Peter & Rosie

Chapter Eleven: The Lancaster Family.

Rosie woke up alone, at some point, either last night or before she woke up, Peter had left. It hurt, she wasn't going to hide that, he could have told her, or at least messaged her or left a note so she knew he was okay, but no, there was nothing. Rosie picked up her phone, no messages, nothing, she tried calling, it went straight to voice mail, she tried again hoping he was on another call, but came to the conclusion he was ignoring her incoming calls.
The day went by, nothing, not a message, not a call, Rosie decided to give up for the day.

Monday
..................
"Rosie?" "Hey Angel" she looked at the sad girl flipped over on her bed, "what happened to Peter?" "I wouldn't have a clue he left while I was asleep" "he didn't tell you where he was going?" "Nope, or when he'd be back, plus he's ignoring my calls, so fun!" She said the last part with sarcasm. "If I see him in a lecture today I'll tell him to call" Angel felt bad, she'd seen Peter go, assuming Rosie knew, she didn't say anything, "actually, I have Literature first, which is with Peter" "well hopefully he shows" "yeah, hopefully".

Rosie walked to the lecture hall her class was situated in, she was about three minutes late so people were already partially inside, Rosie walked in, her heart stopped, Peter was there but he was sitting away from where she normally sat with his friends, she saw Caden, they made eye contact and he made his way over promptly, "hey Rose" "hey, um so that's new" she gestured at Peter who had known she was there and ignored her, "Yeah, I don't agree with him, you know that?" "Yeah I do, it's okay Caden, what happened? Did I do something wrong? It's like I don't exist, he's either ignoring my calls or he's blocked them, it frustrates me, that he doesn't talk to me" "Rosie posie, all I know is his mum called and after that he was a completely different person, all in two days" she was used to Caden giving her random nicknames so it didn't bother her, but Mrs Lancaster, what could she have possibly said to Peter that caused him to treat her like he did the first time they saw each other here?

Caden ended up sitting with Rosie, their novel was the great Gatsby, surprisingly, Caden had already read it and owned a copy, Rosie thought she was alone with her love of classics, but she guessed not. He was strange, he was the very definition of a 'bad boy' by appearance, he had a couple of tattoos, a few piercings and unnaturally dyed hair. The hair was a more recent thing. Really he was a nice guy, in all honesty she wished Peter and herself had conversations like her and Caden's, easy and free flowing, continuous, without secrets, apparently that was too big of an ask for Peter, she imagined if Caden had been the one she met, her first love, as easy as she imagined it would have been, perhaps it wouldn't have been.

Rosie knew if she kept up this pointless resentment, she'd end up hating him really for no reason, "Hey, can we talk?" Rosie was jolted from her thoughts by Peter, "Sure" Rosie voice had become small and insecure, Caden coincidentally wasn't in his seat Peter sat down, " I'm sorry for going on radio silence, but my mother-" "it's always your mother Peter, I can't keep pushing you apart, I can't do us, if it's hurting your mother, I know she hates me and I won't jeopardise her relationship with you" "Rosie, it's not that she hates you, it's that you remind her of herself", "so what that gives her a right to treat me like dirt?, she told you you couldn't have anything to do with me, I found you again by chance" "she acts like that because she was like you once, new to the city world, she's afraid of you getting hurt and ending up like her, cold, shallow and alone".

"Why would she do that? Why would she care about a nobody like me? She doesn't even know me" "my family isn't exactly your "conventional" family, my mother met a boy from the city, she fell in love, then when she had two children he left, he left and he took all the money, everything she earned, and she's, I'm afraid of being like him" "Peter, you are nothing like that, you are not your father" "DNA is DNA, Rosie I couldn't  live with myself if I hurt you" "you're already hurting me, you've hurt me so many times, don't make this harder then it already is" Rosie stopped facing him, "you can either leave, leave like your father or stay, stay like a better man, its your decision, prove that DNA doesn't always matter, prove to me, you are so much more" with that Rosie got up and left, left Peter, left the lecture hall, left everything, she really needed to talk to Abel.