The good news was that she wasn’t completely dead. Rose’s heart had lived to see another day, whether for better or worse. Her eyes slowly lifted to see a ray of sunshine peeking through her foggy windows on a rainy Sunday morning. A familiar smell immediately awoke her senses: pancakes. Still half asleep, Rose pulled on her old camp sweatshirt and made her way down to breakfast. Another day without him, she thought as she put on a smile that masked her deepest secret.
    It all started in 2nd grade. The day in second grade when Rose had found the true meaning of life was the beginning of something unforgettable. A moment that had stopped all of time, and let her see all of the light of the world. It was the Valentine’s Day of 2007, and her whole class was passing out candy to place in everyone’s carefully decorated paper bags. Rose’s mom was busy fulfilling her role as the class parent, and her brother, Ben, had tagged along for the ride because of a lack of a babysitter. Rose was fairly excited about getting lots of candy, as every little kid is on Valentine’s Day. However, Rose wouldn’t truly learn the meaning of Valentine's Day, until a couple years later, when she could appreciate it that much more. She clutched  her bag of M&M’s tightly as she walked around the classroom and plopped a singular bag into each person’s stash. Rose glanced at her flustered mom who gave her a sincere half- smile while she tried to stop Ben from squirming in her arms. “Does it look like you got a lot of candy, sweetie?” Rose’s mom asked her as she approached them. “Yeah, it looks like it” Rose replied softly. “Well just make sure you don’t eat it all in one sitting, you definitely don't want to get a stomachache” was the typical motherly response she received. In an effort to calm down her brother, Rose looked at Ben and said: “Hey bud, I saved one last pack of M&M’s just for you, want it?”. Ben shook his head up and down and graciously took the candy from his sister’s hand before ripping the bag open and helping himself. Thank goodness, that will get him to stop Rose thought as she looked around to see if anyone had witnessed the embarrassing scene. It just so turns out, someone had.
Their eyes instantly met. Time seemed to stop, as fate and the will of the universe gave her the one human being that would soon become her whole world. She gazed into his beautiful hazel eyes, which stole her heart as soon as she laid eyes on them. As soon as Rose’s eyes came back into focus, she could see that he had light brown hair with the perfect amount of natural blond highlights to bring out his round, freckled face. He had the cutest dimples that made all of her worries suddenly disappear. His lips were full, and a deep, alluring shade of red. Rose realized she had no recollection of him before that moment they shared together. All she could focus on was him, him, him. Her heart was doing somersaults, her palms sweaty. The feeling that had just washed over her like a monsoon, was love. The universe had just granted her the greatest gift of all. She had never believed in love at first sight, until then.
His name was Beau. The rest of elementary school felt like a dream to Rose, because she would wake up every day and know that she would see his smiling face. Thinking about him every second of the day, always waiting for the moment where she would see him next. It was a thirst that needed to be quenched, a fire that needed to be lit. Until a couple of weeks before the last day of elementary school, when the entire 5th grade class took a fieldtrip to visit the school they would spend the next three years at. Rose piled on the bus after a couple of her closest friends, excited to catch a first glimpse of middle school. She sat down, and started to scan her classmates to find Beau. Except she couldn’t find him. Very nervously, Rose looked out the bus window to see Beau along with a couple of others standing with some teachers. She suddenly remembered something her teacher had told them earlier that day: “Some people, you know who you are, will stay behind because you will not be attending public middle school next year,” she explained. Rose’s mind went fuzzy, her heart stopped. She finally came to the horrific realization that she would no longer have the joy of seeing this new love of hers each and every waking day.
The next few years were very painful for Rose. Every night, she would cry herself to sleep, praying for the chance to finally be reunited with Beau. But that day would never come, and her hope started to fade away. But she promised herself she would never give up on him. She knew she would always love him, no matter what. The moment when she first saw Beau, was the moment she started living, but after many years, she would find out that the last would be spent in his arms. Withheld in the deepest chambers of her heart, Rose holds this secret that she has never told anybody, until the time she and Beau meet again. For now, her only hope is to wake up alive each morning, without a thoroughly shattered heart. You can’t grasp the rose without first cutting your finger on the thorn.