"Chestnuts roasting on an open fire, Jack Frost nipping at your nose…" Frank Sinatra's voice filled the house; Ruby could hear her mother singing along in the living room.
"Hi." She said wiping her boots on the welcome mat.
"Where have you been?" her mother cried. "It's been four hours! Did you buy milk?"
"I got home a while ago; I just went for a walk in the woods with my camera." Ruby explained. "And no sorry I forgot the milk."
Her mom sighed heavily. "Your father and I have talked it over, and we think you should give up the camera. For this week at least."
Ruby gasped and held it against her chest, "No."
She began running up to her room, "Just a week! We just want you to be with the family! You never spend time with us anymore!"
"Because I don't like being around you guys!" Shouted Ruby from the top of the stairs. As soon as it had escaped her lips she had regretted it, her mother's face fell and she could almost imagine how the conversation with her father would go in a few minutes.
Quickly, she ran into her room and got a shoebox from her closet. She pushed aside the pictures she had inside and put her camera in it. She then took a coat from the closet and wrapped the box in it, making it hardly camouflaged. She tucked the box under her bed carefully and made sure the bed skirts hid the box well.
There was a large knock on the door followed by her mom calling her voice softly. "Can I talk to you? Please?"
"Just-Just let me think. Give me some air." Ruby said hurriedly, she wasn't in the mood to have this discussion. "I'll be down soon." She promised.
When her mom had left, she made sure the door was locked and she opened the window. Ruby hoisted herself out of the window by using the gutter and crawled onto the roof. She sat facing the sun and kept her eyes open. She looked at the sun for a long time before finally realizing that her eyes stung. She brought her knees to her chest and hugged them tightly; she closed her eyes and opened them again. Everything looked blue.
Ruby wondered if she should continue like this; keeping her anger towards her parents bottled up insider her. She knew one day she wouldn't be able to contain it, one day she would really snap at her parents.
Shakily, she rubbed her eyes, trying to make the world return to its original shades. She took a deep breath and told herself that things were meant to be this way, she was meant to endure her parents' overbearing wishes. In the end things would work out well for her.
Ruby crawled higher and leaned against the chimney, the brick was warm, probably because there was a small fire lit in the fireplace. She closed her eyes and tried to calm down.
Even though Jack had seemed to overcome his dizziness while being around Ruby, a new problem had come up. He was seeing her everywhere.
After that morning, he had drifted off to a nearby town and brought blankets of snow with him. But right as he was about to leave, he saw a head of chocolate brown hair out of the corner of his eye. When he rushed after the person, he realized it wasn't her. Another instance was when he passed by a group of kids playing in the snow and thought he saw a familiar pair of electric blue eyes, when he looked up, no one was there.
He tried to shake it, he tried to stop thinking about her, but it felt like the smell of good rain was all he could smell, and the silhouette of her smile was all he could see.
Jack was beginning to grow angry with himself. When was a time when he was allowed to be attached to a human? And after such a short time, he had grown fond of her so easily; that the steady thought of being friends wasn't enough for him. Although he convinced himself he wasn't in love, no, love was an unmatched feeling. Jack thought he would know if he was in love, and he was not in love with Ruby. He was in like. Jack was in like with Ruby.
Happy with himself for sorting out his feelings, he decided to cover neighboring towns with snow and frost. Freezing over the ponds and lakes well, and making sure the ice was thick enough to go ice skating. Jack was somewhat neurotic about that, and coated the ice nearly eight times before seeing the thickness of the ice was four feet thick, and the water was only about two or three feet deep.
Feeling content, he decided to return to Ruby, he wanted to mock her more about how she had taken him to town. He remembered what she had said about what kids at school did to her and his stomach sunk. The way she had said it made her seem indifferent, but her eyes held a great amount of sadness and that had made Jack sad too.
When he arrived at the house, he immediately sensed something was wrong. He looked around and noticed a figure sitting on top of the roof, it was Ruby.
He flew over and landed on the roof, "What are you-"but she was asleep.
She had actually fallen asleep on the roof. This made Jack want to laugh.
