Ruby's aching back leaned gratefully against the side of the van, letting the night wind lift her hair off her shoulders and cool the bare skin of her neck and face, eyes closed. She imagined the wind as herself, touching ever so slightly, but manipulating her thoughts and senses so easily. It pushed through her walls, inducing memories she didn't even know she had kept inside of her.
Light up shoes on a sidewalk, freshly squeezed lemonade in the afternoon, the scent of bleach, dad's hand squeezing her own, unfamiliar hands gripping her wrists, the squeak of tired old bunkbeds, and there they were. There they always were.
She sighed, kicking her feet up, trying to decide whether to go back into the van and try to fall asleep to the sound of Chubs' snoring, or to let the night take her just a little farther from the comfort she knew so well. Just a little further from the family she knew she'd inevitably lose. She'd lost one, no not one, two families already, it wasn't hard to predict what would happen next.
Her shoes stepped their way through the ashy ground, around the smouldering fire, and to the dirt that led to the forest beyond. There was nothing here for her to invade, no defenceless brains full of information, only the forest, only mother nature. A different kind of intelligence resided with nature, a deeper and more wise one that Ruby could never even hope to read, and for that she was grateful. She could spend her whole life in its presence.
The van door closed, four steps, a singular voice in the cold air;
"Ruby?"
But she couldn't spend her whole life here, she knew for a fact if she did, that voice would haunt her, that voice and its southern hint, and the pale, flushed face that belonged to it.
"Ruby? You alright?"
A heartbeat of silence. The soles of her feet twisted in the dirt.
"Yeah. Sorry I woke you up."
Liam's light hair reflected the moonlight, and so did his eyes, which were searching hers as he slowly walked towards her.
"C'mon, y'know I can tell when you get up. It's usually because I actually have blankets, and they're not all on top of you." He chuckled, lightly grasping her shoulders, and kissing her forehead gently.
The corners of Ruby's mouth tilted upwards, and she spun around, leaning her head into the crook of his neck. Everything turbulent about her felt stable when she was near him, when he was near her.
In the distance, a brook babbled, and it reached Ruby's ears like little whispers in the distance.
"I'm not water." She whispered, as if to no one, "But I'm not stone either. Believe it or not, I'm not unbreakable."
"I know." He said, grasping her cold, dry, hands, "I'm not either. No one is."
She leaned into his warmth, the thing she'd been pining for all day, but had been too proud to grasp. She felt too broken to stand in his embrace. He breathed deeply and wrapped his arms around her shoulders.
"But what if, say, I was the water, and what if you were... clay? Could we build somethin' strong?" He asked, his nose brushing against her black curls.
"It would take a lot of time." She answered.
"I'm a patient person, Darlin'." He said, and she could almost hear him smile.
