Chapter 1: Rosaline

There was the most beautiful sunset that one could imagine in front of her. The sun was down to reveal the perfect round shape of the sun, the sky was invaded by seagulls, the sea by gentle waves coming backwards and forward. The orange and yellow color of the sky made the white sand a gentle tone of brown and there was a cool breeze blowing making the hair of the girl who was standing near the water blow and whip.

However, she was none too aware of the beauty around her. Her mind kept coming and going back ot the earlier conversation she had had with her best friend.

Obviously you have to tell him you like him. He can't read your mind.

Rosie wished things like mind reading existed. It would make things so much more, easier and less embarrassing.

I can't do that! She had replied to her best friend. He had laughed and said.

Why don't you practice a confession? Maybe it would give you an idea to what to say.

She took a deep breath and started talking.

"Look, Lysander. I know we haven't known each other so long but um…I really, really enjoy being with you." She paused and frowned. That wasn't good at all. "No, I am misspeaking. I love every moment I am with you. Whenever I see you I feel happy for no reason, when you smile at me I feel ridiculously giddy and…and…I like you. Very much." She stopped not really knowing what else to say, it sounded so ridiculous, she buried her face in her hands. "God, I can't say that."

"No you can't." agreed a voice behind her and Rosie froze. "Not with your back to me at least, you have to tell me that while looking at me in the face."

What?

Please tell me it's not true, please tell this is not happening.

But her fear was confirmed when a pair of hands very gently turned her by the waist and peeled her hands away from her face. Lysander was standing there in front of her looking oddly serious. His hair was windblown, his eyes were calm as ever even though he was nervous. He was wearing a simple long sleeved button up shirt with sleeved pushed back to his elbows and three buttons open to reveal a little his chest. A pair of black pants were decorating his legs and there was a pin sticking out from the left pocket of his pants but Rosie noticed nothing of that she was frozen, frozen and…frozen.

Her mind started to whirl abruptly, coming to life out of a sudden. Blood red blush invaded her cheeks and her mind urged her.

Think of an excuse, think of an excuse.

"Umm…this…I have to go!" she said frantically stepping sideways and starting to make a run towards the nearest whole to take her to the underworld. She was stopped however by the sound of Lysander's voice.

"Are you going to escape from me, again?" his voice was soft and calm but it was hard and Rosie stopped and blushed even more, if it was humanly possible.

And for no reason, her mind wandered over to an year before. It all came back to her like a bad but good chick flick movie.

September, 2016

It was a beautiful sunny day. A rare occurrence in Amoris City, the normally dull gray clouds looming over the city had cleared away to reveal a clear blue sky and gleaming, silver, blue, white, red and green skyscrapers. On the street, the street vendors were already positioning themselves, frying or boiling whatever thing they had to offer to the late wakers, the runners or those who simply didn't bother to put up with breakfast. Luckily, Rose wasn't one of those people. She was a late waker and a heavy sleeper herself but years of self-discipline and nasty experiences had trained her to wake up early in the morning. In her opinion she always waked looking like a zombie from The Walking Dead.

She looked up at the sky and squinted a little. Even though she looked like a normal girl she sure as hell wasn't. She was no actress or supernatural being or seductress but she had her rough past and she didn't like to share it. Even now she had hard time talking about it.

Even though, it's not a big deal. She reminded to herself. True, her past wasn't particularly nice but it wasn't as if she had been raped. There had been a close call but that was another story. She hadn't lived in a war loaded country even though she had lived in a country near one. She'd just been…restricted. That was all and now, she had a new life and she was going to keep her past carefully concealed. No one was going to know the truth about her. No one and she would make sure of it.

She hated to admit it. But she didn't want her past make her look naïve, or weak or innocent. She wanted to look like a strong, enigmatic and defiant character she had always read in books and idolized. She wouldn't admit anything about herself and would take an advice she had read in one of the many books she had read "The Art of Seduction".

It said that if you shine the spotlight on the other person they would fall in love with you because you would seem interested but Rosie found it another use. If she shone the spotlight on someone else she wouldn't have to talk about herself at all.

