𝐁𝐄𝐆𝐆𝐈𝐍𝐆 ( 𝘫𝘰𝘦 𝘬𝘦𝘦𝘳𝘺 )

12 | "aaron"

REAL LIFE

"oh god, why did you even pack that shirt? it's so ugly."

"hey! i love this shirt," rosario retorted, defending her star wars shirt, which was somewhat faded in a few places, to francesca whom she was currently on facetime with. rosie proceeded to fold the shirt and place it in her dresser drawer.

for the past three hours, after having taco bell with joe, rosie had been setting up her new apartment; which she would be staying in until the end of filming.

"so, when is joe coming to pick you up for your dinner date?" frankie asked with a smirk.

rosie rolled her eyes in response before adding, "it's not a date. he's just showing me around jackson tonight and we might get some food; which i'm gonna be paying for. it's. completely. innocent."

"yeah, keeping telling yourself that, kid," frankie said, the smirk still on her face.

"'kid'? i'm nine months older than you," rosie told her laughing a little, and frankie merely shrugged in response laughing back.

rosie continued to unpack her belongings as she and frankie talked about other random topics. she was pretty much done with everything when her macbook started ringing indicating she was getting another facetime call.

rosie sat down on her bed, where her laptop was, and she saw the incoming call was from aaron. "hey, frankie, aaron's trying to facetime me. so, i'll call you back, okay?"

frankie nodded her head. "okay."

rosie hung up her call with frankie and picked up the one with aaron. she was immediately met with the sight of a wet faced and sniffly aaron. she could tell by the look on his face that whatever was wrong with him was completely serious.

"a, what's wrong?" rosie asked, her voice filled with worry as she pulled her laptop on her lap to get a better look at him.

"me and matty had a fight," the boy sniffled and rubbed at his red and puffy eyes.

"about what? what happened?" rosie questioned her best friend.

"matty wants to come out with our relationship. apparently, he's tired of all of the secrets and lies. but, i told him we can't because i'm not ready. you understand why i can't; right, rosie?"

rosie completely understood why aaron couldn't go public with his relationship with matty; which was because of his very homophobic family. who had practically disowned aaron's sister, mariah, when she gained the courage to come out of the closet.

however, before rosie could voice her understanding of aaron's hesitance toward coming out with his and matty's relationship there was a knock at her door.

"joe," she immediately thought to herself realizing that it was eight o'clock meaning that it was time for her hang out with him.

"um, i'll be right back, a. just give me one sec," rosie told aaron and he nodded his head.

when she opened the door she was met with a very smiley joe. "ready to go on a very exciting tour of this great town of jackson?"

rosie began to smile back but held it back when she realized what she had to do; send him away and then go console aaron.

"actually, i can't go out tonight. i'm sorry," rosie watched as joe's happy face turned into a hurt look which made her heart wrench at the sight. before joe could say anything, she continued to speak trying hard to explain herself. "something else came up. with aaron. and i really hate being that type of girl that drops everything because of her boyfriend, but this...it's just really important."

joe gave her a sad small smile. "it's okay, rosie. we'll just postpone it for some other time." rosario's heart wrenched even more when he didn't use the nickname he came up for her.

the pair said their goodbyes and rosie slowly started walking back to where her laptop was, trying hard to fight the urge to run back to her door and meet up with joe and go with him.

that urge made her feel like a horrible person and, worst of all, a horrible friend. her best friend of eight years was crying and needed her comfort, yet she wanted to go be with someone she barely knew for a week.

so, instead of surrendering to the
longing, rosario pushed it as far away as she could and sat on her bed pulling her laptop back on her lap. she gave her friend a slight smile before speaking, "hey, aaron, i'm back."