Slipping Through My Fingers

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter 16

Rosalie's POV -

You know those times when you're watching a movie and the main character is usually in a car and is about to jump out of the car because either a - the other person in the car is an axe murderer or b - they are jumping out of the car so they could chase an axe murderer? Well my situation was like that but you know, completely different. First, there were no axe murderers involved. Nope, just me, Nate, a moving car and my anxiety attacks.

When Adam had called me and told me I had been robbed, I hyperventilated. Like, literally. Nate had to go get me a paper bag and everything. Surprisingly, I didn't cry. I just felt numb all over. I threw on the first clothes I found, I packed everything and Nate, the shining knight in armour that he was, drove me home. The car was still moving when my apartment was in sight and yep, that's when the whole jumping-out-of-a-moving-car-badass-style happened. Nate was yelling at me to get back in the car but I felt like we were on two different planets at that moment.

Usually, someone would take comfort at the devastating news I had received or they might have cried and felt sorry for themselves but it was different for me. My top priority was my boys and their well-being. My second top priority was hunting down the jackass that robbed me and to kick their ass.

It really sucked, too, because Nate had just confessed to me that he had feelings for me and then something that would occupy my mind like this would happen.

As soon as I had made it to the stairs of my apartment, I sucked in a deep breath. Just how much of my stuff went missing? And I wasn't even on the ground floor! How could anyone just steal from my place without it being intentional?

"Rose." Nate's voice was suddenly at my ear, pleading for attention.

I finally turned towards him, my face expressionless.

"How can someone do something like this, Nate?" I asked him in a whisper.

Even in all my circumstances that I had ever been through, stealing was never even considered. Hell, it wasn't ever an option. I get that this person that stole might have needed money for the essentials. I honestly understood because I know what it feels like to go without food for days but still, this was something dangerous.

When Adam called me again, he listed off everything that had been stolen. But, he wasn't too sure himself since it was only the boys who had a brief memory of the things in the apartment. Adam told me that only I could actually remember everything.

"I'm sorry, Rose." Nate muttered, his jaw clenched.

"I don't get why you're apologising. It's not like you left the window in my place unlocked. You're not the one who left all the valuables just lying around. It's my fault Nate." I murmured.

"Shut up, it isn't your fault." He snapped.

I jumped at his harsh tone as he narrowed his eyes at me. I felt heat rising to my cheeks and he rolled his eyes.

"Trust you to be blushing at a time like this." He muttered under his breath.

"Whatever." Was my genius reply.

Ignoring his penetrating gaze, I turned around and headed up the stairs and into the building. I climbed the first set of stairs quickly, taking them two at a time as the anxiety welled through me.

"Rose, wait for me." I heard Nate say, his voice clearly showing he was still downstairs.

"Why, so you can snap at me some more?" I asked, not waiting for him.

"Well, you deserved it." He defended.

"You know Nate, most people would be supportive during a situation like this." I said, still walking up.

"And I'm not most people, Rose." By his tone, I knew he was rolling his eyes.

"Obviously." I scoffed, feeling anger bubbling up.

"Can you just f*cking stop and wait for me?" His voice was hitching closer to me.

I stopped and turned around, and in a few moments, he was standing right in front of me.

"You know what Nate? I take back what I said yesterday. I don't like you. You're just mean. You're cruel. Here I am, getting ready to see the apartment where someone has broken in and what are you doing? You're snapping at me! And for what, Nate? Please just enlighten me with your pathetic reasons as to why I deserved to be snapped at! I regret the moment I ever started to develop feelings for you beca-"

My ranting was cut off. I would have been fumingly angry if Nate had interrupted me in any way but this. But nope, Nate had crushed his lips to mine, while he pulled my arms and dragged my body close to his. When our bodies couldn't be any closer, he wrapped his muscly arms around my tiny waist while I stood up on my toes while he resumed the dominance in our kiss.

I had never been kissed like this before. Well, actually, I haven't ever even been kissed before. When I read my hopeless romantic books and the female characters would go on and on about how it was the best kiss they had ever experienced and all they could see were fireworks and whatnot, I would be in awe however I was cynical about reality. Contrary to my thoughts, the kiss blew me away. I was seeing flying colours while I felt like mini electric shots were shooting everywhere.

When the actual realisation of me kissing Nate hit home, I felt my face flush a deep red and I felt myself stop kissing him. All I could think was 'I'm kissing Nate! I'm kissing Nate!' And unfortunately for me, that thought only made me stop kissing him. As soon as Nate had realised that I was no longer kissing him back, he pulled away but he still kept his face close to mine.

"Well thank God that shut you up." He smirked.

