The Explorer's Apprentice

30:Something Beautiful

Still don't own these people....

Rose Dewitt Bukater

 

                Make it count. Meet me at the clock!

                When the clock strikes for the first time, she sees him there, back turned, at the very top of the grandest staircase in the world.

                Her heart feels as if it’s about to explode. It’s throwing a fiesta inside her chest and nothing she does, no amount of deep breathing can calm her. Pull yourself together, Rose! she scolds. When she had read Jack’s secret note, the one that had instructed her to meet him here, she couldn’t have been more thrilled to do so. Rose does not normally like surprises--she was never very patient. But there’s something about Jack that makes her feel all warm and fuzzy inside…it screams with joyous anticipation, as if it knows even before she does that waiting for this surprise will be more than worth it.

                She’s going to keep that note forever, she knows it. She’s going to glue it into her journal on the first page, because once she gets to America she’s going to start writing again. And oh,what intriguing things she’ll have to say!

                Breathe, Rose. What’s the matter with you?!  She realizes that she’s been holding her breath for the past thirty seconds. Remember to breathe!

                She makes her way up the stairs slowly, as not to trip on the hem of her gown. Her shoes tap noisily on the wooden floor.

                Jack turns and smiles, his lips a beautiful crescent moon. Rose feels like dying--but in a good way. She’s not afraid.

                It’s been so long since she’s been around a true friend, especially a true friend that was a boy. She’s forgotten what it feels like. The emotions, the sensations that Jack gives her, are completely unfamiliar. She can’t recall ever having felt so strange in her life. So many different emotions fight for a place in her heart--fear, anxiety, joy, and something that feels like excitement, but is even stronger than that. They’re emotions she didn’t know she was capable of feeling all at once. Of course this is only normal. Of course it is. Obviously. This is what friendship is supposed to feel like, isn’t it? 

                Jack meets her at the second stair. “So, you want to go to a real party?”

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Music, louder than anything she’s ever heard in her entire life fills her ears like the ocean when she swims. She’s drowning in it, never again to resurface.And she loves it. Rose has never felt so alive. Music pulses through her veins.

                Men and women, young and old, dance everywhere--on tables, below tables, on chairs, in any available space in the packed to busting room, lit only by a small amount of yellow light hanging from the ceiling. It’s an amazing sight, perhaps even more so than anything else on this grand ship. Rose has never, ever, ever seen so many people in one tiny room. Everybody is smiling. Everybody is bright. Everybody seems to glow with his or her own ray of joy. A lot like Jack. Just not quite as beautiful.