Amelia had decided that talking to Ruby about the whole Elodie problem should probably take place somewhere where they could sit down and talk in private. She had no idea how Ruby would react, she'd been upset enough about the whole spell or drug or whatever the hell it was that had her believing she was in love with Jasper - and worse yet, told him all about it. This just took an already delicate situation and made it worse so it probably wasn't a great idea to make her cry or rage in public if it came to that. She visited instead and wore comfortable and durable clothes just in case. Just in case of what? Was it likely that Ruby wanted to go deliver a smackdown on Elodie? Amelia didn't know that but she wasn't taking any chances.
Ruby lived close by Aaron she noted as she walked into Seaview, cursing the fact she didn't have permission to drive even if she knew how to. It was cold and she was shivering pretty badly when she knocked on Ruby's door, bouncing on her heels for some warmth.
Ruby had the day off work, so she’d come on home to do homework, the house quiet while both her father and her brother were out. Things were starting to feel normal again, though she was still kind of avoiding Jasper, mostly because she didn’t want it to be weird. Would it be weird? He’d been understanding, but she didn’t know what he believed. Even to Ruby it felt impossible, yet she knew herself well enough to know that she’d not been herself at all the day she’d told Jasper she loved him. So she had to accept that some other force was at work, be it drugs or magic or something. When someone knocked on the door, Ruby climbed off the couch to answer it. She wasn’t expecting anyone, so she peered through the curtains first, then hurried to open the door when she saw it was Amelia. “Hey! Is everything okay? Come on in,” she said, holding the door open for Amelia.
"It's cold," Amelia said with a pout as she stepped inside and that was answer enough for now to the question. She didn't want to talk about stuff here in the hallway but she also wanted to warm up and feel more human before they talked so she wasn't going to jump right into it. "You're not busy, are you? I figured I could sweet talk Jasper or dad into picking me up later but they can't just yet." She gave Ruby a hopeful smile with a purposeful comedic touch to it, hunching her shoulders as she rubbed at her arms for warmth.
“It’s fucking freezing,” Ruby laughed, leading her back to the living room couch. “You could have called me. I would have picked you up. In the truck, of course. And I can drop you back off. It’s not a problem.” She couldn’t imagine walking anywhere in this weather. As much as she loved her bike, it really only worked during the warmer months of the year. Some people might say she wasn’t hardcore. She preferred to think she wasn’t stupid. “I was just working on homework, nothing big. I’ve got this paper due next week that I’m trying to get done early. I’d rather do it now than on the weekend, you know?”
That gave Amelia some pause. Telling her everything had blown up in her face right when she was trying to get something important done just didn't seem like a good idea, but then Ruby might hear it from somewhere else and it would be even worse. Her expression said everything she wasn't saying in words, the way her brows drew together and a sympathetic scowl curved her lips. Yeah, there was bad news coming.
Ruby paused, her smile began to fade, the sense that something was wrong becoming even stronger with Amelia’s expression. She’d thought maybe when she was at the door, but now she was sure. “What is it?” She asked. “What happened?” There were so many possibilities that she didn’t even know where to start. It was better just to wait and see what Amelia said before jumping to conclusions. “Is everyone okay?” She asked first, since that was most important.
Amelia winced and shook her head but it was better to blurt it out than leave Ruby hanging. "Elodie recorded everything you said to Jasper and sent it to Jules," she said, the words a little rushed. "I don't know why, she's crazy or evil, I don't know. Jasper is furious and Jules is pissed and..." She trailed off, her face set in both a sympathetic and irritated expression as she waited for Ruby to process it.
“She what?!” Ruby blurted out before Amelia had even finished, her eyes wide and face turning red as the rest of what she had to say came out. “That fucking bitch!” she snapped, fury coming on so fast it made her hands shake. She would kill her. Shake her until her head popped off. If Elodie had been there right that second, Ruby probably would have hit her. Except she wasn’t there and without a proper target for her rage, she was forced to process the rest of what Amelia had said. “When did this happen?” she asked, a wave of dread washing over her. “How long has she known? Jules, I mean.”
"Since yesterday," Amelia replied dutifully. She probably could have come over sooner but it was what it was. Ruby's anger wasn't exactly surprising but Amelia still had no idea how she would channel it. The 'what do you want to do' hung there in the air between them, unspoken but present with the way Amelia watched her expectantly. She didn't know what she would do if she was in Ruby's shoes, she'd never experienced anything remotely like this and that she could say with confidence even if she didn't remember much about the last nine years.
Yesterday. That was long enough for Jules to let it spread, if she’d wanted to, though Ruby was guessing she might want to keep this to herself. Maybe. It wasn’t like Jasper had returned her feelings, so Ruby was the only one who would look bad. Either way, Jules had had plenty of time to confront her about it. “Fuck,” she muttered, her hands balled into tight fists. “I can’t fix this. I don’t even know where to begin. Jules… She won’t believe me. And Elodie…” She shook her head in frustration, but the answers didn’t come. What the hell was she supposed to do about Elodie? As tempting as it was to go after her physically, at least in that second, Ruby knew that would only make it worse and Elodie could still distribute the recording. Right now it was a private humiliation. She didn’t want to risk making it public.
"She might believe you," Amelia said softly but truth be told she didn't really know or understand Jules. Jasper had said she was mad at him and that made no sense to Amelia. Then again she didn't really understand most people or these sort of weird teenage politics in the first place. "I hate this girl too, we can never do anything in our own backyard again without thinking she might be spying on us. I can't wait to move." She reached out to take hold of Ruby's arm, gently squeezing. "Whatever you want to do, you won't have to do it alone. You just call me and I'll be right there for you."
