Lisa tells herself it doesn’t bother her.

It’s okay, she reasons to herself anytime she sees Rosie smiling at her phone. He’s just some senior guy.

And then it goes on for days.

The first thing Rosie does when she wakes up is pick up her phone. She lays on her bed for nearly an hour, just tap, tap, tapping away with a little smile on her face and a twinkle in her eye. She later gets up to either shower or cook, depending on how busy the day was going to be for them and what org preparations they had to make.

Lisa had new recruits to the dance crew to train. Rosie had logistics and administrative matters to tend to as President - meetings and people to talk to.

Rosie brings her phone into the shower only for music to sing to as she washes herself. Music would usually be blasting the moment she steps in, followed by the sound of the shower knob being and the splash of water streams on bathroom tiles.

But now a few minutes of silence pass when Rosie goes in. No music, no water. Lisa can only assume she’s still texting on her phone and smiling.

Lisa has an overactive imagination and it drives her crazy.

When Rosie cooks, she has either a wooden spoon, thongs, or a spatula in one hand and her phone in another. She burned French toast once, and forgot to season eggs another time.

It wasn’t like Rosie to be so forgetful. Sure, she could be clumsy and careless, but when cooking Rosie doesn’t really have to think much - her body is so used to the activity that she just moves.

It was absolutely worrisome that she was missing little things - the little things that she used to just always, naturally do.

Like greet Lisa a good morning. Or tell her breakfast is ready and ask her to come eat. Or talk about whatever over their shared meal - the weather, school, the teachers giving her a hard time about administrative matters, future plans, dreams, her parents, her sister, and even her fish.

But now, some days, their meals were spent in nearly complete silence. Rosie’s full attention would be on her phone. And Lisa’s would be on Rosie, watching her.

Watching her not pay attention to Lisa. Watching her be so completely absorbed in something else other than her. Watch herbe in her own little world while Lisa was there right across her.

It’s not like Rosie doesn’t get absorbed in things. That was the thing Lisa loved about their relationship.

Or rather, their friendship.

They could both be doing entirely different things, they could be busy either doing schoolwork - Rosie would be painting, Lisa would be editing her photos or fixing her photography blog and posting pictures on her photography accounts on social media - but it never felt like Lisa was alone.

They were always doing things together, no matter what it was they did. And even when they weren’t together, it always felt like Rosie was a call away.

Because Rosie hated texting. Rosie was the type of person to leave people on read or never respond to a text message. To get to her, you had to call her.

Or at least that was what Lisa thought.

Jaehyun seems to be the exception now.

Lisa ignores it. Or tries her best to.

It’s okay, she convinces herself. It’ll go away once school starts and we all become busy with classes and year-opening activities. He’s a senior and he’ll get really busy.

But then the classes do start. And the texting doesn’t stop. And Rosie smiling down at her phone only gets worse.

She starts giggling, now and then.

The opening week for the academic year was crazy for both of them. There were events Rosie had to oversee and events Lisa had to perform at. Different organizations pulled them to different corners of the huge campus, different things demanded their attention at the same time.

Rosie was the busier one, being university student council president. There was the freshman assistance program, the coordination with different student organizations for recruitment week, and then daily activity reports to be submitted besides the classes she had to attend.

But Lisa didn’t lag very far behind with how much she had to do as well. She had rehearsals, choreography, and her own classes, too.

They barely saw each other, except in the few instances they get to walk home together. But on most days they just saw each other back in their shared room, one of them either already asleep or already eating dinner and they share a meal in exhausted silence.

If they did manage to say a few words to each other it went like:

“How was your day?”

“Busy. Exhausting. You know how it gets.”

And they both do know. They’ve both been active with extracurriculars since freshman year. So there wasn’t much else to be said.

But it’ll get better, Lisa tells herself. The crazy is going to die down. Their schedules will go back to the usual classes and afternoon activities then dinner and a night cap of netflix and chill. It was going to be fine. It can only get better, right?

Of course, fate enjoys playing with people far too much for that to just happen.

It only gets worse from there.

