Rose stood at the door of the Rothes, wondering if she was doing the right thing. She had decided to go visit Constance. Talk to her and perhaps get down to the bottom of why things feel so off with her. It used to be that she wouldn't feel nervous about visiting the Rothes. At one time, she used to come over every day. She used to be at the Rothes mansion more than she was at her mother's, spending time with Constance and Madeline. Talking about boys and movies and doing each others hair. But now everything had changed, thanks to Caledon Hockley.
Pushing away all thoughts, Rose rang the bell, hoping that she was still welcomed by the adults, or seeing Constance would be more difficult than she thought.
"Rose Dewitt Bukater? Why I haven't seen you around here in months," Mrs. Rothes opened the door and stared in shock to see a girl she hadn't seen in a long time at her door. "Are you here to see Constance?"
"I know, it's been a while. I'm afraid that we've kind of grown apart during the change of schools and crowds, but I wanted to come by to visit. Catch up on what's been going on in our lives," Rose smiled. Of course she had nothing against Constance's mother. She's always been more kind to her than her own mother had been. "Is she here?"
"She's right upstairs in her room. She's been spending most of her time in there since that dance to be honest. She didn't even show interest when the Hockley boy was murdered. Maybe a visit from you will draw her out. You remember where her room is, right?" Her mother explained.
"Um, sure. Thank you, Mrs. Rothes."
"It was good to see you again Rose. I do hope that we'll be seeing more of you."
Rose felt a little guilty, knowing that this will most likely be her last visit to the Rothes residence. She just couldn't see rekindling her friendship with Constance. Not after all that had happened. Pushing the guilty feelings aside, Rose ascended the stairs and headed for Constance's room, the first one on the right.
Constance's room was everything a teenage girl could ask for. It was dressed all in pink, from the plush carpeting to the wall paper. There was a vanity table on the right wall and a two bedside tables situated next to the double bed that was in the center of the east wall. On that bed was Constance, her knees pulled up against her chest, her dark hair falling in curtain's nearly shielding her face. Her bedroom door was open, so Rose didn't have to knock. She just stood in the doorway and frowned. This wasn't like Constance at all.
"Constance? It's Rose...can I come in?"
Constance's head jerked up, her eyes wide in surprise. Rose was the last person she had expected to ever stop by and see her...especially after all that had happened.
"Rose? What are you doing here?" She asked, tightening her arms around her knees, as if shielding herself from attack.
"I thought I'd stop by today. I noticed that you weren't quite yourself today at school and was concerned," Rose entered the room and sat on the end of the bed, realizing that there was something heart-breakingly familiar about Constance's demeanor. "I heard about Cal...I don't cry over the loss...but I do know how much you had cared about him and..."
"Is that why you're here? To talk about him?" Constance looked at her with haunted hazel eyes. "To see if I was crying over him?"
Rose frowned, hearing anger in the other girl's voice. This was going so well already. "No, Constance, that's not why I came here. I came here to see if you are alright."
"Like you care. We haven't been friends for months Rose..."
"And whose fault was that, huh? Do you think that I enjoyed losing all my friends like that? To start a new school alone when I should have had two best friends starting it with me? Do you think that was easy for me? To lose my friends when I needed them most?"
"It must have been because you wasted no time in turning your back on us," Constance glared at her. "The very first day you were off making new friends..."
"That was only because I knew what would happen once it was known what Cal did to me. I knew that the two of you would side with him and I was right. You did. So yeah, I found new friends that would be on my side and not defend that monster."
"You never gave us a chance, Rose."
Rose sighed and shook her head. "Don't you remember the welcome party? The moment I arrived, you two began gushing over Cal and bashing poor Annabelle for daring to tell the truth. That was all the proof that I needed that I wouldn't be believed and you two proved me right. You both were right there at my mother's ready to ambush me."
Constance guiltily looked away. "I guess you have a point there. But you still remained separate. You made it quite clear that our friendship was over. So forgive me if I'm confused by your presence here now."
"I am here, because despite everything that you both have done to me...despite you siding with that rapist...I still care about you, Cons. I care about what happens to you and if you need help, if I can, I'd like to help."
"Well you can't! No one can, so you can just leave. Go back to your handsome boyfriend and live your happy life and forget those of us you left behind," Constance's eyes flashed at her and that was when Rose knew. The look in those eyes...the way she was dressed, no inch of skin revealed, the way she sat as if guarding herself somehow...Rose had seen all of that before, in Annabelle and in herself.
"Oh my god...Constance...Cal...did he...?" No, please no. Not another one.
It took a while for Constance to answer. At first she wasn't going to. It was in the past, Cal was gone, so there was no point in rehashing the past. But the realization in Rose's eyes, the sympathy...it like a dam broke and suddenly tears were spelling forth from her eyes.
