Page 56 of Cuts Like an Angel: Part 2

“Sorry? No. William …”

She leaned around to him, her delicate hand catching his chin and turning him to face her. His head swam, not just from the shock of the house, but the aftermath of his alcohol-fuelled, manic episode. His head thumped like a jackhammer in his temples.

““I wanted to get rid of all the bad things.”

“My wallpaper was bad?”

He said it so simply that Rosie let out a sob filled chuckle, but her face returned to serious almost right away. “I just thought that maybe we start afresh. I would’ve probably knocked the house down if you had been gone longer.”

He glanced about the room, taking it all in. The room looked so different with the paper stripped away, leaving only the lining. “I bet you would have too.”

He tried to see the room through the eyes of Josh and not William. Not the child inside who was afraid that when his mother came home; she’d go fucking spare. Shit, he’d probably have gained himself an entire month locked under the stairs for this. A slow smile started at the edges of his mouth, turning up the corners. He gripped tighter on Rosie’s leg, just to make sure she was still there.

“What is it?” she asked. “Why are you smiling?”

“Do you know how pissed off my mother will be when she sees this? When she sees what you did?”

Rosie’s eyes went so wide, they were close to leaping from her pretty face. “Shit. I …”

“No.” he shook his head and turned himself to see her better. “No. Don’t you see? Rosie …”

“What?”

“She’ll be furious. Mad.” He waved his hands in the air, demonstrating. “Fucking seething.”

“I know. I’m so sorry. We can fix it. Make it back to how it was.”

“No.” he stood, bringing Rosie with him. He pulled her against him, wrapping his arms around her, his mind suddenly alive with everything. Leaping from thought to thought as he held her there. “She’ll be so mad. I hope she is mad. I hope she is so damn mad that her head explodes.”

Rosie leaned back so that she could look up at him. “You’re not angry with me?”

“No. I’m not angry. We’ll do it all. We’ll make it so bright that it scares away her misery. We can make it all new. Can't we?”

William cupped both of Rosie’s cheeks with his hands, tilting her head back so that he could kiss her. “Thank you for not hating me,” he whispered against her mouth.

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