It's a fact that you can't help who you fall in love with. And for Rosaline Davenport and him, it definitely shouldn't have been each other.
Because, sometimes, love stories have blood on them.
[warning: this is the mother of all slow-burns]
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after a couple hundred rewrites, the version that I liked best: (really really hope i did the chapter justice 😭)
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【 48.
Forty-eight
Aaghosh 】
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[ Aaghosh • embrace ]
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SCARLETT HEARD ANOTHER balloon pop and she threw a disgruntled look at the shreds of purple now scattered on the floor.
The whole room was decorated in a princess-y theme, from balloons of purple, pink and blue filled with silver dust on the inside, to streamers of a metallic gold that hung down from the ceiling. The birthday cake was designed like a castle too.
All the parents were seated and talking to each other in the room next to the one where all the kids were, including Scarlett’s grandmother who was the one to accompany her to this birthday celebration. Scarlett wasn’t really friends with the girl whose party this was—in fact, the girl was two years older and a classmate of Zach’s—but her parents and Scarlett’s grandparents happen to be both neighbours and good friends.
“I want another serving of chocolate cake,” Scarlett grumbled underneath her breath. “It’s the only flavour of cake I eat.”
“So go ask for one,” Zach told her, munching on the end of a breadstick while balancing the blue paper plate on the palm of his other hand.
Scarlett sighed and looked down at her own purple plate. “But there’s so many people near the table.”
“So?”
“I don’t like taking an extra piece in front of so many people.”
“That makes zero sense.”
“They’ll think I’m being greedy.”
Zach snorted. “No one’s going to think that, Scar.”
“I don’t know any of them! They’re all older than me, and they’re all your friends.” She tightened her grip on the plate and looked around uneasily. It felt so weird being the smallest here, and that too, among children she didn’t even get to see much in school.
A sigh left Zach’s mouth, and then she watched him pick up the slice of cake from his own plate and place it on hers. “Just take mine then,” he muttered, not looking her in the eye.
Scarlett stared at the mouth-watering piece of cake on her plate, ready to devour it right that instant—but she paused and turned her head towards Zach. “What about you?”
