Mark My Words

39 | Bait

    She wanted to shrivel up and die at the sound of Harper's muffled moan. She didn't expect moaning to be a recognizable indicator of a person's voice, but Lennie had probably heard it before, and she couldn't look up to see the expression on his face.

    "It's Jace," she said, quietly. She put a hand to her face and added, eyes squeezed shut, "Jamie and Joanna figured it out."

    The thumping on the wall became rhythmic. Rosalie glanced at the fake animal hair taped to the back of Lennie's hand as his fingers curled into fists. Rosalie sucked in a deep breath as she heard him inhale in preparation to speak.

    His voice came out bitter cold. "Well. At least the soccer season's over for me so I don't have to see his face every day."

    She managed to lower her hand to see his face. It was difficult to differentiate color in the dark, but she could see that his eyes were red. His stoic, resting expression was breaking. He rubbed his forearm over them and looked away. "You can't let her keep doing this to you," she said.

    "We've... I can't—" he started. Rosalie's throat closed up at the sound of his voice shaking. "We've been together for so long and I—"

    "High school is so short in the long run, Lennie," she said.

    "If I can't make her happy, then how can I—?" he said, meeting her eyes. It dawned on Rosalie what Harper was doing to him. It was what Joanna feared would happen if Harper was the one to break things off. 

    "You and Harper are both different people from when you started dating," she said. She had to rectify this, despite what he had done to hinder her own romantic affairs—or lack thereof. "You spent all of high school in a relationship, Lennie. Take care of yourself before you start feeling responsible for other peoples' happiness, okay?"

    Lennie studied his feet for a moment. He picked at the tape beneath the fake hair on his hand and eventually tore it off. He stuck it to the wall as they both grimaced at the sound of Jace grunting. "Sex is disgusting," Lennie all but hissed through clenched teeth.

    "It is kind of repulsive," Rosalie agreed with a wince. "Unsanitary."

    "Primitive."

    "Nauseating," she said with a kick of her leg. She spun around and sighed. "Well, as enlightening as this is..."

    "Can you stay here?" he asked, and his weak voice made her hesitate with an internal curse. She turned back to him as he said, "Just... until they come out?"

    Rosalie was prepared to tell him that he could handle it, but she had just witnessed him crying. She only ever saw Sami cry, and the guilt of leaving him in such a state prompted her to return to stand beside him and lower herself to the ground. She tried to put herself in his shoes, and the thought of facing both Harper and Jace was too intimidating to leave Lennie to do it all on his own.

_____

    When Rosalie returned to the first floor of the Pittmen estate, she was at Jace Clemon's heels. She stopped him from continuing down the stairs to the party and instead dragged him by the back of his sweatshirt to where Jamie-Lee, Ray, and Joanna were waiting by the grand piano.

    She shoved Jace in the back, who beamed at Jamie and said, "Hey, buddy, how's it goin'?"

    Joanna stepped between them with a fist clenched in her hand. Jace took a step back as she said, "Call him buddy again. I dare you."

    Jamie pointed towards the foyer and said, "You're lucky it's the end of the season."

    "As if you could land a hit without your guard dog," Jace said to him with a pointed scowl in Joanna's direction. He walked off with a tsk, and Jamie left with him to ensure he actually made an exit. Ray made an attempted kick at Jace's legs as he passed, but Jace stepped out of range and hissed at her, "Bitch."

    "Takes one to know one," Ray spat at him.

    Once Jace was out of range, Ray clapped her hands and threw her fists in the air. "I don't know about you guys, but that was the greatest party event of all time!" She whooped and spun, her spider-printed halloween dress twirling with her. She turned to Rosalie with a smile and said, "How'd it go?"

    Rosalie sighed, crossing her arms. "Good, I think. He's talking with Harper right now."

    "In that case, I'm gonna go back to partying. I think Blake's gonna make an engagement speech or something," Ray said.

    She skipped to the stairs with a cheerful twirl as Joanna said, "Why doesn't that surprise me?" Rosalie smiled, but it was tight on her cheeks and uncomfortable to wear.

    She resolved to investigate the piano, since that seemed to be a good distraction, and an excuse to keep from looking at Joanna's face. She went to the bench and sat down, curling a foot underneath her opposite leg. The wide stretch of windows behind her radiated the cold from outside, and goosebumps traveled up her arms as she pressed her finger to one of the black keys.

    The sound rang crystal-clear and echoed eerily through the red-lit room. She saw Joanna's shadow pass in front of the metal candlestick stand. Rosalie traveled her fingers down several frets and landed on an awkward chord.

    Joanna sat beside her and said, "You've been acting weird."

    "Have not," Rosalie said, but it was as childish as the crush festering in her chest. She swallowed it down and poked the keys down towards the heavier, deeper chords. "Okay, maybe I have been acting weird."

    "It's about me," Joanna said. Rosalie glanced at her, and Joanna pursed her lips with a shrug. "Just a theory."

    "Well, you're right about that one, too," Rosalie said. When she sighed, it rattled in her chest where she felt damn near close to combusting. She put her hands on her lap and picked her nail against the uneven edge of her thumbnail. She stared at the keys in front of Joanna as she whispered, "I wasn't supposed to have a crush on you."

    Joanna said nothing for as long as it took for Rosalie to worry that she never should have said anything. She looked up to meet Joanna's eyes and found Joanna looking at her, her light colored brows pinched together in concern. She watched as Joanna swallowed hard and shook her head. "Is there something wrong with having a crush on me?" she asked.

    "Just that... I can't stop thinking about you," Rosalie said, and followed up with a laugh. She rolled her eyes and said, "And that wouldn't be an issue if I didn't feel like I was losing my mind. When I get crushes my brain short-circuits. It feels like I'm on fire constantly and I can't stop sweating when you tease me. I don't feel normal right now."

    "That sounds like torture," Joanna said. She slid closer and tipped her head to look Rosalie in the eye. "What do you want me to do?"

    "I..." Rosalie started. She started to sweat again, and despite how much she wanted to hold Joanna's hand at that moment, her amygdala started to scream for flight again. "I think..." she started again, straightening with resolve, "I need space."

    She looked warily to Joanna, eyes wide. Joanna waited a moment before looking away and tucking a strand of frizzy red air behind her ear. She nodded and said, "That's fair. I'll give you space and just... let me know, okay? If you need me."

    Rosalie nodded quickly. With that, Joanna turned away and put her red heels to the floor. She pushed to her feet and walked away. She hesitated at the stairs, looking back at Rosalie. Rosalie saw her through the gap in the grand piano lid, and she managed a wide smile that Joanna grinned at before heading back down to the music.

a/n:
I'm testing mobile posting so if the formatting is weird for this chapter, it's because of that.

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