32

❦𝓡𝓸𝓼𝓮❦

So far Isaiah has brought Mary everywhere with him. So to say this last week has been exhausting is an understatement.

She's so sweet when everyone's around, but then the two of us are left alone she instantly goes in on me. She must get some kind of joy out of it because she could just leave me alone.

It's not like I try to talk to her, she always starts it.

The guys left to get dinner, that leaves me and Mary alone in Blake's apartment.

"They must just keep you around for shits and giggles. No way can anyone actually want to be around you." She declared from across the room.

My eyebrow twitches, I've just about had it with her insults.

The only reason I keep my mouth shut is for Isaiah. He really likes her and she seems to only have an issue with me, I don't want to cause him any problems. So I suck it up and just try to ignore everything she says to me.

I pull out my sketchbook Blake bought me, I have pages of designs for stuff I want to make and sell in here. Every chance I get I'm filling this book with pictures. Mostly inspired by these last few months. The ones of the waterfall are my favorite.

I sketch the outline of a street downtown, ignoring Mary as she continues to point out how I don't belong here. It's sorta sad at this point, she could be doing so much more with her time instead of coming at me like this.

I start adding details, like flower pots and signs, people in the windows at the Cafe and cars on the side of the road.

"I'm talking to you, bitch." Mary spits, sounding way closer than she was before. I lift my eyes off the paper just in time to see her tip a large glass of water over. Sending the liquid all over my sketchbook.

"When I'm talking, I expect you to listen." Her eyes are on fire, but that fire is extinguished as soon as the front door opens up.

"Oh my gosh! You should be more careful! Your drawings are soaked!" She gasps. Grabbing a wad of paper towels, she begins to dab at the wet and now thanks to her, smudged paper.

"Fuck, what happened?" Blake's worried voice sounds from the door.

"She accidentally knocked over a glass of water. It spilled all over her sketchbook." The way she can lie like that is incredibly awful.

She dumped it, on purpose, but can blame it on me and sound so confident.

I grab the book, not looking at anyone and lock myself in the bathroom connected to my room.

Grabbing the hair dryer I set it on a low heat and begin to try to salvage any of my drawings.

I knew she was mean, I can handle the harsh words. But she just ruined countless hours of my work, and blamed it on me. I can't even tell anyone what really happened because then it would be known that we don't get along and Isaiah would probably have to choose between hanging out with her or with Blake and I.

I don't want to put him through that.

I hear shuffling of feet and a soft knock on the door.

"Rose, you ok?" It's Blake, of course it's him.

He probably won't even question that I did it, I'm always tripping or running into things.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I sniffle. I didn't even realize I had started to cry until I tried to speak.

"Can I come in?" His soft voice falls over me. The one he uses when he thinks something is wrong or I'm sad.

"Not right now." I don't want him to see me like this, so defeated by a stupid girl who is dead set on making my life hell.

I hear him sigh on the other side of the door.

I feel bad for pushing him away like this. I really do. But I know if I open that door he'll embrace me in a tight hug and I'll end up telling him everything that's been going on.

I hear him walk away, leaving me feeling empty inside.

I got three pages dry, they are all wavy and smeared so I don't even know why I'm trying anymore.

Something touches my foot and I jump back thinking it's a spider.

But when I look down I see one of the granola bars I've been obsessed with lately laying by my foot.

"I'm sorry your sketchbook got wet." Blake's deep voice sounds.

I see his fingers under the door as he slides another bar through. "I would give you something else other than food, but this is all I could find that would fit under." He always finds a way to put a smile on my face.

No, I'm not hungry. And no I don't want to eat the granola bar, but just him attempting to cheer me up is way more than I could ask for.

"Oh wait." I hear movement then the door shakes. "Never mind it won't fit." I see the paw of the panda poking under. He really thought he could fit that under a door?

"Thanks." I sniffle a laugh. I open the door to find him crouched and glaring at the panda.

He immediately stands, frowning at the last few tears that are falling slowly down my cheek. His hands reach out and caress my face. Thumbs wiping the tears away.

"I know this sucks. But we can go get another book, ok? Then we can get some other supplies too." His voice comforts me.

But it pains me that I can't even tell him why I'm so upset. I'm sad that my drawing got ruined, but I'm mostly just overwhelmed with how Mary could do that. She knew how long I'd been working on those ideas and sketches.

"Ok." I say, sucking in a shaky breath.

It has to get better, I'll just have to start going with the boys when they leave, that way we aren't alone as much.

The only reason why they leave is because Mary pushes them to go get stuff sometimes. Blake was skeptical because he's still all about him or Ace being with me at all times, but they've left the house a few times for no more than a half hour.

Today being one of those times.

"Rose!" Ace's voice yells from the other room. Then heavy footsteps pound towards us, "Don't dry it all the way! This article I found says to lay the paper flat then when it's mostly dry, but still damp, put a heavy book on top of it to flatten it out." He's still looking at his phone as he walks into the room.

I quickly step away from Blake and wipe my face more, hopeful that I don't look like I've just been crying.

"That's a good idea." I didn't even think about trying anything but the hair dryer.

What he's saying sounds way more promising.

"I'll clean the counter off, we can lay out the drawings and let the sun dry them. I sent Isaiah and Mary to get books from Olivia's." My chest lightens when I hear that Mary's gone. I really didn't want to see her at the moment.

"Grab it and bring it out." He says looking up from his phone for a second to make sure I'm listening. Then he turns around and leaves so he can go clean the counter.

