I Told the Stars about You

Chapter 21- Love

Rose dips her head in acknowledgment but stays silent. So I press on a different matter, "Have you talked to your parents about him? About what he did to you?"

"No"

"Maybe you should" I offer.

Rose's eyes hold a threat in them as she stares me down, "That isn't your place to say. Or to decide. And if I so much as hear a word of what went down that day, if I see a video-"

"Why the fuck would I have a video?" I grunt out.

She looks away too quickly. She presses her hands together and cracks her knuckles. Her foot starts tapping on the stone pavement. Somethings making her nervous. I just know.

"I didn't think you would, it just kind of-"

A waitress makes it to our table, asks in a bored tone, "Drinks?"

I can't process anything but the pure paranoia on Rose's face. I'm just staring at her brown eyes dumbfounded at the idea that-

"He had a video of you having sex? Did he have a video of you-"

"Asher" Her tone alone could kill me, so I wisely lock my tongue.

"We'll have two black coffees, please" She gestures the waitress a quick nod, of dismissal and a warning. Should she say anything about what she just heard.

I can't seem to let go of the idea that she...

"He doesn't have a video of me." She says.

I let out a sigh of relief, my shoulders slumping down.

"But Cassie did" Her words are so soft I almost think I've imagined them, that I'm making up something that doesn't make sense. Because I must be. I must be going insane to think...

What?

"She had a video of us making out. Nothing scandalous, but something that could be edited to look that way because I was sitting on top of her and..."

"You what?" I start, my voice shaking because it makes no sense that Cass-

Rose smiles sadly, says, "We were in love."

The words drop like stones into the pit of my stomach. And if I were in water, I'd be sinking because it's the sort of thing I never would have guessed and she kept this from me. Cassie kept this from me and Rose kept this from me. After all out honesty and-

"It was reckless. Nobody knew about it because we wouldn't make it obvious." The coffee make it to our table but I'm too confused to even nod my thanks to the waitress. Instead I keep my gaze locked on Rose. On her green eyes, as if they will give me some sort of comfort. "To anyone else we were best friends. That's why Cassie almost never mentioned me, because she was scared it would look like something more than platonic and you'd tell your Dad-"

"Why would I tell my Dad?" I say, a sharp edge to my words that make Rose look away shamefully.

"She always thought you two were closer. Because you played basketball all the time, and that was what he wanted. Because you put up with the future he layer out for you, and she couldn't. So, Cassie thought you'd never understand" Rose says, a calm in her voice I wish I could adopt because at the moment I can barely breathe. I can't think around the fact that Rose has been lying, and that Cassie was in love with her. I swallow audibly, as if that will bring my worries down to my stomach instead of knotting up my throat.