Julie was the first to notice Roses' arrival. She and Derrick were cuddling on the couch when she saw her enter, her eyes scanning the crowd for Jack, or so Julie assumed. She nudged her boyfriend with her elbow and nodded towards Rose.
"Look who's here?"
Derrick grinned. "I knew it would only be a matter of time. Is Jack even here?"
"He's been hanging with Tommy all night," Julie shrugged. She was tempted to go to Rose and tell her that Jack didn't want to talk to her. Let her see how it felt like, but decided to stay out of it. After all, Rose did have a right to be upset. What Jack did was wrong and he had to suffer the consequences. Besides, if she got in the way of a possible reconciliation, Jack would hate her forever, so it was best just to stay out of it.
Derrick must have sensed something, because he wrapped an arm around her shoulder and pulled her closer. "Forget Rose and your cousin. I want more kisses."
"Hmm, well, since you asked so nicely," Julie smiled, knowing exactly what he was doing. She pulled his face to hers. "But you didn't have to worry. I wasn't going to interfere..."
"Mmmhmm. Just kiss me," Derrick smiled.
Annabelle was next to see Roses' arrival, but unlike Julie she didn't ignore it. She walked right up to Rose with a pleased smile on her face. "Rose, you came. I thought that you went to that Frat party with Madeline."
"You knew about that?" Rose was surprised. She didn't actually go around declaring her plans to all of her friends. Only Trudy knew. And Madeline of course.
"Trudy told me. I was worried when I heard that you were meeting with Matthew Calvert. I remember how close you two were before he left town. Did you see him?"
Rose simply nodded, her eyes scanning the crowd for Jack.
"Well? What was it like?"
Rose sighed, she really didn't want to talk about that now with Annabelle. She needed to see Jack. "Um, it was good. Visiting with an old friend. He dropped me off here, to be exact. Is Jack here?"
"He's hanging with Tommy. Come. I'll take you to him," Annabelle smiled, sensing that the frat party was the last thing on Rose's mind. Hopefully this meant that she was ready to make up. They all missed her at the table, and Jack has been outright miserable without her.
Rose followed Annabelle, her own mind working 100 miles per minute. What was she doing now? What was she going to say to Jack? Was he going to be mad about the frat party when she told him...that is if he didn't already know. What was she planning to do anyway? The fact that she had alcohol swirling in her system didn't matters any.
They found Tommy and Jack up by the DJ booth, where Jack was looking bored and miserable while Tommy was changing CD's.
"Annabelle!" Tommy exclaimed, happy to see his girlfriend. He had wondered where she had gotten off to. He paused when he saw Rose with her. When she hadn't shown up earlier, he had assumed that she wasn't coming. He nudged Jack as his grin widened. "And Rose! Rose is here! Good to see ya, Lassie!"
Jack blinked in shock when Tommy nudged him to attention and found Rose there standing beside Annabelle. He stood up straight, giving her all his attention.
"Rose...you came..."
Rose at first was speechless. Matthew was handsome, but he didn't hold a candle to Jack in the looks department. Of course she knew that already. She didn't know if it was because she found Jack more attractive, or because she was in love with him. She just knew that if she had to choose, her choice would indeed be the kind artist that had saved her life so many times over.
She swallowed and met his eyes, trying not to reveal any emotion. "Can we talk somewhere alone?"
"There's the guest room to the right," Tommy suggested, a knowing smile lighting his arms. "I usually keep it empty for my own...use. But I won't need it tonight. You two can use it to talk or whatever."
Jack gave Tommy a strange look then walked out from behind the DJ stand and joined Rose. "This way."
"See you later, Rose," Annabelle waved, watching Jack and Rose disappear into the crowd. She turned to Tommy, a raised eyebrow. "What was that about?"
"You saw the way they were looking at each other. A empty room and a nice bed can lead to some great make up sex," Tommy snorted and laughed when Annabelle lightly punched his arm. "You are such a pig sometimes."
Tommy just gave an unapologetic smile and shrugged. "If my piggishness gets them back together all the faster, it's a good thing."
Annabelle just smiled and stepped behind the booth with him. "Well, you won't find any argument from me."
Jack found the room easily and opened the door for Rose to enter and then stepped in after her, closing and locking the door so they could have privacy from the party going on in the next room.
"Rose, listen...I...," Jack began, but was stopped by Rose.
"No, Jack. You listen. I have a lot to say and you need to hear it. Some I should have said way before now, but first I have to tell you where I came from tonight and with who I was with. Because I'd be a hypocrite if I didn't and it's one of the reasons that I realized that I...I can't be without you anymore..."
Jack sat down on the bed and looked at Rose, ready to hear whatever it was she had to say. The last part, about her not being able to be without him anymore had given him hope though. Was she going to forgive him? Was this fight going to be over?
"I'm listening..."
Rose paused, gathering up her courage to tell Jack everything. She then realized why Jack had lied. How fear of hurting the one you loved made it difficult to be honest sometimes. Sometimes it was easier to lie than to hurt them. But Rose wasn't going to take the easy way out. She needed Jack to see that she had faith in him. The faith that he seemed to lack in her.
"This wasn't the only party I've been to tonight. Madeline had invited me to a frat party, because an old friend of mine...an ex-boyfriend had wanted to see me. I had thought I had just wanted to just meet up with an old friend and catch up...but now looking back on it, I think I went as some kind of revenge. You hurt me, so I tried to hurt you back."
Jack frowned, not knowing what to think of this. Rose had gone to a party to be with an ex-boyfriend. He had to admit that it hurt. But he appreciated Rose's honesty. She didn't have to tell him anything.
"Well...mission accomplished I guess...I'm hurt. But I take it that there's more to it."