Ruby found herself wishing she was a little more like Jules, with the knowledge of how to ruin someone’s life without lifting a finger. Because that’s what Elodie deserved right now. She sat in the background, stirring up trouble, and would likely get away with it if she didn’t do something. But Ruby didn’t have anything to use against Elodie and she didn’t have an entire squad of girls standing behind her to back her up. She had Amelia though, and that felt like something. “I don’t know yet,” she said, giving Amelia a little smile. “She’s not untouchable, but I don’t think that screaming at her will do shit. If she had a car, I might slash her tires,” she joked weakly. “It just pisses me off so bad. She knew what she was doing, that this would make things so much worse. I don’t wanna cause problems between Jules and Jasper and now… it’s like, all the work we did to fix things is lost.”
"Jules knows there are weird things in the world," Amelia told her. "She has to understand what happened, even if it's not right away. It'll be okay." She couldn't say so with confidence, but she did anyway. Ruby needed that sort of certainty and she had a faint memory of Maggie doing the same. How often had she been sure when she'd told Amelia they were going to survive? Not often, that was for sure. Yet she had stubbornly put on a brave face and blatantly lied to her face. Sometimes lying to people's faces was the best thing for them and hell, this wasn't even a lie, Amelia believed things would be fine eventually.
Ruby wanted to believe Amelia, she really did. And maybe she was right, given enough time, but Ruby expected that would take weeks or months to accomplish. And during that time, she’d probably need to keep her distance from Jasper. She didn’t have to, Jules couldn’t make her do anything, but she’d rather keep her distance than have Jasper push her away. That seemed worse, to have it out of her control. She would have to talk to Jasper, to understand how much damage had been done, as if things weren’t awkward enough between them. But it had to be done if she wanted to salvage their friendship. “I hope you’re right,” she sighed, rubbing a hand over her face. “We haven’t always gotten along and this wouldn’t be the first time she thought there was something between us. How’s Jasper handling it? Has he gone after Elodie yet?” She couldn’t even imagine him not saying something. They were neighbors, for fuck’s sake.
"Not yet," Amelia replied. "And he refused to let me kill her so..." It was a joke but on some level a part of her wanted to hurt Elodie, both for what she did to Ruby and for being a threat to the Lucas family. Amelia had a hard enough time remembering what had happened to her, not being able to speak freely when she felt the need was stifling in the worst of ways and she hated Elodie for making things worse. "Not that I need his permission," she added cheekily, cocking a brow at Ruby as if in an invitation.
“She’s not worth the effort,” Ruby said with a twist of her lips. She wasn’t a violent person, but damn did she wish Elodie was there right that second to punch. She knew that once her temper simmered down she wouldn’t have such a knee jerk response, but the bitch deserved it and worse. “It makes me wish something like that would happen to her, especially ‘cause I know she doesn’t believe in it. Some Point Pleasant karma, you know?” That kind of stuff never happened to the people that deserved it though. Amelia definitely didn’t. Neither did her mother. People like Elodie just seemed to get by, their place in the background keeping them safe from the crazy that everyone else had to mess with.
Amelia wouldn't wish Point Pleasant karma on anyone but she understood why Ruby would say that and on an impulse she moved closer to her and wrapped her arms around her, squeezing her tight. "If you decide to beat the shit out of her, call me first," she said warmly, lingering there with Ruby in her arms. She was so slight, especially when Amelia was so used to hugging her brother and dad, both of them rather big guys. Ruby was even smaller than Amelia was, it was weird but nice.
Ruby knew that it probably wasn’t right to wish that kind of crazy on anyone, but it would have taken revenge out of her hands, along with the sort of guilt and consequences that usually came with fighting back. She’d always been a fighter, just not in the physical sense. Now she found herself in a situation where retaliation seemed impossible and it pissed her off. She hugged Amelia back, resting her head on her shoulder for a moment as she tried to fight off the feeling of defeat. “I will,” she sighed. “I just hate feeling like she won somehow. Like… this is exactly what she wanted.” The only way to prove her wrong was for everything to be fine, but that was out of her hands and almost completely up to Jules.
"I just don't understand why she would want that,"Amelia said bitterly as she let Ruby go. "Did you or Jasper do something to her? Or Jules?" Jasper hadn't said anything about that but who knew. Maybe Elodie felt slighted for some reason but that didn't excuse what she'd done. At least she hadn't sent it to everyone at school or something, though Amelia could absolutely see how that would be something Ruby might be scared of.
“Not that I know of,” Ruby said. “When I talked to her the other day, she was convinced I needed to own up to my feelings. She didn’t buy that something else had a hold on me and there was nothing I could do to convince her. I just don’t understand why she thought it was any of her business.” It wasn’t like she was close friends with any of them and felt some obligation to clear the air. It really felt like Elodie was just trying to stir up trouble and, if that was the case, what was to stop her from distributing the video and making things worse?
Amelia bristled a little at what Elodie had said, shaking her head in annoyance. "Can I stay here for a bit?" she asked, glancing over at Ruby's homework. She doubted she could focus on that now but what did she know. Maybe Ruby worked better when she was angry. "Or do you want to go somewhere? I don't want to go home yet and you look like you could use some distracting."
“Yeah,” Ruby said, nodding as she glanced towards her homework. It would have to wait till later. Now she’d be better to throw herself into something mindless. “Let’s get out of here. We can get some coffee or ice cream or both. I dunno. We’ll find something.” It was hard for her to decide what she even wanted to do at this point, but getting out of the house seemed like a good idea and distractions were always easier to come by with a friend.