Chapter 6

Anyone want some dessert?

Well, needless to say, dinner was uneventful with all of the awkward silence between Ruthie and Peter and Peter and Martin. Annie and Eric talked mostly with Kevin and Lucy and Mr. Brewer. Ruthie sat and tried not to stare at Martin so that things wouldn't get worse between her and Peter. But, she did need to talk to Peter about some things. She really didn't like how Peter got so angry. She wasn't really hungry and turned to her mom and asked to be excused.

"Well, I guess. But, would you mind bringing in the dessert? Anyone want some dessert?" Annie said looking around the table.

Ruthie got up and went to the kitchen and Lucy followed.

"You okay?" Lucy asked.

"No", Ruthie started, "how can this be happening. Peter is so mad and angry at Martin when all we did was go for a walk. Why does he get like this?"

"What do you mean, get like this. Doesn't he know that you and Martin are just friends?" Lucy asked.

"Well, apparently, he thinks that I'm going to cheat on him or something of that nature. I guess I'm not allowed to have guy friends." Ruthie said getting a little frustrated.

"Well, he'll have to get over that. I mean, you and Martin are going to remain friends. He lived in this house when his father was off in war and you two were best friends for that whole time. Peter has to know that you wouldn't hurt him." Lucy said.

"You would think that, uh?" Ruthie said grabbing the pineapple upside-down cake from the fridge.

"I'll bring that in, why don't you go check on the dogs next door and take your time. You look like you could use a break away." Lucy said with a knowing big-sister smile.

"Thanks Luce." Ruthie said as she quietly snuck out.

Lucy brought in the cake and put it down on the table and grabbed some saucers and Annie looked up at her with a look of 'where's Ruthie'. Lucy whispered, "It's okay. She's next door."

Annie smiled and started serving the dessert all around. Eric went into the kitchen to get some coffee and milk to go with the cake.

"Where's Ruthie?" Peter asked Eric in the kitchen.

"Um, I don't know. I thought that she was here. Perhaps she went outside for a minute." Eric answered.

"Well, I need to go talk to her." Peter said.

"Why don't you give her some room, Peter? She'll be fine and she'll come find you when she needs to talk. Okay." Eric said.

"You don't understand Mr. Camden; I need to talk to Ruthie." Peter insisted.

"I think I do understand, let's go eat some dessert, then when Ruthie comes back, you two can talk." Eric said.

"No Mr. Camden! I need to talk to Ruthie now!" Peter said as he walked out the kitchen door almost slamming the door behind him.

Eric had never seen this side of Peter before and he was frightened for Ruthie for the first time since she had started dated Peter.

Eric walked into the dinning room and motioned for Kevin. Kevin got up and excused himself. Martin couldn't help but notice the since of urgency from the Reverend and hoped that everything was okay. Neither could Lucy, Annie, and Mr. Brewer for that matter.

Kevin and Eric walked into the kitchen and Kevin said, "what's wrong, Dad?"

"I don't know yet. But, Peter just left really upset to go and find Ruthie. Do you know where she is?" Eric asked.

"No, but, I think that Lucy does. Hold on a second." Kevin said.

Kevin walked back into the dinning room and apologized for the interruption and asked for Lucy to come into the kitchen. This time, Annie got up and went with Lucy to the kitchen. She was just as concerned now.

"What's wrong?" Annie said before anyone could say anything.

"Where's Ruthie?" Eric said.

"She's at our house checking on the dogs, why?" Lucy said.

"Kevin, go check on her, everyone else, let's go back and sit down. It's okay." Eric said.

"No, everything is not okay, what's going on Eric?" Annie asked.

"It's Peter. He left really upset and I was worried about Ruthie, that's all." Eric said.

Annie and Eric watched as Kevin left the house and looked at one another.

"You don't think that he would hurt her, do you?" Annie said worried.

"No. Not at all. Peter is just really upset right now and I don't think he knows how to deal with his emotions right now. I don't want him to scream or yell at Ruthie. That's all." Eric said.

Kevin walked outside and saw Peter pacing the yard. This made Kevin feel better somewhat.

"Peter, come sit down, let's talk" Kevin said walking over to the bench.

"No, I don't want to talk to you, or anyone else other than Ruthie!" Peter said.

"Why are you so angry right now?" Kevin said sitting down hoping that Peter would follow his lead.

"I don't know. I just feel so mad. I can't believe that she acts like this is no big deal." Peter said calming down.

"It's not a big deal, Peter." Kevin said.

"Really? Did Lucy ever go walking with a guy while you two were dating and she was gone for an hour and that guy so happened to be a guy who she was in love with for years with?" Peter said sarcastically.

"No. I know that situation is tough, but, you are making this a lot hardier on yourself than it has to be. You are acting like they did something on that walk when all they did was just that. Walk." Kevin said.

"How do you know that they didn't do anything on that walk?" Peter said.

"Because, I would never do anything to hurt you like that." Ruthie said as she walked back into the yard from Kevin and Lucy's house.

