The Beast and His Queen *Editing*

tres

"Shawn really likes you."

A shriek escaped my mouth as I jumped up in my spot. Almost knocking myself out by turning around so quickly, I came face to chest with my stranger. Rosen was staring down at me whilst I was staring straight at his t-shirt covered chest.

"Sorry, did I frighten you?" He asked, gently tugging on my arm to get me closer to him. We almost become one with how close we were. Breathing intertwined his leg in between mine. We were one.

"No, it's okay. I was just getting a drink for Shawn and I." Connecting eye contact with Rosen, it was difficult to pull away. His eye were locked onto mine, pulling me into a trance-like always. It was as if he had a spell on himself that would always cause me to lose my surroundings when near him. Everything became nonexistent when with him. Nothing mattered.

Rosen nodded his head, breaking contact with us before pulling away. His warmth was soon filled with chilled air, sending goosebumps to rise on my skin. The way my body reacts to him is alarming. Knowing each other for barely a day, yet my hormones are so high driven, they almost control every aspect of my entire body. Almost all.

Why am I still here? He is a stranger. A stranger who let me stay at his house and didn't do anything to me.

"I might go home," I whispered to myself, pouring the apple juice into Shawn's plastic cup that Rosen passed to me. The silence was surrounding the room, bouncing off the walls. Not wanting to be the first to speak, I stood frozen in place waiting for Rosen's reaction.

Rosen too was frozen in spot, assuming he did not know what to say either. Theoretically, Rosen had no reason to both want me to stay and want me to go. I was a stranger he had only just met the previous night and yet in such a small time, we had formed a decent friendship.

He moved around the room to look directly at me, forcing my eyes up to his. His mouth was opening and closing, like a fish breathing underwater whilst trying to think of a reasonable answer to kick me out, a complete and utter stranger.

"Oh." Was all he said.

Taking that as my answer, I quickly nodded my head before leaving the room back to Shawn. I gave Shawn his drink to which he smiled brightly up at me from his beanbag in front of the television.

"Do you want to play another game with me, Evie?" Shawn asked, tugging on my arm, trying to pull me down to him.

"Sorry Shawn, I have to go home now. My parents will be wondering where I am." I smiled down at him, realizing I would never see him again after this. Considering Rosen's reactions and his movements towards me, he seemed tense, almost awkward because I was there.

"But I want to play!" Shawn crossed his arms over his chest before pouting, sticking his bottom lip down and frowning until his frown lines appeared.

"If you keep that on your face, the wind will come and make it permanent."

"I don't care, I want to play with you." I shrugged my shoulders in defeat. There was no winning with him.

"I'll play with you next time even longer, okay?"

"Promise?" He stuck out his pinky towards me and sending me his usual bright and wide smile. I wrapped my pinky around his before laughing along with Shawn.

"I promise."

I stood up from my crouched down position, smiled at Shawn before walking about out the door and to where I came from. As I walked down the halls, I realized that the walls were covered with picture frames of heaps and people. Families, friends carried through the hallways in the house, almost every photo had different and unrecognizable people in the photos. Each and every person smiled brightly at the camera, some laughing others almost on the floor with tears.