock on the stand next to the bed read 12:15 by the time Rose was changed out of the blue dress and back into the Dartmouth nightshirt. Pacing back and forth across the bed was Tabitha, still loudly protesting her time in confinement and demanding extra attention. Ronnie helped the young woman into bed and adjusted the pillows. “All set?”
“Yeah, I guess so.” Rose looked around. “Do you know where my Percocet is? I thought it was on the stand but I don’t see it.”
“Sure do.” Ronnie headed into the bathroom. “I put it here so Tyler wouldn’t find it,” she called out. Rose heard the medicine cabinet open and poured herself a cup of water in preparation. The sound of items being shoved back and forth on the shelves caused her to turn her head in the direction of the bathroom.
“Is something wrong?” She was answered with the continued moving about of items followed by the slamming of the medicine cabinet. “Ronnie?”
The black-haired woman exited the bathroom, her face an unreadable mask. “Someone took it.”
“The Percocet is gone?” The throbbing in Rose’s legs that had begun earlier seemed to intensify at the news. Ronnie began pacing back and forth between the bed and the desk, her anger rising with each step.
“Tommy. I’ll bet you anything it was him. I can’t fucking believe he did that.” Her hands balled up into fists and her jaw was visibly clenched. “Bastard comes into my home and does this to you. He had to know those were for you, your name was on the bottle. What kind of asshole takes medicine away from someone who so obviously needs it?”
“You don’t know for sure that it was him.”
“Oh yes I do. I can feel it.” Her leather chair got in the way of her pacing and she gave it a hard shove. “Unbefuckinglievable.”
“Hey…” Rose said softly, reaching out and putting her hand on Ronnie’s forearm, feeling the muscles bunched up beneath the skin. She let her thumb slip to the soft underside of the angry woman’s arm and began gently rubbing. “There’s nothing you can do about it now.”
Ronnie’s fury was close to the breaking point when she felt the soft touch. For reasons she could not explain, the anger seemed to dissolve, the tensed muscles relaxing under the soothing motion of Rose’s thumb. She nodded in agreement and tried to think of a solution to their immediate problem. “I’ll call the doctor. Maybe she can give you a new prescription.” She headed to her desk and grabbed the thick phone book. “I’m sure there’s a twenty-four hour pharmacy somewhere.” Ronnie flipped through the yellow pages, tearing several of them in the process with her desperation. “Doctors, see Physicians. Damn it, why can’t they make it easy to find?”
“Ronnie…”
“Barnes…Barnes…there’s no Barnes listed. I’ll try the hospital.” More pages flipped, more torn.
“Ronnie…”
“It’ll be all right, Rose. We’ll get a new prescription and you’ll be all set in no time.”
“Ronnie!”
“What?” She finally looked up from her frantic searching.
“Stop.”
“But-”
“It’s too late to do anything now. I’ll have to wait until morning.”
“Rose, you can’t wait until morning.” She looked back down at the yellow pages. “Look, there’s an all-night pharmacy less than five miles from here.”
“You can’t go out now.”
“Sure I can. I can be there and back within a half hour.” She reached for the phone.
“Ronnie, no.” She shifted, well aware of the pain in her legs. “It’s starting to snow out there.”
“So? I’ve driven in snow before.” Her hand rested on the phone but did not pick it up. “Rose, you need the Percocet, you know that. How are you going to make it through the night without it?”
“I’ll have to manage. Ronnie, I don’t want you to drive tonight. It’s snowing and you’ve been drinking.”
“I haven’t had that much. I’m fine to drive.” She rose to her feet, fully intending to change into more suitable clothes to go out.
“I’m sure the person who hit me felt the same way.” Rose said quietly, causing Ronnie to stop and look at her, the words hitting home harder than she realized. “I don’t ever want you to have to go through that.”
Even though Ronnie knew she was unable to argue the point, she hesitated before lowering her head. “Are you sure that’s what you want? I could take a cab,” she offered.
“No. It’s too late. Please, I can make it through one night.” Even as she said the words, Rose was not at all sure. The pain had been steadily increasing and she really wished she had a pill at that moment. “Maybe you have some Tylenol or Advil?”
“You know they won’t touch the pain.”
“It’s better than nothing.”
Ronnie left and returned a minute later with several bottles of over-the-counter pain-killers from her medicine cabinet. While upstairs collecting them, she also grabbed her sweats and T-shirt to sleep in, knowing the couch would be her bed tonight. There was no way she was going to leave Rose all alone downstairs. She went into the bathroom and changed while Rose sifted through the various products promising to relieve pain and took three pills.
“You need anything else?” Ronnie asked when she returned.