MORE THAN THAT
Chapter Fifteen

Friday, October 10, 2003

It was finally the end of the week. They all went to Hannah's house as planned. Her sister stayed for about thirty minutes, then left. All were glad to have the house to themselves and to be able to sleep over at Hannah's.

As Tommy and Christina cuddled on the couch and Fabrizio and Hannah threw popcorn into each other’s mouths, Jack looked out the window. It had been raining terribly hard, so they had all agreed to stay in the house. Jack didn't mind the rain so much. In fact, he liked the rain.

Jack opened up his portfolio to a clean page. He looked over at Tommy and Christina, admiring them. Taking out his charcoal, he sketched them as they looked, cozy on the couch. Somewhere in his portfolio he had a picture of Fabrizio and Hannah together in her backyard. It was a beautiful picture of them sitting on the swing together, holding hands.

The position Tommy and Christina were in was perfect for him to draw. They were both sleeping. Tommy's head rested on hers with his arms wrapped around her body, as hers were around his neck. He could see Tommy take his breaths as they slept silently.

Nearly done, Hannah looked over Jack's shoulder. She smiled at the picture, amazed by how he had captured them so well. Hannah loved art as well. She didn't know how to draw or anything, but she studied the history of it.

"That's really beautiful, Jack," Hannah said to him.

"Thanks," he said, still drawing. He put the finishing touches on the picture and dated it, proud of his work.

"Someday, Jack Dawson will be a famous artist," Hannah said to him. Jack smiled at her. Hannah took his portfolio from him and began to look through it. She stopped at the picture of herself and Fabrizio, blushing. "Jack, this is absolutely amazing!"

"It's good to know someone actually appreciates my work!"

"We all love it!" She continued looking at his portfolio and stopped when she saw a portrait of Rose. Jack's face grew red. Hannah looked at him and smiled. "It's beautiful, Jack."

"Thank you! I wish she'd appreciate it."

"Don't worry about it. It's only been a month of school. Maybe you'll get your chance with her later on this year. If not, she doesn't know what she's missing out on. If Rose DeWitt-Bukater doesn't give you a chance, then she doesn't deserve to. I know it's kind of a rotten thing to say, but with all her bitchiness, she and Cal deserve each other."

"That's something Chris would say."

"Christina knows her better than we do. From what she's told me, Rose was never this way until high school, and her attitude got worse when she started dating Cal. It hasn't even been a year yet since they started dating each other."

"I wish I could help her. I don't understand why anyone would wanna be with Cal."

"He's a senior, rich, and handsome. The most popular kid in school. I don't know why. However, Jack, you have something he doesn't, and that's a heart. You are such a good friend. We're all happy you came to New York and go to school with us. We've only been hanging out for a month, but it feels as if though we've known you for an eternity! We all love you, Jack." Jack smiled and patted her hand.

"I love you guys, too!"

Fabrizio came into the room after going to the bathroom. "What are you two chatting about?"

"Don't you love Jack?" Hannah asked him.

"Everybody loves Jack! Jack's my boy!" Fabrizio said, giving him a pound. "Look at those two sleeping! It’s only 9:30, and they're sleeping! It's a Friday night, for Christ's sake! I should wake them up!"

"Aw! Fabri, they look so peaceful!" Hannah said.

"We're here to have fun!" he said. He went to the stereo and turned it up. Tommy and Christina immediately jumped awake. Fabrizio turned the music down and laughed hysterically. Christina grabbed a pillow from the couch and threw it at him, only for him to catch it.

"Fabri, you're an asshole!" Tommy yelled to him.

"Well, you remember a week ago at Chris's house you yelled into my ear and woke me up?"

"That was different! We had to wake your asses up!"

"It's Friday night! We're here to have fun!" Hannah said.

Christina yawned and stretched out her arms. "I'm hungry. You didn't eat all the pizza, did you, Fabri?"

"We still have two other boxes. Why would I eat everything up?"

"You ate nearly both boxes last time," Jack informed him.

"Hey, first come, first serve," Fabrizio said.

"If you get fat, babe, I'll still love you!" Hannah said, kissing him.

"Your zipper is open, Fabri! I can see your boxers! Are those little pigs I see on them?" Tommy laughed at him. Fabrizio got embarrassed and immediately zipped them up. "For a sixteen-year-old kid, you sure have some sense of style." He continued to laugh at him. When Tommy wasn't looking, Fabrizio threw the pillow that was thrown at him before by Christina, straight at Tommy's head.

"Asshole!" Tommy yelled. He grabbed a pillow off the floor, jumped over the couch and hit Fabrizio with it.

