Who: Amelia & Ruby Where: Near the beach When: Sunday 11/12, shortly after noon Status: Complete
Amelia had become addicted to music and Gavin was feeding her addiction with a subscription to a gigantic online collection of all sorts of music. It was incredibly soothing when the fear took over, to be able to curl up with the dogs and listen to anything she wanted. It took some trial and error, of course. Some music was awful. The only limitation she found with it was that she couldn't bring herself to wear headphones when she went outside and for the first few days she was home she never left the house with music. Today she decided maybe low music in just one ear would be okay. She could still hear cars and people as she jogged down to the beach, the dogs happily running alongside her. They padded her confidence too, they would sense something coming long before she could hear it, she just knew it. The fact she had energy to run was amazing. She'd had to run, of course, but now she didn't get as easily out of breath and she didn't feel dizzy when she stopped. Of course she was being fed now - more than just rations from cans - and this made a world of difference. She was about halfway to the beach and had just turned a corner when she spotted pink hair. It was funny the things she remembered and didn't remember, so many faces were blurry to her but others stood out, sharp in her memory. The pink hair was definitely memorable but so was Ruby's face.
Amelia stopped, going a little wide eyed. Ruby probably wouldn't know her but she couldn't help the smile anyway. God she was going to be so bad at keeping her whole thing a secret but Ruby was one of those people she didn't really want to lie to. Hell, she didn't want to lie to anyone at all, it left a bitter taste in her mouth but if she had to? Ruby wasn't really on the list of people she didn't trust. It was stupid, probably, but then she was friends with Jasper and Jasper was super picky with people.
After all the rain that they’d been having, Ruby was just excited to get out of the house. Yes, it was a cold, dreary day, but it wasn’t raining on her and it felt good to get out and move for a bit. Her plan had been to go for a run, but she’d stopped running about ten minutes prior, just enjoying the sound of the sea as it washed up on the beach. There was something soothing about it, even as winter crept in. Soon it would be too cold to really enjoy it, so she might as well while she had the chance.
Ruby saw the dogs before she saw Amelia, their happy puppy faces familiar even when the person walking them was not. It wasn’t until she got closer that Ruby realized it was her, and her footsteps slowed, her expression a mix of awe and happiness. “Amelia?” she asked, not wanting to rush to her in case she as wrong. She could see it though, how this woman would have been the little girl she remembered. There was no way they weren’t one in the same.
"Ruby," Amelia said, her smile widening. She knew, Jasper had told her. Amelia couldn't really be blamed for not keeping track of who her dad and Jasper were telling, things were a little crazy lately and she'd been so preoccupied just with being back and trying to find her footing. It was just as weird to see Ruby now as it had been to see everyone else. Amelia remembered her as so grown up but she really wasn't grown up at all. She looked like she was Amelia's age, maybe even younger, and she looked like she might even be shorter. "I remember you," Amelia told her as she closed the distance between them and let the dogs get their greetings in as well.
“I remember you, too,” Ruby said with a little laugh, and then she couldn’t help herself. She hugged Amelia tight, arms wrapped awkwardly around her. “You got so tall!” she laughed as she released her and realized that she was looking up at her now instead of down. Ruby had never been huge, but it was an adjustment for sure. “Jasper told and I was hoping maybe I could come by sometime this week. I didn’t know if you were up to seeing people or— or anything.” She had thought it would be weird to try and remember that Amelia had been gone for years when she’d only experienced a couple weeks of loss, but seeing her like this made it easy. Time had clearly passed. Ruby reached her hands down to pet the dogs, but never quite took her eyes off Amelia. “It’s so good to see you again.”
"You too," Amelia said, still smiling widely and while it wasn't as emotional as meeting her family had been she could still feel her nose stinging a little. Ruby had been a part of one of her happy memories that she clung to all those years, her last movie night with her brother, eating pizza and having a laugh with the 'grown kids'. "Yeah I'm... still getting used to the people part," she admitted, reaching down to pat Max's head. "And the animals..." It wasn't something she wanted to really get into so she was quick to turn the focus back on Ruby. "I never knew much about you, you were just Jasper's cool friend, what do you do? Are you in school? Didn't you have a pink motorbike or something?"
