Chapter Text
"Rose I swallowed the cap for the toothpaste." Dave called, cupping his hands around his mouth to allow the sound of his words to travel farther. He was replied to by a heavy sigh as he knocked while opening the door to his sister's dorm room. "Rose I might be dying."
"Dave, you are most certainly not dying. It's plastic, you'll be fine." Rose assured, not bothering to look up from her laptop whereupon she was furiously typing only to highlight and delete most and try again.
Dave walked over to her and rested his arm on her head, looking at her bright laptop screen. "Still working on that project? You already did one, why are you doing another?" He questioned. Rose really made him think sometimes.
"So I can compare and choose the better of the two." She stated, chewing at her lips hard enough to rub her ivory lipstick off onto her teeth. She swiped her tongue over them and frowned.
"You must be insane, but okay. Whatever floats your metaphorical boat." Dave shrugged and clapped Rose on the back, causing her to nearly fall onto her keyboard. She sent a glare at Dave as he moved to the doorway. "Just get some fresh air eventually before you shrivel up and start stinking." The door closed heavy behind him with a rattle.
Rose ran a dainty hand through her bleach blonde hair, shifting her headband so it covered the deep brown of her roots. It was no secret she dyed her hair, mostly to keep Dave from feeling like he stood out more than he already did. She'd decided to do it when she was younger and had found out that he'd been bullied for his albinoism.
With a small sigh, Rose pushed her chair away from her desk, shutting her laptop as she did so. College was beyond stressful, and she worried she'd fail classes and have to take them again with money she didn't have. Sure, she had scholarships, but she didn't want to continue seeming like she was relying on them. Independence looked good for applications, too. But sometimes she could use the help.
Slipping on violet flats and a black jacket, Rose pocketed her room key, the small squid keychain clinging against her old childhood locket. Dave was likely right, fresh air would be grand, and Rose was sure the sun couldn't hurt.
Stepping outside, she knew she was right. Instantly she felt like she could breathe better, easier, it was nearly lighter in her lungs. The sun was hot, beating down relentlessly, but the chilly winds countered the heat, making it a pleasant day out. Students gathered around on the campus, blankets littered the ground with notebooks, papers, laptops, energy drinks and coffee, and various other items used to occupy the time of busy and stressed students. While taking a seat under a tree and relaxing would be wonderful, Rose figured a walk downtown and a stop for a drink might be more beneficial.
Downtown was even more busy than campus, cars zipping past, Rose's skirt twisting and brushing around her legs. The noise and bustle was a familiar blanket to Rose, and she felt a small smile slip onto her face.
The noise was, despite not being a fan of voices, rather comforting, every little aspect of it calming Rose. The sound of wheels hitting manhole covers, the sound of her flats tapping against the cracked and crumbling pavement that the town swore it would fix, doors for businesses opening and closing, the sound of her own hair as wind blew through it, brushing it against her ears and cheeks.
The sounds, the movement, the commotion suddenly ceased when Rose entered a warm, lightly lit coffee house, nearly void of people. The round circle tables and equally circular chairs were all warm colors like the walls and floor, which mimicked a hard wood. The counter looked to modern to fit in, and it was what enthralled Rose. It looked almost as if it was in the wrong century, like something had traversed time to allow this shop to exist.
"Just a black coffee." She'd stated to the man over the counter who nodded the way one does when only vaguely interested. When her warm cup of heaven was nestled nicely between her hands, Rose poured her usual amounts of cream and sugar before letting her crystalline grey eyes scan the room. She has thought of getting colored contacts before, as she loved the idea of purple eyes, but Dave had said he had the weird eye color down to an art and one set of abnormal irises was likely enough.
Her 'non-abnormal' eyes landed on a striking beauty with raven locks and- from what Rose could see- stunningly bright jade eyes. The black sweater she wore fitted her extremely well, and Rose knew she was walking over and taking the opposite seat from her.
With her chin up and shoulders back, the pinnacle of grace, Rose walked over to the marvel.
"Excuse me, but is this seat taken?"
Those eyes, goodness, Rose was nearly left breathless.
"No. You can occupy it if you'd like." The woman said, waving her free hand towards the chair before returning to sketching on her note pad. From the small glance Rose got, she was drawing small pictures with intricate details. She wondered what they were for.
"Thank you." Rose pulled the chair out, seating herself on it and crossing her arms. Her eyes drifted to the crowded streets, but the noise didn't reach into the building. It was as if she were watching a movie with the sound off, and it felt much like an out-of-body experience. "Today is rather nice."
"It is. I love days such as this." The woman replied, one hand flipping through pages of sketches while her other stirred her drink. Everything smelled of coffee, but a little of what Rose guessed was perfume wafted from this elegant woman. A foresty pine smell mixed with the smell of a foggy spring morning.Rose nodded, sipping from her drink. "I agree. There's something about them that make them so appealing. Anyways, I should have started by asking how are you?"
The woman set her drawing pad aside and sat up straighter, raising a brow towards Rose. Rose hadn't expected that such a small greeting would end with them talking for about an hour, until the woman claimed she had to go.
"Classes at the art academy." She'd stated.
Rose sat in a stupor for her own while before dumping her empty cup and entering back into the real world. Dave was right. She felt like her bolts had been loosened, like she'd been at the end of a stressed string fraying in the middle until the pressure moved and she could fix the string back up for the next bout of work.
The campus was still loud, but it all felt a shade quieter. And then Rose nearly smashed her head into the nearest wall. She hadn't even asked for the woman's name!
Sometimes, Rose surprised even herself.
After dumping her coat on its rack and kicking her flats over by her small closet, she sighed and sat heavily in her office chair. The laptop was opened, a password was entered incorrectly twice before being right, and a paper flashed onto the screen.
9,372 words. Still short.
Rose poised her hands over the keyboard and nodded. She could bum herself over how bad her love life was on a later date, as she had another paper to write.