joe
How are things at home
I stare at the text from Caspar for a long time. I mean, a lot has happened since he last checked in a few days ago. Last night, I took Ruby out to restaurant close to Brighton. It had been the first time she has ever rode on a train, and she almost had a small panic attack when she first got on it, but she was okay for the most part. I answer Caspar in the simplest way I can.
It's all good.
It's been about two days since I kissed Ruby. I can't remember anything actually going through my mind before I decided to do that. All I know is when I was sitting across from her, staring into her eyes, I realized that if I didn't do it then, there was a possibility that I was never going to do it. I used up the twenty seconds of courage on a kiss that she ran away from, but it all worked out in the end.
I wait to see if Caspar is going to reply, but I jump when I hear a loud scream. I stand from my bed and rush over into Ruby's room. "Love?" I say, shaking her shoulder lightly. Her eyes blink open, and she searches my entire face while trying to slow her breathing. Her bright green eyes are wide and terrified.
"Sorry." She smiles. "I'm trying to stop this." I hate how she thinks it's her fault. She always seems to blame herself for her nightmares, and I don't know why she would ever think she has control over it.
"I know it's not your fault." I tell her. "You woke up rather fast this time, though. Compared to the other times, at least." She nods, agreeing with me.
"Yeah, I think that was one of the worst I've ever had." She says, sitting up. "That's probably why I woke up so fast." I want to ask her so bad what her dream was about, but I know I can't. I'm trying not to push boundaries with Ruby. She likes having some things private, and I have to respect that. I have some things I don't necessarily want her knowing right now, but maybe later on, we'll be able to talk about them with each other.
She swears before standing up from the bed. She stretches her arms and back out. "Put on shoes." I tell her as she reaches a hand over to place it on my cheek.
"Put on a shirt." She retorts sarcastically.
"No. I'm serious." I say laughing. plucking her hand from my cheek to squeeze in my own. "I'm taking you out."
"Sugg, it's three in the morning." She complains.
"Please?" I say, pouting my bottom lip slightly. She shuffles to the cupboard in front of her bed and reaches inside.
"I hate you." She smiles, slipping on a pair of old trainers that I've never seen before. "I'll go wait by the door." Ruby says, pushing past me and out her bedroom door.
I walk back over into my room and grab my hoodie that's laying at the bottom of my bed. I slip it over my head before turning the light off. I jog up the stairs where Ruby is leaning against the door. "So, where are we going?" She asks as she sees me approach her.
"You like ice cream, right?" I ask her. I still don't exactly know that much about her. She's very introverted, quite different from Caspar, Regina and I, who are all extremely extroverted. I grab my keys and wallet from the kitchen, and Ruby leads the way out of the flat.
"Your plans would probably be useless if I didn't." She laughs. "But, yeah. I do."
All the way outside is really quiet. It's not a weird quiet, and it's actually quite comfortable. When we begin walking down the sidewalk, Ruby stares up at the sky. I watch her as she rolls up the sleeves of her sweatshirt. "I've never been walked to a date before." She says, turning away from the sky to look at me.
"Well, I've never asked a girl on date at three in the morning." I say, causing her to giggle beside me.
The wind is blowing and even though it's slightly cold, it still feels better than it could be. The raven-haired girl seems to be enjoying it, especially the stars. I wouldn't have plagued Ruby to love the stars. I know how she hates nighttime. I can't really imagine loving something that you also fear. She does smile, though, as she stares up at the starry sky. "They're so beautiful, aren't they?" She whispers.
"You like the stars?" I ask her.
"I love the stars, you know? But I'm just so terrified of the night."
Before I can say anything else, she's interrupting, pointing up at the sky. "Over there is Orion." She says pointing off to her left. She counting off as many as she can, becoming more excited with every one. She reaches over and grabs my hand, before pointing past me. "There's yours. Virgo."
She looks so happy, smiling at me as she swings the hands between us. "You wouldn't even have to buy me ice cream. I'm perfectly fine with this." She says.
"We can turn around and go back." I offer, stopping.
"No, it's okay. I'll let you buy me food, if you really want to." She says, pulling on my arm. I begin walking again and catch up to her. We walk slowly down the sidewalk as I look ahead for the large neon sign. Less than a block away, I see the bright blue arrow sticking out over the street.
"The stars are gone." She frowns. I look up at the sky to see that clouds have moved into the area. "Stupid clouds." She continues to swing our hands, though with a small smile on her face.
