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CHAPTER 13 ᴛᴡᴏ sᴛᴇᴘs ꜰᴏʀᴡᴀʀᴅ, ᴏɴᴇ sᴛᴇᴘ ʙᴀᴄᴋ ☾
Maybe I just like your company, Rosalie Hale.
Her own words echoed in the back of her head as Violet watched Rosalie from the opposite end of the room. Her blonde hair fell perfectly down her back, swept across slim, pointed shoulders that were clothed in black. Violet could understand how so many had been caught up in the girl's beauty. There was something ethereal about her appearance, like something from a painting.
But Violet could've been blind and she still would have craved Rosalie's company.
The absence had only made her realise how used to her presence she'd become. In hallways their eyes would meet, in English lessons, she would feel the girl's boots leaning against her chair, light in pressure as if she was saying I'm here. There were small hints of her everywhere: in the pencil she'd left at her workbench, the radio she'd left newly fixed, and the green paint that coated her Jeep.
"What are you staring at?" Rosalie said, breaking her from the trance she'd trapped herself in.
Not long ago, she would have blushed, shaking her head, insisting it was nothing. Her confidence had seemed hollow around Rosalie a few weeks ago, but now she'd unlocked something stronger. Something that made Violet connect their eyes, and utter the word you.
Rosalie didn't falter. A smirk fell upon her lips, an expression that made Violet's stomach flutter. "You know, you're not supposed to admit to that."
Violet tilted her head upwards, as if in defiance. "Why not?"
Rosalie only watched her a moment and then shrugged as if to say fair enough.
Their hour-long conversation had fizzled out after Violet had been caught staring, but still, she couldn't come to regret it. Rosalie sat on the bench, knees only a couple of inches from where Violet's legs hung from the side of her truck. There was a glaze over the blonde's eyes- one that Violet had come to realise meant she was thinking.
"You're quiet."
"I'm always quiet," Rosalie argued, but Violet shook her head.
"You don't have to be, with me," she said, eyes watching as Rosalie looked away. "I've seen you. Sometimes it seems like you're holding things back."
The other girl tried to deflect. "What are you, my stalker?"
"Mhm, watch out for your windows." The words left her lips without her permission. Violet cringed. "Sorry. That was a weird joke."
But Rosalie only laughed- a sound deep and purposeful- and Violet almost folded there and then.
"You're so awkward," Rosalie said, jumping from the bench. Their knees did touch then and Violet fought to keep herself still.