"Guys, you're gonna rip my pillows open!" Hannah whined.

"Maybe you guys shouldn't hit each other with those pillows," Jack tried compromising with them. Fabrizio and Tommy stopped and tried to catch their breaths.

"Jack's right," Fabrizio agreed with Jack, looking at Tommy.

"Yeah. Let's get him instead!" Tommy said. Fabrizio and Tommy smiled, turning on Jack.

"Hey! That's not fair! I don't have a pillow!" Jack tried blocking them by covering his face with his arms.

"Kick his ass, Tommy!" Christina rooted for him. Jack crawled over to a pillow on the floor. Fabrizio saw Jack about to hit him with pillow, so he ducked, causing Jack to hit Christina with the pillow instead.

"Jack Dawson, you are gonna get it!" Christina yelled. She grabbed a pillow off the couch and chased him around the room.

"If you guys break anything in here I'll be in deep shit!" Hannah yelled. None of them bothered to listen to her all. Before she knew it, a pillow was thrown at her head. "That's it! Who threw that?" she yelled, no one answering her, but Tommy laughing. "This is war!" She ran and jumped on Tommy's back.

"This is a pillow fight! What are you attacking me for?" Tommy yelled. He flipped her over onto the couch, where she grabbed a pillow and beat him with it.

Soon, all of them laughed at the fun, not caring who hit who. Soon enough, Jack was having too much fun to even think of Rose.

*****

The rain pounded hard against the window on the windy October evening. It was a long day, waiting for it to be over.

There he was, the center of attention, everyone laughing at his stupid jokes and hearing his boring stories. Cal kept on bragging about how his SAT scores were so high, there would be no need to take it again. He was almost too sure of himself, guaranteeing that he'd be accepted into Harvard.

Twiddling her thumbs, Rose sat in the corner with her supposed friends. She stared out into space, while they babbled about shopping sprees and what colleges they were going to. They even gave advice on the best party colleges to attend. Rose, Jennifer, and Molly Baxter were the only girl juniors there. Jennifer's boyfriend, Timothy Ford, was the only boy junior there. However, he was of the upper class, so he was accepted into these little social events that Cal and his friends had.

Along with Cal were a few others seniors from school and some college kids. One of his college friends in particular stood out from the rest, Spicer Lovejoy, an NYU student. There was something Rose did not like about this boy. He seemed devious. It was as if he were hiding something, as if he were some sort of spy. Something about him struck Rose the wrong way. She would catch him giving her stares, and not good ones at all. The way he looked at her was dark, as if he had a deep hatred for her. They were looks of disgust. Thinking about it made her skin crawl.

"Rose? Rose? Rose!" she heard Jennifer yell, and jumped from the seat.

"Sorry. What were you saying?" Rose asked apologetically.

"I was saying that the junior prom may be eight months away, but do you know what you plan on wearing?" Jennifer asked, annoyed.

"Oh. Not a clue," Rose answered.

"Well, I'm going to be wearing pink! Everything has to be absolutely pink!" Molly's ditzy and bubbly voice said. Rose gave her a fake smile.

"I'll be wearing a red dress. Red is a sexy color," Jennifer informed them.

"Last year, at junior prom, I wore black," Monica told them.

"I wore a nude color. Of course, we had our dresses custom made!" Tracy said, and all laughed, except Rose, who just smiled. It was an annoying, earsplitting laugh.

"Well, we'll be having our dresses custom-made as well. It has to be one hundred percent original!" Jennifer exclaimed.

"Excuse me. I have to go freshen up." Rose excused herself and left for the bathroom. It was a very big bathroom, indeed, on the first floor.

She looked at herself in the mirror, seeing the bags beneath her eyes. This was a result of her sleepless nights. Either she thought about Sunday night, when she tried to commit suicide, or Cal kept her up late on the phone. Right now, all she wanted to do was sleep, not only because she was tired, but because she was having a boring time.

It was always the same thing in her life, either having some social event at Cal's or his friends or going to a party on the weekends. Ever since Sunday, when she had lost her virginity, Cal had been demanding that they have sex. Her body felt sore from it. Rose didn't know how much more she could handle. Taking one last glimpse into the mirror, she opened the bathroom door and bumped into Lovejoy.

"Sorry," she said politely.

"Watch where you are going next time." His voice was filled with much anger.

"I said I was sorry."

"There's more important things you should be sorry for. Maybe you should start going to confession." With that, he slipped into the bathroom.

Rose was thinking to herself what that could have possibly been all about. There was something definitely creepy about Lovejoy.

Chapter Sixteen
Stories