SHE

I heard footsteps outside the room, the familiar face appearing in the doorway. The persons' eyes widened in shock, realizing I was exactly where I was not supposed to be, running across the room to take laptop I had been staring at for the past hour and a half away from my sight. The person looked at it, then looked at me, the mouth opening and closing, dumbfounded, shocked. That's most likely when they realized I knew it all. "Is it true?" I asked silently, not even able to look at the persons' face. But I didn't have to ask, I knew it was, simply by the fact I'd spent this whole time trying to figure out a way it couldn't be. I was smart, at least now, my eyes finally open to what was in front of me all along. "Ruby.." the person put it down, walking towards me, as if approaching a sensitive and unstable wild animal, whilst I simply stayed glued to the chair I had been sitting in, weirdly calm, "I can explain, I swear." I shook my head, smiling as I felt something inside of me break, the lump in my throat growing bigger: "no, you can't, only she can." Part of me wanted to hear it, part of me never wanted to leave, part of me still thought this wasn't true and it could be fixed. That part of me still loved her. This silly, naive part of me had to be destroyed, shot, burned and buried alive. That's all it deserved, pure pain. I got up from the chair, wiping my face, speaking the words that would haunt me for months to come: "But I won't be here to hear it." I walked past the person, them asking: "is there anything I can do for you?" Turning around, I looked in the persons' eyes, seeing the sadness, sincerity, guilt in them. "Tell her if she ever steps near me," I smiled to myself, the irony cutting my lips like a razor, a tear trailing down my cheek, "she won't be leaving alive." . . . I walked in the school as confident as ever, my boyfriend and friends by my side, greeting everyone on the way to my locker. "See you at lunch, Ruby!" Tiff, my co-captain, said, swaying away with the rest of the squad which consisted of a few cheerleaders, as well as Kevin's football teammates. "See you!" I smiled, waving at them as I opened my locker, eyeing Kevin up and down as he seemed to act suspiciously, "something wrong?" "Babe, I won't be able to make it to lunch today," Kevin said an uneasy smile on his face. "Why?" I furrowed my brows. He hadn't turned up the last few times, giving me the reason to grow concerned. "Just have an extra practice, you know, all that stuff," he mumbled, giving me a quick peck, "anyways, I'll pick you up after practice." Giving me another peck, he walked away before I could even say a thing. Sad to say, but this was how we were every day. Walking to my class, I sat in my usual spot, hearing the bell ring, yet continuing to doodle in my notebook. "Class, we have a new student," Mr. Lake said, but I still kept on drawing, "want to introduce yourself?" "Sure," a confident voice said, and I could feel the persons' eyes on me, "though I'd rather do that when everyone is listening." That's when my head snapped up, it wasn't hard to tell she was talking about me since Mr. Lake was smiling at her remark and everyone in the class pretty much glared at me, putting me on the spot. "Sorry," I cleared my throat, smiling at her as I looked at her apologetically, "you have my full attention." "Oh, that I don't doubt at all," she smirked, winking at me. The whole class went completely silent, so did I. Did the new girl just openly flirt with me? Now that she had gotten my attention, I couldn't help but stare at her. She looked as stunning as one could, pretty much a copy of Ruby Rose, my name sister, and ultimate crush, the queen of the mysterious badass look. Don't judge me, even straight people watch OITNB. "I'm Eden Harper, moved here from New York," she said and it wasn't hard to figure out that the whole class was interested in her. She was something else for the town where everything stayed the same. "Oh," she continued, looking me straight in the eye, "Just to avoid rumors.. Yes, I'm also lesbian, a very proud one at that, in case you haven't figured that out yet." I'm pretty sure my mouth was hanging open by now. Was she crazy? She had moved to the most traditional town's of them all, flirting with me out of all people and now stating to practically the whole school she was lesbian. I gulped as she refused to break our eye contact, soon I pulled myself together, putting on my normal facial expression - smile and confidence. Giving off friendly vibes is way better than awkward and nervous ones, after all. The teacher coughed, yet she still wouldn't stop staring at me, as if eating me alive. "Eden," Mr. Lake said, a small smile on his lips, "you can sit down now and since Ruby is the only one sitting alone and also the best student, you should sit with her unless you don't want to of course." She turned to Mr. Lake, smiling: "it's alright. Thanks, Mr.." "Lake," he said. "Well, you're my favorite teacher already, nice to meet you," she smiled at him, giving a quick handshake. He nodded, smiling back: "no worries. Now, let's begin the class, shall we?" As she sat next to me, I had to control every bone in my body not to sit further away because of the way my heart started racing as soon as she got closer quite frankly freaked me out. Besides, I still had to keep my image. I