Chapter Five Hundred and Thirteen
Things were more than a little tense in the Buckton/Collins household the following morning. Ruby had stormed to bed the night before, slamming her door hard behind her. Charlie had cried herself to sleep in Joey's arms. Neither of them knew how their good, strong relationship with their daughter had suddenly become so fractured.
Charlie and Joey were sat on the sofa, still in their pyjamas, waking up with their first cup of coffee of the day when the teenager emerged from her room, looking sullen.
"Morning," Joey tried.
Ruby ignored her and stalked into the kitchen, noisily making her breakfast.
"Ruby, we need to talk," Charlie said from the couch.
Ruby ignored her too. Charlie tried again. Ruby continued to ignore her. Without warning, Charlie jumped up, fists clenched down by her sides in anger.
"Do not ignore me!" she yelled. "Come here. Sit down and have a civilised conversation with us. Please."
Ruby hesitated. She picked up her glass of juice and silently came to sit in an armchair. Charlie sat back down in her seat.
"Ruby, this can't go on," she said in a calmer voice.
"What, you controlling me?" Ruby sneered.
"How exactly do we control you?" Charlie asked seriously.
She genuinely wanted to know what she and Joey had got so wrong.
"I'm not even allowed to like anyone without you two losing it and thinking I'm going to end up in rehab," Ruby said unkindly.
"That's just not true," Charlie argued. "Yes, we do worry about you. It's hard for us to watch you falling absolutely head over heels in love with a guy after twenty minutes of knowing him. We're your parents, Ruby. And we've seen how hard you fall when you get your heart broken. Of course we feel protective of you. That's our job. That's our instinct. But we've never been harsh towards you or unkind to you. Never. All we've ever done is look after you. And we've only ever tried to do it well."
"Well, you're suffocating me," Ruby said. "Now you know. So please stop."
"No," Charlie said. "We're your parents. Not your friends. We set the rules, not you. We want you to have freedom and we want you to be happy. But we also need you to have boundaries. And they're not there to stop your fun or ruin your life. They're there to protect you, Ruby and we're not about to apologise for that."
"What about last night then?" Ruby said, glaring at her. "Are you going to apologise for that?"
Charlie choked on her coffee.
"Are we going to apologise?" she balked. "We banned you from the Informal. You were rude to Leah and VJ. You lied to them. You sneaked out and went directly to the dance that we told you that you were not to go to. And you somehow think that we're in the wrong?"
"You embarrassed me," Ruby accused. "You've probably ruined the rest of my school life. I'm forever going to be known as the girl that got dragged out of the school dance by her lesbian mums."
Charlie and Joey both looked hurt. Ruby felt regretful but she wouldn't take it back.
"Well, maybe all your school friends will have seen you for the little brat you've become," Charlie snarled. "You're grounded indefinitely. I hope you enjoy the summer holidays. Go to your room."
Ruby stared at her with her mouth open for a moment before snatching up her orange juice and storming off to her room again. She slammed the door.
Charlie sank against Joey, near tears all over again.
"I just don't understand what's happening to her," she said. "Where has our Ruby gone?"
"I don't know," Joey admitted. "I don't know how to get to the bottom of it all."
A short while later, Charlie and Joey were dressed and ready for the day. Joey's plan was to head over to the restaurant. She wanted to make sure that everything was clean and tidy and ready for opening that afternoon. She also wanted to speak to Angelo. With some free time, Charlie was planning to go for a workout down at the Surf Club. She needed to get the stress out of her system.
"Do you think we ought to leave her?" Charlie said, hesitating by the door.
She looked sadly towards Ruby's room. They hadn't seen her since their argument that morning. Joey sighed, shoving her hands in her pockets and chewing her lip.
"Look, you go," she said. "I'll catch you up."
Charlie nodded, kissed her and headed out.
Once she had left, Joey took a deep breath and knocked on Ruby's door.
"I'm not interested, Charlie," came the teenage reply.
"It's me. Joey."
"I'm not interested in you, either."
Ignoring her, Joey barged into her room and plonked herself down on the bed. Ruby screwed up her nose and pulled up her knees. She rested her chin on them and looked at her parent, unimpressed.
"Ruby, we need to sort this out," Joey said. "You are breaking your mother's heart."
"Don't you think I'm upset?"
"I know you're upset," Joey said evenly. "You're upset. Charlie's upset. I'm upset. We're all upset. So what's the point in all of that? Why don't we just try and work it all through?"
Ruby weakened. She hated it when Joey made sense.
"All I wanted was to go to the Informal," she said.
"Ruby, you stole a car."
"Borrowed a car!"
