Ruby

Chapter Five

"Ruby!" Jeremy said, astonished, as we pulled up outside our desination. "Are you serious?"

"Yes, of course!" I laughed. I knew this would be his reaction.

"We are gonna die!" he told me. "Where did you get this crazy idea from?"

"Our childhood selves," i said smiling.

"But we were like, ten! Not seventeen! It'll never work!" he scoffed.

"Oh really?" i said, leaping onto the platform of the little sheet of plastic we had made into a sheet. It was a mat - just like the ones at White Water World and Wet n' Wild.

What's the risky buisness in that, you ask?

We were taking it off a cliff.

When we were ten, Jerry and I had been a pair of dare-devils. We had leapt from trees wearing a braclet of baloons. We had pretended to be rupenzel, leaping from JJ's two storey house window, holding a string of knotted sheets and underwear. We were fricken' crazy.

And this was one of the crazy things we did.

"Ruby, no!" he shouted, "NO!"

"Why not? Is little wittle JJ a chicken?" i aksed in a mocking, babyish tone. Much like the one we had used to force each other to do one of the other's crazy ideas.

"Rue..." he started.

"And do you know what they'll sing at your wedding?" i asked, another joke of ours. And when he didn't reply, i started clucking like a chicken to the rhythm of the tune played as a bride walks down the isle.

"Ruby!" he persisted to protest, so i sang louder.

"Oh okay! Fine!" i said.

"Yay!" i leaped for joy. Who said i wasn't a kid anymore?

Jerry sat in the front and i clung to his waist as we positioned ourselves on the edge of the cliff. We both stared into the icey black water below.

There was a largish tree behind us that we used to push ourselves off the edge so i placed my hand firmly on it's trunk.

"Ready?" i asked.

"Set, GO!" he yelled, and i pushed us off the cliff.

There is no feeling that is more like a gift, than flying. It's exillarating. For each long moment that you are in the air, time drags it's feet, leaving you thinking you were suspended in the air for more time than you actually were. When your flying, nothing can touch you. Your free.

And then you hit the water.

My chin hit the back of Jeremy's neck, and i felt him stiffen as our bodies plunged into the depths of the frosty liquid.

We both came up, gasping for air. I looked at him and he looked at me. We laughed. As much as people told us it was time to take life seriously and focus on our careers, i understood now. I understood that life is too short. Life's way too short. And it's not fair either. So why always be so heavy? Why not lighten up every now and then to remind ourselves that we are still human.

"Again?" i asked. And when he nodded his head rapidly, we wadded out of the water and began to ascend up the hill.

We did this for a whole hour.

After a while, our muscels ached and our bodies couldn't take anymore. JJ had had to drive me up the hill after a while, because it was difficult to walk.

After dragging ourselves out of the water for the last time, we plonked our bodies in a lazy slump on the sand.

I listened to his deep breathing, as it became shallower, and fell into a rhythm. I tried to match my fhythm to his - so we could breathe as one.

After a long while of sitting in silence, he spoke.

"What are you going to do?" he asked. i felt him turn his face to gaze at me. I held mine steady at the sky - wanting to concentrate on the depth of his question, but realizing there was only one shallow answer.

"I really don't know," I confesed. "I'm not dead, but i'm not really living either. All i know, is that i'm trying to focus on not hurting anyone,"

He frowned. A question of why.

"Because, by being in the situation i'm in, i'm only hurting everyone," i explained.

"Oh Rue, it's not your fault, you can't talk like that," he tried to comfort. But i was sick of comforting, so i retorted sharply,

"Well why not? It's practically my fault. If i didn't exist. If i hadn't wrapped myself in the emotional web of friends and rellies i have, i wouldn't be hurting anyone,"

He thought for a moment. I knew now that he understood that i didn't want to be babied.

"Well maybe if you hadn't wrapped yourself in this emotional web, then the people you know would be worse off. Maybe instead of hurting these people, you can inspire them," he told me.

It was my turn to frown, but he didn't explain further. He just scooped me up like a baby and set me in the passengers seat of my own car.

When i awoke, i was in Jeremy's arms again. He was carrying me inside. I felt like a child, but didn't fight it. I was exhausted. I listened to Jeremy tell my mother that i had fallen in the school pond, and my phone was broken so i couldn't call her, and that he had had to drive me home because i had fallen asleep.

Jeremy may be a bit of jerk to other people. But he was an angel to me.

I felt myslef being carried into my small room and placed gently on my bed.

"Goodnight Rue-Rue," he whispered. I didn't reply. He already thought i was asleep.

"Don't tell Ruby I love you," he whispered, and closed the door. I bolted upright.

He LOVED me?! WHAT!

Wait...

Jeremy loved me. And i couldn't help but smile.