Ruby Fox (love_ruby) wrote in shadows_rpg, @ 2019-08-08 15:36:00 |
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Entry tags: | #december 2017, jules, jules x ruby, ruby |
Who: Ruby and Jules
Where: Jules’s House
When: Starting around 3:45pm, Wednesday, Dec 27
Status: Complete
Ruby had torn her house apart, but she couldn’t find her necklace anywhere. It wasn’t any place it should be, but she’d checked every obscure place as well. She’d checked in her truck, her father’s garage, and Clint’s car, just in case, but it was nowhere to be found. If it had been any other piece of jewelry she would have called it a day long ago, but this necklace was special to her. It had been her mother’s. She wore it all the time and couldn’t believe she’d lost it. Finally, she tried backtracking to when she remembered wearing it last and every place she’d been that day. That was how she ended up knocking on Jules’s door on Wednesday afternoon.
She knew she’d worn it to the party at Jules’s house. She thought she’d worn it home, but she couldn’t be certain. All she wanted to do was check the sofa in the study, just to be sure it hadn’t come off when she and Clint had been fooling around. It was embarrassing, but she’d run out of places to look and she didn’t think Jules would turn her away. They might not be friends, but she didn’t think they were on that bad of terms, so she knocked on the door and waited, shivering from the cold.
Jules was home alone when Ruby knocked on the door. Well, she wasn't alone. Her stepdad was there, and Jules was essentially hanging out in her room to avoid having to talk to him. Jason was out of town through the next week and her mom wasn't due home until later that night. The only solace she had was that Edward and her mom would be leaving on vacation the next morning and Jules would have Jasper all to herself for the next four days.
Every so often during the day Jules was sure she heard someone stop outside of her bedroom door, but the footsteps were light and when she would get up to check, the hallway would be empty. She felt like maybe it was just her imagination, but it was still kind of weirding her out. Jules had never liked Edward, but the feeling seemed to intensify lately, especially when she caught him staring at her somewhere in the house. Creeper.
She heard the knock downstairs and peered out her bedroom window to see Ruby's bike. Frowning, Jules headed downstairs since Edward was nowhere to be found and she opened the front door, wondering what on earth Ruby was doing there. It occurred to her belatedly that maybe something was wrong with Jasper and Jules's confusion vanished quickly. "Is everything okay?"
Ruby gave Jules a small smile when she opened the door, tucking her gloved hands in against her body in an attempt to keep them warm. “Yeah, everything’s fine. I just… I think I might’ve left something here the other night. When you had the party,” she added. It had been a while, but they weren’t exactly friends and she didn’t even know if Jules was aware that she’d attended. Her goal at the time had been to see Clint and avoid Jules, but people talked. “It’s a gold pendant shaped kind of like a teardrop, but it’s an evil eye. I think it might be in your father’s study.” All of this she could have said in a text or on the phone, but she wanted the opportunity to check for herself, even if Jules said she hadn’t found one. It wasn’t that she didn’t believe her, but that she needed to validate it for herself.
It was freaking freezing with the door open but Jules stared at Ruby for a moment before her lips curled in a small smirk. "Oh, right, when you were hooking up with Clint. Must have gotten pretty crazy if your necklace came off." At least it had been in Edward's study and not Jason's bed like Logan and Bash. "And he's not my father," she added almost as an afterthought before stepping back from the doorway so Ruby could step inside. Jules might have weird feelings about Ruby but she wasn't about to make her wait on the porch with the weather being so shitty. She noticed that the sky had gotten darker and there was some fog coming off the cliffs but Jules was more concerned with getting the door shut. "We can go look. I don't think he's in there right now."
Ruby wasn’t the sort to blush. She wasn’t embarrassed about hooking up with Clint, but also wasn’t about to correct Jules either. What they’d done or hadn’t done was none of her damn business. “It’s the only place I haven’t looked,” was all she said before following Jules into the house, thankful that they weren’t going to stand there and argue in the freezing cold. Calling him her dad was a slip on her part, she knew he was her step father, just like Jason was her step brother, but she just nodded in response. It didn’t seem like a big deal at the moment. “Thanks,” she sighed. “If it’s not here, I don’t know where it is. It’s a long shot, but… I have to check.” If it wasn’t there, it was probably gone for good, something she just wasn’t ready to accept. “Should I take my boots off?” She asked, already reaching for the laces. She didn’t know the protocol at Jules’s house when there wasn’t a party already in progress.
