Time After Time

Rose spent the first three days on Jervis Bay with in Angela’s family house, for the sake of Angela, and Gustav and his friends had to have fun with their own for a while. It was the one of the strangest three days of Gustav Wood’s life. Those three days felt like centuries and at first he thought he knew why. It was because they were never separated for months and now suddenly she needed to be gone for three days. Three days is not a long time—or so Gustav thought. It was quite similar with his feeling when he spent his time alone after a long tour with Young Guns; they had been together for such a long time that small one-week separation felt like forever.

But it was only three days.

That was what he told himself.

The guys didn’t really do anything in those three days—because before they realise it, Rose was not only their friend, but also their guide, their chef, their caretaker, no matter how absurd the reason of why five grown up man needs a caretaker is. Nobody cooked breakfast or helped them with washing clothes or tell them what to do when there’s suspicious looking snake on the yard of the place where they stay. Those three days felt like forever, before one morning Rose went back and continue her sleep in sofa.

From what they gathered after that Rose woke up, she stayed up all night long because Angela’s little sister’s baby was ill. Gustav sat on the floor, next to the sofa where Rose was half-sitting, half-lying. The guys were scattered all over the room and they both noticed same things; how Rose looked tired, so tired and busy that she must be forget to brush her hair that now looked like a bundle of messy red long hair, but she also looked happy—and they all thought whether that’s how other people see Rose after she took care of Young Guns.

Rose didn’t notice anything.

She sat there, mumbling, “I’m hungry. I’ll go cook some brunch…”

And the guys abruptly stood up and shouting different thing that basically said, “No, no, no! Let’s go to Hungry Jack’s… you shouldn’t cook!”

After they went to Hungry Jack’s, they spent the rest of the day by the guys keep watching Rose because they missed her in the most unexplainable way possible. They went back as she told them to catch the snake or spider whenever one bit them. “But why?” asked Simon, as he was saying what all his friends had in mind. “Oh, so you can bring them to the doctor,” answered Rose. “Specific poison needs specific antidote—and they don’t know what antidote to give you unless they know what kind of poison that the animal that bite you has.”

The guys nodded in fascination (Simon mumbled, “Australia.”). Rose, who was really used to poisonous animal, yawned, “Do you guys mind if I sleep again? I’m still really tired… yeah, sorry I can’t play with you now, Lestat,” she hugged the sad Samoyed as the rest of people in the van nodded. Rose went straight to the bedroom, leaving Lestat walked out from there, making sad noises as the furry white dog went to Gustav who was reading magazine. Lestat sat on Gustav’s lap and they shared the same look; they both want to do something with Rose, but she was tired and she needed to rest. Gustav chuckled as he watched the Samoyed’s expression.

“I miss her too, Buddy,” he said, stroking the dog’s thick, double-coated fur. “But at least she’s here. She’s finally here again. God, it was the longest three days of my life.”

Lestat barked in agreement.



When night comes and Rose was feeling less tired, they went out for drink. In a local pub, Gustav and his friends met Rose’s old friend back in uni, who now has returned to Jervis Bay, his original house. His name was Hamish. Hamish O’Shea was a tall, red-haired, blue-eyed man who was about his age. Gustav wasn’t sure whether he liked Hamish or not, but he could see why he was Rose’s friend back in uni. He was nice—but above all, he was hilarious, wacky, and quirky. Everyone liked this man in green shirt, even John was laughing really loud with him in their first three minutes chatting about something. Rose must’ve found him really interesting, jumpy, and he made her life a little more fun. He felt jealousy when he thought of that, because when he thought of what he could give to Rose Lette’s life, he felt like he couldn’t find anything.

They must have been close.

Like, really close.

Especially Rose always stared at Hamish with such an adornment that Gustav needed to look at somewhere else in order not to feel like he wanted to kick something. He went to the counter to refill his beer.

Hamish was leaning on the counter, with Victorian Beer on his left hand, smirking at Gustav who felt slightly uncomfortable. The red-haired man rolled his eyes and mumbled, “Don’t worry, I don’t want to date her.”

Gustav couldn’t help but blush. Was it so obvious that it was written all over his face?

Hamish laughed, hard, and it made Gustav blushed even more.

“I’m gay,” he said nonchalantly, as he was just stating that it was raining outside.

