Chapter Six- Panic
Sunlight streamed through the window onto Ruby as she lay in bed, her body out across the bed. Her hair was a tangled mess on her head, and her shirt clung against her body from the endless tossing and turning that night. Drool had dried on her pillow and her cheek. A soft groan escaped her lips as sunlight streamed light into her closed eyelids. Slowly turning onto her side, she slowly moved her eyelids upwards. Her silver eyes started to adjust to the light flooding her bedroom, and she examined where she was. All she could remember was sitting on that roof, and Cinder. A sudden rush of warmth invaded her body, and her heart skipped a beat when flashes of Cinder's face appeared. She quickly sat up realization hitting her for where she was.
'How did I get here? Did Cinder bring me back? Did Yang? Or was it all a dream?'Ruby turned to her bedside table to see her phone, and a note on top of her phone. Tilting her head, her fingers gently wrapped around the note and brought it into her vision.
Ruby
Was what was written on the top portion of the paper? Biting the inside of her cheek, she flipped the paper over to the backside. There, she started to read the perfect cursive that was left behind.
You had fallen asleep, so I brought you to your room. I hope you don't mind. And don't worry about last night, I promise not to tell a single soul about last night, It will be our little secret. Lastly, please don't feel pressured to talk to me at school or try to be my friend after this. Go at your own pace, and decide if you want to be closer at your pace. ️
From Cinder.
P.S. You're cute when you sleep
Heat once again flooded Ruby's system as she stared at the letter in her hands. Shaking a bit she took a deep breath, letting the words hit her brain. Slowly putting the note to the side she let her body collapse back against the bed as she stared up at the ceiling.
"Fuck.." Was all that came out of her mouth as she moved her hand to cover her eyes. Her heart beating against her chest as she lay there. Her mind swirled as she lay there after last night's events.
'Do I even want to be friends with her? She said she wouldn't tell anyone what I said last night. I don'tevenknow why I told her things no one else knows. And why does my chest beat so heavily against my chest? Ugh, this is all too confusing.'Ruby sighed before grabbing her phonethatstill rested on the bedside the plugout ofher phone, she brought it to her sheopened her phone to see if she had received anything from last were a few messages from Pyrrha,makingher click on the message logs.
"Hey, where are you? Me and Jaune made it."
"When you're down to play today let me know."Ruby turned her head to see it was noon making her sigh.
"Hey sorry, I just woke up. Yeah, give me an hour then we can start playing."Taking a deep breath Ruby sent her message before exiting out of the conversation. She tapped a chat and stared at it for a few.
'Flame hasn't texted me our normal good morning. I wonder if maybe she's still asleep?'Ruby bites the inside of her cheek before typing out a message.
"Good morning/afternoon Flame. I hope you had a good time at the party you had last night.I'm going tobe teaching a new friend of mine Hunter, but I'm down to play tonight with you."Ruby sent the message before letting out a deep breath. Putting her phone onto the side she slowly moved her legs onto the side of the bed. Taking a deep breath, she started to put weight onto her legs, a noise came from her throat as she stretched out. Taking a deep breath, she made a face as the smell of her body hit her.
"Gross," Ruby muttered beforeturning to openherclosenext to her bed. She reached up and grabbed a towel beforestarting to walkout the door. Her fingers wrapped around the door handle before pulling the door to her. Silence welcomed her as she looked down the stairs to the kitchen. As she turned her head towards the bathroom placed between Ruby and Yang's bedroom. The door was closed and the light was on. turning forward, Yang's bedroom door was theinside Blake was sleeping on the side of the bed, the other half looked like someone just moved. A door squeaking made Ruby snape her head to the bathroom door. There stood Yang, her hair was a mess, and bags rested under her eyes. She had her mouth open while her hand rubbing the back of her head.
Yang looked to the side where Ruby was and flasheda drowsysmile.
"Morning, sorry if I woke ya." Yang looked down at Ruby who stood there shifting her weight to her other foot.
"You didn't," Ruby spoke softly as she turned to look at Blake's sleeping body again.
"Hope we didn't keep you up either. I made sure no one would come up here last night." Yang nodded towards the gate that was still up from last night.
