The Roses Outside My Window

Chapter 2 - Ring

Penny had picked up the phone from her cabinet. The advantage to being her father's daughter was that she had her own personal phone she could use... Not that she ever even used it. Either way, she read out the number Ruby had given her as she dialed it into the phone spin dial. The phone rang, a simple jingle as time passed. Then it was picked up.

"Hello? This is the Xiao-Long residence," Came a male voice on the other line. Penny assumed it must've been Ruby's dad like the note had said.

"Hello, this is Penny, I was calling to speak to Ruby?" Penny asked. An advantage to growing up in such a formal setting was she knew how to handle awkward social situations like this.

"Oh! She told me a friend would be calling," He sounded further away as he shouted, "Ruby! It's for you!" A few more moments and the handler of the phone changed.

"Is that you, Penny?" Ruby said when she took the phone.

"Yes! Hello Ruby!" Penny was quick in her response.

"So... You never finished telling me about yourself," Ruby giggled, "If you want to elaborate that is, we can talk about something else if you want to."

"Well, you seem to know me well already," Penny said, "Do I need to elaborate?"

"Of course not! I was just curious if you had anything to add," Ruby said, "You like books I'm assuming?"

"Yes, I do," Penny said, "My father's library is massive, I can't say I've read even half of them yet. What about you? Are books of interest to you?"

"They are, actually," Ruby said, "I recognized the book you had earlier, the man with two souls, right?"

"Yes, actually, I picked up the series recently," Penny noted the book sitting on her desk she was currently halfway through, "Do you read it as well?"

"I do! My sister's friend showed me the first book and I read it, it's really good, you'll like the end I think," Ruby said. Penny began to wonder to herself... How would Ruby know she'd like the ending?

Maybe she just felt they were similar people? They'd barely been talking for 20 minutes when Penny stopped thinking about just that. Talking, talking, and more talking. Before she knew it, her father had come in to ask her to go to bed because of how late it was.

"Well, I guess this is goodbye," Penny said when her father left the room, "Do you want to talk again tomorrow?"

"Yeah! Just call whenever once you're done with school," Ruby said, "Uh... Bye, I guess?"

"Goodnight!" Penny said, she hung up the phone and stared at it for a while. She stood up from her desk where she'd been sitting and went to sit on her bed. Laying down now she looked at her ceiling. Her mind was full of thoughts.

She didn't have friends. Her social time was limited due to... Well, her father and the General a long time ago had decided that she'd be a future representative for Atlas, meaning she had numerous amounts of things to do. Which left her with no time for friends. She had a few people she knew, like her assistant she sometimes had, Ciel.

She had friends when she was little. Her father had adopted her at a young age, but she still remembered having friends at the orphanage she stayed at. Even then, there was some unexplained feeling she felt when Ruby had complimented her eyes. The feeling she could try to describe to herself, it was warm. Her face felt warm. Her heart sped up a little in that moment. She figured maybe she was flattered, and that she'd feel different overall tomorrow.

...

Yet almost 3 weeks of calling her practically every night she felt no different. If anything the feeling was amplified. She couldn't stop thinking about her by now. She'd sit in school, her mind thinking about her soothing voice across the line, she looked forward to every night when they would call for hours.