Boys With Girlfriends -- Chapter Two
Title: Boys With Girlfriends
Author: audreyii_fic
Fandom: Twilight (Team Jacob)
Rating: NC-17
Characters: Jacob, Bella, Edward (genderswap)
Genre: Romance/Humor/Angst
Warnings: Bad language and explicit sexuality.
banner courtesy of FatedFeathers
banner courtesy of blink_1nce
Summary: A boy gets dumped by a vampire and a wolfgirl tries to cheer him up. A genderswap rewrite of New Moon and Eclipse. ( Click here to start from the beginning.)
New Moon Scene Two:
A/N: Oh, what the fuck, let's do this bi-weekly.
i know the world's been mean to you / i've got a cure, hold tight
Tegan and Sara, "The Cure"
"You look scared."
"Do not."
"Mm-hmm." Ruth manages not to laugh as Lucas tries to get onto the dirt bike and catches the edge of his jeans on the kick stop. It would hurt his feelings. It's hard, though, 'cause he looks fuckin' ridiculous; he's really not made for this kind of thing, but he wants to learn, so that's that. Ruth's gonna teach him.
She'll teach him anything he wants to know.
"Okay," she says, pointing at the handlebars. "See those?"
"Yeah?"
"Those are the handlebars. They're bars, and they're where you put your hands. That's why they're called handlebars."
Lucas gives her an incredibly dirty look. "Thanks," he says sarcastically.
Ruth grins. "I'm here to help."
***
Ruth Black owned exactly fifteen sweatshirts, ten pairs of cargo pants, eight pairs of thermal socks, and one bra. And the underwire was sticking out of the bra.
Her sisters always gave her shit about it. When the three of them were little, they used to watch Grease at least three times a week. Rachel and Rebecca developed a deep and personal love for showtunes; Ruth developed a deep and personal love for 1948 Ford De Luxe Specials. Then Mrs. Clearwater had loaned her Thelma and Louise, which fuckin' proved girls could own awesome wheels. Louise had a 1966 Thunderbird.
So at age eight Ruth decided she was going to build the coolest car in the history of the world. And who needed dresses and makeup and shit when you were covered in engine grime?
Mom used to smile and say that she would grow out of it one day. But, well... Mom didn't know everything. And every time Rachel and Rebecca had tried to push their big nosy butts in and say just 'cause Mom was gone didn't mean they couldn't teach Ruth the girl stuff, Ruth told them they were more than welcome to go cliff-diving on a stormy day, thanks.
Rachel and Rebecca retorted with warnings that she'd never get a boyfriend with that kind of attitude.
Whatever. Ruth had really never given a shit about guys. The closest thing she had to a celebrity crush was Jeremy Clarkson, and that was only because he was violently against speed cameras. As far as the locals went, her choices were limited to the guys she'd known since she was in diapers. Ruth could remember when Embry Call used to shove straws up his nose to do a walrus impression. Quil was her third cousin. Paul was an asshole. Jared was dumb as a post. Seth was an infant. She got along with 'em all okay -- yeah, even Paul, most of the time anyhow -- but they didn't exactly give her the squidgies. Ick.
Then she turned fifteen. And Lucas Swan turned up at First Beach.
She managed, somehow, by the grace of divine intervention or something, not to make a complete idiot out of herself. She must not've done anything too wrong since he'd come over to talk. Those Forks girls were there, older and prettier and with some serious boobs, but Lucas wanted to hike the beach with her. Ruth told him all those old dumb stories about the wolves and stuff, and he'd paid attention to what she'd had to say like it was super-interesting, and he had this smile and this hair and these brown eyes and just whoa.
And he was driving her truck.
Ruth was in love.
That was the point at which she started to notice stuff like the underwire sticking out of her bra. And the fact that she didn't own a skirt.
