Chapter 9: Ruby's
Intervention!
Ruby: Mendels' House,
kitchen, Sacramento: 1:18pm: 18 June
As I sat at the kitchen table fiddling with some burnt toast that I had made myself for a late breakfast because there was no other food in my house, I thought about the Ren and Tawny situation. It was, in fact, somewhat my fault, and I felt terrible. I certainly couldn't go back in time and change it, so I had to fix it somehow now. First though, I needed more information. I couldn't get anything out of Ren, so Tawny was my current target.
I tossed my toast into the trash and grabbed my keys then I was on my way. I doubted my ability to get Tawny to talk to me, and it would definitely be hard to get her to concede to the fact that any idea in her head was wrong. The latter would be next to impossible, but I had to try! I couldn't handle this rift between the two of them. It was spoiling my fun as well.
Tawny's car was parked beside her house, as always. She walked everywhere. She only drove when absolutely necessary so to protect the ozone layer or whatever…environmental mumbo-jumbo. It made it difficult to tell if she were home. I assumed she was though because she hadn't left her house in days, due to her sulking.
I made my way carefully to the door, trying not to slip on the damp stepping stones. At least it wasn't raining anymore, and that was a plus. I rang the doorbell and waited. While I waited, I tried to look through the frosted glass on the door, but to no avail. I rang the bell again then tried to see into the windows, but the curtains were pulled shut, so I couldn't see anything.
"Tawny!" I yelled. I listened carefully and heard some movement from inside.
The door opened a few inches and I saw one of Tawny's blue eyes in the shadow, "What?"
"I want to talk to you."
"Is Ren with you?"
"Nope. Just me."
"You can't come in." She snapped, "I'll come outside."
That was weird, but I said, "Ok."
She squeezed out of the door, and shut it quickly then crossed her arms and waited for me to say something.
"What happened?" I asked.
"When?" She asked, the tone of her voice more angry than usual.
"With you and Ren…you know what I mean."
"Why?"
I glared at her, "I'm the one that came here to ask you questions. You can't be mad at me."
"Maybe I am."
"Oh my God, you're being so childish!" She said nothing to defend herself to my surprise, "You're usually the sane one out of the bunch of us. I'm sorry. I know this was my fault, but-"
"No. You helped me to realize something that I was better off realizing sooner than later."
"What? You're in love with Ren? So what?"
"So what?" She thought I failed to grasp the implications of her feelings.
"And that means you can't be friends? She should be the one that doesn't want to be friends with you because of your girl-crush."
She rolled her eyes, "You don't get it."
"You're being dumb."
"I'm not."
This wasn't working at all, "Alright. Fine. Don't talk to me. I wanted to try and fix whatever happened, but you're being a pain in the ass."
"You can't fix it."
"You won't let me try."
"Because it's pointless, and you shouldn't waste your time."
"Why?" I asked. I knew she had to break down sooner or later, or just go back in the house and lock the door.
"Because you can't fix it." She said between her teeth, "Unless…unless you fucking make her love me back or…"
"I can't do that."
"I know and that's why it's pointless, you stupid ass!"
Ouch. "Ok…now there's no reason for name calling."
"Can you make me stop being in love with her then!"
"No. I don't see why you're in love with her anyway, she's boring and plain." Before she could say anything else I continued, "Why can't you just be friends, Tawny! Is that not enough for you!"
She shook her head, and looked down, "I can't be just friends with her…"
"You did it for years."
"But it was different."
"Why?"
"God, Ruby! Will you just go home and leave me alone, this isn't your problem."
"Yes it is my problem! You're my friends!"
She didn't respond, and just kept looking down. She was being a whiney little bitch and it was way out of character for her. She wasn't taking this well, and it was a decision she had made.
"Look…you're usually the one that solves our problems-"
"I'm trying to solve my own."
"Well, you're doing it really stupidly."
"I can't stop liking her if we're still friends, and I can't be friends with her as long as I still like her because it'll just make me miserable."
"More miserable than you are now? You seem a hell of a lot more unhappy now than you were when you were friends her with pretending you weren't in love with her."
She said nothing.
"C'mon Tawny. Ren doesn't care that you like her."
She still said nothing.
I put my hands on either side of her face and forced her to look at me, which pushing her cheeks together and forcing her to make a fish-face. I shook her head around a little bit, and said, "Tawny Dean, you are being really, really stupid."
"No, I'm not." She mumbled through her puckered lips.
Her eyes narrowed, and I shook her head some more, "Seriously. Stupid. You."
"What's stupid is you having a hold of my face. If you don't let go, I'll rip your arms off."
"Fine." I let her go, "On an unrelated note, I want you to introduce me to some of your lesbian friends?"
She looked at me like I was a moron, "Why?"
"Because I want to have sex with a girl."
"What?" She was taken aback, not that I didn't think she wouldn't be.
"I want to have sex with a girl."
"What the hell for?"
I shrugged, "I figure I might as well try it."
"You're insane."
"What? Why?"
"You don't just have sex with people."
"Why not? I just want someone who'll teach me a few things about the lesbian sex or whatever."
"Read a book, Ruby."
I laughed, "Read? Are you kidding? I don't read."
"Clearly."
"So do you have a really hot ex-girlfriend you're on good terms with that would do you a favor?"
"Having sex with you is not a favor."
I decided to just throw this out there, "What about you?"
She looked at me with completely seriousness, "You flipped shit when I tried to kiss you."
"Yes, but I thought about it, and really…I'm comfortable with my sexuality, I just want to try it."
"You wouldn't want to try it if you were comfortable with your sexuality."
I shrugged my shoulders, "If you don't want to help me I'll find my own lesbian to have sex with."
"Would you like it if a boy had sex with you just to see what it was like to have sex with you?"
"I don't care, as long as the appropriate protection is involved."
"Are you serious?" She seemed completely shocked.
"Sure."
"You really are completely insane." She paused, "Don't you think sex should be about love and-"
I thought for a moment, "Well…not entirely…not these days."
"So you want me to just call up some friends of mine and say something along the lines of: Oh, you know my friend Ruby Mendel, she wants to have a lesbian one-night stand, are you interested?"
"Not just some of your friends. They have to be hot."
"Hot?"
"Yeah…you know…hot."
"Who is a hot girl to you?"
I thought for a bit again, "Not Ren. She's too plain. Not you. I don't know."
She rolled her eyes, "So personality doesn't matter at all to you?"
"Not for this, no. I'm not a lesbian, I don't want any attachments."
"Yeah, so I'm going to go inside now, and I'm going to lock the door, and you need to go get some sleep or something because you're dumber than usual today." She started backing for the door, "If you'd like to come back and talk to my dad about your mental problems, I'm sure he would get a kick out of it."
"You're dumb too…throwing away a friendship like you're doing. What does you dad think about that?"
Tawny gave me the finger rather forcefully before slipping back inside her house and locking the door like she said. I wasn't crazy. She was a silly little idealist, and not as much of a realist as she had us all believing for so long.
I yelled, "If you stay inside all the time you're going to get more pale than you already are!"
I'm not sure what the point of my yelling was. I suppose I was just making sure I got the last word. I had considered her extended middle finger as saying a few things. She was certainly being a little Miss Grumpypants.
Now it was off to try and get something out of Ren again. Eventually I would get my intervention underway appropriately, and I would save the day.
While I was walking to my car, Tawny poked her head out of a window and screamed, "Your accent is annoying, and I'd hate to think what you sound like in bed!"
