Unforgotten Memories

Chapter-7

Jackson

"This one is really yummy." Rosie says as she devours her ice cream.

"Really? I want a taste too." I say.

"Sure, here you go." She says bringing her ice cream to my mouth. I shake my head with a smirk before grabbing her jaw and pulling her lips to mine. I kiss her ardently till I could taste the ice cream myself. I pull back and give her a sly grin.

"Now that tastes heavenly." I say. She looks at me wide eyed, barely moving as if she was processing what just happened. Her face goes into a deep shade of red before she gives me a shy smile.

"You're unpredictable at times." She mummers.

"Do you think we'll last forever, Rosie?" I ask, becoming tersely serious. She stops eating midway and freezes. She slowly turns her head towards me, a horrified look plastered on her face.

"Why would you ask that?" She asks softly.

"I don't know. I was just wondering. Do you think that a time would come where we'd just drift apart? Not see each other, forever?"

"I hope not." She says looking down, scooting closer to me on the little park bench that we were sitting on.

"I don't think I would want to live even a minute without you. You're like my favourite person, Jack. What makes you think that anyway? Are you bored of me already?" She questions looking into my eyes.

"No, stupid. How can I ever get bored of you? My whole world revolves around you." I say, cupping her cheek.

"Then we will last forever." She says with confidence.

"Really? How are you so sure?" I ask mockingly. She places her cup of ice cream beside her, on the bench, and holds my face in her soft, tender hands.

"Because I love you, and I know that you love me too. No matter how drastic changes our life undergoes, I can assure you one thing, and that is that this will last forever." She says, pointing at the space between us.  I can feel my eyes watering but I hide them by placing my face on her shoulder. I wrap my arms around her waist, pulling her tight so that I can feel every inch of her body against mine. I inhale her sweet scent and let myself drown in this girl's warmth. This is what home feels like. Rosie is my home. I pull my face away, still holding onto her for my dear life.

"Can you promise me that, no matter how big of a jerk I am, you will never leave me?" I ask, sounding the most vulnerable I have ever been. No one has seen me in this state, except for my Rosie. She has seen me in my worst, yet she loves me from the bottom of her heart.

"I promise you, honey." She says, closing her eyes and placing her forehead against mine.

"I'm dead." I mutter to myself out of exhaustion as I change into a t-shirt and a pair of sweatpants. I hadn't planned on staying outside this late, but Chloe just wouldn't leave my side. She would drag me from one place to another with the excuse of  'showing me around the town'. I won't lie but she is hot as hell. It's been around 8 years since I've properly been with a woman. It was different hanging out with her. She helped me in getting normalized with the new environment, I gotta thank her for that. I was able to adjust to this place quicker than I thought. But it doesn't mean she got any less annoying.

I make my way towards the kitchen to get a glass of water. As I was filling up the glass, my eyes went to a casserole pot. I lifted the lid and saw that it was filled up till the brim, with food. By the looks of it, it is still warm. Wait, so this was supposed to be today's dinner? But why does it look as if it is untouched? I'm pretty sure if Rose had eaten her share, the leftovers wouldn't be this much. Does that mean she lied to me? Why in the hell would she lie about having dinner? I shake my head and let out an exasperated sigh.

As it is, I had a very long day and going to bed was the only thing I was looking forward to. But now I can't go to sleep after knowing that Rose is probably starving to death, though she didn't have to lie about it. I place the lid back onto the pot and climb the stairs, heading towards her room. When I reach her room, I hear slight sniffles from the other side. Is she crying? Why would she cry? Maybe it's because of her father. That man looked almost lifeless when I saw him today.

I raise my hand and gently knock on her door. After a couple of shuffling, she finally opens the door. Her eyes were red with all the crying and her cheeks were flushed.

"What happened, Jackson? Do you need anything?" She asks with her sore voice.

"Why didn't you eat anything?" I ask softly. To this, her eyes widen and she looks like a deer caught in headlights.

"W-What? I had food-"

"Stop lying. I know you didn't eat anything. The dinner you made is left untouched. You shouldn't go to bed with an empty stomach, you know? It's not good." I say with a teasing smile. Back in the days when we were dating, she'd always scold me for going to bed without having dinner. Sometimes she'd act like a mother.

"I'm not really hungry, Jackson. I'm just tired, I want to sleep." She says looking down.

"Won't you at least eat to give me company?" I ask. She promptly looks at me with sceptical eyes.

"But you said that you already had food."

"Ohh yeah, I did. But Chloe took me to this restaurant where everything tasted like shit. I didn't have much over there and I'm famished right now." I lie. Chloe and I went to this burger joint, where they serve some amazing burgers. Since I haven't had one in a long time, I was hogging up a countless number of burgers that would've weighed the same as half a cow. I'm pretty sure if I have one more bite of anything, I'd explode. But I don't mind exploding as long as Rose has had her fill.

"Ohh, dear! Are you serious? That's bad. Why didn't you tell me before? I would've served you some warm dinner. You shouldn't keep these things from me, Jackson." She says as she climbs down the staircase. I shake my head with a soft smile. It's so typical of Rose to be concerned about others. This woman was starving herself without any worries, but the minute she comes to know that I didn't have a 'decent dinner' she is running around the house like a headless chicken.

"Hmmm, this is so good." I say as I
stuff my face with pasta. Yes, I did say that I would explode if I had another bite of anything, but this is so good that my stomach automatically created space for it.

"Thank you." She says, with a shy smile. I furrow my eyebrows at the amount of food on her plate.

"Did your appetite shrink or something? Have some more." I say as I put some more of the pasta on her plate.

"Oh no- you didn't have to." She says lowly.

"I'm going to kill myself if you say that you're on a diet. You look absolutely fine and you don't have to do shit until you're hale and healthy." I say. She laughs softly and shakes her head as if she didn't take any of my words seriously.

"How was it with Chloe today?" She asks.

"It was good. She's really cool, it feels nice to hang out with her." I lie. I don't know why I felt the need to lie to her but.....I just did. The farther Rose is away from me, the better.

"Did you start searching for a job yet? I know this place where-"

"Ohh yeah, about that, Chloe's brother owns this woodworking shop. So she told me that she would talk to her brother and get me a job there." I say. Rose's face visibly grows dull but she smiles at me either way.

"That's wonderful." She says dejectedly.

"Aren't you happy for me?" I ask.

" I am, for real." She says with a forced smile.

"But you don't look happy." I say, trying not to sound insolent. She looks at me with sad eyes, nearly tearing up, before saying,

"That's because I didn't expect to get replaced so soon."