WHO: Rose Knightley and Thomas McCormack
WHAT: Apologies??
WHEN: Some time in the past week
WHERE: Thomas' flat
STATUS: Finishing in comments!
She could be the better person here. She
could be the better person here. She could. It would not be that hard.
Hrm.
Rose sighed, putting her hand to her head to rub it. Who exactly was she kidding? This next however long experience would be brutal because Thomas could be an unbearably stubborn person when he wanted to be. Not to say she couldn’t be either... but that was why she had taken to standing outside his door for the last ten minutes-- a complete procrastination of the inevitable.
At least her impromptu apology to Octavius earlier had gone well? It had actually been quite nice to talk with him again and surprisingly not as awkward as she had anticipated it being. That might have been due to the opportune appearance of his new goat, or the fact that they both were experiencing rather
upsetting issues with
best friends respectively and were able to complain about that for about an hour each. Or purely because she had brought a large basket of baked goods as a blatant bribe. In the end, it had made Rose feel a tiny bit better knowing that not everyone was upset with her at the moment.
But no matter how much patching up on one loose end made her feel, it still brought her back to here. Still angry with the situation, angry with herself for not being angry for longer and tired of being angry all the same time. The entire thing was just ridiculous! Simply ridiculous and--- Rose stopped before riling herself up again. Not productive. And before she could register what she was doing, she knocked on the door.
Of course, right after she jerked her hand back and let out a squeak, but at least it was done.
Thomas was not a very good person to get into a fight with. He himself was not the nicest of people, and when he felt slighted, he was sure to keep the grudge for as long as humanely possible. He’d had fights with Rose before, it was not a unique thing, it was simply the fallout of this disagreement that was troubling him enough to actually ignore her attempts at conversation.
He was not in love with Rose. Kendall’s comments may have brought a stirring that had not been present in his chest cavity for quite some number of years, but he was certain that he was not in love with her. Being in love with someone took time, work, and a right state of mind. Currently, he was in the process of trying to win his second consecutive league championship, dealing with his sister’s constant nagging about his supposedly surly image, and trying to figure out what the proper way to go about telling the teammate he was currently shagging at random intervals that these occurrences had to end would be.
Thomas McCormack was not in the right state to be in love.
He supposed he could just swear off women for the rest of his life, that would probably make things a deal easier.
Maybe just for the rest of the season. Not just the sexual aspect, but all together. Deal with them on the pitch, and nothing more. All his problems this year had been caused by a woman, and he was perfectly content cutting the opposite sex out of his life if it mean an event-free rest of season.
But of course he decides this the second he looks through the peephole of his flat and sees Rose standing on the other side. Cursing to himself, Thomas contemplated acting as if he were not home. He actually took a few steps back toward his bedroom, but the headache of what he knew would be her constant knocking for the next hour would not be worth it. He turned and opened the door, looking suspicious.
Rose had taken to chewing on her thumb by the time Thomas opened the door, and had already turned her back to it in apprehension. To be honest, she was quite surprised he had come out at all; she would have bet a substantial amount of money that she would’ve had to smoke him out with a few choice of aggravating-inducing words.
Her eyes went wide once she finally turned and got a look at his face.
Really? So apparently a couple of not-speaking days had done little to nothing. Though she supposed that whatever gossip he’d seen or heard about her and Charlie might not have made things worse.... she
really shouldn’t have demanded that set-up date. Or... the snogging. And everything else that had happened after that.
She had just been so
angry! How could she blame herself when she just wasn’t sorry?
Knowing if she took too long Thomas would leave, Rose took a deep breath, dropped her hands to her sides and stood straight. Calm and clear-headed thinking... despite wanting to throttle him. And simply just start yelling. It was important to their friendship to smooth all of this over as soon as possible. Not to mention she would really enjoy going back to not dating Charlie Spinnet.
“I came to apologize,” she started quietly, her body automatically curling back to the way it had been before she spoke. “For... what happened.” There, ambiguous enough.
Rose? Apologizing? Thomas did not think that this was something he would be experiencing, and was not sure how to respond to it. She had been so adamant about not doing anything wrong while he had no excuse for being angry. It seemed silly when it was put into such simple terms, but Thomas felt his ears burn at the realization that he may in fact have to apologize as well. Bugger it all.
He pushed the door open a bit further to let Rose in, “I want to apologize for my behavior, too.”
Thomas let out a sharp breath from his nose, not used to actually giving in on these sort of things. Normally he did not care if the person he fought with ever forgave him and thought him to be a terrible person, but he truly did not wish to have Rose think of him that way. She could think he was stubborn and a jerk, but he did not wish for her to never speak to him again.
“I don’t know why I thought I was someone who could...or should judge,” he said, dropping his gaze because this was very uncomfortable.
She couldn’t smother her surprised reaction fast enough. Rose had not been expecting such a quick volley, and certainly not, well, any of this. Suddenly, she felt very unprepared, something no former Ravenclaw enjoyed in the slightest.
“I-- alright,” she started tentatively, taking a couple steps forward. First glancing at him for good measure, Rose then slid through the doorway with her eyes down. Her head perked up, however, once he spoke again.
Oh. She had not expecting this to be awkward, either. Her cheeks prickled slightly, and it annoyed her to think that they looked pink. Turning back to face him, the words came pouring out.
“We’re not really dating,” she blurted. “I mean--” Rose spoke quickly, her hand going to her head again and closing her eyes as the words slipped from her mouth. “I thought about what you had said, and then Charlie just
announced we were--- a
couple and I wasn’t going to agree to it but then I was nervous about what might happen if I didn’t,” she shook her head lightly. It was stupid. It was really stupid. It actually annoyed her how stupid all of this had become.
“I just--- and then I got so angry with you...” Rose trailed off, her shoulders shrugging in an uncomfortable manner. “I don’t know,” she finished with a sigh, her gaze going up to the ceiling as she dropped her hand back to her side.
