♡ chapter 10 - Rose ♡

            Harry, I’m asking you legitimate questions here,” I grumbled as I skimmed the racks, depicting my possible outfits to try on.

            Harry rolled his eyes, folding his arms across his chest. “Rose, I honestly don’t care, all right? I’m sure anything will look good on you, so as long as it’s not flashy, I really don’t care. I’m a guy, all right? Clothes aren’t my biggest concern.”

            My cheeks flushed at his small comment, but I forced a scowl and a sigh before yanking down a couple of nice shirts. I knew Harry was being extra cautious by continuously scanning the premises, but it was believable since he was a widely known criminal. However, not many people filled the all-around market store this afternoon. I’ve never been in this town, wherever we are, but it seemed to be pretty vacant.

            Ryan and Liam were wondering around the food department while Jessie stayed near us, helping Harry look out for possible spies. Jessie may be a good witch, but he’s still accompanying a man destined evil, so he’d be in fault as well if we were to be caught just by grouping with us. But I really hope that won’t be the case.

            Harry and Jessie followed me like lost puppies as I walked to the dressing rooms, determined to get out of these clothes. I had a shower last night, but putting on the same clothes you’ve worn the past few days wasn’t very satisfying. I didn’t have much of a choice, but my body was telling me it was time for fresh fabric.

            But the embarrassing thing I had trouble speaking aloud was the nearness of my “month friend.” How the heck was I supposed to inform a house full of guys that I needed pads? That I was going to have extreme cravings for chocolate if they didn’t buy me some soon? That I was going to start flipping shit with the littlest things they would say to me? God, this is so humiliating.

            After trying on the various clothing, I picked out my favorite before meeting the boys in the lobby of the dressing rooms. Harry rose an eyebrow expectantly at me, so I nodded and held up the clothes I decided to get. I swallowed the nervousness swelling in my throat, knowing that if I didn’t say something soon, we’d be leaving the market and I’d suffer leaking through all my clothes. Embarrassing and disgusting.

            “What’s wrong?” Harry asked as he seemed to catch on to my quietness.

            I rubbed my arm subconsciously. “Well, I…”

            Both the boys stopped, turning to look at me with slight concern at the anxiousness invading my tone. I knew I was going to have to be up front with this, but I couldn’t bring myself to be so blunt.

            “Well, you guys… I’m a female. And well, as a female… I have certain chapters during the month where—“

            Harry held a hand up to stop me, a small smirk of amusement tugging at his lips. “Rosalie, I don’t need a background story on the history of females. Although this is quite entertaining, all you have to do is say it.”

            Jessie chuckled, nodding in agreement. “Yeah, it’s not like we’re oblivious to female needs.”

            My cheeks heated up immensely as the two boys snickered, but I managed an eye roll. “You both are jerks. That was seriously weighing down some humiliation on me, and you just make it worse.”

            “Well, what do you need?” Harry asked, clearly enjoying this.

            “Things,” I murmured sheepishly.

            “Like…?” Harry hinted, trying to get me to spill it so he could laugh at me. Dang, I knew this boy too well.

            “I need pads, all right?” I huffed in annoyance under my breath, looking off to the side as heat rose to my cheeks.

            “Don’t girls eat a lot of chocolate and shit, too?” Harry asked, his eyebrows pinching together.

            Jessie shrugged. “That’s what I’ve heard. They get pretty emotional too.”

            “Guys, I’m right here!” I snapped, groaning before spinning on my heel to scan for the necessary aisle.

            The boys continued to giggle like little school girls as I stormed to the aisle, skimming the shelves as they hung behind me. After picking out a decent brand, I followed them to the checkout where we met up with Liam and Ryan. They had an entire cart full of groceries, my eyes catching sight of the peanut butter M&Ms tauntingly calling my name.

            I know what I’m eating the next four days.

            Harry seemed to notice my staring, but he simply chuckled before shaking his head at me. So far he had gone unnoticed as the cashier scanned each item before swiftly bagging them. I stood in front of the register to pay, but right when I went to get my money I’d been saving up, Harry had already pulled his wallet out. I frowned at him, not comprehending why he’d pay for so much for me. I was capable of independency and I could definitely buy my own clothing.

            “What was that for?” I hissed at him as the cashier rose her eyebrows, curiosity washing over her face.

