Along Came Rue || Lippa

Five

December 1
tuesday morning
7:30 a.m.

A gloomy morning, leaked into the messy Brooklyn townhouse, as Rue sat on the couch. Pippa hadn't come down yet, and Lin was in the basement mixing tracks. It was fairly quiet with only the sound of Ginger running up and down the steps. With a curious spirit, Rue pulled herself off of the couch and ran halfway down the steps. "Hey, Lin!" Rue called. She waited for a moment to hear a track paused and head phones hit a keyboard.

"Yo, yo, yo!" He replied, with a smile. Rue started to feel bad for snooping in the sweetest man alive. However, she would feel worse if the sweetest man alive hurt the sweetest woman alive. So, she had to weigh her options and in that moment Pippa trumped Lin.

"Can I borrow your laptop?" She asked. Lin, being the sweet cinnamon roll that he was, grabbed the machine off the charger.

"Anytime, mija," Lin bubbly agreed. A piece of Rue's heart cracked, hearing him call her that. He'd just started that the night before, and it made her feel warm and fuzzy. But she couldn't deny what she had seen on his phone.

Carefully, she lifted the expensive equipment over the banister and made her way back to the main living area, where she sat at the counter. "Please be clean," she whispered. Upon opening it she was hit with the first obstacle. "If I were Lin what would my password—"  she immediately started to type. Usnavi Hamilton? Seriously? He's sup to be a genius. Rue thought, while opening his browser history.

She scrolled for a while to see the normal google searches. "Jonathan Groff's mole? Eww," she grimaced. "Are miscarriages normal?" Rue glanced to the ceiling, knowing that Pippa was asleep above her. "Cute baby names," she smiled.

Click.

"What the?" Rue's eyes went wide to see the browser history for two days before she'd shown up. Rue clicked on the link to see an explicit video pop up on the screen and noise ring out. She immediately hit a mute button the keyboard, looking around to see Ginger's head tilt. "Oh my gosh. Is that Car—"

"Good morning," Pippa greeted, coming into the kitchen fully dressed. Disgusted with the image before her, Rue closed the browsing engine and shut the laptop. "Everything okay?" Pippa asked, making herself a cup of tea. A cold chill shot through Rue's abdomen as the sight of one of favorite actress nude etched itself into her mind.

"I— yeah. I just saw a video about animals giving birth. It was gruesome," the teen horribly covered. Phillipa, as a pregnant woman, rose an eyebrow as she started to boil the water for her French press.

"That is not at all comforting," Pippa said, referring to the fact that she would have to give birth soon enough. Rue glanced to Pippa's flat stomach then back to her face with an innocent smile.

"Hey, that's why there's modern medicine," she forcibly smiled. "So, will there be any chance of us seeing any of the Hamilton peeps or, you know, Carliegh any time soon?" Rue asked. Pippa, clueless as ever, simply shook her head, pouring her water over her ground coffee.

"Rue, are you okay? You seem jumpy," she asked. Rue profusely shook her head, leaning over the top of the laptop.

"Jumpy? I'm not jumpy. I'm relaxed. This is me relaxed. See," she awkwardly stretched, with a creepy grin. Phillipa glanced back, startled to see her foster child's demeanor.

"Ehh. That's scary. Don't do that," Pippa said. Rue dropped her face and sat up straight. "I'm sorry, did I miss something? Are you not comfortable here or something?" Pippa genuinely asked, afraid that she immersed Rue into her lifestyle too fast. Prudence shook her head and hoped up for her seat.