If the past few days had not been going well for Stefan, Rosalie's had been just as bad. And had everything to do with Boyd. Tuesday, the day after things had gone badly with Shane, had started out with a cup of yogurt that had been washed down with two more cups of Scotch. It had gotten progressively worse as she went through the motions of her usual day, drifting through her classes in her own hazy world, as if separated by a heavy veil. Everyone around her- they were normal. They didn't turn into fairy tales at midnight or get attacked by wolves in the downstairs apartment. She had another drink at lunch, smiled sweetly at the bartender, who was looking at her with some concern, and went onto her last class, sitting patiently for an hour while all the words that floated out of the professor's mouth washed through her mind like it was a sieve.
Wednesday had been better, meaning that she had remembered that she had a date early enough in the afternoon that she had stopped drinking. A phone call from her grandmother, informing her that her presence was desired for Easter, first at church (which wasn't so bad) and then for an extended family brunch (which never failed to be a miserable experience), reminded her of what was expected. She cleaned up well, clipping her hair in a way that it covered the scratches on the sides of her face and hiding the deeper ones on her legs with dark tights. Unsure whether it was going to be a casual date or not, she tried to dress somewhere between the two, well enough for a nice restaurant if she put on the right coat once she saw what he was wearing.
When the knock came, she was all set, a little tired looking, but that couldn't be helped and she was more than attractive enough to make up for it. She smiled at him when she opened the door, a real one, because before everything had happened, she really had been looking forward to this. "Hello!" Formal it was then. She took the flowers when he offered them, thanking him and putting them in a vase (but not before she tucked one of the daisies into her hair). "How have you been?" she asked him as she slipped her coat over her shoulders.