FORBIDDEN LOVE
Chapter One
Rose was watching Mariah Carey’s
video We Belong Together. She thought about how her life was like that
video. She needed to run away from her boyfriend to go to her real love. Then
Rose thought, I don’t even have a love, and my boyfriend is seventeen and
abuses me. Does Mother care? No. I bet Dad would have. Rose’s father had
passed away from heart failure when she was ten years old. She really did miss
him. Just then, her phone rang. Rose picked up the private phone next to her
bed.
"Hello?"
"Hi, sweetpea." Cal’s
cold voice came through the phone.
"Yes, Cal?"
"We are going to dinner
tonight at the Ivy. Get ready. I will be there around 6:30."
That was the last straw for Rose.
"You know what, Cal? No. I
can’t take this. It’s over, and I don’t care what Mother or you think! It’s not
1912. We don’t arrange marriages or engagements. Not even dates! I will find my
real love and leave this hellhole! Got that? Now, good-bye, Mr. Hockley!"
Cal didn’t even get to respond.
Rose threw the phone down, unplugged it, and ran out of the house to the beach,
right down the street. Rose wasn’t even noticing what she was doing, just
running down the beach. It was October, so the beach wasn’t that crowded, especially
at five o’clock in the afternoon. All of a sudden, she ran into somebody.
"Oh, my God, ma’am. I am so
sorry," the man said, holding out his hand to Rose.
"It’s quite all right. It’s
my fault. I was running," Rose said, taking his hand and pulling herself
up, then wiping herself off.
"Jack Dawson," the man
said, hand out to shake hers.
"Rose DeWitt-Bukater,"
Rose said, shaking his hand.
"Well, Miss DeWitt-Bukater,
let me take you to get something to eat."
"Okay," was all Rose
could say. She was in a trance at his piercing blue eyes and sandy blond hair.
They walked over to a little
diner by the Santa Monica Pier. When they got there, they sat at a table over
in the corner.
"So, Miss--"
"Please. Rose."
"Okay, Rose. Why were you
crying and running? May I ask that, or is it too personal?"
"No…no, not at all,"
Rose continued. "Well, my mother seems to think it’s the old days, trying
to force me to go with this guy who abuses me." Rose pulled up her baby
blue sleeves to show Jack her purple bruises.
"Wow. Who did this? I will
beat his ass," Jack said, still looking at Rose’s arm.
Rose just laughed bitterly.
"No. Don’t do that now. Anyway, I broke up with him, and my dad died when
I was little, and I have no one who actually cares about me except my friend,
Gabrielle."
"I’m so sorry," was all
Jack could say. How can someone treat this girl that way? She seems so
sweet. He was thinking, Could I possibly love this girl? No. No, she
seems young, and I am twenty. Then the waitress came.
"What would you two like?"
"I will have a slice of
cheese pizza with a Pepsi," Jack said.
"The same," Rose
answered. The waitress walked away.
"So, Jack, what about you
being on the beach? It’s pretty chilly this time of year in the evening. Am I
right?" Rose asked, a little teasingly.
"Yeah, but it really clears
my mind. I am not that rich. All I do is draw and work at the Old Navy down the
street," Jack explained.
"Don’t you go to school?
Have a girlfriend? Wait. How old are you?" Rose gave a little laugh when
she realized how much she had just asked Jack. Jack also laughed.
"Okay. I am twenty, and that
explains my not going to school. Also, no, I don’t have a wife, fiancée, or
girlfriend."
"Oh." Rose had a sad
look on her face. Great. I can’t even date him. I’m sixteen, and he’s
twenty. Jack noticed how sad her face looked.
Finally, their food came.
"Rose?" Jack asked, biting into his pizza.
"What?" Rose asked,
dazed. She also started eating.
"You look sad. Are you
okay?" Jack asked.
"Yeah. I was just
thinking," Rose answered.
They ate in silence. Then Jack
paid and they left.
They were walking towards Rose’s
house.
"Jack?"
"Yeah, Rose?"
"I like you…I mean, I really
like you."
Rose was afraid of how Jack was
going to react. Jack stopped, and so did Rose, and they stared into each
other’s eyes.