Belle sat in Grannies at a booth, her bottle of beer nursed between her hands on the table, listening to Ashley and Mary-Margaret rabbiting on about their husbands. Listening to the pair of them moan made Belle jealous, as she had no one to moan about. She did not feel lonely or that she needed a partner. She wanted him. Wanted to be with him. There was so much distance between them. So much so, that Belle did not know where to start. A good place, she thought to herself, would be to know whether he felt the same. She doubted it, as he was so cold, closed off to any sort of interaction with anyone, unless it was to make a deal or were indebted to him. Apart from confronting him and spilling her heart out to him, Belle knew nothing would happen between them. Putting herself out there, again, to be hurt was the problem, as Belle knew it would crush her if he rejected her.
Gaston had been the first serious boyfriend in her life. She had shared secrets with him, told him how she would be always heartbroken about her mother and hated her father for his demons. Giving him all her intimate thoughts and herself had not been enough to satisfy him. A small part of her thought it was her fault, because she concentrated too much on her studies instead of being with him twenty-four seven.
That fateful night when it had all come to ahead, she had decided to go home early, thinking it would be a nice surprise. Only she had found him in their bed with a girl, kissing her passionately. The sight had broken Belle. She had dropped the bottle of wine she had bought on the way home from the library. When they heard the bottle smash on the wooden floor, the two had broken apart. The girl scrambled at the bed sheets to cover herself whilst Gaston jumped out of the bed and quickly retrieved his boxers from the floor to put back on. Belle had ran out of the apartment whilst he had tried to drag her back, excusing himself whilst she cried for her mother.
Sighing heavily at the memory, Belle took a long swig from her bottle, deciding to let it lie before she upset herself. She shifted in the seat of the booth, placing her bottle back onto the table, and went back to listening to Mary-Margaret and Ashley.
"It's annoying." Mary-Margaret stated, her eyebrows pressed down over her eyes. "We've had so many parents say they can't help chaperone the dance next Friday."
"I would offer, but Sean and I are out of town." Ashely said, playing with the straw in her glass.
Mary-Margaret's attention focused on Belle across the table. "Belle?"
"Yep." Belle replied as she picked at the label on her bottle.
"What about you?" She asked with Ashley and her looking at Belle.
"What about me what?" Belle questioned back, pausing with the label half peeled off the bottle.
"Help out at the school dance." Mary-Margaret informed her. "We just need some adults to keep an eye on the kids."
Belle shrugged her shoulders at her before saying. "Sure, why not? I got nothing better to do."
"Thank you, the help is much appreciated." Mary-Margaret said and smiled at Belle. As Belle successfully removed the label intact from her bottle, Ruby dropped into the seat beside Belle, her shoulder knocked into Belle's shoulder.
"Sorry about that, guys." Ruby told them whilst giving a pointed look to Granny, who was on the other side of the counter serving. "Wish I had suggested the Rabbit Hole now."
Ashley shrugged her shoulders at Ruby. "It doesn't matter. It's just nice to be able to hear what everyone's saying."
"I suppose. I just didn't fancy bumping into Doctor Whale at the Rabbit Hole." Ruby informed them, collecting her half-drunk beer from the table.
Belle rose an eyebrow and looked at Ruby beside her. "Date didn't go well then?"
"No!" Ruby snorted, shaking her head vigorously at Belle's question. They all laughed at Ruby's reaction. When Ruby had told her she had a date with Doctor Whale, Belle had conveyed her reservations about it. Nevertheless, as Ruby had told her, 'what did she have to lose?' From what Belle could tell Ruby had not lost much, but she had gained embarrassment.
"He was leering at me, the waitress, at the other women in the restaurant." Ruby counted them off on her fingers. "Either he hasn't been on many dates or he is just that horny!"
Mary-Margaret snorted and choked on her drink, holding her hand desperately to her mouth to stop herself from spitting out her drink. Ashley and Belle laughed, while Ruby sat wide-eyed with her gaze flitting between the other occupants of the diner. A loud huff came from Ruby, not finding any sympathy from her friends, as they carried on laughing. Calming themselves back down, after a venomous look from Granny, the table fell into a comfortable silence as they shared humorous looks between each other.
A small chuckle escaped as Belle spoke to Mary-Margaret. "So, what's Emma wearing to the dance?"
"Oh!" Mary-Margaret smiled proudly. "She's decided on this red dress that comes down to just above her knee. Nothing too sophisticated. It was bad enough trying to get her agree to wear a dress, seeing as she lives in jeans."
"Red's always a good colour." Ruby interjected, motioning to her own red clothes.
"You'll have to take a picture and text it to us." Ashley excitedly said to Mary-Margaret.
"I will! I'll get David to take some when Al picks her up as well. It's going to be weird and exciting, seeing my baby all grown up." Mary-Margaret surmised to them.
Belle started to peel another label off her beer. "Few more years and they'll be off to college."
