joe
I've been woken up a lot of strange ways in my lifetime, but I can say that I've never been woken up by a twenty-something-year old girl screaming at the top of her lungs. My door was closed and at first, I wasn't exactly sure what I was hearing. I checked my clock which read 2:51. I almost considered that I was just imagining it, but now that I'm standing outside of Caspar's - Ruby's - room, I know that it is Ruby.
"Hey, love?" I say, opening the door just enough for me to peek my head in. In the dark, I can barely make out the figure in the bed. The black-haired girl is curled up into a tiny ball in the bed. She holds her head in her hands as she continues to scream. "Ruby?" I call louder into the room.
Ruby whimpers quietly, but she stops screaming. She begins crying, which stresses me out even more. I've never had to calm someone down when they've started crying. Ever. It's just not something I've ever experienced, and I really don't want a test run at three in the morning. I step into the room and lightly touch her leg to see if I can at least wake her up. She lets out one more shaky breath before barely opening her eyes.
"Joe?" She asks. She rolls slightly over in the bed; only moving the top half of her body.
"Are you okay?" I ask. I run a hand through my hair lazily, accomplishing basically nothing. It just flops back in front of my eyes. She looks at me for a short second before looking at my hand. She pulls her leg away slowly and sits up in the bed.
"Uh, yeah." Her voice is quivering, and in her current state, she looks anything but alright. I turn and flip on the light. Her dark hair is falling out of the ponytail, and her nose piercing looks red, as if she'd been pulling on it. There are tear tracks across her face.
"Do you need anything?" I offer cautiously. She adverts my eyes and looks down at her phone on the floor.
"Water?" She asks, looking up at me for a short second. I nod and exit the room. I nearly run up the stairs and to Caspar, who is passed out of the couch. It's a wonder how he didn't wake up from Ruby's screaming. But, it's even weirder that she didn't wake herself up.
"Caspar." I say, poking and prodding him over and over again, until he finally wakes up. "We need to talk about our house guest." I say to him. I pull him off the couch and towards the kitchen.
"What's wrong with Ruby?" He asks sleepily. He rests his head on his arms crossed on top of the counter.
"Does she have, like... night terrors?" I ask, sitting a water bottle on top of the counter.
"Does she have what?" Caspar asks. Surely Caspar had to know at least something about this girl. He'd met her a few times, but honestly, I thought he would ask questions before letting her move in.
"Like, nightmares."
"Doesn't everyone?" He begins to walk back over to the couch. I run in front of him and stop him.
"She literally just woke me up, screaming from a nightmare. Not everyone does that." I explain. I watch as he thinks about it for a second.
"It's probably nothing. Quit overreacting." The blonde steps around me and falls back down on to the couch. I know that there is no way that he is going to answer as he covers his head with a blanket.
I guess, it could just be anxiety or stress. Zoe used to have nightmares frequently when she was younger due to her panic disorder, but it was never this bad. She also, as far as I know, hasn't had a nightmare since she was a teenager.
I begin down the stairs, holding the water bottle in my hands. I turn into the bedroom to see Ruby scrunched up in the top right corner of the bed. She has her head between her hands again, and she's resting it on her knees. Her hair is down and encircling her rolled-up body. I can hear her whispering swear words under her breath. I knock my knuckle against the door frame causing her eyes to blink up to meet mine.
I hand her the water bottle and lean awkwardly against the opposite wall. While taking a drink, she shrugs and points at the end of her bed. I take a seat cautiously, scared that she'll change her mind. "Nightmares?" I ask, trying to look around her hair to find those emerald eyes again.
"You could call it that." She responds. She pulls her hair into another loose ponytail. She's managed to wipe away the remaining tears on her cheeks, and I can see little freckles right under her eyes and across her nose.
"Do you want to talk about it?" I say. She averts my gaze and stares at the large print of Audrey Hepburn on Caspar's wall.
"Are you always shirtless?" She answers after a long moment of silence. I chuckle a little, looking down at my bare torso.
