A.N.: Please go to my profile page and click 'Vote Now' for my newest Megan Meade's Guide fanfiction; I'm rewriting 'Little Women' and need the name of Megan's older, brunette sister; there are six choices, so please pick your favourite. The choices are Evelyn "Evie," Ella, Cecily, Tamsin, Samantha "Sammy," and Poppy. This story will give Megan an older-sister, and might be told from Evan's point-of-view, or at least some chapters will be told from his point-of-view!
Rose Amongst Thorns
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Gossip-mongering
After dinner, Finn went back down to the shed, but Rose still had half her homework to finish. When she had finished with her homework, Rose pulled out a brand-new journal and brought the stacks of photographs over to her desk, and spent the better part of an hour trying to get through just one packet of photographs, writing long anecdotes about what had occurred when specific photographs had been taken.
It was a healing process that was just beginning, and it was slow and painful work, but Rose knew she had to start dealing with things; telling Finn had helped lots. Now she knew she could tell people, and that was a start.
When her hand started cramping up, Rose went back downstairs and met Finn in the shed; he wanted to take a break too, so they dragged a tire pump out of the garage—Finn had spent fifteen minutes trying to find it for her amongst a nest of old sports equipment, contraband girlie magazines and random stuff—and walked over to her truck.
"So, any idea who I can blame this one on?" Rose asked, pouting as she stroked her truck.
"Too immature for Evan," Finn said, standing while Rose bent to secure the pump to the little nozzle on the tire, leaning against the truck with his arms folded and his ankles crossed. "I'd like to say it's too immature for Doug too, but who're we kidding? He and Ian are your best bets."
Rose sighed heavily, stood up, and proceeded to start pumping air into the tire with her foot.
"So… How's Evan treating you?" Finn asked, and Rose just huffed and kept pumping air into the tire, shaking her head. "Oh, well, don't worry about it; Evan will come around."
"You really think that?" Rose said, glancing up at him.
Finn shrugged, his expression thoughtful. "Look, Hailey's been jerking my brother around since they started dating—I think that's how she gets her kicks. But once he takes a step back to look at his life, he'll see what a complete mess she's made of it being involved with him," he said. "Give it another couple of days and he'll have forgotten all about hating you." Rose shot him a look.
"Okay, well, maybe not a couple of days, but he'll get over it," Finn shrugged. "Doug's a little harder to call."
Rose tutted. "You know, I've been giving it a little bit of thought, and it's weird. I can almost understand why Doug did it."
"Huh?"
"Okay, say the hottest girl in school came up to you, completely shitfaced and up for anything, telling you that she just broke up with her boyfriend…What would you do?" Finn frowned thoughtfully.
"I don't know. Probably get her some water and something to eat," he shrugged, "then take her home." Rose paused, and flicked her eyes over Finn's face. He wasn't lying, he would do that; he'd done that for Kayla, after all.
"Of course you would," she said warmly, reaching up and trailing her fingertips down his cheek. He had the most striking cheekbones…focus, Rosalie. "Okay, say it was one of your buddies this girl came up to. What would they do?"
"Probably try and bang her," Finn shrugged. Rose laughed.
"Exactly," she chuckled. "Considering the amount of alcohol involved, and Hailey's certain physical appeal—I still don't understand the allure of copious amounts of makeup and skirts as short as belts, but that's just me—I know it's no excuse, but Hailey and Doug were probably shitfaced. I don't think it would've mattered who Hailey had gone crying to; the end result would have been the same. It's just unfortunate that it had to be Doug. That's not to say that he's totally blameless, I just think he was in the wrong place at the wrong time—or the right place at the right time, depending on your perspective."
Finn raised his eyebrows, looking amused. "What're you, a guy?"
"Well, I do live with eight of them; it was bound to rub off sooner or later," Rose smiled. "Anyway, it doesn't take a genius to observe the obvious."
"True," Finn sighed. "Speaking of that…things are getting worse, aren't they."
"What do you mean?" Rose asked. She screwed the cap onto the nozzle and carried the pump around the other side of her truck to work on the second tire. Finn waited until she had resurfaced, pumping air into the second tire, before he spoke. He licked his lips, looking uncomfortable.
"I…saw you sitting outside with Miller again today," Finn said quietly. "I thought you two were working on Mills eating inside."
