A LITTLE INSANE. Rowan Laslow

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A LITTLE INSANE.
Chapter fourteen

To say the least, Rowan Laslow was full of surprises and Alice was becoming quite aware of his unusual tendencies.

The couple sneakily wandered around the gloaming walls of Nevermore Academy. In search of the fated artwork Rowan's mother had drawn all those years ago.

Alice laughed as both of her hands rested on Rowan's shoulders. She quietly, yet aggravatingly chanted the lyrics of one of her favorite songs.

"Jump in the line, rock your body in time." She patted his shoulder annoyingly. "Okay, I believe you."

"Alice." He said slightly peeved.

"Rowan." She mocked.

Rowan turned his head to glare at the girl. She laughed as she detached her hands from his shoulders.

"I'm just so bored, Row, row, row your boat." She cried out. "I feel like we've been sneaking around for five hours."

"Firstly, do not call me, Row, row, row your boat...that's a terrible nickname. And secondly, we've only been walking for five minutes."

"Well, can I hold your hand?" Alice asked. Truthfully, she just wanted a reason to touch him, and if holding onto his shoulder while mimicking the Conga wasn't an option, maybe he'd say yes to a simple handhold.

And he did.

He rolled his eyes with an unnecessary bit of sarcasm and grabbed Alice's hand while pulling her down the stairwell.

"Hey, Ro-bear. When I said 'Hey, lovely boyfriend of mine, may I please hold your hand' I didn't think I'd be getting pulled down a bunch of stairs!"

"Alice.."

"Yes?"

"What the hell is a, Ro-bear?"

"You don't like it?" She asked faking her sadness. The name was terrible, she knew that yet making cringy couple nicknames was not something she wanted to pass on. Hate or no hate.

"That's ridiculous, Al-bear..." he copied, doing a high-pitched voice to mimic her, "I hate it."

Alice glanced around as she let go of Rowan's hand. They were in a circular room that she had never seen before. It held shelves full of aging books and cobwebs on every edge and corner.

To Alice, it looked like a random room you'd find if you went to Hogwarts or something. She hoped that Argus Filch wasn't hiding somewhere ready to pounce on them with Mrs. Norris following at his feet.

"Do you remember what shelf it's on? I don't want to search through all of these. Plus, I'm positive that all of these books are covered in cobwebs and I'm extremely scared of-"

The swift sound of a thud was heard, making Alice stop her chatter. "Spiders..." Alice had completely forgotten her boyfriend was the closest thing to force-sensitive. She scratched the back of her head.

"Come here," Rowan said flipping through pages of the book.

"No.."

"Alice."

"But.. the spiders-"

"Alice, come here."

Alice obeyed, walking towards him swiftly. She placed her head on his shoulder watching as he flipped through pages.

He finally stopped on a page, it had a drawing of a young girl and an older man on it. Alice scanned it more thoroughly, realizing the girl in the drawing looked exactly like-

"Wednesday?"

Rowan seemed to have gotten more aggravated by the second. His eye twitched, hand going through his hair forcefully.

"Wednesday?" Alice asked again completely aghast. "You want to kill the new girl?"

Rowan turned his head, looking at his girlfriend. "I don't want to kill her, Al."

Alice blinked.

He turned away from her. "I have to. It's the only way to stop her from destroying the whole school and everyone in it. Including you."

Alice didn't know what to say. She just stared at him, she was hoping her eyes decided to speak.

"You think I'm crazy don't you..?" He whispered to her.

"Rowan, It's not that I think you're crazy..." Alice stopped, and she looked down at her feet. "This is just a lot, okay?"

"You think I don't know that!" He snapped. "My mother burdened me with this and now I feel like it's going to be my fault when everything goes to shit!"

"Rowan, stop fucking yelling at me." She glared at him.

"You told me that you didn't think I was fucking crazy!" He said placing two fingers on his nose. 

"I never told you that you were fucking crazy!" Alice shouted, getting frustrated.

"Fuck this," Rowan mumbled throwing the book on the floor.

"No, Rowan. Fuck you." Alice added. "You can't just lash out at me and expect everything to be sunshine and fucking rainbows after. That's such bullshit."

"I'm sorry! Alright? I'm just stressed out... this is too much, way too much."

"And you're making it worse for yourself. Just calm down." She took in a deep breath. "Calm down."

Rowan copied his girlfriend, taking in a deep breath and closing his eyes.

Alice watched him do so. She watched his whole body relax as well as his facial expressions. At this moment she couldn't help but agree with everyone who thought Rowan would do well with a therapist.

However, he wasn't a therapist kind of person.

"How do you feel?" Alice asked, walking up to the now hopefully relaxed boy.

He gave her a small smile. "I'm fine. Thanks."