Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
“C allie Winters? What the hell are you doing in my living room?”
Ruby had spent the first half of her day off sleeping in. And it had been lovely.
She was not expecting to see her long-lost friend sitting sipping tea on the couch with her sister when she awoke.
“Hello, Ruby,” Callie said, sweeping her thick blonde braid over her shoulder, a movement that was so familiar to Ruby it made her want to cry.
“Hello?! HELLO!? I haven’t seen you in two years and you just show up here and you’re all ‘hello, Ruby’ like everything is normal?”
Callie winced.
Lena’s gaze flicked nervously between the two of them, Callie snuggled up on the couch under one of the many blankets Aunt Millie had crocheted and Ruby frozen on the stairs.
Lena had always hated conflict, avoiding it whenever possible.
There had?been two months in ninth grade when Callie and Ruby didn’t speak, and Lena nearly chewed her nails clear off because of the?stress.
“I’m going to get you some tea,” Lena said, starting to get up before Ruby snapped,
“I need coffee,” and stormed through the living room and into the kitchen.
Callie Winters was back.
She hadn’t seen the woman in years and now here she was and?… and…
Ruby braced her hands on the kitchen counter and let her head hang. Callie was one of the few people in this town that she’d considered a friend. The only person, really. Besides Lena and her aunt, Callie was the only other person in this world that Ruby had?thought she could count on.
And then she’d disappeared.
Some cryptic message texted in the middle of the night about going away for a while and she’d left. Ruby would get an occasional text proving Callie was still alive, and she’d sent Aunt Millie’s favorite flowers when the old woman died, but that was it. For two damn years.
And it had hurt more than Ruby would like to admit.
Just one more person Ruby loved who’d gone.
Except now she was back, and Ruby absolutely did not know how to process that.
“Hey.” Callie’s voice was soft as she entered the kitchen.
Ruby didn’t lift her head. “Where were you?”
She could hear Callie’s sigh. She pictured her fiddling with the end of her braid.
“It’s kind of a long story.”
“I’ve got time.”
“I don’t know if I’m ready to tell it.”
Ruby lifted her gaze and noticed for the first time the purple smudges under Callie’s eyes.
“Are you okay, Cal?”
Her friend gave her a weak smile. “Yeah. I think so.”
“And you’re back? I mean, you’re staying?”
Callie nodded. “I’m back.”
“Where are you living?”
“Renting a house in town, for now, anyway. Got my old job back doing the accounting for Into The Woods . Shreya really screwed up the books with her attempts.”
Ruby couldn’t help a small laugh at that, but she didn’t know what else to say. She took in her friend, standing nervously in her kitchen. She looked the same, mostly. Except for the exhaustion painting her face. That was new.
Her blonde hair was in the same thick French braid she always wore.
She had the same sky-blue eyes, the same birthmark above her right ear, the same silver ring she always wore on her thumb.
Ruby catalogued it all, but something was different.
Besides the fact that she was clearly wearing a man’s flannel shirt.
That was something Ruby would have to ask about later.
Another piece of this little mystery. But it was more than that.
Callie had come back changed.
“What do we do now?” Ruby asked, pouring herself a cup of coffee.
“I was hoping we could still be friends even though I…”
“Ditched us.”
“I didn’t ditch you.”
“Ghosted, left, abandoned. Pick a word, Cal.”
Callie’s face scrunched up in a frown, another overly familiar gesture.
Ruby knew that face almost as well as she knew her twin sister’s.
It was the face of the first person who had ever asked to sit next to her in the lunchroom, the face of the person who slept beside her at every sleepover they’d had right here in this cottage, sleeping bags tossed on the floor of the living room, the face of the person who’d been kind enough not to tease her when she confessed to losing her virginity to Kurt during one of his many break-ups from Trina.
How on Earth would she ever live without that face?
How had she done it for the past two years?
Not well. Her already small world had shrunk that much smaller when Callie had left.
“You know not everything is about you, right?” Callie snapped.
Oh, okay, so Callie came back feisty. That was different, too.
Callie had always been the quiet one. Reserved.
Composed. The counterbalance to Ruby’s hot-headed nature, the serious one to Lena’s bubbliness.
Ruby had Callie to thank for keeping her out of most of the trouble she’d tried to get into over the years.
Not that she planned on thanking her.
“I know.” Ruby crossed her arms over her chest. “But it doesn’t mean I’m not mad at you. I think I have the right to be.”
Callie shrugged. “I guess so, but you’ll get over it, right?”
“I don’t really have much of a choice, do I? Considering you’re my only friend in this stupid town.”
“Don’t sell yourself short, Rubes. I heard you and Sal have gotten rather close since I’ve been gone.”
Ruby’s laugh sputtered out of her. “Oh yes, Sal and I are real besties these days. I just love to sit and listen to his conspiracy theories while he calls me unwanted pet names.”
Callie’s smile grew until she was laughing, too.
They used to laugh until tears streamed down their faces and their stomachs ached. It wasn’t like that this time, but maybe it would be again. Ruby had to hope that it would.
“I really missed you, Ruby. Sorry it took me so long to come home.”
“I missed you too and someday, someday soon , I’m going to need the story about what kept you away for so long. When you’re ready.”
“As long as I’m ready soon?” Callie asked with a smirk.
“Exactly.”
Ruby smiled back and that’s how Lena found them when she snuck into the kitchen. She was wrapped in a soft pink cardigan today, her dark hair pulled away from her face and she almost looked?… normal.
“Are we all friends again?” she asked.
And how could Ruby say no? Her parents were never coming back, and her Aunt Millie was also never coming back, but somehow, she’d been gifted with the return of her friend. She was smart enough not to turn that away.
“Yes,” she said with a sigh, “we’re all friends again.”
“Yay!” Lena said, clapping her hands together. “Now you can both help me with my jigsaw puzzle. It’s a big one and I haven’t got past the upper lefthand corner.” Lena was burning through hobbies like crazy ever since she’d lost her job.
Callie laughed, wrapping her arm around Lena’s shoulder. “Well, we better get working then,” she said, and Ruby was just so happy to see her sister feeling well enough to be out of bed and to have her best friend somehow miraculously back in her life that she decided not to overthink it.
Maybe today was just a good day.
Those happened every once in a while, right?