This and many more tricks she had learned from "The Art of Seduction" and it was a very good and resourceful book she didn't really like it. She didn't consider herself as a seductress or a very good planner, besides, she was a romantic. Though, she would never, ever, admit it, she loved the idea of falling in love with a person just like a book.

She hated herself for such things.

The truth was that reality was the one place that she didn't like to stay, she was a dreamer and envisioner not a person that thought things logically. She would much rather spend a day sitting in a lovely background and writing stories or dozing, making up her own fantasies in her head than staying awake at all. But bitter experiences had taught her to keep her head cool and leveled. She had learned form a short age that she couldn't go around saying random things or goofing around as much as she liked, after all she didn't have the type of life that would allow her to be that way.

She had mastered things that other people hadn't mastered when she was 16. She knew how to say the things people wanted to hear, she knew how to break a persons defenses and she knew how to play the innocent and selfless girl. She had promised herself when she learned these things that she would never use them. No matter what excuse she had. She would be herself, though she didn't really know herself for a long time, in her teenage years she discovered herself, much to her dismay. She was sweet, innocent, dreamy, loud, naïve, daring , defiant and shockingly outspoken. In the end she had betrayed her own promise and used all the tricks she learned.

All her teachers told her she was a bright young girl. But she never really thought of herself as a very intelligent person. True, I am bookish. Her first friends were books, in fact. but I'm more of a hardworker, was the response she gave to anyone who complimented her on her brains.

In short, I'm a contradiction. She thought to herself humorously just as she smacked into someone and fell back ungracefully, the things she was carrying in her hands spilling down on the floor and Rose landing on her bum painfully.

"I'm sorry." said a soft voice.

"It's alright." She said ignoring the hand that was offering her to get up and looked up at the person and almost gaped in shock the sight in front of her. It was a boy out of fairy tale book. Mismatched, round, heterochromatic eyes colored yellow and sea green. Silver hair with bangs a strand sticking out the rest, being longer reaching below his chin. His hair with black highlights at the end. Willowy and broad shoulders.

He was really hot.

Rosie was freaking out on the inside. Of course, she had seen her fair share of hot guys but she had learned to not look too much at them. Because for one, they brought trouble and because people would always, always tease her for "drooling" for she had a piercing gaze.

So what, if she liked to observe boys? She wanted to see what couldn't be seen at simple sight. People had this stupid belief that she was in love with any boy that she stared. She had learned that she had to pretend she hated men because there was always this chance that her parents would find someone "ideal" and marry her off or engage her to some boy with whom she didn't have no interest whatsoever. And though, she was no longer in her country, the habits of years were not easily un-learned. Her eyes hardened though, she smiled her most dazzling smile. The effect was staring into a ice queen.

"Though, I dropped my things, please excuse me." she said in her odd, deep voice. She took the thermal cup that had fallen out of her hands and had to resist the urge to strangle the boy. The idiot had broken her cup. The cup that her best friend had given her when she was 16! She swallowed a lump in her throat and turned to pick up her other things, the notebook that she had been carrying with her ideas and a large biology book that she had the intention to use, despite it being old and out of date. Just as she turned to take the biology book she saw much to her surprise that young man had picked it for her so she got up- ignoring his hand again- and he handed her the book.

"Thank you." she said quietly looking up directly into the boy's eyes. "and I'm sorry for running into you." The boy whose expression had been calm did something that surprised her, he smiled.

"No, I'm sorry. My head was in the clouds."

"It's okay." She said and after a moment of awkward silence she cleared her throat. "I should get going, goodbye." She politely inclined her head and walked past the boy down the street, happy to get away from him because she knew she was blushing and normally when she blushed, her cheeks were tomato red. Anyone with eyes could easily see when she was nervous. Hot guys had that effect on her, come to think of it anything new had that effect on her.

The good thing was that she kept her walk smooth, breathing in an out her nose clutching her notebook and her thermal cup -now broken thanks to the idiot boy- to her chest. She tried to glide and lose herself in the crowd, trying to resist the temptation of looking over her shoulder to get a glimpse of the boy. She was finally free, so why not eye men all she wanted?

