The Ineffable Ruth Rhodes

12 i met someone

ruth

Ruth barely got any sleep the next few days. She blamed her work, of course, but she also blamed herself for ever being vulnerable with Vincent.

It'd been almost a week since the party, and since Ruth telling Vincent something in the spur of the moment— something which she'd regretted as soon as it left her mouth.

She wondered if he even remembered; he was so drunk and out of it that night, him forgetting would've been something she was expecting.

It should've been something she was expecting.

But instead, she sort of, despite herself, wanted him to remember.

She shoved her notebooks angrily into her locker, two of them bouncing off the back and flopping right out and on the ground, making her stand there and question her life as she looked down on them. With how irritated she was this morning, she didn't know how she'd react if he didn't remember. The fact that she wanted him to remember made her want to hit her head against her locker.

Ruth pulled her jeans up and bent down slowly, picking up her notebook, gingerly placing it on top of the remaining books.

"Hey." Ruth's eyes met Sumaiya's, and she was taken aback to see an enormous smile animating her lips.

Ruth narrowed her eyes at her playfully. "Why are you so happy this early?"

The smile dropped from her lips like she just then realized she was grinning from ear to ear. "Who, me? Anyway, did you finish your english project with Vincent?"

She shook her head, realizing she'd been so caught up in the whole situation that she'd forgotten about it. 

"Not yet."

It took two minutes and a practically vibrating Sumaiya earning a glare from Ruth for her to fess up as to what exactly was making her so giddy.

"Okay, okay," Sumaiya started, a smile tugging at her lips, "I met someone."

"You what?" Ruth placed a hand over her mouth, her eyes widening with a laugh. "Sumaiya that's amazing."

"I know, I know," she sighed dreamily, "His name is Sage. I met him at the party, and he makes me so happy, Ruth. It's crazy, I feel like he's my very own dose of constant serotonin."

Ruth felt her heart swell as she wrapped her arms around her friend. She didn't think of the party as that bad of an experience (minus the ditching), but the fact that Sumaiya was able to earn some form of happiness from it made her thoughts about it flip like an off/on switch, and suddenly, it was the event of the season. "God, I'm so happy to hear that. You deserve nothing but the best."

"That means so, so much to me." She squeezed her once before letting go. "I do have to say thank you for inviting me. Thank the hubby as well."

Ruth whacked her friend with a flimsy, plastic ruler from her locker and laughed. "Thank you for coming with me. Even though you ditched me to be with Sage the whole time."

"You would've ditched me to be with Vincent," she said, tugging her friend's sweater, a never-leaving smile on her face. I would most definitely have not, Ruth thought. "Also, I was wrong about him and you, so I'm really sorry. I should've trusted you."

Ruth raised her brows with faux excitement. "Really? How so?"

"Sage and him have hung out, apparently." Her brows creased in recollection. "He said Vincent was one of the most chill people he's ever met— said he's always so humble and kind. Did you know that he's a pianist? Sage played a clip for me, he's insanely good."