Fighting for Rose

30♦

30

♦𝕭𝖑𝖆𝖐𝖊♦

Everything's been calm since the police station, it's been a few weeks now and it's been too good to be true.

I won my fight the day after, Conway was off to the side with a sour glare, but he hasn't tried anything else.

Rose and I have gotten back into the groove of things, it was a little tense at first but after a few days the mood was lightened and now she's back to humming while she cooks.

It's something I've noticed she stops doing when something's bothering her.

We haven't talked about her brother, it makes me nervous. I know it's worrying her, but she refuses to talk to anyone about it. She detours the conversation if I try to bring it up, at first I thought she just didn't want to talk to me, it hurt, but I sucked up my feelings and had Ace try.

She was less responsive to him than she was with me, after discreetly steering the conversation in another direction she left the room and didn't come back out with us for hours.

I have to constantly remind myself that even though I want her to open up to me, that doesn't mean she's ready and if I push her that could be detrimental for the both of us.

So I decided to give it a break for a while, and the time after has been pure bliss. I'm trying to forget about the fact that her brother could be on the way to find her, but one of us guys is always with her so she'll be safe.

When I don't bring up anything about her past she floats around the house like she belongs here, her smiles brighten the day and laughter fills the air.

It's a sight I've only dreamed about dreaming about. Months ago I would have thought this could only happen for me in another dimension, that this life was far too tainted for anything so marvelous to happen.

But Rose proved me wrong and she continues to do it everyday without knowing.

"Isaiah is coming over." Rose says, flipping a pancake she's making for breakfast. "Said he has something important to talk to us about." Isaiah always texts Rose first now, only texting me if it's directly for me or if Rose doesn't answer.

I don't blame him, she's way more enjoyable to talk to.

"Yeah? What about?" I scoff, the last time Isaiah said he had something important to tell me he went on an hour long rant about how his sister stole the last cookie in the house, and that he no longer felt and I quote "Respected enough to continue living there."

So he moved in with Ace for a few weeks until his sister barged into the apartment and dragged his ass home.

"I don't know. He just said he'll be over later." She gracefully flips the pancake from the pan on top of the others on a plate and places it in front of me.

I frown when I see her switch the stove off without making another plate for herself.

"Where's yours?" I question, knowing full well what the answer is going to be.

"I'm not hungry." She shrugs, placing the pan in the dishwasher. She's been spitting this bullshit for weeks, ever since the arrest she's been backing off on eating. It was minimal at fists, took me a while to notice because she would still eat but cut down the amount.

Now she skips full meals and sometimes will try to skip a whole day of eating. I've done my fair share of not eating in my life, I get that sometimes you just don't want to, but Rose is scary skinny.

Sometimes I wonder if I shouldn't take her to get a check-up, I mentioned it once and the idea wasn't well received. But if she keeps skipping meals like this I might have to strongly suggest it before I'm having to rush her to the hospital because her body can't function anymore.