What Happened After

Chapter 21

Chapter 21.

          “Hey, Rue?”

          “Yes?”

          “You gonna tell me where we’re going?”

          “No?”

          We had been in the car for only a few minutes. I was sure that we had only made it a few blocks from my house, but I was getting antsy already. I didn’t like surprises, and Ruesso knew that. Yet here I was, sitting in his car, letting him take me wherever he wanted. Trusting him with my life, so to speak.

          A couple moments of silence later, he spoke again. “I actually have a question for you.”

          “What makes you think I’ll answer it when you won’t answer any of mine?”

          “Touché,” he said, but went on with his question anyway. “Why do you call me Rue? Like, honestly, Ruesso’s not that common a name. I didn’t think it even had available nicknames until you brought it up.”

          I blushed slightly. I wasn’t sure why I had started with the nicknames. It had just sort of happened one day, and I went with it. So that’s what I told him. “I don’t know. I just kind of like it.”

          “Still sucks that I can’t give you a cool nickname, too,” he lamented. “I could still call you Rainbow, but that’s what your dad calls you, and that’d be weird.”

          I laughed. “It’s weird anyway. I’m not like that at all.”

          “Not like what?”

          “I don’t know. Happy. Bright. Rainbow-like.”

          He was silent for a few seconds, taking his eyes off the road to glance at me for only a moment. “Oh, you’re bright, Rayn. The brightest of all the rainbows out there.”

          We drove on in the quiet, me still not sure of where we were going. A few minutes later, I realized we were slowing down. Peering out the window, I saw that we were slowing to a stop outside a huge white house. I didn’t know who it belonged to, but it was clear there was a party going on inside of it. “Ruesso, whose house is this?” I asked, cautiously.

          “Jeff Winchester’s. You remember him, right?”

          “Oh. Yeah.” I had remembered him. I also remembered that Jeff was one of the very few people who reached out to me after the accident. He had always been a sweetheart, and I loved him for it.

          “He, uh, he’s throwing this big New Year’s party, and he invited me earlier this week. Said I could bring anyone I wanted. I thought this would be good for you, you know? For us, I mean. I don’t know when’s the last time you saw most of the people in there, but I know that they’d all be really excited to see you again.”

          I sighed. “I don’t think they would, Rue.”

          “Rayn, look at me,” he said, reaching out to touch my cheek, turning my head slightly toward him. “They’re gonna be psyched to see you. They want you to be happy, just like Kaleb would want you to be happy, just like Lauren would want you to be happy, and just like I want you to be happy. You need social interaction, and this is how you’re gonna get it. I’m forcing you.”

          “Well jeez, bossy,” I exclaimed, shaking my head back and forth. I knew he wasn’t backing down, and I also knew that he was absolutely right. This would be good for me. I didn’t want to admit it to myself, but I had missed my high school classmates desperately over the last six months. I didn’t know what any of them were up to, thanks to my lack of social networking, and by God, I wanted to. “Alright then, lead the way.”