A couple of times she thought maybe she'd ask Billy for a couple of bucks to go to the second-hand store in Port Angeles and buy some of those shoes with the wedges on them, but if she did then he'd ask why and it was vitally important that no one ever ever ever find out that she had a crush on Lucas Swan. There was no such thing as a secret in La Push, and everyone would know, and not only would Embry and Quil give her shit forever but Lucas himself might hear about it and then she'd just crawl under the Rabbit and kick out the fuckin' jack because she'd never be able to look anyone in the face for the rest of her life.
So, since she couldn't go to get new stuff, Ruth started sneaking into the twins' old room and going through their closets. They'd left blouses and stockings and halter top things that Ruth didn't even know how to put on. She tried them out but they felt weird, and she practiced with the makeup but couldn't tell if she had it right. She was really careful to wash every last speck off before anyone saw.
Girl stuff was hard.
***
"All-righty," Ruth says. She backs up. "Tell me again."
Lucas rolls his eyes, but he obediently points to and lists all the vital bits of the motorbike. Ruth listens, really she does, but she also notices how his hands move when he gestures to things. She's thought a lot about what those hands would feel like in various places. Sometimes she gets distracted. Then she drops things and generally morphs into a pathetic dork.
It's not her fault, though. It's not. Lucas is just... he shouldn't have such nice hands. That shit's just not fair.
Once upon a time Ruth tried to stop swearing quite so much. But it makes Lucas smile when she does, and making Lucas smile is way the fuck high on her priority list. Now she swears more than ever.
"Uh, Ruth?"
Ruth blinks. "Yeah?"
Lucas raises an eyebrow. "Did I get it right?"
Probably. "Definitely." Ruth rubs her palms together, then moves to stand in front of the bike, pretty sure that since Lucas isn't touching the gas he won't run her over by accident -- but only pretty sure because damn is he bad with mechanical shit. It's cute. "Now put your hands on the handlebars, remember, we talked about what those are--"
He scowls.
"--and just put your thumb there." She moves his fingers to the right places. "Then here, hold onto the clutch like this, and, yeah, good, you got it." Ruth glances up, and Lucas glances up too, and he just kind of looks at her.
If she leaned forward about five inches she could kiss him. She could brush his hair out of the way which she knows is really soft 'cause she's ruffled it a couple of times, and she'd kiss him, and he'd smile.
He'd smile because he likes her. She's pretty damn sure he likes her.
She just has to be patient.
Lucas straightens up on the bike with a cough, and Ruth loves his super-pale skin 'cause it always gives him away, and the only thing she likes more than making him smile is making him blush. Which he's doing now. "Okay," he says. "So. I think I'm ready."
Ruth feels like cheering, even though that's not what he means. "Sweet. Let's get this show on the road, then."
***
Lucas got a girlfriend, and that was the first time Ruth ever broke a bolt by over-tightening it.
She dealt. Boys with eyes like that didn't stay single for long. She wasn't just gonna sit around and mope like one of those stupid girls in those stupid movies where everyone wears hats and pines themselves to fuckin' death. Nuh-uh. Besides, she had the coolest car in the history of the world to build. Who needed boys when you had engines?
In fact, just to show how much it didn't matter that Lucas Swan had picked up some pasty-faced bitch-ass skank who probably didn't even know what a blowjob was, Ruth didn't go over to his house for the rest of the spring. Not even to check on the truck. So there.
And at no point did she eat a box of Oreos and sniffle. Ruth Black did not do girl shit like that.
She hid the Oreo box in the bottom of the trash bin.
After that, though, she felt better in general, which she figured was a fluke and didn't have anything to do with actual Oreo heart-healing properties because that was just an urban legend. It wasn't really in Ruth's nature to stay in a funk for very long. Funks took way too much work to maintain when it was a lot easier to just let things go and move on.
Then her dad, who up until then had seemed like a reasonable human being, sent her to Lucas Swan's prom to deliver some insane Council message. He did it by bribing her with a vital and very rare piece of the Rabbit's engine, which was cheating. Ruth wanted to avoid making a fool of herself in front of Lucas, but she wanted the engine piece more.
