22: The Picture

"And this is the café that J.K Rowling wrote the Harry Potter book series" I said, swiping through the photos of Edinburgh as I showed them to Liz.

"I'm so jealous" Liz pouted. "I so wish I went with you guys"

"I wish you were there too. It was amazing" I sighed, thinking of all the memories made in that amazing place.

Another busy week had passed us by, and we were having our weekly catch up session at the local cafe. I was only now getting around to showing Liz the rest of the photos I took in Edinburgh. I showed her the picture of the Elephant House café, the castle and some pictures from our night out.

"The Dome looks so pretty. I bet the food was nice?"

"It was. And the inside was so fancy, I felt like I didn't belong there. It was so much fun when we got our own private room with a DJ. It was a blast"

"Wow, I've never seen you dance like that before" Liz laughed.

"I think it was the Edinburgh effect that made me have the courage to dance" I chuckled.

Liz swiped through the photos of my phone as I took a sip of my coffee. People were gathered in the café as the rain poured outside, battering against the window. The smell of coffee wafted through the room, warming everyone from the cold outside.

Liz furrowed her eyebrows as she paused at a photo, seeming to linger on it. "Wow, you and Jason seem really close. You guys must have bonded quite a bit?"

I shook my head, confused "What are you talking about?" My mind reeled, thinking if I had taken any pictures of us that would reveal our secret, but nothing came to mind.

"Oh, it's just this picture" she said, showing me the picture she was talking about. My face flushed as I realised what she was referring to. "The way Jason is looking at you, it's like..." I snatched the phone from Liz, my heart beating faster looking at it.  It was the picture of us, just before the night out. The one where Jason placed his hand on my waist, looking down at me with that gorgeous smile of his, as I smiled into the camera, remembering the feeling of Jason so close to me. That was before everything happened. Before we confessed everything. Before that amazing kiss at the castle. Just before everything.

"It's nothing" I scoffed, feigning innocence. "I just wanted to take a few pictures of us of our big night. I figured we were both dressed up, so why not take pictures to remember it by" I shrugged. We hadn't mentioned to anyone about us sharing a room, never mind that we were dating. I just hoped that Liz didn't pick up on that little fact.

"There seems to be a few pictures of you and Jason" Liz commented, raising an eyebrow.

It was as if someone had turned up the temperature in the café. I could feel my body heat up and I took my cardigan off. "Well, you know how it is when you're on holiday. Not that it was a holiday, it was a work trip" I scrambled "We were out, and I took a few pictures. It just so happened that Jason was there too".

Liz sighed, taking a sip of her latte, seeming to dismiss the subject. I breathed a sigh of relief; glad she wouldn't broach the subject anymore. I didn't know if I had done enough to convince her.

"So, how did the date go with Ian?" I asked, hoping a subject change would make her forget about the picture.

Liz looked up and gave a small smile and was about to respond but another voice interrupted "Rosie? Liz?"

We turned around to see Ethan appear, looking cosy in his bulky black jacket, with a coffee in hand. "Hey, Ethan" I smiled.

"Hey, Ethan. What brings you here?"

Ethan took the seat beside me, warming his hands against the coffee cup "I was just on my way to see Jason when it started raining"

"Were you walking to our house?" Liz asked.

"The sun was out earlier on, so I decided to walk it. Plus, I needed to get my steps in"

"And then it started raining" I laughed.

"I ran into the first place I could find, which so happened to be here. I figured I would grab a coffee while I waited for the rain to let up"

"Hopefully it won't be too long before the rain stops" I said, looking outside to see the pouring rain had now turned into a light drizzle.

"Jason didn't mention anything about meeting up with anyone" Liz enquired.

"It was a last-minute plan. I figured I would meet up with Jason seeing as I hadn't seen him since his trip to Scotland"

"Oh, we were just talking about that" Liz raised her eyebrows.

"That's right, you went too. How was it, Rosie?"

"It was great. I'm sure Jason will tell you all about it but in a nutshell, it was the most amazing place I have ever been to. I will so be going again at some point in my life"

"Sounds great. I can't wait to hear all about it from Jason. It feels like it's been ages since we hung out."

"Rosie has pictures she can show you" Liz grinned, taking my phone from the table and showing Ethan the pictures.

My face flushed, hoping he wouldn't think anything of that picture of Jason and me.

"These look so good. You looked like you had an awesome time" he grinned as he scrolled through the phone. My leg bopped up and down, noticing the rain had now cleared up and the sun was now attempting to peek through the clouds.

"There's so many selfies of you and Jason and-" he paused, his finger hovering over one picture. I'm assuming he had now arrived at that picture.

Ethan pursed his lips as he scrutinised it for a while longer. I wondered what he thought. I suppose he knew about the kiss at the basketball game. I didn't think he knew anything else beyond that. "The photos look good" he said, sliding the phone back to me and said nothing more on the matter.