"Fortunately, no." I answer. She nods slowly, watching me carefully. I can tell that she has had the nightmare question asked to her too many times. She seems unsure about the living arrangement, and honestly, I don't blame her. I'm not exactly looking to being woken up every day - if this even is a daily thing? - by Ruby's nightmares.
"That's good." She says.
"Oh, come on. We both know you're secretly attracted to me." I joke. She giggles quickly and quietly. It doesn't hit her heart, but it's at least halfheartedly. I wait to hear the line I've always been told, whether its true or not. "Oh, sorry. I have a boyfriend." Sometimes they didn't even apologize.
"Totally." She scoffs jokingly back. "I'll confess my love in a few short days, I mean, I can't do it now. It would just be too cliche, don't you think?" I laugh at her crooked grin.
"Definitely too soon." I agree, smiling back at her.
"I expect a ring and proposal at least a day after, okay?" She laughs. I'm grateful that Ruby isn't afraid to joke around. I can tell that she's trying to find certain boundaries. She's, by my knowledge, never lived with two boys before, so I doubt she knows what it's like. If I was in her position, I would definitely be scared. She's just moved to a foreign country and has to live with a twenty-five year old and a twenty-two year old. She's never met one, and the other, she's only met a few times.
"I can't promise anything, but I'll try." Her smile is slowly growing, and I hope that means that I've helped her in some way. She sits and watches me for a short moment. Her eyes trail around my face.
"Sorry for waking you up." She mutters. She crawls to the end of her bed and reaches for her sketchbook and duffel bag. I watch as she pulls a wooden pencil from a pocket on her bag. She throws it back against the wall and curls back up into her corner.
"Don't worry about it." I think about asking her the questions I had asked Caspar, but nicer at least. I figure that is probably not the best approach right now.
"Well, thanks for sitting with me after a mental breakdown." She grins, slightly uncomfortably. I nod and stand from the bed. I make my way to the door. "It was nice planning our future together. Start ring shopping."
"Only the best for you." I laugh. I exit her room and turn into mine. I fall on to my bed and pull the blankets up on top of me. A few minutes later, I hear very quiet music. I assume that is Ruby, but it doesn't necessarily matter because I can barely make out the beat to it. I continue to lay there awake, waiting to see if Ruby will wake up again, if she is even sleeping.
At almost four o'clock, I roll out of bed to check on her. I haven't heard anything except for the soft music, but I'd hate to think that she's in there having another nightmare. Her door is still open, and the light is still on.
Ruby's sitting on the bed with her sketchbook on her lap. With her elbow on her knee, she leans over the book, pencil in her left hand. Her breathing is slow and even, and she seems more relaxed than before. I don't know whether to take her sketchbook out of her bed or if I should just leave it how it is. I do pull the sharp pencil from her fingers and lay it on the chest-of-drawers. She barely moves, but her mouth opens slightly. I pull the sketchbook slowly off her legs. Picking up the heavy book, I glance at the open page. It's a rough sketch of a boy. Her digital art compared to this is very different. The digital drawing of Regina is more cartoony, whereas this is more realistic. I sit the book on the duffel bag.
I can hear the music playing more clearly now. It's coming from her phone, which is still laying against the wall on the floor. Hitting the home button with my toe, I see a familiar face appear. So, Ruby likes Conor Maynard. At least I know that she isn't completely cut off from YouTube, if she knows who Conor is.
I stand there for a short second, looking at the younger girl. I don't know how old she is exactly, but I do know that she is at least a few years younger than I am. Caspar doesn't know that much about her, and it's kind of scary to think about what kind of secrets she might have. She doesn't seem too bad, though. She'll definitely give Caspar and I a run for our money responsibility-wise, though. Ruby doesn't look too uptight, but she's a girl. I'm sure she'll want things tidy, which won't be too bad for me, but Caspar is always messy.
I return to my room and shut the door behind me. On the other hand, it may turn into a babysitting job for Caspar and I. I'm hoping it's just a homesickness thing. Maybe she's missing her family in America, and her mind is contorting it into something much worse than it is. I finally get to go to sleep after five in the morning.