Chapter 14: The Further Corruption of a Pickford Girl
Ruby: The Beach, Sacramento: 12:47pm: 19 June

After some incessant pestering and excessive phone usage, I conned Tawny into going to the beach with me to check out girls. I wanted her to help me find a prospective girl for my endeavor, and sadly, I did not have gaydar, but she did. She wasn't very enthusiastic about the whole thing, but went a long with it anyway. When was she ever very enthusiastic about anything?

We situated ourselves far from the ocean, both of us beneath Tawny's huge umbrella. She was cloaked like a little witch again.

"So…talked to Ren?" She asked. She was attempting to be casual about it like she didn't care if I had or not, but I know she did.

"Yeah."

"What'd she say?"

"Nothing much. She's a stubborn ass like you." I paused, and then attempted to pry, "Why?"

She shrugged, "Just wondering."

"How's everyone else? When I called her house the other day, Kate was there."

"Yep."

She wanted to know more, her curiosity building quickly, "Why?"

"Ask her yourself. You didn't want much of my help before, so why now?"

"I'm helping you, aren't I? With this stupid fucking little conquest of yours." She sneered.

My eyes wandered among the people on the sand and in the surf, they stopped on a thin girl with radiant blond curls that was collecting shells in a childish manner along the shore. Perfect.

"Her," I pointed, "She's a girl I would have sex with."

Tawny followed my finger and my gaze, "Keely? Oh, my..."

"You know her?"

"Well, yes. She's staying at my house actually…" She made some contemplative noise, "What the hell is she doing here?"

I was intrigued. How did Tawny get all of the women in this manner? Tawny was a total pimp, "Where'd she come from?"

"Some little place called Pickford…in Tennessee or one of those states. She's here with some boy."

"Oh..." My hopes were crushed.

"They aren't together." She informed me, quickly.

"She up for a hot lesbian one night stand?"

"No." She answered barely letting me get out the question.

"Why so sure?"

"You don't wanna mess with her…she's crazy."

"Have you?"

"Have I what?"

"Ya know…with her." I wiggled my eye brows up and down and grinned.

"You're weird. What's with this obsession of yours?"

I shrugged, "I just want to get this out of the way before I go to college, so I don't have to bother with it while in college. Getting the experimentation done early, so I can focus on my education."

"Right."

She didn't believe me. I could tell. She rolled her eyes. She thought I was going over to the other side of the street. Had she never heard of experimentation? Gosh.

"Keely, come here." She said as soon as the little blond was in earshot.

She perked up, and walked over to us looking happy to see a familiar face. Before Tawny could introduce her, she did so herself, "Hi, I'm Keely."

"I'm Ruby, hi."

Tawny gave me the most evil look I had ever seen then said to the girl, "Ruby wants to know if you'll engage in some random lesbian sex with her just once, so she can say she's done it with a girl."

Keely looked at me blankly and tilted her head, "Sure."

"Sure!" Tawny was shocked, and turned a bit green in the face.

"I'm irresistible." I laughed.

"Whatever!" She rolled her eyes and departed from our company, muttering something about how straight people are getting more lesbian sex than she is. She walked a few feet then came back and took her umbrella without a word.

"I think it would make a great hard-hitting piece for my journalism portfolio. I could call it Gay Like Me, and I'll be a lesbian for a day." She said, seeming highly amused by the entire thought.

"Hard-hitting piece?"

"Yes. I'm going into broadcast journalism and I'm going to be the next Barbara Walters."

How amusing, "Really now? Broadcast journalism is essentially publicized gossip, and gossip is what I do best."

"So when do you want to do this?"

"How about tomorrow? I'm free."

"Sounds good. I'll get my notebooks and tape recorder together and we can meet sometime around lunch?"

"Sounds quite fabulous."

She looked around, noticing the dark-haired girl's absence, "Where'd Tawny go?"

I shrugged, "She's so moody lately…more than usual, I mean."

"She seems nice enough."

"I never said she wasn't nice."

Sitting down next to my on my blanket, she said, "I don't have anything to compare it to, I guess…since I didn't meet her until after-"

"Yeah. That." I knew what she was talking about.

"What's going on with that anyway?"

"Not much."

An epiphany came to her, "You're who she was yelling at outside yesterday!"

"Yep…that would be me."

She laughed, "So are you gay too?"

"Oh no. No. Not at all." I said quickly. I should have clarified that, "Are you?"

"Of course not. I don't believe in it."

I chuckled, "Don't believe in it like it doesn't exist?"

"Maybe."

Maybe? What the fuck? "Huh?"

"What?"

"Gay people don't exist?"

"Only psychologically."

"Do what?" I was increasingly confused.

"Oh. Nevermind." She said, swatting a small fly that landed on her knee.

Maybe she was crazy. Tawny was right. This girl was a little weird…this may have been a bad idea. Tawny usually was right about most things. I thought she was just jealous or something, but maybe she wasn't.

After a bit of awkward silence, Keely piped up again, "My friend Phil – he's who I came here with – he met some people yesterday, and he introduced me to them."

I smiled slightly, "Is there a point to this story?"

"No…not really…just making conversation."

"Because the gay people not existing conversation wasn't working out?" I brought it up again.