We continue walking along the pavement in silence and darkness. I feel something hit me on the forehead as Ruby laughs. "Rain." She says.
"You like rain, too?" I ask her as I feel more raindrops hitting me.
"I love rain." She replies happily. She tilts her head back and lets the rain dot her face. As we get closer and closer to the sign, the rain gets harder and harder. It's nothing too major, just rain. Ruby enjoys it so much as she giggles beside me and tries to catch rain on her tongue. She looks as if she never had a pure childhood, which would be really hard if she's been tortured by nightmares her entire youth.
"I know it's not anything fancy, but hey, where are you else going to get ice cream at three in the morning?" I tell her as I turn at the small petrol station. The neon lights shine bright in the darkness in variation of blues and pinks.
"I'll take it." Ruby says, squeezing my hand tightly in hers. The rain has made her black hair stick to her forehead and shoulder. The white sweatshirt has small places that look more grey where raindrops have hit her.
As we approach the doors, the sign hanging up in the window is half broken so the two doesn't shine as bright as the four in 24 hour service. I hold open the door for Ruby, and she steps up into the small shop, releasing my hand. She smiles at the woman sitting behind the cash register.
I point to the back corner, and Ruby begins weaving through the aisles to the large freezers. She stops in front of one and looks indecisively at the rows and rows of small containers. She opens the door after a short moment and pulls out one near the bottom. I reach above her for a chocolate one as she leans up with strawberry ice cream. I reach into my pocket and pull out my wallet. I hand it to her. "You go pay for them, and I grab us a couple spoons, okay?" I say. She nods, taking the leather wallet from me and walking back up to the counter.
I make my way across to the small counter of cups and condiments. The shop is actually not as bad as most are. There's a small coffee station as well as a little deli inside. Reaching by the straws, I pull out two plastic wrapped spoons and meet Ruby by the door.
"She's not too friendly." The younger girl grumbles as we walk over the one of the pumps to get out of the rain. I step up onto the curb and lean against the machine. Ruby leans against the support beam across me and rips the top off her ice cream.
"Is it anyone especially friendly at three in the morning?" I ask her.
"You're not too bad." She smiles, sticking the weak, plastic spoon into the container. We fade to silence except for the soft sound of rain hitting the parking lot below us.
"I think I'm okay now. You don't have to try to get every aspect of me out of your vlog." She says, staring across at me. When Ruby first moved in, she wanted nothing to do with Caspar's or my YouTuber career. It makes me happy to know that's she becoming more comfortable with us, especially me. It'd be kind of bad if she got even further distant now, wouldn't it?
"We could do a new roommate collab." I offer to her sarcastically, knowing exactly what her response will be.
"I said I was okay being in the background, not being the main subject." She says. "I'll get there one day, maybe." She grins and reaches over for my hand again. I poke my spoon into the cheap chocolate ice cream and hold her hand.
Ruby is definitely not awkward around someone she likes. At least, I'm assuming she likes me. It wouldn't make much sense if she didn't. But, honestly, I think she is the least awkward girl I've ever liked. She's just so comforting to be around. She even likes hand-holding which just adds to reasons why she's possibly the best girl I've seen in the past year. I love human contact, and it seems like so does she, to an extent at least.
"Sorry, my hand is really sweaty." She giggles, pulling her hand away to wipe it on her shorts. She reaches back over to reconnect our hands.
"That's alright. It just means I make you nervous." I say, smirking at her. She stares at me for a short moment with no expression on her face, then she pulls on my hand hard enough to make me lose my balance. I catch myself by placing my forearm over her head on the beam.
"Hilarious. You could be a comedian for a living." She mutters with sarcasm, releasing my hand to pull on the strings of my hoodie. Her face is inches from mine, and when she bites her lip, she knows she's taunting me. The small time I take to resist her is maybe five seconds before I tilt her chin up to kiss her.
"Who makes who nervous?" She asks, smiling after she pulls away for a short second. Before I can make some kind of smartass remark, she pops up on to her toes to kiss me.
Ten minutes later, we've gotten back to the flat, and I stand in Ruby's doorway as she crawls into her bed. She ties her wet hair up in a ponytail and scratches at the diamond stud in her nose. "You okay for the rest of the night?" I ask.
"I might stay up for a little while, but yeah. I think I'm good." She answers, picking up the sketchbook on the chest-of-drawers beside the bed. "Thanks for the date." Ruby says.
"Thanks for actually going out at three for ice cream." I smile at her. "Night, Ruby. Sleep well."
"Good night, Joe." She calls as I step out of her room.