𝗜𝗡 𝗕𝗟𝗢𝗢𝗠 ᐅ𝙟𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙢𝙞𝙖𝙝 𝙛𝙞𝙨𝙝𝙚𝙧 [ 𝗢𝗡 𝗛𝗢𝗟𝗗 ]

𝟬𝟭

✧ ೃ༄*ੈ✩ A YEAR AGO ✧ ೃ༄*ੈ✩

Whoever said that you have to love yourself before anyone else was a fool—Rose had lived a thousand lives, and loved a thousand people. Every single book she picked up introduced new characters to comfort her, to be her friend when she needed some silent consolation. But that was a fantasy limited to the warm ink of carefully crafted prose and the promise of the next romantic page.

Rose Conklin was convinced that she could never live the life of the girls in her books. 

Fictional women were everything that normal girls were not — curvy, but slim, attractive, but not obviously so...their beauty was always unconventional in a way which made them all the more mesmerising. All the more intoxicating. 

Rose Conklin was not mesmerising. She was not intoxicating. Not like her sister. 

Rose was not blinded by some twisted jealousy for her younger sister, nor was she overcome by insecurity—Belly's beauty was simply a fact. Belly was pretty now. And Rose would have to live with it. The poignant thing that pulled at her heart was that being ten months older, one would have thought Rose would the stunning one. But no. That role was reserved simply for Belly. The spotlight cast its famous rays upon her, while Rose stood behind stage, watching with pure wistfulness dancing in her brown eyes. 

One day, she might be pretty. 

She clung to that thought. 

The family were currently raiding the nearby supermarket for snacks right before they arrived at the Beach House. Rose picked up a sprite, casting an amused look at Belly, who was shovelling crisps into her mouth as though they were medicine for an untimely illness. 

"Alright, Bells?" she chuckled. 

"Great!" Belly mumbled through her full mouth, flashing her a thumbs up. 

If it were anyone else, they might have looked stupid, or ugly, but the frustrating thing about Belly, was that she managed to look completely gorgeous while doing something so unhygienic. Her cheeks were rosy, and now that her braces were off, her teeth were whiter and straighter than ever. She'd even taken off her glasses—Rose adjusted hers slightly. She thought they made her eyes a little bigger, which was why she wore them constantly. 

Belly's silken hair was tied into a ponytail as she approached the counter, met by a boy who looked at her like she was a lone star in the expanse of night. Rose looked at her feet. 

"Hey," he said. "Are you new this summer?"

"Oh, me? No."

"Really? Huh. Thought I knew every pretty girl in Cousins," he said effortlessly. He was like a fictional boy. Completely and utterly fictional. Perhaps real fiction boys—book boys—were safer. "Coming to the bonfire tonight? First of the season."

"Uh, maybe," Belly waved him off.

"Come. I'll introduce you to some of my friends."

"Maybe I will."

And just like that, her sister had been asked out. The two giggled with each other as they entered the car, and above every inch of Rose's longing to be just like her sister, she was ultimately so, so happy for her. She deserved this. Belly deserved everything, and it was about time she was given it. She always brought a smile to people's faces—even when they did not want to smile. And her smile was the most radiant of all. 

Driving to Cousins was always nostalgic. The smell of the salt dancing in the air, the wind whipping her face as she and Belly hung their heads out of the window, like they always did. It was tradition by now. Her mother simply smiled at the two, though there was something apprehensive about her joy, like something was blocking it.