Hollow

Ch.1 Skippin' Stones

Sat. 6/10

"Isn't it a bit early?" -Rubi

"If we go later in the day, it will be too hot." -Quinn

Rubi clears the stiff branches in her view as Quinn glides through the dirt path, holding onto a tree trunk.

They continue through the brush, occasionally leaping over sharp pieces of gravel and broken glass. There's an old wooden sign that reads Hollow River.

Quinn steps aside for Rubi to enter the clearing. She puts on her best Old English accent.

"Milady." -Quinn

Rubi tries to act cool, but her heart is beaming inside. She gives Quinn a little courtesy.

"Why, thank you, Milady." -Rubi

Two circles of peach paint Quinn's porcelain cheeks. The river is calm in the early morning. The current is peaceful. They are the only two people present.

"This is really beautiful." - Rubi

"It is really beautiful." - Quinn

Rubi swipes off the dried leaves and spider webs on her sundress while Quinn relaces her converse shoes. Quinn takes off her navy sweatshirt to pat down the dew off the rocky ledge for them to sit on.

"Do you come here a lot?" - Rubi

"Eh, not really. It's kinda boring to go by yourself." - Quinn

Quinn picks up a small pebble to skip into the water. It is too heavy and sinks down instead.

I think it would be relaxing. I would love to go here to journal or something. -Rubi

Quinn says nothing, but she thinks about how that is exactly the type of thing Rubi would say. Thoughtful and optimistic. They sit down and listen to the gentle stream, watching the sun become more saturated. Rubi picks up a pebble to skip, but it also sinks down to the bottom with a splosh.

"Man, these rocks are too heavy." -Rubi

"Maybe we just need to have a better angle." -Quinn

Quinn rolls into a squat to stand up. She picks up a flat piece of stone and throws it into the water like a frisbee. It creates a line of three ripples before disappearing.

"Woo!" -Rubi

Rubi cheers, gets up, and picks up another rock to throw. It hops four times on the surface before submerging.

"Goddamn! That was a good one!" -Quinn

"All in a day's work." -Rubi

Rubi rolls up her lace sleeves to kiss her biceps. They both laugh. They continue skipping stones into the river, counting how many waves they can make. Their breaking record is 6. Once they run out of flat rocks, they sit back down onto the ledge.

"So, how is your summer going?" -Quinn

"Alright, I guess. The last few years of high school were busy. Since graduation, I've mostly just been napping. How's it going for you?" -Rubi

"Girl, you already know I've been done with school since day one." -Quinn

"That bad, huh?" -Rubi

Quinn's tone makes Rubi chuckle. Quinn leans back, resting her hands under her head as a makeshift pillow. She closes her eyes and watches the green specks of lights dance around her eyelids.

"Besides meeting you, high school did nothing but bad business for me." -Quinn

"That's valid. I already forgot all the material for my finals and they were only a week ago." -Rubi

"There were finals?" -Quinn

Rubi rolls her eyes at Quinn's sarcasm and then pulls out a water tumbler from the picnic basket to take a sip.

Quinn picks up a honeycrisp apple from the basket and takes a bite out of it. It is tart and sweet. Quinn offers the apple to Rubi, and she takes a bite out of it, too.

They finish off the fruit and watch more people pour into the other side of the river.

"It's the time of day where it really starts to turn into a scorch." -Quinn

Quinn squints upwards with her hand shielding her eyes.

"I guess we should head back soon, then. Oh, before I forget-" -Rubi

Rubi reaches into the picnic basket and pulls out a blue tupperware.

"This is Chicken Adobo. I've been trying to learn how to cook from my mom, seeing how I'll be going to college soon." -Rubi

Rubi hands the container over to Quinn. There is a folded up piece of paper on top wrapped with a rubber band.

"I wrote down the recipe just so I'd remember it better. You can have it in case you want to try it out, too." -Rubi

Rubi rehearsed these lines in her head, but she still has a bashful look on her face. Something about sharing a dish she grew up with feels more personal than it probably should.

"Thank you. I've been meaning to try new recipes." -Quinn

Quinn takes the little box of cold chicken. The fact that Rubi was thinking of her sinks deeper than the pebbles at the bed of the river.

Quinn gets that funny feeling in her chest. She immediately feels selfish and ashamed that she didn't bring anything for Rubi.

"Hang on. I'll be right back." - Quinn

Quinn runs back along the sand and up the little hill. The cuffs of her cargo pants and sneakers get all muddy.

Rubi watches Quinn stop at her scooter parked on a dirt path by the sycamore trees. Rubi feels awkward just sitting there alone now.

Some moments later, Quinn returns with a little, unlabelled disk.

"I've burnt some songs on here from my computer. I thought it would be cool to have a little summer playlist. We could listen to it when we come down here if you want to." -Quinn

Quinn places the cd in Rubi's palms. Rubi flips it back and forth, entranced by the rainbows reflected onto the surface.

When we come down here. It makes Rubi happy knowing that Quinn is planning to take her back to the river sometime.

"Thanks. I think that would be really cool. We should do that." -Rubi

Rubi's not entirely sure when they met, but it doesn't matter. She is grateful it happened. They stand there for a minute longer, just admiring the forest ambiance.

"You wanna go get ice cream?" -Rubi

Rubi is full, but she doesn't want to part ways yet.

"I would love that." -Quinn

Quinn is glad she gets to spend more time with Rubi.