"It was...after the dance. We were in his car listening to some music. I had thought it was the most romantic night ever. Just sitting in the car, looking up at the stars and I thought that he was such a gentleman. I was going to go to school Monday and tell you just how much of a gentleman he was. Anyway...we started kissing and Cal's hands were everywhere. I told him that he was going to fast...that we needed to stop...but he wouldn't...he tore at my clothes. He clamped his hand over my mouth...ripped my clothes away from my body...and then. he..."
"Oh Constance," Rose gasped. "And you dealt with all of that on your own?"
"I had no choice. After how horrible I was to you, I didn't know if you'd help me or not."
"Of course I would have helped you!"Rose gasped, hating Caledon Hockley all over again.
"When we came back to school, I was going to pretend that nothing had happened. That you weren't right and Annabelle was gone...but there you both were...looking happy and healthy and I felt a mess and alone..."
"Oh Con...you should have came to me...we could have gone to the police..."
"And what? Have people ostracize me like we did you?"
"Your parents are not like the Watsons and my mother. They would have believed you and I would have believed you too. We could have finally put him away for good."
Constance sniffed and wiped her eyes. "You know good and well that the Hockley's would never have let that happen. They would have gotten him off somehow and then we all would have been in a world of trouble. He was insane, Rose. Afterwards he was ranting that I better not even think of telling anyone or dumping him like you and Anna had. That he still had to get revenge on you both for that and he had things planned. I thought...I foolishly thought I could go to Maddie...but she called me a traitor and told me to be thankful that Cal even looked at me. I didn't know what else to do. Then when Jack had beat up Cal at school and when I found out what he had done to Annabelle again...I knew then that it'd never be over. Never..."
Rose paled when Constance revealed that Cal was planning to go after her as well as Anna. She was never more glad that he was dead then at that moment. How would it have happened? Would he have hurt Jack to get to her? Most likely. How could people like her mother and the Watsons still stand up for that bastard? It was utterly absurd.
Constance sighed, pressing her face against her knees. "I was out walking. I needed to get out and away...and I was out later than I should have been...I was at that place we used to go...the one that's on top of a cliff that looks out at the water...I thought being there would clear my head..."
Rose's heart nearly stopped in her chest at Constance's words. "What did you do?"
"Someone had beaten him some more...he was stumbling along, I guess disoriented, I don't know...I was too frightened to pay attention to that. I got to my feet and he came grabbing me and I don't know...I flashed back to that night...I was back in that car...and he was going to hurt me again and I had to stop him because I'd die if it'd happened again...so I pushed...I pushed and he was gone and I was free and running away and...I didn't know what happened until the next morning when they said Cal was dead...found at the bottom of a ravine..."
"Oh my god..."
"I didn't mean to do it, Rose. You have to believe me. I didn't mean to kill him. I was just trying to get away so he wouldn't hurt me anymore, but no one is going to believe that! I killed Cal and I'm scared!" Constance burst into tears.
Rose felt tears in her eyes as she scooted forward and wrapped her arms around the sobbing girl. She didn't know what to say. Constance had been through so much and all she had been trying to do was survive and protect herself. "It's going to be okay, Cons, it is. We'll fix this."
"How? You can't bring him back. I don't even want you to. You were right about him being a monster!"
"Yes. I was."
"We should have believed you from the start," Constance sobbed, clinging to her former friend.
"Should haves and what ifs aren't going to change anything, Cons. You do know that they arrested Derrick Watson for Cal's murder, right?"
Constance sobbed even harder in reply.
"You're going to have to tell the truth...you can't let him go to jail for this, even though he would have gladly done the deed himself," Rose gently rubbed her back.
"But then I'll go to jail and they'll make sure that I'll never get free again."
"Maybe you won't. Maybe if you tell what he did to you and Anna and I testified about what he did to us...make the court see what a monster he was and that it was an accident...you were having what all of us victims have at some point...a flashback to the night it happened, maybe you'll get off. But you can't let an innocent man go to prison. Not over that monster."
Constance cried, knowing that Rose was right. She was going to have to tell someone. She was going to have to turn herself in and hope for the best. It was the right thing to do and she was so tired of doing the wrong thing. "Will you come with me?"
"Of course. And I'll call my father. He may be able to help you. He helped Jack and Nathan Hockley won't be able to buy him off. It's going to be okay, Constance. It will."
Constance just nodded, wiping her tears away. "I'm so sorry for how I had treated you, Rose. You have every right to hate me and turn your back."
"You were my friend long before you were Cal's cheerleader. It's good to see my friend back, even if it's under such horrible circumstances."
Constance sobbed a few more times before pulling away. "Well...I guess we had better start with my mom, right?"
Rose gave a sad smile. "Right. I'll be right by your side, Cons. I promise."
…..