Wait, so he didn't do that because he liked me? He only did that to shut me up.

"Jerk!" I muttered, pulling my gaze away from him and walking away.

I heard him chuckle behind me as he grabbed my arm to stop me.

"Nate-" I started but he interrupted me.

"Don't go all feisty on me again or else I'll have to kiss you." He said smugly. "Actually... That wouldn't be such a bad idea. Rose, I'm giving you full permission to yell at me again." He winked.

"Go away, Nate." I muttered irritably.

I wasn't in the mood for his bi-polar attitude. I just wanted to see what the jackass had stolen from me and my boys.

I began walking away again and once more, Nate took me by my hand and pulled my whole body towards him. Surprisingly, he wrapped his arms around me in a tight hug. After a moment of hesitation, I finally brought my arms up and wrapped them around his neck. His embrace was amazingly comforting. Nate pulled away a little and brought his lips to mine in a soft kiss.

"I'm really sorry about what happened, Rose. You don't deserve anything bad to happen to you and I'm sorry that it did. And," He paused, his gaze fleeting elsewhere as a slight shade of pink immersed onto his cheeks. "I'm sorry I'm being such a bastard. I'm just trying to brighten up the mood."

And I think anyone at that moment could have guessed my reaction. Tears pricked at the bottom of my eyes as I blushed a deep red.

Nate let out a bark of laughter as he watched me in amusement.

"You haven't shed not one tear over the fact that you were robbed, yet you're cry because I apologised?" He seemed to be amused at my reactions.

"I'm crying because you're an idiot!" I half yelled, half sobbed.

"What did I do?" He laughed.

"You're being too nice!"

Nate's eyes went wide as he laughed at me.

"Rose, I'm being nice? Weren't you just yelling at me for being mean and cruel?"

"Yeah..." I wandered.

"Okay," He announced, putting his hand on the small part of my back as we continued to walk up the stairs. "Looks like someone is due for their monthlies."

I immediately flushed red as I stopped on the staircase.

"Nate!"

"Rose!" He yelled, mimicking my voice.

"You're so annoying." I muttered with an eye roll.

"Annoyingly handsome." He smirked.

"Ever the narcissist." I muttered under my breath.

"Heard that!" Nate laughed.

"Good!"

"Let's just go see how disastrous the place is, okay?" Nate sighed. Before I could protest, he spoke. "No bickering. If you attack me I'm going to have to kiss you again and I don't think your boyfriend would appreciate it."

Instead of replying, I rolled my eyes and took the last few steps until I reached the door of my apartment. Last time I was here I had no idea that something so bad would happen. No idea at all. I reached into my bag and fetched my keys out. I put them into the hole, kicked the door and twisted the handle before it opened.

I was stunned when I walked in. Absolutely, without a doubt devastated.

"Nate, please wait outside." I murmured, feeling my body go numb.

"But-"

"Please, Nate." He must have heard the pleading tone in my voice because he didn't argue.

I shut the door behind me softly before sliding down onto the ground and letting out everything I had bottled up. I didn't cry when Adam told me the news, I didn't shed a tear when I spoke to the twins and how they told me that 'everything' was gone, and I remained emotionless throughout the entire car ride. But now, sitting down on the floor and seeing everything gone just hit home for me. It looked like someone was moving out or something, because there was nothing in the lounge room. My laptop which contained all my school work, the TV, the coffee table, even the couch was gone! It was completely empty.

I ran my thumb over the tears as I stood up and walked around. I went to the kitchen where I placed my jar of money only to find it missing. Thankfully, the last few stacks of groceries and kitchen ware were still in my kitchen. I trailed over to the bedroom where the small desk was gone, a few games that Adam had bought the boys were gone and the room was upside down. There were clothes sprawled all over the bed and there was a noticeable crack in the mirror closet.

I sunk down on to the bed and continued to cry until I felt like all energy was drained out of me and I slipped into unconsciousness.

***

I woke up with a warm towel spread across my forehead in the midst of a thick, warm blanket that covered up more than my brother's bed. The clothes that I remembered being spread across the bed was now folded up neatly and sitting on the shelves in the closet. The room had been cleaned up to look exactly the way it was before I left.

Groaning, I took the towel that was sprawled on my forehead off of me as I began to sit up.

"Rose! You're finally awake!" I heard a small, chirpy voice exclaimed.

I smiled broadly at hearing the cute voice.

"Hey, cutie. How are you?" I grinned at Liam.

"I'm good but I want to know how you're doing!" Liam cried.

"What do you mean?" I frowned.

"We came and found you lying in our bed. We want to know if you were thinking straight when you decided to sleep in our bed. Now, Rose, we don't set many rules up but that is crossing the line!" Mike pointed an accusing finger at me.

