Textbook Romance [Closed] - Printable Version

Textbook Romance [Closed] - Printable Version

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RE: Textbook Romance [Closed] - megs - 06-02-2017

It had not been difficult to deduce that Rose was avoiding him. Keiavan didn’t know why. He thought they had cleared up the social media misunderstanding and he’d even offered to help her with her struggles in French. He thought about confronting her, but he didn’t. He watched her scurry out of the theater at the end of each rehearsal as he packed up his things.

He assumed it had something to do with his being a vampire. That was always it, wasn’t it? People were either frightened of it, or way too interested in it. Every so often, he was sure that even his friends were somewhat wary of him. In the way you’d be wary of a dog; friendly, cute even, but don’t mess with it too much or it might bite.

He watched her leave every evening and didn’t bother to chase after her. What was the point? She obviously wasn’t interested in talking to him and he wasn’t going to hound her like some weird stalker.

Keiavan’s phone went off in the middle of the day. It wasn’t surprising, he was constantly getting notifications for this or that or whatever. When he checked it, he was surprised to see it was from Rose. They’d added each other on all their social media the night they’d reconnected. And then she’d avoided him. It was kind of weird to be invited into her life; seeing her Instagram posts and her Snapchat stories only to have her brush past him when their paths crossed.

She’d snapped him directly. Maybe it was an accident?

Oh. It was her latest French test. I guess dire circumstances had finally forced her to take him up on his offer. He kind of wanted to renege on his offer. Keiavan was kind of bitter about her behavior in the precious days. He opened a new thread of messages and added Rose’s number to the recipient.

>>I’ll be in the library from 3-7; meet me there if you want me to help.

RE: Textbook Romance [Closed] - saronym - 06-11-2017

Rose received the confirmation text that Kei would tutor her and immediately felt her stomach leap into her heart. She told herself that she was reacting this way because she was still embarrassed over the Twitter snafu. Realistically that was probably ninety percent of her anxiety. The last ten percent was a mixture of the social awkwardness that arose out of reconnecting with an old friend who had become attractive...oh, and a vampire.

>> alrighty! see you later

She sent back the calmly cheerful text while she frantically applied a full face of make-up and sprayed her hair full of dry shampoo. At some point Rose stopped in her efforts and stared at herself in the eyes in the mirror. She asymmetrical because she could not get her eyeliner to cooperate.

Fuck it.

She salvaged it and headed off to the library with her hair in a messy braid and her heart pounding. She sort of regretting not taking a couple shots of liquid courage from her roomie’s stash of liquor. That would not have been conducive to studying.

There was a coffee shop on the first floor of the library, so she stopped and bought two lattes. An offering of thanks? Apology? An offering of something.

Instead of texting him to ask where he was, she walked around the entire five floor library until she found him. She had waited until it was 6 o’clock to even leave her dorm. It was now a quarter past. She had done it intentionally. Almost to set a time limit on their interaction -based on his 7 o’clock parameter- just in case it was too awkward to bear.

She came to a stop in front of the table where he sat with books and laptop and papers spread out. “Hi.” Her voice was barely a squeak partly because she was trying to stay quiet out of respect for the other patrons. “I brought you some coffee --” she held up one of the lattes and wiggled it.

Sitting in the seat next to him, Rose was careful not to disturb whatever work he laid out. She took her backpack off and placed it at her feet. “How’s it been?” She asked to make conversation as if she hadn’t been making a concerted effort to avoid him.

She unzipped the bag and pulled out a folder and notebook labeled French. Rose had realistically spent more time on the elaborate doodling and illustrations that decorated the cover of her folder and notebook than she had ever spent studying the subject. She produced that shameful test and held it up so that it covered the bottom of her face.

“Meanwhile, I’ve been busy bombing French tests.”

RE: Textbook Romance [Closed] - megs - 06-24-2017

Keiavan was actually surprised that Rose showed up at all. He’d been checking his phone for the past three hours, only to find over and over again that there wasn’t a word from her. He blinked up at her when she appeared in front of the table, his gaze left hers only once to glance down at the clock on his computer. Putting his pen down, he reached for the coffee she was wiggling in a manner that was meant to be enticing. “Thank you,” he said, placing the paper cup towards the end of the table and out of the parameters that would have it ending up on the floor.

Keiavan knew he’d only had enough blood to function, but not enough to eat or drink ‘human’ food as it were. He didn’t explain any of this to her, he’d just set it aside and pretend to forget about it, and buy her one in recompense some other time.

