roses so red [harry lewis]

april showers

CHAPTER 13: april showers

"It's just all gotten far too complicated for me to handle," Rosalie admitted, lifting the glass of wine to her lips and sipping away as Talia bent at the waist, her arm stretching towards her toes with a brush of tangerine nail polish poised.

Twisting her ankle, Rosalie admired the deep forest green she'd painted her own toes as she watched Talia twist her lips, considering everything her friend had just spilled out to her. The door creaked and Freya came back in, holding a new bottle of wine in one hand and a bag of freshly popped popcorn in the other.

"Okay, so I've decided there are two options." Freya announced, folding her legs under herself and settling down on the big unmade bed with both treats on either side of her. She brushed her thin blonde hair back over her shoulder and snuggled into her black Sidemen hoodie, finally looking up at Rosalie with a serious expression. "You either date him or you don't."

"Thank you for making that easier, Frey." Rosalie rolled her eyes, biting down hard on her lip and shoving her own fiery locks behind her ears. "I hadn't considered either of those options, so that was grand of you to clear up."

"No need to snipe, you two." Talia warned teasingly, earning a giggle from Freya and a pained pout from their other friend. "Frey makes a point though, this is going one of two ways if you want things not to go to shite."

Rose let out a heavy groan, letting her head roll back in frustration as she closed her eyes up at the ceiling. "I'd love for it to be that simple, though. Okay, I get it, things go sour between us then it goes sour for us all. I get that's why I've either got to cut this off or let it happen, not meddle in the middle and fuck us all."

Talia nodded, and Frey let her head tilt to the side as she considered what Rosalie said next. "But if we do... I don't know, pursue this?" Rosalie wrinkled her nose, licking her lips, "It's going to go to shite anyway. There's no way for this to go well for us anyway, not with how mad Callum seemed to have gone."

"Now that part just doesn't seem to make sense to me." Talia straightened up, twisting the little bottle of nail lacquer closed and giving Rosalie a frown. "He didn't seem to care about you at all until it was inconvenient."

Her shoulders lifted into a shrug, twisting the top of her hair up into a little bun and using a pin to hold it up. "He cared about me, but we just had different expectations of what a relationship is and how we showed it." Rosalie reasoned, running her fingers through the half of her hair that still hung around her shoulders. "I won't pretend he did it right, in fact... he ruined it half the time. But I can't pretend his intentions were bad just because they weren't the same as mine."

"Can't you just hate him like a normal ex-girlfriend?" Freya joked, letting out a laugh. Bracing her arms, the girl twisted the cap off of a new bottle of wine and poured herself a generous glass. 

Talia eagerly held out her own glass, inviting Freya to top off her own cup as she laughed. "Seriously, it must be exhausting being that level-headed."

Rosalie laughed, shaking her head at her friends and accepting a small pour of wine. She'd had enough to drink lately that had gotten her into a bit of a mess with Harry, so she decided that even on a girls' night it was better safe than sorry. Especially when said girls' night was taking place in the Sidemen house, where Harry himself seemed to be lodged up for the next few days as the boys plotted to film a new video.

As the conversation lulled, there was the sound of raucous laughter from the floor below, and Rosalie closed her eyes, quickly trying to blink away the urge to curl up against a warm chest, hugging Harry's blankets to her chest and drifting asleep in a tipsy haze like she had days ago.

"I'm scared." Rosalie admitted, putting her wine glass down on Simon's side table. 

"Don't be silly," Talia waved her off, but she gave her friend a sympathetic look and reached out her free hand to rest on her legging-clad thigh. "We only kissed when we were both a bit pissed at the pub, and I hate to be that girl that reads too much into things."

"You're not thinking too much about it!" Freya defended, swatting Rosalie's arm before she twisted a piece of flame-red hair around her finger. "I know boys can be idiots but Harry isn't really the type to have it mean nothing."

"Especially when he's been so apologetic about how he didn't like you, back when you dated Callum." Talia agreed, tipping her wine glass in Rosalie's direction. "He's been so kind, I think if he were to play you then he wouldn't be so nice to you."

Rose shrugged, but she couldn't pretend her friends' words hadn't gotten her hopes up at least a little. "Yeah, but isn't that how players operate?"

Freya opened her mouth, stuttering out a response when suddenly the door opened a crack, a gentle knock interrupting them as Simon poked a pink-dyed head through the opening. "Sorry to interrupt, but we're ordering takeaway. You want anything?"

Rose reveled in the distraction, telling Talia to make the call for her as she brushed past Simon into the hall and headed towards one of the guest bathrooms off the upstairs hall. She closed the door softly behind her, twisting her hair behind the nape of her neck before she bent over and splashed cold water over her face. Her whole body was racked with shivers, and she grabbed a towel to quickly warm her clenched skin.

Staring into the mirror, Rose leaned towards the mirror and used the damp corner of the face towel to wipe some smudged mascara off of her under-eyes. Her skin was a bit splotchy from the cold, but she was glad to have had the water to wake her up a bit. She was spiraling with her thinking, her mind wandering to all of the ways things with Harry could get so messed up thanks to two kisses.

The door opened and Rose gave a start, turning to see the boy in question standing in the doorway. He'd also frozen, his face going pink as he quickly turned to shut the door as he spluttered out apologies.

Rosalie laughed, opening the door and putting a hand on Harry's upper arm as she tried to wave his flustered words away. "I was just washing up, Harry, relax."

"Sorry," He repeated, giving a chuckle and running a hand back over the top of his head and messing his hair up a bit. "Guess I should've knocked."

"Probably. You were lucky this time." Rose raised her eyebrows, giving him a sharp look that made his blood freeze before cracking a smile. "Don't look so scared of me!"

Harry went redder, if it was possible. "I can't help it!" He quipped defensively, shooting a glance down at where her hand rested. She looked down too, and before she could pull her hand away instinctively, she forced herself not to move.

Rosalie glanced back up at Harry and rocked back onto her heels, then up on to her toes and hesitated just millimeters away from his lips, her eyes meeting his. Harry's eyes stared down at her mouth, closing the distance between them quickly.

A brief second passed, too brief, and Rosalie fell back onto her heels again, dropping her hand off of Harry's arm and pulling her hands into the sleeves of her hot pink Sidemen hoodie, giving him a bashful smile. "See? I don't bite."