Not So Bad After All

# 11

"It's Thursday! Today and tomorrow and then we have the weekend!" Anastasia cheered, Ruby chuckling. "Yeah, and let's not forget, three weeks until mom finally gets to come home." Ruby replied, smiling. Anastasia grinned and nodded. Her grin slipped a bit as she asked "How are you feeling? You ready for today? You know they will be there." Ruby sighed, but nodded. "I'm okay, and I'm ready. As long as I have you by my side, I think I will be okay." She smiled weakly as Anastasia threw her arm around her shoulder. "Well, duh!" She laughed, Ruby snorting a bit but smiling nonetheless.

The bells tolled as Anastasia ran off to her class, leaving Ruby to scramble for her books. "Uh, hey." A voice called, making Ruby turn. 'Ryder's friends...' She thought, grimacing. "W-We aren't going to hurt you or anything, in fact we came to apologize and try to start over." One said. She only raised an eyebrow. "How can I be sure that you won't try something again?" The three exchanged glances before sighing. "We really can't, but please trust us. We are truly sorry for what we did, we overreacted-" Ruby scoffed at this. "but we want to make friends?" She looked at their faces, sighing before nodding. "Alright." The three let out a sigh of relief. "So, I'm Ruby, care to introduce yourselves?" Ruby asked, a slight smirk on her face. "My name is Liam." Liam was rather tall and had dirty blonde hair with dark brown eyes. He wore a dark blue t-shirt with black jeans and black boots. "I'm Noah." Noah was tall, but shorter than Liam. He had lightly tanned skin and dark brown hair with dark green eyes. He wore a tight black, sleeveless shirt with blue jeans and black and white converse. "And I'm Xander." Xander was the tallest of the bunch. He had medium length black hair with blue eyes and he wore a white shirt with a black vest over it, blue jeans, and black and white tennis shoes. Ruby nodded. "Nice to officially meet you." Ruby smiled a bit, the three returning it. "What are you three doing?" A new voice butted into the conversation. Ruby's eyes darkened as she glared over at Ryder. "Making amends." Liam said, shrugging. Ryder glanced over to Ruby, before saying "Mind giving us a moment?" The three nodded and went off.

"It's all your fault." Ruby murmured, bangs covering her eyes. "Huh?" Ryder grunted, glancing to Ruby. "It's all your fault! If you hadn't have showed up, I would still have a boyfriend, I would still have my childhood best friend, I would still have my perfect attendance record!" She trailed off, angry tears burning her eyes. "Everything was perfect... until you came along! You ruined everything for me!" Ryder glared, backing her up into the lockers. "No, I gave you a reality check! You were living a lie!" He snarled, caging her between himself and the lockers. "Your boyfriend was cheating on you long before I came along, you're an idiot for not noticing! Your best friend never really cared, maybe she did at one point, but she doesn't anymore!" He shouted. Ruby faltered for a second. "W-What?" He shook his head, backing away from her and running a hand through his hair. "They are all lovey dovey, almost everybody knows what happened and the two are walking around like they don't give a crap." He said, sounding tired. 'They were doing this long before... I was wrong...' Ruby thought, taking a step forward. "Ryder, I'm-" "Save it Ruby, if you were that stupid to not realize what had been happening, to just want everything to stay the way it was, then you are just like everybody else." With that, he walked off, leaving Ruby behind as the bell rang once more and students flooded the halls.

"Geez, and I thought Mrs. Halibut's science class was crazy." Anastasia said, watching as Ruby cracked a small smile before it disappeared again. "I feel like an idiot." She said, cradling her head in her hands. The two were on the couch in Ruby's home, Ruby had just told Anastasia everything that had happened. "Well, next time you see him, just talk to him. And no matter how hard he tries to, don't let him walk away." Anastasia shrugged. Ruby looked at her friend curiously. "How do you know?" Anastasia gave a nervous giggle. "He was my 4th grade bully for a while, till he tried to steal my anime figurine I had brought into school one day. I was suspended for two weeks and he was in the hospital for a week. Needless to say, he didn't mess with me anymore. And we've kind of grown to a friend-enemy sort of relationship." Ruby looked at Anastasia, mouth agape and eyes wide. Anastasia laughed. "You're reaction is priceless!" She said after her laughing died down, tears streaming down her face from laughing so hard. Ruby snapped out of it, chuckling a bit. "Okay, next time I see him, I'll talk to him."

(A/N: So, I know I post this early, -again- but my friend/sister really wanted this so I decided to do it for her. I will still be posting a chapter Monday and then everything will be continuing as normal. Anyways, thank you so much for reading and I hope you have a wonderful day/afternoon/evening! Oh, and stay safe during tropical storm Hermine! Sayonara!)