Lisa pulls out her phone as she steps out of the classroom of her last class for the day and for the week. It is finally Friday and the last day of the first week of school opening. They could finally take a breather and relax.

She thinks of what she can do. Maybe she can order pizza tonight? Rosie would definitely be too tired to cook. And she doesn’t want to terrorize Rosie with her own cooking. Or possibly burn down the whole dormitory.

Lisa considered herself one of those dumb Sims with 0 cooking skills. Something terrible would surely happen if she dared touch the stove.

Maybe I should learn how to cook, Lisa thinks. It would be a nice gesture for Rosie. A nice dinner would be a pleasant surprise for her. Is there even any fire needed in preparing Vietnamese Spring Wraps? Maybe I can do that.

She dials Rosie’s number to call her and tell her she’s done with her classes. She knows Rosie’s classes ended 30 minutes ago. Her best friend is probably somewhere around the campus waiting for her. They’d agreed last night that they would walk home together.

Lisa puts her phone against her ear, hears the first ring and couldn’t help the excitement that bubbles up within her.

She missed Rosie so much. It’s felt like ages since they last did anything together - since they actually, properly spent some good best friend quality time together.

The last time was actually the nice day at the aquarium, right before Jaehyun showed up and somehow ruined everything.

Rosie picks up on the third ring. Lisa’s whole face lights up with the brightest smile at the telltale click of her call being picked up.

“Rosie!” She greets her happily.

“Lisa!” Rosie greets back, voice matching Lisa’s excitement.

It makes Lisa giddy all the more.

“Hey, I just got out of class. Where are you?”

“Oh,” Rosie says, suddenly sounding unsure. “Um,” she starts. “I’m here at the cafe, waiting for you.”

“Okay!” Lisa interrupts her in eagerness and starts power walking towards the direction of the cafe.

“Jae found me here, while waiting for you.” Rosie continues.

And then Lisa stops in her tracks. Her thoughts screech to a halt.

Jae.

He has a cute nickname now.

The megawatt smile on her lips die, it’s light going from blinding to dim.

“Oh.” The disappointment seeps into her voice before she could stop it. Lisa 

There is a short pause but it wasn’t any less awkward. Rosie breaks it.

“So, yeah, he found me here and he ordered coffee, too. Come here and join us, then we can walk home together, yeah?” The blonde asks.

Maybe it was Lisa getting fed up with Jaehyun always managing to ruin their time together now, or maybe it was the frustration that on the day she and Rosie finally get to relax and bond, he somehow gets in between them.

Or maybe it was just sheer jealousy.

But Lisa knows that the last thing she wants to do is to be with Jaehyun and Rosie and watch them together. Seeing Rosie smile so much while texting him already makes her want to puke. What more if she had to suffer through them being flirty or whatever in person?

So Lisa makes the snap decision then and there that she will NOT go to the cafe, regardless of the promise they made last night to walk home together.

They can walk home together another day. They go to the same school and share a room, anyways.

“Yeah, about that,” Lisa says. “The troupe just texted me and told they needed me to go to the practice room for something.” She gulps, the lie being the first thing she could think of. “So I actually called to tell you that I can’t walk home with you today.”

“Oh,” Rosie responds, equal parts disappointed and surprised. “Okay, well, I’ll see you at thome, then?”

“Yeah,” Lisa agrees. “See you.”

She ends the call. She looks at her phone, at her best friend’s contact name.

‘My Rosieposie 🌹💖’

Lisa thinks of how she’d confidently typed that in before, when they started getting close. She was so so sure that Rosie was hers.

Rosie might be straight and might not be in love with her, but she was so sure that regardless, Rosie would be her best friend - her constant.

That’s what you get for falling in love with your best friend, Lisa thinks.

She was dumb and selfish for thinking that. She’d let herself cross the boundary and went beyond friendship. And this was the consequence.

But she had hoped. And Rosie had always been there. She never gave Lisa any reason to think she would stop being hers.

Lisa walks away, no particular destination in mind. She might stop by a convenience store, eat a popsicle or buy chocolate milk. She has time to kill.

She pockets her phone with a deep sigh and ignores the growing ache in her heart.