All Over Again

| Chapter Four |

Clutching her bag close to her body, Ruth wove herself through the students strolling casually to their eight am class at school the following morning. She straightened her dress out with her palms on her way to her campus' student cafe where she eagerly hoped to snag one of their signature teas.

Her warm fingers wrapped around the door handle of the coffee shop, but before she could open it, she was startled backwards as a body pushed through the other side. Ruth lost her hold on the handle and moved out of the way instantly with an automatic, "Oh!"

"Oh, shit! I'm so sorry," the person apologized profusely. Ruth looked up, taking in the unknown girl who ran into her.

She was effortlessly pretty in a conventional way. With waves of light brown hair to her shoulders, and bright hazel-green eyes, something about the soft sprinkle of freckles across her rosy cheeks really brought out the beauty in the stranger's face. Decked out in dusty pink clothes and an expensive Kate Spade bag, she reminded Ruth of someone in Beverly Hills rather than a small town in Oklahoma.

"No, it's my fault. I wasn't paying attention," Ruth said, waving her off.

"Not at all! It was all me. It's never easy juggling more than one coffee," the other girl replied laughing, holding up two cups as proof.

"Don't worry about it. The coffee was definitely more important!"

They both laughed together. "You aren't wrong about that. The person I'm getting a coffee for might literally strangle me without his daily dose of caffeine."

"Sounds pretty rough," Ruth teased. "Don't want to keep them waiting then."

"Looks like it," the girl agreed. "Enjoy your first day!"

Ruth voiced her agreement and the two went on their way in opposite directions. She walked up to the counter and ordered her favorite chai latte from Abigail, a young barista she recognized from last semester. Her smile shimmered as bright as her golden hair, and she offered Ruth her drink with an even cheerier response.

Checking the time on her phone, Ruth realized she still had forty-five minutes to kill. She shouldn't have left her apartment so early when she was still nursing a headache, but she had to get moving. Coming to school early had opened her eyes to new things that spiked her good nature attitude and left an excited taste in her mouth. Meeting a nice girl that she got to talk to for a minute, seeing Abigail behind the counter smiling, and catching sight of the writing contest plastered all around campus. She's looked over the prompts more than once, and it took everything in her to swallow down the urge to write for the contest.

You don't have time to write this semester, she kept repeating to herself. But if you did . . . what would you write about?

That thought was dangerous. Because words bled from her fingertips. Her pen always knew what to say to her spiral-bound notebook, especially in the middle of Organic Chemistry when she should be paying attention.

But with her future . . . she didn't know if she could pursue that passion.

And that thought bothered her more than she'd ever care to admit aloud.

*****

By the time noon had come around on the third day of the first week of school, Ruth was overwhelmed.

She sat frozen staring into the six different syllabuses in front of her. One of her hands twirled in the comfort of her curls as she picked at the rust peeling on the metal picnic table with the other. The words on each page blurred together into one consecutive pile of stress.

Jana and Terry had tried to cheer her up after the second day of classes. Ruth forced reassuring smiles for them and laughed weakly at their jokes as they stayed unsuccessful in drawing her away from the worry of the oncoming semester. Jana even made frybread tacos with their Uncle Rickey's famous recipe and it still didn't draw her out of the weird funk she was in!