The same day after her audition, Rose was anxiously waiting for her brother, Dave, in one of the small cafes that they discovered when just moving into the city. Rose was sitting in her seat, somewhat hunched over the table and staring at her drink as she tapped her lavender-painted fingernails on the table, wondering when Dave would actually arrive. She had arrived a half hour ago, and she couldn't imagine what could be keeping him so long. 'Might have stopped off somewhere,' Rose thought, trying to come up with an explanation as to why she was still currently sitting alone at the small table.
She sighed, knowing that if Dave didn't show up soon she'd probably leave instead of feeling alone there and go home to read. Honestly, Rose was looking forward to seeing Dave. They hadn't hung out in a while since it was the busy season at the park, and they were both tied up with other things outside of work and school. Plus, Rose had a hunch that Dave might know something about how the auditions went. 'But I could be wrong,' Rose thought to herself, looking around the cafe for any sign of him. 'I guess if he'd ever actually show up, I'll find out.'
Rose decided to hang around long enough to finish drinking her beverage, and maybe read something on her phone while she waited. Rose pulled out her phone, eyes half-shut from boredom, and opened her reading application, scrolling through the multiple book choices that she had to choose from while she took a sip of her drink. After Rose had finally managed to narrow down her choices, she heard somebody scoot out the chair across from her and sit down. When Rose looked up, she was happy to see Dave sitting across the table from her, a giant blue raspberry and red cherry Icee in his hands and about a quarter gone.
"Is that why you took so long?" Rose questioned him, amused. "Hey," Dave started, sounding a tad bit irritated, "it was a long line at the 7-11 a few blocks from here, okay? Totally not my fault."
Rose shook her head, knowing that it was no use pointing out that he could have waited till after, or even during, their meeting to get one, when the line could have been shorter once everyone else had gotten their drinks and left. But, oh well. Rose knew that Dave couldn't be swayed about his 'daily dose of frozen heaven,' as he had once called it. "Anyways," Rose drawled out, smirking at her brother, "what have you been up to? We haven't talked in the past week." Dave shrugged. "Nothin' much. Works been hell because of technical difficulties, but other than that everything's good."
Rose and Dave stared at each other, and Rose could swear that if Dave's sunglasses were off, she would have been able to see the look of knowing on Dave's face as she was preparing herself to ask him about if he knew anything about the auditions. Dave, on the other hand, could see perfectly clear what Rose was getting at, and he shook his head. "Rose," he started, "the auditions were today. Give them some time. I already asked my boss to tell me if you got the job, and he said that he would since you were my sister." Dave could automatically see Rose somewhat deflate, but still look hopeful. "You'll know soon, I swear it on all of my swords," Dave said, taking another big sip of his Icee. Rose thought about it for a moment, mulling it all over, then nodded at Dave. "Alright," she muttered, somewhat disappointed. She knew that Dave was right, she truly did. Rose just wished that he wasn't, because she knew that she would never stop thinking about it until she was finally told something.
Rose began tapping her fingers on the table, her head resting in one hand. "So," she started once again, "would you like to hang out tonight? I thought that we might-"
"Can't," Dave interrupted. "Your super cool brother has a date tonight. Sorry." Rose shrugged, her head still resting in her hand. "That's alright," she replied. "I'll find something to do." Dave eyed her for a moment from behind his sunglasses, watching her expression. "You sure? I'm sure that Jade would understand if I had to cancel." Rose could hear the reluctant tone in Dave's voice, and she knew that he really didn't want to cancel his date, though she knew that he would for her. "It's okay," she replied, smiling at her brother. "I'll just watch a movie or clean my apartment. I'll find something productive."
Dave nodded, not really believing Rose, but settling on the decision that she would be okay tonight. "Well, anyways," Dave said, wanting to somewhat change the subject, "have you found anyone that peaks your romantic interest lately? You spend a lot of your time in your apartment, alone."
Rose shrugged once again, not too sure of where her interests were lying. "I'm not sure," she said honestly. "What about Jade's brother?" Dave questioned. "John?" Rose replied, somewhat nervously. "I… I don't know. I haven't really talked to him much, and he seems a little too… bubbly? I mean, he's very happy-go-lucky, meanwhile, my wardrobe consists of mostly black colored clothes. I don't think I'd really be his type."
"Oh, come on. If you've never really talked to him, then how do you know that you're not his type?" Dave smirked, rolling his eyes. "Besides, then we'd all be one big happy family if we ever got married," Dave continued jokingly. Rose snickered, somewhat amused by that thought. "Whatever you say," she replied, still giggling slightly. "Just don't go asking him out or anything for me, please?" Dave sighed, smiling. "Fine. But I am going to give him your number." Rose almost felt the need to bang her head on the table hearing that, but thankfully had the better sense not to do that, and spared herself the headache that it would cost.
Later that day, once the sun had started to come close enough to the horizon that made Rose wish she had sunglasses like Dave, Rose walked back into her apartment, instantly being greeted by the cool air and thankfully that she was out of the Southern California heat for now. Rose enjoyed being alone, though Dave had made it out to seem like it was a bad thing that she spent so much time by herself. 'Honestly,' Rose thought to herself, shutting the front door behind her and making sure that it was locked, 'why is it such a bad thing that I'm alone a lot? I mean sure, it would be nice to go out on dates or go see a movie with friends, but still, it's not so bad. I get plenty of time to get work done.'
