Who: Ruby and Clint Where: Clint's House When: Monday evening, June 18 Status: Complete
The day had started out normal enough, at least until Ruby got to work, at which point it took a turn for the worse. It wasn’t bad, per se, not in the way days in Point Pleasant could sometimes be, but it felt like at least half the customers that came into the diner came in high on something. Some seemed drunk, some definitely had the muchines, and some just seemed to want to binge on junk food. She served more milkshakes before noon than she ever had in her life, along with fries, pancakes, waffles, monster burgers, and hundreds of cups of coffee. Some of the customers bordered on gluttonous, three asked for her number, and one idiot made the mistake of slapping her on the ass. She was a breath away from pouring iced-tea over his head when KC stepped in and escorted the ‘guest’ out. The only plus side was that she raked in a shitton in tips.
When she got home that afternoon, she collapsed on her bed and texted Clint. Today was insane. I want to rest for a bit, then want to hang out? She let the phone drop beside her as she closed her eyes for a moment, sure he’d reply before she actually dozed off. They rarely had solid plans, but hung out frequently enough that she expected the answer to be yes. She’d be up for anything, so long as they didn’t end up at Moxie’s.
By contrast, Clint had had a pretty normal day. He hadn’t left the house though, so that probably contributed to it. He’d felt kind of lazy when he’d woken up, and he didn’t have too many more days to indulge in that, so he’d hung out in his room and played video games and eaten snacks and generally enjoyed the alone time. He could have reached out to some friends or to his brother, he guessed, but Clint had done his familial duty by helping out the day before, so he didn’t feel obligated to do anything except exactly what he wanted today.
Just as he was starting to feel kind of bored and restless, Ruby’s text came through. Clint let out a soft “aww” of sympathy and thumbed in a response. sorry babe :( but sure, ofc. want to just come over when your ready? Maybe it would be good for him to get out, but if Ruby just wanted to chill after a bad day, Clint was more than happy to have her company at the house instead.
Ruby opened her eyes when her phone buzzed, then smiled as she sent Clint back a text. sounds good <3 I’ll text before I leave. It gave her the freedom to nap for a bit, but she set an alarm on her phone, just in case. When she woke it was close to five, so Ruby changed quickly before shooting Clint a text that she was on her way. She felt better for having rested, but hoped he wasn’t annoyed at having to wait for her. Clint usually wasn’t. He was typically so chill, something Ruby really appreciated. Her life wasn’t exactly chaotic, but work kept her busier than some of her peers, yet Clint never made her feel bad about it. She rode her bike over to his place and parked it out front before hurrying up the walk to ring the bell. Despite her frequent visits, she was still nervous about his parents answering the door.
Preparing for Ruby to come over gave Clint something more productive to do, so he wasn’t annoyed in the slightest -- he took a shower to wash the lazy-stink off and picked up his room enough to look decent. Once he got the text that she was on the way, he went downstairs to lounge and play on his phone until she arrived, just to avoid any parental awkwardness. Ruby had had a stressful day already, he didn’t want to make it worse for her. “I got it!” Clint hollered into the house when the bell rang, hopping up to go answer it. He had a smile ready for her as he opened the door and gestured her in. “Hey baby,” he murmured, leaning in to smooch Ruby hello.
“Hey,” Ruby smiled as she kissed Clint hello. “You’re okay with just staying in and chilling tonight? ‘Cause I don’t think I can deal with any more idiots.” There was something comforting about just curling up with Clint for an evening, but she knew going out would have been more fun for him. “How’s your day been? Your family home?” She looked around, wondering if they might pop up, which was silly. It wasn’t like they were going to be hiding behind the sofa. But Ruby also knew Clint’s brother had recently moved back into town and she wasn’t sure if that meant he’d be around the house. She’d heard very little about him and was curious.
“Yeah, Mom and Dad are around somewhere,” Clint said with a dismissive shrug. They’d met Ruby, and while they’d been perfectly nice to her at the time, there was an undercurrent of disapproval every time they asked him about her. Clint knew they thought she was beneath his station or some dumb elitist shit he didn’t care about. He wasn’t too worried about it. “Come on, let’s go upstairs,” he said, taking her hand. “I’m totally cool with just staying in and chilling, that’s pretty much what gear I’m in anyway.” Clint flashed her a reassuring smile as he led the way to the steps. Whether they approved of Ruby long term or not, his parents at least never disturbed them when she was over, or bitched about him closing his door.