Jules would have probably agreed that whatever Ruby and Clint had done wasn't any of her business, except they did it in her house which made it her business. To an extent, anyway. In any case, she was willing to help Ruby find the necklace so she could go. Jules had no idea if it was even there. Edward hadn't said anything to her about finding a necklace. Jules glanced down at Ruby's boots after closing the door and then shrugged. "It's up to you. I mean, if your boots are muddy and wet and stuff, probably. I don't need my mom flipping out about the carpet tonight." She lingered, waiting for Ruby to discard the boots. The house was quiet and Jules couldn't help but wonder where her stepdad had gone off to. God, she hoped he wasn't in his study because she didn't want to have to ask him if they could look around. He would want to know why and then that might get weird.
Ruby had ridden her bike over, so of course her boots were dirty. She would have discarded them in her own house, so she assumed Jules, or at least Jules’ mother, would have wanted her to remove them there too. She was quick about it, then followed behind Jules as she thawed out from the cold. It would have been warmer to have taken her truck, but the damn thing refused to start and she didn’t want to mess with it at the moment. As they walked, she marveled at the quiet in the house, the lack of television or stereo blaring in some other room. Every time she’d been there in recent years it had been for a party and this felt distinctly different. Maybe it was the daylight, though that seemed to be lacking today, the light seeming to dim slightly as they walked from room to room.
Jules led Ruby through the house towards her stepdad's study. She slowed a bit as she saw the door was shut. Chewing hesitantly on her lower lip, Jules stared at the door before reaching out to knock. There was no answer so Jules gripped the doorknob and turned it, opening the door slowly to peek inside in case he was on a call or something. But the study was empty so she pushed the door fully open and stepped inside, almost immediately searching for any sign of Ruby's necklace. "Let's look quick. I don't want him to catch us in here," Jules muttered. "Where were you guys doing whatever you were doing?"
Ruby breathed a sigh of relief when they found the study empty. She wasn’t embarrassed about being in there with Clint, but having to explain that to Jules’ stepfather would be awkward. In fact, she’d rather make something up than tell him the truth, just in case he didn’t know Jules had had a party. “The sofa,” she said, already heading that direction. “And it wasn’t as wild as you must be thinking.” It’d been a house party at a house she wasn’t totally welcome at in a room she didn’t think locked and she’d been far more sober than the first time she’d hooked up with Clint. They’d had fun, but it wasn’t the wild sex on the desk that she thought Jules must be imagining. Ruby crouched to look beneath the sofa, using her phone as a light, but when she didn’t see the necklace there she began feeling between the cushions. It had to be there somewhere.
"I don't think the word wild ever entered my mind," Jules said, tugging some of the pillows up from the couch to see if they fell behind them. She realized she was probably being too snarky, but it seemed to be the default setting when it came to interacting with Ruby these days. It wasn't very nice, or fair so Jules took a breath and reached down into the cushions to feel around for any sign of the necklace. "So are you and Clint, like, dating now?" Jules asked as she set one pillow down and picked up another to keep looking.
Ruby’s jaw tightened, but she kept her mouth shut, determined to at least finish looking for her necklace before she got snippy with Jules. She felt down between the cushions, her breath catching when her fingers brushed across the small, golden chain. Pulling it out, the charm dangled from one end, the clasp having come undone, but that didn’t matter. The chain could be replaced. Ruby exhaled as her anxiety began to dissipate, then looked over at Jules. “I guess. I mean, it’s nothing serious, but yeah.” She knew Jasper wasn’t impressed with her decision to date Clint, but she wasn’t going to let that stop her and he was her friend. Jules’ opinion mattered even less, but she still wasn’t looking forward to receiving it.
Jules wasn't impressed or unimpressed. She really had no opinion on it, other than feeling some relief that Ruby liked another guy. Clint usually ran in Jules's social circle, so it was a bit of a surprise, but considering who Jules was dating, she knew it would be super hypocritical of her to question it. "Well, he's pretty cool," she said, putting the pillows back on the couch once she saw Ruby clutching the necklace. "Not a dick like some of them. "
"What are you doing?"