            Harry shrugged, his dimple cratering as he cheekily smiled. “You always tell me to be nice, so that’s what I’m doing.”

            I sighed, heaving a hand through my hair. “I still could’ve paid for that.”

            Harry rolled his eyes, not replying. My eyes flickered back to the cashier who seemed to be eyeing Harry very carefully. First it appeared she was checking him out (I mean, he’s beautiful so how could you not?), but then her eyebrows seemed to furrow. I watched as she peeked behind her to a bulletin board, and there it was; a wanted sign with Harry’s face in the middle.

            The lady went to reach for the phone, but Harry seemed to have been watching her too as his deep voice boomed, “Don’t even think about it.”

            She looked up at him with fearful eyes, widened in terror as I looked around for witnesses, but none seemed to be around. The shop was decently small to begin with, so it wasn’t all that surprising that the area was decently empty. Jessie was too busy helping the Liam and Ryan stack groceries on the conveyor belt to notice the woman’s realization of Harry. But then she started gasping, her hands flying to her throat.

            My head snapped to Harry as he narrowed his green eyes, the tension evident in the air as the woman stumbled back into the thin wall behind her. It hit me that Harry wasn’t just planning on torture like with me, but he was going to kill her.

            “Harry, quit!” I shouted, as I tried to capture his attention, but his stern eyes remained locked on the girl. In a swift movement, I used my index finger to jerk his chin in my direction, but I retaliated my hand before any burn marks could be left. He seemed to snap out of some trance as I scolded him, “Are you insane? You can’t just kill her, Harry!”

            Harry’s jaw clenched. “She recognized me, Rosalie. She could go tell authorities and they’d have no problem in tracking me down.”

            “You aren’t killing her,” I said firmly, catching the attention of the three boys behind us.

            Jessie frowned. “What’s going on?”

            The woman went for the phone again, but Harry’s head snapped in her direction. “Don’t pick up that fucking phone,” he hissed as he did a little flick of his wrist, the woman instantly slamming back into the wall. He held his palm up, looking as if he were pinning her without physically touching her.

            “Stop hurting her, Harry! She’s an innocent person,” I demanded as the frail woman began to tear up.

            “Harry, just calm down. Let’s just get out of here,” Ryan suggested.

            “Yeah, mate. You’re causing a scene,” Liam pointed out at the two bystanders.

            Harry glared at the two males observing the scenario. He rose his eyebrows. “Better keep walking before you don’t have any legs to move,” he said sternly, the two men taking off in a hurry.

            “Stop it, Harry,” I said firmly again, trying to get it through his thick skull that he can’t just kill someone who recognizes him. The whole world would be dead, if that were the case.

            Harry’s eyes wavered back and forth between mine, an emotion that seemed to be… sorrow filling his emeralds. He hesitated only for a moment more before letting out a sigh of defeat, lowering his palm as the woman collapsed to the ground with a shaky exhale of breath. Instead of pondering over Harry’s obedience towards me, I walked over to the woman and knelt down beside her, giving her an assuring smile as I helped her get to her feet. Harry watched me in what seemed to be bewilderment.

            “Shit! Trouble at three o’clock,” Liam said and we all turned to see six men in Council uniforms making their way over, guns raised and ready to fire.

            I recognized these six men to be Hunters, vests covering their chest as their uniforms resembled that of an army’s. They basically were the military for the White Witches, I knew that much. Whenever a Black Witch was caught, the Hunters would be the heroic beings to take down the evil for their safety of their people.

            And they seemed pretty determined to do the same to us.

            Harry flicked his wrist and a shelf of various items collided into the men. Jessie grabbed my arm, tugging me along as we began running for the exit with our half-purchases in hand. We didn’t fully checkout, and now I felt like a robber running for my life with stolen groceries accompanying me.

            A gunshot was fired, barely missing Harry’s body as he dodged the bullet with his quick speed. Liam and Ryan had no problem keeping up, but with my lack of physical exercise and endurance, I was already tiring out before we even approached the beginning of the woods. Jessie seemed to notice as he pulled me along, and in one swift movement he had me bridal style in his arms. That’s when the throbbing in my leg was prominent from my previous wound. Although the Healer managed to fix it practically all the way, there was still natural healing needing to be done. And running wasn’t helping.