"I saw, thank you." Ruby looked towards Yang who still had thatdrowsysmile.
"I'll let you take a shower." Yang walked into her room before closing the door behind her. Ruby blinked a few times after the interaction.
'I'm surprised she didn't seem as… pushy to talk to me like normal. Probably because she just woke up.'Ruby thought to herself before entering the bathroom in Yang's absence.
Ruby sighed as she opened the door inwards from the bathroom. Steam flooded out of the warm-filled bathroom. Droplets of water hit the floor from her body, as a towel wrapped around her mid-section to cover herself. Walking to her room, Yang's door was still closed, but soft voices could be heard downstairs. Ignoring the noise, Ruby walked to her bedroom and closed the door behind her. Starting to dry herself with the towel, she put on sweatpants and a black sweatshirt that had roses decorated all over it. Once done she rubbed her towel over her head to dry her soaked hair. Once it was dry enough, Ruby threw the wet towel into her hamper, her stomach growlingin the process.
Ruby rolling her eyes, turned around and opened her closed door. The voices downstairs were still soft and quiet as shemade her waydownstairs. Noticing the gate was gone, she walked into the kitchen to be greeted by two people. Weiss was sitting on the counter with a coffee mug in front of her. While Yang leaned against the counter, their soft voices stopped when Rubycame down fromthe stairs.
"Oh hey, there are some eggs in that pan if you want." Yang had her thumb pointing behind her before turning back to Weiss. Ruby nodded as she walked over, stealing a plate from the drying rack next to the sink. She grabbed the spoon and scooped some of the eggs onto her plate. They had cut-up bacon and green peppers scattered into the eggs.
"They look good, thanks." Ruby's voice was soft and low as she said her thank you. Being too tired to be in her normal attitude she walked to the table and started to stab the eggs. Yang just nodded as Weiss and Yang began to talk again.
"Cinder seemed off last night when she left, do you know why?" Yang asked Weiss who just shrugged as she gently sipped on the black coffee in her mug.
"No clue, she just looked like normal Cinder to me."
"That was not normal Cinder. She disappeared somewhere and the next time I see her she haslike a face of shock and confusion. Like she got slammed in the face with something." Yang spoke while she crossed her arms.
"I wonder where she went for those four hours of that party. She really must have hated the crowd last night." Weiss muttered as she took a bite of the eggsthat restedin front of her. Ruby could feel her throat tightening as the memories of the Cinder and her on the roof flashed. She quickly shoved a mouthful of eggs into her mouth to distract herself.
"I know right? At least Pyrrha stayed for a while. I feel bad, Jaune got PLASTERED. I bet he vomited all over the car again." Yang and Weiss chuckled at the thought as they stood therein silencefor a few minutes.
"Is Blake still asleep?" Weiss broke that silence as Yang looked up the stairs.
"When I came down here yeah. She got wasted last night, she will most likely be crabby when she wakes." Yang chuckled when she saw Weiss roll her eyes before taking the last gulp of her coffee in the mug.
"I'm surprised you're awake Yang. Normally after this party, you're out like a light the whole day." Yang chuckled as she stole a glance at Ruby. She had her phone in hand as she shoved the last bite of eggs in her mouth.
"I had something to do this morning. And when I'm awake I can't fall back asleep." Weiss nodded as she examined the living room. The floor was cleaned but the different surfaces had some cups lying around.
"I hate cleaning after people," Weiss muttered as Yang let out a simple chuckle.
"We did most of it last night anyways." Yang examined the space around her as she rubbed her eyes a bit. Before turning back to Weiss who was moving off the stool and onto the hardwood floor. "Are you going home?" Yang asked in a soft voice as Weiss just nodded.
"Yeah, it's been a long night." Weiss chuckled as she started to pick up her things from the hanger next to the door.
Ruby soon tuned out of the conversation turning back to see if she had received a text from Flame. Nothing had popped up, but she could see that Flame avatar looked at the message. It felt like her heart was squeezed tightly by a hand as she closed her phone, shoving it into her outa breath she stood up and grabbed her plate, she looked over back at the kitchen to see it empty. Yang and Weiss were gone from the kitchen, the only sound was the soft gentle clicking of the clock hanging on the wall. Ruby walked to the sink, gently letting her fingers go once the plate hit the bottom of the sink. Turning around she started to make her way upstairs gently tapping her phone as she did.
