Rosemary

─── Beneath the Tuscan Sun (Prologue)

As I lay beneath the Tuscan sun, I can only see the rainbow if I close my eyes. If I keep my eyes open, I only see the storm that forgoes the rainbow. As silly as it sounds, I don't want to see the polychromatic illusion because it only means that my heart is filled with affection, affection I shouldn't have. It's not mine, it'll never belong to me.

She's too different from me. I know there's all this 'opposites attract' bullshit, but you shouldn't believe it. It's just a ruse to open your heart to authentic individuals who will only hurt you.

This doesn't mean I don't believe we can love each other, everything could just be tumultuous because we don't understand each other.

All of a sudden, a powerful hand rips me from my near slumber. I look up at the person and sit up as I smile, elated that she found me here, in the one place we have all to ourselves.

She intertwines her hands with my hair as she returns my euphoric grin. "You were almost sleeping, weren't you? I'm so sorry Jules, I didn't realize. I'll just let you get back to-" She tries to excuse herself and walk away, but I gently caress her forearm with a glimmer in my eye.

"Hey, don't go. I didn't want to sleep on this rough land anyway." I pull her down to my level as my smile fades a bit, but not enough to cause any unnecessary tension. "What is it, why did you come over here?" She begins to speak but I cut her off. "Wait, how did you even know I was here?"

She chuckles as she sits beside me on the fluorescent green field, much like the melodramatic movies we both saw back home. "You come here all the time, it's honestly harder not to know where you are."

I shake my head as my gaze lingers on her for a few minutes before I depart my eyes and look back to the sun. For a minute, I just sit in pure silence before asking, "Does it ever strike you just how beautiful this country is? I never noticed it before today because of the dire nature of our stay here, but have you ever noticed how the sun shines over this land?"

"It's exactly like this back home, Jules."

I shake my head and clear my throat as a furrowed look climbs onto my face. "No, it isn't. This land is nothing like back home at all." I look at the surrounding shrubbery and pluck one of the many Lilac Freesias that reside beside us and hold it up in front of me. "This. We don't have this back home." I smell the flower as its aroma pleasures me immensely. Its everlasting bliss is a pure delicacy to me, but I remove it and place it in between us, letting out a satisfied breath. "This is what I'll miss when we leave Italy, no matter the outcome of our mission."

She looks sympathetically and stays silent for a minute, thinking before shaking her head. "Hey, Jules? You need to see that this isn't healthy, all this basking in the good things. I know this is just who you are, but it worries me sometimes, you never seeing the bad at all."

I scoff as I look at her. "Oh yeah? Tell me then, why should I think about the bad?"

She looks directly into my eyes and begins with a lower tone. "If you don't focus on the bad now, you won't survive out there. Out there, where you don't have me to level you out. You won't have a support system out there, Jules."

I shake my head as I look away from her this time, pushing my eyes back into my head. "I don't need you, E. I'll be able to recov-"

She cuts me off by putting a finger to my mouth and smiling in a slightly vexed manner as she rolls her eyes as well. "This won't work out there, Jules. This, you just pushing it all away. One day, you're going to lose your whole sense of self and you will break."