The half-Norwegian man turned his head around to watch Hamish O’Shea chuckling as he took another sip to his beer. “Seriously,” he added. “Not that I’ve ever made it obvious—but I think I’ll just let you know to let you… not to worry about Rose’s relationship with me. We’re friend. Very good friend, in my opinion—but you know her, she’s a fun person to be with for someone like me… or Gabriella.” He took another sip. “Too bad I graduated first—but anyway…”

Gustav didn’t say anything. He didn’t know what to think. Here he was, feeling like a worthless person who couldn’t do anything but to feel jealous to every person Rose had knew before him. He stared down at his own glass of beer, saying nothing.

“But, Man, listen, if you want to be with her, you’re going to have tough time to actually be with her—and making her happy and stuff…”

Hamish didn’t stare at him when Gustav stared at the man in green shirt.

“I know,” he finally managed to mumble. “I mean, we all have rough picture of her ex… grown man, good job, very classy…”

Hamish shook his head, “I didn’t talk about that, Man.”

“No?” Gustav raised his eyebrows.

“No,” Hamish made a slight angry expression before he continued. “You don’t get it, do you?”

Gustav felt annoyed, but then he remembered that Hamish knew Rose longer than him. Grumping, he responded, “No… I guess I don’t.”

Hamish finished his can of beer before he smiled a sad smile. “Do you see how hard she was trying to make everyone happy?” he asked.

Gustav nodded.

“I think the saddest people are the people who try their hardest to make people happy, because they understand how does it feels like to feel completely worthless—and they don’t want anybody else to feel that way ever.”

As Hamish finished with his sentence, Gustav didn’t say anything. He felt like he knew that all along, but not until tonight it was finally come into one piece to his head, making sense more than ever. There was a long silence following Hamish’s words, but then Gustav chuckled as he mumbled, “You really do know her, don’t you?”

Hamish shrugged, “Would marry her if I’m not only interested in men.”

Gustav laughed and Hamish laughed too. After that, Hamish told everything he knew about how to drink best drink while Gustav was still in Australia, since Gustav wouldn’t get the information from Rose, who just didn’t drink. And somehow, Rose Lette had just given Gustav Wood another good friend.



Later, at the supermarket, Gustav was following Rose to help her bought some juice for him and the guys. She already remembered some of the guy’s favourite fruit and put everything to the basket, as Gustav noticed that she didn’t buy any juice for herself. Rose didn’t realise Gustav was staring at him as she took two different bottle and asked him, “Would you prefer apple and blackcurrant juice or orange and mango juice?”

Gustav didn’t answer that straight away. He just smiled.

“Gustav?”

“What would you prefer?” he was still smiling.

Rose shrugged, “Well, I… uh… apple and blackcurrant.”

“Let’s take that one, then,” Gustav was still smiling. Rose nodded, mirroring his smile, and they left to the cashier.

It was another slow walk, but Gustav Wood could feel that even though it was just one tiny step, he took another step to be closer to Rose—to her happiness.



“I bet you didn’t learn your portion of guitar-learning while you away, did you, Rose?”

“No, Sir, unfortunately I didn’t.”

“Nah. I was just joking. Let’s go back to our last lesson…”

Fraser was sitting on an old wooden chair while Rose sat on the floor on the living room. Lestat was sleeping on the other side of the room and the other guys were busy with their gadget. Rose started to play while Fraser stared at her, wondering whether she was always that small and her hair was always that long or it was just because he hadn’t see her in the past three days.

“Okay, I guess you’re improved—now I’ll let you use my favourite acoustic guitar.”

“Yeah!” Rose exclaimed happily.

Together, they sat outside, on the veranda, where they could see gorgeous sea view from the place that stood upon rocky surface below the house. Rose was a little rusty at the beginning as she played and she was twice as nervous since she was playing with Fraser’s favourite guitar, but Fraser clapped his hands in the end. “Not bad at all, Rose,” he said. Rose’s face was shining in happiness and she played another three songs before Fraser played another one, teaching her, and then they stopped because they were both hungry and Lestat had already disturb them by barking next to them.

After they finished playing outside, Fraser leaned the guitar on the chair next to the fence and walked back to inside the house. Rose was going to follow him, before she saw the guitar fell slowly on one side and proceed to fall down from the veranda. Without thinking twice, she reached out to grab the guitar and fall on process.

