"Rose did your brother really hook up with Bailey Humphrey?" Marie Sinclair asked in English. Rose turned around and glared at her.
"How should I know?" she snapped. Marie shrugged and leaned back in her seat.
"Rose..." Kelsey whispered, putting her hand on Rose's shoulder. Rose jerked towards her friend.
"You ok?" Kelsey asked. Rose nodded and went back to staring straight ahead. The fact of the matter was, she wasn't ok. Her stupid, annoying brother had managed to get himself a girlfriend...a Humphrey, but still. Kelsey had told her about some Shane kid the night before, and guys pretty much worshiped Kelsey so that was almost a done deal. And who did Rose have? No one.
Rose came across as a bitch. It was her nature. A defense mechanism. But underneath it all, she was as emotionally tortured as those emo girls she made fun of.
She didn't like to cry in front of her friends, she had been friends with Talia Sparks for as long as she could remember and she'd only cried in front of her twice. She'd never dared cry in front of Kelsey even though they were best friends. It showed weakness in her eyes and weakness was not acceptable.
She was also competitive; she always had been, especially with her friends. That had mainly started the summer she was fourteen. Kelsey was six months younger than her and still managed to have her first kiss before Rose. Needless to say Rose bitched out for the first hour they talked about it. That following week, Rose had started being a junior councilor at a camp for the spoiled kids of the families who had summer houses in the Hamptons (It wasn't her cup of tea, but she wanted to go to Yale like her grandpa had and Yale required so many extra activities and community service hours it was hard to count). Anyway, she'd started camp in: Hell on earth for a Waldorf woman. But she had an eighteen year old male councilor which made it all the more fun. Later that summer, Rose Bass had gotten her first kiss...and she beat out Kelsey by far in the way it happened...Kelsey's was at a family dinner with the Archibalds and the De Leo's, another less well known UES family. Rose's was at a party that one of the councilors was throwing, under the stars, on the beach...with her hot college councilor.
And the competitions just spiraled up from there, Rose alway wanted to win, most of the time Kelsey beat her to the punch with things but Rose's version of whatever Kelsey did first was usually better. But that's what the problem was...Rose never felt fast enough. She was always jealous.
By the time Rose was done spacing out, class was over and it was time for lunch. "Rose you coming?" Kelsey asked as they approached the door. Rose smiled.
"You guys go ahead. I'm just going to study in the library. Big chem test coming up." They all looked at her confused but mumbled their goodbyes and left without her.
Rose waited till they were all out of sight and then took off for her locker, pulling out a water bottle filled with Vodka, not that anyone knew that it was alcohol, it was her secret and headed towards the bathroom.
She found a stall and sat, with her legs up on the toilet so no one would know she was in there, and drank half the bottle then felt the familiar nausea wash over her and bent down to let it all out. This is what she did when she felt like she couldn't beat Kelsey. She knew straight Vodka didn't agree with her and she did this. She'd gotten good at hiding the fact she boozed all of lunch and no one knew the difference. It was her secret and she knew if her friends did find out, they wouldn't say anything. Kelsey would try to help, but she'd just somehow make things worse. So Rose would continue her ritual alone and go without being noticed. Because Rose had to win...but sometimes she just couldn't.