"What's been bothering you honey?" Ruby glanced up from where she had been straightening the napkin holder, salt shaker, and pepper shaker on a table. They always managed to get not straight.
"Nothing." She sighed. It was definitely nothing she was going to tell her grandmother.
"What did I say about you lying to me?" Granny asked locking the cash register.
"Not to do it." Ruby replied. Moving onto the next table.
"How long have I been tell you that?" The old woman insisted.
"Since I could talk." The brunette let out another sigh. She did not like where this was going.
"Well then. What's bothering you?" Ruby had always hated the way her grandmother could see right through her, no matter what. She knew her too well. She had have a mind to just say nothing again, and hope that she would leave it alone. But the pressure of her secret feelings was getting to bursting point, and she knew that if she didn't tell someone. She just might do something stupid.
"It's stupid." Not the route she had been thinking about going.
"Well usually stupid things make the worst distractions. Just tell me girl." Granny had rounded the counter, and now leaned on the table across from Ruby. The young waitress was trying to hide from her Granny's eye behind a curtain of her brown and red hair. She knew that she would just let go if she made eye contact.
"I'm confused about something." That was a little less than half of it. But she knew that it would be a lot easier to go this route than just admit was really bugging her.
"Hm, and what is that?" The old woman set herself down on a chair at the table. Ruby kept standing, her nerves suddenly getting the best of her. She had never told her grandmother this about herself.
"I..." She squeezed her eyes shut, hating how childish it sounded. "Like... someone." Her chest seemed to be getting smaller and smaller, leaving less and less room for her heart to beat. Granny made a small noise in the back of her throat.
"Is this about that August boy." Granny always seemed to think that everyone under forty was still a child. But that assumption just filled Ruby with more dread when she thought about what she was really thinking about telling her. She had kept it a secret since she was fifteen.. Was now really the right time. After pulling that little stunt where she thought she was really going to go and do something important.
"No..." Ruby gripped the diner table until her knuckles turned white. A numb feeling had started to creep up her body from her feet, and she was scared her knees might go out. Her vocal cords seemed to no longer be working, and while the numbness was still moving slowly up. All the parts of her not covered by it felt unnaturally warm.
She was absolutely terrified of what her grandmother. Who had raised her since she was six was going to think of her.
Ruby still wasn't looking at her as Granny, moved her weight from one side of the chair to the other. In her mind thinking of every last male Ruby had flirted with in the past few weeks. It was a long list. She was about to suggest another name, unaware of the inner turmoil in her granddaughter when the brunette spoke again.
"It's not.." She swallowed thickly. "It's not a boy." A long silence followed. In which Ruby attempted not to pass out, absolutely terrified of what was to come next.
"It's not Mary Margaret is it?" That wasn't what she had expected. She was so caught off guard she looked up at her grandmother for the first time since they started the conversation. The old woman was smiling at her warmly.
Ruby opened and closed her mouth a few times. Unable to form words for a little while.
"No." Her grip on the edge of the table slackened, and she almost sunk to the floor. Relief seeping into her.
"You didn't think I didn't know did you?" Granny asked. Ruby nearly fell again. Her heels really not helping.
"It's... Emma." Ruby pulled the other chair up and rested her chin on her folded arms. Thoughts of the blonde, and the way she made her feel stirring in her. "She just.. I've never felt this way about someone. Like I've had crushes.. But there's something more there you know, and it's so confusing." She burrowed into her arms for a moment letting out a huff, and filling the space between her arms, the counter and her chest with warm carbon dioxide.
"How long have you had these feelings for her sweetie?" Ruby was stuck for her a moment between answering, and sitting there disbelieving that she was actually having this conversation with her grandmother.
"Since like..., a month after she moved here... It was just... a crush before then." Ruby took up glaring at the tabletop. "But then, when she helped me out after our fight, and she.. Believed in me. More than I did myself. I just fell for her more."
"What am I supposed to do? It's like, eating me up inside." Ruby looked up at her grandmother. Who looked thoughtful.
"Maybe tell her?" That sounded like the worst idea to Ruby.
"But, how am I supposed to?" She groaned. "I'll probably just scare her off." She landed her face in her palms and kept talking. "I mean there's no way she could return the feelings-" Granny let out a small disbelieving noise.
"Don't sell yourself short girl. I've seen the way she looks at you. I thought you knew?" Ruby frowned into her palm. "She at least likes you a bit. I'd say more, but I know you wouldn't believe me." Granny huffed knowing how stubborn Ruby could be, and looking out the front window of the diner.
"How could she? She's amazing, and so many things, and I'm just. Me." Ruby made a face. A frown twitching into her features as she looked up at her grandmother.
"You is pretty amazing." Granny sighed, having that discussion with Ruby once or twice before. She pushed her chair back, and stood. "And now's your chance to find out." She observed the sheriff that approaching the diner.
"I can't. Granny, don't-" But the old woman had already disappeared into the kitchen, and Emma had entered the diner. Ruby just about followed her grandmother into the back but knew that she could in good conscious do so when she had a customer.
A customer that gave her goosebumps, and made her feel a fluttery. A customer who when she was thinking of something important, or nothing at all popped into her mind and made her stomach flip flop.