Even though she had a lot of questions, Ruby suspected there were a lot of things that Amelia wouldn’t want to talk about, especially what she’d experienced in her time away. From what Jasper had said, she didn’t think it was pleasant and unless Amelia wanted to get into it, Ruby was okay with letting her work on moving forward. That was what she’d want to do in her position, to be sure. “I did,” Ruby grinned, nodding. “I still do, though with the weather lately I’ve been trying to get the truck up and running. I was doing some work on it earlier this week and wasn’t really prepared for the downpour.” She’d spent most of the weekend getting it fixed though, so it was available if she needed it. “But yeah, I’m in school with your brother. Senior year. I’m a waitress at Moxie’s, but I’m hoping for something better than that after I graduate. College somewhere close, probably. Right now the goal’s just to graduate, finish with a bang if I can.”
It gave Amelia a bit of a pang. Jasper didn't really talk about school much but she knew he was trying to graduate. A part of her wanted to go through his school things and see if she'd understand any of it but she knew she wouldn't. She'd read a lot but none of it had been science stuff or... anything but fiction and autobiographies. "You'll finish with a bang," she told Ruby decidedly. "What's wrong with your truck?" she asked then, an easier subject since she'd actually dabbled with fixing cars. She might not know the technical terms for a lot of the things but she knew her way around an engine. It was even tempting to offer to help just so she could feel useful somewhere.
“Nothing major. One of the belts has to be replaced so the battery will charge properly. It’s not hard for me to do, but it wasn’t something I could whip up just because the rain came in,” Ruby said with a little laugh. She’d been trying to prepare for the winter, but hadn’t counted on the storm. “I love my bike, but it’s not the best choice once there’s snow on the ground. The truck’s not pretty, but the heater works now and that counts for a lot.” She was proud that she’d been able to fix that. It hadn’t worked when she got it. “Can you drive?” she asked, thinking that might be the case now.
Amelia nodded. "As long as there are no other cars around," she said with a pained smile because it seemed like there were always cars around, everywhere, all over the place. It was an adjustment. Aaron had offered to teach her to drive stick and shoot and he had seemed so enthusiastic about it that she hadn't had the heart to tell him those were the two things she was actually good at. She had pulled her hands inside the sleeves of her jacket without thinking about it and not moving was definitely making her feel colder than she had felt when she was running. "Still getting used to this cold," she admitted and at least she had warm clothes to fend it off now.
“That’ll just take practice,” Ruby smiled. She wondered what it was like, to drive in a place where there weren’t so many cars. Everybody had to learn not to hit things though, and so she was confident that Amelia would adjust given time. “Yeah, I think that every year,” she nodded, rubbing her hands together. “Want to keep walking? It’ll help keep us warm.” Because Amelia wasn’t the only one getting cold just standing there. “What have you been up to since you got back?” Was it weird that that made it sound like some kind of trip? Amelia hadn’t been on vacation. She’d been trapped somewhere, but she didn’t know how else to put it.
Amelia took her up on the offer to keep walking, it was better to move when it was cold, as if her body just forgot to keep warm if she didn't. She let the dogs stroll ahead but she wasn't confident enough to let them off their leashes so they stayed under her control. She hummed in thought at Ruby's question. "I've been trying to find a new name and I just started meeting this psychologist at the hospital. She's really nice and she's helping me sort things out, kinda. Mostly I've just been sleeping or spending time with Jasper. Oh and eating, oh my god, the food is so good. I don't want to see another can again in my life." It was hyperbole, she honestly didn't much mind as long as there was more than just canned food on the table but the point remained the same. "Maybe you can help me," she blurted out then, grinning at Ruby. "Tell me if you think the name I'm considering is dumb or not."