Jules looked over at the door to see her stepdad standing there, his dark brows furrowed together as his gaze shifted from Ruby to Jules and back to Ruby. "Who's this?"
"Oh." Jules came around the couch, resisting the urge to grip Ruby's elbow and maneuver her out of there. "This is Ruby, a friend of mine. She stayed over last weekend and lost her necklace. We were just covering all of the bases. Ruby, this is my stepdad, Edward."
Edward seemed unimpressed himself and scowled briefly, ignoring Ruby as he looked back at Jules. "There's some heavy fog rolling in. Your friend might want to head home before she gets stuck here."
Jules didn’t have to reach for Ruby; she backed slowly towards her, weary enough of an old, rich, white dude to put Jules between them. She didn’t consider it racist. It was just common sense. Edward would likely be more receptive to a response from his step daughter than herself. “Nice to meet you,” she said, though she doubted he cared about the introduction. She was ready to get out of there just as much as he sounded like he wanted her gone. Ruby nodded her head. “I was just going,” she said, dropping her necklace into her jacket pocket and zipping it up. “Thanks for the head’s up.”
Edward wasn't that old, nor was he really rich since he mostly mooched off her mom's money, but Jules could understand Ruby's apprehension. She had been living with her stepdad since she was a kid, and he still creeped her out. "I'll walk you out," Jules told her, since otherwise she would just be standing there awkwardly while Ruby booked it. Edward barely moved out of the way, making both girls slip past him in the doorway.
"Sorry," she muttered to Ruby as they walked toward the stairs. "He's weird about people being in there. I usually lock it during parties."
Ruby looked over her shoulder once they left the study, just to make sure Edward wasn’t following them or listening in. Something about the man made her uncomfortable, though she thought that was probably her own fault in this case. She’d been somewhere she shouldn’t have been and got caught. “It’s okay,” she said, sure to keep her voice down. “We shouldn’t have been in there.” She’d just assumed no one would have to know.
"Probably not," Jules said. Honestly, she didn't care much until something like this happened and Jules had to try and come up with a lie to her mom or stepdad about something being missing, or broken, or just generally off. That was the risk of having a party, she supposed. "There's like, the laundry room on the first floor. Try that next time." Jules pulled open the front door and shivered immediately at the burst of bitter air that engulfed her. "Jesus, did it get colder since you got here?" It took her only a second longer to realize she could barely see outside. She couldn't even see Ruby's bike, the fog was so thick. "Holy crap. Can you see anything?"
"Like you always make the best decisions," Ruby bristled. She was trying to apologize, had already acknowledged that she'd made a mistake, and she didn't need Jules rubbing her nose in it. Plus, the laundry room was small, cramped, and didn't have a sofa. It was also the kind of place that they were more likely to be interrupted. Ruby pulled on her boots, not even bothering to lace them, ready to be out of the house and away from Jules. But when she turned to face the door, she saw what Jules was talking about. "Fuck," she muttered, then pulled her coat tighter around her, determined to leave. "I'll make it work," she said, then stepped out into the cold.
"I never said I make good decisions," Jules replied with exasperation. "I'm just giving you advice on what to do next time." Man, Ruby was touchy today. Her laundry room was spacious enough to make out with someone. She had done it before, when her bedroom had felt too far away during a party. Not that she was going to get into that now. And it didn't matter. What happened happened and now Ruby had her necklace back. Edward might lecture her on letting her friends go into his study, but Jules could handle it. She usually responded by ignoring him and going to her room. But right now she was more worried about the fog, especially considering what happened in town last time there was so much of it. "Wait, just... stay," Jules said with a small sigh. "It's really thick out there and freezing. Maybe it'll pass over in a bit, then you can go. If you go now and like, drive into a tree I'll feel bad. Just stay."
As soon as she stepped outside, Ruby knew she could not make it work. It was like standing in a cloud; her visibility was shit. It would be dangerous to drive in a car and a bike would practically be suicide. But asking to stay with Jules, who was dishing out advice on proper party hookup etiquette, made her feel nauseous. Thankfully, Jules didn’t make her ask. She looked back at Jules, then sighed in defeat as she came back inside and shut the door. It was too cold to stand there with it open any longer. “So… I guess we just wait,” she said, pulling her boots back off, followed by her coat. She hoped she wouldn’t be staying long, but it was hard to say, so she might as well settle in for a bit.