He danced with her and took the crazy message with good grace and didn't seem to notice that she hadn't known how to make Rebecca's dress fit right. Lucas really was a nice guy.
Ruth also got to meet The Girlfriend. Her dress fit like a glove.
She ate another box of Oreos when she got home.
Summer passed without incident, and school started up again, and all was generally good until she heard about Lucas getting dumped. The more she heard about how messed up he was about it, the more Ruth hated The Girlfriend with whole new flaming white hot fires of fuckin' detestation. Her temper had started to get a little rough around the edges, and whenever she pictured The Girlfriend's face she felt like ripping things apart. With her teeth.
It was kinda weird.
Then one totally ordinary afternoon where nothing interesting was happening at all, Lucas Swan showed up with a couple of broken down motorbikes and a proposition and an offer to come hang out all the time and handed her her wrench and he had a soft spot for the thingies and the rumors were true, he was super-messed up, but he smiled at her a couple of times.
She bet she could make him smile more.
The coolest car in the history of the world could wait.
***
Ruth backs up and points at the road. "Okay. Go ahead. Careful on the gas, watch the brake, and don't run into the potholes." He gives her an exasperated look, and she raises her hands innocently. "I'm just sayin'."
Then Lucas takes off, maybe a little faster than Ruth would've recommended for someone who didn't know what a piston was -- not that that really mattered at the moment, but it was sort of indicative -- but he's not doing too bad for a first-timer. Ruth's got what she's sure is a really stupid-looking grin on her face. She bets he's smiling too -- and she's the one who did it. He'll remember that, remember that Ruth Black is the one who can make him smile, and she'll finish the Rabbit and he'll be so impressed that she's built the coolest car in the history of the world--
--and he's going too fast. Way too fast. Before Ruth can shout a warning, the front tire jams in one of the potholes and he's off the bike and hits a fucking rock--
Ruth's at his side in less than ten seconds. She didn't even know she could run like that.
"Ow," says Lucas weakly.
"No kidding!" Shit, there's blood all over his face. "What the fuck were you thinking? Even I don't do that on this road!"
"It was fun."
Ruth's this close to smacking him. She's really into Lucas, more than she knows she should be, but sometimes he just says the stupidest things. "You're lucky you didn't crack your head open," she grumbles.
"Guess so."
The cut's along his forehead, and he'll probably need stitches, but it could be a hell of a lot worse. She strips off her sweatshirt and presses it against where the blood's flowing. "Just call me Florence Nightingale," she jokes.
He blinks at her, and she thinks maybe she's imagining it, but it almost seems like he's glancing down her tank top. It's probably by accident, though, 'cause she's leaning right over him, where else is he supposed to look?
Then he hazily focuses on her face instead. A minute later he says, "Hey, Ruth, did you know that you're sort of beautiful?"
Ruth opens her mouth, closes it, and busies herself with the very important task of keeping the boy she's in love with from bleeding to death on the side of the road. "You hit your head pretty hard, didn't you?" she says, and thank you fucking God for letting her voice stay steady.
"Yeah," says Lucas, "I think I did."
***
Ruth figured out quickly that Lucas had different kinds of days. There were the days when he didn't say stuff or do much or really react to anything. There were the days when he did say stuff, but it was all sarcastic and dark in a funny-but-not-really sort of way. Then there were the days when he smiled.
The more time he spent in her garage, the more days were smiling days. And that was so awesome she practically couldn't stand it.
Her strict policy of absolutely no one will know about this ever ever ever started to go under. Billy had started giving her warning glances which she of course ignored because she would never entirely forgive him for the prom thing. Quil and Embry popped in a couple of times while Lucas was there, which was bound to happen sooner or later since they had a habit of popping up in general, and soon after that they started saying shit like Is Lucas coming over today? with the name all long and drawn out. Even Charlie had started inviting himself over for spaghetti nights and just happened to bring his son.
People were onto her but she didn't care. She was making Lucas Swan smile.
