"You can't patch a wounded soul with a Band-Aid."
― Michael Connelly, The Black Echo
Chapter 3-
The next three hours until half five that afternoon the two women were in the sea surfing, while Neo didn't stay standing on the board for long before losing her balance but Neo was still able to catch a wave and stay on the board unless she tried standing.
When the session had ended the two women went their separate ways as Neo went back to her hotel while Ruby met up with her friends.
When Neo took the short walk to her hotel she found her parents outside sitting at the small restaurant attached to the hotel talking with each other.
Neo went up to them with a smile and stood next to them, "Hey mom and dad." Neo said happily.
"Hello Neo, how was your day?" Her mother, Glynda Goodwitch was a tall blonde woman who was stern but cared very much for her daughter.
"It started off bad but it got a lot better, I made a friend who helped me out a lot today." Neo said happily.
"That's great, what's your new friend's name?" Her father, Ozpin Goodwitch who was a tall man with a cane and grey hair, asked.
"Ruby, she's a brilliant surfer and really helped me out today." Neo said happily.
"That's wonderful, what do you plan on doing for the rest of the day?" Her mother asked.
"Well I'm going to have a shower and get changed but well Ruby invited me out with her friends tonight for dinner, I was hoping that I could go?" Neo asked, looking away unsure at what her parents would say as she never really went out with friends before.
Her parents were quiet for a minute as they took in the request before her father spoke up, "You're eighteen so I don't think you really need ask permission, but of course you can. I'm assuming it's in the town?" He asked.
"Yeah it's at the big restaurant, Red Barn. The plan is to meet at eight to get dinner and some of her friends are playing there tonight." Neo informed them.
"Well we don't mind, do you need any money?" Her mother asked.
"Ah I'm alright, I've got enough thank you." Neo said, having saved up more than enough money for the holiday when she learnt about it a couple months ago. "I'm going to go up and get ready, bye." Neo said as she gave her parents a small wave before going up to her room.
Once inside her small, single room Neo undressed and started the shower to wash away the sea salt over her body and in her hair.
Neo spent half an hour in the shower washing away the sea from her body, finishing up she wrapped a towel around her body and a second one around her hair as she sat down on her bed and turned the TV on.
While there wasn't a large range of channels Neo just turned on the news as she went about drying her body and hair.
Once she had finished drying her body she pulled on some underwear and a bra before looking at the clothes she brought with her, deciding what she wanted to wear.
Wanting to keep it simple Neo just pulled on a pair of shorts and a tight fitting t-shirt, unconsciously hoping that the outfit would maybe catch Ruby's eyes.
Seeing that she still had over an hour before she was supposed to meet up with Ruby and her friends she spent that time watching TV while laying down on the bed, wanting to rest her aching body.
Neo awoke with a start as she realised she had fallen asleep, searching around for the time she checked her phone to discover it was ten to eight.
Seeing that she didn't have long before she needed to go out, she quickly pulled on a pair of shoes and grabbed one of her zipped hoodies in case it got cold.
Walking out of the hotel she made her way towards the restaurant that Ruby had told her about, walking inside she started to look around until she heard her name being over to see a large booth in the corner where Ruby was waving to her with a smile. Walking over to the booth, Ruby was sitting on the end and stood up to let Neo slid into the booth.
"Hey Neo, glad you could make it." Ruby stated.
"Thanks for inviting me." Neo said as she looked around, shrinking back slightly at seeing all the focus being put on her.
"Ah where are my manners I haven't introduced everyone. You already know Blake and Yang." Ruby stated as the two aforementioned women raised their hands in welcome.
"Next to Yang is Coco and Velvet, the other two out with us today." Ruby said as one woman wearing sunglasses and a hat but hints of brown hair were showing through, while a girl with long brown hair was leaning on her shoulder. Both women gave a small wave before turning back to look at the menu.
"The other blonde one is Jaune, next to him is Pyrrha the tall redhead, the one with the shorter hair is Nora and then the guy with the pink strip is Ren and they are the band playing later. Everyone this is Neo." Ruby said as she introduced them all.
"Um hello." Neo said softly giving a small wave as she made herself smaller, not used to being around so many people.
It was Pyrrha who spoke up when they all saw what Neo was doing, "It's alright Neo, and we don't bite so you don't need to worry about anything." Pyrrha said offering the girl some comfort.
Neo nodded her head and sat up but was finding it hard to relax.
"Anyway, here's a menu take a pick on what you want and write it down." Ruby said with a smile as she handed Neo a menu and put a piece of paper and pen in the middle of the table.