In the end she didn't turn around because sure, he was a hot guy but that was it. She couldn't really do the same stupid thing again of falling in love at first sight just because a boy was hot. She scolded herself for judging so quickly based upon looks.

Though a study has proven that people make a judgment of people the first four seconds they meet them. A little voice in her head told her. She sighed exasperatedly her brain had always loved to argue with her. She quickened her pace. She didn't notice that she was walking past a café shop, where her dormates were waiting for her to come. Just as she was about to pass, the door was thrown back in the most theatrical manner and two young boys not older than 19 came out. Both dressed very well and both looking disheveled because they had been snogging while she had been crazily searching for her biology book. Rose wasn't going notice, since in things like this she had no experience whatsoever.

"Ro-o-se!" said a melodical voice. She turned. A skinny boy with gorgeous dark yellow colored eyes, silky black hair over grown so that it reached his shoulders but so well groomed that it looked naturally flat and messy. Skinny black pants, white shirt with intricate silver and black lines decorating it, black messenger bag slung over his shoulder. The overall attire made him look slightly emo.

The other boy was dressed in a completely different manner. He was also skinny but he had electric blue hair (dyed of course), violet eyes (she wasn't sure if they were contacts), and bright orange sweater, sapphire blue shirt, green torn jeans with patches and brown shoes. Surprisingly, he looked very well.

"Hi." Her voice came out a little constricted.

"What's wrong Rosie?" asked Alexy furrowing his eyebrows. "You're all red."

"Am I?" she asked fanning her face a couple of times. Fuck it! She thought.

"Oh, I know what's wrong." Chimed Leo his eyes wandered over to Alexy who met his gaze. Both smiled at the same time.

"and what may that be?" asked Rosie regaining her composure.

"You saw a hot guy on the street!"

"NO!" she said a little more brusquely than she intended to. Alexy and Leo gave her Cheshire smiles, knowing that they had hit on the spot.

"Really?" said Leo tapping his chin thoughtfully. "Then what happened?"

"I ran into a guy and my things fell and . ." she said in a dead serious voice, showing them the long crack that now decorated her Starbucks cup. Alexy and Leo exchanged looks, they both knew that cup was very important for her. Last week when Alexy almost dropped it Rosie had screeched so loud that he almost kneeled and prayed for her forgiveness but after a few breaths she had managed to calm down.

"And that's why you took so long?" said Leo nonchalantly.

"How many ambulances were required to dig the body?" asked Alexy.

"No. I didn't do anything." She said with a wistful look in the eye, she really wanted to kill the boy but more than anything she wanted to cry that cup was really something special for her. Both boys' eyes widened.

"Why not?!" demanded Alexy.

"Because it was an accident." She said difficultly, tears were welling up in her eyes.

"Then why did you scream so loud when we almost dropped it?" asked Leo annoyed. Rosie raised an eyebrow.

"Because you two were using my cup to play rugby in the house. That was not accidental, that was deliberate." She pointed out crossing her arms over her chest. Alexy blushed faintly and Leo looked down. Rosie sighed.

"It's okay" she said her voice barely a whisper. Resist the urge to cry. She kept telling herself but it didn't work the lump in her throat didn't go away no matter how much she swallowed. She cleared her throat and gave the boys a half-hearted smile. "I know you were just playing." Alexy narrowed his eyes while Leo looked at her doubtfully. They both knew how to read her well. Stupid emotion sensing gay abilities. She thought to herself.

"So…let's get going?" she asked jerking her chin towards the street. Leo shrugged and the three of them started walking down the streets.

"Erm, Rosie?" said Alexy after a moment of hesitation.

"Mmmmm?" she asked tilting her head towards him.

"Well…your ring." His eyes going down to her right hand. She stopped looking at her hand in shock.

No, no, no, no.

"Rosie?" asked Leo weakly. But Rosie didn't listen she started shaking, her eyes welling up with tears.

Here it comes. thought Alexy. This is precisely why I prefer men.

She screamed which shocked passerby's. Her scream was horrible, it was that of a dying animal. It was heard at least by the half of the city.