A LITTLE TOUCH OF ROSE - EPISODE 35

Zedekiah’s standpoint

Tennyson stomped over to my cousin and nonentity friend and teammate, roughly nudging everyone out of his way. Immediately he got to them, he yanked Alyssa away from Alvin and hid her behind him. I was grateful for that. It took a lot to hold myself from not going over there and pounding his face for placing his dirty hands on my sweet innocent cousin… Almost innocent cousin.

“What the hell, man!” Alvin shouted. Alyssa was a little bit dazed from what she was doing earlier. She was slowly starting to process what she almost led herself into doing.

“Alvin, I’ve told you before to keep your hands and filthy ideas away from Alyssa, times without number, haven’t I?”

“She wasn’t complaining, dude, mind your business and give her back to me,” Alvin growled.

“This is not going to end well,” Rosita said with a evil laugh. Terry chuckled, he was getting the whole thing on video. The music has stop playing.

Why does it always stop at times like this?

“Why are you getting it on video?”

“Simple, to show mom and get my revenge,” Ter said and cackled evilly, “now shush, Rosy, you’re editing this talk out of it.”

“Why should I…”

“Dude! It’s not your pussy I’m going to fuck so mind you damn business!” Alvin’s angry shout drew our attention back to the scene. Rosita clicked her tongue and shook her head pitifully, even I knew why. Tenny is cute, but, I repeat, but, don’t test his patient.

“Jeez! This place is getting hot,” I flinched a little from the sudden voice close to my ear. I shifted with Rosita and looked over to Yuki who was watching the scene with a bowl of popcorn in her hands. Meena and co were sitting on the next couch with popcorns too.

This girls need to find something to do with their lives.

I rolled my eyes back to the scene, in time to see a very furious Tennyson throw a punch at Alvin. Alvin might be lazy, but the one thing he knew how to protect is his face. He was fast enough to shield his face, though his forearms took the blow. Tenny didn’t even give him time to drop his hands before sending a ferocious kick to his guts, one that would leave a terrible mark.

“Here it comes,” Rosita giggled. Tenny launched himself forward and slammed his body into Alvin, slamming my weak friend to the ground. As usual, Alvin protected his head from bashing on the wooden floor, before he brought his hands forward to protect his face from Tenny’s punches.

Cedric and Jake ran over to help him. It was a waste of time, Tenny is like glue when angry. They tried to pull Tenny away but what did I say about glue? It was amusing to watch, really. I continued to chuckle as the girls giggled while watching all the drunk guys trying to pull Tenny away from Alvin before he did a real damage. If they weren’t so drunk and standing on air, it would have been easy. But it was an amusing show to watch drunk people struggle to get one strong and sober guy away from a equally drink fool.

Finally, Odin nonchalantly pushed everyone away and pulled Tenny off. Trust Tenny, he gave Alvin a hard kick to his ribs and manage to get one slam on the poor guy’s cock.

Ouch.

“Let me have em! You motherfucking bastard! Repeat what you said! Repeat your damn words again, I dare you!” Ten screamed as he struggled in Odin’s grasp. Knowing Alvin and his foolish ways, I wasn’t surprise when he sat up, spat blood out of his mouth and laughed.

“You can get angry all you want but at the end, Alyssa would end up where she ought to be, under me.”

“Why that…” I started to growl, ready to push Rosita off me. Rosita knew what I was going to do before I even thought about it. How else would I explain why I couldn’t move my muscles. “Jem, let me go, what did you do to me?”

“To keep you away. Tennyson might have be sloppy with his attack, hence why Alvin is still conscious, but I know how you fight so better sit here.” It wasn’t like I had a choice. I rolled my eyes to the girls. Alyssa, the reason for the whole fight was sitting down with Meena and giggling as she blushed, happy that two guys were fighting over her.

The insanity.

“I’m going to kill you!!!” Tenny roared. “Let me go you big ox!” He continued to scream as he trashed in Odin’s arms. Cedric wasn’t helping with the supportive curses he was throwing at Tenny.

“So, this has gone far enough,” Rosita said still amuse, “wanna take this, Ter?”

“And lose my teeth like last time, no,” he snorted. Rosita chuckled and rose from my laps, then placed her hands on her hips.

“Well, I better get this before it becomes too ugly,” she wasn’t the only one who thought that because what happened next shocked the spine out of everyone.

Sakura stomped to Tenny, standing between him and the two idiots asking for a headstone. Her boldness and fearlessness wasn’t what shocked us, the look on her face and the firm look in her eyes, just like Yvonne’s. I honestly didn’t choke like everyone did, not when I’ve spent my whole life getting worse from Rosita and her father. Have you met Brayleigh? The twins’ mother? She can chill her drink with her eyes and that is why they are both scared of their mother.

