A Good Friend

Chapter 3 - Consequences

The next morning, I was rearing to go. I felt quite a lot better than yesterday. I smiled as I saw her face in the morning. I felt the need to strike conversation. “Oh I just realised! I still haven’t got a name from you yet!”

“Oh yeah” she said but carried on staring at me getting ready.

“sooooo...” I tried to encourage her to answer

“what?”

“what’s your name?” I laughed, baffled she didn’t understand the question

“I don’t have one”

“You’re kidding me!”

“No really I don’t. Call me whatever you want to call me. You can call me fuckface for all I care”

“Oh no of course not” I decided that perhaps she had some sort of bad past she didn’t want to mention so I let it slide and started to think of what to call her. I looked her in the eyes and saw her beautiful red pupils glowing in the soft light of the morning sun through my window. I had never noticed it before until now but her eyes just shone so beautifully it was hard to ignore now I had seen it.

“Ruby” I said as if it came out of my mouth without really thinking about it.

“What?”

“Ruby! It’s your name!”

“What? That’s not cool! Why do you want to call me that?”

“Well your eyes are a beautiful shade of red like a ruby. You have very nice eyes”

“Oh shut up!”

“Ruby it is!”

“oh alright. I guess I can get used to it” she said but I could see her smiling.

In fact, I think she was rather happy to have a name as I’m sure anyone would be if they didn’t have one. I can’t imagine why she wouldn’t give herself a name over time and that brought me back to what she said earlier ‘I don’t know why I am here either’. Maybe she was imaginary after all but even so why did it matter. I had a friend and that was all that mattered to me right now. I heard what sounded like a rather angry mum yelling for me to come downstairs. 

I presumed she wanted me to get breakfast so I came down but I only saw her looking very cross with me. Before I had a chance to ask she yelled “I just rung the school and they told me you missed most of your classes yesterday and that creatures saw you eating candy outside the school instead of going to class!” I had the extreme urge to leg it and I looked at Ruby and she seemed to agree.

I looked at my watch and found the perfect excuse “OK I can’t have breakfast I am gonna be late thanks bye!” I said in quick succession as I bolted out the door as fast as possible. Ruby smiled at me when I started to slow down a ways away from the house and we both laughed at how silly we were. 

A part of me really enjoyed doing these things I had never had the bravery to do for so long. I had always been so tightly locked in my safety shell, doing everything and anything anyone wanted me to just to get by. There were so many things I wanted to do in life before I died and I worried I would never do them at this rate. I could die at any time not just when I am older and I would never get my younger years back. I knew that fact well. Nevertheless, was it really worth all the struggle?

“I think we better go to class for real this time and I promise to shut my mouth” Ruby said as we walked along.
“But”

“But?” Ruby questioned, at first looking confused but then growing a cheeky smile. “Oh I get it. You liked it didn’t you? You wanna do more! Haha awesome!”

I couldn’t let her encourage me into such feats again or perhaps something even worse than last time so I had to stop that train of thought at the station. “no no of course not! You’re right! We have got to go to class! This is the first and last time I ever do that!”

“you liar! You don’t think I know a lie when I hear one? I am the KING of lying!”

“no”

“yes! Why are you ashamed of it? You are young. You have never done anything fun in your life! You loved it yesterday! It was fun!”

“but that doesn’t mean we can just do it any time we want!”

“why not?” 

I felt like I was speaking to a toddler at this point.

“Because I need a job! A career! A future! If I just party around all the time then how am I supposed to enjoy my later years?”

“How are you supposed to enjoy your life if you are constantly working and never actually, you know, ENJOY yourself”

I couldn’t help but feel she may be right but surely she wasn’t! Everyone had told me it was important to have education but it was true. I had been nothing but miserable my whole life until now, why would education make that any different? What if I don’t get a job anyway? What if I just end up wasting my youth with nothing but work when it turns out the only opportunity for fun I had was this time right now. I didn’t know what to think anymore.

“Well yesterday was pretty crazy sooo maybe we should just go easy today”

“that’s what I said in the first place!” I was glad we finally agreed on something. It was true yesterday was pretty tiring so I better see what today would throw at me so I could choose what to do next. One day at a time as they say.