'Flame has never left me on read like this before… I wonder what is wrong'Ruby bit her lip as her mind swirled with possibilities of Flame. Before arriving at her door, she reached her hand out to wrap her fingers around the knob. Pushing against the door as she turned the knob, her door opened to show her room untouched. She walked in before closing the door behind her, moving to her desk she sat down in her chair. Pulling out her phone she pressed onto the chat with Pyrrha.
"I'm ready to play when you are. You will need to give me your friend code for the game"Ruby sent the message before opening her computer, starting to get her game she sat therewaiting for her computer to boot, she moved to Flame's chat.
"Hey, I hope I didn't do anything wrong… you normally never leave me on read. If I did, please let me know."Ruby took a deep breath before sending the message outbeforeback to Pyrrha's chat. An avatar appeared on the bottom of the screen with bubbles, before a message popped up.
"Awesome! My computer just finished downloading it! My user tag is Invincible Girl"Ruby quickly typed the username once her game loaded in, and a few minutes later Pyrrha joined the party. Ruby grabbed her headset, gently putting it on over her head.
"Hello?" She asked into the computer, there was shuffling on the other side before a soft voice came through.
"Hey!" Ruby could feel a smile tug on her lips as she watched on the screen, Pyrrha's characters switching from different ones.
From there Ruby started to teach Pyrrha the ropes, they played for a few hours before Pyrrha cleared her voice.
"So Ruby, question for you."
"What is it?" Ruby's eyes were glued to the game as her fingers elegantly flew across the keyboard.
"How was your night with Cinder?" Rubys' fingers froze over the keyboard, and the same flutter in her stomach was felt with Cinder's name returning.
"W-What?" Pyrrha laughed a bit as she kept playing.
"I saw you two on the roof last night, Cinder carrying you all bridal style. Very romantic, did you two have fun?" There was a teasing tone behind Pyrrha's voice, a quick heat moved to her face as her eyes widened.
"H-Huh?" Was all that came out of Ruby's thoughts from the implications thrown her way. A soft laugh filled her ears as her hands stayed frozen over the keyboards.
"You know, she was taken back to your room," Ruby could feel her throat tighten.
"N-No I fell asleep! I-I just woke up on my bed!" Ruby yelled out making Pyrrha goes silent. Before she cleared her throat Ruby put her hands over her face.
"Oh." Was all that escaped Pyrrha as her mind processed the information. Ruby could feel herself burning up all over her body. "well, I'm sorry for um assuming." Pyrrha let out a small voice as Rubyjusttook a deep breath to calm her beating heart.
"I-it's um fine!" Ruby squeaked out as she took deep and calming breaths. Slowly, her face started to cool down, her rapid heart slowing down. An awkward silence filled the call as they continued the call. Beforea question formulated in Ruby's brain.
"So what about you and Jaune?" Ruby spitted out as she watched Pyrrha's character stop moving before returning to swinging her sword.
"Uh, what about him and I? There is nothing between him and me!" Ruby could feel her eyebrow raise a bit from the sudden deflection.
"The look you gave him in the park said differently, and I bet you were all over him at the party. So, what is that about?"
"W-What I uh…Don'tknow what you're talking about! We are just friends, good friends!" Pyrrha stuttered out as Ruby could bet her face was red as a tomato.
"Right… you don't have to lie to me," Ruby said as Pyrrha went quiet, they sat there for a few minutes before a sigh came from her mic.
"F-Fine! I feel something towards…him." Pyrrha muttered but Ruby could hear it loud and clear through Pyrrha's mic.
"What do you see in him?" Ruby asked as she thought about the blonde-haired boy.
"Well, he is super nice! Andissuper caring! With a lot of other things." Ruby could chuckle a bit as she listened to Pyrrha's quick response escape her throat.