The best part was that he was getting all person-like now. Ruth was getting to know him for real. She talked about random shit while she was working, just whatever floated into her head, and then he started talking back, slow at first but then more and more. There were all kinds of interesting tidbits: Lucas was real embarrassed about not knowing how to fix stuff, he'd loved the desert, he had this chip on his shoulder about marriage and weird issues with his mom, he'd never actually had a best friend before. He didn't say anything about The Girlfriend, but that wasn't exactly a shock. There were plenty of better things to think about.
When he was having a smiling day Lucas was smart and funny and cool and really nice and once he put his hand on her back while he tried to look in the Rabbit's engine and whoa.
He was still pretty fucked up, though, no two ways about it. Ruth had asked him what he thought they should do once the bikes were finished, because she'd been thinking really hard about that and figured she'd better have something planned ahead of time. He'd just said, If I stopped coming over you wouldn't notice. It was one of the bad days. I'm easy to forget.
She'd taken his hand because she did that whenever she thought she could get away with it. You, she'd told him, are completely full of shit.
That had gotten her another smile.
***
He does need stitches and he seems weirdly happy about that, which kind of worries Ruth, but he's a big boy and he can take care of himself, right? She tells him the scar's gonna look awesome. Chicks dig scars. She digs scars.
It's late when she gets home from the hospital. Her sweatshirt is ruined, but oh well, nothing to be done about that, she'll just save it for really grubby days or something. She's gross even by her own standards, and she strips off her dirty clothes. Before she goes to bathe she ducks into her sisters' room.
Ruth sets her towel aside and stares at her reflection in the full-length mirror. She runs her hands over the planes of her stomach, cups her breasts, examines the lengths of her legs. She looks over her shoulder and checks out her butt. She leans closer to the glass and touches her eyebrows. She straightens up and, after a moment of consideration, pulls her ponytail loose. A curtain of black falls to her waist.
Sort of beautiful, Ruth thinks, and raises her chin proudly.
She sings KT Tunstall in the shower.
***
Next: The Bedroom
Author: audreyii_fic
Fandom: Twilight (Team Jacob)
Rating: NC-17
Characters: Jacob, Bella, Edward (genderswap)
Genre: Romance/Humor/Angst
Warnings: Bad language and explicit sexuality.
banner courtesy of FatedFeathers
banner courtesy of blink_1nce
Summary: A boy gets dumped by a vampire and a wolfgirl tries to cheer him up. A genderswap rewrite of New Moon and Eclipse. ( Click here to start from the beginning.)
New Moon Scene Two:
A/N: Oh, what the fuck, let's do this bi-weekly.
i know the world's been mean to you / i've got a cure, hold tight
Tegan and Sara, "The Cure"
"You look scared."
"Do not."
"Mm-hmm." Ruth manages not to laugh as Lucas tries to get onto the dirt bike and catches the edge of his jeans on the kick stop. It would hurt his feelings. It's hard, though, 'cause he looks fuckin' ridiculous; he's really not made for this kind of thing, but he wants to learn, so that's that. Ruth's gonna teach him.
She'll teach him anything he wants to know.
"Okay," she says, pointing at the handlebars. "See those?"
"Yeah?"
"Those are the handlebars. They're bars, and they're where you put your hands. That's why they're called handlebars."
Lucas gives her an incredibly dirty look. "Thanks," he says sarcastically.
Ruth grins. "I'm here to help."
***
Ruth Black owned exactly fifteen sweatshirts, ten pairs of cargo pants, eight pairs of thermal socks, and one bra. And the underwire was sticking out of the bra.
Her sisters always gave her shit about it. When the three of them were little, they used to watch Grease at least three times a week. Rachel and Rebecca developed a deep and personal love for showtunes; Ruth developed a deep and personal love for 1948 Ford De Luxe Specials. Then Mrs. Clearwater had loaned her Thelma and Louise, which fuckin' proved girls could own awesome wheels. Louise had a 1966 Thunderbird.
