Author's Note: Sorry for the long wait but honestly, I wasn't so easily inspired to write the next chapter due to the lack of responses for last chapter. I only got a few reviews and that's it. But I decided to write next chapter anyways for the people who are still reading. If you're still here reading and enjoying, please let me know :D
Chapter Eleven: Only Human
.
.
.
A few days have passed since the mighty Thor left Midgard along with his friends to stop his brother Loki from creating more unnecessary damage. Jane was still feeling down and depressed at the fact that she probably wasn't going to see the big blonde man again. Her best friend, Rose, tried to do anything for her to cheer up, but nothing would work. Honestly, Rose didn't know what else to do.
Her father, Dr. Selvig, left New Mexico to deal personally with S.H.I.E.L.D. on whatever they wanted him to study on. So, it was just Jane, Rose, and Jane's young intern Darcy. Every day, Rose and the intern strained themselves to make Jane happy. Rose was worried that she might've fallen in a case of depression.
It was a quiet, peaceful Tuesday when Rose happened to get something in the mail addressed to her. She recognized the return-label from the University of Arizona. Her eyes bulged comically as she practically ripped the envelope in-half to retrieve the letter inside.
The first words that Rose caught on the letter, "Congratulations," Rose released a loud squeal. She eagerly scanned through the letter, jumping up-and-down excitedly.
After reading the acceptance letter, she dashed inside Jane's laboratory. The astrophysicist herself was lounging on her sofa, a blanket wrapped around her, a frown still planted on her face.
"Oh my, God, Janey," shrieked out Rose as she continued to jump enthusiastically. Jane looked up with an indifferent expression. Rose ignored her blank look as she waved the letter back-and-forth like a flag. "You'll never guess what I just got in the mail!"
"Is it a Sephora sample? No wait – it's a Channing Tatum calendar! No wait – even better; it's your sex-tape, isn't it?" Darcy guessed from the other side of the room. Rose glanced at her with an expression of annoyance while Jane only continued to stare blankly ahead of her.
"Calm yourself, Darcy. Sadly, no Channing Tatum. Although, I did find an article about him in People's magazine over in that stack over there," said Rose casually as she pointed to her magazine rack. Immediately, the intern raced towards the magazine rack and pried through the magazines until she found the one she was looking for.
"Channing Tatum, here I come." Darcy declared as she flipped through the pages eagerly.
"Anyway," said Rose as she turned back towards her mute friend who wasn't acknowledging them whatsoever. "I got an approval letter from the University of Arizona; I've been accepted as a professor of the arts. Oh my freakin' God!" Rose jumped again and then stopped when she realized that Jane was now looking at her – and boy, she didn't look too happy. In fact, she looked the opposite. Rose questioned hesitantly, "Why are you looking at me like that? You're supposed to look happy; why aren't you happy?"
Jane seemed to have forgotten how to speak since it took a long moment for her to finally process words. She stared at Jane with those doe eyes of hers and managed to squeak out, "What?!" Rose frowned when she recognized the sadness and anger laced within her voice.
"What do you mean 'what'? What's the matter?"
"What is the matter?" repeated Jane crossly. "The matter is that you're leaving when I need you most right now. Thor just left me – just straight-up left – and I don't even know if I'm going to see him again. And now – y-you think it's the perfect timing to just take off and leave me as well?!"
This ticked off Rose a bit as she crossed her arms and replied just as furiously, "Okay, hold up a bit, Janey. I've been practically sitting on my ass for the past few days doing absolutely nothing but showering you with attention; which by the way, you never acknowledged me at all for that. And now when I tell you about the most amazing news I have received in my life, you don't even congratulate me, but instead you accuse me of leaving you, which I hate doing, and it sucks; life sucks in general. What the hell, Jane? You know, I care about you and I love you and all, but right now, you're kind of being a bitch who's only thinking of herself. What about me, Janey?"
At this point, Rose was nearly close to yelling as Jane only stared up at her, listening intently. Even Darcy didn't even dare to speak a word as she quietly flipped through the pages of the People's magazine.
"How can you be so selfish right now, Jane? Have you ever thought about me for once; and what I want in life? No offense or anything – but I don't want to sit around, doing nothing and just being there as your amusing little sidekick, I'm done with that. I want to move on with my life and you need too as well. And you know what else – you've only known that guy for like less than two days; you don't even know him all that well, Jane. So quit acting like this. Wake up and smell the coffee, Janey; news flash, he's probably not even going to come back, so might as well move on and quit being such a lovesick downer."
Okay, Rose had to admit, that was pretty harsh. But it was in the heat of the moment and Jane was only asking for it. Rose didn't know how else to put it; thinking about it, there really was no nice way to say it. No doubt, Rose loved Jane with all her heart, but it was just so weirdly uncharacteristic for Jane to fall for a guy that hard; and she doesn't really know him. Rose doesn't even know him; hell, she only had one proper conversation with him, and that was when she threatened him about her best friend.
After Rose finished, Jane was starting to cry. She felt so many things at once; anger, sadness, hope… Rose softened her glare as she stared down long and hard at her best friend. She couldn't believe it; Rose hurt her best friend. Badly.
Maybe she shouldn't have said those things. But Jane needed to know. She needed to realize and wake up to reality.
"You know what then," whispered Jane as she stared down at her hands, fingers clasping tightly. "If you want to go to Arizona, fine then. But let me fill you in something about me and Thor; there was something about him that just sparked something within me. And it's strange… because, cliché or not, I've never felt that way with anyone before. Something was just… there. It wasn't science, it was like magic almost. And when we kissed…" a few tears trickled down her cheeks as she looked up at Rose with a hint of a soft smile at the memory… "I felt happy, safe, so many things that make me question my purpose in life. I don't care what you say about him, Rose, but I know that there is something more to him than you realize…"
"Um, yeah, he's kind of a God." Rose remarked in a deadpan tone.
