All Over Again

| Chapter Two |

Oklahoma, 2018 (Past)

Ruth loved the warmth of the Oklahoma sun before winter could take her turn blanketing the land with her white coat. She couldn't put her finger on why, but there was something magical about rolling all the windows down in her car to feel the humidity sliding over her brown arms with the wind whipping her wild curls across her face into a frenzy. Her lip gloss coated lips smacked open and close to match the rhythm of her bobbing head as she thread her fingers lyrically through each verse of Redbone's "Come and Get Your Love". She turned up the volume, a satisfied grin flashing across her full lips.

Being back in town for Ruth's final year of community college in Oklahoma before she moved on was bittersweet. Making the jump from California, to a rural town in Oklahoma, and then hopefully to NYU to finish her bachelors was a lot as it was. She'd barely begun adjusting to living with her cousins, and now she had to leave again. Putting down roots just wasn't in the Semple mindset, she supposed.

Ruth's phone buzzed, interrupting her favorite song mid-verse. She frowned, but rose up the windows and swiped a finger across the screen.

"Hey mom," she greeted, hitting the speaker button.

Shantelle Josephine Semple was a force to be reckoned with, and twenty-one years later, Ruth still hadn't learned to heed her wrath. With a temper quicker than lightning, and an evil eye that could sink even the richest man deep in his trillion-dollar grave, Shantelle was a siren. Drawing people in with her white-toothed smile and alluring honey-brown eyes that Ruth, fortunately, inherited. But then as soon as she was done drawing you in, she'd chew you out and suck whatever life she could out of you.

"Didn't I tell you to call me when you got back to your apartment?" Shantelle demanded.

Ruth swallowed hard and ran her fingers through her tousled curls, hating her mother's tone of voice. She heard it in grade school when she struggled to read at a higher grade level than the one she was in. She heard it in high school when she wanted to be a creative writer rather than a doctor at Johns Hopkins, like her mother wanted. And she heard it now as a full-grown adult, living across the country from her, and going for the major Shantelle wanted for her. She was chasing her mother's dream. What more did she want?

"I'm not at the apartment yet," Ruth admitted. "I'm—"

"Ruth!" Koi Semple shouted joyfully on the other end of the line, cutting her off mid-sentence.

A wide smile sprawled across her lips, soothing her racing heart. "Hi dad."

The key to Ruth's heart and her saving grace in times of sorrow—her father. He was there to help her get to the next reading level. He was there for her when she cried about not getting to pursue her creative writing career, and gave her endless journals to write in to keep her hobby up. And, most of all, he was there to help support her financially and emotionally across the states. He even got in contact with their aunts and uncles to be there for Ruth if she had any trouble getting acclimated to the new area and helped get Ruth in touch with their cousins. Despite distancing from his Choctaw family after high school when he met Shantelle, they welcomed Ruth with open arms with no sort of fuss.

"You got back alright, Honey-Bee? Uncle Rickey said he hasn't seen you yet," Koi prompted.

"I haven't been by yet. I'm running to the store to grab a couple things."

"I thought Jana said the apartment was already ready for you?" Shantelle was quick to interrupt.

Ruth bit her tongue at the lie her mother easily caught. Damn it, she should have come up with a better lie than that.