So at age eight Ruth decided she was going to build the coolest car in the history of the world. And who needed dresses and makeup and shit when you were covered in engine grime?
Mom used to smile and say that she would grow out of it one day. But, well... Mom didn't know everything. And every time Rachel and Rebecca had tried to push their big nosy butts in and say just 'cause Mom was gone didn't mean they couldn't teach Ruth the girl stuff, Ruth told them they were more than welcome to go cliff-diving on a stormy day, thanks.
Rachel and Rebecca retorted with warnings that she'd never get a boyfriend with that kind of attitude.
Whatever. Ruth had really never given a shit about guys. The closest thing she had to a celebrity crush was Jeremy Clarkson, and that was only because he was violently against speed cameras. As far as the locals went, her choices were limited to the guys she'd known since she was in diapers. Ruth could remember when Embry Call used to shove straws up his nose to do a walrus impression. Quil was her third cousin. Paul was an asshole. Jared was dumb as a post. Seth was an infant. She got along with 'em all okay -- yeah, even Paul, most of the time anyhow -- but they didn't exactly give her the squidgies. Ick.
Then she turned fifteen. And Lucas Swan turned up at First Beach.
She managed, somehow, by the grace of divine intervention or something, not to make a complete idiot out of herself. She must not've done anything too wrong since he'd come over to talk. Those Forks girls were there, older and prettier and with some serious boobs, but Lucas wanted to hike the beach with her. Ruth told him all those old dumb stories about the wolves and stuff, and he'd paid attention to what she'd had to say like it was super-interesting, and he had this smile and this hair and these brown eyes and just whoa.
And he was driving her truck.
Ruth was in love.
That was the point at which she started to notice stuff like the underwire sticking out of her bra. And the fact that she didn't own a skirt.
A couple of times she thought maybe she'd ask Billy for a couple of bucks to go to the second-hand store in Port Angeles and buy some of those shoes with the wedges on them, but if she did then he'd ask why and it was vitally important that no one ever ever ever find out that she had a crush on Lucas Swan. There was no such thing as a secret in La Push, and everyone would know, and not only would Embry and Quil give her shit forever but Lucas himself might hear about it and then she'd just crawl under the Rabbit and kick out the fuckin' jack because she'd never be able to look anyone in the face for the rest of her life.
So, since she couldn't go to get new stuff, Ruth started sneaking into the twins' old room and going through their closets. They'd left blouses and stockings and halter top things that Ruth didn't even know how to put on. She tried them out but they felt weird, and she practiced with the makeup but couldn't tell if she had it right. She was really careful to wash every last speck off before anyone saw.
Girl stuff was hard.
***
"All-righty," Ruth says. She backs up. "Tell me again."
Lucas rolls his eyes, but he obediently points to and lists all the vital bits of the motorbike. Ruth listens, really she does, but she also notices how his hands move when he gestures to things. She's thought a lot about what those hands would feel like in various places. Sometimes she gets distracted. Then she drops things and generally morphs into a pathetic dork.
It's not her fault, though. It's not. Lucas is just... he shouldn't have such nice hands. That shit's just not fair.
Once upon a time Ruth tried to stop swearing quite so much. But it makes Lucas smile when she does, and making Lucas smile is way the fuck high on her priority list. Now she swears more than ever.
"Uh, Ruth?"
Ruth blinks. "Yeah?"
Lucas raises an eyebrow. "Did I get it right?"
Probably. "Definitely." Ruth rubs her palms together, then moves to stand in front of the bike, pretty sure that since Lucas isn't touching the gas he won't run her over by accident -- but only pretty sure because damn is he bad with mechanical shit. It's cute. "Now put your hands on the handlebars, remember, we talked about what those are--"
He scowls.
"--and just put your thumb there." She moves his fingers to the right places. "Then here, hold onto the clutch like this, and, yeah, good, you got it." Ruth glances up, and Lucas glances up too, and he just kind of looks at her.
