rosaliamorais:
the smile that crossed her face at the affirmation of another vegan friend– ivy was vegan! and she totally had the vibe, now that she thought about it– could only be described as thrilled. “you’re so cool–” wait, no, that wasn’t what she meant, “i mean. that’s so cool. i’m sorry for ranting about veganism, then. it’s just that, usually, when i say the word around meat eaters, they’ll shrivel up and scamper away like a vampire in the sunlight.” how… how had she managed to be this weird within seven minutes?
rosa reluctantly noted the way stepping across this threshold, into what was practically a duplicate of her own home, made her feel the most alive she’d felt in a while. the idea of leaving all of her plans to the wind in order to be here, with this complete stranger, was exhilarating. she’s almost positive she’d never done anything the likes of it before in her life. even in grade school no play dates or birthday parties came before her academics. she wasn’t sure why she’d always felt that way. or why this girl seemed to override twenty years of complete self-discipline. the click of the door shutting set her pulse racing. this must be what it feels like for all rule breakers, she thinks. at least now she can almost understand the appeal.
something incredibly, undeniably stupid forces rosalia to raise a hand to wrap a piece of the pink hair around her fingers, a small smile resting on her lips before she could realize how absolutely creepy she must have seemed. “well, i’m sure they deserved it. even if they didn’t, you look awesome, so you win both ways.” as if she’d only just noticed what she was doing, the brunette dropped her hand and stepped back, elbowing the wall in her recoil. her innermost desire to hiss why at an exaggeratedly slow speed as she fell to the floor in turmoil since this was literally the worst first impression she’d ever made was only circumvented by her desperation to not look any worse for the rest of the visit. so, instead, she shook out her hand and put on another grin. that was god’s corporal punishment for her being such a freak. “ow. i’m sorry.”
she follows ivy’s gaze to the backdoor, and if she weren’t monitoring her weird factor for the rest of the day, she would’ve dashed outside to let her in on all of rosa’s favorite loopholes in the standard contract. she was, after all, one of the only people on campus with 200 extra channels and a $30 monthly discount. she’d have to make a note for her. “i look forward to it, if that’s the case.” the names of every nobel peace prize since its founding in 1901 appear in her mind at the idea of the best person ever to grace the earth, but she couldn’t say libby wouldn’t win one eventually, so she saw no reason to bring it up. she readjusted her course to follow the blonde into her room, curiosity thrumming at the mention of artwork. of course she was an artist.
she stopped at the doorway, as if she feared getting any closer to the paintings scattered across the room. which, to be fair, she was. she wasn’t used to seeing anything so beautiful be so open, within arms length. such paintings surely belonged more on a museum’s walls, with velvet rope warding off any unwelcome touch. “i–” she began, before she came to the conclusion she had nothing else to say. finally, she’d been rendered speechless. “ivy, these are…” careful, strategic steps carried her into the room, still carefully situated away from the canvases, “these are remarkable. i don’t understand what you mean by saying anything in here looks… bad.” she hated to curse. “aside from the wild disorganization, anyway. seriously, you have an extraordinary talent.” gift was such a ridiculous word. to get to where this art level was, she knew ivy had to have worked for it. saying it was simply a gift bestowed upon her wouldn’t do ivy or her work justice. “i love the way you used contrasting colors in this one. it’s almost jarring, but when you look closer it’s so well-defined and on purpose.”
rosalia’s fingers in her hair had her feeling some type of way.
“...thanks.”
a smirk pulled at ivy’s lips as she watched the other girl twist her faded pink locks. the eye contact was searing but she refused to look away. rosalia from next door was pretty bold after all, huh? and then, just as quickly as it appeared, rosalia’s hand retracted back, elbowing the wall, and ivy couldn’t help herself, placing gentle fingers on the girl’s upper arm. “yeah, there’s a wall there.” she laughed softly, shaking her head before pulling her hand away and turning towards her bedroom door.
she caught one last glance of libby outside, dutifully pestering the cable company, and as much as she wanted her best friend to meet their neighbor, she selfishly hoped that it might be a while before libby was able to get off the phone. it wasn’t that she wished for libby to be left on hold for any longer, but there was a part of her that really wanted to be left alone with rosalia from next door. and maybe, if she was lucky, rosalia would want to be left alone with her, too.
ivy watched as her companion stopped short at the door, then took careful steps - i knew i should’ve cleaned some of this up, damn it - into the room, and stopped again. the girl’s words brought a sudden heat to ivy’s face, and she cast her gaze to the floor as she let her hair fall around her cheeks like a curtain, trying and ostensibly failing to hide the deep pink that resided there. “oh- um, thank you.” it was a stark contrast to the attitude she often donned, but she simply didn’t know how to take compliments about her art. it was one of the few things in life she actually cared about enough to put effort into, and having it appreciated was always a strange experience for her. still, though, she was glad that the reaction she was getting was a positive one.
relief finally flooded over her when she heard rosalia mentioning the specific colors of one of the pieces. the technical bits, now that was something she could handle. “oh, yeah!” like her fumble never happened, she was hopping over sketchbooks and paintings to stand next to the brunette. “yeah, that one.” her eyes scanned over it for a moment. a simple landscape painted with completely incorrect colors - purple trees against a yellow sky, a pink lake, orange mountains. “i was going to just use ink for this one, but after i sketched out the lines it was just so boring. so, this happened.” she gestured loosely towards it, shrugging a bit.
“i’m glad you like it, because there’s a shit-ton of them and i’m starting to think it’s going to take me forever to get them all up.” she picked up the one closest to her - a black and red ink portrait of holden - and held it up away from her, trying to see how it might look once it was put up. “i don’t have any real sort of plan here, so.. i guess we can just start command strip-ing these on the wall and take it from there.” she quickly retrieved a new container of command strips from a box underneath her haphazardly-made bed.
“sorry to, like... invite you in only to put you to work.” she smiled at the other girl as she pulled the container open, taking a handful of the strips out to work with. “you just seem like the type of person who might know how to organize all my shit.” ivy rolled her eyes at her own dysfunction. “but if you do wanna stop, just let me know, and we can do... something else.”
