ROSES [E.A]

CHAPTER ZERO

ROSES; CHAPTER ZERO -
SUBWAY TALKS + PRETTY GIRLS.

    Her obnoxiously loud coal coloured heels clinked against the subway station's uncoordinated coloured tiles as she forced her slender legs to run faster and catch up to the last subway train; not looking forward to waiting another agonizing hour in the rat infested station for the next one to arrive.

    The large black duffel bag of clothes she carried constantly hit the side of her body with each long stride she took, the bag finally coming to a halt at her side once she stepped foot into the almost empty train and allowed herself a moment to regain her breath from all the running. Mentally taking a note to add more cardio to her training sessions, Malia took the closest empty spot and laid back against the sticky plastic seat, her tired honey tainted irises landing on the dirty ceiling.

    An exaggerated sigh drawled out of her plump red lips, her mascara coated eyelashes tickling the heights of her cheekbones as she shut her eyes for a second, allowing herself a second of bliss before she had to go home to her new apartment filled with multiple cardboard boxes of her belongings; not all too excited to start unpacking after her first 'eventful' night in New York.

"Rough night, too?" A male voice hesitantly asked her, pulling her out of her personal self-pitying thoughts and back to her current scenery in a subway at four in the morning.

    Dark eyebrows furrowed, Malia directed her gaze from the ceiling to the man dressed in black in front of her. Malia observed the way his dark hoodie hid most of his face from her view, only letting her see his prominent cheekbones and the subtle frown etched lips until his fingers came up to wrap around the sides of the hoodie to pull it down.

Her breath hitched at the back of her throat at what she considered a godly sight, shamelessly taking in his newfound facial features as the man ran a hand through his brunette locks to style it back into place, not wanting to appear messy to the stranger sitting in front of him.

    Elliot had already considered speaking up to her being a challenge, one he forced himself to take in an attempt to push his 'normal' plan into place, he couldn't let himself not be self conscious about his appearance while he did so too.

"Something along those lines." Malia simply shrugged once she regained her composure back, moving her warm eyes up to meet his own vacant ones that were adorned with indigo splotches below them. "More so, just me being a lazy bitch and not wanting to unpack back home." She softy laughed, bringing her palms down to smoothen the skirt of her body hugging black dress.

    "Just moved in?" Elliot straightened out his posture against the back of the chair, finally feeling tired and accustomed to the dangerously late hour as the drugs from earlier slowly wore off and slowly brought him back to reality.

Sober, he finally allowed his empty eyes to be filled up with the appearance of the woman in black talking to him. Taking in the way her clothes tightly clung to her petite body to the way the escaped pieces of her from the bun atop her head framed her made up face, he felt guilty for feeling attracted to her as he knew that he had nothing good to offer someone who seemed as kind as her.

    "This morning but as soon as I drove down here, work called me in." Malia explained as Elliot slowly nodded, taking in her every word. "But some asshole gave me a hundred dollar tip so I can't really complain, you know?" She proudly grinned at him, remembering the drunken male who had slid her the multiple twenty's before stumbling out of the bar.

    "Where do you work?" Elliot asked in a sorry attempt to keep the small talk conversation going, not wanting it to end so abruptly. He could swear that he remembered his therapist telling him that asking the other person questions was an excellent way to talk to people sometimes and he thought he was doing an average job at it right now.

    "I work as a bartender at the bar on fifty-nine."

    "That why you have a bag of clothes with you?" Elliot unconsciously raised an eyebrow at her, nodding over at the suspicious looking bag she carried with her. A sense of paranoia had washed over at him at the first sight of it, attempting to convince him that she carried something dangerous within it, he just needed a sense of reassurance that his subconscious was wrong this time.

    "Sure." Malia meekly responded before quickly standing from her seat across from him and taking the seat next to him causing Elliot as the odd smell of alcohol and perfume hit him; her exposed skin barely grazing the surface of his hoodie. "I'm Malia. How 'bout you?"

☕️

ughhhh with all the love surrounding rami now with season two, i had to write something about this odd little cutie who i adore a whole lot (maybe too much) but i hope y'all like it lmao!! this sorta doesn't go with the plot since i sadly can't watch season two rn ☹️ but just imagine the period before season two and after season one, alrighty buddies 💕