Chapter 2: Don't Wake The Wolf
Lacey turned out to be a great waitress. She's a little jumpy sometimes, but she's getting the hang of it. She continuously refuses to go to the hospital, but then again she seems physically fine. And she's working through her entire shift without a single complaint ever, unlike me according to dear Granny.
Granny was making her clear tables and put stuff away, but seeing how good she is with the customers, she is letting her take orders now too.
"Why can't you dress like that, Ruby?" Granny says and points to the dotted dress Lacey's wearing. She went out buying clothes by herself yesterday, after having me go with her the first time. She uses a different store than me.
"I lay off some make-up, give me a break. Why do you always have to criticize me?"
"I wouldn't have to criticize you, if you came to your senses on your own girl, now go take orders from number five, they look ready."
"I know that. Jeez." I correct my short skirt and head for the booth that is table five.
We both quickly grow fond of Lacey. I can tell Granny likes her by the way she talks to her. Granny's always been one for the tough love and she pushes Lacey to do well. I guess she does that with me too, when she's not criticizing me.
I find Lacey quite adorable. It's her accent and her cheerful attitude, I guess. And she's so good hearted and kind. Always polite towards everyone. If you didn't know you would never guess that she escaped a mental asylum just a few weeks ago. She says she thinks that's what it was. She claims she doesn't know why she was in there and I believe her. She seems stable so I can't for the life of me imagine why Regina would put her in there. I guess I'll never know, because Lacey doesn't like to talk about it too much. She says she'd rather let it be in the past and start her life from now. She had this pleading look in her blue eyes when she said it and I promised not to mention it. When people ask me where she's from I'll just say from out of town. That she moved here to get away from the big city. Most people who've lived in a small town like Storybrooke their whole life can't fathom living in a huge city where no one knows each other. That's what Granny and Ashley say. Personally I've wanted to get away from here countless times. I haven't thought of it since Lacey came into our lives though. Can't imagine abandoning her, when she has so few people in her life.
Lacey comes in while I'm sitting on my bed reading Saturday evening. I recognize her way of knocking on the door, because it's different from Granny's; softer and more hesitant. Sometimes I'm surprised Granny bothers to knock at all. Lacey's head appears in the crack of the slightly open door.
"Can I come in?" She asks.
"Sure." She walks in and sits on the bed with me. I put the book down after folding an ear on the page.
"What are you reading?"
"Oh just some old book I have. Jules Verne. You read?"
She smiles shyly and looks down. "I don't really know if I do."
"I'm sorry, I forgot."
She shakes her head. "No worries. You look so different."
I snicker. "Yeah well, it's a Saturday and I didn't have any plans so I just didn't do much."
"No, I meant I like it. It's so natural."
I shrug. "Yeah, I don't do natural so much."
"Maybe you should. We could go out just like this, I'm sure the guys'd be all over you still."
"You really think so?" I look at myself in the full size mirror. My dark hair curls a bit when I don't spent an hour straightening it. I use to have a strand of red hair in it but it's gotten too long as my hair grew so I took it out just a few days ago. I'm just wearing jeans and a light blue shirt with the sleeves rolled up, nothing fancy and nothing like I would ever consider leaving the house in.
"Of course. Come on, let's go crack a tinnie and I'll show you."
"Let's go what?"
"Have a beer. You have that place The Rabbit Hole, it looks like fun. What do you say?"
"I don't know…"
"Come on Ruby", she smiles encouragingly at me. I can't help but smile back.
"Okay, fine. But I'm having wine. And can I at least put my eyeliner on?"
She laughs and pulls me out of the bed. In half an hour we're ready to go. I had to at least change into high heels, but she allowed it.
I've been to The Rabbit Hole a couple of times with Ashley, my friend from back in the school days. It has a dark atmosphere somehow, but that doesn't seem to bother Lacey. She waves at the bartender and finds us a seat.
And she's right; it doesn't take long before a guy comes over. I'm standing at the counter ordering a glass of wine, when a guy leans against the counter beside me.
"Hi, I'm Billy. You're Ruby right? You work at Granny's Bed and Breakfast?"
"Yeah, that's me."
"I just saw you from over there and you… you look so different from the times I've been in there – No, it's a good change, you're really beautiful."
"Thank you", I say and flash him a wide smile. I peek over my shoulder back at Lacey, who's giving me the thumbs up. Billy tells me a bit about his work down at the car shop and I'm still a little stuck on the compliments. Lacey really nailed that. I look over my shoulder again and she's still sitting there, drinking.
"Billy I gotta get back to my friend, she looks a bit lonely over there."
"Oh sure. Perhaps I can join you?"
"Um that's… Sure come on over."
So we talk to Billy for an hour or two. He's a pretty decent guy and he's good looking. He has that golden colored skin and warm, dark eyes.