If she leaned forward about five inches she could kiss him. She could brush his hair out of the way which she knows is really soft 'cause she's ruffled it a couple of times, and she'd kiss him, and he'd smile.
He'd smile because he likes her. She's pretty damn sure he likes her.
She just has to be patient.
Lucas straightens up on the bike with a cough, and Ruth loves his super-pale skin 'cause it always gives him away, and the only thing she likes more than making him smile is making him blush. Which he's doing now. "Okay," he says. "So. I think I'm ready."
Ruth feels like cheering, even though that's not what he means. "Sweet. Let's get this show on the road, then."
***
Lucas got a girlfriend, and that was the first time Ruth ever broke a bolt by over-tightening it.
She dealt. Boys with eyes like that didn't stay single for long. She wasn't just gonna sit around and mope like one of those stupid girls in those stupid movies where everyone wears hats and pines themselves to fuckin' death. Nuh-uh. Besides, she had the coolest car in the history of the world to build. Who needed boys when you had engines?
In fact, just to show how much it didn't matter that Lucas Swan had picked up some pasty-faced bitch-ass skank who probably didn't even know what a blowjob was, Ruth didn't go over to his house for the rest of the spring. Not even to check on the truck. So there.
And at no point did she eat a box of Oreos and sniffle. Ruth Black did not do girl shit like that.
She hid the Oreo box in the bottom of the trash bin.
After that, though, she felt better in general, which she figured was a fluke and didn't have anything to do with actual Oreo heart-healing properties because that was just an urban legend. It wasn't really in Ruth's nature to stay in a funk for very long. Funks took way too much work to maintain when it was a lot easier to just let things go and move on.
Then her dad, who up until then had seemed like a reasonable human being, sent her to Lucas Swan's prom to deliver some insane Council message. He did it by bribing her with a vital and very rare piece of the Rabbit's engine, which was cheating. Ruth wanted to avoid making a fool of herself in front of Lucas, but she wanted the engine piece more.
He danced with her and took the crazy message with good grace and didn't seem to notice that she hadn't known how to make Rebecca's dress fit right. Lucas really was a nice guy.
Ruth also got to meet The Girlfriend. Her dress fit like a glove.
She ate another box of Oreos when she got home.
Summer passed without incident, and school started up again, and all was generally good until she heard about Lucas getting dumped. The more she heard about how messed up he was about it, the more Ruth hated The Girlfriend with whole new flaming white hot fires of fuckin' detestation. Her temper had started to get a little rough around the edges, and whenever she pictured The Girlfriend's face she felt like ripping things apart. With her teeth.
It was kinda weird.
Then one totally ordinary afternoon where nothing interesting was happening at all, Lucas Swan showed up with a couple of broken down motorbikes and a proposition and an offer to come hang out all the time and handed her her wrench and he had a soft spot for the thingies and the rumors were true, he was super-messed up, but he smiled at her a couple of times.
She bet she could make him smile more.
The coolest car in the history of the world could wait.
***
Ruth backs up and points at the road. "Okay. Go ahead. Careful on the gas, watch the brake, and don't run into the potholes." He gives her an exasperated look, and she raises her hands innocently. "I'm just sayin'."
Then Lucas takes off, maybe a little faster than Ruth would've recommended for someone who didn't know what a piston was -- not that that really mattered at the moment, but it was sort of indicative -- but he's not doing too bad for a first-timer. Ruth's got what she's sure is a really stupid-looking grin on her face. She bets he's smiling too -- and she's the one who did it. He'll remember that, remember that Ruth Black is the one who can make him smile, and she'll finish the Rabbit and he'll be so impressed that she's built the coolest car in the history of the world--
--and he's going too fast. Way too fast. Before Ruth can shout a warning, the front tire jams in one of the potholes and he's off the bike and hits a fucking rock--
Ruth's at his side in less than ten seconds. She didn't even know she could run like that.
"Ow," says Lucas weakly.
