Memories in the Rain
Chapter 4
Their First Step
The day after the Commoner's meeting came around and Weiss was back to school. Her classes were the same as they were on Monday so she had another short day. Surprisingly, she was actually going to ask Jaune and Pyrrha to hang out, but they were too busy with the Commoner's Club. They were overly joyed out the success of their first meeting that they wanted to plan something special for the next one. They asked if she wanted to join, but she quickly declined. So far, Weiss liked the club, but she didn't really want to do anything for it. The only thing going through her head was Ruby and how things were going with her. It was obvious that she didn't remember her, but Weiss didn't want to accept that truth. She was determined to make something new out of it.
As her second class came to an end, she headed to the middle of campus where she decided to walk around aimlessly. She kept telling herself that she wasn't desperate, but Ruby was all that she could think about. All of those memories she shared with her and all those smiles they showed could never leave her mind. Then the flashback of the car speeding towards her could never leave either.
It was difficult to live with the incident that Ruby experience, but what made things worse was that she now goes to school with the exact same girl from the incident. She didn't want to lose her, but she didn't want to have to go through something like that again. She continued to walk through campus, too busy in her head to worry about what was happening in the real world. As the crowds died down, she saw something peculiar in the distance. It was a girl in a red hoodie sitting on a nearby bench all alone. Weiss took a deep breath and walked over to her.
"Ruby? Are you alone?" She turned around to see Weiss standing above her.
"Hi. Weiss, right?" Weiss nodded her head. "Yeah, I just finished class and didn't really know what to do?"
"Hey, what a coincidence? I'm in the same situation."
"Cool. Would you like to join me?"
"I would love to." Weiss set her things down and sat down next to Ruby. At first, no words were said. The two of them simply sat there and watched the things going on around them. Weiss was kind of nervous. Her heart was beating fast and her hands were trembling. There was so much she wanted to know, but didn't want to come off as weird or psychotic. She slowed her breathing and tried her best to stay calm. "So how was class today?"
"It was alright. Classes in college aren't as hard as I first thought."
"Haha, don't worry. They only get harder."
"Oh, thanks for the confidence boost."
"Sorry." The two of them smiled and started to laugh. Suddenly, Weiss' heart skipped a beat. She opened her eyes wide. What was that? She looked over at Ruby and she saw that she was having a good time which caused her to smile even more. Out of nowhere, a huge growl came from Ruby's stomach and she covered it as fast as she could. "You hungry?"
"Sorry." Ruby looked at the ground in shame.
"Come on. Let's go get something to eat."
"Okay." They both stood up and headed to the school food court.
Inside, there was such a huge selection that it took them awhile to decide on what to eat. Ruby let her stomach decide and the two of them went with it. They grabbed their food and found an open table where they ate together. At first, they didn't say anything to each other because they were too worried about their food, but once that was over, they found something to talk about.
"So how do you like it here?"
"It's nice. It sort of feels like I'm back in my hometown."
"Oh really? Where are you from?" She obviously knew where she was from, but she wanted to hear it from Ruby.
"Oh, it's a small town out in the country. It's pretty far away from here, but it feels good to finally be away from home. I know, typical answer that everyone says, but it's true." Weiss smiled. Even though she was a different person, she was still the same Ruby. And plus, it was interesting to hear how different Ruby actually was from her former self.
"So I'm guessing your transition to college life wasn't too hard then?"
"Actually it was."
"Oh really? What happened?" This was it. She was putting all of her money on the slight chance that Ruby would talk about the incident.
"When I was in high school, my parents were so protective of me. It felt as if there was nothing I could do without them being there. I mean, I love them to death, but they never let me do anything by myself. I asked them so many times to let me do one thing on my own, but they insisted that they chaperone me. It sucked."
"I totally get it. My parents were always with me when I was a kid, but when I entered high school, it was such a sudden change. It was almost like they weren't even there anymore." This was a little hard to tell because Ruby knew this, but then again, she didn't.
"Yeah, it was all thanks to that incident I went through." Weiss opened her eyes. Was she actually going to talk about it?"
"Incident? What happened?"
"It's all so blurry to me, but something terrible happened to me. When I was walking home alone one day, I was being careless and walked into the middle of the street and got hit by a car. Luckily, all I got was a concussion from it, but after that, my parents never left my side. They acted as my crutch for so long that it never really felt like I recovered from it. But now, it truly feels like I'm back to normal."
