Jack pushed his way through the growing crowd along the street with his best friend and roommate, Fabrizio, behind him. He protectively clutched his portfolio filled with his drawings and supplies to his chest, looking back at Fabrizio to make sure that he had all of the other supplies they needed still in his hands.

"This crowd gets bigger every year!" Fabrizio said as they continued to push their way, trying to find a decent spot.

"That's a good thing, Fabri. More people to see my stuff."

"And more money!"

Jack laughed at his friend and finally found the perfect spot to set up.

"This should work out fine. Being right in the middle of the action is best, anyway," he said over his shoulder. Fabrizio and Jack quickly set up their spot, putting Jack's drawings on display for all to see.

"I still don't know how you do it," Fabrizio said as he marveled at a drawing of a baby breast feeding from her mother.

"Me either, to be honest," Jack said with a chuckle.

Unlike Fabrizio, Jack wasn't a native New Yorker. He actually came from a very small town in Wisconsin, where he lived with his large family until he was about sixteen. His mother and father had kicked and screamed when he said he was leaving, but he just couldn't be confined to a small town like that any longer. He yearned to see the world and meet new people, and most of all, further his skill of drawing. And he certainly couldn't do that by seeing the same dusty roads in the summer and the same white snow hills every winter. He needed to experience things, he needed to experience life. And so he did.

He traveled all around the country, mingling with artists, taking up small, short lived jobs to get him to his next destination. After a year of traveling around the states, he ventured off to Europe where he spent a good amount of his time. He made countless friends, had a couple flings with girls, and saw parts of the world he thought he'd never see. He didn't quite remember how, but he ended up in New York City by the age of 20. He met Fabrizio in a bar and they had been inseparable every since. With each passing day, Jack realized more and more that he had never stayed in the same city for as long as he'd stayed in New York. He didn't exactly know why, but he couldn't quite pull himself away from it; it was as if something were telling him to stay. And here he was, setting up his art on display at the annual art festival, hoping to make a couple bucks.

Jack and Fabrizio laughed and mingled with other artists, telling them stories of specific drawings of his as well as listening intently to their own tales. It was moments like this that Jack lived for.

"Is this your work?" A lady in her forties asked as she leaned down to examine his drawings more closely.

"Yes ma'am," he said with his hands in his jean pockets.

"This is amazing!" She exclaimed, taking a liking to the same drawing Fabrizio had earlier. "What do you use?"

"Just a piece of paper and some charcoal."

"Magnificent," she said as she ran her finger across the rough paper. "How much for this?"

"I can give it to you for ten bucks," he said with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Ten dollars?" She asked as she stood up. "That is way too cheap for such great quality of work. I'll give you forty," she said as she reached into her wallet.

"No ma'am," he said as he held his hands up. "Really, I don't sell my pieces for money. I just want them to be appreciated. Ten bucks will be just fine." She smiled at him and tucked the money back into her wallet, instead, taking out a crisp ten dollar bill.

"Well, here you are then. Thank you very much, you're very talented!"

"No, thank you," he said to her retreating back.

"Jack what the hell is wrong with you," Fabrizio asked as he slapped him on the back. "That broad was gonna give you forty bucks, and instead you take ten? I don't understand you," he said with a shake of his head.

"No one really does," Jack said as he put the money into his pocket.

…

Throughout the day, Jack sold a few more of his drawings to eager customers. He loved seeing the looks of excitement on their faces when they were able to claim his pieces as theirs. He put his hands in his pockets and turned around to see Fabrizio talking with another new friend, it seemed. Jack extended his hand to the new man, who looked to be around his age.

"I'm Tommy Ryan," he said with a cigarette in his mouth.

"Jack Dawson."

"I see you're quite the crowd attractor," he said, pointing to his drawings.

"Yeah, I guess you could say that."

"Although he basically sells them for free," Fabrizio said with a roll of his eyes. Jack simply laughed at his friend. Tommy laughed along with them.

"So how much money do you make for your drawings?" Tommy asked as he took the cigarette out of his mouth.

Jack smiled and was about to answer him, but he saw the most magnificent shade of red out of the corner of his eye. He turned his head to the magnetic force and was almost knocked over by what he saw. There was a young girl, around the age of eighteen walking slowly through the crowd. She had the brightest red curls that sat delicately on her head in a bun, with a few strands falling down the side of her face. She took a couple more steps and stopped in front of a painting and examined it carefully. A small smile tugged at her full, red lips as she reached out to touch the canvas. He had honestly never seen anyone so beautiful. Tommy and Fabrizio noticed him staring at this girl, and couldn't help but laugh.

The girl took her eyes from the painting and turned her head to look directly at Jack. He didn't even care that she had caught him staring; he literally couldn't take his eyes off of her. She pulled her eyes away from him and concentrated back on the painting in front of her, but her eyes quickly darted back to him. They held an intense gaze, and Jack was now marveling at the color of her deep green eyes. Her hair color and eye color complimented each other perfectly; an artist's dream of true beauty. Her skin was a milky white and her face held little make up. Was she an angel?

"Ah, forget it, boy-o," Tommy said as he looked at Rose. He took a note of her expensive designer purse that hung from her shoulder as well as her cute little sun dress and very high wedge sandals. He could tell not only by her clothes, but also by the way that she carried herself that this was a society girl. "You're more likely to have angels fly out of your ass then getting next to the likes of her."

Jack didn't hear a word he said, he just stayed locked in the gaze with this mystery girl. He was about to take a step towards her, but out of nowhere a man came and grabbed her arm forcefully, making her break her eyes away from his. He watched as this man held onto her arm and said something quite aggressively in her face. He watched as she was visibly uncomfortable, trying to take his grip off of her. Eventually she got out of his grasp and turned to walk away from him, never once looking back at Jack.

"She's gone, you can come back to reality now," Fabrizio said.

Jack shook himself out of his daze and smiled nervously at his friends. "Huh? What?"

"Nothing," Fabrizio said. "Lets all just forget any of that ever happened."

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