“Your intenship will be cool,” Zac said breaking the silence in Ruby’s backyard the night
before she had to go back to New York. “I mean, it’s MTV.”
Ruby nodded and kept her stare down at the pool where they sat dangling their
feet. “I guess.”
“We’re gonna be okay,” he assured her. “You and me.”
She closed her eyes as a hot tear made its way down her cheek. “You’ll like San
Fransisco,” she weakly told him.
Zac wrapped his arms around her shoulders and rested his chin on the top of her
head. “I wish you were out there with me.”
She sniffed and brushed the fresh tears off her cheek. “You’ll find all these girls in
the dorms that’ll want you.”
“Well of course they’ll want me,” he smiled trying to lighten the mood. “But that
doesn’t mean anything to me.”
She let out a laugh and wrapped her arms around his waist. “You just wait until
you get to college. You’ll freak out.”
“I will not,” he told her. “My days will consist of going to class and doing
homework, and eating, and sleeping.”
“Mine too. And thinking about you,” she added.
“Yeah,” he said giving her a kiss on the side of her head.
“Can I come visit you?” She asked.
“Hell yeah you can come visit me,” he said.
“Okay.”
“You know I’ve never seen you cry?”
She looked up at him. “Well now you have,” she said. A tear was replaced by
Zac’s lips on her cheek. “I love you,” he whispered.
“I love you too,” she said closing her eyes. After a few moments of silence, she
spoke again. “Do you realize we met in the weirdest way?”
“Well not really,” Zac reasoned positioning his chin back on her head. “I mean,
we’re neighbors.”
“Yeah but, we had sex the second day we knew eachother,” she smiled.
Zac smiled. “Yes we did. And it just so happened we were attracted to eachother
both physically and emotionally. How often does that happen?”
“I know. We can actually have conversations and stuff,” she said.
“Yeah, we’re pretty good at that,” he smiled.
“We’re pretty good at lots of stuff,” she said walking her fingertips down his leg.
“Oh man,” he looked down at her hand. “Ruby, what am I gonna do without
you?”
“Masturbate,” she answered.
He laughed. “Yep. You know it’s not the same though.”
“Oh I know,” she giggled. He laughed and playfully shoved her to the side with
his shoulder. She looked over at him and he looked back at her. Her eyes danced with his
as she wondered what he was thinking. “So I guess this is where you’d cue sappy
background music.”
Zac smiled and looked down at the water. “If you’re lost, you can look, and you
will find me,” he sang softly.
Ruby smiled and leaned her head on his shoulder. “Time after time,” she finished
for him. He slid his hand underneath hers and squeezed it. She lifted her head up and
looked at him. “Yeah, we’ll be okay,” she told him, agreeing with what he said earlier.
He nodded. “I know. But,” he sighed.
“But what?” She asked.
“There’s still that voice in the back of my head, and I think it’s Ansley, that tells
me that I’m gonna get hurt again,” he said. “And I know you love me, and I know we’ve
talked about this a million times. But I guess I’m just scared.”
“I’m sorry I ever broke up with you, you know that,” she said squeezing his hand
harder. “And it’s okay to be scared because I did a terrible thing to you. And I’m so
lucky that you forgave me. But I know this time I can’t let you go because I realized what
I was missing. You understand, right?”
“Yeah. It’s just that I’m so ridiculously in love with you - if I lost you...I just
don’t-”
“Shh,” she interrupted. “You’re not gonna lose me this time. Promise.”
“Promise?”
“Mm hmm,” she nodded. “You know why?”
“Why?”
“Because I’m ridiculously in love with you too,” she smiled. “And I told you I’ll
do whatever you want to make it up to you.”
He sly grin formed on Zac’s face as he looked over at her. “Ruby,” he began. “I
love you. But you know what?”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “What?”
He put one hand on her shoulder and one on her lower back and shoved her off the
concrete into the pool.
“Ah!” She screamed falling under the warm water. She came back up sputtering
water at his face. “I can’t believe you just did that.”
“Ah ha ha,” Zac fell on his back on the concrete laughing. “Oh my God, that was
the best.”
“You’re such a punk,” she smiled grabbing onto his ankles.
“I don’t think so,” he sat up.
“Oh but I do,” she said pulling his arm until he fell into the pool with her.
“See, that part wasn’t supposed to happen,” he smiled when he came back up.
“You feel better now?” She asked resting her arms across his shoulders.
“Yeah, that was pretty funny,” he said holding onto her hips.
“I’ll miss you Zachary,” she told him placing her forehead against his.
“I’ll miss you too,” he said before kissing her chin. “You’re pretty cool.”
“Yeah,” she smiled. “You’re pretty cool too.”
Chapter 9