"It was a beautiful afternoon," Rose shrugged, which was half-true. It had been gorgeous sunshine today during lunch, but it wasn't that that attracted Rose to sitting outside in the courtyard; it was avoiding people's stares and the whispers that followed her around school, people looking at her like she was some kind of Jezebel, looking at her like they knew something she didn't, and that they were superior to her because of it.
"Rose, I… I heard the new rumours," Finn said quietly. Rose paused, and her cheeks heated up, but despite that, her indignation riled.
"How could I be surprised, really?" she sighed, feeling like the weight of the world was pushing down on her shoulders. She glanced up at Finn. "What're they saying?" Finn licked his lips, looking like he'd wished he'd kept his mouth shut.
"Well…for one, the location of your little chat with Evan has changed; apparently Hailey Farmer walked in on you and Evan in a spare bedroom. And you weren't talking," Finn said, wincing.
Rose took a second to let that sink in, and she shook her head. "How could people even believe that? A ton of people saw Evan and me talking in the kitchen."
"A lot of people had drunk a lot of alcohol that night; people like that can be told what happened, even if it wasn't true, and they'd believe it, because they couldn't remember any different," Finn said.
"That explains Jenna brushing me off," Rose said sadly. She had thought Jenna—and Ria and Pearl—were nice girls. She had thought they might be friends. But again, even when Rose had given up the shared camera to Pearl because she had her dad's old camera she could use, Pearl hadn't said a word during Art today, and she had ignored her all through cross-country training.
"Yeah. I'm sorry about all that," Finn said quietly. "I thought Pearl and those guys were good people."
"Well…I still have Aimee," Rose said, making herself smile for Finn's sake. Aimee had joined her and Miller for lunch again today; her tray had already been organised by the time she sat down opposite Rose, and she had evidently been doing some homework on Asperger's, and the Yankees. Though not up to the level of comfort Miller shared with Rose, the two were getting there, slowly and steadily. She glanced covertly at Finn, resuming her pumping of the tires. "That's not all of it, though, is it?"
"No," Finn said, after a slight pause. He sighed heavily, and his expression was worrying. "People are saying it's some kind of orgy in this house, that you're just…having sex all over the place. There's money being thrown down on who you're gonna get to next."
Hurt and humiliation crept over her, making her face burn, and it was unaccountable of her, but she felt like she wanted to curl up under her comforter and cry. She fought to put a smile on her face, and glanced up at Finn. "What were the odds?"
Finn smiled, his eyes twinkling playfully, and that smile made her feel a little better. No matter what nonsense the rest of the school came up with, she knew he'd never believe a word of it, and that meant a lot to her. "Well, biggest stakes are being bet on either Sean, because you arrived at school on his Harley wearing head-to-toe leather, or Miller, because you're always sitting with him at lunch. A passionate minority are adamant that I might have a shot based on my—oh, what did they say—oh yeah; my 'sensitive, artistic, touchy-feely poetic crap'. At least, that's how Darnell put it."
"Darnell was talking to you about this?" Rose asked. She had thought Darnell was okay. She remembered talking to him at the party; he'd accused Finn of mad-dogging her.
"He told me what everyone's saying about you," Finn said. "Even if he's stoned half the time and drunk the other, he's very astute about things like this; he said my parents would sooner kill one of us than let you get hurt. Which is true."
"What else are they saying?" Rose asked quietly.
"Oh, the usual stuff; you dye your hair, you've had like fifty ex-boyfriends, …you overdosed on cocaine and that's why your parents sent you here, you're three months pregnant with Evan's baby… You send personal strip-o-grams at Christmas, you slaughter babies to use their blood for anti-aging, um…you stuff your bras, your favourite sexual position is reverse-cowgirl," Finn said thoughtfully. Rose blushed so hotly someone cold have fried an egg on her face.
"And is this what everybody thinks?" she asked, mortified.
"Well, most people know you only got here at the beginning of September, so that rules out the pregnancy bit, and apparently Pearl told people your parents are…well, that you didn't overdose on cocaine to be sent here. Darnell told everyone there's no way you'd need to stuff," Finn said, flicking his eyes covetously to her breasts. "And, personally, I'm looking forward to my Christmas strip-o-gram."
Rose shot him a look and Finn grinned cheekily, chuckling.
"Come on, cheer up; it's all nonsense," Finn smiled cajolingly. "I doubt people really believe any of this stuff going around.