Ruby would’ve said she didn’t care what Clint’s parents thought of her, but the truth was that she did. She wanted them to like her, and definitely wanted to be good enough for him. She didn’t come from money, but she made decent grades, and even aspired to do something with herself, and shouldn’t that be enough? It was one of the many things she didn’t like to think about and avoiding them allowed her to continue to do so. She took Clint’s hand and followed him up the stairs, glad to put any sight of them behind her. “Have you talked to anyone today? People are acting weird. Not, like, it’ll be in the papers weird, just… I dunno. I felt like half my customers were either high or drunk and I worked the early shift.”
Clint arched an eyebrow, glancing over at Ruby as they mounted the wide stairs together. “Oh yeah?” he asked curiously. “No, I haven’t talked to anybody, really. Like acting weird how?” Maybe they were all high or drunk, it wouldn’t be the first time that kind of shit had happened on a wide scale in town. Sometimes people just acted super crazy for no discernable reason. “Are you okay?” he added. It was a bit belated, but that was probably the most important question. Ruby didn’t quite look upset or anything, maybe just kind of tired. As they reached his bedroom door, Clint opened it and gestured her inside first. He was glad he’d straightened up now, most girls seemed more relaxed in clean environments. Or maybe that was just his mom.
“Like…like seriously pigging out. Like last meal on earth caliber. And others were just way out of line. Flirting, making passes, and I almost decked the one who smacked my ass. It was just weird,” Ruby said, following him into his room and flopping down on his bed. She’d seen the rest of the house over time, but this was the room she was most comfortable in, by far. “I’m fine. It’s no big deal, but it grates on me, you know? I’m a waitress. I serve the food. I’m not on the menu, so don’t you fuckin’ touch me.” She took a deep breath, then slowly let it out, the tension seeping out of her as she smiled back at Clint. “Sorry. I needed to get that out.” If KC had let her drench the asshole, then maybe she’d already feel better, but a little rant would have to do.
Clint really didn’t like hearing that some asshole had touched her. He wasn’t generally the type of guy to fly off the handle and get overprotective of his girl -- she could handle herself, Ruby was tough -- but that idea made him want to punch someone. “What the fuck,” he said flatly, scowling over it. “That’s fucked up. Hope you got him thrown out and banned, at least, fuck that.” Her apology was totally unnecessary, she had every right to rant about something like that, in his opinion. Clint went to join her on the bed, stretching out on his side, propped up on one elbow. “Sounds like a crazy day, babe. I’ve just been chilling at home, so ... haven’t heard about anything weird myself.” He shrugged a shoulder, hoping that would be good news for Ruby. They could just hang out in the haven of his room and ignore the rest of the world.
“He got thrown out,” Ruby said, rolling onto her side so she could mirror Clint. “I always wonder if we’re the only town like this, or if there’s more, like, one in every state. Everywhere can’t be this weird, but we can’t be the only one, you know?” It was something she’d been thinking about more often now that she could actually leave someday. It might not be this year, but at some point Ruby hoped to get her degree. Becoming a lawyer might be a pipe dream, but she wanted to be more than a waitress at the local diner. It made Ruby wonder what Clint wanted for his life and where he hoped to go next. They’d done a good job at avoiding that kind of conversation, but it was starting to feel like the elephant in the room. It made her want to kick it.
He relaxed a bit to hear that the offender had been shown the door at Moxie’s. Sometimes places like that just hand-waved bullshit like that away just because it was a small town and everybody knew everybody. But if Ruby’s bosses weren’t going to back her up, he didn’t want her to work there anymore. Not that it was his decision, but still. Clint huffed a faintly amused sound out his nose and shrugged his upper shoulder. “I’m sure there’s weird places out there. Maybe like, several per state, or there’s more in New England, who knows? There’s all kinds of weird stories on Reddit, it’s probably more common than we think.” Why that kind of shit didn’t make the national news ... well, Clint was sure there were theories about that. He reached out his free hand to play with a bit of her hair.
