JACK AND ROSE: PRESENT TIME
Chapter
Forty-Four
The whole gang was
hanging out at 'Waves Swim Club' which was a local pool by Tommy's house. They
often went there to swim.
Dominique, Alexia,
and Rose were all laying out on their chairs, sun tanning. Alexia really wanted
to get a better tan for Tommy.
"Are you guys
ever gonna swim?" Fabrizio asked, looking down at the three girls.
"Nope,"
they all said at the same time.
"How about we
all go down the slide," Tommy suggested.
"Nope."
"Wanna go jump
of the diving board?" Jack tried.
"Nope."
"That's it
everybody in the pool!" Tommy said. "We came here to swim and that's
what we're gonna do."
With a groan, the
girls got up. They all jumped into the pool. The cold water felt good against
their skin.
"I know what
we can do!" Fabrizio said. There he went with one of his stupid game ideas
again. "Let's play water truth."
"What the hell
is that?" Tommy asked.
"You have to
go underwater and admit one of your deepest darkest secrets, and if you can
hear well underwater, you'll know it," Fabrizio said.
"Okay..."
Alexia said with a slight laugh.
"So, we gonna
play?" Fabrizio's eyes pleaded.
"Why
not?" Tommy said. "But you gotta go first."
"Fine,"
Fabrizio said.
They all went
underwater and listened to what he said. They all came back up.
"All I heard
was 'I Love'", Jack said.
"I heard
Dominique's name," Alexia said.
Fabrizio's mouth
dropped. "No table talk."
"Table
talk?" Tommy said. "This is the stupidest game ever. We all know that
you and Dominique are crazy about each other!"
Dominique and
Fabrizio looked at each other and said stuff like, "Yeah right." and
"You wish."
"Didn't you
two have sex on the beach once?" Alexia asked.
"Yeah, they
did!" Tommy answered for them.
"Oh my
gosh!" Rose said. "Dominique, look who is life guarding!"
They all looked
over at a handsom young man. He had black hair and a great build.
"Rose! I
thought you said he left!"
"I thought he
did," Rose replied.
"Who is this
guy?" Jack asked.
"Ummm my
cousin," Rose lied.
"Justin is
your cousin?" Dominique said with a laugh.
Rose gave her a
dirty stare. "Remember Dom?"
Rose climbed out of
the pool, hoping he wouldn't recognize her. Just her luck, he came over to her.
"Rose!? Is it
really you?" He gave her a hug and a slight kiss on the lips. Everybody
but Dominique's mouth dropped. Who was this dude? It certainly wasn't her
cousin.
"I thought you
went back to Illinois," Rose said.
"I moved back.
I'm so sorry I left you like that. My mother needed me," he said sadly.
"I can't believe it's really you!"
By then, all of the
teens were out of the pool. Jack looked at this 'kid'. What did he want with
Rose?
"I'm so glad
I'm back," Justin said as he kissed Rose's hands. "Now maybe we can
get back where we were," he staretd to head in for a kiss from Rose but
Jack pushed him away from her.
"What the hell
are you doing?" Justin said.
"Rose, who is
this guy?" Jack asked.
"I'm her boyfriend,
pal," Justin said.
Jack looked at
Rose. She shrugged her shoulders. "He's my old boyfriend," she said
quitly.
"Rose! We
never broke up!" Justin said.
"You left me!
That's a break-up!" Rose snapped back.
"But we love
each other," Justin said.
"I'm sorry
Justin," Rose said. "I have a new boyfriend, and I love him more than
anything in the whole world."
Justin starred into
Rose's eyes. "I'll never forget what we had, Rose." Justin knew he
had to get Rose back. She belonged to him. He'd figure out a way...
"Me neither.
Goodbye Justin," Rose said as she turned and walked away, with her friends
following.
"Rose? Why
didn't you ever tell me about him?" Jack asked.
"Well, you never
told me about your old girlfriends, I thought I'd never see him again."
"He has just
gotten so sexy!" Dominique said, Alexia nodding her head in agreement.
Good way to cheer
Jack up. "He said you guys loved each other," Jack said.
"I thought I
loved him but I was wrong. I didn't even know what love was until I met
you," Rose said as she gently touched his face.
Jack smiled and
kissed her on the cheek. "I love you, Rose."
"I love you,
Jack."
About 15 minutes
later, everything was okay. They were all back in the pool.
Jack pulled Rose
into his arms. "Hey beautiful."
"Hey
yourself," she said with a smile. "I finally finished my book!"
Rose said.
"What
book?" Jack asked.
"The book that
I've been reading all year. Remember? I was reading it when you asked me
out!"
Jack shrugged his
shoulders.
"That Titanic
book," Rose said.
"Oh
yeah!" Jack replied.
"That book was
good. You gotta read it! It makes me start to wonder what it would have been
like if we were alive back then and on that ship."
Jack smiled.
"Well I don't know much about this ship, but I know we would have both
survived."
Rose eyed him
carefully. "You never know."