The clock turns three and we're still sitting there.
"Oh God, I have to get home, I promised Granny I would take a shift tomorrow. You want to go home Lacey?" I feel a little bad for Billy, sitting there with disappointment on his face. His hand has been gracing my jeans covered knee for the past half an hour. I think I like the attention, I'm not really used to it. I mean I am, but not like this anyway. I often flirt with customer's, but that feels more distant. It's briefer and less personal, easier to deal with somehow.
"Actually, do you mind if I stay? I promised this man Jeff that I'd play a round of pool with him."
"Um sure okay, I'll just see you tomorrow", I say and get up.
"Can I walk you home?" Billy asks.
"Okay", I say with a smile. Persistent guy.
He walks by my side the whole way and we talk about all and nothing. He compliments my hair.
"Can I just say?" I say to him. "I sort of can't believe it; my friend drags me out to prove that someone would still find me attractive when I look like I would every weekend when I stay in and then you show up and… I'm rambling I know, sorry."
Billy smiles at me. "Can I just say I'm glad your friend did that?" Then he kisses me. He's actually a bit shorter than me with the heels I'm wearing, I notice. The kiss is good though, gentle. He breaks the kiss and we both smile.
"'Night Billy", I say and he lets go of me.
"Good night Ruby."
Lacey shows herself at around three o'clock the following day with a headache so bad it's painted all over her face.
"Did you stay late?" I ask her and fix her up with a cup of coffee. She shrugs.
"I guess. The people are nice there. I played pool with a guy named Jeff."
"Yeah you said that. You must be so tired. I went home hours before you and I'm exhausted already. Don't tell Gran, she'll throw a fit."
Lacey smiles and shakes her head. Then a grimace crosses her face at the movement. "I won't, I promise." I go take orders from one table and clean the next, and when I come back Lacey is staring at me.
"What?" I ask.
"So, did anything happen with the guy? Billy, wasn't it?"
I don't mean to be shy about it, but the way she looks at me with that teasing smile makes me look down at the table. It's silly really, nothing happened. I look at her again and she's still smiling.
"We just kissed, that was it."
"Well that's somethin'. I told you they would be at your feet."
"I wouldn't say at my feet…"
"So are you going to see him again?"
My turn to shrug. "I don't know. He was sweet and all, but… Maybe." Lacey resigns to drink her coffee and I go on to serve tables. I didn't give him my number, but I guess he wouldn't be hard to find in this tiny town.
Billy does text me later that night. When I ask him where he got my number, he says that he ran into Ashley. I shake my head at the text, just imagining Ashley with a wicked smile on her face, gladly giving out my number to cute guys like she did, when we went to high school together, just so she could call me up and make me tell her all about it. I had a bit more game than her back in the day. In the end she caught the real deal before me and she's now living with a guy named Sean and she's pregnant. I little early if you ask me, but she's happy. We don't talk that much anymore after we stopped touring the bars of Storybrooke.
I agree to maybe meet Billy again sometime and as fate would have it Ashley calls me up and ask me all about it. I fill her in, and tell her about Lacey. She tells me a bit about the horrors of pregnancy. The conversation is pleasant, but it pretty much covers our quota of talking for the next couple of weeks. I guess we just grew apart. It doesn't leave me a lot of friends, which is one of the reasons why I wanted to get away from here. Yet I'm still here.
If it wasn't for Granny's stupid budget that she has asked me to try and understand I wouldn't be up at this hour. I've been postponing it so long and before going to bed this evening I realized we were supposed to talk about it tomorrow and Gran would be furious if I showed up without as much as having looked at it. Not furious in a yelling kind of way, Granny rarely does that. More a head-shaking, disappointed-looking way, where she gives me a speech on responsibility and I cannot have that right now. So here I am at two in the night trying to understand at least a part of her damn budget. I don't know why she even bothers; I mean we all know I'm not smart enough for this. I can already hear Granny: oh so you won't do the books? You think I'll leave you in charge of customer's then? Looking like that? She can say what she wants, I do fine with the customers. Apart from those like old Spencer who apparently finds me offensive. Maybe I should consider toning down the outfits, just to make sure Granny won't turn me into some hopeless idiot math-monkey.
It's when I'm sitting here, despairing over the budget, that I hear to back door opening. I know it isn't Granny, I can hear her snoring. Must be Lacey. I gave her a key to the back, so she didn't have to go through the diner every time. It's all the way at the other end of our apartment on top of the diner, but I've got pretty amazing hearing. I think I can even tell that it's her by the way she's walking. Or rather stumbling, right now.
I get up to check that everything's okay and find Lacey fiddling with the keys to her own room down the hall, while fighting to stay up straight. I can smell the booze from here.