“I always thought I’d get away from it eventually. Or at least for a while,” Ruby sighed. She’d started the year so confident that she would graduate and promptly leave for college, putting Point Pleasant behind her for at least four years, but she hadn’t taken reality into account. College was expensive. The scholarship she’d managed to earn only covered a fraction of her tuition, and there’d still be living expenses. Working part time covered her car insurance and cell phone, but she doubted it would cover living in a dorm, plus food. And she’d have to go a lot longer than four years if she seriously thought she was going to law school. It was hard for her to imagine making enough money as a lawyer in Point Pleasant to ever cover the debt she’d accrue, which made her wonder if any of it was worth it. “Are you leaving for college in the fall?” she asked simply. She didn’t have to make a big deal of it, but she needed to know.
Clint was sure that Ruby would get away from it eventually. He definitely planned to. Not really because he wanted to flee the weird shit, he just knew that if he wanted to make anything out of himself, he had to get out of this tiny fishbowl town. And his parents definitely expected him to make something of himself. Whether he would ever come back or not was still up in the air -- so many people did, like his own brother. Clint still wasn’t sure what he wanted to do with his life, so maybe he would end up far away from Point Pleasant forever. Ruby’s question startled him a bit, and his eyes widened slightly. They’d been side-stepping the subject of college for quite a while now, like they had an unspoken agreement not to talk about it until they had to. Maybe now was the time. It made his stomach sink a bit, and he dropped his hand to rest on the bed between them. “Yeah,” he murmured after a moment’s pause. “I haven’t exactly decided where yet, but I got three acceptance letters ... none of ‘em in Maine.”
It was worse than she expected and she felt her stomach knot in response. It made sense that he was leaving, it was expected of him, but she’d at least hoped that he wasn’t going far. That maybe she’d join him eventually, which was ridiculous because even if she did, she didn’t expect him to wait on her. But going out of state was off the table for her. She hadn’t applied because she couldn’t have afforded it, even if she’d been accepted. Ruby swallowed back the bitterness that surged forward, forcing it back down with a little smile. “That’s great,” she said softly, then more sincerely, “Good for you.” She meant it, too. Even if she wasn’t going anywhere soon, she wanted the best for him. “Any idea what you wanna do?”
And this was why Clint hadn’t wanted to have this conversation. The smile Ruby gave didn’t fool him at all, and he couldn’t help but look pained. He’d applied to a couple of colleges in the state too, but the offers he’d gotten elsewhere in the northeast were better schools. His mom was already sold on Dartmouth, but Clint hadn’t made up his mind yet. “I’m sorry, Ruby,” he mumbled, feeling guilty and awkward. Maybe it had been dumb to get into a relationship on the tail end of his senior year, but he hadn’t really meant to. They’d just been having fun. It was going to suck to leave her behind, but he knew it would suck even more for her. “Do, like ...? Which school, or what degree, or ...?” he asked.
“It’s okay,” Ruby said, trying to smile despite the swell of emotions that said the opposite. “I always knew that was likely. It’s not, like, a shock.” That didn’t make it any less depressing. She’d grown a lot more attached to Clint than she’d ever intended to and it was going to hurt when she eventually had to let him go. But they still had half the summer left and she wanted to enjoy the time they had together, not bring them down. “I got into the University of Maine, but even with a scholarship it’s expensive, so I’ll probably do a year remote. I originally wanted to go to law school, but… I dunno. Kinda overly ambitious of me. Didn’t really take costs and time into account, so… who knows.” She liked to think she was smart, that there were a lot of things she could do, but figuring it out was overwhelming.
Clint hadn’t been sure if she’d meant what did he want to do with his life, or do about Them, and he was relieved not to have to answer. He didn’t know about either one, if he was being honest. Some people could make a long distance thing work, especially in today’s day and age with Facetime and all that, but Clint wasn’t sure that he could manage that. Or that he would want to tie them both down with something that was supposed to be casual. That didn’t mean parting company was going to be easy, when it came down to it. “You could totally kick law school’s ass, that’s not overly ambitious,” Clint told her instead, giving her a faint smile. “There’s gotta be like ... grants or something you can apply for, right?” He was very lucky to not have to worry about the financial shit, and he knew he didn’t know much about it all, but it seemed unfair as hell for Ruby to miss out on her dreams just because of money.
