Chapter Text
FIVE YEARS AGO...
The rain poured unrelentingly, drenching the hair Rodrick spent hours styling beforehand in bitter epiphanies.
"What do you mean you're not...?" he trailed off helplessly, lost and confused at the disgusted expression on her face.
The limp roses in his hand felt like the spark that had just died inside of him, a cold revelation of the current reality unfolding.
"I don't know why you'd think I ever would," she sniffed, arms crossed over her chest like she was guarding herself from Rodrick's confession—as if he didn't just present his heart on a plate for her, and she wasn't the one to tear it apart.
"What?" he breathed. He could feel the blood rushing in his ears. "But our conversations, the dance, the dates..."
"The dates?" she laughed cruelly, all the kindness that once lit up her crystalline eyes draining from them. "That was hardly romantic. We literally ate day-old cheeseburgers in your mom's basement."
"We jammed out to Joan Jett!" he shot back, shaking uncontrollably. "We went skateboarding... I showed you how to play the drums, you gave me singing lessons! Did all of that mean nothing to you?"
She ducked her head, not even gracing him with the dignity of looking him in the eye.
"No, Rodrick. It meant nothing. We are nothing. You're asking me out in the middle of a McDonald's parking lot, for God's sake."
His vision started to swim. The world was threatening to collapse.
"But I—"
"You need to wake up, Rodrick," she said indifferently. "For your own good."