The Dragon Stone ↣ Riven ↢

11: Where's The Fire At?

'Oh, god, yes, that. So sorry guys, but we have important things to take care of!', Rose yelled over her shoulder as she rushed off back to the dorm, a confused looking Bloom tugging along behind her.

'Jesus, where's the fire at?', Bloom remarked as they got inside their shared bedroom.

'A fire joke from a fire fairy, really?', Rose let out while sighing in exasperation. 'I'm just going to act like I didn't hear it.', she laughed as she waved her hands. She had been waiting all day to tell Bloom about what had happened, but now that the time was here, nervousness took over her body. 'I dragged you here because I really need to share something with you...', she trailed while fidgeting.

'Is this about Riven?', Bloom asked, earning a quizzical look from Rose. 'It's just, Sky has been complaining about his behaviour for the last two weeks and today, he mentioned Riven was all of a sudden in an exceptional good mood. I just figured you might have something to do with that.'

Rose was surprised by the information Bloom shared with her, but she couldn't deny that it felt good to know that her presence, or the absence of her presence, in Riven's life affected him. Although, she didn't want him to feel bad. Well, maybe, just maybe, she wanted him to feel a little bad, since she was feeling bad as well. Which was his fault. Or not. Maybe not his fault, they weren't together or anything. But, he did flirt with her on multiple occasions. Just shut up!, Rose thought to herself as the thoughts kept running through her head.

'Are you talking to me? I didn't say anything. I'm still waiting for you to respond, though I guess the look on your face says enough. What's the deal between the two of you?', Bloom questioned as she raised an eyebrow in curiosity.

Rose let out a groan as she realised she had said the shut up part out loud. 'I don't know what the deal is. There is no deal. I barely have any feelings for him, and it was clear today that he doesn't have feelings for me either.', Rose denied though she obviously sounded sad.

'Yeah, of course, barely any feelings. No feelings at all, right?', Bloom scoffed, clearly not believing Rose. 'What makes you so sure he doesn't have any feelings for you? He just defended you.'

Rose rolled her eyes in response, this was not what she had been meaning to talk to Bloom about but she decided to answer anyway. 'I told him today. I told him that I was sorry for avoiding him, that I was just hurt by his actions because I thought he knew I was into him. I guess, what he said, came down to that he didn't know I was into him because we're so different, but it was the perfect chance for him to let me know if he reciprocated any of my feelings but, apparently, he doesn't.', Rose rambled, mumbling the last part softly as she cast her eyes down at the ground.

Saying it out loud made her realise that she was disappointed that Riven wasn't into her, but Rose had set her mind to shoving her feelings for him deep, deep, down so that it wouldn't affect their friendship. Or whatever it was.

'I'm really sorry, Rose, but I do think you deserve better than him.', Bloom responded as she softly squeezed Rose's hand.

She appreciated Bloom trying to comfort her, but the words stung a little as, to her, Riven was not as bad as he seemed. Though how could her friends know, most of the time he had his guard up, hiding his good qualities behind a mask of sarcasm and rudeness.

'It's whatever, you know.', Rose mumbled  half-heartedly as she shrugged her shoulders. 'But I didn't want to talk to you about Riven. There is something else I need to tell you.'

As soon as the words left Rose's mouth, loud chattering could be heard from the common living room. Rose and Bloom followed the noises and were met by their other dormmates who had just entered. They had arrived just in time, as Rose could inform them all at the same time about what had happened.