Chapter Text
Rose had insisted on going to the park. She’d stomped around the house and sulked in her room for over an hour. Roxy had to at least admit she was dedicated.
She’d cried too, she hadn’t known how to deal with that. Rose didn’t cry often. 6yr olds right? So weird. Probably.
She stopped crying when Roxy started driving to the park. Roxy had a headache.
It was a 40-minute drive, that’s on living in the middle of nowhere, Roxy listened to the radio while Rose read in the back of the car. She had no idea how Rose never got carsick, she knew she would have if she was reading all the time.
It was one of those days where Roxy was painfully aware she had no idea what she was doing. Never helped her headaches.
She thought about how confident she’d been originally as she drove down the highway. Like yeah, she’d babysat and it went terribly, and didn’t have parents of her own to copy, she could totally raise a child that came from a meteor by herself in the middle of nowhere with no support. That was something she was totally prepared to do. She squinted as her headache pounded in her head. Why was she doing this again? Yes right, park for-
She caught herself about to run the redlight. Slamming her foot on the brake just in time.
Roxy stared at the traffic, heart racing, trying to slow her breathing.
“You okay Rose?”
“Huh?”
Roxy looked, back, Rose hadn’t even noticed. Reading.
“The lights green.” Rose said, incredibly helpfully.
“Yes. Thank you Rose.”
“You’re welcome.” She said before going back to reading. That’s the last time Roxy would ever drive with a hangover she swore to herself.
Roxy made it the rest of the way without any further dramas.
She double checked the car was locked while Rose wandered off, Roxy caught up to her though and together they walked to the playground. There were a couple of boys there pushing each other on the swings while a woman sat off to the side on a bench watching them.
Rose detached herself from Roxy and began climbing a play structure. She made it to the top, got out her book, and started reading. Roxy sighed.
She decided to sit with the other woman. She was a little older, the two boys were obviously hers, they all had the same bright red hair and freckles. When Roxy sat down the woman smiled at her.
“Is that your little sister?” The woman asked, looking over at Rose.
“Wha- oh no Rose is my kid. Yeah.” Roxy said with equal confidence to a 7yr old with social anxiety doing algebra in front of a class of highschoolers.
The woman looked a little surprised, “Oh! Sorry it’s just you look so young.”
There was a moment of awkward silence where Roxy had no idea what to say to that, was she supposed to say? Thank you? That yes she was young? Thankfully the woman spoke again.
“So do you live around here?”
Happy for the change of subject Roxy responded, “Yeah, me and Rose live about 40 minutes away in the middle of nowhere.”
“Just you two?”
“Just us.” Roxy smiled, but the woman looked, concerned. She didn’t comment though.
“We’re stopped here for a bit to let the boys stretch their legs, we’re just on holidays visiting the family.”
“That must have been nice.”
“Yeah It was, good for the boys to meet their cousins.” The woman looked as though she was going to say more but didn’t.
They sat in silence for a bit, watching the kids. Rose seemed happy enough to sit in the structure and read, although on closer inspection she wasn’t turning the pages. It looked more like she was watching the boys pushing each other on the swings. They started bickering about something and the other woman stood up.
“I think that’s enough stretching, time to get back on the road.”
They complained but got in the car regardless and drove off. Roxy still sitting on the bench, Rose pretending to be reading. She soon climbed down from the structure and walked over to Roxy.
“Those boys were weird.”
“How so?” Roxy asked.
“They weren’t how I expected them to be, I think.”
Rose then proceeded to walk back to the car, leaving Roxy very confused.