Then when I entered the school and was greeted by the teacher I suddenly remembered that I still hadn’t been punished for the stuff I did yesterday. I could just see the look on the teachers face was not a good one and before I could say anything I was sent to the principal’s office. ‘oh no’ I said to myself as I slunk across the hallway towards his office. I was bound to be in more trouble than I had ever been in before. I had always been one to play by the rules, even if it was just for the sake of not having to argue with anybody. It felt very strange to think I was actually going to be punished not just with detention but by going to the principal’s office! After a moment of silence, Ruby spoke up.

“do...do we have to go to his office?” she said sounding genuinely a little unnerved.

“yes” was the only thing I answered with. I was trying not to let it affect me by thinking about it as little as possible but that was pretty much impossible. “we are lucky if we don’t get suspended for this” I said as I realised how dire my situation was. Ruby just looked down to the floor and didn’t say another word. I don’t think she had any idea what to say. Nothing she could say would help the situation. We just had to put up with the consequences of our actions.

When I arrived, I was surprised to see the principal looking rather calm and sympathetic towards me. He explained that he knew I hadn’t done anything like this before as he checked my records from the previous school. He gave me a long talk about the pressure of a new school and giving me a second chance. I didn’t really pay much attention once I knew what he was talking about as there wasn’t any point. He just ended up repeating himself a lot anyway and when he mentioned my imaginary friend and how that represented my struggling he lost any and all interest I had left at that point.

Once I left the room and got a good distance away towards my classroom, Ruby popped up and made me jump as she started to pace with frustration in front me.

“JESUS CHRIST WHAT AN ASSHOLE!!” She yelled

“I mean, who the hell does he think he is telling you that shit! So you talk to yourself. It’s not like you need counselling!” she continued in blind rage. I tried to let her vent and kept my mouth shut so I didn’t escalate it but I couldn’t help but agree with her somewhat.

It was very presumptuous for him to talk about those things and he was being very patronising like he thought I just needed to be talked down to in order to fix the problem or something. It almost made me want to do it all again just to spite him but that wouldn’t be a smart thing to do. Besides, I couldn’t risk my mother getting any more angry with me as my mum is terrifying when she is mad.

After some time of ranting Ruby turned around and faced me, stopping me in my tracks.

“Why are you still walking to class?! Do you WANT to do what this asshole tells you?!” She enthused

“I think you are getting a little ahead of yourself, Ruby. It’s better to just keep things quiet for now. It’s never good to make decisions on impulse.” I explained.

Ruby was so angry she found it very difficult to contain her rage but she wasn’t mad at me so she tried her best to cool down by taking some deep breaths. After a while she was fine. It seemed she was able to cool down as quickly as she fired up. She was indeed a very strange creature as she seemed to go from one extreme to the other pretty easily. Nevertheless, she had passion which she put into everything which was rather nice.

“I wish I could be as brave and strong as you” I found slipping out of my mouth before I had completely decided to say it.

“What are you talking about? I’m not-” Ruby was about to say something but then looked at me and quickly back peddled

“Well yes. I am great! But... you aren’t too bad yourself” Ruby couldn’t look at me straight when she said it. I got the feeling she was feeling embarrassed or shy in some way.

“Oh come on, your just flattering me now. What could I have possibly done which could be considered brave?” I asked

“Well...errrrr...” Ruby struggled to come up with an answer

“You see?!”

 “You were scared to go to the Principals office but you did it anyway didn’t you?” Ruby smiled at me but I wasn’t buying it

“And I was sobbing my heart out yesterday because someone laughed at me” I argued

“Oh come on! That doesn’t matter! Anyone would be upset in a situation like that. That doesn’t make you a coward. Besides, who gives two shits about what those guys think anyway?”

I could tell Ruby was trying to be comforting and it left me with a warm feeling in my heart to know someone actually cared about my feelings without any indication to do so. I couldn’t help but smile as the feeling warmed my soul.

“thank you” I said quieter than I hoped. I wanted to thank her but I was also a little afraid to look too desperate too soon. It was this kind of thing that gets me thought of as such a weirdo in the first place. I felt obliged to say it at least.

“What?” Ruby asked

Oh thank goodness she didn’t hear me.

“It’s nothing, nevermind” I answered.

Ruby just accepted it without a word and turned back to see where she was walking.
Then she quickly turned around again and yelled “We are here!”

I shushed her straight away and whispered “Be quiet! They are trying to learn in there!”

Ruby quickly covered her mouth “oh fuck” she whispered which I couldn’t help but giggle a little at, although I quickly stopped myself so I wouldn’t make the same mistake.