“I imagine there’s a lot of new things to experience, including the food,” Ruby smiled. She tried to picture a world where canned food was the only option and all she could come up with was something out of a book, or a zombie apocalypse movie, neither of which she wanted to picture Amelia growing up in. But she knew it might be like that, or worse. It was a hard truth to accept, so Ruby focused on the here and now. “Jasper said you were trying to decide what to go by. What’re you thinking?” What really mattered was that Amelia liked it, that it was who she wanted to be. Ruby knew what it was like to go by something different than her given name. She’d just changed it on purpose when she was much younger, where Amelia didn’t really have a choice.
"Right now I'm leaning toward Lyra, like in the Golden Compass," Amelia said. "It sounds like Lia, which is what Maggie called me, that's the woman who kinda raised me." She'd bounced between a lot of names and it always ended up with the same sort of disappointment and frustration that she couldn't just be herself. She hadn't really understood why at first but having browsed the internet for the last few days she was starting to see it now. People were vicious, everything seemed like a cruel joke and you couldn't do anything wrong without getting burned at a proverbial stake for it. "I have to pick a last name too or my grandparents will figure out I'm not one of theirs and blah blah."
“You can’t be a Lucas?” Ruby asked with a small frown. That really sucked. Couldn’t they tell her grandparents… something? She realized that was probably hard to explain. Not everyone would believe the truth as easily as she had, even if they were her flesh and blood. “I like Lyra. And Lia, for that matter,” she said, then after a beat. “How did you meet Maggie?” She knew it was something from where Amelia had been trapped, but this woman had made an impact on her life. Ruby doubted Amelia wanted to forget her, even if she wanted to forget that place. “Was she from here?”
"Yeah, Illinois," Amelia replied. "I found her picture online, she was like... sixteen when she went missing but about forty when I met her." It was creepy to think about, especially when Amelia thought about how she might have grown old and died in that place, like so many people actually had. "She found me when I just got there, she and her group. In the end it was just me and her though, we didn't really get along with the others. Well, a few but not all of them, so we mostly stayed on our own." She was rambling and there wasn't a very solid thread to the story she was telling Ruby but that was pretty typical for the way she was remembering these things now. Disjointed and blurry. She slowed down and grabbed Ruby's arm, giving her a worried look. "If you ever find yourself in a place like that, go through the black sludge. It'll be terrifying but that's the way out. Just... make a mask from a plastic bottle or anything to keep it from your face, and just... go in."
“When did she go missing? Like… recently?” Ruby asked, unable to help herself. If Amelia had aged ten years in ten days, Maggie could’ve been gone less than a month when Amelia met her. Or maybe not. Maybe time bent this way and that whenever it wanted to. Her mother had been gone too long for it to matter, but she still had to ask. When Amelia stopped her, Ruby looked back into her eyes, nodding in agreement. She might not understand exactly, but hopefully she would never have to. “Is that how you got back? Through the sludge?” In her head, she pictured a black blob, the creature from the movies. Walking into that would’ve seemed like a death wish, not a way out, so it was good information to have.
"I don't know how long she was there," Amelia admitted. "She went missing a few months ago so the time doesn't really add up which makes me wonder if... If I'd gone through somewhere else or at some other time, would I have come back elsewhere? Or... At some other time? God, it breaks my brain, you know? I guess... it could have been worse, at least I'm home." At least people believed her and the thing she dreaded the most - everything fading away and turning out to just be a dream - hadn't happened yet. She realized this conversation had taken a turn for the much darker so she gave Ruby a small apologetic smile. "I think I freaked the cop out so bad, the guy who found me," she said lightly. "I should probably go to the station and get my stuff back."
