wander

19|roses house

I'm at a small cafe and give Rose a call, practically begging her to come to lunch with me. Of course she said she would. So now I just had to wait. I had a lemonade in my hand and flicking through a menu that I didn't understand. Language barriers, you know.

Rose arrived quick and she gave me a sweet smile. I handed her a menu and pretended to read through mine.
"Chi... are you pretending to understand all of this?" She asked with a mocking tone.
She takes the menu from my hand and recommended me a dish. I'm not even going to try and pronounce it.

The waiter comes over and takes our order. I don't bother trying to speak since I still don't trust these siblings from the last time I spoke 'Italian'.

She makes small talk for the time being and someone Louisiana comes up. I find myself talking about how Romeo surprised me with the trip there for my school stuff.
"Yeah I'm planning to go alone. I just don't feel it's right since what you told me the other day."
"Yeah... sorry about that. I think you deserve the truth."
"It's alright don't worry about it." I say with a fake smile.

The food comes and we both stop the conversation and concentrate on our meals. I start laughing at she tells me stories of her childhood and I realise I have nothing to tell about my childhood other than my mother shouting at me everyday. I think my face drops because Rose becomes quiet and apologetic. I give her another fake smiles.

"Hey! What if we go home and re-organise your bedroom. It will be fun! Let's go!"
"Yeah! That sounds great!" I do think it's a good idea.

***

Rose grabs one side of the wardrobe and I grasp the other but the force of us together and we still can't move the wardrobe. I start to chuckle because I realise our plan wasn't really getting anywhere at this rate. A knock at the door pauses our laughter. The door creaks open and a familiar face peeks around the corner.

"What the fuck is going on here! You're being so loud. I hear you from the garden." He laugh-shouts.
"We need help moving this wardrobe. It's too heavy please can you help."
"Uhh let me check my schedule..." What schedule? He literally does nothing all day. "Ok I'm free. Let me help."

He pulls it easily to the middle of the room. His muscles are on show but I direct my eyesight to the view outside my window.
"Where you want it? Chiara. Hello?"
I got lost in thought looking out the window and only heard the hello.
"Hm?"
"The wardrobe. Where do you want it?"
"Oh uh against that wall there."

He lifts up the wardrobe again and plonks it against the wall. He takes a step back to look at it. He moves forward again and repositions it to be in the centre. Okay perfectionist.

"Anything else you want help with."
"No but he on standby maybe something soon." I say, some of my happiness back. I realise that I could have been nicer to him. We could still be friends...right?
"Ok. Shout me if you need me." He smiles a little too proudly.

Rose and I rearrange some other things in my room. I like it much more now. I feel like the room is bigger. Rose looks at me with a happy grin. I think she likes it too.
"Wow Chiara. This room looks amazing. Better than mine." That's when I realise I'd never been to her house and she literally lives next door.

"Rose! Oh my god. I've never been to yours. Please! Can I see you're house!"
"Oh god. Let's go. Right now!"

We practically run out of the door and towards the gates of her house. It's gorgeous. Nearly prettier than my own house. Sorry. That sounds too rude. Her house is amazing too!

We enter past the gates and walk up the muddy pathway. Her house looks over the beautiful sea which shimmers perfectly as soon as the sun hits the right angle. Roses house looks like it's from a movie set. It's perfect. Matches her name too as red roses lead towards the front doors.

She opens the double doors and the beauty within this house is unbelievable. I'm greeted by wooden floors and large windows looking out towards wherever the sun is now. A great chandelier hanging from the ceiling. It was gorgeous.

"Did you do this all yourself? It's gorgeous!"
"Yeah a little help here and there but yeah mostly me!"

I'm guessing she was the one who decorated my dads house too. Sorry my house. She was great at it! Everything looked amazing. I wouldn't even believe it was real. It was nothing that you would ever see in Louisiana. I mean it's pretty nice but Italy is stunning. It's crazy. Like 3 weeks ago I was just some lonely kid in Louisiana, and now I feel like a queen here in Italy. It felt like I was appreciated for once in my life. I never wanted to return to that life back to where I would call home.

I open Rose's bedroom to find two open windows and mostly minimalistic artwork pinned to the wall. I loved it. Probably more than my bedroom. I did love my bedroom but my god hers was gorgeous. White sheets and the plain white walls. It was basic. But I love basic. Pops of colour dotted around the room brought it to life and really tied it in altogether.

I run towards the windows to which Rose follows and surprisingly they open up to a balcony. Could this bedroom be anymore perfect. It was a dream. We step onto the balcony and the calm waves of the ocean rip over one another. I never wanted to leave. It was all you could ever want in life.