When alice fell, it was down rabbit hole. I envy her, because when I fell, it was far from down a rabbit hole. When i fell, it was for a girl with pretty white hair and a crystal blue gaze. One like ice water, that chilled my body and brought an icy sensation over me whenever i thought about her. When i fell, it was for girl. Her name, was Sapphire.
Six months ago
Ruby sighed in frustration as she slammed out punches on the punching bag. The college freshman year was set to start in a little under a week, and she was so unprepared that she hadn't even been to the campus. She stopped her feverish attack on the bag when her watch beeped loudly.
She walked over to the linen rack and picked up a white towel and draped it over her shoulders. She had started going to go to boxing class to working off some of her extra flaming energy over six months ago, now it was the one thing she looked forward to twice every week. Her phone rang in the net pocket of her duffle bag as she sat down. It was her younger sister, rosalynne. Ruby grumbled mumbled under her breath about never getting any free time and answered her phone quickly, bringing it up to her ear.
"What is it?" Ruby sighed as she ran a hand over her face. "Mom says it's time to come home." rosaline said in a mocking tone. "I know it's time to come home, i do have a watch." Ruby said in an irritated voice. She hung up the phone and tossed it back into her open duffle bag. Home was the last place she wanted to go. She felt wrong there, almost as if she was the odd one out, the one jet black storm cloud on a fluffy white clouded sky. She had felt like this forever, this empty feeling in her chest when she sat at the dinner table with her family, or walked the hallways of her old high school, or even when was doing her early morning runs on the sidewalk.
Ruby picked up her bag and slung it over her shoulder as she walked out of the gym. The sky had turned to a strange shade of orangish pink and the air carried an icy bite as it whistled through the dead leaves that clung to their branches. She shoved her headphones into her ears and turned the volume on her ipod up as high as it would go and started walking down the sidewalk. It was late September and the leaves had just started to change their color in majority, creating an almost picture perfect atmosphere. Children ran past her on the sidewalk engaging one another in a push and pull game of tag.
She watched them go, a small smile playing at the edge of her lips as she recalled her own childhood games before being popular was more important than happiness and before girls were girls and boy were boys. Ruby found herself lost in her thoughts as she walked and quickly, to her great disappointment, she realised that she had arrived in front of her house. She pulled her earbuds out of her ears and walked up to the door and opened it. Inside of the house next to the door was a staircase that lead to the upstairs bedrooms, and just below the stairs, the linen closet. It was a straight shot from there to the kitchen and just to the left a few feet from the front door, was the livingroom.
The inside of the house was cool from the open windows and carried the scent of fall and cooking food. Ruby turned and walked up the stairs going to her room, wishing to her lucky stars that hopefully she would be able to avoid the family till dinner. The inside of her room was dark and colored in shades of cinnamon, maroon, and black and clothes were scattered here and there. Ruby sighed and walked over to her nightstand and turned on the light, completely ignoring the ceiling fan. The sudden illumination of the room made her squint as she plopped down onto her bed making the springs creak.
She reached over to her duffle bag and pulled out her laptop, turning it on and typing in the password. She opened up her tabs and pulled up youtube and stuffed her headphones into the headphone jack. She pulled up the first song in her history and let it pulse through her earbuds loudly. The lyrics rattled through her mind as she struggled to think as she pulled open google and went to hunting through the college she was attending homepage.
Ruby sighed in irritation as the chorus of headstrong ran through her brain. She didn't even really want to go to college, but it was either that or lose the chance to stay in the house before she had her feet under her. Oh well, she thought, at least the campus looked nice. Her phone buzzed from her bag, but went unnoticed as she laid on her bed. Ruby pulled her earbuds out when her head started throbbing and rested her head back against the wall.
Her phone buzzed again from inside of her bag, startling her. She looked into her bag and smiled when she saw garnet's name in the message box. She swung her legs over the side of the bed and placed her sneaker covered feet firmly on the floor, reaching down to scoop up her phone and look at the message. Both were from garnet, asking if she was game to come hang out at the local bar. Ruby's grin widened at the thought. She heard a knock and dropped her phone in surprise as her mother opened the door.
Ruby's mother was a woman of short stature her face usually dawning a pinched expression. Her hair was thick, but unlike her daughter her skin was a tanned cream color where rubies was a dark mocha. They were almost completely different in every way, save their eyes, which harboured the same shade of reddish brown that shone almost dark red in the sunlight. "It's dinner time." she said as she stepped fully into ruby's room.
She sighed and closed her laptop roughly before she climbed out of bed. The walked into the kitchen in uninterrupted silence, rosalynne sat at the dinner table with her earbuds shoved into her ears, focusing completely on her phone. Ruby sat down roughly in a chair and set to tuning out anything that was about to be said to her. Her mother sat her plate down in front of her and left without a word to get her sisters and her own.
She stared at her food and stabbed it absentmindedly with her fork. 'The faster you eat, the faster you can blow this popsicle stand' she thought to herself. She shoved a forkful of mashed potatoes into her mouth, indifferent to the burning sensation she received when it touched her tongue. The room was eventually filled with the sounds of forks and knives scraping against glass plates. Her mother cleared her throat and set her fork down. "Ruby, you are aware that you start school soon, right?" she asked, her brow pinched. Ruby sighed and rubbed her eyes. "Yeah i know, what about it?" she said kind of irritated her mother was going to bring up the subject. "Ruby, you haven't even been to the campus yet." her mother said as she lifted her glass to her lips.
