The Weird Sisters - Eleanor Brown [78]
“You can’t live in Barnwell your whole life, Rose. There’s so much out there you’re missing. And it’s missing you.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said, her voice flat. Cold.
“You are so much more than that town. You’re so brilliant, and you’re such an amazing teacher. You know that. And you’d only learn more if you’d spread your wings a little and try out a few other places.”
“And my mother?”
“She’ll be okay. And you said it looks like Bean is sticking around. Let her keep the home fires burning for a while. You need to take care of yourself for once, Rose.”
“I don’t know.”
Silence hung across the line for a moment, and then he sighed heavily. “Look. We don’t have to make any decisions right now. I know what they said, but we don’t even know if you’ll get the position at Barney for sure, right?”
“Right,” Rose said carefully, wondering if she was ceding some important ground just by admitting that.
“We’ll think about it. And you’re coming out in a while to visit, right? You can see how you feel about it then. Have you bought your ticket yet?”
“Not yet. It’s been a little busy here, Jonathan.” This was not entirely untrue. But she had been procrastinating on making travel plans, a little in the same way that Bean had refused to open her bills. We are more alike than we would ever admit.
“I understand. Why don’t you see if you can take some time and get a flight, and we’ll talk about it more when you’re here. Okay?”
“Okay,” she said. She suddenly felt near tears, and very, very tired. All the excitement of seeing Dr. Kelly yesterday had run out of her. Jonathan wasn’t going to whoop with joy about turning down this job and moving back to Barnwell with her forever and ever. And she couldn’t imagine having worked her entire life, hoping that one day she’d have the opportunity to take a job here, only to turn it down.
One of them was going to have to give, or the whole thing was going to fall apart.
Bean was extraordinarily hungover, which was embarrassing enough at her age—shouldn’t you leave those things behind along with consumption of alcohol through funnels?—but even worse on a Thursday morning. The sun was a cheerful irritation pushing its way through her designer sunglasses, and her stomach pushed and rolled with every step she took.
When she had walked up to the house that morning, Rose, barreling down the porch steps, had nearly knocked her over. “You’re just coming home? I didn’t realize you were going to be out all night.”
She hadn’t known she would be, truthfully. She had headed out with the intention of shaking off a little of the small-town stink and burying her troubles in alcohol. She hadn’t made it far, only to Edward’s house, to the front door, where he greeted her with a drink, and she returned the favor by slipping off her dress and draining the glass as he kissed his way down her neck.
“It wasn’t intentional,” Bean had said to Rose, pushing her way past our sister into the kitchen. She was more than aware that the scent of cigarettes and alcohol was pushing its way through her skin, underscored by the dank, vinegar smell of sweat and desperate sex.
Rose followed her back inside. “You smell like a brewery.”
“And yet I haven’t been in one. Odd, no?” Bean filled a glass with ice and then let the tap run, the ice cubes cracking, startled by the difference in temperature.
“What if something had happened?”
“Then I’m sure one of the three other able-bodied adults in the house, if not all of you, would have handled it with alacrity.” She took a long drink of the water, forcing her stomach back down as it lurched against her ribs in protest.
Rose felt the burn of unfairness in her stomach. It wasn’t right that Bean could just run around like this, while she was taking care of things. It wasn’t fair.
She opened her mouth to speak, to pass judgment, but at that moment, Bean put down her empty glass and their eyes locked. Bean’s hair was uncharacteristically