Chapter Text
“Readyyy?!” Rose asks excitedly.
“Fine,” I groan.
Rose holds up her phone, ready to record the action, and then grins stupidly as she presses play to start the music.
I really need to stop making bets with Rose. She always wins, and it always results in me having to do something ridiculous like perform an embarrassing dance Rose choreographed so she can post it for thousands of people to see. So much for maintaining a thread of dignity.
Not ten seconds in, the music suddenly stops as Rose seethes, “No, Son, what the hell are you doing? You're a step and a half behind.”
“What? Oh, my bad.” I apologize distractedly.
“Whatever, let's just go again,” Rose decides.
“Fine, take ten, last take,” I warn. I know I could easily get out of this if I simply tell Rose what happened earlier today. She would probably even feel bad and take me to get ice cream if I play my cards right. But that would involve talking about what happened, and I really don't want to do that. So instead I'll just do Rose's stupid dance.
“Son!” Rose yells. She throws a shoe, which I dodge thankfully. Swear she's going to get the whole team booted from a hotel one of these times with all the racket she makes.
I look up from the shoe she threw at me and ask, “What now?”
“You literally didn't even move that time. What is going on with you?” Rose asks.
“Nothing,” I lie.
Rose sees right through it, “Really? Because I've seen better dancing out of a walrus. And I happen to know from personal experience you're a good dancer. So spill, now.”
The thing about Rose is she's a little scary, so when she catapults from her bed, tackles me backwards onto Mal's bed, and demands I tell her what's going on while straddling me, I cave. And sure, it's partially due to the fact that having Rose on top of me makes my heart race and palms sweat. But it's mostly because Rose is scary. Also, big thanks to Mal for being out shopping instead of saving me.
“Okay! Okay! I'll tell you, just get off of me already,” I beg.
Rose cackles at how easy of a victory it is to make me talk and rolls off so that she's sitting beside me and dangling her feet off the edge of the bed.
I look over to send her an insult of some sort and knock her off her high horse, but I get too caught up in how blue her eyes are, so I quickly look down and fidget with my bracelet as I start to recount the conversation I had earlier today,
“So, uh, well Chelsea cheated on me. And we broke up.”
Rose's jaw drops, “What?! What the hell? You're kidding right now. Say you're kidding.”
I shake my head and quietly inform, “I'm not kidding, Rose.”
Rose's shock turns to fury, “What the fuck? With who?”
“Uh I guess it's someone that works at the hospital with her,” I explain.
“It's? As in like something is still going on with this person?” Rose asks.
“Seemed that way, yeah,” I confirm grimly.
Rose's face changes to that look she always gets when she has an idea. I cringe instinctively before she even speaks,
“Give me your phone.”
“What? No. Why?” I question.
“I want to see her,” Rose says, and I already know it will be trouble if she gets her way with this.
“I blocked her,” I lie again.
Unsurprisingly, Rose sees through it yet again and I'm oh-for-two, “No you didn't.”
“You don't know that,” I insist.
“Yes I do, this is you we're talking about. I'm going to guess that you thought about doing it, but then didn't want to do anything too harsh even though she's the one that cheated on you. Am I right?”
“Might be in the ballpark,” I admit. At the end of the day I just hate animosity and confrontation. I can't stand making a scene. Sure, I'll make a fool of myself and others in the name of fun, but when it comes to something serious in my personal life, I want to stay out of the limelight about it.
“Knew it, hand it over. Come on, I won't do anything,” Rose says innocently.
“You promise?” I ask and I eye her down so she knows I will be beyond pissed if she does do something.
“Yes, gosh don't you trust me?” Rose whines.
I hand over my phone and say, “No, not generally.”
She rolls her eyes but smiles while doing so. She loves messing with people, keeping everybody on their toes. But there's also that side of her that is serious, and loyal as hell, and that's the side I'm hoping is in control now that she has my phone and is aggressively scrolling through Instagram.
“THAT'S who she left you for?” Rose says in shock.
“Don't be mean,” I tell her, “It's not her fault Chels cheated, hell she might not even know that I exist.”
“I'm going to kill her,” Rose says suddenly.
I lean over and see that she's looking at the caption of the photo.
“'Happy one month baby, I love you', Gross, so she's been hooking up with this chic for weeks, only just told you today, and then already posted this bullshit? Wow, she's a fucking tool, Sonny, you're far better off without her,” Rose says seriously.
“Yeah, I gathered that much, I'll be fine,” I promise as I reach for my phone.
But Rose holds it out of reach, “Not so fast.”
I instantly frown and remind her, “You promised you wouldn't do anything.”
“And I'm not,” Rose assures, “We are going to do something. There's a difference.”
I gulp. I knew giving Rose my phone was a bad idea. It's always a bad idea, for the record.