“It’s - uh - been fine.” Or at least it had been. Then she had sat down next to him, bringing that enticing scent with her. He’d hoped whatever it was had been a one time thing, but he could only be so lucky. She smelled so good, but not in the way that food smelled good. But not in the way that shampoo or perfume smelled good either. Keiavan decided he would just not breathe. He didn’t have to, so why torture himself. Hopefully she wouldn’t notice the absence of a steady rhythm of breathing, because it usually freaked people out.

“I don’t have a lot of time, so let me look at this test,” He decided to get right to the point. She’d waited until the last minute to show up anyway, so hopefully his rushing her, didn’t seem desperate. He took the papers from her and flipped through them. “What do you think your problem areas are?”

RE: Textbook Romance [Closed] - saronym - 06-26-2017

Rose found herself feeding off Kei’s tension. The intuitive girl caught that flick of his eyes to check the time, the way he put aside the coffee without tasting it, and the way he seemed...something. She couldn’t quite put her finger on what it was. The whole introduction was strained and it made her feel antsy like she wanted to run away from him.

She told herself it was her own apprehension about the encounter that she had let build up to an unnecessary apex and here they both were vibing on each other’s jitters. Rose didn't know much about vampires. And so she had no idea, not even the slightest clue, that the tension in the room was partly caused by his condition.

Forcing an apologetic smile, Rose chuckled self-consciously. “Yeah sorry, I couldn’t come sooner. I was - you know.” She wasn’t good at lying.

She flipped her hair over and chewed at her fingernails while she considered what her issues were with French. “Okay so like I have problems with the verbs. Some of them are like super easy to conjugate and others make literally no sense. And it’s so random.” She pouted her lower lip while she considered what else was the problem. “Oh and in the free writing section,” she flipped the exam over to where she had attempted to write a paragraph on a given prompt. Her neat script had been beaten up with a red pen noting the numerous errors she made.

“I got super marked up for the whole words have weird accent marks thing. It’s so random!” She complained and then threw up her hands. “The whole language, Kei. The whole thing.” She mimicked shooting herself in the temple with a finger gun before her hand slapped down to her thigh clad in maroon tights.

She sighed heavily and then rested her elbow on the table and her cheek on her closed fist. “Maybe I should just drop it and take sign language? I found out that will count for the language requirement. And it could totally be useful. Like maybe more useful than stupid French.” She laughed and pushed at his arm playfully. “No offense, monsieur, lover of French.”

RE: Textbook Romance [Closed] - megs - 02-22-2018

The changes in her heartbeat, and her breathing and her scent have gone unnoticed to a more human study partner, but Keiavan picked up on all of it. The disappointed skip of her heart when he didn’t try the coffee that she had brought for him. He knew he could soothe her by explaining why he didn’t. But the admittance that he had not had enough blood to partake in human food didn’t sound like it would be soothing in his head.

Rose was nervous and it was making him nervous. He knew it was he, the vampire, that was making her nervous. Which bothered him for all the obvious reasons. He realized he wasn’t listening to what she was saying, but she was pouting at him. He looked down his nose at the plump red painted lip that was jutted in his direction. He looked away and back to her paper, scanning the red marks that marred her mistakes.

Keiavan forced a laugh when she accused him of loving French. It sounded obvious to him, and he was focusing too much on smiling without showing his fangs. “French is alright, but I don’t love it. My mother insisted I learn. She was more keen on teaching it to me than Veridian, which took me longer to pick up because I was older. She says it’s the only part of my birth father she could give me.” Kei didn’t know why he had told her that. The words had just sort of poured out him before he could stop them. He sighed and scolded himself for oversharing.

“I can’t help you with sign language, but you’re not wrong. At the end of the day it might be more useful.” He shrugged his shoulders. “Let’s start with your conjugation. We can go over that in the time we have. I can only stay until seven.”

RE: Textbook Romance [Closed] - saronym - 02-23-2018

Rose couldn’t help but stare at his mouth when he laughed. It wasn’t like she was only looking for his fangs. She knew they were there, and sure, that would be interesting to see. But really, he had a nice smile. A good looking mouth. And a handsome beard. And there were fangs in there somewhere.

How weird that they used to play at the playground. She remembered one time he knocked her over and she cried not about being knocked over but about the grass stains in her favorite pants.

