One Final Time

Ruby stumbled out of the bar and hailed a cab.  She had had a few too many free drinks at the bar after her set. When she reached her apartment building, she paid the cabbie and fumbled in her purse for her keys, juggling between her guitar case and her purse, swaying slightly on her heels. She pushed the buttons on her front entrance, unlocking the door and allowing her in from the night's coldness and darkness.

Stumbling into the elevator, she pushed the button for her floor and felt the familiar lurch in her stomach as the machine ascended. As the doors swung open at her destination, she stumbled down the hall to her doorway, pushing it open when she found it unlocked.

Entering, she found the lights dimmed, two wine glasses on the dining room table, one with lipstick and the other half drunk. She thought she heard noises coming from her bedroom so she cautiously crept down the hall towards the sound.

Pushing the door open, she stood in the door way with her mouth agape. A girl, breasts bare, lay on her bed with Rob's head between her legs. The girl's loud moans beat into her brain in cold, hard waves. When the repetitive motion of the oncoming slot of the girl's ecstasy reached its fever pitch, Ruby found sound escaping her mouth without her control, a loud piercing scream reverberating off the walls and into the very chasm of the souls of those in her bed.

Rob abruptly froze and slowly turned toward her. His goatee was wet with the girl's juices. He stared at Ruby, unable to speak. The girl pulled herself to a sitting position and covered her nakedness.

“Who...who is this?” the girl gasped.

“Um, this is Ruby, and this is Marcie,” Rob stuttered out as if this was a casual greeting at a local diner.

Ruby just stared him down. Marcie quickly rose from the bed, still clutching the sheet half covering her and started frantically searching for her clothes, dressing hurriedly. Ruby looked down at Rob who stood up himself, standing bare before her, not knowing what to say.

“You didn't tell me you...lived with someone,” came Marcie from far away. Neither of them noticed her. Ruby felt a slight breeze as Marcie quickly passed her, sloppily dressed in the hurry, to leave the apartment and flee to her own home.

“Why?” came Ruby's voice, a small creak within her heart. “Why?”

Rob moved towards her and she moved away, quickly, saying, “Don't...don't touch me!”

He realized then how he appeared and ran over to the closet, pulling out his bathrobe and wrapped it around him.

“Let me explain,” Rob began.

Ruby looked around the room, at the bed with its sheets thrown about, the books on her side of the bed and the glass of water she'd left there from the night before, the curtains in the window, and moved restlessly about.

“Why? Why? Why?” she wondered aloud, getting louder and louder as she went. She crashed over to Rob's side of the bed and grabbed his books off his nightstand and threw them across the room.

“How could you?” she screamed. Next she grabbed his glasses and threw them against the wall, the lenses cracked as the bounced from the wall to the ground.

“Calm down, calm down,” Rob begged, coming to her and then moving towards the broken pair on the ground. Ruby grabbed the sheets torn asunder and threw them above her head and released, they fluttered almost beautifully down to the floor. 

She screamed terribly and crashed into the living room. Grabbing the wine glasses off the table, she threw first the one with the lipstick and then the other against the TV. They shattered into a million pieces on the floor. She moved over towards them and collapsed amongst the shards. Picking up one of the large pieces, she stared at it almost longingly with a dullness in her eyes. She ran a finger along the edge of the sharpest edge and felt the familiar sting.

Rob ran into the room and saw.

“No, Ruby, please!” he shouted at her in desperation. Ruby stood up and stared at him, glass shard in one hand with her breath quickening. With one hand, she felt in her pocket and pulled out her cell phone. Without thinking, she looked down at the screen, thumbing through her address book. Frantically, she wondered who to call, who could help. Her thumb clicked the number of an old friend.

“Pick up, please, pick up!” She prayed frantically to herself. The voice mail clicked over, “You have reached Les Daniels...”. Brokenly, she ended the call, thought about calling someone else, maybe Tara, but then let the phone fall dejectedly out of her hands to the floor. Tears of loneliness, heartbreak, and despair began falling down her face. She felt so alone, lonely, and afraid. She stared wildly at Rob in front of her. He moved towards her.

“Please,” was all he said. She held the shard against her left wrist firmly in place. He held out his hands, in the far distance, she thought she heard him say, “Nooooo!” as she let the glass penetrate her skin and drew the line down her arm. The familiar release of blood bubbled to the surface and began to drip, onto her skin, then onto the carpet below. For a moment, she stood, teetering between consciousness and unconsciousness, then she found herself falling, falling, falling....

She awoke in a hospital bed, her left arm heavy and her wrist bandaged up tightly. She stared listlessly up at the ceiling, blearily counting the dots in each square tiles above her head. She heard the door open and close, and someone moving towards the bed. A blonde head of a woman hovered above her.

“Hello, Ruby, how are you feeling?” it was the pleasant voice of a nurse.

“Fine, I think,” Ruby muttered softly.

“My name is Samantha, you can call me Sam,” the nurse introduced herself. “I'm the nurse on duty for you today, you should have a doctor to see you soon, okay?”

“A doctor?” Ruby asked.

“Someone you can talk to,” Sam began. “Someone who can help you.”

A shrink, then, thought Ruby, why didn't this Samantha just say that?

“There is someone here who'd like to speak with you, he brought you into the ER,”

Sam smiled down at her. “Are you up for that?”

Ruby looked up at Samantha and slowly shook her head.

Les woke with the early morning alarm. Monica slept beside him, still and quiet. He pushed himself from the bed and without thinking picked up his cell-phone from his bedside table. Blurry-eyed he looked through the phone, he felt the oncoming feeling of a headache approaching. He noticed he had a missed call from an unknown number, but they had not left a message. He thought about calling them back but decided against it. It was time to get ready for work. Perhaps once he had his morning cup of coffee, his headache would subside.

He showered and quickly dressed, before heading out the door, brief-case in hand. He'd go through the drive-thru at Starbucks for his morning breakfast routine on his way to work. In the car, his head began to pound with the dull ache. Gratefully, he took the latte from the girl at the window along with his croissant and took a sip, hoping that would ease his pain.

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