It was sweet that he didn’t think that law school was overly ambitious. Even Ruby knew she was aiming high. That didn’t make it impossible, but it would be difficult, an uphill battle all the way. “Maybe,” she said. “I still think I should do a year from home, so I can save some. And maybe I’ll have a better feel for what I’m getting into after I actually take a few classes.” She’d heard that college was harder than high school, so it may turn out that she just wasn’t smart enough to become a lawyer. Ruby honestly didn’t know. “I’m not trying to bring us down,” she told him, fingers grazing the front of his t-shirt. “I just… want to be prepared, I guess.” At least now it wasn’t a big question mark. Maybe that would make it easier when the time came.
To Clint, there was nothing wrong with aiming high. The people who made it to the top had to want to get there first, right? Maybe his thinking about it all was a bit simplistic, but he didn’t know how else to think about it. He didn’t know enough to advise her though, since his college was being paid for, and he knew nothing about law school. Maybe Ruby was smart to dip a toe in first, but Clint knew his parents would never let him stay home and do remote classes. His dad kept banging on about ‘the college experience.’ He moved his hand to tangle fingers with Ruby’s, thumb rubbing against her skin. “I know,” he murmured softly. “I’ve just been trying not to think about it for like, weeks now.” Clint quirked a small smile. “I wish I could just be in two places at once.”
“Yeah, me too,” Ruby laughed softly. “Or a way to teleport. Just pop from one place to another.” With all the weird stuff in the world, it seemed like that would eventually be a thing, especially knowing that Jules could open fucking portals. Well, just one portal. And that wasn’t anywhere Ruby wanted to go. But it still felt possible. And why did that seem like a possibility, but not law school? Ruby squashed her thoughts, aware they were getting out of control. “We should have, like, a bucket list,” she smiled. “Of the things we wanna do before you leave.” She’d been thinking about it ever since Jules had suggested it. It was a good idea, even if it might make it harder to let him go.
He couldn’t help but smile back at her, feeling a mixture of surprise and relief at that suggestion. Clint hadn’t known how this inevitable conversation would end, but he realized he’d expected Ruby to want to break up as soon as they had it. More time together would just make it harder to leave, but damn if he didn’t want to spend the whole summer with her. “We should,” he agreed, his eyes warm as he gazed at her. Something being short didn’t mean it couldn’t be meaningful, right? “I wanna ... go somewhere with you. Like a trip. Down the coast maybe, for like a long weekend. Somewhere we can actually get in the ocean, you know?”
“Yeah,” Ruby smiled. “It’ll give me an excuse to live in a bikini for a few days.” It was becoming a guilty pleasure for her, since her favorite part was letting Clint take it off her at some point, normally after hours of watching him ogle her. It was hard not to let the list become all the places she wanted to have sex with him, but she thought that might come naturally, depending on where they were. “I think it might be fun to go camping. Or at least sleep under the stars. Build a fire, roast marshmallows, and curl up together.”
Clint hummed an appreciative sound as he pictured Ruby in her bikini -- how could any red-blooded man not ogle her? At least any man who was into women, because his girl was hot as fuck. She wouldn’t be his girl for too much longer though, and Clint wanted to fully enjoy it while it lasted. If that meant making a bucket list of places to fuck, he was game. “That sounds nice too, yeah,” he said. “My dad took me and Marsh camping a few times when we were little, so I’m sure there’s still tents and stuff in the garage. Really just ... spend time with you. That’s all I wanna do,” he added in a murmur, still toying with her fingers.
“Me too,” Ruby said softly, then leaned in to kiss him. She wished she could tell him how she felt about him, but now it made more sense to keep it to herself. Why make things harder when the end date was drawing nearer with each day? She hated the thought of it, but had known all along that it would eventually happen. The only way it wouldn’t would be if Clint decided to stay and she wanted more for him than that. She wanted more for herself; she just couldn’t make it happen yet. “We’ll plan it out. It’ll be fun. I don’t want to worry about the end of the summer until it gets here.”
Thoughts of staying had crossed Clint’s mind, even if he hadn’t spoken up about them to anyone. He’d toyed with the idea of taking a year off just to work and enjoy himself ... but he already knew what his parents’ response would be. Besides, he could be honest enough with himself to know that if he lost his momentum with school, he would lose motivation to ever go back. Clint made pretty good grades but he had to work at it, and college was going to be even harder. So even though it sucked, he was going to have to leave Ruby behind. “Yeah, me either,” Clint murmured as he gazed at her. He gave a tiny, sad smile, then scooted in closer so he could snuggle in closer, wrapping his arms around her. “So. Only short-term future stuff ... what do you wanna do tonight?”