expected her to make a move on me or something, but instead she was completely focused on the teacher, which made me do the same. well, something along the lines. "You guys know we always have big projects for holidays and this time won't be an exception." You could hear the groans of the students who weren't too shy to let it out. "Stop whining, would you? I have decided to change it up a little and make it easier." This time it was "yay!", "We love you Mr. Lake" that could be heard in the class. "So you're doing it in pairs, with the person you share the table with," Mr. Luke finished, the students cheering louder. I glanced at Eden, seeing the corner of her lips turning upwards. Mr. Luke proceeded to hand out the projects and then continuing with theory, which I zoned out to. Before I even realized the bell was already ringing. Not wanting to be late for the next class, I quickly got up, yet I was stopped, by another hand holding on to my wrist. I had already forgotten about Eden, but then I turned around and she was there, smiling at me. How could I forget about that face? "May I ask for your name?" she still hadn't let go of my arm, looking up at me. "It's Ruby," I smiled back at her, looking down at her hand. "Ruby," she repeated, my name sounding so much better coming from her mouth, "can I walk with you to the next class?" "Sure," I smiled, staring at her arm that still had a grip on mine, expecting her to let go. She quickly let go, walking outside. "You're very beautiful," she said, making me quite dumbstruck once again, "just like your name." "Uh... Thanks," I muttered, not used to such bluntness or compliments. She smirked at me: "I should get your number to plan out the meetings for the project." "Sure, that makes sense," I quickly typed my number in her phone. Giving me a wink, she walked off to another class. . . . The whole day passed, and practice came. I tried my best not to think about Eden and whatever it was that she was trying to do with me. Constantly brushing it off, I focused on the fact that we were simply partners for the project. I didn't want to be that girl that tinks a girl is into her just because she's strictly into females. "Ok, girls, time to end this practice. Tiff, you need to be more careful with the backflips, Linsey, practice the dance a little more, you're a little bit behind. Other than that, you all were great!" I smiled, giving them applause. "Yes, captain", "Thanks Ruby" and "see you tomorrow"'s were said by the girls as the number of people in the room quickly decreased. I went to grab my bag, checking the time and realized I was late for meeting Kevin. "Shoot," I mumbled, quickly grabbing my bag and phone, as I headed for the exit. "You're late," Kevin said, smiling and coming towards me. I went to him and pecked his lips, smiling. "Sorry, we had to go through the dance one more time since we lacked practice on the weekend." "It's alright," he winked at me, opening the passenger doors, "you can make it up to me on the weekend." "About that.." I felt bad, "I have to cancel another one of our date nights as I have tons of homework." He shrugged it off: "The team is throwing a party anyways, I'll just go to that one then." Couldn't he at least pretend to care? Or perhaps question my reasons further? Could have just been me overthinking it though. We were already in front of my house, the car stopping as I took it as my cue to leave. I couldn't even pretend to be okay with the sad reality of our "relationship goals" for a second longer. But I stayed optimistic nonetheless. Opening the door, I got out as slow as I physically could, having a slight hope he'd at least ask me if we're fine, if I'm fine, anything. But nothing. Closing the door, I heard him driving away as always, and made my way in the huge, empty house as always. Then I went up to my room, taking a quick shower as always, doing homework as always, reading and responding to group chat texts in the "popular squad" chat. It was always the same. It was always cliche and just didn't feel right. How was it the same? I felt as empty and lonely as every single day. The sad reality of having so many "friends" and the "perfect" guy. But I wasn't a quitter, I would wake up tomorrow and have my head filled with hopes and positive energy. As always. Out of nowhere, I heard the doorbell ring. I was startled, no one ever came to visit. Perhaps Kevin had forgotten something. Running downstairs, I opened the door and saw no one other than Eden. "Hey," she smiled at me as if expecting me to be there. "Hi," I smiled back, stunned by her beauty and presence. There was a silence of us simply smiling at each other. Which weirdly felt very far from awkward, the neighbors would probably think differently though. "So it turns out we're neighbors," she handed me a box that smelled pretty delicious, "my mom wanted me to bring this to you." "Wow, it smells delicious. What is it?" "Just lasagna," she said, looking me up and down, "anyways, I still have boxes to unpack, so I'll head back now. But see you in school tomorrow, beautiful." "See you," I smiled at her, giving a quick wave. After watching her walk away in the most non-creepy way, I closed the door after me and leaned against it. I had known this girl for a day yet my heart was beating out of my chest because of her. This certainly did not feel "as always".