“I don’t know if you can ever know. There’s too many possibilities, most of which we don’t really understand,” Ruby said, looking out at the water for a minute. It reminded her of how little they knew about their own world, how there were depths of the ocean that hadn’t even been explored yet. And now she knew there were other worlds that they couldn’t even get to. “It’s like… I used to think that one of those kids took my mom. That they did something to her and she wandered off into the forest and never came back. Now I wonder if she was taken somewhere else, like you were. But I won’t ever know.” She kind of liked the idea that her mother hadn’t died, or had at least lived out her life, or had maybe done everything she could to get back. It was better than thinking she’d followed a black eyed child away and never returned. “I think the cops around here are used to weird things,” she said with a little smile. “But he might like to see you, now that things have calmed down a little. Do you know who it was?”
Amelia almost didn't catch the question because of what Ruby said before, something about her mom being taken by kids. That didn't make a lot of sense and she looked a little puzzled. "Solomon," she replied absentmindedly and she couldn't remember his first name. Solomon was easy to remember, like King Solomon. Even without a name he'd be easy enough to find, she doubted there were many black deputies in Point Pleasant but she also wasn't all that sure he'd want to see her again. Maybe he didn't know the truth, she had no idea who the sheriff was telling her secrets to. "What kids?" she asked, far more interested in that at the moment.
Ruby didn’t know all the officers in Point Pleasant, but she knew who Deputy Solomon was-- he was black and he was hot. It wouldn’t hurt for Amelia to stop by and see him. He’d always seemed like a nice guy, at least from afar. The question about the kids threw her off a little, almost not sure what Amelia was referring to until she thought back over what she said. “The ones with the black eyes,” she said softly. “Not, like, when you punch someone. But like I have brown eyes. Except it was the whole eye, not just the pupil.” She remembered the way the police had looked at her when she’d told them about them, like she was a kid making up stories. But Amelia had just come from another world. “Jasper’s seen them too,” she added. “One came to my house right before my mom disappeared. I always felt like… like they took her. Or made her leave.”
Amelia tried to picture children with black eyes and her mind provided only vague memories of people dissolving into smoke. Maybe they were the same, maybe not. Jasper hadn't told her about them and she wasn't sure how she felt about that. Some weird mix of disappointed, angry and relieved. "What do you do if they come to you?" she asked and her first instinct was to shoot them, just motherfucking point a gun at them and shoot them until they were nothing but black smoke, wafting into the evening air. It was a violent thought that didn't feel like it belonged on this side and she cringed inwardly at the mix of memory and imagination showing her all the potential things that could happen if she did that.
“Get away from them,” Ruby said, her voice still soft, but sure, almost urgent. Somehow she knew this, she’d felt their wrongness from the first time she saw them, but then Jasper had confirmed it. “Don’t help them, don’t talk to them, just… They’re not… there’s something wrong with them.” She wanted to say they weren’t human, but she had no evidence to back that up. They looked human, but they couldn’t be. “Jasper said he went to see a witch and got some hex bags? If I see one again, that’s what I’ll do, but it’s been years.” She realized maybe she was saying too much, that Jasper might not want to share these things with Amelia, but she wasn’t nine years old anymore and Ruby had the feeling she’d understand more than anyone.
Amelia recognized the tone in her voice all too well from years of needing to avoid dark creatures. She nodded, a little chill crawling up her back. "I have bags like that," she said quietly. "You should get one even if you don't see them, just in case..." She hesitated, looking out at the gray ocean before reaching out for Ruby. "Has anyone ever tried to hurt them?" She had to ask, shooting had done wonders with the creatures she'd had to deal with though it didn't really keep them from coming back.
“Yeah, I should,” Ruby said with a little nod. She hadn’t needed one, but it had been a long time since she’d come across anything vaguely similar. Then Jasper had seen them and Amelia had gone missing and now it felt like she should be more prepared. Hopefully Jasper would be willing to point her in the right direction. “I don’t know,” she answered, brow drawing together. “I was little last time, so it didn’t even occur to me. Now… I wonder what would happen. I mean, they look like children.” But they weren’t, she knew that. “What’re you thinking?” she asked, trying to imagine what that might mean. She could see herself grabbing something to fend them off, but it wasn’t like Ruby was usually armed.
