Freedom

Undisturbed Beauty

Chubs and I had been on driving duty for what seemed like forever. Chubs shared the same sentiment, "Go back there and see what's taking them so long. Our turn should be up by now. I reluctantly walked past the curtains to check for Liam and Zu. 

"RUBY" Liam and Zu pop out from the side of the van. I didn't even know there was a space there

"Oh MY goD! You scared the shit out of me." I stumbled back onto the passenger seat.

"Language!" Liam climbed out of the hiding place he was cramped into. It was definitely his idea to cram him and Zu  that tiny spot to scare me.

"I cant help it when you try to give me a heart attack" I was laughing and pulling Zu out of the corner of the van. "It's your guys time to drive. Me and Chubs have been driving for  e v e r "

"Alright", Liam stood up and passed by me. Liam's arm intentionally caught me and I was pulled next to him. He spun me around and sent me to the back of the van while he went to switch with Chubs. Zu and I sat in the back and played with a notebook. She wrote in the notebook a question. Her handwriting had gotten better, more mature.

What is a boyfriend? 

"Zu where did you hear about that" I playfully nudged her.

In the book I've been reading. Samantha has a boyfriend. What is that?

Her sentences were becoming more well structured too. I was more and more impressed with her ever day. "Well a boyfriend is someone that you like." She looked confused. I knew I would have to give her a better explanation than that. "Tell me a little more, what is Samantha's boyfriend's name?"

Clark

"So Samantha and Clark really like each other. More than how friends like each other. They want to be together and closer than friends."

Have you ever had a boyfriend?

"No, but you know. Times are different now, but I bet you're going to have a lot of boyfriends. Promise me you wont get in too much trouble with the future boys." I loved having sister time with Zu.

Liam called out to us from the front seat, "Get excited guys, we're pulling into the hotel."

"Oh yes, we can sleep in real beds tonight." I put my hands up in the air and celebrated. I felt the van park and we got on our backpacks. I slid the van door open.

"Not so fast," Liam stuck and arm out and blocked me from hopping out. You're not popping a stitch because you're stir crazy. I reluctantly look his arm and used it as a brace. My limp was going away more and more each day, but there was still pain and discomfort in walking. We made it to the back door of the hotel. Chubs and Zu had already cleared the place out; It was cleared.

"Hurry up cripple. There's running water, not limping water." Chubs popped open the door. We placed our stuff down in the lobby and barred the doors and windows. We were locked in. All the other doors were barred and the windows were nailed. This place seemed like the most safe place to stay in a long time. We sat down on the couches in the lobby. Chubs gave us the run down, "There's four small rooms each connected to one another. We're all going to take one room. This place is kinda fancy, as you can see," He gestured around the room, "so theres a few on-suites." I butted in,

"Please take a shower I don't want to be in a van with you smelly folk." We went to the rooms. I opened the double doors and took in the big room. I had never seen anything like it before. From walls to celling was a sleek white paint, with light grey decorative patterns on one of the walls. The bed was probably a king size. There seemed to be endless pillows atop of a pristine comforter. The quality and maintained state of the hotel was impressive. Any other time and I would be skeptical. But I was just so happy to have a real bed to sleep in. I set my stuff down on the bed and walked towards the glass door that led to the bathroom. There was a silver colored bathtub, matching shower, and a well maintained sink and toilet. The sunset gleamed in through the window and onto the bathroom's stainless steel and white theme. It seemed unreal, to find a place this serene and un-disturbed. But I guess it made sense. It was winter and we were in the middle of nowhere in northern Ohio. No one is going to come up here to vandalize some hotel. They'd freeze there asses off before they made it halfway. The bathtub called for me, I hadn't taken a nice relaxing bath in years. I scavenged under the sink and found old hotel toiletries and a travel size bottle of bath bubble. I pulled the blinds down over the glass door and brought my stuff into the bathroom. I started the water, it took a few minutes to get warm so I sat on the counter and admired the view from outside the window. The outside was in full fledged fall. The water started to get warm and I started to add the bubbles. I took down my hair and undressed. I hesitantly got into the bath. The warm water seemed to wash away weeks of pain and stress. I washed my face and body, and detangled the knots out of my hair. I let the conditioner set in as I enjoyed my only time to relax. After a while I thought I should probably get out. I pulled down two of the white towels from the rack. One for my hair and one for me. I heard a knock at the glass door.

"Ruby, Chubs sent me to ask if you wanted dinner?" Liam cracked the door open and we made eye contact.

"Yeah, tell him I'll be out in a bit." Liam walked over to me and put his hands on my shoulders. I took my hair out of the towel and watched it drape over my shoulders. He twirled a strand of my around his fingers. He liked to play with my hair, it was just one of his quirks. I thought it was cute, it was like me putting my face on his shoulder. His hands moved to my waist and he pulled me backwards to him.

"I heard you talking to Zu earlier."

"Yeah, she's starting to ask about things in books." I felt a laugh in Liam's chest.

"I also heard Chubs messing with you earlier." I felt slight panic, but I tried to play it off cool.

"Which time?" I smirked.

"The time he was teasing you about how you felt cute in red, and about how you love fall, and about other stuff." I looked at him in the mirror. Maybe Chubs was right, maybe it was time to address the elephant in the room. Whatever I decided to do, it would happen after dinner.