The Forever of My Dreams

3

He opened the door to one of the cars and held out his hand, "Shall we go for a drive, darling?"

"Elliott."

"Shall we?" He kept his hand held outwards for me to take, which I did.

"We shall." With Elliott's help, I managed to climb into the back of the car before he got in behind me.

"How will we ever go for a drive if you sit back here?" I asked him, gesturing my eyes towards where the driver would usually have sat.

"Uh-" Elliott turned to me, "Cecelia, if I go up there... how am I ever going to be able to sit back and enjoy these stars with you?"

My cheeks filled with red. "You have a good point." I snuggled my body into his arms as we stared up at the ceiling of the car above us; pretending to point out whatever constellations we were able to think of off the top of our heads. Elliott seemed to have known a lot more about the stars than I had, so eventually I just let him go on and on as I listened to the peacefulness of his voice. As he started to list off whatever constellations he claimed to have "seen", my eyes turned to face him. I never wanted to let go of this moment; this is the kind of moment you tell your future kids about when they ask how their parents met. This is a moment I never want to fade away. As he pointed towards the car ceiling once more, about to come up with some other constellation name, I grabbed ahold of his hand and held it up to my chest.

"What is that for?" He chuckled softly.

My mouth opened but no words came out.

"I'm going to need my hand back if we're going to continue playing this ga-"

"I love you." I managed to get out.

Silence. Great. He didn't feel the same way. He probably just wanted to make a new friend on this voyage and here I am making it ten times more awkward for us to ever see each other ever again.

"I-I'm sorry." I leaned forward to open the door in order to make my quick exit, "I'll just go ba-"

He pulled me back, grabbing ahold of my chin so my gaze was back on his once more. Before I could say another word, his lips crashed onto mine. My hands cupped his cheeks as our lips made contact.

"I thought you'd never say it." He smiled, resting his forehead against mine.

I grabbed ahold of his hand once more and placed it on my chest, right where the heart would be. "This," I smiled at him, "is where I always want you to be. No matter where I am, or where you are, I always want you to stay right here."

Taking his hand and cupping both my cheeks with his palms, he looked into my eyes, "I'm not going anywhere. I promise you that."

"You promise?" I smiled, "So, I can hold it to you that we'll grow old together under some real stars."

"I'll even teach you about more constellations so you can help point them out along with me."

"But I like when you say them to me." I smiled.

He pulled me into another kiss, but this time I felt like I was being lifted up by a thousand angels as our lips touched. I felt... as if I had finally found the one we've all been waiting for.

**

When I woke up the next morning, I felt like a completely different person than I had been when I entered this ship. Once my eyes opened, I saw my mom standing over me with her arms folded across her chest.

"Where did you go yesterday?" She asked me.

"Wha-?"

"Do you realize that we cannot enjoy this ship of dreams as a family if you go off with that boy every single day of the trip?"

"He's not just a boy." I told her, "His name is Elliott."

"He's a peasant."

My body arose from the sheets the second those words left her lips, "Mother!"

"You need to start hanging around people from this side of the ship." Mother informed me, "Follow me when we go out for breakfast, and I'll introduce you to some."

"No."

"Pardon me?"

"I'm sorry," I corrected myself, "I didn't mean to say it like that, mother, but no. I'd much rather meet people on my own terms and, well, if that means meeting those who aren't exactly like us... then those will be the people I'll meet up with."

"Cecilia Marie Jones."

"Mother."

"If you would much rather hang around those people, than hang around those people." She informed me, "I could care less."

"I will." I headed into the bathroom, exiting to see my mother and a couple of the servants laying out a dress and corset out on one of our chairs. "I'm not wearing that." I told her.

"Yes, you will." Mother told me, "This is a perfectly fine dress."

"That dress will suffocate me." I told her. I caught one of the servants try to stifle a laugh before facing my mother once again, who's face looked furious now.

"This is a dress that has been in our family for generations." She informed me, handing me the dress but I pushed her hand away.

"I'm not going to need anything so fancy where I'm going to be."

"Cecelia."

"You just told me how you could care less if I hung with them."

"Oh, I'm sorry for just assuming you'd rather spend time with your family."

"I'll have plenty of time to spend with you after this ship docks in New York." I looked through my father's closet until I found a nice plain t-shirt and a pair of slacks, throwing it on and slipping a belt through the loops just to make sure the pants wouldn't fall down. Before my mother had a chance to argue about anything else, I was out the door and flying down the hall towards steerage. For some reason, I just couldn't help but get a bit excited to see Elliott's face once again. Even if we had just seen each other the night before. There was just something about him that made my heart race a thousand beats per minute. God. What I wouldn't do to just be with him every damn second.