"That's very generic Pyrrha." Pyrrha only huffed out in response as Ruby rolled her eyes a small smile made it to her lips. They continued to banter around soft laughs from both, till Ruby looked over at her clock after a few hours.7:00 pm. Sighing, Ruby could feel her stomach growling to itself.
"Looks like it got late. I shouldgoeat and get ready for classes tomorrow. See you in the library?" Ruby spoke as she started to close the game they were playing.
"Yeah! See you tomorrow, Ruby! Goodnight!" Pyrrha spoke before ending the call between them. Ruby sighed as she lifted her head to look at the ceiling. Her mind swirled back to last night, heat started to rise towards her ears.
'I wonder what it will be like at school with her now? Or track? I feel like every time I even think about her, I feel so...warm. It doesn't make sense. But she makes me feel so, comfortable in a way. She understands more than anyone what I had to go through. Losing both her parents, and she was still able to smile afterward makes me wonder how. I don't know why I even told her about Mom, probably because I was drunk. I just-'Suddenly a knock on her door brought her out of her thoughts. Turning towards her door, she heard some footsteps walking away after the knock on her door. Standing up she walked to her door, wrapping her fingers around her door handle, she pulled it towards was no onestanding in front of her making her tilt her head in confusion. As she went to push the door back closed, she caught something in the corner of her eye. She looked down to see, a plush.
'What in the world?'Ruby thought before bending down and seeing an envelope with her nameon itin front of the plushy. Examining the plush, it looked like a macaroni but was cut in half. Slowly her fingers wrapped around the letter and plush. Picking them up and moving more into her room she closed the door with her right foot. Moving back to her desk she gently put the plush down and the plush looked handmade, the stitchinglookinga little rough in some made. It looked cute, with a single eye and half a smile on the broken-in-half macaroni. Looking over at the letter, she slowly wrapped her fingers around pullingthe tab away from the top of the letter, she saw a folded piece of paper inside. Slowly pulling it out, it had a few paragraphs on the paper as she gently unfolded it.
Dear Ruby,
This is me, Yang, I'm bad at writing letters so bear with me. But I thought this would be the best way to start something with us, at your own pace. Um, you know my name. My birthday is 07/28 and you know Iam going tobe 22 this year. I go to college for cooking, weird I know. My favorite color is yellow. My favorite food is a juicy tenderloin steak. A new hobby I have been getting into is reading. I've been into reading about wars for some reason. I used to be really into martial arts and getting into fights. I was a black belt in Karate and did a lot of wrestling in high school. I won a few awards for the two sports I did. I got in trouble a lot because I would always want to fight people when I was growing up. It was the only outlet I hadduring that timeto let out the anger I felt towards my life. I never saw you or Mom, I felt lonely, and more. But I soon did find friends and learned healthy ways to deal with that.
I'm sorry I'm getting off track here. I wrote this letter because I wanted you to know me better. And have a chance to get to know you better, at your own pace. I miss having my sister around, miss having what we were like as kids. I know our relationship will never be the same as it was back then. But I never stopped thinking about you when you and Mom left. I wanted to contact you, but Father said I couldn' two of you went without contact, and Mom couldn't take me. I know that we will never be able to go back in time and that both you and I have changed so much since we were kids. But I want to be able to change that and have a sister you want to know anything about me, you can talk to me, write me, orhoweveryouwantto I have learned it needs to be at your pace. Not you for reading this. And I do hope we can build a relationship with each other.
PS. I hope you love the plush I made! It took a lot of needles in my fingers, but I wanted to give you something special. And I remember you talking about your favorite memory of Mom and us. I hope you like it.
Ruby stared at the letter, her fingers digging into it. She could feel a weld of emotions start to encase her mind. Her eyes lingered on the half-macaroni plush that Yang had made. Her fingers gently ran against the embroidered fur that must have taken some time. A small made its way to Ruby's face as she slowly put the letter down on her desk.
'What am I going to do? Cinder and these… confusing feelings about what isgoing on between her and me. Yang wanted to go at my pace. Am I even ready for this? After everything that has happened, can I let someone else into my life like this again? And why wont Flame text me back? She...never has ignored me, did I do something wrong? Oh heavens, what am I supposed to do?