BARRIERS OF A FIRST LOVE
Chapter Four
Rose glanced at her watch hours later and
gasped. It was a quarter after ten. How long had she been sitting there? Two
hours? Three? Anyway, it didn’t matter. She couldn’t take this miserable chain
of horrible things that she called a life.
*****
Spencer watched Rose from a distance. God,
the little bitch hasn’t moved for two and a half hours, he thought to
himself. Oh, well. I’m getting paid big bucks to stand around and do
nothing.
*****
Calmer than even she would have expected,
Rose walked to her car, started it, and drove off.
*****
Faster and faster, she whipped through the
streets. She was burning out all her anger, her torment, her energy, her
life.
Suddenly, she saw what she was looking for.
She hit the brakes, and the car screeched to a halt. The cars behind her honked
while the passengers yelled, and her trusty seatbelt kept her skull from
smashing open.
Not that it would matter.
*****
Spencer lost the car on the streets. Dammit!
Well, it’s not my fault. I can’t help it if the girl’s gone insane. I’ve
been watching her for Cal since before the two even started dating, and I’ve
done a heck of a good job. Okay. So, which way did the insane little thing go?
*****
Rose raced to the railing of the small,
ancient bridge. Peering over it, she could see that the usually calm water of
the small lake was churning. Churning just for me. She clumsily climbed
over, and her hold began to loosen on the railing when she heard a voice.
*****
Jack sat on the filthy sidewalk, his head
resting uncomfortably on the railing of the bridge. He loved it here. If you
sat still and none of the cars turned into the street, you could hear the water
far below. It was peaceful and calming and perfect, a small strip of LA that no
one else seemed aware of.
He was alert as he heard a car pull into the
street. It came to an abrupt halt. A girl about his age came out and didn’t
even bother to shut the door behind her. She broke into a run until she was at
the railing, a good twenty yards away from him. He watched in horror as she
began to climb over.
He got up as quickly as he could and rushed
over.
"Don’t do it."
The girl turned around, and he was shocked to
find that it was his partner from science class.
What was his problem? "Stay back, loser.
Don’t you dare come any closer."
Jack could see the tear streaks even in the
dim lighting. "Take my hand. I’ll pull you back."
Oh. So now the Neanderthal thought that
without this big, strong guy Rose wouldn’t be able to step over some dinky
railing that she obviously already climbed over. "No! Stay where you are.
I mean it. I’ll let go."
"No, you won’t."
Rose wasn’t expecting this response and it
caught her by surprise. But of course she wanted to jump. Why else would she be
in this position? "What do you mean ‘no I won’t?’ Don’t presume to tell me
what I will and will not do. You don’t know me."
Wow. So the bimbo knows a two-syllable
word, one part of Jack’s brain was
saying. While the other part was saying, Yes! I knew she wasn’t like the
rest. She really is special. And right now she needs my help. "Well,
you would have done it already. Now, come on. Take my hand."
Rose blinked away tears so that she can see
him better. The Gap clothes were gone and in their place were a pair of old,
worn blue jeans and a faded red and blue shirt that had actually reshaped
itself through the years to perfectly fit his upper body under a shapeless
black jacket. Gone also was the hair gel, and now that he wasn’t perfect, Rose
could see that he was beautiful. But beautiful is the last thing I need
right now. "You’re distracting me. Go away."
"I can’t. I wish I could, but I’m
involved now. If you let go I have to jump in after you."
"Don’t be absurd. You’ll be
killed."
Jack took off the black jacket and threw it
into a heap by his feet. "I’m a good swimmer." He began to unlace his
shoes.
"The fall alone would kill you."
"It would hurt. I’m not saying it
wouldn’t. To be honest, I’m a lot more concerned about the water being so
cold."
Rose looked down at the water that now seems
a million miles below. "How cold?"
"Ever been to Wisconsin?"
"No."
"They have some of the coldest winters
around, and I grew up there, near Chippewa Falls. Once, when I was a kid, my
dad and I went ice fishing out on Lake Wissota. I went through some thin ice,
and water that cold, like right down there, it hits you like a thousand knives
all over your body. You can’t breath; you can’t think, at least not about
anything but the pain." Jack paused to take off his shoes before going on,
"Which is why I’m kinda wishing you’ll get me off the hook here."
"You’re crazy."