Neo took the menu and started to look over the options she had before writing down what she wanted alongside her drink.
It didn't take long for everyone to write down what they want, taking the piece of paper Ruby went up to the counter to order the food for everyone leaving Neo alone with everyone else.
Not sure what to do Neo looked down at the table while she played with her hands until someone asked a question to her.
"So Neo, what do you do?" Velvet asked softly.
"Well I was in school until this year but I'm not really sure what I'm going to do, I might go to college but I don't know." Neo stated.
"How old are you?" Coco asked.
"Eighteen." Neo stated.
The two women just nodded their heads in response before Neo asked, "What about all of you?" Neo asked.
"All of us what?" Jaune asked.
"How old are all of you?" Neo asked again.
Yang answered for them all, "Blakey and I are twenty three, Vels, Jaune, Ren, Nora and Pyrrha are all twenty while Coco is twenty one. Oh and Rubes is twenty as well." Yang answered, telling her everyone's age.
Neo nodded her head slowly as she realised she was the youngest in the group and she suddenly felt that much smaller.
"Don't worry about being the youngest, we don't really care too much about age as in the sea it doesn't really matter, just the ability and attitude really." Yang said with a smile.
"Well I'm not that good at surfing." Neo mumbled but they all heard what she had said.
"She meant in the sense that as long as you have fun and aren't being an ass to other people, she didn't mean being good at surfing but just your ability to keep going and have fun. Plus from what Ruby has told us you've been really getting the hang of it all." Blake told her, smiling at the younger girl.
"Oh." Neo said as she blushed.
"So what are you interested in studying?" Blake asked as the group started to talk amongst themselves.
"Again, I'm not sure but things like psychology and things like geography and geology but I'm not sure what I want to specialise in." Neo said, getting slightly used to talking with the older women.
After talking for a few minutes with the other woman Ruby had returned holding a tray of drinks, balancing it on one hand Ruby started to hand out drinks.
Most of the group had just ordered beer while Ruby, Neo and Blake had all ordered something different.
Blake had ordered tea which Ruby happily gave her while Neo had just ordered a coke, the same as Ruby but she had the coke mixed with Jack Daniels.
Sitting back down next to Neo, Ruby smiled at Neo saying, "So what have you been talking about?" She asked.
"Just getting to know each other a little." Neo told her.
Ruby's smile kept up saying, "Well that's good then, foods all ordered and it's not overly busy so shouldn't take too long." Ruby said.
As they all waited for their food they began to talk about themselves a little bit allowing Neo to learn about all of them.
She learnt that all of them were surfers of varying skills, with a couple of them even being pro's as well, like Yang, Blake and Coco while the others were more casual surfers and just doing it for fun.
She found out that Yang and Blake were actually married and all of the people in the group were in relationships with each other.
Ruby had explained it all that she knew all of them from school as she had been quite smart and was evaluated up a few years meaning she was able to become friends with the older people.
She had also told her about the relationships of everyone, saying that Coco and Velvet were together, Jaune and Pyrrha were also together and the last pair was Nora and Ren.
Neo had asked if Ruby was in a relationship which was when she noticed some of the others tense, namely Velvet and Yang at the question but Ruby just laughed it off telling her that she wasn't in a relationship with anyone, making Neo's heart skip a beat for a second as she heard the news.
It didn't take long for their food to arrive with three waitresses bringing over the plates for the group, thanking them they all started to eat the food, conversation died down slightly but picked up when Ruby went to get another round of drinks for everyone.
Once they finished they all didn't want desert so instead sat around to keep talking once more with Ren, who was sitting on the other end go to get a third round of drinks for everyone.
"So Neo, what are you doing down around here if you're from the US?" Yang asked, recognising the slight accent.
"Holiday with my parents, we're here for two weeks, last week we spent the time traveling around and this week it's to spend it all at the beach." Neo told them.
"Sounds like fun, we're here for the week before we go back to the real world again." Yang said.
"Ah I'll be back in a minute." Ruby said as she slipped out of the booth, she came back just over a minute later with a tray holding eleven filled shot glasses.
Putting the tray down in the middle of the table Ruby handed out the drinks, even giving one to Neo who looked at Ruby in confusion, even more so when Ruby placed two of them in front of her.
Everyone knew the meaning behind this and waited for a moment before they all raised their shot glass up into the air and the middle, unsure what was going on Neo followed suit as she waited to see what was going to happen.
"To Weiss." Pyrrha said, the same words being echoed by everyone else as they all gently knocked their glasses together and downing the shot.