The sound of her fall made Fraser looked back.

“Oh My God! Rose! Are you okay?” he shouted.

“I’m fine! Your guitar is also fine…” Rose laughed, as she was relieved because she didn’t feel any pain and the guitar were not bruised at all. She tried to sit slowly and thanked God she didn’t fell into part where there was a lot of big sharp rocks.

Fraser ran to her side and he could hear the other guys were running behind him; all of them looked worried. Rose chuckled as she handed the guitar first before she sat up. “I’m okay… I think some rocks scratched my back, but other than that, I’m perfectly fine…” she laughed but Fraser stared at her angrily. He was furious. He didn’t even act like they weren’t alone there, considering John, Gustav, Ben, and Simon were standing around them.

“Why did you do that?” he growled.

“Do… do what?” Rose stuttered.

“Jump—in order to catch my guitar.”

“Huh? Because you told me this is your favourite acoustic guitar, right? And you would be really sad if you see it broken, so I…”

Fraser took his guitar and walked away in anger. Rose was completely dumbfounded as John was running after his brother. Simon and Ben followed them while Gustav helped Rose to stand up. She felt really shocked and she couldn’t say anything as she stared Gustav. Gustav smiled a sad but understanding smile, “You don’t need to worry. He’s actually just really angry at himself…” Rose blinked. It didn’t seem to be a satisfying explanation at all.

“I’ll tell you while we’re cleaning your elbow and back—the wounds are not bad, but you definitely want to clean them up,” Gustav said softly as he gave her his hand to help her stand up. Rose nodded, took his hand without thinking because she was seriously confused, and they want back to the building.

Rose winced every time Gustav touched her wound in order to clean them, but she always secretly smiled whenever Gustav was looking at somewhere else. She liked the fact that Gustav was taking care of her wound. But then Rose remembered about Fraser and she sighed. Gustav looked at her and patting the wound on her elbow softly. “He was just angry because you think you are less important than his beloved guitar,” said Gustav calmly. Rose stared at the cotton ball on Gustav’s hand that turned to red on one side because of her blood.

“I just want to save the thing that is meaningful to him,” she mumbled sadly.

“I understand that, Rose,” Gustav parted Rose’s long hair from her back and he made unhappy sound as he watched wound on Rose’s back. He started to clean the wound there and Rose shuddered. “But the thing is… I think if I were him, I’d be a little angry too. I mean… in no circumstance you should think that you are less important than… thing. You’re a living, breathing human. You have a lot of people who are constantly worry about you. If my favourite things make you hurt, I would be rather angry as well… are you with me?”

Rose nodded.

“So that was why Fraser was so angry?”

Gustav nodded.

“I think I should apologize to him,” Rose said, biting her lower lip every time Gustav stroked her wound. She could hear Gustav’s smile even though she couldn’t see his face, “Nah—I think he’s already apologized you by now. I don’t think Fraser is even angry with you in the first place. He was just angry with the fact that something he loves bring pain to someone he really care about.”

“I’m really stupid,” Rose groaned.

Gustav responded calmly, “I agree.”

Rose turned her head around to see Gustav, who smiled like a parent who had succeed punishing his child. “Rose, stop thinking that you aren’t important. You are. Never forget that you are. You might not matter to a lot of people in your early age, but now you are. And always remember that you are.”

“… Okay.”

“Good girl.”

Gustav ruffled Rose’s hair.

Rose stood up and she kissed his cheek, “You’d make a brilliant father, Gustav,” she said, out of thank you. “You know, considering the way you lecture me… seriously, a great dad.”

Gustav raised his eyebrows, his pale blue eyes was staring fiercely into Rose’s big green eyes, “Is that a marriage proposal?”

“Gustav!” Rose groaned, blushed as she tried to hit him with the nearest sofa pillow that she could reach. Gustav laughed and he captured Rose’s arms. Rose couldn’t fight because her elbows were still hurt and she winced and stop struggling. She could feel her face was really hot and really red as Gustav stared at her, smirking like a winner. “I’m just kidding,” he said nonchalantly, the smirk was still there in his lips. “Now go talk to Fraser—I’m sure he’s waiting for you.”