Never Be The Same {SCOROSE}

Chapter 17 - Rose [UPDATED]

"Yes," I confirmed. "Why so curious?"

"Well... would you like to tell me what colour it is?"

I hummed. "And whyever would I do that?"

"So I can find a tie or something to match it, silly. We wouldn't look like the lovely couple that we are if we showed up in clashing colours."

I stopped in my tracks, and turned to face him, a smirk playing on my lips. "Andy."

He frowned at me. "What?"

"Did I miss the part where you asked me to go with you?"

My boyfriend looked taken aback. "You're my girlfriend... of course we're going together. Unless you had another date arranged?"

I slapped his arm lightly. "I don't have another date, you idiot. But you could ask anyway."

Eyes sparkling, Andy pulled me close, lowering his lips to the nape of my neck. "Rose..." he said, "will..." he bit down on my skin, and I sighed softly, twisting his hair in my fingers. "...you..." his lips moved higher. "...go..." he trailed kisses along my jawline. "...to..." he nipped at my ear, and I laughed. "...the ball..." he moved to my cheek. "...with me?" his lips landed on the corner of my lips, and then travelled over for a real kiss, which lasted as long as a kiss possibly could.

When we came up for air, I whispered a breathless yes against his lips and wondered what I had ever done to deserve such happiness. I was so caught up in the moment, I didn't even think until later about the fact that once he knew the truth, he would never want to kiss me like that again. And he certainly wouldn't want to take me to the graduation ball.

That was at the end of May. Now, here we were, walking the same route of the grounds that we had walked that night... but the energy was impossibly different. That night, I had been allowing myself to forget. Tonight, I was forcing myself to remember.

We walked side by side, fingers tangled together in the space between us. It was a cloudy night, and the moon was hard to see — just like my future. I felt my arm move, and glanced over just as Andy was pressing his lips to the back of my hand. He looked at me like I was the only thing he noticed in the entire world. "This is my favourite part of every day," he said quietly. "Just being with you."

I swallowed; put on a fake smile. "Are you sure you don't prefer something else? Something like... I don't know... breakfast?"

Andy snorted. "Very funny." Not long ago, he had gone on quite the rant about how underappreciated the first meal of the day was, and how it didn't get the respect it deserved. I'd made it my mission to tease him about it at every chance I got.

I was going to miss teasing him — being teased by him, too. He had a lovely sense of humour, and there was truly never a dull moment with him. And Merlin, the way his eyes lit up when he laughed...

"Are you all right, Rose? You seem... I dunno. You seem like your mind is somewhere else."

When I saw him frowning at me, I felt like a knife was being pressed against my throat. Even though the frown was, at the moment, merely there out of concern... I knew that soon he would be wearing a much different frown. And it would be my fault.

I swallowed again — damn me, getting emotional before I'd said a word — and tugged my hand out of his, stopping and turning to face him. "It is," I said, the words barely a whisper. But I forced myself to speak louder as I went on. "I think... I think we need to talk."

A different frown crossed Andy's features. "Sure. Is... everything okay?"

I shook my head, but couldn't speak — a new lump was forming in my throat.