⇿♡⇿♡⇿♡⇿♡⇿

It worked for most of the pages, except for the ones that Mary smudged with a paper towel when she was "helping" me.

She didn't come back, Isaiah dropped the books then immediately headed off to take her to the movies. The best news I've heard all day.

I didn't feel like going to the store, so Blake had me order stuff online. Apparently there's this thing where people do the shopping for you and deliver it to your door within hours.

I said I should do that for a job, and that led Blake into a twenty minute rant about how dangerous that would be. Ace sat next to him nodding his head in agreement.

According to these boys, the level of danger I used to take part in when I took ads out of the newspaper is tremendous.

I get it, I really am lucky that nothing worse happened to me, but at the same time that was just what I had to do to survive. I tried not to think about how easily the person I was calling could be a murderer or worse.

If I didn't take jobs, I wouldn't get paid. Then there would be a chance of me running out of gas and a murder coming along as I sit on the side of the road. So I chose to work, but if I got too sketched out I'd leave.

Now these guys won't let me take the garbage out unattended. Ace whispers something in Blake's ear causing him to turn pink and shove him away.

I want to know what he said, but that would be an invasion of privacy since he opted for whispering in the first place.

"What do you think you're going to make first?" Ace questions. Not only did Blake order me a new sketchbook. But he also got a few canvases and paints along with some other stuff.

"I'm thinking I'll paint the waterfall for my first painting. I was also thinking about making some greeting cards." I could paint that waterfall all day long, so I figured that would be a good place to start. And I like the idea of greeting cards, I'm not sure if they'll sell. But I really want to try.

"That's a good idea. Olivia will buy cards from you for sure, she stockpiles those things." She does seem like the kind of person who would send out a personalized card every chance she got.

"Hold up." Blake laughs. He pulls a box out of a cabinet and hands it to me. "Those are all just from her."

I open the box and see hundreds of cards, all from Olivia.

"Glad you liked it?" I say holding up a card shaped like a burger with those words written across it in marker.

"She mailed that to me the day after I said the burgers she made were the best I've ever had." He shakes his head in amusement.

"God, I got one congratulating me for overcoming constipation." Ace grimaces.

"Look, that's the latest one." Blake says, pointing to a bright orange card.

"Good job on not going to jail. Next time try not to get arrested." I read aloud. "She didn't." I gasped.

"Oh, yes she did. Don't be surprised when she starts sending you random cards one day, it never stops after the first one." Blake laughs. It's really sweet that even though these are incredibly weird cards, he still keeps every last one of them.

"I guess she'll keep me in business then." The amount of cards she sent to Blake alone is crazy. She must buy cards in bulk or something.

Plus I love that when she can't find a card for the occasion she just writes on the front with a marker, she must really get a kick out of it. Maybe I'll have to do custom cards for people like her, that could get really interesting.

"Alright, movie time." Ace nods, grabbing the remote.

"Like hell it is. You'll pick out something stupid to watch." Blake scoffs. His hate for anything other than documentaries is strong.

"I wanted to watch the new animation that just came out today." Ace grins, catching my attention.

We were talking about it yesterday when Blake was at the gym.

He knows I really want to watch it. It looks really cute, but I'm sure Blake would hate it. So I didn't bring it up with him.

I shoot him a tiny glare, he's trying to use me to get what he wants, but it's also what I want.

"That sounds stupid." Blake snatches the remote from Ace. "I'm not watching that shit."

Ace looks at me with a raised eyebrow. I continue to glare at him, I know that look. He's about to throw me under the bus to get his way.

"That sucks, Rose really wanted to see it." He sighs, leaning back on the couch. He watches out the corner of his eye as Blake tenses up.

He's crewel, really crewel for using me like this.

Blake flips silently through the new releases and clicks on the only animation that was released today.

"Oh, I thought you wouldn't watch this shit." Ace mocks with a smug look on his face. I swear, I won't give him any cookies to take home the next time I bake his favorite flavor.

"I changed my mind." He bites out. "I'm going to go make some popcorn." He adds, lifting himself off the couch he walks to the kitchen.

"That was mean." I pout. I could have waited until the next time Blake left to watch it. I don't like to make him do stuff he doesn't like just because I want to do it.

"If I was being mean, I would have made him watch the romantic comedy that just came out." Ace laughed.

Oh gosh, I think Blake would have a really hard time sitting through something like that, I don't doubt he'd try if I really wanted to watch it though.

Blake comes back twenty minutes later with popcorn, he took extra long so he could miss a good chunk of the movie. I really appreciate how he goes so far to make me happy.

I try to do the same for him but he never shows excitement for anything unless it involves me, or fighting. And I'm not so sure about trying to combine them, I don't think he'd enjoy beating me up.

Maybe I could go to the gym with him one day though, I'm not sure if that would make him happy, but I could ask.

I might just end up getting in the way though. But I know he likes it when I'm at his fights so maybe he'd like it if I watched him train.

And then when I start making money again I could offer to take him on a date instead of him always having to take me and pay for everything. I know he doesn't mind, but I want to make him feel as special as he makes me feel.

"Want a drink, Rose?" Blake askes. I say yes and give him a reassuring smile. He's looking for ways to get out of watching the movie, and I'll provide those whenever possible.

I don't understand why he hates movies so much, but he gets fidgety when they play. Like he actually can't stand watching them, not that they just bore him.

That's why I never ask to watch movies around him, Ace doesn't seem to care though. He probably thinks it's funny making Blake so uncomfortable.