"I fell for him before I learned the truth that he's the God of Thunder. And that's why I'm going to find him." Jane announced certainly as she suddenly pulled the blanket off her and stood up, stepping past a shocked Rose who was silently questioning her sudden change of behavior.
"What?" Rose nearly choked out. She was really starting to wonder if Jane was insane or not. "You are going to try and locate Thor? Why? Out of all the dudes in the world, including the gorgeous Bradley Cooper and Channing Tatum, you fall in love with a freakin' alien?"
"Rose," Jane turned towards her friend as she leaned against the table. "When it's real, you can't walk away." Rose only looked at her friend doubtfully, still refusing to believe the fact that Jane claimed that she loves Thor.
"Jane. Please. This isn't you. I'm worried."
"You don't need to worry about me."
"I only worry about you because I love you and you're practically my sister."
"If you truly loved me, you wouldn't leave me right now!"
"And here we go again! Now, if you truly loved me, you would respect my decisions, rather you like them or not. Jane, you're being selfish again."
"Rosemarie, please! I have to find Thor – and you have to be here with me, to support me through all of this. I can't do it alone!"
"You're not alone; you've got Darcy!"
"She's not you!"
"Hey!" shouted out Darcy in offense. Jane shot her an apologetic glance.
"Sorry, Darcy."
"I don't get paid enough for this." Darcy mumbled before going back to her magazine.
"Why, Jane? Why are you centering everything on Thor now? I don't see how he's so special. No offence to him or anything but he's not that intelligent. I've met hobos who are smarter than that big guy. Jane, I really don't see what you see in him."
"You wouldn't understand, and I don't expect you to anyway; it's doesn't matter. I don't care what you say because I'm going to find him, and I will. So – if you wanna go to Arizona, then go. Leave me behind, see if I care."
Rose glared at her friend, "Excuse me? Yeah, this is so not you, Jane. The old Jane would be appalled at this new Jane. The old Jane would be ecstatic about me getting an awesome opportunity like this. The old Jane would be laughing at the new Jane for falling for some weird guy she just met—"
"Shut up, Rose! If you're going to continue acting like this – then get out of my laboratory! Go, Rose, just get out!"
"Fine! Maybe I will!" Rose turned to leave before yelling, "And by the way, good luck in finding a God who's probably several realms away from this god forsaken place."
Because Rose was walking backwards when she said that, she ended up spinning around at the wrong time, smacking her face against the glass door. Ouch. If Jane weren't so upset, she would have giggled at the comedic scene.
"Pretend that just didn't happen," Rose said as she acted like nothing happened before pulling open the glass door and harshly slamming it.
Whether Jane liked it or not, Rose was going to leave New Mexico that night.
.
.
.
Tears were streaming down Rose's pale cheeks as she drove away from the borders of New Mexico. Literally, after her heated fight with her best friend, Rose packed up all her things and placed everything in her compact car. She said goodbye to Darcy, even giving the younger girl a well-deserved hug.
Rose felt extremely horrible, her gut twisting in guilt as she thought about Jane; the girl who she spent most of her life with, her best friend in the whole wide world. She didn't even get to say goodbye to her. Not that Jane probably cared anyways.
She was still upset over the fact that Jane wasn't even excited for her about the new amazing opportunity.
Over a few years back, Rose had applied to several different universities in the U.S. of possibly pursuing the career of being a professor. She's always wanted to be a teacher, teach people of what they want to know. It's always been a dream of hers.
Rose had already taken the rightful classes for it when she went to college with Jane which was some years back. It was only a matter of time when she would get accepted for a chance like that.
Rose wasn't going to skip an offer like that. She knew that Jane could take care of herself; the girl is very independent after all.
But she still couldn't believe that Jane was actually in love with that guy; sure, Rose knew that those two had a thing for each other. It was quite obvious actually, but Rose was baffled that Jane claimed that she was actually in love with him. Now, that's just silly.
Rose didn't believe in love at first sight and quite frankly, still doesn't. Reality isn't like what it is in the movies. Jane needs to get on with her life, Rose thought. This isn't some Disney film where Thor is some prince and Jane is some poor peasant. Well, Jane isn't really poor, but that's irrelevant.
Rose kept her focus as she drove through the dark night, trying to conquer her tears of anguish. As an attempt to ease her nerves, she turned on the radio and switched through some stations before she settled on something soothing…
"But I'm only human
And I bleed when I fall down
I'm only human
And I crash and I break down
Your words in my head, knives in my heart
You build me up and then I fall apart
'Cause I'm only human."
"Christina Perri, you never fail to disappoint me with your music." Rose remarked with a watery smile as she continued her destination towards Arizona; where she planned to start things over in her life and not have to worry about things like insane best friends, astrophysics, and the craziest thing of all, the Gods that actually do exist. Rose hoped that she wouldn't have to deal with no more craziness in her life –
If only she knew...
.
.
.
This is the last chapter! Let me know if you really want a sequel - I'm really not inspired to write one, but if you guys really want it, please don't hesitate to let me know. Thank you to everyone who has supported me throughout this story; you all are equally amazing! Hugs to all of you :D If I do plan on doing a sequel, I will write up an author's note and post it as soon as I post the new story to let you guys know! Again, thank you all so much! Please review :D