Rose mulled all of this over while she set her things down on her couch, took off her shoes near the door, and then walked into her room to dress more comfortably. She quickly shook out her hair, washed her face, and changed into baggy pajamas. More notably, a giant baggy purple shirt with a white skull on the front of it, and black sweat shorts that went down to her mid-thigh to match. As Rose was changing, she heard her phone go, 'ding!,' notifying her that she had a message. Rose walked back out into her living area, plopping onto the couch and picking up her phone to see who had messaged her, somewhat expecting it to be Dave, but was confused when she saw that it was a number that wasn't in her small list of contacts. She unlocked her phone and opened up the message, curious as to who it could be.
'Hey Rose, it's John! Dave gave me your number.'
Oh. That's right. Rose was hesitant as she typed in a reply, not very sure what to say.
'Hi John. Dave said that he would do that. How are you?'
After tapping on the "send" button, Rose set her phone down onto her petite coffee table, then switched on her television set, looked for a movie for a moment, and then settled for watching the first Twilight movie. About 20 minutes into the movie, Rose caught herself checking her phone for any new messages. Specifically, from John. 'What am I doing?' she thought to herself, somewhat blank. 'I've only sent him one message, calm down, Rose. It's not like you're in a relationship with him. Stop looking for his messages, right now.' Rose shook her head, somewhere between disappointed and just plain embarrassed with herself.
Rose turned her head back to her television set, trying to focus, but not really being able to. She decided that listening to the movie and perhaps drawing would be a better alternative, but was halted in her plans when her phone let out another ding. She set her sketchbook and a small pile of pencils, pens, and an eraser down onto the couch in the seat next to her, and reached towards the coffee table to grasp her phone. Rose opened up her messages, and saw that it was another one from John.
'I'm doing good, kinda bored though. What about you?'
Rose read over the messaged quickly, then typed back.
'I'm bored as well. Sitting at home by yourself isn't really an ideal Friday night, is it?'
'Haha, not really, no. Jade says that Friday is more of a "date night" and not a "spend your night at home watching corny movies in pj's" kind of night. But hey, what can ya do. :B'
Rose smiled at that, knowing that he was home alone too. Not that she was happy that he was, but to Rose, John seemed like one of the people that would be on a date right now instead of being home alone. Instead, she found solace that they had something in common right now; that they were being alone together. 'That's sounds so ridiculous,' Rose thought, thinking over what she had just thought before that. She shook her head, typing in a response. Before she could finish typing it, however, her phone dinged again, and she glanced at her phone screen.
'Hey, is it cool if I come over? Jade and Dave just got back, and I don't think that I want to hear them making out in the room next to mine… :('
Rose, not sure at all what to say, backspaced her entire half finished previous message, and sent a different one instead.
'Sure.'
'You're a life saver Rose. I'll bring hot chocolate. :)'
Rose couldn't stop smiling uncontrollably, so instead she settled for being as happy as a schoolgirl as she awaited John's arrival. She'll definitely be messaging Dave later to thank him for giving John her phone number, of course.
As soon as Rose heard a gentle knock on her apartment door, she quickly shut her sketchbook in which she had been drawing in while waiting for John to come over, and got up to answer it. Rose unlocked the door and opened it, smiling friendly when she saw John standing on her small porch in pajamas as well. She quickly looked him over, noticing that they were almost wearing matching outfits; his consisted of a light blue hoodie and light gray sweatpants, along with plain flip flops. Rose looked back up to John's face instead of his outfit before he could notice, and saw that he was smiling and holding the hot chocolate that he had promised.
"Hey, John," Rose said happily, stepping aside to let John inside, away from the heat. "Hey Rose," John smiled back, stepping inside and stepping out of his shoes to leave them next to hers by the door. "Thanks for letting me come over to escape Dave and Jade, I owe you one," he said, handing the large cardboard cup filled with the chocolate drink to her. "And I owe you one for the hot chocolate," Rose laughed, shutting the door behind John and then walking into her small living room, regaining her spot on the couch. John followed Rose inside, plopping onto the couch next to Rose comfortably.
"So," Rose started, somewhat nervous and not knowing what to do or say, "what should we do?" John shrugged in reply, not sure. "You're the hostess," he said. "And you're the guest," Rose replied slyly, taking a sip of her hot chocolate happily. John narrowed his eyes at Rose, seeing that she turned that around on him pretty quick. 'Sneaky,' he thought to himself, smiling. "Okay, okay," John started. "How about a movie?" Rose nodded in response, silently agreeing that a movie sounded like a good idea.
About half way through the movie that Rose and John had settled on, however, Rose began to feel somewhat tired. Both Rose and John had scooted closer to each other at some point during the movie to share a big bowl of popcorn, and once the popcorn was finished, they just didn't move apart. Rose had no idea of what she should do; it was already late, she was getting increasingly tired, but she didn't want to be rude to John and kick him out simply because she was tired.
Rose was so torn at what to do, that she didn't even notice falling asleep right at John's side, her head resting on the top of his shoulder. John, however, didn't notice that Rose had fallen asleep on him until the movie was over. As the credits began to roll on Rose's television screen, John turned to look at Rose, and was surprised to see her asleep, eyes peacefully shut and her face relaxed. John didn't know what to do about this, but after a moment, he smiled softly. He found it somewhat touching that Rose would be comfortable enough to fall asleep with him, as silly as he thought that sounded.
John, after a moment of thinking it over, carefully moved off Rose off of his shoulder and onto the couch. He quietly got up, turned off the movie, went into Rose's room to grab two pillows, and then came back into the living room. He sat back down onto the couch softly, putting one of the pillows behind his head on the back of the couch, and the other on his lap. Once he was settled, John carefully moved Rose back over to him, this time placing her head on the pillow resting on his lap, and quietly fell asleep with Rose on her couch, his breathing settling into pace with hers as he drifted off into the land of dreams.