Neo swallowed the drink in one go as she felt the slight burn with the liquid going down her throat, looking around she saw similar reactions from the others as well.
Ruby who had a second one in her hand raised it up as she mumbled to herself something the others couldn't hear, but Neo heard it clearly.
"To lost love." Ruby mumbled before downing the second shot, showing no reaction to the drink as sadness filled her eyes once more.
Before Neo could asked Ruby about the look or who Weiss was, Pyrrha noted the time and said, "Ah we've got to get ready, won't be long until we need to start." Pyrrha stated as the band all started to slid out of the booth and walk over to the raised area by the bar where a set of instruments were set up for them.
As they all left the group spread out a little more to allow for more room where Yang noticed Ruby downing her fifth drink, "You alright Rubes? That's your fifth drink." Yang asked, the others had only had three and even then they were likely to not have many more.
"I'm fine Yang, really. Just thirsty." Ruby said, evading the question but Neo had seen the slight flash of emotion in her eyes.
Not wanting to push the issue Yang let it go as she started talking to Blake about something about the week while Ruby talked with Neo further.
"So any plans for the rest of the week?" Ruby asked the other girl as she turned to look at her.
"I'm not sure, I want to say surfing but then again I don't have the equipment for it." Neo said, sounding slightly sad.
"You can rent the equipment from the shop you had your lesson at today, or if you can't then I'm sure I have a wetsuit that will fit you and a board you can use if you want to get out there some more." Ruby told her.
"Really? You would do that?" Neo asked, excited at the news.
"Its fine, if you want to go out there then something like lack of equipment shouldn't stop you." Ruby informed her with a smile.
"Thank you so much." Neo said, and almost hugged the older woman but stopped herself with a blush.
Luckily for her Pyrrha's voice came through the speakers around the restaurant prompted the group to all move out of the booth and go towards the bar.
"Hello everyone, in case you didn't already know we're Juniper and we're going to be playing a couple songs for you tonight, enjoy." Pyrrha said as she stepped back and started to play.
Soon the whole restaurant was filled with the music the band were playing, they chose quieter songs as it was late but it was still loud in the bar area.
After two songs went by Pyrrha stopped singing as they all took a drink of water as they took a break while Pyrrha went up to the microphone.
"Hey everyone, now I'm sure most of you know why we're playing here tonight." Pyrrha stated before she herself took a drink of water.
Neo looked around the bar and main restaurant area to see some of the locals in the town and those working at the surf school near the beach, she even noticed Chris nursing a beer at a table with what she assumed were the other employees of the shop.
"A year ago today, our lead singer and close friend Weiss Schnee died in a shark attack in Hawaii where we were playing a gig. While the attack itself would have been two days ago she managed to hold on for two days before succumbing to her wounds." Pyrrha said as an aura of sadness fell around the whole place.
Neo finally realised what the toast was about earlier at the booth but she remained silent as Pyrrha continued speaking.
"Even though it's been a year since she's been gone, still feels like she was just here learning to surf around here as we started on our first tour. Even now that she's gone we all still feel her with us and so we'd just like you all to raise your glasses to Weiss, the best singer we've ever heard and the best friend any of us have any known, this next song's for you Princess." Pyrrha said as she raised a glass of beer into the air, everyone else in the building following suit.
As one they all said, "To Weiss." Before taking a drink in her honour. The band starting to play a quiet, sad song.
Ruby completely downed her seventh drink excluding the two shots she had had earlier, once she finished her drink Ruby said.
"I'll be back in a minute." She said as she walked towards the toilet, Neo seeing the look of pure sadness in her eyes.
Watching Ruby go Neo turned to Blake and asked, "Why does Ruby look so sad when someone mentions Weiss or about relationships?" Neo asked the older woman.
Blake looked at Neo softly, "You noticed too?" Blake stated, "It's not my place to tell you but Weiss was special to Ruby and even if she makes out she's ok, we notice." Blake told her but gave her a look to drop the subject as well with a hint of sadness in her own eyes.
Neo dropped the subject but started to get worried when Ruby hadn't returned almost ten minutes later, it wasn't until a woman had gone up to someone at the counter, who in turn went to Blake and Neo and said.
"Someone's just told me that there was someone sobbing and throwing up in the bathroom, I think it's Ruby." The woman explained to the two women.
A/N
So as I said this is now finished so I'll be posting this once a week, not sure which day yet but it'll be posted sometime during the week.
Not actually much to say here, other than still looking for prompts so send them in.
Until next time. ^_^