It had been a long emotional afternoon for Rose. She had sat by Constance's side as she confessed all to her horrified parents. They of course believed Constance about the rape, just like Rose had said they would. They quickly called Rose's father and explained everything, so he was waiting for them at the police station, where Constance gave her confession, including an account of what had happened to her. Rose too also told the police of her own attack and that Cal had not only attacked Annabelle Watson once, but twice. They had called Annabelle, who came down to the station and gave her statement as well. Constance was then placed under arrest while Derrick was let go, much to his surprise. William Dewitt Bukater had assured Constance's parents that he was going to work on getting bail so their daughter could come home until trial.
Once it was all over, Rose told her father she was going to drive around to clear her head. She did drive around, but she ended up on Jack's doorstep still feeling emotionally drained from it all. She sighed, ringing the bell, hoping that he was at home.
Jack had been working on yet another picture of Lisa when he heard the ring of the bell. Julie was sitting on the couch painting her toenails.
"Are you going to get that?," Julie asked, not looking up from her frosty pink colored toenail.
Jack gave her a dirty look and got up and opened the door to Rose who by now had tears falling from her eyes. "Rose, baby what is it?" He held his arms out and she stepped into them, pressing her face against his shoulder, crying. He held her tight, not sure of what to make of this.
"Constance...Cal," Rose could only manage between her sobs. Jack brought her into the house and closed the door behind him. He took her into the kitchen and hand her sit at the counter. He quickly poured her a glass of water, hoping that it'd calm her down.
"Here. Drink this. It'll calm you down some, and then you can tell me why you're all upset."
He watched as she drank the water, noting how tired she appeared. "Have you even been home yet?"
Rose shook her head. "I stopped by Constance's. I thought that something weird was up with her...so I stopped by to see what was going on. Oh Jack...it's horrible..."
"What happened?"
Jack sat next to Rose as she told him all that Constance had, including Cal's revenge plans and how Constance had accidentally pushed Cal off the ravine in middle of flashing back to his attack.
"It serves him right, the way he went. The trauma he caused her was exactly what killed him," Rose sniffed, rubbing the tears out of her eyes.
"So she confessed everything?" Jack asked, feeling rather sad himself. He didn't really care for Constance Rothes, because of her treatment of Rose, but he would never wish what Cal had done to her on anyone and what was still happening to her...it made his heart hurt.
"Yes. My father is going to represent her, so that's good and now Derrick is free as well. All charges dropped," Rose sniffed. "And now the police know what that bastard had done to me and Annabelle. What he had done to Constance. He's not looking like such a pristine victim anymore."
"You talked about your own attack?"
Rose nodded, gripping Jack's hand. "I had to. I had to make sure they didn't try to paint him as some innocent victim. That he was a monster whose own evil had killed him. If he hadn't raped Constance, she wouldn't have had a flashback...she wouldn't have felt the need to push him away. But what really scares me is that...he was planning revenge Jack. Against Anna and me, because we talked about what he had done to us...we saw what he had done to Anna again...what do you think he was planning to do..."
"Hey, no," Jack shushed her, placing a finger on her lips. "Don't you go there, Rose. Don't. There's no need. He never had a chance to do anything else to you and he wouldn't have gotten it. He would have had to go through me, first."
"That's what I'm afraid of. What would he have done to you? How would he have hurt you to get to me? Just the thought of you getting hurt makes me sick, Jack."
"Aw Rose. Believe it or not, I can hold my own, you know. I wouldn't have let him do anything to either of us. And now he's gone and he can't. Everything will be okay, Rose. Your father will help Constance and now you're completely free of that bastard."
"It doesn't feel like it. Now that I know of his revenge plot, it's like his ghost is right behind me, ready to attack or something..."
"You only feel that way because you're exhausted, sweetie. You had a long day at school, you stopped at Constance's right after, then the police station. You haven't had a chance to sleep just yet."
"I don't think I can."
"Of course you can. Come on. Follow me," Jack took her hand and led her up to his room, ignoring Julie's snort.
Jack's room was an artist's dream. There was a big window to let plenty of light in, an easel by the window, and a portfolio on the desk opposite the bed. Jack pulled the blankets back and motioned for Rose to get in.
"I don't think this will work," Rose sighed, a little reluctant. What would his aunt and uncle say if they caught her in his room, in his bed? That would look very bad.
"Give it an hour, alright? Humor me."
Rose sighed. "Fine."
She got in bed and was surrounded by Jack's scent as soon as he pulled the covers over her. She sighed feeling, warm and safe. Maybe she could get some sleep after all. "Wake me up in an hour?"
Jack smiled and kissed her nose. "Alright."
He sat there for a while, watching her until he was sure that she was sound asleep. He then called her father to let him know where she was and then went over to his easel. He took out his paints and began to draw a portrait. A portrait of a lovely red head girl sleeping peacefully. There was no words for how he felt about Rose sometimes, so in those moments, he just let his pencil or paintbrush do the talking.