I wasn't sure if I was glad for that or not. Would Jason tell him everything when he went over? Was I ready for anyone else to know yet? The thing I was most worried about was Liz finding out. I wasn't sure how she would take it and I wasn't ready to tell her just yet anyway.

"Looks like the rain has cleared up" Ethan pointed out, looking outside. "I'll see you ladies around" he said with a nod, taking one last sip of his coffee, and walked outside.

There was a silence between Liz and me. I didn't know what to say to make the situation better. Did she suspect something? Should I just come clean now and tell her the truth? No matter how much I wanted to, I just couldn't.

"Ian and I are thinking of telling Jason soon" Liz spoke, breaking the silence.

I was so lost in my thoughts; I hadn't realised she had spoken. "You mean about you and Ian dating?"

Liz chuckled "Yeah, what else?"

I bit my lip, thinking this through.  "Already?"

"Yeah, it's been months. I'm finally ready to tell him. He's my brother and I've never kept secrets from him. I think he'll be okay with it once he sees how happy I am"

I racked my brain for something to say. Was I selfish in thinking that I didn't want Jason to know just yet? Not while I was still figuring things out with him myself. If he knew about Liz and Ian, we would be forced to tell them about us. And I wouldn't know how that would turn out. I just needed some time to figure out how I was going to tell Liz before Jason found out about Liz's secret.

"I think you should wait a while" I said, nonchalantly.

"What, why?" Liz asked, her eyebrows wrinkled in confusion.

"Erm... I think you should just really think this through. Maybe give it a little while longer until he gets back into a routine after coming back from the trip" I said, scrambling for anything to say.

Liz raised an eyebrow and shook her head, not saying anything further on the subject.

I slumped onto the living room sofa with a sigh, the guilt eating me up. I didn't know how much longer I could take keeping this secret from Liz. Was this how Liz felt keeping her secret from Jason? I could see now why she was ready to tell him. Liz and Ian were close, and this was obviously something big that Liz wanted to share with her brother. So why did I convince her to hold off?

I groaned, placing my face in my hands. I didn't know what to do. I felt lost and confused and there was no one I could talk to about it. My normal go to person to talk to when I felt like this would be Liz, but she was obviously out of the question, unless I wanted to ruin my friendship with her. And I couldn't talk to Jason about it without telling his sisters secret, which wasn't my secret to tell in the first place.

"Hey sweetie, how was your lunch with Liz?" My mother said, entering the living room.

I may not be able to speak to Jason or Liz, but I suppose I could speak to my mother about it.

"It was good. I showed her some pictures of Edinburgh"

"Did she like them?" She asked, taking a seat beside me.

I sighed, deciding if I could trust anyone, it would be my mother.  I showed her the picture that Liz seemed suspicious about. My mother took it and smiled. "That's such a cute picture, what's wrong with it?"

I bit my lip, feeling my heart beating faster. "Well, after that picture was taken..." I paused, suddenly feeling nervous telling her. She raised her eyebrow, waiting for me to continue. "He confessed that he liked me"

"And?"  she grinned, as if knowing how this story of mine ended.

"I also confessed that I liked him too" I could feel my face heat up at my confession. I don't think Jason had discussed it with his parents. I had said to wait a while before we told anyone, even our parents. But I just needed someone to discuss this with. I needed to get this off my chest and who better to tell this to than my mother.

She grinned even wider, if that was possible, and wrapped her arm around my shoulder. "Hmmm, so is that why you've mentioned Jason's name a fair few times over the past few weeks"

"I don't know what you're talking about" I scoffed as a flashback of all the moments I may have casually mentioned Jason's name over the past few weeks came flooding back to me.

'Did you know that Jason's favourite food is a cheese pizza'

'You should have seen Jason at work today. He made the funniest joke'

'I've never noticed this before, but Jason has the greenest eyes I've ever . Have you noticed?'

'Jason's great at playing soccer. He's also great at playing basketball'

"Oh Rosie, I figured it was just a little crush you had on Jason, but I didn't realise that you actually liked him. How come you didn't tell me sooner?"

"We still want to keep it a secret. Well, I want to keep it a secret. Mainly from Liz. I just want to make sure everything will be okay between us before I tell Liz"

"Sweetie, if you're going out with Jason, you're going to have to tell Liz sooner rather than later"

"I know" I sighed "I just don't see the point of telling her if it doesn't work out. There's no point in involving Liz, and her getting upset about it if it ends up not working out"

"I know it's scary not knowing the future, but if you really like Jason, you're going to have to tell Liz. Imagine how hurt she'll be if she finds out from somewhere else"

"I promise I'll tell her soon. We've only just started going out and I'm just worried it might not work out. I really like him mom. I don't want to do anything to mess this up"

She squeezed my shoulder "Jason is a nice boy. And you make such a cute couple"

"Mom" I blushed.

"What? It's true" she laughed. "I always hoped you would end up with a nice boy and I'm glad it's Jason"

I looked down at the picture on my phone, I smiled my heart fluttering just thinking about the boy "Me too"