"If people don't believe it, why are they propagating it?" Rose asked, slowly pumping air into the tire.
"It's high-school, honey," Finn said, shrugging. "At least they haven't burned you at the flagpole."
"Yet," Rosalie said dryly. She couldn't believe this. She had been a victim of gossip before, at her old school; people used to speculate about her extremely close relationship with Pogue, but, because of her extra-special closeness with Pogue, a six-foot-eight biker, nobody made anything of it. But nothing like this. She had never been victimised like this before.
"I'm sure it'll all blow over," Finn said encouragingly. "Just wait for one of the cheerleaders to get caught with her best-friend's boyfriend, or Hailey and Evan to get back together, and it'll all be forgotten."
Rose was quiet for a while, while she pumped the remaining two tires and checked the spare she had just acquired (she'd had to use her old spare when a tire had blown on the journey from North Carolina; Regina had been impressed Rose knew how to change a tire).
"You're real quiet, Rose. You okay?" Finn asked softly. Rose paused on her way back to the garage, shoulders slumped.
"It's just that…I've never even had sex," Rose said, flushing gently. "And everyone's saying all this stuff about me, making me out to be some kind of…some kind of scarlet woman!" Finn didn't say anything; he just reached out and tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, stroking his thumb across her cheekbone.
"I'm sorry, honey," he said quietly.
"I don't understand why…why people lie about sex," Rose frowned. "It isn't anything to be ashamed of. I think it's lying about it that makes it so bad."
"Yeah. Lying. Not sexually-transmitted diseases and teen pregnancies," Finn said dryly.
"Well, yeah, but those people are stupid and careless," Rose said, and Finn laughed. She blinked. "What?"
"Nothing; just the way you said that," Finn chuckled. Rose glanced at him.
"Have you ever…?" she asked.
"What? Had sex?" Finn blushed, and shook his head slightly. "No." Rose nodded.
"I would do it, though," Rose said quietly. She'd been thinking about this; if she was lucky enough to fall in love with someone, she would have sex with them, because life was too short not to take advantage of opportunities like that. "I don't think people should have sex to fit in with their friends or be cool or because someone's pressuring them into it. Doing it for those reasons is just stupid. But if you love someone, I think that's all that really matters."
"How much thought have you given this?" Finn asked curiously.
"Quite a bit," Rose said honestly. "Girls think about sex just as much as guys do, did you know that?"
"I do now," Finn smirked.
"Ever since I heard what Doug and Hailey did, I don't know," Rose shrugged. "I started thinking about how Doug could never take that back; he lost his virginity to his brother's girlfriend. I mean, I guess he did; I don't know."
"Probably," Finn said, wrinkling his nose; he shivered. "Okay, let's talk about something else instead of my little brother's lost virginity."
"How about him losing it before you," Rose smirked; Finn grabbed her and tickled her and blew raspberries on her neck until she was a paralysed pile on the garage floor, giggling manically.
"You totally giggle like Caleb," Finn said, straddling her hips. He grinned down at her, his crazy curly-wavy blonde hair gilded, broad shoulders decked out in pale-blue cotton that made his eyes achieve a colour previously unknown to the universe. Apparently, he liked her giggle; he dove back in and started tickling her again, leaning over to blow big wet raspberries on her neck that sent shivers up and down her spine to her pressure-points as she writhed and giggled breathlessly, tears of mirth rolling down her cheeks, trying to fight against him.
"What're you doing to Rose?" someone asked innocently; still laughing, Rose recognised the voice as Caleb's; Finn stopped tickling her.
"Caleb! Caleb, save me! He won't stop tickling me!" she panted, giggling.
"Hands off my woman!" Caleb shouted, and launched himself at Finn; Finn yelled and was knocked off Rose, and Rose laughed as he and Caleb started rolling around on the floor, until Finn's taut arms banded around Caleb and he started tickling his little brother mercilessly, so his shrieks of laughter and his begs for Finn to stop echoed off the garage walls.
"Alright, you three; stop before Caleb spontaneously combusts," someone said, and Rose glanced over her shoulder at the door into the kitchen and smiled at John, who had already changed into his casual clothes. "We're having a family meeting."
"Again," Finn groaned, pouting. John laughed.
