For Rose, With Love

𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 42

I watch as ivan lifts ria up in his arms and her hands circle around his neck as she lays her head on his shoulder.

My heart flutters the sight when ivan slowly rubs circles on her back patting eventually leading her to fall asleep.

He walks towards the door of his room and opens it for us with his one hand and we get inside.

The same room in which I cried my heart out to him. Not a single thing is out of place. Just like before everything is perfectly on their spots.

I walk around the room while he lays ria down on the other side of the bed and suddenly my attention diverts to the picture frames kept on a narrow length table near the wall where his guitar is hanging.

I walk towards it to pick it up only to find a picture of me and ivan from 2 years back.

It feels like the oxygen from the room has been cuttoff and I'll faint the very next second.

I sucked in a breath and swallowed the thick formed in my throat.

I flip it around to see a thin strip of a white printed paper pasted on the bottom right corner of the frame that read.

Vers l'infini et au-delà

I blink continuously looking at the picture. Me and ivan standing beside each other glaring daggers at each other.

I chuckle at the memory as I finally remember the day. It was when we were announced as the students who passed their first year with a distinction and i was still leading with one mark more in my credits.

"You remember this day? " Ivans deep low voice brings me back to the present and i turn to find him smiling to.

He reaches over and takes the frame from my hand and looks at it with emotions swirling in his eyes.

He rubs his thumb over my face in the picture and takes a deep breath, placing the frame down in its position again.

"I was still one mark ahead of you, callum" I smugly tell him and he looks at me.

"You're still ahead of me. And i'm not ashamed of it. " He tells me and I'm almost convinced he is not lying.

No he is definitely not lying.

"Why is this still here, may I ask? " I ask him turning around and leaning back on the edge of the table as he walks over and stands so that he is directly towering me.

"This was the day, I realized I finally have some competition in a college full of dumb jocks" He shakes his head in disbelief and a laughter erupts from my throat.

His and my thoughts are exactly the same. That was the day for me too when I realized I have someone to compete against.

I muffle my laughter by covering my mouth and look up to find ivan still in his position.

"What? " I ask him with a smile still plastered on my face.

"You laughed" He says with a amused face that sounded almost like he was trying to make me laugh and finally succeeded.

"So? I do laugh. I'm not a robot, asshole" I roll my eyes aggressively at him. It's his turn to laugh now.

"I know, smartass. You never laugh when you're with me" He counters and I stare at him.

He notices so much about me that it's starting to bother me.

"Can't help because you give off the look that says I will murder everyone here" I tell him laughing.

Me. Hanging out with him. Doesn't feel good.

It feels like this isn't going to end up good. We aren't meant to like each other.