roses so red [harry lewis]

in bad soil

CHAPTER 2: in bad soil

Rosalie slid back into her chair across the table from Callum quietly, seeing as he was talking animatedly into his new vlogging camera at the little patio table they'd been seated at. They'd gone out to do some errands and had popped to a small cafe for some lunch seeing as the day was unusually bright for London.

"And look who's finally back from the loo," Callum announced, spinning the camera to face Rosalie. She put on a huge grin, waving to the camera brightly.

"'Ello!" She chirped, resting her elbows on the table and gazing up at her much taller boyfriend on the other side of the table.

"She's a sight for sore eyes, isn't she?" He grinned, turning the camera back to face himself. Rose blushed, looking down at her nails in embarrassment as Cal chatted to the camera a bit more before shutting it off so he could order his lunch from their waiter.

"Have you got any new video ideas in the works?" Rosalie asked once their server had left them together to chat. 

Cal put his phone down, glancing up at her with a smile. "Yeah, actually, Harry and I were going to do a video where I go on Tinder for him, like take over his account for a day and swipe for him and send messages and stuff like that."

Rosalie bit her lip, her eyebrows pulling together slightly. "I'll be honest, I don't know how much I love that idea." She admitted, playing with her hands.

"It'll be a laugh!" Cal replied flippantly, "I know how to get girls, I'll take his pictures and all that and chat them up and all that."

"But you've already got a girl," Rosalie responded, leaning forward a little. "I don't know, Callum, I just don't like the idea of you chatting up girls and scrolling through liking pictures of them when you're my boyfriend, you know?"

"Relax!" Callum waved her off, leaning back in his chair. "You're being so territorial." He added flippantly.

Rose pursed her lips, also leaning back in her chair and crossing her arms. He wasn't even listening to the point of what she said, nor trying to understand it, he was just waving her off like it meant less than nothing. But Cal did that often, and she knew this wasn't a battle she could win.

The rest of lunch was mostly silent except for Callum using his loudest vlogging voice and occasionally turning the camera to Rose, who had to pull herself from her thoughts to fake a grin or a laugh at one of his crass jokes.

She couldn't quite work out what she was meant to say to him the rest of the afternoon as they popped into one or two more shops before heading home, so mostly Rosalie stayed quiet unless he asked her a question. She could feel Cal getting more and more frustrated the longer it went on, until finally he snapped when they got back into his flat, his bedroom door closed.

"You're being so immature about this," Callum told her, dropping his bags down on his bed and turning to face her.

"I just don't like that you'd be online dating other girls! Even if you're pretending to be Harry, you're still the one trying to chat the girls up, that's still you flirting with them." Rosalie explained, crossing her arms. "Even if you mean nothing by it, why do it?"

"This is my career, Rose. Don't be selfish." Cal replied, neglecting to answer her question.

Rosalie's jaw dropped, but she recovered quickly. "You're a creative guy, can't you come up with some other idea that doesn't involve you cheating on me?"

"It's not cheating! I'm pretending to be Harry!" Callum fought back, throwing his hands up.

"But you're still checking out the girls, judging their profiles to see if you think they're fit enough and cool enough to date, and then hitting on them. That's still you," Rose contradicted, shrugging. "Why can't you at least try to understand where I'm coming from?"

"Because it's total rubbish!" He snapped. "You're being stupid, Rosalie!"

She frowned, taking a step back. "Don't be rude, Callum."

"I know, I'm sorry," He said quickly, his face falling from one of anger to a slightly more apologetic look, reaching out and pulling Rosie to his chest.

She didn't say anything, just standing still as Callum went from holding her tenderly to slowly sliding his hand through her hair and to the base of her neck, tilting her chin up so he could start kissing her. Rosalie kissed him back mutely, wishing she loved him in moments like this, where he tried to recover from their fights by touching her, as if it corrected what their words had done.

Rosalie kissed him back, letting his hands wander and helping him take their clothes off, let him push himself into her so she could feel the physical pleasure, some relief from her reeling brain but not enough. When it was over, she cuddled up under his arm, resting her head on his chest so she could listen to his heartbeat.

"If you want to be there while we film the video, you can." Callum said finally, breaking their silence.

Rose choked on her breath, then quickly let it out, "Sure."

And then she fell asleep.