Jules wasn't thrilled about Ruby staying either, but she didn't want the other girl to get hurt or worse trying to leave Overlook in this weather. And at least she had some company and wasn't just there alone with her stepdad. "Do you want something to drink?" she asked after a moment. They couldn't just stand there in the foyer, after all, and it wasn't like Jules could just abandon Ruby to retreat to her bedroom. But thinking about the fog now made her want to text Jasper to see if he was still at home with Logan. Just in case. "We can watch tv or something?"
“I’m okay right now,” Ruby said, though if it turned out they were there for the evening she might come back around to it and ask for a drink. And if they were there too long, maybe they could have something stronger than a Diet Coke. Spending the evening with Jules wasn’t really Ruby’s idea of a good time, but she appreciated her letting her stay. Watching television would be a good way to pass the time that wouldn’t require a lot of conversation. “Sure. What do you wanna watch?”
"I don't know," Jules admitted before laughing. "It's been a while since I like, sat down and actually watched tv. It just feels like there's always something else going on, you know?" She led Ruby to the living room. "How was your Christmas and everything?" See? She could be nice. And Jules didn't want to spend the next however many hours with Ruby if things were going to be tense and bickery. They had been friends before and even if they weren't really friends now, it wasn't like this was the first time Ruby had hung out at her house.
“Yeah, tell me about it,” Ruby said with a little laugh. “I’m always hearing about shows I need to watch, but I never find the time to actually start them.” Between school, work, and friends, she couldn’t really keep up. If anything, she made it to the movies, but catching the same show week after week rarely happened. “Christmas was good,” she said, taking a seat on the couch. “We got together with my cousins, but it was mostly quiet. What about you?”
Jules grabbed the remote and flopped down on the couch. They could find something silly on Netflix or Hulu and just kill time. "It was fine. I mean, like, family stuff. When it's only the four of us, it's not like, big some celebration." She curled her finger under the necklace chain around her neck. "Jasper got me this though, so that was probably the best part of Christmas. Now it's over and it's just cold and gross outside. I almost want to go back to school just to have something to do."
Ruby’s family wasn’t big either, just the three of them, which was why it was nice to get together with her cousins. It made the hole where her mother should be a little less noticeable. “That’s nice,” she smiled when Jules showed off her necklace. “He did good then.” Guys sometimes sucked when it came to gifts. She was always helping her brother out when it came to them, especially for girls. It made her wonder if Jasper had come up with it on his own or if he’d roped Amelia into helping him. “If we could go to school without the homework, and maybe without some of the classes, I’d be in,” she grinned. “I’m not sure that’s called school though. More like a big group hangout fest.”
"I'm good with group hangout fests too, even if they're in school." Jules chuckled a little and drew her knees up to her chest. This felt kind of weird, but she was glad they weren't bickering or anything. They settled into watching television, and every now and then Jules glanced toward the large windows to see the fog hadn't seemed to let up. In fact, it looked worse. Eventually she realized it was nearly dinner time and she glanced at Ruby. "It kind of looks like you might have to like, stay the night. Do you want to call or text your dad or something?" And maybe she ought to text Jasper, just to see if he was okay. Jules didn't really want to have to talk to her stepdad, but she probably needed to tell him Ruby might stay too, so he didn't freak out on her for having someone over.
Time passed faster than Ruby expected it to, especially once they got sucked into a show. If she’d realized how long she was going to end up staying, she would have called or texted earlier, but she kept hoping the fog would let up and she’d be able to go home. Ruby pulled her phone out and tried to shoot off a text to her dad, only to find it wouldn’t go through. “I don’t have a signal,” she said, climbing off the couch to move around the room and hopefully pick one up. Sometimes being close to a window helped. “Do you have a landline I can use? Or can I connect to your wifi?” She needed to find some way to let her dad know where she was, even if he was stuck at work himself.
"Nobody has a landline anymore," Jules said. She pulled out her own phone and saw no bars. That sucked. "The wifi password is just Cooper85. But it's not connected for me either. Data won't even work." She had tried to pull up her Insta account, and then even google, but nothing would load. "I wonder if the fog is fucking with service or something." The television was working though.