            Once our bodies were engulfed by the trees of the wood, we all stopped to take a breather; well, the boys stopped while I remained lazily perched in Jessie’s arms. Harry had been glaring at Jessie, which I assumed was because of him holding me. But that didn’t stop Jessie from putting me down. In fact, he kept holding me as we began to walk back to the cabin. In all honestly, I was grateful due to the pain growing in my leg. I really should’ve been easier on it, but it wasn’t my fault we nearly got captured by Hunters that came out of absolutely nowhere.

            Harry glanced over his shoulder at Jessie still carrying me, his jaw clenched as he spat out through gritted teeth, “Rose has two feet, Jessie. I’m sure she can walk without your assistance.”

            Was that jealousy I heard?

            Jessie rolled his eyes, looking down at me just as I winced. “Her leg is bothering her, Harry. Remember the hole in it?” he muttered sarcastically.

            Harry didn’t respond.

            The rest of the cabin bombarded us with questions as we entered. Jessie set me down on the couch where I propped my leg up on the coffee table. Harry had silently—yet angrily—stormed to the room we were sharing to place my bags down. The rest of the boys were still dying to know the results with heading into town, and so Liam told them everything.

            “We should watch a movie,” Zayn commented as he walked over to the rack stuffed with DVDs, sifting through the options. It’s a good thing you don’t need cable for movies, or we’d be shit out of luck.

            Before Jessie sat down, he asked me, “Do you need anything?”

            I smiled at his generosity. “That bag of peanut butter M&Ms would be nice,” I said as I batted my eyelashes playfully.

            Jessie chuckled. “Coming right up, princess.”

            My heart seemed to falter as my eyes bulged just the slightest with the pet name, but before I could question, Jessie entered the kitchen. Maybe I was overreacting about the pet name, but it was still odd to hear one coming from Jessie’s lips. Was it bad if I kind of liked it?

            “Someone should go ask Harry if he wants to watch one,” Niall suggested.

            “I will,” I said as I stood weakly, limping on my leg towards the door of our room. I knocked once, calling out a soft, “Harry?”

            I didn’t get a response, so I opened the door only to find him sitting on the bed. He wasn’t crying, he wasn’t talking; he was just sitting there with his hands folded under his chin as he stared off into nothing. I was curious as to why he had declined in mood so quickly, but instead of questioning, I cleared my throat.

            “We’re watching a movie,” I said quietly.

            “And?” Harry grumbled through his teeth, still not looking at me.

            “And we were wondering—I was wondering if you wanted to watch it with us instead of being cooped up in here.”

            “No thanks,” Harry muttered.

            I frowned, sitting beside him on the bed. “What’s wrong with you? Why the sudden change of mood?”

            Harry’s jaw clenched. “Drop it, Rosalie.”

            “No, Harry. What’s bothering you?”

            “I said drop it,” he said firmly, his stern eyes meeting my gaze. There were so many conflicting emotions behind those usually bright eyes, so many mysterious stored away as he kept himself isolated. I wanted to know those mysteries, those pains, those emotions. I wanted to help him.

            “Why are you such a jerk to everyone?” I groaned in exasperation, standing from the bed with my hands on my hips. “I’m trying to include you and you’re just being an utter asshole.”

            Harry’s sharp gaze snapped to mine. “Don’t push my buttons, Rose. I said drop it, so you can go out there and enjoy the movie without me.”

            “But what if I want you to watch it with us?”

            “Fuck, you just don’t stop.” Harry groaned as he rubbed his face vigorously. “Why the hell are you so stubborn?”

            “Why the hell are you so rude?” I retorted as I rose my eyebrows.

            “Fair enough,” Harry murmured before letting out a sigh of defeat. “If I watch this movie, will you drop this whole conversation?”

            I shrugged. “Probably not, but we’ll see, Styles.”

            Harry let out a small laugh as he followed me out the room. And just barely I could hear him whisper, “You’re something else, Rosalie.”

-

-

A/N: Hey, a pretty long chapter ^.^ I really love writing this story, afdgsjgfl <33 Thank you all for reading & voting & commenting. It really makes my day. Love you all (: xx

100+ votes for the next chapter <3

*VOTE. COMMENT. SHARE.* ;)