Mark My Words

81 | Partners? Not Anymore

"How's it goin', Mason?" Joanna asked as she walked down Rosalie's aisle. She put a hand to the desk in front of Rosalie, and those light, amber eyes caught Rosalie's entire essay at the base of her throat where her heart had leapt up and cut off air circulation.

Rosalie coughed painfully into her shoulder, cleared her throat, and said, "I have a question for you."

Joanna frowned. "That isn't how this works."

Hot anger pushed at Rosalie's chest, expanding with every second. She narrowed her eyes at Joanna and said, "What, so I'm not allowed to talk to you on campus?"

"Yeah, I'd say that's how this works."

"Room assignments are due soon," Rosalie said. Joanna's expression didn't change. Rosalie huffed, her hands pressed flat to the seat underneath her thighs as she said, "I... was wondering if you—"

"No," Joanna said, shaking her head.

"Joanna—"

Joanna pushed off of the desk and started to walk away. "It's a bad idea and you know it. Besides, I don't believe in sharing rooms with you unless our names are on a lease."

Rosalie turned around in her seat, hand clasped to the back of it. "Next you're gonna say, 'Unless you have my last name'." She could practically hear Joanna snickering even when her back was turned to Rosalie. "That's hypocritical of you!"

"Suck it, Mason," Joanna said, and half-raised a middle finger to Rosalie, but their teacher was just now entering the room. She dropped her hand, sighed, the muscles around her eyes still tight when she met Rosalie's eyes.

Rosalie rolled her eyes and sighed. "Fine. Then you should know Darling wants to room with you."

They were an entire two aisles away from each other. The seats were almost filled. The annoyance from Joanna's face fell and was replaced with a mild look of shock. "Really?" she said. She backtracked, grabbing her books and sliding into the seat in front of Rosalie before the guy in front of her could claim it. The guy threw his arm up and gave up, walked around, and took Joanna's old seat.

"Where did you hear that? Did she talk to you?" Joanna asked, and Rosalie really couldn't tell of she was thrilled, horrified, or just plain surprised.

"She mentioned it to me after practice on Saturday," she said. She leant back in her seat, arms crossed, and watched as Joanna's eyes flitted away, processing something Rosalie couldn't quite see or understand. "You two are still friends, right?"

"Yeah, I think so," she whispered, a hand clutched to her chin. The teacher was writing on the board, but the class was still chattering.

"What's so complicated about it?" Rosalie asked. "You should take her up on it." Since you won't room with me, she thought, bitterly. She mentally shook the thought from her head. She wouldn't be bitter—not about this. Joanna was allowed to have close female friends. This entire time Rosalie was spoiled by the fact that the people Joanna considered as Good Friends were both male.

That was bound to change, she knew this. Darling was a better option than the Russian Roulette that was the Random Roommate Assignments. The chances of getting Georgina or Arden as a roommate were too high for Joanna, and Arden would no doubt put the odds in her favor.

"What I want to know..." Joanna started, slowly. She met Rosalie's eyes. "Is why Darling doesn't want to room with George."

"Because she wants to room with you."

"It's gotta be deeper than that," she insisted, shaking her head. "You don't know Darling. Darling wouldn't—"

She broke off at the sound of the teacher tapping a whiteboard marker to her desk to get the class' attention. Rosalie continued to stare at the back of Joanna's head. The hot, angry presence in Rosalie's chest only grew from Joanna's words. She didn't like to be pushed aside simply because she was ignorant about Darling Lavier. Sure, she didn't know the girl all that well, but she knew what the situation warranted, and that was Joanna's security at USW.