#commentary thing

I must say, of all the things I expected to be asked, this was not at the top of the list. You just so happened to choose one of the bits that I did not put extensive thought into. It just made sense.

Rose is very proud and stubborn. I imagine when she left home to live with Jimmy she and her mum had it out. Majorly.  Jackie has always sought to protect her daughter and after years of dating so many men, I think Jackie would’ve learned how to spot a bad egg. I think she would’ve seen through Jimmy soon enough, if not right away. She would’ve warned Rose to leave him immediately, she probably even ordered her to. But Rose thought she loved Jimmy and teenagers can be irrational when they get like that. Jimmy promised her so many things, he was giving her a chance at a better life than the one she’d been born into and she would’ve seen her mum as trying to keep her firmly in it. So she left, probably with no shortage of hateful words in her wake.

  When it ended badly and Rose realized how right Jackie had been, I think she would’ve been ashamed to face her. She couldn’t bear to go crawling home to her mother and admit she’d been a fool. And her friends had seen through Jimmy, too, but she hadn’t listened to them either. She had nowhere to go and she thought of those people that used to sleep under the slide at the park on the Estate. She couldn’t go there, someone she knew was bound to find her and she wasn’t ready for that yet.

  Then she decided she could handle Shareen’s words more than several cold nights alone in the park. So she retreated to her friend’s home until she felt brave enough to face Jackie.