Ruby stiffened. 'Shit' she thought as she poked at her breaded chicken. "I'm gonna go tomorrow, don't worry." she lied, staring down at her plate. Her mother just sighed and went back to eating, unwilling to continue. Ruby finished quickly and set her empty glass on her plate and set the dishes the sink. She ran the water on cold for a few moments and let it wade over the plate before eventually letting the water fall away completely and setting the plate down. She shut the water off a walked out of the kitchen.
She ran up to her room and stepped inside, locking the door behind herself. The sun had almost set completely and left what little bit of the sky that it managed to color a deep shade of purple. Ruby grinned as she walked over to her window and opened it, shivering as the cool late autumn breeze blew through. She walked over to her closet and opened the door to change her clothes. She left her old clothing discarded in a pile at her feet and reached into the closet to yank a fresh dark tank top on it's hanger and throw it onto her bed. Next to follow was a red heavy flannel and a pair of khaki colored cargo pants.
Ruby took off her head band and held it tightly in her hands. The only thing she had that had been gifted to her by her absent father. Her parents had separated when she was young, and Ruby only got to see him every now and again. She stepped out of the pile of clothes as walked over to her bed. It was going to get really cold later, so she considered opting out for a large sweat instead of a useless flannel and tank top, but chose the latter. 'It's gonna be pretty warm in the bar anyway, so why the hell not.' she thought, pulling the tank top over her head.
She dressed quickly and pulled her shoes back on, before she grabbed her old bag and walked over to the window. After she tied her flannel securely around her waist, she placed a sneaker covered foot on the windowsill and climbed out and onto the roof. She walked slowly, leaning backwards to push against the slope of the roof as she descended. 'Now to the tree' she thought sternly as she eyed the branch she was going to jump to. She readied herself for the short leap and jumped, smiling when her hands firmly found their target and jerked her to a stop.
This wasn't the first time she had gotten out of the house like this. The climb down took a moment and she swung her body in the right direction to wrap one of her legs around the base of the branch and pull herself on top. The shimmy down the tree after that was easy and over quickly as her feet thudded heavily on the ground when she made it to the bottom. She smiled triumphantly and broke into a light jog until she got to the corner and stopped. She leaned against the light post and scanned the street for an approaching black mustang.
She breathed in the fall air happily as a breeze pulled lightly at her hair. "Finally." she mumbled as the car pulled up infront of her. Ruby threw open the door and climbed inside in a swift motion, grinning like a kid in a candy store. "You ready for this?" jasper said from the passenger seat. "You know i am!" ruby said excitedly. "Of course you would be." jasper teased. "What's that supposed to mean." ruby said with a glare. Jasper laughed. "You do know that the place we're going is a gay bar right? For like, lesbians." jasper asked.
Ruby sat in silence for a moment before she moved to jump into the front seat. "What do you mean?! I ain't no dyke, you moron! Why the hell are we going to a gay bar?!" ruby shrieked as she fought to strangle jasper. Jasper fought to keep her away and rolled her eyes. "Sit down rubix cube. Nobody said you had to go to get laid. You can just be a good sport about it and let the rest of us have a little fun." ruby calmed slightly but didn't stop glaring at jasper. No way in hell was she going to a gay bar. She could do sports pubs, regular bars, and maybe (if jasper did enough begging) a strip club.
She sat steaming until garnet decided to add her input in the conversation. "Ruby, i know how close minded you are, but this could be a good experience for you." she said in the tone a mother would you when trying to explain why they were going to a museum and not a water park. Ruby huffed and crossed her arms over her chest, still pissed off. Garnet smiled as she watched her in the rear view. "Besides, you might meet someone there that you'll decide you like." garnet teased lightly. Ruby scoffed, her face mirroring the disgust she was feeling. "Yeah, as if." ruby said as she scrunched up her face.
They rest of the ride was spent avoid the subject of the club. When they weren't talking about upcoming games, they were talking about past party's gone wrong. Eventually they pulled into the parking lot of the bar, much to ruby's dismay. The club didn't look especially, how should ruby put it, eccentric? A neon white-blue sign read the word LIGHTS! Above the door and illuminated the space beneath.
Ruby wrinkled her nose at the sight and tilted her head in confusion. "This doesn't look anything like a gay bar." she said in confusion. What she had imagined was completely different. She had expected pride flags and lude pictures. Jasper rolled her eyes and mumbled something that sounded a lot like 'stereotypical bitch' under her breath. The walked to the door and stepped inside.
The inside of the club was busy and filled with people having fun. Two girls kissed passionately and held hands in a booth. Ruby blushed as she watched them, and that's when she saw her. She sat with three other girls that ruby vaguely knew. The tallest of the group waved garnet over with a smile and a yell before draping her arm over one of the smaller girls with blue hair. Ruby followed garnet, never taking her eyes off the girl with white hair. When they made it to the table garnet pulled ruby closer to the girl and smiled widely.
"Ruby, this is a friend of mine." the girl girl smiled and moved half of her bangs aside so she could properly see her. "My names sapphire, it's a pleasure to meet you." she said as she took one of ruby's hand in her own. "M-m-my name is ruby." she finally managed to say. Jasper watched ruby and started laughing and nudged garnet with her elbow. "She's got it bad."