I briefly pondered if the boys knew that when they tried to act intimidating, they looked all the more cuter. I really wondered where they had picked up their language and outspoken-ness from because I never really behaved around them like that. Jace was outspoken, too, but not as much as the twins were. They had a natural talent of making a joke about everything.

"Oh, well I apologise for stealing your bed." I feigned a sorrowful expression. "Is Adam here?"

They looked at each other for a few seconds, just staring as if they were having their own private conversation in their mind.

"Well, we didn't want to have to tell you, but, someone broke in to our house. Now, I don't know how these assholes-"

"Liam!" I scolded. Saying 'shit' was one thing but now they were saying 'asshole' too?!

"Whatever, Rose. You can't stop us from swearing. Anyway, those jerks" He corrected himself, "Broke into our house and stole everything. I think we might die now."

My heart twisted at his sad expression as his big brown eyes stared up at me, showing signs that he looked up to me to find a loophole in all of this somehow. To rewind the clock and make sure nothing had gone. The hope Liam had made me ache all over.

Mike put his arm around his brother and pulled him into a hug.

"We will get through this brother." He murmured, patting Liam on his back.

"I hope so, because if not, I will get my revenge. And Rose tells us that revenge is not good. And I don't want to ignore Rose."

I didn't realise that a tear had spilt from the barrier of my eye until Jace had walked into the room and laughed.

"Of course I find you crying. Rose, when are you not crying?" He chuckled, pointing at me.

I scowled at him and rolled my eyes.

"You guys treat me like I'm younger than you." I grumbled.

"That's because you're an idiot." Jace said, smirking in my direction. "Anyway, Rose, apparently we were robbed so tonight I'm going on a hunt to kill the bastard-"

"Jace!" I had to scold yet another one of my brothers.

"What?" He asked innocently. "I heard Liam say asshole and-"

"Jace! Stop swearing."

These boys would never listen to me. It came with the package of being a single parent.

"Shut up, Rosie." Jace rolled his eyes. "It's not like you don't say anything bad."

"B-but I'm older!" I argued.

"Age is just a number." I tried arguing with him but his loud, booming, awkwardly-breaking voice continued to speak louder. "Anyway, what are we going to do? We have nothing anymore."

I struggled to find my croaky voice before continuing on speaking.

"We're fine, Jace. It's not the end of the World." For the first time, I actually forced myself to roll my eyes to show it wasn't a big deal.

Jace studied me for a while as I tried very hard to look nonchalant. The last thing I needed was for my boys to actually know how deep we really were. Right now, I was struggling to see how I was ever going to put food on the table in about a week. I don't know what I'll be doing in a month. The combined bills of rent, electricity, heat and water was due in one weeks' time. The minimum amount to be paid for that would be $550. I only had $100 at the moment and I needed to use that to buy food to eat. Mr. Ashford's $300 wasn't due until another month since the last payment I received was two days ago.

"Okay." I stretched, pulling myself out of bed when Jace finally turned away. "I need to go sort some things out."

I walked over to the kitchen and found my phone showing an unread message. I slid it open and went to messages and immediately, a smile was planted on my face.

Hey, I had to leave. Standing out there for an hour wasn't too much fun but you know, anything for you. Plus, there was an emergency at home. Don't worry, I didn't leave until Adam arrived and took over the whole knight-in-shining-armour role. But I'm still your boyfriend so don't you dare replace me. Anyway, I'll call you later. I hate texting. Bye.

I smiled at the bluntness in his message and quickly replied.

Thanks for driving me home. I hope everything is okay at your house. I won't replace you... yet. Talk to you later, bye.

I wanted to write so much more, I had a sudden urge to just talk to him but I didn't want to seem too eager. Isn't that like a complete rule breaker in the whole dating situation? Speaking of which, he didn't even ask me to be his girlfriend! He just assumed I'd take the role. But, I guess that was one of his charm points. I tucked in my phone into my pocket and turned around to face the lounge room - well, if it could be counted as a lounge room. What do people call an empty room?

Sighing, I walked over across the hall and knocked once before allowing myself access and walking inside.

"Adam?" I called, closing the door behind me.

"Don't come in!" I heard him yell.

"What, why?" I asked confusingly.

"Rose, I'm asking you as your best friend to leave." His tone was stern but instead of making me leave, it only increased the rate of my curiosity as I approached the spare room.

"Adam, I'm coming in." I stated warningly as I twisted the handle.

"No! I'm naked!" He yelled.

My hands froze as an immediate blush rose to my cheeks. He was naked? In the spare room where he kept his foosball table and other games?