“Listen here you motherfucking Tennyson, you will not ruin my sister’s relationship party over some stupid undeserve rage, so shut the damn fuck up!” Tenny calmed down instantly, changing from anger to astonishment. Just like Terry, he was more stunned than terrified.

“Tell me,” she placed her hands on her hips like her mother would do when she wants to nag or scold, “what makes you think you have the right to interfere in Alyssa’s life?”

“Exactly!” Alvin and Cedric shouted, only to get a glare as a response. They tucked their tails between their legs and sealed their lips.

Sakura turned back to Tenny and sneered. “Are you are biological brother? Father? Cousin? Uncle? Boyfriend? No, just a friend claiming brotherhood or whatever you’ll call it. Instead of making a scene, you could have acted like the civilised animal you are, not wild one. If you have anything to say, talk to her in person, quietly, not throw a tantrum and try to murder someone. Remember, you are all public eye. You need to remember to keep your shit down before everyone knows and change the story for you.”

She about-face quickly and pointed at the idiots. “And you two,” they gulped with fear, “I knew you were fools, but I didn’t know you were this big of an imbecile,” everyone chuckled, “angering someone you can’t beat, is that a good way to die? You, Alvin, you should learn to respect women. You can’t just talk about their body like that, especially when they are listening! What the hell was the meaning of all the bullshit you just spat! Is that how to treat a woman! Is this how your father treats your mother or how your sisters boyfriends treat them?! Are you crazy… No, it’s not a question, it is a real fact that you are indeed mad.”

“Your attitude is exactly why no one wants you close to her, both of you are birds of a feather, only dumber than each other,” Cedric opened his mouth to snap but one glare from her and his lips were pinned. She continued to shout and scold all three of them until they were looking like badly scolded puppies.

“Now, someone take this twat to treat his wounds and check for any broken ribs and Alyssa, take your insane boyfriend out of my sister’s party and give him a blowjob to suck the anger out, or something!”

Everyone choked on their saliva and then looked at Rosita. “Why are you looking at me like that for? I didn’t teach her how to say foul words! She sucked it out of Isaac’s… Oh,” Rosita ended cutely, realising she was the one who spoilt her sister. “Eh,” she shrugged, “whatever. One more bitch for the world to deal with then.”

Some guy slapped Isaac’s shoulder sympathetically. “Good luck with that one, bro.”

“Zed,” Rosita called softly, pouting at me. I chuckled and nodded, encouraging her to go and that I was okay with her leaving to comfort her friend. “You sure?”

“Jem, go, I’m good. We’ll clean this up and end the party, no worries.” She rolled her eyes to Odin, the real person she wanted to get assurance from that the party would be under control. It sent a sting to my heart that she didn’t trust me enough to take care of things. I take care of Alvin, Cedric and Darra. If I could care for them, taking care of drunk boys wouldn’t be hard.

“Hey,” he called softly, bending down to bring her face to mine, “don’t take it personal, Zed, it’s not that I don’t trust you, I just need double assurance. Get them all out before I return, I’ll need to sleep.” She cupped my cheeks and gave me a short kiss. She stood up straight and walked over to Ten who was still in shock.

“Okay,” she took him from Odin, “let’s get you back to your room,” she grunted out as she threw him over her shoulder.

Wow.

“Goodnight, guys. Ter, you coming?”

“Right,” Terrison jumped to his feet. Why didn’t she tell me to follow her?

Don’t conclude.

Don’t conclude.

Don’t conclude.

Damnit, Zedekiah Kei Grimshaw, don’t fucking conclude!

Rosita’s standpoint

You wanna know what follows a huge revelation, the one thing that your mind swims in and emotions held to? Well, that’s shock. You are in a kind of shock that just leaves you dumbfounded, stupefied, bewildered. You wouldn’t be able to think properly and yet you still find yourself thinking about it. And when the shock settles in, regret for not realising sooner and guilt from what it might have caused because of your ignorance. That was how Zedekiah felt, how I felt when I realise Terrison was in love with me and how Tenny was feeling.

He laid stomach flat on his bed, in the cabin he shared with Terrison, his face pressed into his tiger pillow as he cried. For soft boys, they cry after everything settles in, for girls, they always cry. Since Ten was a soft and emotional guy, he had been crying for over an hour as he lamented on how stupid he was.

When we first came to the cabin, he started shouting again and throwing a tantrum, then Terry lost it and told him about how selfish he was and how Alyssa loved him. Terry told him everything, the pain she was going through and wickedly added so much lies that even I felt pity for Ten. By the time Terry was done screaming all his lies and truth, Tenny was a crying mess. The only good thing was that it helped him finally accept his feelings for her.

Hallelujah!

