Ize Of The World |-/ Tyler Joseph Fic

Modernize

Naturally, I got right in the car with her.

"You mind telling me where we're going?" I asked as we put our seatbelts on.

"Uh, just take a left out of here."

"I meant destination-wise, but okay."

"You'll see."

So I plugged in my high-tech auxiliary cassette tape adapter, shuffled whatever music I had, and set driving. I wanted so badly to talk with this girl, whose name I still didn't know, but she had pulled out a Kerrang! magazine and was reading it feverishly. 

"New issue?" I asked her.

She just nodded and turned a page.

So I just kept driving, looking over at her every once in a while. She looked so calm and content, and it made me pretty happy that she was so relaxed around me. I kept driving down the same road for almost 10 minutes, wondering if she was even paying attention to where we were going.

Then she glanced up at the road from her magazine. "Turn right here."

I almost slammed on the brakes in order to make the turn, pissing off whoever was driving behind me. I had turned into a parking lot, so I just parked at the nearest available space. We had arrived at a plateau that overlooked the river.

The girl promptly put her magazine away and took out sunglasses, slipping them on top of her hair. She got out of the car and stared at me. "Coming?"

"Yeah, yeah," I sighed. 

 She slung her bag over her shoulder and started towards a path into the woods. 

I caught up after her after locking up my car. "So," I said, sticking my hands in my pockets. "What's a girl like you ending up in detention for?"

She just smiled and looked at her feet. "I got three tardies."

I leaned my head back and laughed. "Of course, I should have guessed."

"What does that mean?" I couldn't tell if she was pretending to be offended.

"I was thinking you got caught doing something, but--"

"Why?"

"Well, y'know, I didn't think you were the type to abide by the rules." 

"Cause I'm crazy?"

I felt that falling feeling in my stomach that you get when you forget there's one more stair in the staircase. "What?"

"Isn't that what you said? Homeschooled kids are always crazy?"

I felt my face go red. "Josh said that, not me."

She laughed, so I knew she didn't take it to heart. "I know."

I had lost my social footing in this conversation, which doesn't really happy with me. "What's your name?" I accidentally blurted out.

"Not Ruth," she replied, then laughed. Then she said softer, "It's Ruby."

Ruby. "He was close enough."

"Yeah, right."

We had been walking downhill through the forest for a total of about 3 minutes when we reached a beachfront along the river.

"This is nice," I said.

"We're not even there yet."

"Oh."

She started walking along the beach until we reached a big mass of sandstone, and at the top was where the parking lot was. 

"Here we are." She approached the wall, where there was a huge graffiti print of weed on it.