MORE THAN THAT
Chapter Sixteen

Friday, October 24, 2003

Finally, the weekend came. The tiresome classes of Saint Edmund's were done for the day. It was the most boring week of the school year so far. It was mainly a week for the seniors and freshmen. Today would be their Halloween party. Since Cal and his friends thought they were too cool for school, they decided upon not going.

Rose desperately wanted to go. For once, she just wanted a night by herself. She hadn't had a Cal-free day since the day before her birthday. The day before she tried to jump off a bridge. So on another Friday, she was stuck with Cal and his friends to go to the movies. She did not want to go. She could care less about seeing Scary Movie 3. A week ago she was just at the movies and saw Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Cal barely let her watch the movie. He had kept groping her. Of course, she had let him. However, she was pissed because she so desperately wanted to see the movie.

What was even worse, Lovejoy kept on looking at her. An evil glow was in his eyes. It wasn't until after her birthday that she had noticed this. Whenever she hung out with Cal and his friends, Lovejoy kept a watch on her as if she were some little girl. It was like she had no freedom.

Now, here she was. Stuck on another Friday night with her boyfriend and his brain dead friends. Why did she hang out with them? To be cool, of course. No way did she want her reputation to crumble. However, when she looked at Jack and his friends, she felt sad. The fun they had was obvious. Rose remembered how fun Christina was to hang out with. When they were younger, Christina would be the one to bring excitement to their adventures. Now that Christina hung out with Tommy and them, it was even more fun. Rose envied that.

Rose left the bathroom, on her way back into the theater. As she walked by, she noticed Jack with his friends. As usual, they had smiles on their faces. Rose paused for a moment, looking at Jack. He looked back at her and quickly turned away. She turned, as well, and bumped into none other than Lovejoy.

"Get a good look, little miss Rose?" he said to her. His voice was irritatingly creepy.

"What?" she asked.

"Your eyes always wander. I suggest you keep them in your sockets," he said to her. As he was about to walk away, he leaned in closer to her ear, "Don't go putting your mouth places it doesn’t belong", and left.

Rose looked at him as he walked away. A puzzled expression came across her face. What the fuck was he talking about?

*****

The past two weeks had been nothing but fun for Jack. Instead of thinking about Rose, he kept on drawing and painting, or just had fun with his friends. Anything to keep her out of his mind.

In homeroom and history, he'd try to act as if she weren't there, but failed. In the hallways, he would take a quick peek at her. Jack couldn't help but look. She was just too beautiful to not look at. The hardest part of looking at her was when she was with Cal. He didn't understand what she saw in him. As much as he wanted to know, he didn't want to, either. It could have been some twisted and sick reason.

Jack tried some effort of talking to other girls, but his flirtation didn't work. Once he saw her pass by, his eyes drifted away and the girl he was talking to would be gone once his attention drew back to her. It was some kind of weird control Rose had over him. Like a magnet whenever she passed by. In some way, there was a connection between them. He felt it. Rose would look back at him when he looked at her. Sometimes he caught her looking at him. Of course, they would get back to facing reality.

"Fabri, if I hear you scream throughout this movie, you're an official puss!" Tommy said to him.

"It's only Scary Movie 3. Why would I scream at it? It's a comedy!" Fabrizio said.

"Well, you screamed when we saw Finding Nemo," Christina answered him. "That was only a Disney movie. It was even worse when we saw Texas Chainsaw Massacre a week ago. You screamed more than me and Hannah combined!"

"You have to admit, the shark from Finding Nemo was scary," Fabrizio said.

"Aw, my poor Fabri was afraid of the shark!" Hannah said, pinching his cheeks.

"Oh, great! Now they are gonna make out!" Jack said.

"And there they go!" Tommy pointed to Hannah and Fabrizio, who were now wrapped up in their kisses.

"Oh, God, it's slob fest! It's Halloween a week early!" Christina shouted. Hannah and Fabrizio broke away from each other, rolling their eyes at Christina.

"Don't make us chuck eggs at you!" Hannah said.

"Oh, my God! Eggs! We have to tell Jack about the egg story last year on Halloween," Tommy said.

"What egg story?" Jack asked.

"Last year, when Tommy and I were just friends, and he was dating that whore Maria Palermo…" Christina started, and was cut off by Tommy.

"Is every girl a whore to you?" Tommy asked her.

"No, just her!" Christina said.

"Are you jealous?" Tommy asked.

"Why would I be? We messed around a little while you two were still going out."

"Oh, right!"

"Back to the story, please," Jack said.

"Right. So, as Christina started, we went bombing houses along with our good friends Hannah and Fabrizio!" Tommy said.

"We were going out for nearly three months by then!" Hannah smiled.

"What a great three months those were!" Fabrizio said.

"Don't get into detail. We have to tell Jack this story, please!" Christina said.

"Yeah, I wanna know the story!" Jack said.

"So anyway, we went bombing in Sheepshead. Fabri and myself went to this specific house. Looked very old-fashioned and shit. So we threw the eggs at the house. Like five of them! We had like five cartons of eggs!"

"We packed our shit in advance!" Fabrizio said.

"Yeah, and an old man in his saggy, tighty whities and a wife beater came out, and he…" Tommy was about to finish when Fabrizio cut him off.

"…threw his eggs at us!" Fabrizio finished.