"There is. I ended up hurting myself as well. I couldn't stop thinking about you. Comparing poor Matthew to you. Talking his ear off about you. And then he kissed me...and the name on my lips afterwards was yours. No one measures up to you...no one can come close."
"He kissed you?"
"Yes," Rose bowed her head, feeling ashamed that she had let it happen. That she had responded.
"And did you kiss him back?"
Rose just nodded. "And inwardly, I compared him to you."
Jack sighed, feeling a mixture of hurt and confusion. "Why are you telling me this, Rose?"
"Because I need you to see, Jack. I could have kept this to myself, with you none the wiser...but I know that you can handle the truth. I have faith in you. The kind of faith that you didn't have in me.," Rose sniffed, wiping a stray tear from her eye. "You could have just told me that you were seeing Meghan. I wouldn't have gotten upset. I wouldn't have gotten jealous. I trusted you. Your lying to me said that you didn't trust that I could handle it. That you thought of me as weak."
"That wasn't the case at all, Rose. I just wanted to protect you. I was going to tell you the truth, but I thought of you staying at home, picturing the worse and torturing yourself with it. I had just wanted to spare you from that. That's why I lied..."
"Like I said, you didn't have the same faith in me..."
"But Rose...," Jack paused, thinking of what she had just said and bowed his head in defeat, knowing that what she had said was true. He didn't. That's why he had made the decision to lie. "Oh my god, you're right. But all I was trying to do was protect you. That's all that I wanted to do..."
"I know. But sometimes you can't protect me and I need you to be truthful with me. No matter how much it hurts."
"I understand...and I'm sorry. It's just...my first instinct since we met has always been to protect you. It's a habit. I never meant to lie. I never meant to hurt you, I'd never intentionally want to do that. I'm really sorry Rose. But please, forgive me. We can't go on like this..."
"You're right. We can't. And I'm tired of spending a night telling off pretty boys about breaking my heart."
Jack had to chuckle. "So this guy broke your heart, huh?"
Rose sighed and sat next to him, feeling strange about talking of her past before Cal, but felt that after her actions tonight, it was necessary. "Cal wasn't my first boyfriend. There was Mathew. He was like you Jack...except rich. But he was sweet, kind, caring. Easy to talk to. Heck, he was considered my best friend at the time. Then he went off to college, but before leaving he broke up with me. Said he didn't want to keep tied me down. That long distance relationships never work. I was heartbroken and to be honest, never got over him, until you came along and pulled me out of the darkness I was in. I once thought I'd never love again. But then you came and I realized that Matthew was just showing me what was possible...but you...you are the real thing."
"Did he want to get back together?"
"He did, but after I said your name after the kiss, we both knew that it was over between us and we could only remain friends. He was quite easy going about everything. I think on some level he knew that I had moved on," Rose shrugged. "When you were with Meghan..."
"I thought about nothing but you. I felt awful about lying to you..."
"Did she try to kiss you?"
Jack couldn't help but laugh. "No. Unlike you and Matthew, we weren't that friendly. She just seemed desperately upset and in need of help. When all it turned out to be was her wanting to make her boyfriend jealous. She was just using me and it nearly cost me you..."
"You do know that I hate her, right?"
"So am I forgiven?" Jack asked, almost afraid of the answer.
"If I am for going to that party and kissing another guy..."
"Well, since you thought of me the whole time, there's really nothing to forgive. If things had been right between us, it wouldn't have happened," Jack shrugged. "But yeah. If you feel like you need forgiveness, you're forgiven."
Rose sniffed, wiping the stray tears from her eyes. "You're forgiven too. But we have to be truthful with one another for now on, Jack. It takes trust as well as love to make a relationship work and I need to be able to trust you..."
"You can. I promise you can. I'll never lie again. No matter how tempting it may be. I can't spend another week without us talking and I can't lose you..."
"And definitely no more frat parties for me. They're not my scene, despite the delicious sex on the beach."
"What?" Jack laughed.
"Sex on the beach. It's this drink and it's delicious and I had three of them tonight. It's almost as delicious as sex with you. Oh my god! That should be a drink! A drink called, sex with Jack!"
Jack just laughed. "Rose, I think you may be a little drunk. Why don't you lay down and I'll go to the nearest seven eleven and get you some coffee?"
"I'm fine...stay with me," Rose laid down, feeling some better now that everything was worked through and her and Jack had come to an understanding.
"I would, but you really should sober up. I doubt that your mother would be happy with you coming home drunk," Jack kissed her hand. "It won't take me long. I promise. I'm come right back..."
"Jack," She tightened her hold on his hand, suddenly not wanting him to leave her. "Can you kiss me before you go? I know it sounds stupid and may be after all that's happened...but..."
He didn't wait for an explanation. He just leaned down and gently pressed his lips to hers and chuckled when she sighed happily.
"Is that better?" He asked.
"Yes...you may go now."
Jack just laughed one last time. "Five minutes, Rose."
"I'll be right here."
Jack smiled one last time and walked out the door. He waved to Tommy and Julie as he left. Digging his car keys out of his pocket, he unlocked the door and got in and pulled out into traffic.
It had been raining for the last ten minutes, so the road was pretty slick and with it being Friday, there were some drunk drivers on the road, making the conditions prime for an accident. But Jack didn't think about that. His mind was on Rose. He was beyond happy that things finally seemed to be repaired between them. Sure, they did have to rebuild trust, but he was positive that it could be done with time and lots of love.
He was a block away from the seven eleven when it happened. It happened so quickly, that Jack barely realized what was happening. There was a squeal of tires, a bright flash of light, and then the sound of crunching metal, then everything for Jack went black...