For being childhood friends, or something, she didn’t really know all that much about him, in a personal sense. They played together as kids before he outgrew her and they went their separate ways. So when he mentioned his birth father, she was all ears. She leaned her elbow on the desk and listened intently.

“That’s really sweet actually.” But the rest of his personal confession made her kind of sad. She touched his arm reassuringly. She pulled her hand away quickly and picked nervously at her nails. “I don’t really know anything about my birth mother either.” She shrugged one shoulder. “I’ve just seen one or two pictures. I’m pretty sure she just spoke English though.” She laughed lightly and shrugged again. “Who knows. Well, my dad knows but he doesn’t like talking about it so --- yeah.”

The topic of their parentage fell by the wayside when he returned to the subject of tutoring her. Rose settled in to take her lesson, halfway determined to learn something, but she was mostly distracted by the sudden longing to just pal around with her old friend.

When he mentioned the time constraints on their study session, she cocked her head. “What you got a hot date or something?” She blurted it out unthinkingly and then stared with determination at her French homework while she tried to will the blush away.

RE: Textbook Romance [Closed] - megs - 06-24-2018

“Actually, yeah, he does.”

Keiavan hadn’t needed to answer for himself. Though, Rose had jokingly asked him about a hot date and was now an alarming shade of red because of it, she had been right on the nose about his future plans. Just as he had started to relax, he felt a tension seize his entire body as the familiar voice of his girlfriend sounded out from behind their table.

“Mina,” he said by way of greeting, standing automatically as he did so. Gentlemanly considerations he had his mother to thank for. Briefly, he wrapped an arm around her waist in an affectionate side hug and pressed a kiss to her cheek before pulling away. Mina turned her face expectantly to this kiss, and allowed her gaze to unabashedly travel between Keiavan and Rose. There was something syrupy sweet and simultaneously venomous about her smile. “What are you doing here?”

Mina was tall. Only a few inches shorter than Keiavan. With long slender limbs, and perfectly straight brown hair. Like a supermodel. She had a face that as soft and angled at the same time, with almond-shaped brown eyes. She wore a pretty floral patterned dress and heels, beneath a long coat that seemed to emphasize the date that she had mentioned.

“I came to get you for our date,” she replied, sweetly.

“That’s not until 7:30. You know I tutor until 7.”

Mina shrugged, clearly unperturbed that she was interrupting something. She let her gaze fall down her nose to look at Rose again. Keiavan opened his mouth to introduce his girlfriend to his childhood friend, but he was interrupted. “Mina Rockford,” she introduced, thrusting the hand that didn’t hold a matching clutch in Rose’s direction as if this would somehow soothe her intrusion. Kei exhaled sharply through his nose and glanced down apologetically at Rose.

RE: Textbook Romance [Closed] - saronym - 06-29-2018

The sound of the stranger’s voice behind them made Rose startle in her chair. Her hand bumped her empty coffee cup over and it rolled over her notes leaking a small bit of brown liquid onto her papers. Rose snatched the cup and set it right before twisting in her chair to see who was addressing them. Kei was already on his feet and kissing some girl.

Her stomach twisted up. Why would it do that? Her eyes traveled up the length of the other girl’s slender frame housed attractively in a feminine dress. Oh, that was why. She felt slightly sick with the kind of anxiety that came from jealousy.

She popped up out of the chair and tugged self-consciously at the braid hanging over her shoulder. She felt underdressed compared to this girl. Mina. A hand was shoved at her and she sorted of flinched. Her own hand was slow to extend for a shake.

“I’m um, I’m Rose.” When their hands met Rose went tense. She felt cold. Too cold. Rose pulled her hand away and looked at it before closing her hand and shoving it down to her side. Oh course Kei would have a gorgeous vampire girlfriend. “We uh -” She glanced at Kei before her eyes fell away from him again. “We have musical theatre together.” It was the truth but not truly how they knew each other. She spared mentioning their history partly because she felt they had been caught at something and partly because there didn’t feel like much history to mention.

“Keiavan was just helping me with French. But we’re done.” She turned to sweep together her notes into a messy pile. She turned around to face the couple again with her folder clutched to her chest. “I like your dress.” She said to Mina trying to find something to like about the other girl. Her dress was neutral territory.

RE: Textbook Romance [Closed] - megs - 03-09-2019

Mina watched the display with an obvious indifference that could have been mistaken for disgust. That hand that gripped Rose's in a polite shake was adorned with a simple ring. Silver with a blue crystal inlaid in the setting. It looked like Lapis Lazuli and very much resembled one that Keiavan himself wore. When she smiled the matching jewelry was obvious and confirmed Rose's suspicions. Two dainty, but deadly looking fangs were nestled where blunted canines would normally be.

