In Love With A Straight Girl

Don't Argue With Rose

A/N: Holy shit. 6K reads!!!! I seriously never thought my story would get this far! Thank you all so much! You guys encourage me to keep writing!

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My feet trudged down the hallway, my hand against the wall, supporting me as I walked. It was a struggle to keep my breathing even. With every couple of steps, all I would see is white, and I had to stop walking until I could see again. I pulled my phone out and called Rose.

"Stella?"

"Hey Rose." I said weakly.

"Stella? What's wrong? What happened? Are you okay?"

Rose's questions were only making my head hurt worse. "Rose, I'm fine. I just...I...can you come pick me up?"

"You know you don't even have to ask me, sweetheart. I'll be there in ten minutes okay?"

"Yea that's fine. Please hurry." Click.

I took a deep breath and continued walking. I walked out the door and sat down on the concrete. I made sure not to rest my head on anything, knowing I'll probably fall asleep, and waited for Rose. Soon enough, Rose pulled up to the school and I walked to the car, trying my best not to limp. I got in the car and sighed as my body relaxed into the seats.

"Stella, what happened?"

I shook my head. "Nothing. I just got a monster headache and I'm really tired."

She gave me a knowing look. "Stella, I know you better than that. You wouldn't just call me and ask me to pick you up if you had a headache."

I closed my eyes as I thought of the recent events. I heard Rose sigh and felt the car start to move. My mind was fuzzy and it was getting hard to stay awake. I peeked open my eyes and looked at Rose. Her eyes were focused on the road, but you could tell she was curious, wondering why I had called her.

"I got beat up." I said softly.

She looked over at me. "How bad is it?"

"They said I had two bruised ribs and a concussion."

She nodded, while her grip on the steering wheel tightened. We pulled up to the house and I got out of the car. It was harder to walk and I nearly fell when I took my first step, but Rose was already there to catch me.

She helped me up the stairs and into my room. Once I was on the bed, she walked out of the room, only to return shortly after with a first aid kit. She helped me take my shirt off, leaving me in my sports bra, and applied some soothing ointment. She wrapped me in a bandage and put my shirt back on.

"Who was it?" she asked quietly.

"Adam...Alayna's ex."

"Oh...I see. And how long has all of this been going on?"

"A while." I replied. "But...it wasn't just him."

She looked at me, waiting for me to continue.

"Rick came to the house the other day. He needed money and...I he got mad at me."

I could see Rose's eyes getting watery. I hated telling her about all of this. She always got mad at herself because she couldn't do anything. Well she could, but I wouldn't let her.

"You stay in bed and get some rest, okay?" she told me. "I'll wake you up every so often to check on you."

I nodded as she left the room. I closed my eyes and tried to sleep, but all I could think about was Alayna. Did she really love me? Or was Adam and Mother right all along? Did I do a stupid thing by walking away from her like that? I don't even know anymore. I tried to get in a more comfortable position and imagined that Alayna was laying beside me.

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I opened my eyes and stared up at my ceiling. I had one of the worst sleeps ever. I probably only got a couple hours and my ribs were sore. I slowly got up from bed and looked out the window. I was greeted by the night sky, the moon shining through the clouds.

I walked downstairs, but stopped when I heard voices coming from the living room. I slowly peeked my head behind the wall and saw Rose sitting in the recliner.

"Stella, you're awake!" she exclaimed. "You should be in bed! You'll hurt yourself!"

"Relax Rose, I don't think I can hurt myself anymore than what I already am." I told her. I pointed to the couch, where a head was poking up, barely out of sight. "Who's that?"

The head turned around and Alayna's bright green eyes met mine.

I stepped back. "What are you doing here?"

"I need to talk to you."

I shook my head. "No you don't." I started to walk back to my room.

"Stella." Rose said. I felt a shiver run down my spine. Rose hardly ever spoke in that tone of voice and when she did, she was being serious.

I turned back around and faced the fury hidden behind a stern yet calm face. "Yes?"

"I believe Alayna wants to talk to you. It would be impolite not to invite her to your room so the both of you may talk."

I held my gaze with Rose, trying to silently tell her that I really did not want to talk to her nor invite her into my room. I couldn't hold my stare for long and dropped my eyes with a sigh. "Fine."

Like magic, the frown on Rose's face disappeared. "Good! Now, you two go on upstairs while I make dinner, okay?"

I turned on my heel and went upstairs, not waiting to see if she would follow. I flopped down on my bed, wincing as the familiar sting of my sides returned.

"You need to go to the hospital."

I didn't bother opening my eyes. "No I don't. I'm fine."

The bed shifted next to me. "Stella, you have bruised ribs and a concussion! You need to get them looked at."

I scooted away from her on the bed. "As long as I give it time to heal, I'll be fine. It takes about 3 weeks for bruised ribs to heal so I just need to take it easy. As for the concussion, Rose wakes me up every 2 hours to make sure I'm okay."

"You know a lot about this stuff, don't you?" she asked me.

"Well yeah. I kinda have to."

My arm was lifted from where it was resting over my eyes and I was forced to look into the face of beauty.

"Why did you say all that?"

"What? About my ribs?" I asked.

She shook her head. "At the school."

Oh, right. "Because it's true."

"What?!" she nearly screamed. "How could you say that?"

I shrugged my shoulders.

"Nuh-uh. Don't just shrug your shoulders. Tell me why you think that."

I closed my eyes and sigh. "Don't worry about it."

"I will worry about it. Tell me."

"...nobody loves me."

"That's not true." she replied. "I love you. And Rose does too."

I sat up. "You don't understand."

"Then tell me! Tell me so I'll understand!"

I looked over at her and saw tears gathering in her eyes. I looked down at the bed and took a deep breath. "It's...it's because of Mother."