Two hours later, both girls sat in a
dimly lit bar and restaurant, large pizza and beer before them, with
their old friends, Geoff, his new boyfriend, and Les. Les sat
nearest to Ruby, discovering how often she averted her eyes from him,
keeping her gaze instead on her pizza, or catching up with Geoff,
getting to know his partner, Frank, anything but direct her attention
to him. Tera, too, noticed all of this and searched her mind for a
way to get Les and Ruby by themselves, apart from the rest so that
the two of them could hopefully really look at one another. Or, in
any event, Ruby could find a reason to get over her pining for the
jerk.
“Camp was so long ago, it seems,”
Geoff was saying.
“Not for me,” Les chipped in. “I'm
like a senior counselor now.” He took a big gulp of his drink and
spied Ruby looking at him before she turned away abruptly.
“Frank, these were my closest friends
at Crowshaven,” Geoff went on. “You met Tera, and Les, we called
him, “Trip”, do you remember why?”
“Yeah, Geoff, you made it up,”
confirmed Les. “You made fun of my name--”
“Ah yes, Lester--”
“And, I didn't like it so,” cut in
Les quickly.
“So, I said don't trip out or
something, that's right,” laughed Geoff. “And it just stuck.
And, this girl here, Frank, we called her Jewels.”
“Hi, I'm Ruby,” she smiled and
extended her hand to the fair haired black man before her. Ruby
wondered why he had chosen to bleach his curls blond but to each his
own.
“I remember when Jess got a hold of
that amazing weed, right, and brought it to camp,” Tera began.
“And we all got so stoned, we snuck into the kitchen after hours to
raid the fridge--”
“And Jewels ate all the peanut
butter!” Les chimed in.
“Well, I was hungry!” Ruby defended
herself.
“For peanut butter?” Les wanted to
know, looking fully at her.
“Yeah, I really like peanut butter,”
Ruby said, staring back at him and for a moment their eyes met. Tera
and Les held their breath. Was this it?
“So, you still doing the
song-writing?” Les finally broke the silence.
“Yeah,” Ruby said and turned back
around to face her pizza. Tera continued the conversation,
“Yeah, all the time,” she
confirmed. “She's got a book and goes to open mic nights, she's
gotten really good.”
“Oh?” Les perked up. “When are
your open mic nights?”
Ruby hesitated and then said, “Um,
every Friday night, actually--”
“Well, we're leaving on Sunday, so
maybe we can come and see--” Les began and Ruby cut in with,
“I'm taking time off for Christmas
and writing new songs, will start in the New Year.”
That was part of it. Part of it was
she knew Rob would try to show up at the bar when she performed and
want to make up or something. Also, she could tell Les was trying to
start something himself, and she didn't want that, not right now,
couldn't stand that rejection...again. Les pulled away mentally and
turned to his drink, taking a big swig, then setting it down, and
staring into it.
“Hey, we need more alcohol,”
suggested Tera. “Geoff, Frank, will you guys help me get them?
I'll buy, if you carry.”
“Maybe we can just call a waitress
over--” Geoff protested. He was comfortable, hadn't had a chance
to have his pizza yet, and Frank's hand had just found his leg so he
was not feeling like getting up at the moment. Tera glared at him
and then nodded towards Ruby and Les. Okay, they needed to be alone,
yeah, he got it. His friend, Les, needed to get a little and Ruby
looked like she could use some attention too. He got the message.
He grabbed Frank's hand and pulled him towards the bar. Tera
followed him.
Ruby took a bite of her pizza and
chewed slowly, enjoying the flavor of cheese and pepperoni, a
personal favorite. She reached for the Parmesan and her hand touched
Les's arm. He looked at her.
“Um,” she said between bites. “Can
you please pass the Parmesan?”
Les handed it to her and watched her
sprinkle it on to her remaining piece.
“Should I get you some peanut butter
with that too?” he asked jokingly. Ruby glared up at him and then
managed,
“Only if I was high.”
“Well, I think we can arrange
something,” he leaned in closer to her and smiled. She looked at
him. A moment of silence fell on them as the busying bar noise of
jukebox, silverware clanging on plates, people laughing and talking
swirled around them.
“Look, Les,” Ruby began, swallowing
hard. “You know I...I'm not really looking for anything right now,
like romantically...so I mean, can we just be friends?”
Les leaned back and looked her over.
He nodded and turned to his beer and pizza.
“I mean, I just can't deal with any
more, I don't know, heartbreak,” Ruby tried to explain. “Not
right now.”
“Are you talking about that one night
at camp?” Les wanted to know.
“Not just that,” Ruby searched her
mind for something to say. “My life is a mess, I'm a mess, I'm
thinking of taking off from here for awhile.”
“Going where?”
“Just out there, you know, me and my
car and my guitar, like go on tour or something, see where I land,”
Ruby described.
“Is that what you really want?”
Les looked her over.
“See, I don't know what I want so
that's why I want to do it,” Ruby explained. “You wouldn't get
it.”
“Why?” Les said defensively.
“You with your college track and all
that,” Ruby shot back. “I'm just not wired like that. I need, I
don't know, something more.”
“But how are you going to support
yourself out there?” Les asked, curiously and also protectively.
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