Finding You (UNDER THE PROCESS OF EDITING)

Chapter 4 - Before

Cover made by NoNameIsWorkin.

~*~

After I finish my homework, Ruby decides to take me to the mall with her, considering the party coming up.

Though I know that she's doing this only to take my mind off everything that has happened at school today.

We walk into a Forever 21 store, and Ruby politely asks the woman at the front of the shop for some formal/party dresses.

She throws about half a dozen of them at me and asks me to try them on, ignoring my complaints about having to hold so many heavy dresses at once.

About an hour later, I choose a top that I think is perfect for me.

It's a white lace off-shoulder top that I decide to pair with dark-wash jeans.

We chose not to buy any mini-dresses for my sake.

As we stand at the billing counter, I take out my wallet but Ruby beats me to it and pays for my top with her money instead of mine.

"You shouldn't have done that! You saved up all that money for college. Why did you pay for it when I had my own money?" I ask her.

"Don't complain, Jelly. I did this for you so that you can remember how your elder sister would take you to the mall and pay for whatever you bought from her own pocket. So that you can remember me when I'm gone and smile at the memories instead of crying over it all. Come on, we're going to have some ice cream. Unless you don't want to..."
She smirks as she trails off.

I step forward and hug her, breathing in the slight scent of her lavender perfume. And then I smirk back at her, "it's not like I'm on a diet, Ruby. "

"Yeah, well, given your kind of workout schedule, hell no," she mutters as we walk down to the ice cream parlour, and I laugh, which causes her to smile.

Ruby's smile is a beautiful one, and when she smiles, it is genuine. She doesn't use it to hide what she's feeling as she's a very honest person. Her smile is something an artist would love to paint, to try and capture all the right angles, and the way the light falls on her face, too. Her grey eyes sparkle, and you can see the dimples on her cheeks which make her look even prettier without her even trying to.

I may have not been very discreet while looking at her smile, as she starts to snicker, "you look like my face holds the answers to the universe! Why, is it that pretty?"

"It could, you know, " I joke, when I'm internally complaining about why I just had to get a simpler smile/laugh, even if I may share the same dimples as hers.

She reads my mind and says, "don't look so upset about your own smile. It has its own way of making people happy, you know? And besides, after I'm gone, you'll attract people with your vibes much, much better than I did."

"Thanks! So... Before this gets too cheesy, I'd like to say that I and Camila will miss you when you're gone, and so will all your friends. And oh, by the way, I'd like a cone of cookies-and mint-flavoured ice cream. Tell them to add loads of chocolate chips on top, too."

She flashes me one of her rare grins. "That's my girl! Wait right here, I'll get some for myself as well."

~*~

Ten minutes later, we're back in Ruby's Corvette, me trying very hard not to spill my ice cream and ruin her seats, as she'd kill me for that.

Ruby, of course, is used to eating quickly melting ice cream, and she gobbles up hers in sixty seconds straight without spilling a single drop. I admire her ice cream eating skills.