Chapter 3: Ren Is Boring, Ruby Wants To Fix Her

Ren: Ruby's house, Sacramento: 6:32pm: 8 June

Still, I wonder how I have tolerated Ruby for so long. She is my foil, my opposite, my antithesis. I give me credit for remaining friends with the girl for so many years. She was loud, almost always more chipper than any normal person should be, and when she wasn't chipper, she was horribly upset and crying. There was no happy medium. She was boy-obsessed, completely unfocused on her school work, and just barely managed to get into UCLA. On top of that, her voice was just plain annoying to me at times.

Before I had even completely opened her front door, I heard her, "Oh my God, Ren, so who all's coming to your party?"

I actually entered her house before answering, "Everyone."

"That's so cool! When is your cousin coming and is he cute?"

She was very concerned with my party, "His plane gets here late tonight, and he's definitely bringing his friends. I don't know if he's cute, I can't judge my own cousin like that, but he emailed me a picture. He's got curly hair, and he's a boy." I dropped my purse on her coffee table, and sat on the couch. "One problem with all this though, his friend Lizzie couldn't come unless she brought her little brother with her."

"How little is he?"

"Well…he isn't little, he'll be a sophomore this year."

"Ah. Not so bad. Same as Beans." Ruby sighed, "Ren, you really need this party to be cool because if it isn't, you will definitely leave here with a horrible reputation."

"What?"

"Listen," She walked over and sat down on the table in front of me and took my hands, "You are really dull. Your parties always suck. Everyone knows this, but no one wants to tell you. I'm telling you as a friend, your parties suck. Every year, your birthday party sucks."

"I have fun." I protested in defense. I had no idea my parties were that bad. I knew they weren't like normal parties really, but they didn't suck.

"But no one else does because your sense of fun seems to differ from everyone else's."

"I'm sure some other people have fun like-"

"No. Your parties are lame. We play dorky games and eat candy exactly like we have since you were little."

"Ruby." I said firmly, and shook my head.

"I know what you're going to say, Ren. I don't mean that everyone needs to get wasted, and have sex to have fun, but we need more than Twister and-"

I pulled away from her and crossed my arms, "I'm having a beach party this year. We won't play Twister."

She shook her head sadly, and sighed, "Just leave it to me."

"I don't trust you." I said to her flatly. "I can't leave you in charge of anything. Remember that time in-"

"Try to. Please. I can do parties. The first thing I need to do is fix you."

"Fix me?" I was a little concerned. Ok, so a lot concerned actually.

"You're boring. You have potential physically, but you don't maximize it, and you are boring. You have the personality of a head of lettuce. I can fix both."

"But-" I wasn't that boring. Tawny didn't mind me. We talked a lot about all kinds of things.

Standing up she said, "No buts, Ren. We're going shopping."

"Now?"

She nodded, affirmatively, "To the mall!" She grabbed my arm, and I managed to snatch my purse off of her table before we were out her door and she said, "We'll be done by 9."

I groaned, and got into the passenger's seat of her Honda Accord. I felt obligated to let her do this to me, finally, after all of these years. I'd gone shopping with her before, but never purchased anything she advised me to, and I continued to dress in a plain manner. Not as plain as Tawny, but plain, yet preppy. I wasn't trying to impress anyone. I was focused on my academics. It was summer, there were no academics, and I was about to leave for college. There was no harm in this. I kept telling myself that, over and over. It was about a ten minute drive to the mall, and I sat in silence, visualizing the possibly horrible results of this experiment with Ruby.

We entered her favorite store, and stopped when right inside. She stood in front of me and placed her hands on my shoulders, "I will help you pick out an ensemble for the day of your party, but how you dress for the rest of your life is up to you. Afterward, we will go eat."

I sighed, "Ruby-"

"No. I will be the boss for once. Follow me."

I did as she commanded, and for the next hour I was forced to try on skirts, and tops because she insisted on a skirt.

"It's not that you aren't pretty normally, Ren," Ruby told me as she went to the counter with a pleated khaki skirt and white halter top she'd picked out for me, "It's just that you could be prettier."

"Ruby-"

"Nope. Hush. Next we'll find you a new bathing suit."

"What's wrong with mine?" I asked, and took out my wallet because she was making me pay for this.

"It's just boring. You need something brighter that goes with your skin tone."

I hung my head, and handed over the cash for my new outfit. Then let her drag me to another store. She snatched random bikinis off of racks, and held them up to my arm, then finally settled on one that was hot pink and white. It was cute, I'd give her that. I didn't mind hot pink.

"Isn't it a little too flashy?" I asked before I paid again.

"No such thing as too flashy." She turned to look at sunglasses, "It's your party. You want people to notice you."

I usually wanted people to notice me for my grades and my intelligence, not my clothes or body or anything. I sighed and handed over some more cash, reluctantly, "Let's go eat so I can get home to meet Gordo. I'll bring him over tomorrow, so you can meet him and his friends."

She began to laugh, and I knew it was at his name. She always laughed when I said his name. I figured she'd attempt to hook up with him, but I don't know how she'd manage if she always laughed at the thought of his name. I wondered about her sometimes. Well, most of the time, really.