He could hear her mother and father calling her from inside the house, and wondered if something had happened. Maybe they had fought?
Jack walked over and knelt down, he shook her shoulder. "Hey, wake up! Your parents are calling you."
She didn't even stir.
"Come on," he patted her cheek gently. "Ruby…" he called. Jack shook her shoulders again, and tried tickling her feet. Nothing.
"Why are you such a heavy sleeper," he whispered to himself half amused. "Well I guess there's only one thing left to do."
He put her right arm around his neck and scooped her up gently. He struggled to keep his footing, but slowly was able to descend the steep roof.
Her eyelids fluttered, but she didn't wake up. Instead, she punched him with her free hand, and then wrapped her other arm around his neck and snuggled into his chest, continuing to dream.
Jack felt his heart jump as her warm body folded against his. He could feel her heart beating softly inside her chest; it beat at a steady and calm rhythm.
When he finally got her inside, he laid her down on her bed. He had to unlatch her fingers, which were wound tightly around his neck, and when he did, she scrunched up her nose and turned away from him.
Loud knocking began, and he could hear her father's voice shouting her name. Panicking, Jack slid under the bed just in time before her father broke down the door.
"Ruby!" he bellowed.
He could feel her sit up in bed quickly, "Wh-What happened?"
"Your mother and I have been worried sick! You've been locked up in your room for five hours! We didn't know what had happened to you and you didn't answer!" he sounded nervous.
"I'm sorry." Ruby sounded genuinely frightened by her father's loud voice. "It won't happen again."
"You're damn right it won't," he walked over to her bed. "Where's your camera? I'm taking it away."
Jack could sense Ruby's fear. "I-I don't remember where I put it."
"Yeah. And I was born yesterday! Hand it over!"
She sniffled and got out of bed, Jack could see her legs shaking. She bent down and lifted the bed sheet, when she saw Jack she opened her mouth as if she were going to accuse him of something, but reached for a bundled up jacket sitting next to him instead.
"Here" He heard her say to her father.
The next thing Jack heard was silence, and then her father's footsteps leading away from the room, the door closing behind him.
Ruby got back on the bed and he wondered if she had gone back to sleep. He crawled out from under the bed and she looked at him with glassy eyes.
"Do you want me to go?" he asked her, heading for the window.
She looked down and he saw a tear fall from her eye. "Can you just lend me your shoulder for like one second?" she asked.
Confused, he approached her and sat down on the bed next to her. She reached out for him and gave him a hug. Jack's stomach did a somersault and he felt his ears getting hot, "Uh… what are you-?"
"Just shut up and don't look at me." She demanded.
Jack slowly put his arms around her and held her close, she was shaking and would occasionally let out a choked sob. She nuzzled her face into his chest and kept it there, Jack could feel her heart racing as she held on to him. He could feel his t shirt getting wet with her tears, but he could hardly notice. He didn't know how long they he had sat there, holding her, it could've been hours and he wouldn't have known, it could've been minutes and he wouldn't be able to say, all he knew that it wasn't enough time holding her.
"Are you alright?" he asked finally breaking the silence.
She pulled away from him, her eyes were bloodshot. "Yeah. Sorry about that, I just get kind of scared when my dad gets angry like that." She cast her eyes down and wiped them. "You can go now if you want."
"Are you sure you're ok?" he asked.
"I said I'm fine!" she cried softly clutching her head. "This happens a lot, I'm used to it. I'll just take a shower and go downstairs and try to act like nothing happened. I'll be fine. You should go."
"But I-"
"Sorry I made you do that, it's kind of embarrassing on my part," she sniffed. "You hardly even know me and you've already seen me cry." She gave a sad smile. "I guess I'll see you later then,"
She got up and left, he wanted to reach out and hug her again. He wanted to really make her feel better, not just let herself be convinced that she was ok. Jack wondered why she did this to herself, tortured herself, and asked himself how he could help.
As the moon rose up in the sky, he could feel it pulling him away. Jack would be back for Ruby, he would be back and this time he would make her smile again.
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