"Rose," she repeated. "What an adorable name." She reclaimed her hand and curled one arm around Keiavan's waist and pulled herself closer to him. He begrudgingly agreed to her contact. Letting one arm loosely hang around her waist, as she sidled closer and rested a hand against his chest. He briefly looked annoyed to have her hanging all over him, but masked his expression quickly. "I thought you were dropping musical theater this semester?" She turned her dark-eyed gazed to Kieavan. Her brows lifted behind in her bangs inquisitively in a way that suggested the decision had not been entirely his own.

"I made first chair." He shrugged, nonchalantly, using the same lift of his shoulders to move out of her hold on him. He heard Mina mutter an off-hand thanks to a compliment about her dress.

"Will you wait for me in the lobby while I finish up here?"

Mina pouted at him. "She said you were done."

Keiavan felt like he was stuck between a strange rock and even stranger hard place with no way to explain that Rose was an old family friend and that Mina could chill without something getting out of hand. With a sigh he gazed apologetically down at Rose. "You did well today. I think you're getting the hang of it. Text me next week and we will get another session in before your test, okay?"

RE: Textbook Romance [Closed] - saronym - 03-16-2019

Rose's eyes followed the gem on Mina's finger even has her hand was drawn away. She had long and elegant fingers that matched her overall figure. The ring looked almost out of place. A pretty anachronism on a chic vampire girl. Rose wondered at the significance of it noting the way it almost matched the ring Keiavan wore.

Vampire promise rings?

Rose had some googling to do. Right after she puked. The way Mina snuggled up to Kei made her feel like retching. There was something about that girl that Rose didn't like. And it wasn't just because she was all over Rose's current crush. Rose did not at all appreciate her name being called ‘adorable.' It only made her feel more acutely aware of how doll-like she was in comparison to the model-esque Mina.

“The pit wouldn't be the same without Keiavan.” Rose said on the tail end of his comment defending his choice to stay with musical theater.

Rose's eyes bounced between Kei and Mina as they went back and forth. She clasped her folders to her chest and gave Kei a radiant smile and bobbed her head. “Yes. This was very helpful. Thank you. I will text you.” She turned her syrupy smile to Mina. “I hope you enjoy your date!”

With that, she rounded the couple tall couple and left the library at a speed walk. She had googling and social media stalking to do.

RE: Textbook Romance [Closed] - megs - 06-10-2019

Keiavan was not surprised to find that Rose remained on his mind the following week. Her silly tweet had managed to come full circle and appear on other means of social media. His friends still thought it was hilarious to bring it to his attention.

There was also Mina who kept probing him about his history with her. He kept having to explain that they were friends in their childhood. That their families had known each other for ages. He was growing tired of her obvious jealousy. "We just know each other," he said to her over and over. "Please, don't let it bother you."

He was lax to face his unhappiness with his relationship. Not wanting to admit to himself that it was something he'd fallen into out of convenience. He thought it would be easy to just date another vampire. But Mina was clinging and insecure, making it almost impossible for him to have friends, let alone female ones.

Now that Rose was around, and he found himself thinking about her more than usual...

Perhaps, it would inspire him to make some changes.

He liked watching her during rehearsals. She was lively and vibrant and passionate about acting. It didn't help that he felt like he could hear her heartbeat a mile away.

Keiavan knew he should not get involved with her. Didn't need to complicate her tidy human life with his vampire nonsense. Besides that, she was a freshman. Still needed to get settled and figure out her college life. Rose looked over, and made eye contact with him.

She smiled, and he immediately looked away.

RE: Textbook Romance [Closed] - saronym - 01-24-2021

Rose caught Keiavan looking at her for the hundredth time that week. Or maybe she was exaggerating. Maybe he was catching her looking at him again. Regardless their eyes seemed to want to catch each other.

They hadn't spoken much since the awkward encounter in the library. Rose walked away from that situation with the vague hint of threats from that other girl. Mina.

Rose was a skilled internet stalker and since learned Mina was vampire. Same year as Kei. Majoring in fashion design and textiles.

Rose tucked a lock of hair self consciously behind her ear and smiled at Keiavan before he looked away.

That was it. She made a choice.

