Ruby

5

It is crazy how fast your life can flip. Within moments you could instantly change how you thought or acted.

The same year, in December, I had been visiting my grandmother in the hospital when I saw her there.

I had been taking a walk around the hospital when I saw a pale skinned girl with long, dark tangled hair and dark circles hanging below stormy grey eyes. A nurse held onto her right arm, guiding her down the hallway. A large baby blue gown hung loosely onto her frame, her arms had goosebumps scattered across, and her eyes were stuck gazing out the windows. The view didn't show much but the hospital parking lot and the day's dark clouds, yet she seemed to be taken away by it all. She had been missing from school for a couple of weeks. Everyday I noticed how different the energy felt when she wasn't in class with me. I didn't know the cause of her visit to the hospital, but I so bad wanted to walk over to her and embrace her fragile frame.

Her grey eyes locked with my brown ones and she froze. Her eyes were wide, giving away her surprise to seeing me out of anyone, here out of all places. Her eyes were where I could read her feelings, not her body language and not her face expression, it is all emotionless, but her eyes is what gave everything away.

I give in an attempt to break the tension saying, "Hey," but failed miserably. She sends a smile, also not convincing.

"So, your name is Ruby, right? We have english together. That class is the only thing that gets me out of bed a six A.M. every day, monday through friday," I let out a nervous chuckle. But she didn't know that it wasn't the class that got me to school every morning, it was the anticipation of seeing her in class. Her body relaxes slightly as I ramble on. The tension leaves her shoulders slowly with every word that spills out of my mouth and her lips curve into a slight smile as I babble out how much enjoy the class and reading and all of the emotions received from the activity. At one point I stop paying attention to the words coming out of my mouth and I start to appreciate how patient she is. Her eyes are completely focused on my words causing me to stumble on my words and completely forget what I had been going on about.

I apologize for forgetting what i was talking about. I notice how she looks more comfortable with this awkward run in and she her eyes looked more confident.

She goes over to a small sitting area and sits down on a leather couch, leaving room for me to sit beside her. i continue my speech about books, while she doesn't make an attempt to speak at all. Her hands are folded together in her lap while she listens intently. I finish talking, looking to her for a response.
She purses her lips, studying me before her lips part and allowing the words that caused my heart to skip a beat.

"You're different, you're not like the rest."

I watched her give me a nod and she slowly rose to her feet and wrapped her arm around her nurse's and walked back to her room. She looked back one last time and smiled before her nurse told her that they had to head back to her room.

I sat for a few more minutes, pondering what she had meant by i was "different".

I didn't understand how I wasn't "like the rest".

She was not like the rest. She was different. Maybe we were alike. Maybe we had more in common than I had thought. I wanted to learn more about her. I wanted to know more about her thoughts and opinions, rather than what I could observe when I watched her during English class. I got up to leave when a question stops me, when will Ruby be back to school? I turn down the way I saw her leaving, only to see she isn't anywhere in sight.

I guess I will just have to wait and see.