Page 37 of My Rose

My phone vibrated in my pocket, and I stupidly jumped and pulled it out.

August stopped playing as he glared at my phone. “Briggs, huh? What’s up with that? Are you guys a thing?” Guess he didn’t miss the name on my screen.

I put my phone face down on my thigh. “Not really, no.” August’s fingers tapped along the body of his guitar, the look on his face telling me he didn’t believe me one bit. “What about you and what’s her face?” The only jealousy I felt in saying her name was knowing she was once with Briggs.

“Clarissa? We’ve hung out a few times, but she’s nothing special.” He shrugged as he leaned against me more. His face changed from incredulous to what I believed might be flirty, a smirk lifting his lips in a way that seemed crooked and not as smooth as he probably hoped it looked. Every ounce of attraction I thought I had for him was vanishing faster than I ever thought possible. The Rose from weeks ago would have loved having August Coleman on her bed, looking at her like that.

“Okay, okay. But, seriously, let me finish, and then we can talk.” His thumb brushed up my forearm. “You’re going to love the ending.”

“Mmm,” was all I could get out. He smiled back and finished the rest of his song. At one point, I wanted to nudge him to correct the sound coming from his throat. He’d only tell me I knew nothing about true vocals. He had private music lessons and knew best, after all.

“What do you think? Did I just melt your heart?” He smirked crookedly at me again, his blond hair pushing back further into my pillows as he relaxed beside me. I made a note to wash my pillowcases later because his hair smelled like cigarettes and looked kind of greasy. He’d probably been too busy with Clarissa to notice heneeded a shower. Or five. I searched his face, his once beautiful, dark blue, oceanic eyes now reminiscent of blueberries.

I hated blueberries.

So, I lied. “It was good, August. I liked that one part about the moon. It was a good metaphor.” It was terrible. The entire thing sounded like a five-year-old wrote it.

“I’m glad you like it.” He set his guitar down beside him on the bed and turned to face me, his entire body aligning with mine. Or, trying to. I turned my head to look up at the ceiling fan, my back flat on my mattress. “I bet Briggs can’t play guitar.” He tapped his thumb on the pillow as he glanced at my phone, which was still face-down on my thigh.

I pushed my hand through my hair. “I wouldn’t know.” Yet, I highly doubted he did. Briggs’ fingers were callused and worn but in a dangerous sort of way. It wasn’t from strings. I was almost positive Briggs would refuse to share anything in common with August, so a guitar was probably far from his mind.

“I thought you guys were close?”

“Not really sure what you mean.” I exhaled slowly, mentally counting the fan blades as they whipped around in a circle. Briggs and I weren’t exactly close, but we weren’tnotclose, either. I knew two things for sure—I hadn’t stopped wanting to kiss him since the first time we did, and he was quickly becoming all I thought about during the day and when I lay in bed at night. He was a mystery—an enigma I wanted to dive headfirst into. Until he stood me up. Now I just wanted to slap him and then grab his stupid face and kiss him, then slap him all over again.

“Oh, Rosie.” I cringed as he continued, “Not every guy who comes around is going to want the same things you do.” My eyes narrowed, his words not really making any sense. Did he even know the things I wanted? Most likely not because he never asked.

I let the silence sink in around us, my body frozen to the mattress. August pushed his tongue into his cheek as he continued to eye me over, the feeling like tiny pins across my skin. “You know, I meant to tell you how hot you looked at my party the other night.”The one from over a week ago?The lack of heat in my cheeks was so noticeable it was embarrassing. Not that August noticed. “I don’t know if I should say the things I was thinking of doing to you.”

“Umm…thank you?” I forced out, finally feeling that bit of heat but in all the wrong ways. He inclined his head closer to me, his tongue darting out to wet his lips. Was he going to—

“You actually look kind of hot right now, Rosie, and I’m still thinking…maybe…” His hand inched into the space between us. My mind raced. Did I still want to kiss him? Did I like him as much as I thought I did? My phone vibrated on my leg, and I didn’t have to check to know it was Briggs.

August’s hand snaked onto my leg and slid up my thigh, his fingers so close to areas that felt like they were on fire before under Briggs’ touch, but with August’s? I felt nothing. Well, that wasn’t entirely true. I feltsomething.But it wasn’t pleasant. “Are you going to check that?” he whispered, aiming for a seductive voice that fell flat, like his song had.

Was I going to check it?I lifted it, confirming it was Briggs. Four messages, and by the time I set it down again after not checking asingle one of them, it became five. “He’d be so pissed if he saw me here with you, in your bed.” Which was part of why this all felt so wrong. I felt like I was cheating, but that wasn’t right. Briggs stood me up, effectively ending whatever we had started.

“Do you still want me, Rosie?” I made a small noise because I had no idea what to say, and that’s how I felt—small. I was uncomfortable, and I wished my grandfather would just walk through the door and shoo him out so I could crawl back into my skin. “He doesn’t have to know. It’s just you and me here.” His eyes turned into obscenely shiny blueberries as they glanced down at my chest, turning wicked and vile like the things he appeared to be thinking about.

I wanted to throw up.

“Wh-what do you mean by that?”

August laughed. “Oh, he didn’t tell you?”

“Tell me what?” I put my hand over his, trying to stop his advances as he crept higher along my waist. He chuckled and grabbed on, twining our fingers. Mine stiffened, unmoving against his.

“His ex wanted me more than him.” His hand started moving down toward my waistband, dragging my hand with it. “I mean, I don’t want her anymore, so it shouldn’t hinder what’s between us. But he’s all hurt over it after all these years.”Between us?There was nothing between us. He made sure of that by distancing himself so far from me, he might as well have pushed our friendship into a giant, gaping crater and lit it on fire as it fell.

But he picked the wrong girl to set fire to. “You and Clarissa, you mean? Are you the one she cheated on him with?” I sat up andyanked my hand from him forcefully, my anger rising five notches as it all clicked into place. That’s why Briggs didn’t like him.August just chuckled and tried to pull me back down to my bed beside him. When my entire body tensed, I knew what direction I was going to take this in, and I didn’t have to think twice about it.

“You know what, August?” His blueberry eyes popped open more, and that smart smirk fell from his face as I glared down at him. “There’s nothing between us, and there won’tbeanything between us. You think admitting to being a part of that makes you a man? Do you think that makes you look cute or something?” My hands started to shake with anger. “It doesn’t. It makes you look…” I pointed at him. “It makes you look like the tool you really are.” I shifted my finger from him to the door. “Get out of my house, and take your stupid fucking guitar with you.” I stood up, walked over to the other side of the bed, and lifted his guitar up, shoving it into his chest as he sat up. “Leave. Now.”

He looked shocked.Good.“Woah, Rosie. What gives? I came here to finally pop your cherry, and this is what you—”

I laughed. So loud I felt the walls of my bedroom shake. Or maybe that was just my head exploding with whatever dream I was snapping out of after all those years wasted on him. “Pop my cherry? Are you kidding me?” I grabbed the guitar from his hands, stormed to the front door, and threw it hard, aiming right for his car. I missed the hood but managed to hit the edge of the front tire.

He rushed past me, pushing his feet into his shoes. “Hey! You’re going to pay for that!”

---