"Music is the only thing that makes life worth living, whether people realize it or not. And people themselves are music."
"I guess that makes people something that makes life worth living, yeah?" Ruby turned her head slightly in anticipation of a response.
"They do. They most assuredly do. The whole of everything is music. It's like a crown mankind was given to wear so they could feel.. something."
"They?"
"We. Using 'they' probably made me sound a little alien. It's strange, but I feel like I could say I'm not from here. The dismissal of the possibility of other intelligent life out in the universe is an asinine and futile endeavor, but that's neither here nor there. Though, as a cosmic microbe, I'm certain I was a sneeze from God about 'insert an exorbitantly large and scientifically notated number of light years' that way," she finished pointing to a distant cosmos.
"If you're certain." Ruby giggled.
"Fairly," she replied with the conviction of her soul.
"I've never heard you talk so much Weiss. But that's not a bad thing! It helps me get to know you better. You're interesting, and funny too!"
"Interesting, maybe. Funny? Har-har-hardly." Ruby belly laughed after her dry delivery and soon enough she found herself laughing as well.
"Seriously though!" Ruby said at the tail end of their laughter with a playful nudge of her elbow.
"If you say so." An all too familiar and comfortable silence fell over them as their laughs receded into the quiet of the night. The seconds of silence passed as minutes, as hours, and as those warped seconds ticked by, she felt nearly compelled to speak. To quell this compulsion, she began to gently and rhythmically knock her head against Ruby's. They were laying, heads nearly touching already and hair loosely lacing, on a blanket on the small patch of grass behind her and Winter's condo. Stargazing was the theme for tonight. The previous night's theme was a live concert marathon that consisted of watching ART-SCHOOL's Sleep Flowers and Radiohead's Live at the Astoria, amongst others. The night prior to that's theme was music documentaries, AfroPunk and The Devil and Daniel Johnston. Music, music, conversation, laughter, music, and.. stars. It was enjoyable.
"You're kiilin' my brain cells with that waltz, smalls," Ruby quipped, but Weiss noticed she made no attempt to move her head. Winter departed back to base Monday morning, but only after she made her promise to call her at least once a day, and not before locking the glass cabinet she kept her liquors in. Upon seeing it, Ruby asked if there was a child in the house, to which she replied that she was the child. She thought she was prepared for Winter's departure back to base after the mentally taxing and arduous weekend, but the hours that followed proved to be strangely hollow, yet suffocating. She felt alone in a labyrinth of solitude with multitudes of her thoughts. Before that vacancy could consume her, she chose to call on the one person she felt she could. This one person she wouldn't have to stand. This one person's company she actually found she enjoyed thoroughly despite their brief knowing of each other.
"It's not a waltz. I'm lightly battering you in six-eight." This one person was right beside her looking at the stars while the count of her brain cells continued to drop. Or so she claimed.
"Is there a difference?" She laughed lightly and left Ruby's question unanswered as she ceased her metronome and rested her head against Ruby's. While all of her invitations had been excitedly accepted, each night Ruby eventually retired back to her own home. The remainder of Weiss' nights after Ruby's departure were spent more or less wide awake and at her desk drawing various things in attempts to occupy or empty her mind and devour the time before she could casually invite Ruby over again. Tonight, however, she extended an invite to Ruby to sleep over and 'stargaze'. Tonight she wouldn't have to feel like a prisoner to the slow passage of time, her chains the extreme wakefulness and energy that bound her to the clock, her torture the inhuman speed at which her mind traveled.
"Can I ask a favor of you?" She was suddenly anxious. Her mind was knocking about all over itself, but this was one thing she could rid it of. It also fed her strange compulsion to speak.
"Sure, pal." Ruby's reply came quickly, but honestly.
"I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow and was wondering if you would maybe accompany me?"
"So formal," Ruby mused with a slight chuckle. "A doctor's appointment? For what, are you okay?" Her inquiry was lightly dyed in concern, but was far from overbearing and invasive. It was.. pleasant, in truth.
"I am. Well, that is largely debatable it seems, but yes, I am healthy. The appointment is for my eye." She finished with a small gesture to the left side of her face that was home to the raised, pink scar and the stormy eye. Nervous. Extremely nervous, yet she didn't want to go alone.
"I see. I don't mind at all Weiss."
"Thank you. I just have a lot of anxiety about it and my sister had to return to base. I'd just rather not go alone."
