Falling

Chapter Four

Ruby was not happy when she went around to Owen's on Sunday. His mother silently let her in, with a small smile, but not her usual welcome. She went through and saw his little brothers both eating breakfast and fighting over who got the toy out of the cereal box. The youngest still came running to give her a hug but the slightly older one stayed in his seat and gave her a smile.

She liked Tomas and Ash, they were sweet kids. Despite the protests from the woman behind her she stormed through the hallways and ripped open the door to Owen's room. Her eyes didn't need to get used to the dark because the light from the right-hand half of the room was illuminating enough. It illuminated everything she needed to know.

She stood there, frankly horrified, as she looked across at her boyfriend with his arms around another girl in his bed. A black girl. A black girl called Sarah. A black girl called Sarah that Ruby hated. A lot of reactions played through her head, sitting there and waiting for them to wake up, screaming at him, splashing the pair with cold water, ripping the covers off, but instead she was locked in place staring at them.

She felt Owen's mother standing behind her but neither said anything. It was Ethel in the end that broke the moment. She put a hand on Ruby's shoulder and pulled her from the room, she lightly closed the door.

Ruby followed Ethel back through to the bright kitchen. Her mind was whirring, none of this made sense. None of this could be forced into an understandable scenario in her head. She glared at Ethel as she made her tea. As if she could shift the blame from Owen onto his mother.

Ethel was speechless for a while unsure what to say to the girl in front of her. She offered for her to stay there while she dropped the boys off at football, that she'd be back in twenty minutes. She begged Ruby not to wake them, that Owen had a lot of explaining to do, but he also needed more sleep.

Ruby sat on the couch, her teeth set on an irate edge as she gripped the tea, quickly becoming cold, untouched. She didn't know how to react to this. She still hadn't managed to say anything since she had seen it. She was both desperate and unwilling for Owen to wake up and explain.

This was her every suspicion confirmed, that he didn't actually love her, that he'd leave her for the person he called a friend at the drop of a hat.

When he did emerge she saw his face and saw the surprise there at her presence. He smiled at her, a smile laced with exhaustion but there nonetheless.

"Hey." He murmured crossing the room to hug her and kiss her. She didn't react as he wrapped his arms around her. For the first time in their relationship, she glared at him as he pulled away.

His feet bare and dirty he crossed the room into the kitchen to start cooking food. She didn't even know he knew how to cook an egg.

To be fair, all Owen did was walk into the pantry, get out pancake mix, fill the bottle with water, and shake it into a mixture. He felt his every move being watched.

"Do you want pancakes?" He asked Ruby, unnerved by her silence, incredibly unnerved by her silence. It made goosebumps grow on his back. He couldn't bare to turn around and look at her, it confused him what he saw there.

He has just poured the first pancake into the pan when he heard a thump, a sharp screech and a groan. Panic rose in him and he turned to Ruby and asked her to keep an eye on the pan, to make sure the house didn't manage to burn down.

His feet thumped as he ran to his room - a noise Ruby recognised from the previous night when he had sprinted out of the house without a backwards glance.

At the sight of Sarah on the floor, he went down next to her.

"Sarah, Sarah look at me did you hit your head?" He asked, the worry in his tone alarmingly evident. She shook her head then regretted it.