"You took it without asking," Joey said firmly. "Whether you intended to return it or not, Sid didn't know you'd taken it. You didn't have permission. You may not have meant to do it but you did steal it. I'm sorry but it's true. And I just cannot work out why. We have a car that you're legally allowed to drive."
"I didn't think you'd let me…"
"Why not?"
"Because you fuss so much about that sort of thing."
"We worry," Joey corrected. "But since when do the three of us not talk about stuff? Since when did we stop having conversations? Since when did you start jumping off the deep end, making crazy, reckless decisions, not listening, yelling at us and saying cruel things?"
Ruby looked ashamed.
"I mean, the things you've said to Charlie the past few days…"
Joey shook her head in disbelief.
"I'm sorry," Ruby managed.
"It's not me you need to apologise to," Joey pointed out.
"I just wanted to keep up," Ruby said quietly.
Joey looked puzzled.
"Keep up?"
"Everyone is moving on apart from me," Ruby explained. "Everyone has someone or something in their lives. Apart from me."
"Ruby, that's not true," Joey said, trying to console her.
"It is!" Ruby said desperately. "Even Claire has someone now! Claire's my best friend. No matter what, we had each other and now… now she's just leaving me behind. She's got this girlfriend and she doesn't care about me anymore. It didn't matter before if I was on my own because I had her and now I don't. I don't have anyone."
Suddenly, everything was crystal clear. Everything had coincided with Claire meeting Hannah. That's when Ruby's personality had changed. Charlie and Joey had been trying to puzzle it out since it started but they hadn't been able to reach a conclusion. But now it made sense. Ruby was scared of losing Claire.
"Oh, Ruby, you're not losing Claire," she said gently. "Don't be silly."
"I am!" Ruby insisted. "She just wants to spend time with that girl!"
"Yes, she does want to spend time with Hannah and that's okay. But that doesn't mean she doesn't want to spend time with you too. She's still your best friend."
"I just… I just always thought she'd always… be there," Ruby said sadly.
Joey nodded. She thought that Claire would always be single, silently in the background adoring her with no life of her own. This girlfriend thing is a shock and something she hadn't prepared for.
"I get it," she said.
And she did get it. She had been Claire. And in a different world, Charlie could easily have been Ruby. She had just been lucky enough that in this world, Charlie had loved her too.
She moved to sit beside Ruby, who lowered her knees.
"Believe me," she said. "I get it. But you have to let go of this idea that you're alone. And that if you don't have a boyfriend, you're nothing. You are an amazing young woman and you have so much going for you. You're beautiful and funny and smart. You're talented and you have the whole world at your feet. You have parents and grandparents that adore you – even when you're being a brat."
She nudged her, making Ruby laugh.
"You have tonnes of friends," Joey continued. "Including Claire who, girlfriend or not, worships you and would do anything for you. The pair of you have been through so much together; that's not a bond that can be easily undone. You have to stop living your life comparing yourself to everyone else. You have to stop putting yourself down."
Ruby sighed heavily and leant against Joey.
"Is Charlie here?" she asked. "I need to apologise. For the car. The party. The Informal. For all the things I've said. I've been horrible."
She looked into Joey's face.
"I'm sorry."
"She's gone to the gym," Joey said. "She won't be too long. And for the record, apology accepted. I'm just glad we've been able to sort things out."
Ruby smiled at her and hugged her.
"I don't want us to ever fall out again," she said.
"Deal."
Angelo was at the restaurant finishing the last of the cleaning from the night before. He nearly jumped out of his skin when the door opened and Joey walked through the door.
"Guilty conscience?" she asked.
"What? No! Why would I have a…?"
"Maybe letting my daughter attend a party that I explicitly told you she was banned from?"
"Hey, I only knew she was there a few minutes before you got there… I was busy the whole night… I…"
He ran his hands anxiously through his short hair.
"Angelo, don't lie," Joey said, heaving herself into a chair.
She gestured for him to join her at the table. He reluctantly did so.
"Don't you think we've spoken to Leah?" she asked. "She called you. She asked you to bring her back. You refused."
"Joey, I was running an event, not babysitting teenagers," Angelo said. "I was the co-ordinator. Not the chaperone. Hey, if you want to criticise chaperones, you should have a go at Liam and Bianca. They disappeared after about ten seconds!"
Joey raised her eyebrows, making a mental note to ask Bianca exactly what she had been up to last night and what that might mean for the future.
"Really?" she asked curiously.
"Yeah," Angelo said. "Shirkers. I was rushed off my feet."
"Yes, I know you were," she said. "And by all accounts, the Informal was brilliant and you did a great job."
