The Rose Boys

Chapter Seven

We all sat awkwardly around the large, round dining room table. The silky cloth draped over the dark wood was the same powdery blue as the necklace that Nick and Darren were staring at with interest. In the very middle of the table was three of those purple  roses from the entry-way.

The Rose Boys and I all sat there in silence, slowly picking at our dinners. I looked down at my plate, the shrimp pasta had been made to perfection. I had absolutely no complaints about it, I just didn't really have an appetite.

"So," Nick said suddenly, breaking that awkward silence. "What were you two doing before we got here? From what I heard, the two of you took off early." He was looking at me while he twirled some pasta around his fork lazily.

Darren shot Nick a dirty look and Nick just shrugged. "We weren't doing anything!" I answered loudly, sounding guilty. Darren gave me a suspicious look, his eyes seemed to bore holes into me. I finally looked back down at my plate, unable to make eye contact with him.

I didn't understand why he looked so angry. It's not like he even like me to begin with. In fact, he was the one that started this whole war business. If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't be wearing this jewelry that I didn't need nor did I want.

I looked back over at Darren, if he wasn't staring daggers over at Kevin, who sat where he was, completely oblivious of the waves of hate that seemed to roll off of his "leader," then Darren was glaring at the blue rose around my neck.

Nick was watching the three of us with a grin on his face, obviously enjoying the show. I wanted to shake him angrily. "Man," Nick said again, leaning back and looking at the white ceiling. "The Rose Boys haven't been this quiet since Alan was in it."

"Who's-" I was going to ask about Alan, a boy that I'd only heard about from Tracey the other day when Darren interrupted me with a roar.

"Don't!" He growled, throwing his fork down on the table violently. I turned to look over at him, his face twisted and angry as he glared at Nick. "Don't even talk about Alan around me like you know what happened!" He stood from his chair and stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

The three of us sat in silence before Nick placed his head in his hand, elbow on the table and looked over at me. "You know January," He said, silvery eyes on mine. "You could just save yourself the trouble and date me."

I stared at him blankly before the blood rushed to my face. "What are you talking about?" I asked nervously. "I'm not dating anyone."

Nick's eyebrows shot up and he lifted his head. "Really? I'm really glad to hear that."

I laughed nervously and stood from my chair. "Shouldn't we go look for Darren?" I asked, pausing at the door to look back at them.

"Why?" Kevin asked.

Nick nodded. "What's the point?"

"You hurt his feelings. He may not be nice to me or anything, but I still know that it's wrong to bring up things that you know someone doesn't want to hear!"

Nick sighed and stood. "Yeah, yeah, yeah..." 

Kevin followed suit. I sent both boys in opposite directions of the house, telling Kevin to search the upstairs levels and Nick to search the one level below us, while I searched the ground level we were already on.

"Why do I have to do so much?" Kevin complained.

"It's your house, is it not?" I asked, giving him a light shove in the right direction.

"You're lucky you're cute." Kevin said, looking back at me for my reaction. The sparkle in his green eyes told me that I reacted just as he wanted me to. I was embarrassed and stood there awkwardly.