𝐑𝐨𝐲𝐚𝐥 𝐑𝐮𝐢𝐧𝐬

Chapter 19 || Broken Dreams

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No other magic

Could ever compare

~ Lauv

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Rose sat with a cup of steaming coffee and a mess of books scattered on the table in front of her. Exams were starting next week and Rose had a lot of catching up to do. She was now in the campus library; it was an ancient building, with ancient wooden architecture and tinted windows which allowed faint sunlight to enter and it made the library look warm and cozy. The room was huge with lines and lines of shelfs filled with books, some torn out with use. 

Today it was crowded than usual, but it was quiet. Everyone was engrossed in their work and a strange type of music was being created consisting of clicks of pens and tapping of shoes, ruffling of pages and soft whispers. Rose loved the library; her and Adonis would sit by the window, reading books to one another.

She sat near the window, Adonis' head in her lap. It was a nice warm afternoon, warms rays of sun filtering in. She was reading a Greek mythology book, A touch of darkness, a book she had found after great efforts. It was one of their things, they would come to library and read stories to each other. 

"-Respect could build an empire, trust could make it unbreakable and love can make it last forever." She was reading about how Hades had coaxed the darkness out of Persephone, promising he would help her mold it, about how he worshipped her, how he made the magic inside her come alive. 

She felt she could understand Persephone, about how a person could awaken secret powers and feelings inside you which you didn't even know existed. How one could feel all-powerful with that special person by their side, and how it feels to be worshipped by them, like a goddess.  

Feeling eyes on her she looked up to find him staring—no—admiring her. Sun rays made his hair look gold and she weaved her hands through his soft brown locks. He looked at her wondering how someone so beautiful as her, so pure as her, so angelic as her ever loved him, someone so very filled darkness. Perhaps even she has darkness she doesn't show, he thought. His eyes traced her face, her soft hazel eyes, her plump cheeks which were dusted pink right now, her rosy full lips which he wanted to kiss.

He rose up on his elbow softly meeting her lips. He would never get over the feeling of her lips against his. There were sparks mixed with comfort of love, like chocolate with vanilla. Her lips tasted like her name, sweet like a rose. He moved back, resting his forehead against her, their noses touching and soft smile adorned both their faces. "Lets run away, noi scapperemo, far away from here, where you are just Rose and I'm just Adonis", He said a velvety whisper, which floated in the silence. 

"Yeah? And what are we going to do about our college and company?" Rose asked, chuckling slightly.

"Ah doesn't matter, anyways we don't exactly need qualifications to inherit the company. We'll live in small cottage facing the beach, small but enough for us and we'll work from there; you would decorate and we'll open a small café round the corner. We'll welcome our angel there, and many more to come. We'll watch sunsets together, sleep together, dream together. We'll live together."

"Okay, mi amore. Noi scapperemo" [We will run away]

Rose's eyes filled with tears thinking about the dreams they had seen together and future they were going to build together.

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The bell rang and all the ruffling of pages and scratch of pencils and pen came to stop. Submitting the answer sheets one by one, everyone gradually left the class. It was their last paper and tonight everyone would be heading home. 

Rose's face lit up with a smile as soon as she walked out of the class; she had been working day and night for the exams and even though Ian had helped a lot by explaining her things and bringing her coffee the studies had taken a toll on her health. She hadn't slept for the last two days and even before she was hardly on a three hour sleep. All she wanted to do now was go home and sleep till the day after tomorrow's morning. But she wanted to go home as soon as possible and so she had a plane to board in a few hours. 

She saw Ian getting out of his exam room and she bounded towards him, throwing her arms around him catching him in a surprise hug. "Oomph" he stumbled a bit, but soon wrapped his arms around him too.

She looked up at him and they both were grinning, even though Ian had finished college long ago, he still had to give these exams to keep up the pretense. They had proof against Chris and Layla but they still needed to gather against Adrian and Alexis, and so they would have to return.

"How was your paper?" Ian questioned Rose, because she was quite worried about it earlier. 

"Amazing, pretty sure I nailed it!" She beamed at him.

"That's my girl." The sentence slipped out of his mouth and he quickly turned to Rose to see her expression. She acted like the slip-up was nothing but her cheeks had tinged pink.

To cover up, Ian quickly suggested, "How about we treat ourselves with Ice cream?"

So they quickly headed out of the campus towards their group's favorite ice cream spot. Whenever Ian and Landon would visit Adonis, they would always come here. It was a cute, chic ice-cream parlor with thousands of flavors of ice-cream and many other desserts. It had bean bags lying around and individual headphone plug-in music systems. 

Rose ordered her usual cotton candy flavor while Ian ordered dark chocolate. Adonis would have ordered his vanilla with caramel while Landon would have ordered mint chocolate chips. And at the end Adonis would have eaten half of all the flavors and had a fight with Ian in the process. 

Settling down on one of the bean bags, they spent a long time chatting, eating ice-cream but after nearing half of the ice-cream they both lost their appetite remembering how Adonis would have finished everything by now.

It was moments like these when she missed him so much. Simple, routine things that reminded her of him. How he would wait for her near the gates everyday, how he would always eat the pizza toppings first often sneaking some in her plate, and how he would always hold her hand when they were in crowds or were crossing roads. Now by habit her feet still head towards his spot and her hand still reaches out for his when she about to cross the road only to grasp at air.

People are not what they achieve or what they own. They are memories. They are defined by the people they love and the people who love them. They are made of moments and memories. And we often realize their significance only in their absence.

"Ready to head home?" Ian asked holding out his hand for her. She managed a smile at him and they headed out.