005.3 drabble prompt "carpe diem" from muserevival (290 words)
The words haven’t even left her and she already regrets them. She wants to go back, to answer from her heart instead of obligation and responsibility and isn't that a laugh? She wants to race toward the magical (alien) ship and its owner, cast aside average and boring and unfulfilling and embrace the unknown that somehow she knows is everything she ever dreamed about but never speaks aloud. They wouldn’t understand. They don’t understand. Can’t, maybe.
Rose tried to be adventurous once, to strike out on her own with Jimmy but that had been a mess and left her with nothing but debt and regret. Learn your lesson and stop reaching for the stars. This is your lot in life, so make peace with it. If only it were that easy.
She can’t go because Mickey has hold of her leg and he needs her, her mum needs her, and she let them down once already. They love her and she loves them, but it still feels like a cage she’s trapped in. Doesn’t it matter what she needs, though? Rose thinks it should, knows she can't stay, but it’s too late. Now it’s fading, now it’s gone and he’s gone with it.
Then, it’s back and he mentions it traveling in time, too, and the tightness in her chest is suddenly gone. She barely has the presence of mind to say goodbye to the past (Mickey) and it’s not her finest moment but it’s the truth. The first nineteen years of her life and nothing’s happened. Nothing.
Now, it can.
Now, she runs. Toward a blue police box and the man (alien) who calls himself the Doctor. This is her chance and she’s taking it.
She doesn’t look back.
[ooc: A character study? In drabble form? I don't even know. Something new for me! That, I do know.]