"What are friends for?" Ruby turned her head enough to look her in the eye and offer her a smile so genuine that it reached and reflected in her eyes. She turned her head back and silence swept over them briefly before Ruby spoke again. " Do you mind if I ask what happened? To your eye?"
"I.. ." That was a story she didn't necessarily want to tell right now or ever again. How does one tell another their brother essentially maimed them with a mirror? Even more so, how does one tell another that the reason their brother did that was because they violated his privacy and made a mockery and ammunition out of what they found? It was the worst of many terrible times. Hurt, hurt, pain, and more hurt.
'Seems I'll be entertaining a brother-in-law in the future. I'm sure father will love him.'
"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to. No pressure." Weiss realized that she had been very silent for a period of time closing in on abnormal.
"No," she said hurriedly. "It's just, I'd rather not go into much detail, but.. when I was sixteen, I sustained an injury to my left eye. I've had several surgeries over the years, some with complications. Add a traumatic cataract, and the result is me waiting to see if the sight in my left eye can be salvaged.
"Man," Ruby started, seemingly almost at a loss for words. "I'm sorry to hear that Weiss. I can't even imagine what that must be like." Such pure sincerity.
"It's fine." That was a lie. "I've bee dealing with this for a while and never really expected that much could be done." In truth, it terrified her completely, the thought of losing vision in her left eye. She was already suffering the progression of her continued vision loss. She was painfully made to be the first-person observer of her vision growing alarmingly more mismatched and disparate. It affected her spatial awareness even. She had run into things in her blind spot, hit her head on an open cabinet above the sink, and would reach and miss things like the refrigerator handle or doorknobs. The only thing that seemed unmarred was her ability to draw. She couldn't fathom what this would mean for her in the not-so-distant future. It terrified her.
"Still, I can't imagine how scary it must be," Ruby said.
"It.. is terrifying, actually." Something about Ruby had always struck her as strangely intuitive and keen. She had never been one to open much of herself up, but Ruby seemed to elicit a want of such things from her. Her acknowledgement of the potential fright in the situation made Weiss want to not be alone in her terror. It endlessly made her want to bare herself when not being alright seemed as though it could be understood. Ruby elicited that from her and gave her a skeleton key to open that door for others if she chose to.
"It's okay to be afraid. As your friend, I don't want you to be scared and alone tomorrow." Before she could express her gratitude, a hand came to hold hers, causing her to start a little and her heart to race.
"I appreciate that.." She was at a behavioral loss. The only thing that seemed remotely right to do was to curl her fingers around those that held hers.
"What time is your appointment tomorrow?" Ruby was nonchalant.
"Ten in the morning.." Her heart continued to pulse rapidly.
"It's three a.m. now," Ruby imparted after a check of her phone. "Should we get some sleep?"
"I suppose.. "
"Let's go then!" Ruby broke contact and hopped up before offering her hand again.
"Alright." She accepted Ruby's hand up. The touch lingered for a moment before they both separated their hands. "My room is this way." She motioned inside as she entered through the back door and bared right toward the hallway. Once at the end, she opened the door to the left and led the way in.
"Woah," Ruby exclaimed softly once she entered. The room was covered with many drawings, buildings, cityscapes, and other miscellany, clothespinned to lines of string lights and hemp string sewn about the walls and overhead. "Did you draw all of these?"
"I did. I spend most of my time sketching things."
"You call these sketches?" Ruby asked incredulously as she continued to spin and survey the room.
"I guess they are rather elaborate.. I don't go so far as to consider myself an artist though."
"Seriously.. " Ruby mused as she continued to marvel at the many monochrome works of art that hung about.
"You can take half of my bed if you want. It's big enough for the both of us, unless you're opposed."
"No, this is fine," Ruby confirmed as she finally pulled her eyes from the room and went to sit and then curl up on the bed. She yawned sleepily as she drew her sweatpanted legs under the covers.
"Take the far side if you don't mind," Weiss said as she sat at her desk. "I'm going to put the finishing touches on a sketch before I sleep and it would be easier if I didn't need to climb over you."
"Can do," Ruby said lazily as she scooted closer to the wall. "Don't stay up too late though. You should get some sleep too."
"I will." She wouldn't, but she wasn't feeling particularly tired per the trend that had established itself over the past few day. She saw Ruby had closed her eyes and was either lightly dozing or already asleep. She selfishly wished she wasn't for a moment, her desire for continued conversation almost overwhelming her, but she was content with not being alone in the house with just her thoughts and the passage of time.
…..
Author's Notes:
Please look forward to more and enjoy, Ivel.