Amelia felt herself get a little distant at that question. She was picturing bodies going up in smoke and the more she thought about it the more it seemed like a dream. Had that really happened or was she masking something bloodier in her memory. "I don't know," she lied because it suddenly felt gruesome and horrible to even suggest shooting a kid, even if it was some demonic black-eyed thing. She looked at Ruby again and smiled faintly. "Be safe, get away, don't talk to them, don't help them - that sounds like a good plan."
Ruby smiled, a touch embarrassed, and nodded. “Yeah, I know it’s not much of one, but… Sorry for making things weird. I kinda forget you didn’t know the story about my mom.” She hadn’t meant to get into this at all. The plan had been to stick to the normal, not remind Amelia that this place could be dangerous. What were the chances of her ever seeing one of those kids anyways? It had been years since Ruby had seen one and they were seen infrequently enough that most people didn’t even believe they existed.
Amelia gave her a confused look. "You didn't make anything weird," she said. "Things just are." She reached out to touch Ruby's arm, Max's leash tangled around her wrist. "I'm sorry about your mom," she said softly. "Was she nice?" It was probably awful but right now Amelia didn't think she'd be very upset if her own mother went missing. She'd managed to make Amelia feel like shit in more than one way and Amelia wasn't sure what to do with that.
Ruby nodded in agreement. Things were weird. They always had been, even when they seemed normal. “It’s okay. It was a long time ago. But yeah, she was,” she said with a little smile. “From what I remember, she was a good mom. Pushed me to be better when I was slacking. Made me pick up after myself. But let me be me. She was the first one to finally call me Ruby.” She only knew that because her father had told her, but it stuck with her. She’d been a stubborn little kid and had decided early on she didn’t like her first name. Sure, her mother always thought she’d go back to being Morgan, but that day never came.
"Your name wasn't always Ruby," Amelia said softly and it felt weirdly validating to know that Ruby had changed her own name. She couldn't imagine her with any other name so maybe it wasn't really such a bad thing to do. "How old were you when you changed it?" she asked rather than ask what her name used to be, it didn't really matter because it wasn't her name now.
“Four,” Ruby smiled. There wasn’t a lot she remembered from that age, but some of the discussions about her name stuck like dreams in the back of her mind. They faded in and out so much she wasn’t sure what she remembered versus what she’d been told. “My parents thought I’d grow out of it, but instead I think I grew into it. It’s hard for me to imagine being anyone else now.” Morgan was a person she didn’t know, a girl with her name, but not her personality.
"I can't imagine you with any other name," Amelia told her as she tried to think back on if she remembered anything from when she was four. She wasn't sure, there were scattered memories but she had no idea how old she was in any of them. She did remember being very small, sitting on her daddy's lap asking him about all his tattoos. He'd been very patient, explaining every one of them. She hadn't known how to read back then but he'd read them for her and by now she knew them very well. Seeing them again, however briefly, had been nostalgic for her and she'd asked him not to put his shirt on just yet so she could read them. They meant more to her now than they had as a child because now she understood what he was trying to protect himself from with all those symbols and text. "Do you have tattoos?" she asked distractedly, caught by her memory.
Ruby wasn’t sure how Amelia got from names to tattoos, but it didn’t really matter. She smiled and shook her head. “Not yet. I know I want one, but I don’t know what. I’ve been trying to decide, then maybe have someone draw it on me in marker for a bit so I can be sure.” She wasn’t eighteen yet, but she really didn’t think that would stop her. She had a fake ID if it really came down to it. It was more that she hadn’t decided on what she wanted and where and that seemed like a big thing when it came to tattoos. “Do you?” she asked, since that was a possibility now. It was weird how she knew this was Amelia, how all the familiarity was there, but how the relationship had changed so drastically. They were equals now and it was actually pretty cool.
Amelia shook her head. "I want one, I think. My dad has a bunch for protection, I want to believe they work." She didn't really believe in god anymore but her dad had more than bible quotes on his body, little symbols and magic runes. It was kind of funny how he mixed that with his catholic things, considering the church probably frowned upon the pagan things, but whatever worked, right? "I'm thinking about those kids, if tattoos might help."