"What's going on?"
Jules looked up to see Edward at the top of the winding stairs, looking down over the banister at them. She lowered her phone. "Our phones won't connect. Did mom call?"
Edward shook his head, his dark eyes still on Jules. There was something about his eyes that sent an uncomfortable shiver down her spine, but then his gaze shifted briefly to Ruby. "Is she leaving?"
"She's not driving in the fog," Jules replied haughtily. "She's going to stay the night." She really didn't like that Edward didn't address Ruby directly, but kept talking about her like she wasn't there. Jules wished she could text her mom that her husband was acting weird. "We're going to make some dinner and then be in my room. We won't be loud or anything."
Her stepdad said nothing, but turned away and disappeared down the upstairs hall. Jules exhaled and turned to Ruby. "Sorry. I don't know what his deal is today. He's been acting weird."
The behavior of Jules’s stepfather made Ruby even more uncomfortable with the situation, like her staying there was some kind of a burden or an affront. Ruby wondered if he was like that with all her friends, or if it was just her. “He’s kinda creepy,” Ruby said, keeping her voice down in case he was still somewhere nearby. She normally wouldn’t have said anything, but she got the feeling that Jules wasn’t all that fond of the man.
Well, at least she wasn't the only one noticing it. "He's not always that bad. Just seems like... lately..." She shrugged and then sighed before motioning Ruby to follow her to the kitchen. "My laptop is in my room so we can try and connect on that when we go upstairs. But it's weird that my phone won't send any texts either." Knowing what she knew about Point Pleasant, Jules set her phone down on the kitchen island while looking out the back windows. It was almost like a canvas of white. "This could be like... bad."
“Weather sometimes messes with reception. Like, the signal can’t reach the tower, you know?” Ruby thought that was right, but it didn’t make it any less unsettling. She hated being disconnected from the world in a place she was so uncomfortable with to begin with. Looking out into the fog, Ruby nodded. “It feels… foreboding.” There was a vocabulary word her English teacher would be proud of, but it was appropriate. Fog like this never felt like just bad weather. “Where were you last time the fog was bad?”
"Home, mostly. I mean, it lasted like three days, you know? And people went kind of crazy in it, remember? Mom said it was something about toxic pollution, but I don't know." Jules set her phone down and started looking in the fridge for something easy to make. She would just order a pizza but she was betting no one could deliver food in this crap. "At least during that fog people could still mostly see and get around. It just looks like the world has disappeared out there."
“You really think it was just something in the air that time?” Ruby asked, trying to get a feel for where Jules stood on the crazy in their little town. Some people bought into the lies the officials sold, others knew it was bullshit. She didn’t remember Jules believing all the weird things that were out there, but it had been a while since they talked about anything like that. “It was easier to see, but going out in it was still a bad idea. This seems different, but I still don’t trust it, you know?”
"I don't know. I don't think so." Jules found a frozen pizza in the freezer and pulled it out. Everything else they had it looked like she would have to actually cook-cook, instead of just shoving it into the oven. "I think 'something in the air' is what they use to excuse the weird shit so people don't freak out over the truth." Jules set the pizza box down and leaned over to pre-heat the oven. "I'm starting to not trust any bad weather." She supposed there was a chance that Ruby didn't know or believe in any of the weird shit that happened in Point Pleasant, but Jules knew she and Jasper were close, and Jules assumed Jasper probably told Ruby about the black eyed kids and all that, if only to make her aware of it.
Jasper had indeed told Ruby about the black eyed kids, but Ruby had had her own experience with them long before that. She’d started to believe in the supernatural back when her mother had gone missing, even if she’d stopped talking about it as she got older. It alienated her, and while she didn’t always care what people thought, she also didn’t want to be known as a freak. Some things you just didn’t talk about, like how Amelia had disappeared and come back years older. There was no explanation for how that happened, even when she knew it was true. “I guess it could be worse. At least we have power.”
Jules turned to face Ruby, her eyes wide. "You totally just jinxed us!" A smile twitched at her lips, just to make sure Ruby knew she was mostly joking. With the oven pre-heating, Jules grabbed two bottles of water from the fridge and offered one to Ruby. "If you have to stay the night, you can use the guest bedroom down the hall from Jason's. It has a bathroom and everything..." She probably remembered that much, from way back in the day when Jules and Ruby had actually been friends. "At least you found your necklace before my stepdad did."