She ignored it, "There's Phil." She pointed, "And that girl…that's…um…"

"I'll be fucked in the ass…" I said, "It's Kate."

"You know her."

"Of course I do. Kate, Lizzie, Gordo, Miranda, and Lizzie's little brother Matt are all practically squatting at Ren's house."

"The Ren?" She asked.

"Yeah. It sure is a small fucking world here in Sacramento."

"Wow. Do they all know Tawny?"

"Of course." Then I yelled, "Kate!"

She looked up from her fingernails, which she was examining, didn't see me, and went back to her business.

I yelled again, louder, "Kate Sanders!"

Again, she looked up. She waved this time, taking note of me, and went back to her fingernails. She did a double-take, seeing Keely, who she had apparently met through Phil, Keely's friend, who was also staying at Tawny's house. Interesting. She tilted her head, leaned over and said something to Lizzie, who turned, and then she got up and started to approach. I had become rather fond of her since we met.

"You know Keely?" She asked, pointing.

"Did you know her and Phil know Tawny?"

"No…not so much…" She furrowed her brow, and seemed fascinated, "How'd that work?"

"We're staying at Tawny's house actually." Keely told her.

"Huh." She muttered.

"Is Ren here?" I asked, a new theory for Tawny's disappearance popping into my mind.

"Nah. Just me, Lizzie, Gordo, and Phil. Miranda ran off with the boys today."

"I'd like to meet her," Keely said, "See what the big deal is about her."

"To do that you'd probably have to go to her house."

There went my theory. I thought maybe Tawny had spotted Ren, and that was why she peaced out so fast. This called for a subject change. No good would come of Keely getting involved in the Tawny and Ren fiasco, "Miranda getting anywhere with Louis?"

She shrugged, "Dunno. She's trying though…wants to get some play before college."

Phil and Gordo sat down on either side of Lizzie after having romped up to their knees in the water before they ran back to the warm sand. I nodded in their direction, "Those boys are sandwiching your lady."

She looked over her shoulder, "Oh shit…the peanut butter."

"Huh?"

Kate shook her head, "Nothing. Why don't you guys relocate and join our group? You can meet Phil. He's a nice guy, on par with Gordo. Not quite as smart, but nice."

"What do you mean her lady?" Keely asked, sounding offended suddenly.

"What?" Kate and I expressed our confusion simultaneously. The girl was being weird again.

"Are you a lesbian too?"

"More or less…" Kate answered unsurely.

"You don't look like a lesbian."

"Ok?" She seemed to wait for the other blond girl to say more, but she didn't, so she went on, "I'm gonna go sit back by my…" She hesitated, and a near-evil grin crossed her face, "Girlfriend."

Keely gasped, "My gramma was right. There are a lot of gay people in California."

"Kate and Lizzie aren't even from here, hun." I squinted, not because of the sun, but because I was trying to figure out what this girl was getting at, "What's with you?"

"What do you mean?"

"Are you some kind of…"

"Some kind of what?"

"You don't like gay people!" I shouted.

Some people walking by turned, and I smiled innocently at them before turning back to her, shocked. That was why Tawny wanted me to stay away from her, she was some holier than thou, mislead, closed-minded girl.

"If I liked gay people, I'd be gay."

I shook my head firmly, "No. No. No. No. Why the hell do you wanna fuck me?"

"To see what the big deal is."

"There is no big deal, Keely."

"Why are so many people gay?" She asked, honestly.

I blinked, dumbfounded, "Lizzie and Kate haven't even fucked yet. All they do is lay around and cuddle."

"You're not gay."

"So?"

"So!" I should have listened to Tawny. This girl had some redeeming qualities, but was ultimately foreign to me. I stood up, "Get off my towel. I'm moving."

She stood, and didn't seem to understand why I was getting angry. She opened her mouth as if to say something, and I waited but no words came. She looked near tears, and I felt bad for her. She seemed an aptly capable individual, she just didn't understand, and I wondered how the hell she was getting on at Tawny's house.

I turned and joined the other group, leaving her behind, when I reached them, I said, "That girl, Keely, she agreed to have lesbian sex with me and it turns out she's a homophobic little wench."

Phil looked at me, and I couldn't read his expression.

"Sorry…" I mumbled, "I'm Ruby."

He extended his hand, "Phil Diffy."

"Nice to meet you." I plopped myself down by Gordo, and noticed that Lizzie was holding a jar of peanut butter rather protectively. It was full jar. A perfectly good jar. Lizzie had always seemed one of the more stable ones, but whatever. I'd definitely choose her and her pet jar of peanut butter over the hot, homophobic girl. Not that I would have sex with Lizzie or anything like that.

"Sorry about Keely…" Phil apologized for her, "I'm realizing now that I didn't know her as well as I thought I did…and I suppose she feels the same about me…"

"Why? What happened?"

"Yeah. You never told us." Gordo said.

"Because…well…I guess the best way to put it is that I'm a little bit gay."

Kate looked up from her nails. She had been picking the polish off of them in an obsessive-compulsive manner for a good while now, and Lizzie looked up from the peanut butter. Gordo just looked at the ocean, and Keely was nowhere around.