A/N: I know this is short and doesn’t really tell you anything at all about the story yet, but I wanted to post it anyway. Let me know how my writing is and if the relationship and the characters of Rose and Luke themselves seem realistic. I promise to update soon!

Many years later, the slightest whiff of a salty ocean breeze would still take her back to that dark night. The evening was cool, and despite the large gray rain clouds skidding across the moon, she pushed the window open wide and leaned way out over the sill. She breathed in deep as the scents and sounds of the sea washed over her, causing her dark hair to flutter around her face. The wildness of the surf always enthralled her, especially before a storm.

“Rose! Get back in here. Mom would kill me if they came back and found that you had fallen out of the window.” Rose’s older brother came into the room and flopped onto her bed. Rose pulled a face at him.

“Not that it would bother you if I accidentally plunged to my death,” she said sarcastically. Luke grinned and replied casually,

“Only if you landed on me.” Rose growled in mock anger, stalked over to where he was lounging on her bed, snatched the pillow from under his head, and proceeded to beat him with it. This, of course, sparked a furious pillow fight. Five minutes later they were to be found sitting on the floor, weak with laughter.

Suddenly the phone rang. Luke scrambled toward the door. On his way out, he said enthusiastically to Rose over his shoulder, “It’s probably Sarah. She told me she’d call…” His voice faded as he walked quickly down the hall, leaving Rose on the floor amid the sad remains of a well-made bed. She sighed and wrinkled her nose. As much as Rose hated to admit it, she was a little jealous of Luke’s new girlfriend. They were always teasing each other, but in truth, there was no one that Rose loved and admired more than her older brother. But at fourteen, he was four years her senior and therefore, interested in fourteen year old things. Rose knew that she was probably condemned to always be the “baby sister.” She sighed and began to pick up her disaster area of a room.

The rain was beginning to come down and she paused in her cleaning to listen to the steady drumming of the drops above her head. She shivered and reluctantly, she went to close the window as the increasing wind began to blow in the wet and the cold.

Turning around, Rose jumped and dropped the pillow she had still been holding. Luke stood framed in her doorway, clutching the cordless phone in a white-knuckled hold, his face as pale and haggard looking as if he had just seen death.

“Oh my God, Luke!” Rose exclaimed. “You scared me to death. What’s wrong?” Her eyebrows drew together in a frown as she observed the thin-lipped grimness of her brother’s bearing. Luke sucked in a mighty breath and held it for a few seconds, as if postponing the moment when he had to exhale a death sentence. He let the breath out slowly and answered in a voice so low, Rose had to strain to hear him over the now howling rainstorm.

“There was…there was an accident. Mom and Dad were hit by another car and…and…” He trailed off, too distraught to continue. Rose rushed to his side and grabbed his hand as she felt the black weight of dread settle in her stomach.

“What happened, Luke?” she cried, her voice rising shrilly with her growing panic. She could feel the fearful tears beginning to gather in the corners of her eyes. Rose focused on Luke with her watery gaze and the despair and sorrow she could see there confirmed what she had already felt in her heart. She could feel the sobs expanding in her chest until she thought her heart would burst.

“They died, Rose!” Luke whispered, tears rolling down his cheeks. He didn’t even try to wipe them away. “They died!” They held each other tightly as the sound of thunder drowned out their mourning.