Exquisite ~ Book One

Twenty~

"When I was a kid, I used to dream to soar. I'd dream of being free from these burdening chains that keep me one step behind from where I need to be. They say we have freedom when we're all contained. Up and about, I was lightless with free range to soar. Now that I'm here, I can't believe how light it is I feel, how big I feel compared from those down below, it was a blur of everything I've never had to dream before."

I was out of words by the time landing took place, my knees where rather weak but Andrew helped me stand. Leaving the plane, I search the way of faces for Dennis'. I'd imagine it to be as if some child were to play "Where's Waldo" and sit upon hours trying to find him.

"Rose!" The name was nearly foreign to me now but it brought attention back to me. I turn my head around and see Dennis shuffling through the crowds to get to us.

"Dennis." I say through a gasp. I leave Andrews's side for the moment being, reuniting in Dennis' arms with my head tucked under his chin. Dennis holds my head in place, hand parting my hair as he strokes it with his long fingers. I sigh of relief and look up to him with a smile. It wasn't forced as it's felt some of the days gone. When I looked up to Dennis, his eyes where somewhere else. I looked behind me and found Andrew slowly nearing the two of us, myself quickly releasing Dennis' figure and stepping back. "Dennis, this is Andrew. Andrew, this is Dennis." I introduce with a reddening face.

"Nice to finally meet you, heard so much about you." Andrew says through a muffled snarl.

"Likewise." Dennis replies.

"Let's not be unjust of ourselves." I say sternly. "We've just arrived and have nearly few time for us all to settle down. We've to get Andrew and I to the hotel and you to your home for until morning." I start walking beyond them.

"Rose, you mean to say that you won't be staying at my place tonight?" Dennis asks with a sunken, jealous face.

"Andrew's just arrived and has no idea about what it's like to live here, I'm only here to make sure he gets by alright. This isn't the time to be self-centered." I bite my tongue slyly and look down. "I don't mean to venture on angrily but it seems I can't please the two of you at one time." I sigh and continue forward with head bowed. I feel Andrew tense behind me, Dennis' glare intensify.

"Anna, thank you for taking me on such a new adventure, and for staying with myself." I stop and turn back to him, the two boys staring one another down.

"Don't flatter yourself." I say bitterly and keep forward, sulking in anger.

-

"I guess this is where we part ways for the night." I say before the hotels opening doors. I turn towards Dennis and look shyly away.

"Rose, please..." I shake my head and shush him.

"Tomorrow will arise soon enough, if you'll just conquer some patience and wait." I give him a worthy smile and kiss his cheek. He looks at me with a less stone-hard glare. I nod my head and grab Andrew's hand without thought, leading him towards the doors before I realize his grip had tightened.

Inside, I shake him off with a angry huff. "That was plain out childish, I get you're jealous but you're expected to be a man by now!" I whip past him to our room and slam the door on him, the door reopening moments after.

"Anna-"

"It's Annabella." I say is a low voice.

"Annabella, you must hear me out." He says in his calmest voice of tone.

"There is nothing to hear besides the gaudiness of your jealousy. Envy isn't your betrothed color." He laughs slightly before straightening his composure once more.

"Oh please, like you haven't worn the shade before yourself? What a scene you'd managed to throw then." I turn on my heels and look to him with now teary eyes.

"What do you want from me? An answer, a decision in which my heart cannot bare to make?" I shut my eyes, breathing.

"Anna-bella, you must know that time is always there but you mustn't focus on that but on the facts and feelings it is you consume." Andrew sits on the only bed set in the room and pulls me before him where I look down on him, few tears falling from their embrace. "I want you to write two things for me, if you may, one of your feelings when you're with me, the other one with him." He doesn't say his name.

"But Andrew..."

"I know you don't yet know, but hear me now. Come here and just listen." He pulls me closer to him where my head rests just below his heart, the beating of it faster as it sets off. I close my eyes and listen as instructed to do, my heart syncing with this own.

"I don't see what you're trying to prove." I say in a whisper, lifting my head from his chest, my face inches from his own where I seem stuck at. "It proves no more than you're feelings for me, not even that." I go on.

"Shhh..." he trails on before placing a hand in my hair and pulling me in forward where he kisses me and makes me lose it all. My head came to whirl and my heart skipping around in my chest like a butterfly would in a cage.

He pulls back and opens his mouth. "Shhh.." I respond sweetly and lean in once more to kiss him again, my face igniting into low flames as every passing moment, was a memory saved.