"I don't want to think about it. It's bad enough that David and I spend our time listening at the bottom of the stairs, when Al and Emma are upstairs. They're kids! We shouldn't have to worry if they're doing things they shouldn't be doing." Mary-Margaret confessed to them, shaking her head at her own behaviour.
Ruby nudged Belle's shoulder and drew Belle's attention to her. "Some people say peeling labels off things is a sign of sexual frustration."
"What?" Belle moved her hand away from the bottle, the label she had been toying with her nail stuck out from the bottle.
"Sexual frustration, hey?" Ashley grinned at Belle over the table, stirring the ice round in her drink with her straw.
"No!" Belle shook her head at them and sat up straight in her seat.
"I've heard that too." Mary-Margaret said after finishing her drink.
Ruby clasped Belle's hand on the table. "We need to find you a man."
"How about Doctor Whale? As you said, he's horny." Ashley managed to say as she laughed. Belle felt the heat in her cheeks and bowed her head to try to hide it. Even while she felt embarrassed, Belle could not help the smile as her friends laughed at her. Ruby knocked her shoulder into Belle's playfully, whispering when she was close, 'don't worry about it'. Sheepishly Belle looked at Ruby through the corner of her eye, her smile widened at seeing Ruby's smile.
"Hey, how about Michael? You know the mechanic?" Mary-Margaret suggested. "He's got two kids, but he's very sweet."
"No." Belle smiled and shook her head.
"What about August, Storybrooke's resident writer?" Ruby said thoughtfully as she lifted her bottle of beer off the table and took a drink from it. Belle shook her head, rolling her eyes at their suggestions. She knew all three men, but they were not him. None of them made her skin tingle as he did when she saw him. They did not have that accent that made her toes curl when it came out thick.
"Ashley, let me out, it's my round." Mary-Margaret instructed after digging her purse out of her handbag. Scooting out of the seat, Ashley excused herself and ambled towards the back of the diner, where the toilet was. Mary-Margaret collected the empty glasses from the table and took them to the counter.
Belle finished the last of her drink as Ruby leaned in to whisper into her ear. "How about Mr Gold?"
She held her hand over her mouth, staring wide eye at Ruby beside her. The smug look Ruby wore unsettled Belle. Was she that obvious? Belle quickly looked around the diner and over the back of the seat to the empty booth behind them, checking to see if anyone had heard what Ruby had said.
"I thought so." Ruby told her and drank the rest of her beer with a smug look on her face.
Belle scooted closer to Ruby. "How?"
"It's the way your face lights up when he's mentioned." She informed her friend. "That day we were having lunch and he came in to get his order, you were drooling into your lap."
"I was not!" Belle cried at Ruby. A couple, in a couple of booths over from theirs, looked over at Belle. Ignoring them, Belle mentally told herself off and reminded herself to keep it down when she spoke again. "I did not."
"You couldn't take your eyes off him." Ruby mumbled to Belle, turning her face so only Belle could hear, when Mary-Margaret returned to the table with their drinks. She handed them out and Belle gladly took hers to gulp down several mouthfuls. Mary-Margaret slid into the seat opposite and smiled at Ashley when she returned, taking the seat in the booth beside her. Ruby titled her head and covered her face with her hand, giving Belle a knowing smile.
"Hey!" Mary-Margaret drew their attention to her whilst she dug into her handbag. "Emma was showing me this snapchat thing the other day. Have you seen it? It's so funny!"
"Isn't that when you can do different things to your face?" Ruby asked distantly, frowning at Mary-Margaret using her phone.
"Get together." Mary-Margaret motioned for Belle and Ruby to move closer. Humouring their friend, the two moved closer together with Ruby putting her arm around Belle's shoulders. Curious, Ashley moved to look over Mary-Margaret's shoulder to see the screen of the phone. The pair glanced at each other before snickering.
Ashley pointed at the screen of the phone. "Can you save that?"
"I think so." Mary-Margaret scrunched her eyebrows together.
"What're you doing?" Ruby asked leaning forward to the table, her arm around Belle brought Belle with her.
"Hang on," Mary-Margaret said and then her phone made a clicking noise. "That's a nice photo of you two." She showed them the screen of the phone, revealing the picture she had just taken. Belle smiled and nodded her head in agreement.
"Yeah, it is. Can you send that to my phone?" Ruby asked sitting back, letting Belle sit back with her.
Mary-Margaret nodded her head. "Course I can."
Belle felt more at ease as they had moved on to talk about snapchat and other similar apps. She clutched her bottle, lacing her fingers around the bottle, and restrained herself from attacking the labels of her new bottle. Knowing that Ruby knew, Belle did not know whether she was happy or not about it. The idea of sharing a secret of that nature with anyone was not easy for Belle. It was a new concept to have friends she could confide in. At school, her only friends had been characters from books and teachers. She would have to wait to see, whether Ruby would use it as a weapon against her. However, Belle had a feeling that Ruby was not like that. She may be the closest thing Belle could call a confidant or even, if she dared to call Ruby such, a best friend.