“I wonder how that would work,” Ruby said, fascinated by the idea. “Like, would you have to have a witch ink you for it to work? Or could they tell you what to do and then activate it for you?” She didn’t know a lot about magic, but she knew that not everyone could do it. She also knew there were fake, tv style witches, and that there were real ones. Unfortunately, she had no idea who the real ones were. Chances were, they didn’t look like witches and just blended in with everyone else. “Do you know any witches?”
Amelia opened her mouth, hesitating and shaking her head before any words came out. "I- wow I'd never even thought about it. I don't think you need a witch, like those... symbols are just powerful on their own? But maybe dad actually had a priest and a witch bless them, I never even thought to ask." She shook her head again. "I don't know any witches but my parents do and I think Jasper does too, I mean, they had to have gotten those hex bags from somewhere."
“I know Jasper knows one. I don’t know who, but he told me that’s where he got the hex bags,” Ruby said. It was a lot to consider and she wasn’t even sure where to start. “Maybe ask your dad? If there’s protection in the symbols themselves without a witch’s involvement, then that’s really cool. I mean, it’s cool anyways, but I’d like to think we have power on our own.” It frustrated her to think she might have to rely on a witch for her own protection. Ruby wanted to know what she could do on her own, for herself and those she cared about.
Amelia had to agree. It sucked to feel powerless and she knew that feeling all too well. "It would be cool to have the ink blessed or whatever you'd call it if a witch does it," she said with a little smile. "But with those bags you need to do something to refresh them every now and then and I don't know how that would work with tattoos." She'd definitely ask Gavin now - or Jasper. They wouldn't know but they could ask their witch friends. "Maybe if enough people believe something that's enough to give it power."
“Maybe. Like the church,” Ruby said. She wasn’t religious, but she knew that priests had a power that was different than magic. And that there was something special about hallowed ground. If she had something dark chasing after her, she’d likely make a beeline for the church. “It’s worth asking about. I’d like to think something like a tattoo would last longer, like the magic seeps into your blood the way the ink does. Now you’ve got me thinking about protective tattoos,” she smiled over at Amelia.
"You should come with me sometime," Amelia said with a little grin. "Get tattooed with me, I really don't wanna go alone." Of course she could go with Gavin or Jasper but she had a feeling they'd be weird about it and she had to remind herself that to them she'd been just a kid less than a month ago. "It'd be fun!" She gave Ruby an excited smile with a hint of question behind it. Ruby was Jasper's friend but Amelia had always liked her, maybe they could be friends too.
“We should totally do that,” Ruby grinned, kind of thrilled with the idea. Not only did Amelia not think it was weird, but she was on board with it. It was her idea! Even if the first tat they got was just for fun, she liked the idea of them going together. “Let me think a little about what I want. And do a little research. But definitely.” Even if she wasn’t eighteen yet, she’d find a way to make it work. “Do you have a phone yet? I want to get your number, so we can chat.” Because there really was no need to go through Jasper at this point.
"Yes!" Amelia replied excitedly and got the leashes tangled together in one hand so she could pull out her phone. "We should get a selfie," she added, nudging Ruby with her elbow. It was one of those things she was rapidly becoming addicted to, having a phone, having the world at her fingertips and she wanted to take pictures of everything. She didn't wait for Ruby to agree - or protest - before she pulled up the camera app, and leaned in close to Ruby while holding up the phone.
Ruby wouldn’t have protested; she was thrilled to have a picture with Amelia and smiled brightly for the camera as she leaned in. “You’re gonna have to send that to me,” she smiled afterwards. “I can use it as your contact pic. And we’ll have to get together soon and do something fun.” She didn’t know what, but she’d think on it a bit. Maybe Jasper would have some ideas for what she might be up for. Now, though, the chill was starting to get to her and she shivered. “I think I may have to go warm up a bit… Do you want to get some coffee with me?”
