The Rose Thief

I. Thorny Subjects

Thorny Subjects

I sat languidly on the concrete bench overlooking the High School courtyard; my eyes trained on the scene a few metres before me. The sight so familiar, that I could predict each exchange made, and its resulting reaction, long before it happened.

The ostentatious female would trail her fingertips almost perfunctorily down the arm of her unsuspecting victim. The fluttering eyelashes and suggestive looks would draw him near as he would hold onto every word that falls from her lipstick-stained lips. She would slowly but surely ease her prey into its trap and the poor fool would remain completely oblivious. They were almost too easy.

But before they knew it, the switch would flip and the hope they had of notching the perfect girl drained as she walked away with the same parting words.

"I'm just not ready to date."

I probably would have felt a pang of pity as I watched her latest victim fail miserably at acting impervious to her rebuff if I hadn't become unaffected having witnessed that precise look on the faces of multiple other chumps who had been in his exact position.

I waited patiently as she neared me before carelessly shouldering my bag and falling into step beside her.

"You shouldn't lead them on Charlotte." I stated half-heartedly, knowing she would turn a deaf ear. My opinions were not match for her obstinate nature.

Charlotte scoffed. "It's not my fault they won't leave me be."

I couldn't blame them. My best friend was an enigma that you wanted to decipher unreservedly. Her auburn hair had a lustre I couldn't achieve on a good day, blue eyes that sucked you in and a body that screamed sex-appeal. She was classically beautiful and I couldn't help but feel jealous when she could catch the eye of any onlooker without so much as trying.

Charlotte and I have been the best of friends since primary school, where we bonded over our hatred of boys and all things pink, but as time went on, she grew to love the things we despised, while I still can't stand the hue or the annoyance that came with the male species. Don't get me wrong, I can appreciate an attractive guy every once in a while but what's the point when he'd probably end up as your best friend's flavour of the week before you can even mutter the word "Dibs."

"You say it as if you don't enjoy the chase." I joke and nudge her with my elbow.

She tosses her hair dramatically. "It does add some much needed spice to my life."

"You must like your life extra spicy then." I mutter under my breath. Thankfully she doesn't hear because I was in no way emotionally prepared to defend myself against her accusations at my not so subtle way of hinting at her attention-whore ways.

"You know you should really try the dating scene, Rosaline." I hated when she called me by my full name. I especially hated it when it followed a suggestion regarding my non-existent dating life. "I could hook you up with Jeremy? He's cute and doesn't pick his nose in public. What more could you want from a guy?"

I would have told her that Jeremy saw her as God's gift to men and literally drooled at the mention of her name but she would most likely deny it and say I was seeing things. I most certainly wasn't.

"I'm not looking to date at the moment Char. I'm behind on schoolwork as it is." It was partially true. My job as a part-time photographer and journalist, and spending hours catching up on my beloved series, had pushed my studies to the backseat.

"I understand that but it would be great to see you get out there. You deserve some romance in your life."

The aspect of going on dates and receiving flowers summoned my inner hopeless romantic, but I dampened the thought remembering the beauty beside me. I didn't stand a chance and I was content in accepting the fact that I would be single until my photographic aspirations took me away from Canon County to a world where no one would compare me to the goddess that was Charlotte Hemming.

I was content in keeping my barriers up and letting Charlotte reign free in her man hunt without my feelings getting in the way, not that they ever did.

That was, until Isaac Levi came to town and caught both mine and Charlotte's attention.

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First chapter of The Rose Thief!

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