She is Not Made of Roses

thirteen: i'm gettin' a lot of sapphic vibes up in this bitch

“Then it’s settled,” Rosie says with a happy shrug of her shoulders. “Alan, Tessa, and Willa are official members”—she turns around, smiling proudly at their newest recruits—“and we’ve got you to thank for that, Ella.”

Aurora scowls, walking through the growing crowd of people in their once spacious little nook of the library. “And aren’t we all just so grateful?”

✹

“I’d say that was a success,” Ella declares to Rosie, the two heading out of the library side by side towards the parking lot.

“Other than when Aurora threw a stack of books at Alan? It went perfectly.”

“And Danielle’s beautiful speech on class inequality? Breathtaking.”

“I have to say, it was probably the most engaged we’ve ever been,” Rosie says with a nod of realization. “Usually, it’s just me yelling at the rest of them to get focused while Lilly looks up YouTube videos of different species of animals cuddling.”

“Well, that’s what I’m here for,” Ella chirps, nudging her shoulder. She suddenly smiles, an idea popping in her head, “Hey, do you wanna come over and hang out?”

Rosie frowns for a second, looking back at the library, concerned. “I’m not sure. I usually wait for Aurora out here to finish checking us out.”

“Well, if you wanna stay here, we could just do it another time, then,” she says, understanding. She smiles, “It’s just, my dad just baked a bunch of cupcakes, and I—”

“How soon can we leave?”

✹

Aurora steps out of the library moments later, still irked from the events of the meeting. After she’d (deservedly) thrown a book at Alan’s head after his fiftieth dig towards her dancing abilities, the entire club seemed a bit hostile towards her and her opposition to the new group members. She supposes she understands why they’d be annoyed at her, but she can’t quite help herself from feeling like this thing that she and Rosie has built is being desecrated. Or just, invaded by Ella’s cologne drenched theatre posse.

She walks out into the lobby, a bit surprised when she doesn’t see Rosie waiting out for her like she normally would. To confirm her suspicions, she peeks outside the window, just able to see the bike rack where her shiny new bike would be parked, only to see it gone.

“She left a few minutes ago with Ella.”

Aurora spins around, shocked out of her skin, to see Raj standing just a few steps behind her. He’s leaning against the wall, looking pretty well settled in, and she wonders how he didn’t see her before.

“Excuse me?” She asks, looking surprised. “There’s no way. She waits for me after every one of our meetings.”

“Well, then I don’t know how to explain them both heading off in Ella’s car,” he says with a shrug. He raises an eyebrow to her, “Why? Are you jealous?”

She grimaces, “Don’t give me grief, Patel. Not the right day.”

“Why?” He asks, suddenly looking concerned. “Did something happen?”

She rolls her eyes, “No,” she fibs. “It’s just that Ella seems to interject herself into every aspect of my life, as of late”—she pauses, momentarily, until a thought comes to her—“Why are you here so late, anyway? Are you actually stalking me?”

“No,” he scoffs. “I have gaming club once a week until five.”

Aurora narrows her eyes, “Gaming club?” She asks, skeptical. “That’s a thing?”