Tonight was super short-term future, but that was okay. It felt like the kind of future that Ruby could handle at the moment, so she smiled and kissed him, hoping that imparted at least a little of how much she appreciated him. “Maybe order take-out and watch a scary movie? Something fun.” For Ruby that meant nothing realistic enough to ever happen there in Point Pleasant. Was that too limiting? It really shouldn’t be, but it felt like the longer she lived there, the more she thought anything was possible. It should be enough to make her hate scary movies, but some were still fun. “I really just want to spend the evening with you. Maybe something funny would be better. I dunno. I’m open to whatever.”
Just focusing on the night was more than fine with Clint. They could just keep doing that until the summer was over -- with a few brief periods of looking ahead to plan their little trips. “We can totally find a dumb scary movie to watch,” Clint murmured with a smile. “Funny and scary aren’t mutually exclusive.” He liked to keep it light with his horror choices these days -- too many of them hit close enough to home to creep him out sometimes. Point Pleasant was full of plenty of its own horror. “Whatcha wanna order? Not burgers, obviously ... pizza? Thai? I’ll get you anything you want, baby,” Clint murmured as he nuzzled her. They could eat and relax and then hopefully wind each other up again. Just having her in bed with him and smelling her was making Clint lowkey horny, in spite of the subject matter.
“Thai sounds good,” Ruby murmured, eyes closing as Clint nuzzled close. It was easy to slip into that vibe with him, the little kiss she pressed to his lips encouraging the closeness. She didn’t often like to fool around when his parents were home, always worried that his mother or father would pick an inopportune time to walk into his room, but the thought of having his hands on her after a somewhat heavy conversation was grounding. He was still hers, for now at least, and she didn’t want to let him go until she had to. “It’d be fun to try cooking with you sometime. Not tonight, but… do you ever cook?” She tried to picture him doing anything in the kitchen and failed, but then that was probably because of his age. She’d never known a guy her age that could handle himself in the kitchen.
Clint gave a soft laugh and winced theatrically. “Not one of my strong suits ... but I’ll let you boss me around the kitchen, I can chop stuff and stir and whatever you need,” he suggested, grinning a bit. He might be useless with recipes and spices and stuff, but helping Ruby cook something did sound like fun. Especially if there was some sauce or something for him to wipe on her face. Plus, Clint always liked to eat, and cooking together meant food at the end. He lightly smooched her face again and then rolled away to grab his phone and find the number of the Thai place. They delivered, at least, so they wouldn’t have to go anywhere. “Know what you want?” he asked Ruby.
Growing up without her mom, Ruby had learned how to handle herself in the kitchen. Her dad wasn’t bad, but if she wanted any variety in what they ate, then it was up to her. She could give him a grocery list and then she’d try her hand at whatever recipe she’d found online. She rarely tried anything fancy, but she could probably impress if she had to. “You can be my kitchen bitch,” she grinned. “We’ll make something simple, like brownies.” They could even do it from a box mix. It was hard to go wrong with that. Later they could graduate to an actual meal. “I’d like the chicken curry. What are you getting?”
“Ooh like fun brownies?” Clint suggested, flashing her a little grin. He didn’t know if you could just throw weed into the mix or it had to be done in a special way or what, but it could be a fun idea for when they went on these little trips they were talking about. “Got a hankering for some pad thai,” he murmured then. Clint found the number and called the restaurant to put in their order. Once that was done, he set his phone aside and rolled in close to Ruby again, semi-tackling her onto the bed so he could attack her cheeks and neck with kisses. Now that the heavy talk was over, he wanted to put it all out of his mind and just enjoy the time they did have together.
“Sure, we can make fun brownies,” Ruby grinned back at him. “Just as long as we do that at my place. I don’t want your parents catching on and thinking I’m corrupting you.” Her dad wouldn’t be thrilled about her making edibles in their kitchen, but she doubted she’d get more than a disapproving look from him. He didn’t care if she used, so long as she kept her grades up and didn’t become a pothead. She could see Clint’s parents being a lot more vocal about it. His reputation wasn’t squeaky clean, but she doubted they were aware of even half the shit he got up to. She laughed as Clint pounced on her, tangling her legs with him as she drew him close, encouraging the kisses. She didn’t necessarily feel better now that they’d had their talk, but at least it was done and she knew how to move forward.