"Why are you naked?" I asked wearily, feeling my cheeks blossom up at the 'n' word.

"Um... I had to uh, check something." He replied in a quiet voice.

"You had to check something while being naked?" I began to grow amused now.

"Rose, you know, I'm a guy. At times I do you know, have problems." He mumbled.

"Naked?" I asked again, feeling baffled.

"Yeah..."

I didn't believe him. He was up to something in the room and he didn't want me to see whatever he was doing. I didn't know if I should leave him and ponder about what he was doing some other time or if I should just walk in. The temptation of just opening the door was eating me away slowly and finally, I gave in to the temptation and opened the door.

Sitting in the room was a fully clothed Adam. But his clothing isn't what made me stop dead in my tracks. The foosball table and gym set was pushed up against the wall to allow space in the room and instead, in the middle of the room was a couch that Adam was fixing up. There was a coffee table set on the side with a flat screen TV inside a cardboard box. There were bags of groceries placed around the room with a small desk on the side. There was also a light wooden TV cabinet and what shocked me most of all was the box of all my books and DVD's.

Moving around everywhere, people were usually fond of me and every time I'd tell them I was moving to another place (because of my eviction) they'd gift me with either a bunch of books or a bunch of DVD's. Add them all up and I had countless sets of books and movies. Along with that, I was once gifted a DVD player. When I returned home today and noticed that the gifts had been stolen too, I was devastated but now, in the middle of Adam's spare room was my box of gifts.

"Where did you..." I couldn't continue my sentence.

Adam's head shot up at me, realizing just now that I was in the room. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

"The box? I found it out the back; whoever broke in forgot to come back for it."

"Adam, what's all this?" I gestured my hands around me.

"Well, I recently got a good pay, you were robbed. I thought I'd buy you something." He shrugged.

"Adam..." I started but he stopped me quickly.

"Rose, don't thank me. This," He waved his arms around the room, "Cannot even begin to repay you for everything you have done. Now I know you might think that you've done jack shit for me but really, you brought three of the most amazing little guys into my life. I love them like my own brothers. You befriended me straight away from day one and even though you're the one always venting to me, you don't realise how much you have helped me. So, thank you. Now, in danger of sounding like a completely cheesy guy, you can leave. Take your brothers out. I have money on the kitchen counter; use that to take them to the movies. Have lunch afterwards. Just go, ease away the worries."

I opened my mouth to say something, anything. I just wanted to thank Adam, even if I had to say it discreetly. I began to speak but Adam shot me a warning glare before gesturing for me to leave the room.

Sighing, I walked out of the room and trudged towards the counter. There was more than five hundred dollars on the counter. There was no way that I would take that whole amount. I took fifty dollars and went back across the hall.

"Boys, we're going to the movies. Grab your coats." I announced.

All three brothers came running out of their room with identical grins.

"We're really going to the movies?" They asked.

Right, these guys had never been to the cinema.

"Yep. You can pick any movie you want." I declared.

Their eyes were shining with utter joy.

Simultaneously, they all shouted the same movie title of some action film that they had been chatting excitedly about every time the trailer would pop up on TV.

Even Jace, the cool, calm and collected brother was jumping for joy at the idea of going to the movies. I was glad that these guys were so happy because I knew that they wouldn't be like this for very long. I just felt as though this whole being robbed thing marked a very big moment. Like everything would be down from now on. So, seeing them happy and feeling as though they may not be happy like this for a long time, I couldn't help but seize the moment.

**

"This has to be the best day of my life!" Liam shouted when we exited the theatre.

Laughing, I threw the 3D glasses in the disposable bin and walked them outside. We made our way outside the cinema as they chatted animatedly about the movie they just watched. They were so, so happy.

Smiling, I took out my phone and took a photo of the boys and saved it as my wallpaper. I then quickly typed a short message.

Rose: Thank you. Very, very much. I wrote to Adam.

The reply was sent very quickly.

Adam: I told you not to thank me. Now I feel like a girl; way to make me feel like crap Rose.

Rose: You're a big softie and you know that.

Adam: Shut up. After the movie take them out to lunch.

Rose: Okay. Thank you, Adam. I love you.

Adam: I hate you more. Now go.

I felt like I was texting Nate rather than Adam from his bluntness. Thinking about Nate just allowed my stomach to flip as my skin starting filling up with goosebumps. I didn't allow myself to be too happy though. Somehow, I always wounded up to be disappointed. The feeling from earlier hadn't left. Something bad was bound to happen. And it would be soon.

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Authors Note:

So; they finally kissed. Any thoughts on that? :D

And poor Rose, her place is disastrous :(

Vote, comment and fan.

Farewell xx