“God, I hope not,” Ruby said, laughing softly. Losing power in this weather would really suck, but at least Jules’s house had a big fireplace they could crowd around to keep warm. Not that that sounded remotely appealing, especially with her stepdad. Ruby was hoping to interact with him as little as possible. “I’m so glad he didn’t find it. I mean, he might’ve just tossed it, but… Asking him about it would’ve really sucked. If it had been anything else, I would’ve just left it, you know?”
"He probably would have thought it was mine," Jules said, slipping onto the stool at the island as she waited for the oven to beep at her. "And he would have gotten pissed at me for being in his study without asking. I don't even know what he does in there, but whatever, it's fine. You found it, so there's that at least." If Jason had been home, she would have asked him to go in and find the necklace. Edward wouldn't have been so pissy with his son as he was with Jules. She didn't want to admit it, but she was kind of relieved Ruby was there, now that she knew the fog could be Bad Stuff. She would not have wanted to be there alone with her stepdad. "Where did you get it? The necklace."
It seemed weird to Ruby that there was a place in Jules’s house that she wasn’t supposed to be, but maybe that was because her own house was so small that no place was truly off limits. Not an entire room, at least. “It was my mom’s,” Ruby explained, fishing the necklace out of her pocket. “It’s a protective talisman, a nazar, which is meant to protect against the evil eye, which is, like, a curse. I don’t know where she got it, but she wore it all the time. It was always one of my favorites of hers.” But her mother hadn’t been wearing it that day, when the black eyed child had come to the door. Ruby had always wondered if somehow the child had known, had picked that time because she was without her protection. Or maybe it was just a charm and it wouldn’t have made a difference.
Jules drank from her water bottle and studied the necklace Ruby held up. "I don't know what kind of curse it is, but I don't think I want to know either. Jasper had these like, hex bag things made and gave me one to put in my bag. I don't know how well they help though. His dad's also making him get a protective tattoo? I hope those things work, like your necklace." Assuming the talisman actually worked. Sometimes jewelry was just jewelry, even with a cute name. "I guess living here anything is worth a try. It didn't break, did it?" The necklace had been in the couch, where Jules assumed Ruby and Clint had been hooking up.
“Jasper showed me one of his hex bags. After the black eyed kids came. I was actually going to see if Amelia wanted to get a protective tattoo with me as her Christmas present. Guess I should come up with something else,” Ruby said with a little laugh. They’d talked a little about it, but she’d been too slow with the follow through. Unless just Jasper was getting one, but she highly doubted that. Ruby still wanted one though. “The clasp finally snapped. It sometimes gets tangled in my hair. I can get a new chain though,” she said, dropping the necklace back in her pocket. “I don’t know if it works or not. Even if it doesn’t, it’s something of hers and...I just really hated to lose it.”
Jules shrugged. "Maybe that's something all three of you can do together." She doubted her mom would let her get a tattoo, and Margaret Cooper would absolutely freak if she knew Jules was going to do it with Jasper. "But I get not wanting to lose the necklace. I don't really have a lot of things my dad left me, so the stuff I do have, I would have to lose." The oven beeped and Jules turned away to get the pizza inside and cooking. "Maybe we can just eat pizza and watch a stupid movie, and hope this crap passes over soon. I've got pajamas and stuff you can wear if you end up staying all night."
“Yeah, maybe,” Ruby smiled. “So long as I’m not barging in on a family thing, that’d be fun.” And it surprised her that Jules would suggest it. At this point she was just glad that Jules tolerated her friendship with Jasper, since she wasn’t all that sure how it would hold up if she really put her foot down. Before her random love declaration, she thought Jasper would stand up to her. Now she wasn’t sure, the feeling that she might’ve hurt their friendship still lingering. It was the kind of thing that would likely fade with time, but only if they continued to hang out. All of them getting tattoos together would be awesome. “Thanks,” she said and, even if was just in response to the pajamas, she meant for all of it. For letting her in, for helping her find the necklace, and then for letting her stay. She didn’t want to wear out her welcome, but with this fog hanging around she didn’t really have a choice.