"I was going to finish that, but anyway, he throws his eggs at us. We slipped on the floor. The girls were a real riot. They laughed at first, until an egg was thrown at them! That's when the bitching started," Tommy said.

"Ahem…that was Maria, babe, not Hannah and I!" Christina corrected him.

"Yeah, she practically cried. So we laughed hysterically and ran down the block!" Hannah said.

"And that, my friend, is our Halloween egg bombing story!" Tommy completed. The five friends burst out in laughter. Jack was laughing with a bright red face. He turned around and stopped when he saw the fiery-headed beauty. There she went, looking at him. It seemed like a long stare, but in reality it was only a few seconds. There it went again, his heart pounding rapidly at the sight of Rose.

*****

Another movie not being able to sit through. The movie resulted into major suckage for Rose. Cal had practically forced her to kiss him in front of his friends. What was even worse was that she sat in between him and Lovejoy. Both their colognes combined together was the strongest scent she ever smelled. It was suffocating enough to have to even sit next to them both.

When Cal and her had their make out session, she could feel Lovejoy's eyes burning on them. It was an uncomfortable feeling. It felt like he was stalking her. She wondered what the deal with him was. Why did he hate her so much? What did she ever do to him? Rose was practically scared of Lovejoy.

As they left the theater, Cal held her hand. Right next to her stood Lovejoy. He was everywhere. It was driving her insane. Next thing she knew, he'd be in the ladies’ room while she was trying to take a piss. Did he not have a life? It was frustrating to have a tag-along/stalker-type guy. Maybe she should hook him up with someone. But who? She thought of him as nothing but a big loser!

"Would you look at those dipshits?" she heard Tracy say.

"They think they are so cool!" Monica said.

"Probably fuck each other up the ass!" Brian said, and they all laughed, except Rose. She saw that they were talking about Jack and the others. They appeared happy, in her opinion. They looked like they were having real fun.

"What's up with those freaks, anyway? They are always laughing about some stupid shit!" James said.

"Who cares? They have their stupid girlfriends, except that new kid. Jack Dawson should learn to keep his eyes to himself!" Cal said, biting his lip.

"There are other people that don't know how to keep their eyes where they do not belong," Lovejoy spoke up. Rose looked at him as he smirked.

*****

"Was it just me, or was that movie complete shit?" Tommy asked.

"It was shit!" they all answered in unison, and laughed.

Christina was carried by Tommy on his back, as Hannah held onto Fabrizio's arm. Jack looked at the pair of couples, wishing he had a girlfriend. Sometimes, when he hung out with them, he felt like a third wheel. However, he knew he made himself feel like that. These were the best friends he ever had, and they had included him in everything. The third wheel thing was just in his own mind.

He felt like a loser since he didn't have one date since moving to New York. Back in Chippewa Falls, he dated plenty. The last girl was Amy Garrett. He lost his virginity to her. It happened three days before his dad died. That was the first and last time. It was July 2, 2003 when Andrew Dawson died. After that, Jack was too upset. He shut himself out. Amy started to talk to other guys a month later, when Jack was back to his normal self.

Now that he was here in Brooklyn, he was going crazy thinking of Rose. There was something different about her that attracted him. She was different from every other girl he liked. She was rich and snobby, but at the same time good-natured. Although she was mean to him, he knew deep down she was a good person. It was just Cal that made her this way and all the other high school stereotypes. Her reputation would be hanging on the line if she dated him. He knew all this. He wasn't stupid. There were girls like this in his old school. He couldn't stand them. But Rose was different. He could sense that. Jack couldn't help but like her. Rose was a rare beauty. His feelings stuck to her like Krazy glue.

"Watch where you're fucking going!" he heard Tommy yell. Jack turned to see Cal with his group of friends. Cal had pushed Tommy out of the way, which was obviously on purpose. Jack looked over at Rose. She hid behind Cal with her arms folded, and looked down.

"Who do you think you are talking to?" Cal asked him.

"I'm talking to Cal Hockley. The dumb rich asshole who thinks he is so tough."

Cal laughed at Tommy. "You must be stupid if you think you are gonna get away with talking to me that way!" Cal said. "Here you are with your spic girlfriend, the dumb blonde with the moron, and the new kid who doesn't keep his eyes to himself!" Christina's face grew red. She stepped forth but was held back by Tommy.

"Restrain your girlfriend. You don't wanna see the spic get hurt, now, do you? If I think about it now, I could have sworn her father was the one who mowed my lawn last week!" Cal and his friends laughed.

"Oh, go fuck yourself, Cal," Christina yelled to him. Cal stuck his middle finger at her. "Oh, sit on it and rotate!"

"Real clever!" Cal said back to her. "Some people you are! Come on, Rose, we wasted too much time on these gutter rats!" He pulled his arm over shoulder and walked away from them. Jack stared back at them. Rose turned her head to look at him, but quickly turned away when she saw a tall guy with brown hair looking at her. He was creepy-looking and looked at her with cold eyes. Jack wondered who he was.

"Some assholes they are!" Fabrizio said.

"He had some nerve to call me a spic!" Christina was still angry and clenched her fists.

"Don't worry about it, sunshine," Tommy said. He held her and kissed her head. They left the movie theater and went into Tommy's car.

Putting the encounter with Cal aside, they talked about other things, like Halloween. Jack sat silent, however. All he could do was think of Rose.

Chapter Seventeen
Stories