Meanwhile, Weiss was trying to hold back the tears. However, the tears weren't for her incident. All throughout her explanation, she never mentioned her name at all. Her walking home alone and going out into the street; she was there for it all. She couldn't help but feel that it was her fault for what happened to Ruby. As a tear fell from her eye, she quickly wiped it away and looked away. She could feel her eyes turning red and didn't want Ruby to see her like this.
"I'm so sorry to hear about that."
"It's okay. It's not a big deal. I'm alright now." Ruby smiled. Weiss looked at her and couldn't but think that she wasn't alright. That was just her selfish side thinking and she quickly threw away that idea.
"So is everything good for you?"
"What do you mean?"
"Oh, like school. Is everything going smoothly or are you having problems with anything?"
"No, not really. Sometimes I'll get a slight headache, but that's a personal problem so you don't need to worry about that." She wanted to though. She wanted to worry about her so much, but that feeling couldn't come out. She couldn't unload everything on Ruby or else things could get worse. She just sat there with everything bottled up inside. A few minutes went by and silence was the only thing on the table. It was only until Ruby broke the silence that everything returned to a somewhat normal state. "Say Weiss, I was wondering…" Weiss opened her ears.
"Hey guys!" Ruby looked up and saw Jaune and Pyrrha walking towards them. On the other hand, Weiss nearly slammed her head against the table. What was she going to say? Was it important? She slowly lifted her head back up to greet the two of them. "Do you mind if we join you?"
"Of course." Weiss looked at Ruby. She didn't want this, but she couldn't say that to her only friends so she just let it go.
"So what's up?"
"Nothing. We were just talking."
"Dang Weiss, you're really taking the Commoner's club seriously."
"Don't be ridiculous, I'm just doing my rightful job as to help the underclassmen with getting things started."
"Sure you are." Jaune nudged her shoulder and she promptly nudged back with even more force than his.
"Anyway, we wanted to find you guys because we wanted to ask you guys something kind of serious."
"Okay, what's up?" Jaune and Pyrrha looked at each other and answered her question simultaneously.
"What do a boyfriend and girlfriend usually do for fun?"
"Eh?!" Ruby and Weiss were in shock. "What kind of question is that? Wait, are you two going out?"
"Yeah, about that, it just sort of happened while we were discussing what we should do for the next Commoner's meeting."
"Well, I'm sorry to say this, but I've never been in a relationship before so I can't really answer that question." Just then, it felt like Weiss got a knife shoved into her heart. You have been in a relationship before. It was with me. Why? In her head, she was crying up a storm.
"What about you Weiss? You got any tips for us?" Weiss shoved her hands against her face.
"Do you really think I know about that kind of stuff?"
"I don't know. You seem like the kind of person who's had experience. Sorry to bother you." Jaune and Pyrrha stood up and walked off together. Again, she felt like she was stabbed through her chest. She actually knew about that stuff, but for some reason, she didn't want to share it with Jaune. She liked Pyrrha, but was still a little on edge with him.
"That's so sweet. Those two do look perfect for each other." Weiss looked at Ruby and had another thought. We are perfect for each other. There was nothing else for Weiss to do except sigh and endure this pain. She stood up and grabbed her food to throw it away. The two of them walked out of the food court and made it back outside. Weiss looked up at the sky and saw orange start to fill the sky.
"Alright. I'm gonna head home."
"Okay, it was nice talking to you." A feeling in her chest popped up when she said this. She pressed her hand against her heart.
"Yeah, you too. Bye."
"Bye." They turned opposite directions and head home. Ruby lived on campus so she made it home pretty quickly. Weiss, on the other hand, lived further away which gave her time to think.
Jaune and Pyrrha are going out? How strange is that? You know, actually, it isn't so weird when I really think about it. They knew each other ever since freshman year started and I've never seen them not together. They get along pretty well and they're both good people. It makes sense that they are going out. What about Ruby? Does she still feel something about me? Is that even possible? She did say it was nice to talk to me today. Is that supposed to hint something? Was it just courtesy? Why can't I stop thinking about this? After a few minutes a vigorously working her brain, she finally made it home and crashed on her couch. The soft furniture immediately soothed her overworked body. Once she was finally back to normal, she stood up and walked to the shower and got in immediately.
The hot water calmed her even more as they steam filled the room. She kept her head underneath the shower head and tried to keep an open mind. Showers always made her feel better, no matter how stressed or how tired she was. She stayed in there for a good half an hour until she was completely relaxed. She quickly changed into her pajamas and jumped into bed, ready to fall asleep. It was almost as if everything she thought about didn't even come into existence.
End of Chapter 4