“I’m such a bad person. All this time I thought Sparkle Princess was always happy, always cheerful and had nothing to cry about, but I was wrong. I can’t believe she tried to kill herself because of me…” I glared at Terry who grinned innocently. “I can’t believe I’m the reason she changed her beautiful blonde hair to four shades of the rainbow because of me.”

So did that because she is obsess with rainbow.

“I can’t believe she gave up her love for unicorns because she was hurt when I said I didn’t like her old unicorn dress,”

Yes, then she bought a whole warehouse for storing uniforms and ponies.

“I’m the reason she started wearing colour lens to cover her hazel green and brown eyes. I love her eyes, why would she change it?”

Because she loves Barbie and Barbie’s eyes are blue, nitwit.

“I’m the reason for her obsession for balloon skirts and knee-high boots,”

She has been wearing that since she was born!

“I can’t believe the kind of monster I am! I hurt her so bad!”

Oh brother.

“You could just fix your mistake, you know,” I offered gently, running my fingers into his dishevelled sunflower blonde hair. He raised his head from the pillow and looked at me with wet swollen eyes.

“How?”

“Tell her how you feel and ask her out on a date?” I suggested.

“She doesn’t live in Italy or California anymore, ever since she signed a contract here. She never stays in one place, always dancing here and there, doing one photoshoot in this country or another or shooting a movie. It won’t work.” He complained.

“And yet you have loved her even with the distant. And you know Alyssa would take up any opportunity to be with you after so many years of pining. Just ask her first and then you can sort out the distant later.”

“You really think so?” He asked with a cute pout. I nodded as a smile spread across my face, “so I should ask her now?”

“She’s only one call away,” Terry sang. “Should I call her over? I don’t mind sleeping in the other room at Zedekiah’s cabin.” Ten nodded like the baby he is and sniffed.

“Finally, problem solved.”

Now, to gossip by sharing the news with Zelda and Brayleigh.

_______________

I chuckled as I listened to mom rant about how she accidentally came across Zelda in a mall. She went there to see if she could get some stores to start off as a supplier for her salon. Then, she met Zelda who was there to buy me a dress for the date she already planned. Turns out they knew each other since Hezzy and dad are best friends. According to her, they only met thrice before she was taken away, but they vibe well.

Am I suppose to be surprise?

They were back, exchanged numbers and were going to hang out to catch up on old times and plan our dates together. Mom just had to blab that she knew I was here because they can’t keep things from each other. I don’t even know how the meeting went or how they were able to share so much information in three hours, but they did and now our lives were about to take a drastic turn.

Mom went on and on and on and it was funny because I was laughing at how much harder our lives would be. Zed said he didn’t have the strength to panic so he would leave them to do whatever they want. I knew that sooner than expected, dad would find out about mom.

I felt sick in the stomach at the thought of that. It scared me to think about it, scared me to know that dad was close to finding me and ending the life of my beloved mother. Two things would have to happen, I let him kill her without a fight or fight him and get an unpredictable result: either I die or he does. I knew I couldn’t kill my father, but him under the force could kill me so you can guess what the so called “unpredictable” result would be.

“Rosy, are you there?” Mom shouted. I shook my head to get my mind back to reality.

“Uhm, yeah? What did you say?”

“I said that Zelda and I have planning to hold a small dinner for the two of us and you too. She told Brayleigh about me and Brayleigh got excited and she would be there too.”

“Mom, you have forgotten that your life is in danger,” I said sighed, “what were you thinking?”

“I was, Zelda wasn’t. I was able to convince them to keep it a secret, your father won’t know.”

“Mom, Zelda can’t keep her mouth shut and you know that,” I cried, “father can’t find out about you, I can’t lose you!”

“Rosy, do you trust me?” She asked calmly.

“Yes, but…”

“Then trust that I know what I’m doing. Okay, I don’t, but I am aware of the danger my life is in, but I would gladly risk everything just to be a part of your life…”

“Mom, don’t say that,” I sobbed, “it doesn’t have to be that way,”

“But you know that is how it would all end. Rosita, I know you, you love your father more than you love me and if anything should happen to him, you will hate me. You might think I’m delusional right now, that I don’t know what I’m saying, but I know. I would rather die knowing that you love me than to live to see you loathe my existence. Rico might have lied to you about me, but he was and still is nothing but a perfect father, your perfect father. He raised you to be such a wonderful and loveable woman, more than I thought he would. He never made you go through the hell he went to, he was there for you throughout your life but I wasn’t…”

“It doesn’t mean…”

“Rosita, let me do what I want and do yours. I love you, darling, don’t overthink it. Say hi to Sakura for me, bye bye.” She hung up. I let the phone slid down my cheek, down my body and fell on the counter my chest was pressed into. Tears fell from my eyes as I stared at my hands in a daze state.

