It's a fact that you can't help who you fall in love with. And for Rosaline Davenport and him, it definitely shouldn't have been each other.
Because, sometimes, love stories have blood on them.
[warning: this is the mother of all slow-burns]
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guys, you really outdid yourselves with all the amazing feedback last chapter <3 i got inside so many different minds and it was wonderful how y'all have deep enough insight into the characters mindset already!! It was really enlightening to see the opinions and certain theories you guys have :') + its also so so great that you can easily see the difference in Rose's approach towards Zach and the way he views her - i was worried that i wasnt making the difference in their attitudes towards each other clear enough but your comments have reassured my otherwise! Thank you once again for letting me know that i was able to do what i intended <3
Well, here's the next chapter, and hopefully the first half of it peels off even more layers of Rose and helps you understand her complexity even better❤ (a tip: you can easily distinguish between whose POV it is by the usage of their name. Rosaline will be referred to as "Rosaline" in her narrative but as "Rose" from Zachary's POV - and vice versa, since they've come to the point where they address each other by their shortened names)
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【 36.
Thirty-six
Nafs 】
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[ Nafs • soul/self ]
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THE SILENCE THAT encompasses both of them is a comfortable one. Rosaline has come to realise that, with Zach, words aren’t a necessary thing.
They both understand that given the circumstances since the beginning of this year, they need to have their quiet moments—clusters of seconds or a handful of minutes where they unlock certain doors in their minds that need to be bolted shut otherwise. Moments where they just need to reflect back on something they might have missed or been oblivious to.
Rosaline can’t find the words to describe both her relief and gratitude towards having Zachary Hawthorne in her life, by her side.
It’s so much easier to just breathe around him. Especially when she thinks she’s always on the verge of suffocation in anybody else’s presence during this challenging time.
With Zach, there are no formalities. No expectations. No image or reputation to hold up. There is just comfort and belonging. Something so inherently natural, that she can’t quite grasp what it is.
Like something deep, deep inside her—her soul, maybe—has already familiarised itself with his own. Like they’re old intimates recognising each other from some other time rather than being introduced to one another for the first time ever.
It’s always felt that way since the moment she laid eyes on him.
Rosaline might have been sitting on a hospital bed when she first saw him, feeling the lingering aftereffects of the anaesthesia in her system and the dull pain in her abdomen growing sharper, feeling like she was thrown off the edge of a cliff and stuck in an endless free-fall—but the minute her eyes found him, there was a tug in her chest.