Angelo's eyes lit up.
"So if you have any other ideas for any other events, feel free to run them by me," Joey offered. "You never know, Charlie and I might even get the chance to actually go out and have fun!"
He smiled weakly. She stood up and patted him on the shoulder.
"You did a good job," she said. "But please don't put your ambition ahead of anyone's welfare, okay?"
He nodded.
"Sure."
He stood up and watched her leave.
"Joey?" he said.
She turned back, smiling.
"Thank you."
With permission, Ruby had invited Nicole round to see her. She was still grounded and not allowed out although she was hoping that the terms of her grounded might be renegotiated with some moderated behaviour.
"I just got so tunnel visioned about everything and now I'm really embarrassed," Ruby said. "Was everyone laughing at me, being dragged out of the Informal? What did Jackson say?"
She and Nicole were sat on the sofa drinking coffee.
"Nobody was laughing. Claire and I were just really worried. We were the whole night, to be honest. As for Jackson… well, I'm sorry, Ruby. He moved on pretty quickly."
Ruby looked forlorn.
"I'm sorry," Nicole said, squeezing her friend's hand.
"I should have known he was a waste of space," Ruby said. "I mean, they all are, aren't they?"
"In my experience," Nicole remarked.
Ruby sighed.
"How are things with your parents?" Nicole asked. "Things seemed pretty tense when you left last night."
"They're better," Ruby said. "Well, they're almost better. I still have to apologise to Charlie but then things should hopefully go back to normal."
"I'm glad," Nicole said. "I was really worried you were going to go through some crazy teenage rebellion phase. And having been there, done that, I can tell you that it's not worth it. Especially not when you have awesome parents like you do."
"I think you're probably right," Ruby said.
Joey exited the restaurant and found Charlie in the gym. She paused for a moment, undetected and watched Charlie, looking rather attractive, sitting up on the weights bench, drinking water. She looked rather hot and sweaty which put some naughty thoughts into Joey's head and made her think she was very lucky to have been chosen by someone as amazing as Charlie.
Snapping herself out of her thoughts, she made herself known to Charlie, who drew her into her arms and kissed her.
"I have good news," Joey said.
"You punched Angelo in his smug face?" Charlie asked.
She had spent rather a lot of time ranting about him last night. It was the reason that Joey had gone to speak to him alone.
"No," she said. "Better."
"You've saved his smug face for me to punch?" Charlie asked hopefully.
"No," Joey said, moving to sit beside her on the bench. "Better."
Charlie looked at her expectantly.
"I spoke to Ruby and I think we got to the bottom of what's actually wrong," Joey explained.
"Really?"
Joey explained the Claire Theory. Charlie nodded thoughtfully. It all suddenly made a lot of sense.
"And she is also very sorry for everything she has said and done," Joey added. "She wants to apologise when you come home."
"Honestly?"
She could hardly dare to hope.
"Honestly," Joey confirmed. "So whenever you're ready. But you know, you don't have to rush. I'm happy to watch you work out for a while if you want to…"
She grinned. Charlie blushed and told her off for being badly behaved.
Ruby jumped up when Charlie and Joey arrived home.
"Charlie, I'm so sorry!" she said immediately. "Please forgive me. I've been a bitch. I've been completely out of order. I'm really sorry. I didn't mean any of the horrible things I said to you. Please can we go back to the way we were?"
Charlie pulled her into a hug. Joey stood back, relieved that her two girls were finally back on track.
"I'm sorry too," Charlie said. "I should have handled things differently. I shouldn't have embarrassed you the way I did. I was just so hurt and so angry but that's not an excuse. And I'm sorry if we do keep too tight a leash on you…"
"You don't," Ruby said seriously. "You don't."
She reached out and pulled Joey closer.
"You're amazing parents and I'm lucky to have you," she said. "I'm sorry for treating you otherwise."
They hugged as a trio, pulling apart only when Charlie's mobile phone rang.
"Morag!" she greeted warmly when she answered. "Hang on, slow down. Morag, what's wrong?"
Joey and Ruby were immediately worried, standing close by as Charlie spoke to her stepmother on the phone. She hung up after a few minutes.
"Dad's in hospital," she told them.
She had turned pale. Joey reached out and held her hand.
"Let's pack overnight bags quickly," she said. "We'll head over there right now."
Grateful that her partner had taken the lead when her heart was hurting so much, Charlie followed Joey into the bedroom. She hugged Ruby on the way.
"It'll be okay," she promised, although she had no idea if she was telling the truth.
Next time… Ross's family keep a vigil by his bed, Bianca makes a choice and April lets her sister down…