Rehearsal was over and everyone was doing their usual milling about. Perfect time to bridge the awkwardness. She grabbed her mini backpack and trotted over to him.

"Hey! Kei!" She said to get his attention and when he turned she waved awkwardly at him and tugged a little at the hem of her crop top suddenly feeling uncomfortably self aware.

"So check it out!" She dug a paper out of her bag and trust it at him.

Her french exam. Grade: B minus.

"I got a B!" Perhaps it wasn't much to him; he was one of those honor's students with all those A's lining his report cards.

"So..." she cocked her head and smiled at him, "There's a party tonight. At Liani's." He would know Liani, one of the bubbly dancers who lived in a big house bought by her parents and who frequently threw ragers. "You... wanna come?"

RE: Textbook Romance [Closed] - megs - 02-09-2021

Something like nervousness flipped his stomach when he heard Rose call out to him after rehearsal. He'd thought the night would end like their previous rehearsals. He would pack up his belongings and slip out of the theatre without having to talk to her.

Had he been avoiding her? He didn't think so. Or at least, not in a way that was intended to be malicious. Not that she could even know his intentions. Her tiny shirt and her tiny wave were doing everything in their power to undo him. He wished she wouldn't show so much skin. Not in the way that gross misogynists wished she wouldn't. Just in the way that she had so many soft places he would like to bite.

Keiavan looked down at her as she approached. Not metaphorically down, as if he thought less of her, but regular down because she was shorter. Much shorter than him. He liked that about her.

He was dressed in his usual uniform of dark washed jeans and a buttoned up dress shirt in green. A look he had no doubt acquired from his adoptive father in a color he had come to love because of his mother.

"Hey, that's great!" He said, reaching out to inspect the paper she held up towards him. Blue eyes scanned the content. "Look at this verb conjugation," he complimented, smiling at her. "To think that you were struggling a few weeks ago, and now you're a success thanks to my expertise." He handed the test back to her.

He watched her put the test away as she invited him to a party. His brows soft up and he couldn't keep his mouth from twisting into an amused smirk. "Ask me in French," he challenged, playfully. Setting his cello case gently on the ground. "Let's hear it."

RE: Textbook Romance [Closed] - saronym - 02-18-2021

Rose immediately flushed at the impromptu 'assignment' he'd given her. She shuffled her feet uncomfortably as she thought about how she would even formulate the question.

"Oh come on." She said to buy herself some time.

When he didn't respond, seeming serious about his request to have her invite him in French, she acquiesced the best she would.

"Ah ... um ... voudriez-vous ah-aller ...uhm à la fête avec moi ..ce soir?"

Her blush deepened. She knew her accent was atrocious. Not to mention her stumbling over the entire thing. French was easier to write than speak but she got it out...she assumed.

Though blushing, Rose cracked a charming smile at him and gazed at him through her naturally full eyelashes hoping her charm would make-up for her poor execution.

"Now you have to go. Besides it will be fun."

RE: Textbook Romance [Closed] - megs - 03-30-2021

A smile crept across his features as she stumbled through his impromptu test. There was nothing mocking in the expression, he was purely endeared by her. He couldn’t help but chuckle at the way she looked at him so expectantly. Keira an picked up his cello case again and started waking for the door. He expected her to follow after him in the cute, puppy-like way that she used to do when they were children.

“I guess I have no choice then to go. Since you did such a good job asking me.”

Before they parted ways that the theatre door, Keiavan said, “I’m going to change. I’ll come by and and we will drive to the party later?”

As he walked back to his dorm alone, the thrill of Rose’s attention faded and he started to doubt his decision. The weight of his condition and his jealous girlfriend came back to him and he worried his decision was a foolish one.

His phone buzzed in his pocket. He fished out the device and saw Mina’s name on the screen. As if he had accidentally summoned her just by thinking about her.

Keiavan wished he had the guts to just break up with her. He wasn’t invested in the relationship like he should be. Instead he said hello. Instead he told her that he was going to a party and let her yell at him. Instead, he hung up the phone call with her feeling worse than he did before.

The young vampire dropped off his cello and showered and changed. A grey Henley sweater and back jeans. He put beanie on over his curls because he didn’t feel like taming them.

It was only a vampire dash across campus to Rose’s dorm. He didn’t go inside the building. He...couldn’t. It was a strangely fine line to being a public place but also a residence. He text Rose to let her know he was waiting for her.

“I figured we could just take my car to Liani’s.”