#ft: john

[sydsweeneytt]

[rosehyunshik]

location: Somewhere Downtown ft: @johnbernsteinx

She was dizzy, much dizzier than the one time she’d been coerced to go on a carnival ride adapted around aliens and spinning in space ships. The night she’d had with Este was extremely blurry, and that scared Rose more than anything because she prided herself in having sharp recall to memory. The only thing that was flooding into her mind was the red-like drinks she would be passed. Cranberry juice couldn’t have made her feel awful as she had right now could it? Stomach-churning and head pounding, Rose just wanted to go lay down and hope that the feelings of dread and confusion would leave her. She looked at her phone and the screen looked like a burst of swirls. “Fuck,” 

She cried softly, unsure of what to do until she pressed on a button on the side of the phone, making out words that seemed to say ‘Hello, how can I help you’ and at her first opportunity, she said, “He-hey call J-ogn, Jo-g, call Jo-ohn,” Her words were slurring and the taste of cranberry and something foreign remained laced on her tongue. The phone rang and rang until finally she heard the familiar voice of her brother on the other line and she burst into tears. “Jo-ohn, I don’t- something’s wrong with me. I can’t remember where I live and I wanna go home, I wanna go home.” She took in a breath, feeling it tapering off as she suddenly felt like her heart was about to beat out of her chest. “Hurry, please. I don’t know what to do, or where to g-go-.” 

Cars around her started beeping as she had recklessly started walking into traffic, not realizing that she didn’t have the right of way. The sounds of Downtown seemed to be even more amplified with each step she took, not even sure where her original company had gone but she was scared of her wits end. “I’ll just sit here, I’ll sit here and I’ll w-wait for you.” There was a small table outside of a cafe, she’d taken the seat and tried to curl up into herself on the chair, hoping John would come soon. 

[rosehyunshik]

location: rose’s studio apartment in McLoughlin Park ft @johnbernsteinx​

Rose didn’t know what compelled her not to stay too long at the festival. She wondered if it was the combination of sweets that she’d chowed down on and walking booth to booth getting snippets of comments from both vendors and festival-goers for her flowery piece on the “Redwood Bay Earth Day Festival Extravangza”. What she expected to be a straightforward feel-good piece about community would now be a real-time hometown horror. If anyone had to ask Rose why she felt compelled to watch the news on most days she’d say it was purely for her job writing articles on daily events in the Bay area. But now this was just for her own peace of mind to not spiral into a panic of what could have been. 

Truthfully, it would have been worse if John hadn’t answered her like the saint that he was in quick succession assuring her he was fine and that he’d be over to help finish with her unpacking, while also begging her to order the biggest pizza she could get her hands on. The box in question now sat on her lone countertop taking up a big chunk of the space as she searched for the box with her decanter set. Once found, she poured two servings of Martinelli’s apple juice and hoped he would appreciate her humor as she remembered fondly that apple juice was something he’d share with her a lot as they were growing up. But the Martinelli’s apple juice was the legit grown-up version, a sure-fire blow-them-out-the-water competitor against Mott’s. 

As she began cursing the pizza delivery guy under her breath for not bringing the paper plates she could have sworn she asked for over the phone, a knock on the door alerted her to rush quickly toward it. As the door swung open, she grinned broadly and ran back to the kitchen to grab the two glasses filled with apple juice. “One for you and one for me, and...” She began before clinking the glasses together. “Mazel tov, brother. Welcome to my humble abode.” 

[rosehyunshik]

Happy birthday, Johnny Boy ❤️🌚 @johnbernsteinx

[rosehyunshik]

location: The Real Bean w/ @johnbernsteinx​

It’d been a few weeks since Rose had last seen John. Between work being heavy for the both of them, due to Elaheh’s absence and an alarming spike in blackmail cases that were arising in town, to say Rose had any spare time was completely false, at least not until she’d been given a round-way trip to Italy via Avery and Brady. She was grateful that John only briefly panicked about her leaving the country, even more so she was grateful that he was so meticulous with packing because he had managed to squeeze two weeks worth of clothing into a carry-on suitcase for her. The day she had to pay for baggage charges was the day she knew she would have truly lost her flair in life. However, there was a subject that weighed on Rose still, the fact that she hadn’t seen her brother since she had gotten so drunk that she nearly blacked out in the middle of Redwood. Sometimes she felt she could feel the phantom pangs in her temples from how awful she felt the day after, it was a feeling she vowed she never wanted to have ever again. Which in theory would have been hard in a country like Italy, but luckily Avery and Brady were very forgiving and opted to get sparkling juice or water for Rose at her request with no judgement. She had just gotten back from the trip a few days ago, trying her best to acclimate back into the timezone, and the best way to get that energy was by drinking copious amounts of caffeine. She texted John to meet her at the shop closer to the gallery when he had his break to which she was glad he readily replied as it was long overdue. Waiting at a table by the window, Rose already had a whole assortment of pastries waiting atop the table as she saw the familiar figure that was her brother appearing. She waved at him excitable, getting up quickly to give him a big bear hug once he was through the doors. “Why does it feel like it’s been 84 years? What have I missed? Do you have grays in your hair? Has Merlot forgotten me? Has Quinn made you an honest man,” She bantered. She had weeks of jokes locked within her and she figured she had to get a head start.

[rosehyunshik]

ft: @johnbernsteinx​

[rosehyunshik]

location: Rose’s New Apartment in Bywater Park w/ @johnbernsteinx​

How she ever survived in her previous studio apartment was beyond her. But with a few endorsements in line and a generous advancement for the next book she was tasked to ghost-write in the coming months already landing in her bank account, Rose was determined to expand a bit when it came to how she lived. The studio apartment was great for wanting to be a minimalist, but there was only so many times she could Marie Kondo her way to a space that didn’t take a left turn to something akin to being seen on Hoarders. But her new one bedroom, one bath WITH a den? A game changer. Of course the first person she told about the move was her brother John, whom she hadn’t had much success getting to meet up with in the same place for the past couple weeks. Between their demands for work and of course John’s not-so-newly found relationship with one Quinn Hawthorne, Rose felt that the siblings were just on two different trajectories, going back to how they used to communicate before which would usually be no-appointment FaceTime calls and of course Rose trolling John consistently on Instagram. It was why she was so excited now to be able to finally see the man in the flesh after weeks apart. She could hardly believe it’d been that long considering they were in the same town now! Regardless of the length of time, Rose was ready to christen her new place with the seal of approval from her brother. Meandering around a few boxes that she had only just managed to push off to the side as she tried to figure out where to place her furniture when it’d be delivered, she heard the bell ring and quickly walked over to her new intercom, a really cool feature to the apartment. She could see John’s figure on the tiny camera and she smiled as she pressed the button. “What’s the secret password? And yes there is a wrong answer.”