"Lacey, you okay?" I ask. She turns around at my calling and smiles. She's definitely drunk.
"I'm good, Ruby, sorry if I woke you." She reels and I hurry over to catch her.
"It's fine, I was up, looking at Granny's stupid budget. Are you drunk?" I don't even know why I ask.
"Fine, just a little tipsy. I'll be ready for work tomorrow, don't worry."
"You sure?"
"Yes, no worries." She finally gets her door open and turns around in the doorway. She stands there for a minute, looking at me like she wants to say something, but can't find the words.
"Can I ask why you're drunk on a regular night?" I ask hesitantly, afraid to upset her, but at the same time a little astounded at the thought of drinking at this time of week. Sure I've shown up hung over and a few times just still slightly drunk when I get an unexpected Sunday shift, but never on a regular week night. Granny would kill me. Or disown me. Or disown me and then kill me.
"I was just playing pool with Jeff and the guys and it got a little late. It's just nice to make friends on my own, moving on in my life", she says and then adds with a smile: "Don't look so worried, you're still my favorite." She puts a hand on my arm with a soft touch. "Can we talk tomorrow Ruby, I'm a little tired."
"Um, er, sure. You sleep okay in the dark now?"
"I'm tipsy, I can sleep anywhere", she says, squeezes my arm a bit and lets go. She has a nice touch, warm and gentle. "Good night Ruby."
"Night Lacey. See you tomorrow." She nods and closes the door.
I go back to our apartment at the end of the hall, but unable to look at any more numbers. I think about Lacey being drunk on a week night and if Granny will be able to tell that she's hung over. I'm afraid she will.
It turns out Granny is too occupied with my inadequacy to notice the way Lacey shies away from bright lights and loud noises today. My lost hours of sleep do me no good when I'm facing Granny and her condemnation the following evening, after having spent the day doing it all over. I might as well have done nothing at all with it.
"Ruby, have you even put thought into this? You can't read them at all can you?" She smacks down the paper on the kitchen table.
"Well, Granny maybe I'm just too stupid, did you ever think about that?" I snarl at her.
"You're not stupid, don't be ridiculous girl. You just didn't take your time to read them, like I asked you to. What have you been doing? And don't tell me you've been working."
What had I been doing really? Hanging out with Lacey mostly. Being with her it's like time runs differently. Faster somehow.
"Just having a life Granny, is that a crime now?"
"It is when you're standing bankrupt and unable to figure out why."
"Can't you just leave me in charge of customers instead of wasting both our time trying to teach me this?"
"Leave you in charge? Girl, you can't take charge of your own silly life, I'm not leaving any customer in your hands until you are ready."
"That's nice, but you let Lacey do the stock by herself?"
"She is quick and efficient and she complains less! You did the stock-counting by yourself, but you got bored, remember?"
"I don't even know why I work here, when I'm always doing it wrong anyway!" The anger is boiling into a viscous cocktail in my gut and I get up. She ignores that, like she does every time I question my job.
"You will read these over again Ruby."
"Whatever", I say and march out, slamming the door behind me.
I walk down the back stairs and out into the lot behind the inn. Rage is roaring within me and I want to just scream and shout, howling along with the wolf I feel in my insides at times like this, but I know it does no good. I'm as mad at myself as I am at Granny.
The door opens and Lacey steps out into the lot. I can hear it by the sound of her steps.
"Ruby, are you okay?"
"I'm fine. Just had a fight with Granny." I snap a little, struggling to keep the urge to throw things at bay.
She gently puts hand on my arm and turns me around. Her eyes are worried and her expression soft.
"Tell me?"
I tell her about the whole thing. Reliving the argument fires up the roaring anger in the pit of my stomach. "She just can't leave it alone! Why does she keep insisting on having me learn it when I'm obviously too stupid? It's not like she hasn't tried it before!"
"Hey don't say that. I refuse to believe that you're stupid."
"It's true though", I spit and look down at the ground. I feel her finger at my chin lifting up my head to look at her. I meet her gaze and she lets the hand drop.
"Don't say that", she repeats. It's like she has a magic touch. The anger is subsiding, gently blown away by her voice.
"Fine." I sigh. "She just makes me so angry, you know? Not just pissed, but really furious. She just pushes buttons. Wakes the wolf."
"Wakes the wolf?"
"Yeah, it's this thing I compare it to, my temper. Like there is some wolf sitting in my gut, that wakes up when I get really angry and just makes it all worse. Like an inner monster or something."
"That makes sense", she smiles at me and strokes my arm softly in comfort. It helps. "It's gonna get better", she says and I nod. She hugs me and I lean my head on her shoulder, thinking that I am glad I've met Lacey. I've missed having someone to talk to when I'm having fights with Granny. I smile into the air, feeling a little better.