Running Out

Chapter 1 - Rose

Author's Notes:

Another fic that started out from a nice little prompt and is slowly morphing into an epic story. Why can’t I just enjoy little endeavors? Thanks to my brilliant helpful beta friend, TenRoseForever who has been helping me negotiate my way through the world of non-violent fic!  

Hope you enjoy!

Here’s the prompt from Tumblr: http://usa-government.tumblr.com/ - 
"My friends dared me to go on this rollercoaster but now that we’re at the top it looks way too scary and hello hot person sitting next to me (careful I might puke)” au

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“God, Rose… take something else for a change. Aren’t you sick of vanilla? Blimey… I’m sick of just watching you eat vanilla again,” Shareen nagged, swiping her tongue across her cotton candy flavoured cone. 

“I like vanilla, Shareen,” Rose said, passing her £1.60 over to the young man behind the counter and retrieving her plain treat. “It’s simple and reliable… and delicious. You can never go wrong with vanilla,” she pointed out.

Shareen sighed. “How can someone so young be so dull,” she criticized, taking another lick of her confection as they began walking through the fairground again.

The day so far had been pleasant enough even though Rose hadn’t initially been thrilled with Shareen’s plan of visiting Gallifrey Fun Park. It wasn’t that she didn’t necessarily want to be there, but the cost of the day was going to make the rest of this month pretty meager socially and as far as she was concerned, if you’d seen one fairground you’d seen them all. Oh well… it was something different, and as much as she hated to admit it... especially to Shareen, who seemed to be making a point of nagging her about it… she was getting pretty stuck in her pedantic existence lately. 

A little Shareen-like voice in her head actually cheered at her reluctant admission of that fact. In reality, there was nothing ‘lately’ about her predictable existence. It seemed the last year of her life had been just that. Predictable, boring, calculated, careful, and… did she already list boring? 

“Hey, Rose… that bloke is starin’ at you,” Shareen whispered, pulling her from her thoughts. Looking up, Rose took in the decent looking blonde bloke Shareen was referring to. He was standing beside his mates at a water gun game and was definitely eying her. Before she realized what she was doing, she’d tossed the bloke a flirty smile...

...and immediately chastised herself. What was she doing? She had a boyfriend, for heaven’s sake. Clearing her throat, she looked pointedly in the opposite direction. “Yeah… not my type, really,” she drawled, trying to sound bored. 

Shareen sighed. “An’ you’re tellin’ me that Mickey is? Really, Rose. You an’ I both know you need someone more… more… well, just… more,” her friend said decidedly.

Irritation creeped through her. “Mickey’s a decent bloke, Shareen. We’ve been best mates forever and I care about him,” she justified.

“Yeah, well… I care about my brother, but that doesn’t mean I’d date him,” her friend pointed out.

As much as Rose hated to admit it, Shareen did have a point. And in honesty… reliable, familiar and… dare she think it?... brotherly... had sort of been why she’d finally given in and agreed to date Mickey in the first place. She’d had a particularly bad experience with a bloke she’d fell for by the name of Jimmy. He’d swept her off her feet with promises of excitement and adventure, but in reality it ended up being all about control, jealousy, and finally, abuse. Rose had managed to get herself out from under his thumb about a year back, but it had left her understandably cautious.