"Nothing bad this time, swear," he chuckled. Caleb scampered, still giggling softly, into the house, and Rose and Finn followed; Rose sat down between Miller and Finn on the sofa and smiled at Miller when he caught her eye.
"Okay guys, so there's something we want to talk to you about," Regina said, eyeing them all. Rose stilled; she felt Finn tense up beside her. Had they noticed? Noticed that every time Rose and Finn were together, the air crackled around them? That they had long, secret talks in the shed and in Rose's bedroom? That they were getting really close for two people who had known each other for not even a whole month?
"If this is about the rug, Doug did it!" Ian said.
"What rug?" John frowned.
"Hm?" Ian said, blushing, and then shrugged. "Oh, nothing."
"Guilty conscience, Ian?" John asked.
"What's conscience?" Ian asked.
"I'll take that as a 'no,' then," John said dryly. Rose smiled.
"This isn't about a ruined rug—I'll find it, Ian!" Regina warned. "Your dad and I wanted to tell you about this weekend."
"What's happening this weekend?" Evan asked.
"Well, we were talking to your grandpa in Newport, and he wanted to know when we're gonna see him next," Regina said, and Doug groaned. Regina shot him a look. "Since Caleb and Ian both have a teacher work-day on Friday, your dad and I thought we'd take advantage of that and take Ian and Caleb down to Rhode Island in the morning, and spend Friday and Saturday with Grandpa."
"You're going away for the weekend?" Doug said.
"Try to keep the excitement in your voice to a bare minimum, Doug, or we'll get suspicious," John said. Like they're not suspicious already, Rose thought, eyeing the brothers; PARTY was practically branded on their faces, they looked so excited.
"Yeah. If we go away for the weekend, you know the rules," Regina said, eyeing each of her children—and Rose—carefully. "You can have a party if you want to, but nobody upstairs, and put all the breakables somewhere safe." Rose blinked. John and Regina were going to just skip town and let the boys have a party. She guessed they probably expected it, what with having five teenaged sons and all. And especially if they didn't have to look after Ian or Caleb…
"Also, while we're gone, we don't mind if you want to run away to join the circus or elope, just as long as you don't come back to live here," John added, and Rose smiled.
"John!" Regina scolded. John blinked.
"What?"
"Be realistic. You know they're not going to run away to the circus; Finn still bursts into tears whenever a clown comes on TV," Regina said.
"Hey!" Finn blurted.
"Well, you do, sweetie!" Regina said, shrugging.
"Clowns are evil. They make friends with little children and get them to let them into their houses so the clown can butcher their parents," Finn said, eyes wide. "That's not normal."
"No, that's Supernatural," Rose laughed, remembering that particular episode.
"Now, if we do go away for the weekend, we expect you guys not to trash the whole house. If we get back and it's, I don't know, completely demolished, well, you'll be grounded until you're fifty," John said. "And you're to make sure you do all your homework, and make sure the house is just as it was when we left. And we don't want it to be another Christian Todd party, okay; just your friends. People you'd trust to come into this house and respect it."
"Got it," Doug smirked.
Great. Party. With friends. Wonder if Aimee's free, Rose thought with a tiny sigh.
"It also means that we'll miss your football game, Finn," Regina said sadly. "Do you mind?"
"Nah. You've been to every other one," Finn shrugged. "Say hi to Grandpa for me."
"We will. He asked about your paintings," Regina smiled, flicking a glance at Rose. "He asked if you'd give him one of them."
"Mm…Sure, I'll find something he'd like," Finn said thoughtfully, picking at a chip of paint dried onto his jeans.
After the meeting, Rose didn't want to stay cooped up in her bedroom, so when Finn got up to go out to the shed, she followed. They had just left the kitchen onto the patio when they heard the screeching of tires. They changed direction, heading through the garage to see the cause of the noise; standing outside, they arrived just in time to see Doug dive headfirst into the backseat of a tricked-out Honda Civic. It had fluorescent purple running lights and rims that had probably cost more than the car was worth itself. Smoke of a dubious scent billowed through the windows, and bass-heavy music pumped from a killer stereo-system. The engine roared, several teenagers also, and the car peeled out, skidding out of the property and onto the street, out of sight.
"That can't be good," Finn said.
"No. Not good at all," Rose agreed, sharing an anxious glance with him.
A.N.: Please review. And vote, on my profile page-follow the link!