"Well, why do you want to be his friend?" Peter asked. "He hasn't been a part of your life for years and now you want to be his friend again. You act like nothing happened. Well, something did happen while he was away, you got a boyfriend. ME!" Peter said.

"Don't yell at me." Ruthie said calmly.

"Peter, there's no need to yell at anyone." Kevin said standing up.

"Shut up Kinkirk!" Peter said and then instantly regretting it.

Kevin tilted his head to one side and didn't say anything. He knew that Peter didn't mean it, but, he wanted Peter to calm down. "I think it's best if you leave now."

"Yes, I think it's best too." Ruthie said standing behind Kevin.

"Ruthie, this is not the last you'll hear from me. I will not let you go. You belong to me!" said Peter in one final straw.

Ruthie stepped from behind Kevin and said, "Peter, it's over." She was calm when she said it but she was very hurt. She had never been treated like this before and she didn't want to be treated like this ever again by him.

Peter felt a rage inside of him; he knew that he was upset and that he shouldn't have said those things to Ruthie. But, he was angry. Not at her, at Martin. Martin is the one who he wanted to yell at. Not her. He didn't know what to do.

"Ruthie, it can't be over." Peter said walking towards her.

Ruthie got back behind Kevin and said, "Go home Peter."

"NO! It's not over Ruthie!" Peter yelled. This time, everyone inside of the Camden household heard. Annie and Lucy went to the kitchen and saw Eric standing at the window.

"What's going on out there Eric?" Annie asked as she ran over to the window too.

"Ruthie and Peter are fighting and Ruthie is breaking up with Peter." Eric said.

Back outside…

"Yes, you have changed. You have changed into this person in one day. I feel like you can't trust me at all. Why should I be with someone who doesn't trust me?" Ruthie said with tears streaming down her face.

"I do trust you, well, I trust you when he's not around." Peter said.

"Who, Martin? All we did was walk." Ruthie said.

"Whatever, I know how he feels about you." Peter said.

"You have really hurt me Peter. I don't want to see you," Ruthie said.

"Well, when you don't have your bodyguard standing by, we can talk privately and work this out." Peter said looking at Kevin.

"There's nothing that you can say to fix this." Ruthie said.

"I'll see you tomorrow Ruthie. I'll come by and pick you up for school and we can talk then." Peter said.

"No. I don't think so." Ruthie said walking up to Peter. She wanted him to understand completely 100 percentthat it was over.

"It's over." Ruthie said quietly to him.

"No, we can fix this." Peter said as a tear streamed down his face now.

Ruthie didn't want to fix it. She saw a different side to Peter tonight and that was an ugly, jealous side. She never wanted to see that side again.

Ruthie turned away and walked towards the house and Peter made one final ditch effort and grabbedher arm. She jerked awayin doing so he grabbed the other arm and then had both arms. She tried to get away but couldn't.

She had tears in her eyes and looked at Peter and screamed, "Let me go! Let me go!"

Before Peter had time to blink, Kevin had stepped in and pulled Ruthie away from Peter as Eric, Annie, Lucy all ran outside.

Peter was instantly ashamed and didn't mean to hurt her in anyway.

"She just wouldn't listen to me." Peter said trying to explain.

"Go home Peter, now!" Kevin said strictly as he held Ruthie to him.

Peter did not want to cross Kevin. Kevin was in cop mode and Peter knew that it was best for him to go home now. He tried to apologize to Ruthie who was now crying into Kevin's chest.

Peter slowly walked away and got in his car and headed down the street.

"Ruthie! Are you okay?" Annie said running over to her daughter.

"No, mom. I'm not." Ruthie said through tears.

Lucy ran over to Kevin who seemed to be in shock.

"Kevin, you okay?" Lucy said.

"I haven't been a cop for so long, I feel like I should have stopped that before it got out of hand. But, I also thought that they should work it out some and it just didn't go the way I thought it would. Peter was so angry and so jealous. I never knew he got so upset before. I worry that he has done this before." Kevin said watching Annie and Eric bring Ruthie inside.

Lucy gave Kevin a hug and said, "You did great. You were here to stop it before it got carried away."

Martin came outside to see what all the commotion was about. He walked over to Kevin and Lucy and said, "Why was Ruthie so upset?"

"It was Peter, they had a big fight" Lucy said.

"But, why was Annie asking if her arms hurt? Did he touch her?" Martin said getting mad.

"Martin, it's okay. He's gone." Kevin said.

"Did he hurt her?" Martin said looking at Lucy.

Lucy couldn't help it but nodded. Martin was furious. He looked out towards the garage and saw Peter's car was already gone. He was somewhat glad because he might have had to have words with him if he was still there.

Martin looked towards the house and wanted to go and comfort Ruthie but, didn't feel like it was the right thing to do just yet. He sat down on the bench outside and wondered how he was going to go to that high school the next day without telling Peter who he could lay his hands on.

Stay tuned…