never let go || juke au

IV

The RMS Titanic
April 13, 1912

The 3rd class general room was full of loud voices and rambunctious passengers. It seemed like a party was going on every second of the day. Young kids ran around playing games, adults spoke in all different languages, and young men flirted with beautiful girls.

"You don't speak any English?" Reggie asked the stunning girl next to him. "At all?"

"Only Norwegian," She said sadly.

Reggie sighed. "Well, I'm Reggie."

"Reg...gie," She pronounced, smiling when she got it right. "I'm Helga."

Reggie grinned.

Alex flipped through Luke's sketches, impressed. He raised an eyebrow and nodded as he looked through some more polished ones. They were really good. He had a way of capturing everything about a person. You could tell how they were feeling in that exact moment.

"Wow, Luke. These are great," He complimented.

"Thanks!" Luke grinned. He was sitting on a bench with Cora, a young girl he'd befriended on the ship, in his lap. "This is a picture I drew of you."

"Hey, it looks just like me! That's so crazy," She shouted with an excited grin, getting a laugh out of Luke.

"It does, doesn't it," He said.

"Cora, sweetie, come on. Say bye to Mr. Luke," Cora's grandfather said, gesturing for her to join him. Cora stood up and wrapped her tiny arms around Luke.

"Bye-bye Mr. Luke!" She said, running after her grandfather.

"Bye Cora!" Luke waved. He grabbed his sketches back from Alex and placed them in his book, closing it and turning around to talk to Reggie.

Across the room, silence filled the passengers as they watched a strikingly beautiful girl who stuck out like a sore thumb ascend down the stairs. She looked around and bit her lip before breaking into a soft smile. She scanned the room and walked forward, captivating everyone's attention as she ventured deeper into the room.

Reggie was the first to notice her.

He remembered her. The girl Luke was enchanted by. He got Alex's attention and gestured towards the girl who was getting increasingly closer to them.

Alex's raised his eyebrows and tapped Luke on the shoulder.

"Hey, look," He whispered, not wanting to disturb the quiet, enthralled atmosphere. Luke looked away from his drawing, pushing hair from his eyes. When he saw Julie approaching them, his eyes widened and the corners of his lips turned up in a grin.

She reached them. "Hello Mr. Patterson."

"Hello Julie," He responded, his confusion outweighed by his excitement.

"May I speak to you?" She asked, calm and composed.

"Sure."

"Alone," She clarified. Luke chuckled, shutting his sketchbook and standing up from the bench, the book under his arm.

"Of course."

Julie turned and began walking towards the stairs. Luke followed, giving his floored friends a wink before running after her.

Reggie and Alex looked at each other, their mouths open but no words coming out. Finally, Reggie broke the shocked silence.

"Did I miss something?"

~~~~~~~~~~

The mismatched couple walked across the first class deck, ignoring the strange looks directed towards them by expensively dressed passengers lounging on steamer chairs.