Losing Game -Rosenali

what if?

    Things had been looking up for Rosé recently, since the weird scene she had stumbled upon in the bathroom, she was in a great mood. Denali smiled at her. Smiled at her, and for a moment, it felt like they were the only two people in the entire room. Rosé both loved and hated that Denali could make her feel this way.

It was nice that she trusted someone enough to break down her exterior but it was scary knowing that their tentative friendship could fall apart again. The happy feeling that carried her through third and fourth period soon depleted at lunch when she saw Dahlia and Denali walk by together, both laughing.

Denali had told her that she wasn't trying to date Dahlia and Rosé trusted Denali. But she also knew that she and Denali were no longer together so maybe Denali was trying to move on but with Dahlia? The thought made Rosé's stomach turn. She felt Mik plop down beside her and greet her with her usual,

"hey gorge."

"hey," she responded not looking away from where Denali and Dahlia were now sitting with Kahmora and Gigi.

"What's up? I thought we were happy again since Denali doesn't hate us anymore?"

"I'm happy she doesn't hate me but I want more than that. I don't just want to be some person that she waves to in the hallway, I want to be... you know," Rosé trailed off blushing.

"So tell her," Symone said from across the table. "Maybe she'll be willing to give your relationship another try, especially if you're genuine and open with her."

"Maybe, we'll see how things play out. Kandy, how are things between you and Joey?" Rosé asked, partly curious, partly trying to change the subject.

"Great actually, we hung out Friday night and we're hanging out again tonight."

Rosé zoned out as Kandy spoke with Crystal, Symone and Mik about Joey. Her attention was still on Denali and the new girl sitting with them. Jan. Rosé watched as Kahmora gave Jan a hug and as Jan sat right across from Denali, both girls smiling and laughing. She smiled, glad that Denali and Jan had repaired their friendship. She knew that even though Jan never spoke about it, it hurt her when Denali stopped speaking with her. She would always feel guilty for that.

She also, even though she hated to admit it, felt a little bit jealous of Jan and her repaired relationship with Denali. Ok, she felt more than a little bit jealous, she was extremely jealous. She wanted to be in the seat across from Denali, talking about their mornings and plans. In all honesty, she wanted to be in the seat next to Denali, with her arm wrapped around the smaller girl like old times. But she had screwed that up, and she doubted that she could ever make things right again.

Suddenly, as if on cue, Denali looked up and her eyes met Rosé's. And just like in the bathroom, time stopped. The entire world melted away and it was just the two of them and Rosé was very aware of her heart beating loudly in her chest. She felt like she could stay inside this perfect world forever until someone saying her name pulled her out of it.

"Rosé. Rosé?" Rosé looked away from Denali and back towards her table. Mik was evidently the one saying her name repeatedly and looked slightly annoyed but mostly amused.

"Who are you staring at?" She asked jokingly, making kissy faces at Rosé who hit her arm.

"Shut up," she teased turning back to the other girls at her table. "Symone, I meant to ask you, how did things go with Gigi? Are you two ok now?"

"Yeah, we're fine. Obviously she wasn't happy with me because I knew about the whole dare thing and didn't at least tell her so that she could tell Denali but we talked things over."