Amelia nodded eagerly. "I'm kinda freezing," she said and it sounded like she was admitting something very embarrassing and not just the fact that she was cold. "I'm gonna let the dogs run a little and then we can drop them off at home and get some coffee." She looked around and then knelt down to unhook the leash off the dogs' collars. Nobody was around and Gavin said they usually stayed close. She just hoped this wasn't a mistake. As they darted off, tails wagging, she closed the camera app and opened up her contacts, handing Ruby the phone. "I'm putting this is your contact picture," she said. "Now I just need your number."
It was still early in the season, and would definitely get colder, but right now Ruby wasn’t dressed for standing still in the cold and she was glad Amelia agreed with her. And even more happy to hear she wanted to hang out a bit longer some place warm. “Good plan,” Ruby said, watching the dogs as they started to run around happily, their tails wagging behind them. She took Amelia’s phone when she offered it, entering in her phone number, then her address, just in case she ever needed it. “You’re going to have to let me know what name you decide on,” she said as she setup a contact for Amelia on her own phone. She had no problem putting her under her real name, but if her name popped up on the phone sometime, she didn’t want people asking weird questions.
Amelia sighed quietly but she had to bite that bullet sometime and she could think of it like a code name if anything. "Just put Lyra," she said and spelled it out for her, just to be safe. "Jasper's cousin from Portland. Or somewhere, we haven't really decided where I'm supposed to be from." Which was going to be tricky, maybe she should say it was somewhere farther away because people here would have friends or relatives in Portland and things could get complicated. "I'm trying to think of it as like... witness protection," she mumbled as she took Ruby's phone and put her number in. "Something exciting and totally fictional."
Ruby reached out, her hand light on Amelia’s arm, her fingers cold. “You’ll always be Amelia to me,” she smiled softly. “But I like it. It’s pretty, and fitting.” It seemed similar enough that she could see herself getting used to it. Like a nickname. “No rush on figuring out where you want to be from. But I’d pick a city, some place bigger than here, where everyone doesn’t know everyone else, you know?” It just seemed like a precaution, on the off chance that she ever met someone else from there. “Maybe pick some place you want to visit. Then you have a reason to go there. Road trip it or something,” she suggested. “Try to make it fun.”
Amelia watched her as she listened, her eyes watering for reasons she couldn't quite pinpoint. Maybe it was just how nice Ruby was being, or that her idea was good, or that she genuinely seemed to care, or something else entirely. Whatever it was, it made Amelia's chest and throat feel tight and she swallowed against it and turned to wrap her arms around Ruby, squeezing her tightly. "Thank you," she whispered and hoped Ruby didn't think it was weird.
Ruby smiled and hugged Amelia back, touched that anything she said meant that much. She didn’t have a lot of girlfriends, hadn’t since things fell apart with Jules years ago, but she kind of felt like she clicked with Amelia the way you did with family. She’d known Amelia her whole life, even if she’d missed the part where she was gone. And while she knew it would’ve been better if it never happened, this was nice. “Anytime,” she said softly, meaning that more seriously than it probably sounded. Anytime Amelia needed anything, she could call Ruby and she’d be there.
The hug was nice, Amelia really couldn't get enough of hugging people these days, each one was like a reminder she wasn't dreaming and Ruby gave good hugs. When she let go she gave her a little grin and sniffled. "Let's get the hell out of here, I am not dressed for this weather." She felt a weird urge to grab Ruby's hand but that was probably way too weird so she pocketed her phone and then shoved her hands in her pockets as well, hollering out for the dogs.
“Me neither,” Ruby laughed, then whistled for the dogs, trying to call them in with Amelia. Hopefully they wouldn’t need to chase them down. She was eager to get some place warm, drink something hot, and waste some time with her new friend. That’s what it felt like anyways. She’d always liked Amelia, but a couple weeks ago she’d just been a kid. Now she was someone Ruby thought she’d enjoy hanging out with, so long as they could find some place warmer to do it.