"Say whatever you want, but, with all
due respect, I’m not the one hanging off the railing of a bridge here."
Jack cautiously slid one step closer.
"Come on. You don’t want to do this. Give me your hand."
Their eyes locked. His blue eyes seemed to
fill Rose’s universe, and for the first time in months, maybe even years, she
had a feeling rush through her body. Hope. "All right."
*****
Spencer had just had enough time to park his
car a few blocks away and jog over to where he had finally spotted Rose. The
scene made him smile.
He got out his cell phone and called Cal. It
was immediately picked up.
"This better be good."
By the noises in the background, Spencer
could tell that Cal was at some sort of party with his friends. "Oh, it
is. Come quick. She’s at the old bridge by the polluted puddle we call a lake.
You know it?"
"Yes." The line went dead.
*****
He lifted a warm hand to grasp her cold one.
"I’m Jack Dawson, in case you didn’t catch it earlier."
"Pleased to meet you, Jack. I’m Rose
DeWitt-Bukater."
"That’s quite a moniker. Under any other
circumstances, I might ask you to write that down for me."
Painstakingly, Jack helped Rose. As she lifted
her knee over the railing, her skirt caught on a nail and a loud ripping sound
occurred. In that moment, they both loosened their grips for a second and the
hold was broken. She plunged downward with a yelp, and Jack barely had fast
enough reflexes to catch her. Another scream was heard in the night.
"Don’t worry. I have you. I won’t let
go."
Rose tried to get some sort of footing on the
smooth side of the bridge. After what seems like an eternity, her foot was
finally able to rest on a small slab of cement that was jutting out. Once Jack
saw that she was somewhat secure, he began to pull her over once again.
The effort was so great that when Rose
finally managed to get on the safe side of the bridge, the impact made both of
them tumble onto the hard ground in such a tangled mess that Jack ended up
practically on top of Rose.
It is at this convenient moment that Cal
chose to drive up in his flashy car. He was immediately out of it and flying
toward the two figures lying in a heap on the ground. Cal was followed by his
good friend Gracie and Spencer.
"What’s all this, then?"
Cal aggressively pulled Jack off of Rose,
which exposed the rip in her skirt and her tear-stained cheeks.
*****
Rose sat, leaning her head against the
railing. Gracie offered her a bottle of booze that he had brought along from
the party. She shook her head no. She could hear Cal’s accusations as they were
spit out at Jack.
"How dare you put your filthy hands on
my girlfriend!"
Without thinking, Rose sprang to her feet and
walked over. "Cal, stop!"
Cal, Spencer, and even Jack looked over at
her, waiting for her to continue.
"It was an accident."
Cal faced her. "An accident?"
"Yes. I was standing at the railing
looking over at the--um, the..."
"Water?"
"Yes! I was leaning over to see the
water, when I slipped! And if it wasn’t for Jack here, I would have surely
drowned."
"Was that the way of it?" Gracie
asked Jack.
Jack looked over at Rose, pleading with her
eyes. "Yeah. That was the way of it."
"So he’s a hero, then!" Gracie
piped up in his half-drunk stupor.
Cal was suddenly very light-hearted.
"Yes, well. That’s that, then." Cal put an arm around Rose and began
walking her towards the car.
"Don’cha think the kid should at least
get some reward?" Gracie again.
"Oh, yeah. I guess. Spencer, a fifty
should do it." Cal was annoyed that he had to waste another second of his
time here.
"Is that the going rate for saving the
woman you love?"
Cal looked at Rose, and then at Jack. The kid
was wearing wrinkled, baggy clothes. The just-rolled-out-of-bed look had been
out since Cal was a freshman. Looking up at the hair, it was nicely cut but
held no gel. Clearly he wasn’t anywhere near Cal’s rank. "I know. How
about you join Rose and me and some of our friends for dinner tomorrow? I’m
sure that everyone will be eager to meet the man who saved my girlfriend’s
life."
"Sure. Count me in."
"See you then." As they headed
towards the car, Cal leaned in toward Gracie and said, "This should be
amusing."
Spencer stayed a little behind and turned
toward Jack. He looked down at his shoes. "You’ll want to tie those."
He waited a beat for the impact to come. "It’s funny how Rose slipped so
suddenly and you still had time to take off your shoes." Spencer turned
around, waited another a beat, and walked away.