Ooh, I'm seeing some hate for Rose...which is exactly what I expected . Any writer and any frequent reader knows that characters change. I can assure you, Rose will change. Keep in mind, Rose is still a spoiled teenage girl and even in the fiction world, people make mistakes.
Rose sat at a table in the courtyard, reading a book. A male hand came down on the pages, obstructing her view of Macbeth. She looked up to see who'd interrupted her reading. She looked up into the disappointed and angry eyes of her twin brother.
"Why'd you do it?" Nathan demanded.
"Why the hell do you need to know?" She snapped, pulling the book out from under his hand and standing up.
"Because you hurt Lucas, Rose, that's why I need to know," Nathan said, his voice raised slightly, getting the attention of some of the people in the courtyard.
"Because he hurt Brooke!"
"So? Last time I checked, you and Lucas were family! What you did wasn't right, Rose, and you know it," Nathan said, lowering his voice slightly when he realized they had an audience. "Fix it," he said finally.
Rose sighed.
...
After school, Rose made her way out of the school, her head down as people stared at her. She should've known it was coming. She saw Peyton getting into her car.
"Peyton, wait!"
"Save it, Rose." Peyton got into the Comet.
"No," Rose stood in front of it. "I will not save it. Now, either you'll listen to me, or you'll run me over. Your choice."
Peyton sighed, "Fine."
"I'm really sorry about yesterday. I know it was childish, and I was kind of the pot calling the kettle black."
"What about that last part?" Peyton raised an eyebrow.
"Nevermind," Rose waved it away. "I was just childish, and I know I shouldn't've done that to Lucas...or to you. You were both there for me when I was in the hospital, and once I realized that, I realized how wrong I was to do that to you. So, again, I'm sorry. I'll stay out of it."
"Why didn't you just stay out of it in the first place?"
"Because I thought I could make a difference?"
"What, by starting drama and losing me my friends?" Peyton scoffed.
Rose nodded. "I never said it was right."
"But why? We all thought you were a nice girl."
"I am. I just...I have issues like everyone else. Why the hell else would I destroy friendships and things like I do? I'm controlling. I'll admit it," Rose said. "Which is really hard for me to do, so just bear with me here."
Peyton nodded. "You know what, I'll think about forgiving you, but who you really need to apologize to is Lucas. He's your brother. You shouldn't have done that to him."
"I will apologize to him," Rose said. She drew a breath. "See ya around."
She moved out of the way and Peyton drove off.
...
Rose banged her head several times on her steering wheel, sitting in her car outside of Lucas' house. He hadn't answered the door, no matter how insistently she'd knocked. She wondered if it had been wise to indentify herself through the door before he even came to it.
She dialed a number.
"Hello?"
"Nathan, I think I need your help-"
"With Lucas?"
"How'd you know?"
"Because he called me not too long ago telling me that you were pounding on his door."
"You didn't mention him letting me in?"
Rose heard an exasperated sigh from the other side. "Of course I did. But Lucas isn't readily forgiving...just give him time, Rose. I'm sure he'll come around."
Rose turned the ignition on in her car. She sighed also. "Well, I guess I'll wait for him to. I've gotta go soon, though. I have a date tonight." The corners of her mouth turned up slightly. She turned speakerphone on and put her phone in the passenger seat so she could drive.
"Jake?"
"No, the Pope. Yes, Jake." Even though Nathan couldn't see it, Rose still rolled her eyes.
Nathan laughed slightly. "Okay, well, you have fun. Not too much fun, though. We don't want a teenage mother on our hands."
"Nathan!"
Rose heard a laugh and then a click, signaling Nathan had hung up.
...
Rose looked at herself in the mirror. The features that she previously never had anything to connect to, but now connected to her brothers. The ever-present ghost in her eyes, the guilt that sat in them with it now-that was all hers. She couldn't relate it to anything. She'd never before had that feeling of wanting to break a mirror just because she saw herself in it, but boy did she feel it now. She thought of her very first date.
Georgina knocked on Rose's bedroom door. "Come on, Rose! The McIntyre boy's waiting for you! It's rude to keep a boy waiting."
It's also rude to come to the door looking like you're hungover, Rose thought. She'd had a little too much to drink after school and she was feeling very, very sober and regretting her choice of beverage.
She grudgingly finished up on her makeup. She wished she weren't set up on a date with one of her mother's country club friend's sons. There was Steven McIntyre, a shy, kind of reclusive 15-year-old boy. There was Antonio, his 17-year-old brother, the bad boy, and then there was Reese, their 12-year-old gamer brother. She hadn't been told which of them she was going on that date with, but she'd hoped it wasn't Reese.
She opened the door. "I'm ready, mom."
Georgina looked her over, satisfied when she saw that Rose was wearing one of her designs. Great advertisement.
"He's at the door."
She was relieved to see that it was Steven.
"Hiya," he said, his hands in his pockets, a small smile on his lips.
"Hey," Rose smiled.
Steven looked her over as they walked out to the car. "You look great," he said.
"Thank you," Rose said.
"If you don't mind, Tony's going to be driving us to the play," Steven said as he opened a backseat door for Rose.
Rose entered the car just as Antonio turned around to look. Antonio smirked.
"The mysterious Gallagher girl," he held out his hand, which Rose shook.
Steven scoffed as he got in the car, "Leave her alone," he chided his older brother.
"God, I go to shake her hand and you act as if I'd groped her," Antonio winked at Rose.
"Antonio."
"Fine, Steven, Fi-ine."
Rose sighed, wondering how Steven would've reacted to what she'd done to Lucas and Peyton.
Not very well, she decided.