peachy. timothée chalamet

v.

five
real life

venturing out of her home was something that made rose physically itch. she always found comfort in the thought of being shut up in her bedroom in the flat that she shared with amelia, not stepping out into the open for the world to see. she was an anxious girl and had the prescriptions to prove it, so her spontaneous trip to her home town across the country from where she currently resided was definitely not one she ever thought to take. however, when her mother called her explaining that the youngest gallagher brother had pulled another one of his idiotic stunts at school, rose booked the earliest flight.

not one person had ever succeeded in convincing theo gallagher to change his mind on a specific matter. no one except for rose, that is. for a reason that no one could quite comprehend, the boy actually took joy in listening to what his sister told him to do. if his parents were the ones to suggest that he cease his unsatisfactory behavior at school, he would only scoff and walk away. but if his older sister went to the extent of returning home from california to attempt at talking some sort of sense into him, he was all ears.

so when rose walked through the front door of her family's new york townhouse, theo was the first to greet her.

she was immediately embraced upon entry; the strength behind the hug was enough to cause her to stumble backwards. however, she did not fight it — she knew exactly who it was as soon as his blond hair brushed against her cheek, and her own arms abandoned every bag in order to return his affection.

"you smell like a city," were the first words that escaped his lips, the sound trapped within his sister's wavy locks of hair. the laughter that erupted fron her radiated through her entire body and vibrated every limb that connected her to her brother.

"and you smell like dog." she let go as she said this, a smile crossing her face. "how are you?"

"suspended," theo was always the type of person who laid things flat out and was never one to hide information from any of his siblings.

"mom told me."

rose picked up her bags once more and moved deeper into the home, taking in her surroundings. it had been so long since she was last here. the memories trapped in the framed photos lining the walls had nearly slipped her mind until that moment.

"did she also tell you i did absolutely nothing wrong?" theo took a suitcase from her and tucked it in the corner of the living room, taking a seat on their couch.

"she failed to mention that," rose replied, eyeing him to make sure he was being truthful. from the looks of it, he was, and she decided to ease up a bit. "we can deal with that whole ordeal later. i want to know what i'm missing out on in my brother's life."

her sibling rolled his eyes at her. "since when are you seriously interested in anything that doesn't involve you?"

"since i moved out and got a taste of the california life," she replied,
smiling. "did you know i'm a vegan now?"

his expression was absolutely appalled, and his eyes flickered over to the kitchen where, earlier that day, he had stashed away the last of his youngest sister's meat-filled lunch for himself.

"should i go pluck leaves from the tree outside," theo started, poking fun at her.

"you're hilarious." rose stood, rolling her eyes at her brother's jab. "where's logan?"

rose hadn't seen her sister in three month's time and she missed the small girl dearly. logan was the one person she truly prayed for at night; praying that she would end up alright and not a mess like her other siblings. in a way, logan was her family's last hope at redemption. it was a large weight to unknowingly put on her shoulders, and rose and theo both hated themselves for doing so, but neither of them felt as though they could dig themselves out of the holes they once trapped themselves into. even their oldest brother dylan, whom they had not spoken to in three years, was far past a saving point.

"she gets home from school in a half hour. god, she doesn't know how lucky she is to be able to step into that building."

rose glanced at him, trying to contain her laughter. "you hate that school."

"yeah but i miss my friends." theo looked at her. "i have a social life, rose, even if it sometimes is disheveled. which reminds me — how's your friendship with tim going?"

"first of all, no one calls him tim. and second of all, it's none of your business." she grabbed her smaller bag and began the trek upstairs to her old room. previously, she had shared it with dylan, but when he moved out, he took his side of the room with him. rose never did anything to change its bare look but instead kept it empty as a sort of metaphorical representation of how he left her.

theo followed her up the stairs, practically jogging to catch up before she reached the room.

"rose you need to know something before you unpack–" he was out of breath and doubled over in order to regain the steady flow of oxygen into his lungs. "just hold on a second."

"aren't you supposed to be the star athlete at your school?" his sister stood smirking at him, one hand on the doorknob. "and the only thing of relative concern to me would be if there was an insect infestation in my room so whatever it is can wait."

"rose–"

she turned the knob and the door swung open in front of her to reveal a room she only half recognized. she remembered its colorful artwork scattered across the gray walls and the lights she had once hung to busy herself and distract her thoughts from her older brother. she remembered the desk, piled up to its shelves with novels full of scribbled notes in their margins and cassette tapes she had ransacked from her mother's things in the attic; the paint-splattered hardwood floors that were worn down from years of her feet darting across their surface; the closet doors that had once been taken off of their hinges in order for she and dylan to cover the surface with anything considered even the slightest bit artistic (he had, at one point, stuck an old bottle cap to the top corner of his side and explained to rose that one day, when she became mature enough, she too could hide her own bottle cap on the door and even consume whatever was in the actual bottle).

she remembered all of these things, but what she did not remember was the ruffled sheets on the once-empty mattress across from her own and the countless number of additional caps attached to the left door of her closet. she didn't remember the additional copies of novels that seemed even more worn down than those she left behind her, or the face of the boy she found sitting in the middle of those paint-splattered floors, adding more colorful marks and scuffs as the liquid dripped off of a cavas, his eyes ghostly and expression unreadable as he stared up at her.

that had been a shock — seeing her brother for the first time after years that seemed neverending — but the real shock was actually hearing the voice that she could never forget in a million years.

"hi rosie."

author's note: my nick robinson book "bloopers" is now published if you want to check that our