Maybe it was best I leave. I couldn’t watch either of them die, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if that happened. They both meant a whole lot to me, but I knew that deep down, she was right. Father meant more. He might have lied about her but he was everything a good father should be. Sure, he’s too much of a dog, but he still raised me to be a good woman. He could have raised me to be worse, could have raised me to be nothing but heartless, but he still raised me to have a somewhat normal life.

I couldn’t dream of a life without him, at least not yet. Everyone dies, but it was not his time yet. He couldn’t leave me, he couldn’t abandon me for death, no. Mother couldn’t leave too. She didn’t just need to be alive for me, she needed to be there for Bloom, Reece and Sakura. I couldn’t take her away from them when she is all they have.

No, Rosita, you have to think of something, anything!

“Jem, you are crying, what’s wrong? Did I do something wrong?” Zedekiah’s frightened voice made me raise my bowed head. “Jem,” he gently placed his hands on my shoulders, “what happened?”

Could I tell him? Could I really tell him the part about me he didn’t know? Wouldn’t it scare him away? As I stared at him, I slowly started understanding why dad wanted me to be with him so much. If anything should happen and he ended up killing mom, I would have someone’s shoulders to lean on because then he would be too broken to be a father. But, from the aspect of me never knowing that mom was a good person, he definitely just wanted Zed to be with me so when he changes after her death, it wouldn’t destroy me. So that after he claimed his life, I wouldn’t be alone.

It made so much sense. Of course he would commit suicide after killing her, the lost would be too much for him to handle. If he wasn’t planning on killing himself after, he was certainly planning on before.

Bile rose to my throat as fear spread across my forehead and weighed down my brain. My stomach churned as the fear settled in and my heart beat accelerated. Dad might kill himself, he might take his own life or mother’s. The possibility of him doing the former was low, it’s impossible to break a code. But if he could subdue it for so long, he most likely had enough will to do something of such.

Again, he most likely knew that his death when mother still breathe wouldn’t end well, so it was possible he would choose to just end both their lives, so I wouldn’t hate anyone. At the end, my comfort fell on Zedekiah. That also explained why he allowed me to love Timothy and Brayleigh and Hezekiah and Zelda as my other parents, so I wouldn’t completely be shattered. It had always been his plan to keep me happy no matter what.

“No,” I cried, “this can’t happen, this can’t happen,”

“Jem, calm down, you are having a panic attack!”

Was I? Oh yes, I couldn’t breathe.

I gasped for air as my eyes watered. My throat burnt from my lack of oxygen or rather, how I forgot how to breathe. I found myself sitting on the slightly old loveseat, on his laps to be precise. He patted my back and taught me how to breathe again. I never stopped crying, it was the most fear I’d ever experience in my entire twenty one years life.

“Jem, what happened? I’ve never seen you panic like this before. You can tell me,” it wasn’t difficult to seek warmth from him, one only him could provide. His arms comforted me, his heartbeat helped shun the fear away. He left soft kisses on my forehead and cheeks to help me relax and it indeed worked.

Once I was calm, I shut my eyes and told him; I told my boyfriend everything. From my family history, how it started, what we have been doing, what I have been doing and the whole situation with mom. He never interrupted me for a second, though he gasped and stiffened at some part, but his encouraging strokes and kisses never left me. He quietly listened to everything I had to say without condemnation, querie or protest.

A ten minutes silence settled between us. I would have been afraid, would have feared what his reaction would be. But I felt his slight anxiety but huge acceptance to the real me. He wasn’t going to reject me, he wasn’t going to leave me. Zedekiah was determined to stay. The only thing he was truly worried about was my safety, how dangerous my work was. And that day was when I truly believed that he is indeed perfect.

“Jem, if your father could break a code, why can’t you?”

“He is still alive and at good health, I am not fully the head of the family. Plus, I have to rule for more than I have.”

“Jem, why would the code go so much against love?” He asked with a hint of suspicion.

“Because love is weakness, the evidence is my father and I. See how weak we have become?” I murmured. He hummed. For another minute, we let the silence encase us.

“If this is truly an old covenant, then we need someone who knows a whole lot about old things. I know someone who I think can help, but I’ll have to locate him first. Jem, I need time, do you think we have that?” Did we? He could show up anytime, could even send anyone at any minute. It was close, I could feel it.

“I do not know.”

“Once we are done here, I’ll set out myself to look for him, everything else would have to wait.” He said firmly. Hope, I hadn’t felt that since I got to know why father sent mom away. The feeling was more than what I felt when I found out mom wasn’t what dad painted her to be. No one had ever had a solution for anything concerning the code, but there I was in my boyfriend’s arms, hope buzzing in me because he most likely had a solution

I just hoped that he found the person on time.