"No kidding!" Shit, there's blood all over his face. "What the fuck were you thinking? Even I don't do that on this road!"
"It was fun."
Ruth's this close to smacking him. She's really into Lucas, more than she knows she should be, but sometimes he just says the stupidest things. "You're lucky you didn't crack your head open," she grumbles.
"Guess so."
The cut's along his forehead, and he'll probably need stitches, but it could be a hell of a lot worse. She strips off her sweatshirt and presses it against where the blood's flowing. "Just call me Florence Nightingale," she jokes.
He blinks at her, and she thinks maybe she's imagining it, but it almost seems like he's glancing down her tank top. It's probably by accident, though, 'cause she's leaning right over him, where else is he supposed to look?
Then he hazily focuses on her face instead. A minute later he says, "Hey, Ruth, did you know that you're sort of beautiful?"
Ruth opens her mouth, closes it, and busies herself with the very important task of keeping the boy she's in love with from bleeding to death on the side of the road. "You hit your head pretty hard, didn't you?" she says, and thank you fucking God for letting her voice stay steady.
"Yeah," says Lucas, "I think I did."
***
Ruth figured out quickly that Lucas had different kinds of days. There were the days when he didn't say stuff or do much or really react to anything. There were the days when he did say stuff, but it was all sarcastic and dark in a funny-but-not-really sort of way. Then there were the days when he smiled.
The more time he spent in her garage, the more days were smiling days. And that was so awesome she practically couldn't stand it.
Her strict policy of absolutely no one will know about this ever ever ever started to go under. Billy had started giving her warning glances which she of course ignored because she would never entirely forgive him for the prom thing. Quil and Embry popped in a couple of times while Lucas was there, which was bound to happen sooner or later since they had a habit of popping up in general, and soon after that they started saying shit like Is Lucas coming over today? with the name all long and drawn out. Even Charlie had started inviting himself over for spaghetti nights and just happened to bring his son.
People were onto her but she didn't care. She was making Lucas Swan smile.
The best part was that he was getting all person-like now. Ruth was getting to know him for real. She talked about random shit while she was working, just whatever floated into her head, and then he started talking back, slow at first but then more and more. There were all kinds of interesting tidbits: Lucas was real embarrassed about not knowing how to fix stuff, he'd loved the desert, he had this chip on his shoulder about marriage and weird issues with his mom, he'd never actually had a best friend before. He didn't say anything about The Girlfriend, but that wasn't exactly a shock. There were plenty of better things to think about.
When he was having a smiling day Lucas was smart and funny and cool and really nice and once he put his hand on her back while he tried to look in the Rabbit's engine and whoa.
He was still pretty fucked up, though, no two ways about it. Ruth had asked him what he thought they should do once the bikes were finished, because she'd been thinking really hard about that and figured she'd better have something planned ahead of time. He'd just said, If I stopped coming over you wouldn't notice. It was one of the bad days. I'm easy to forget.
She'd taken his hand because she did that whenever she thought she could get away with it. You, she'd told him, are completely full of shit.
That had gotten her another smile.
***
He does need stitches and he seems weirdly happy about that, which kind of worries Ruth, but he's a big boy and he can take care of himself, right? She tells him the scar's gonna look awesome. Chicks dig scars. She digs scars.
It's late when she gets home from the hospital. Her sweatshirt is ruined, but oh well, nothing to be done about that, she'll just save it for really grubby days or something. She's gross even by her own standards, and she strips off her dirty clothes. Before she goes to bathe she ducks into her sisters' room.
Ruth sets her towel aside and stares at her reflection in the full-length mirror. She runs her hands over the planes of her stomach, cups her breasts, examines the lengths of her legs. She looks over her shoulder and checks out her butt. She leans closer to the glass and touches her eyebrows. She straightens up and, after a moment of consideration, pulls her ponytail loose. A curtain of black falls to her waist.
Sort of beautiful, Ruth thinks, and raises her chin proudly.
She sings KT Tunstall in the shower.
***
Next: The Bedroom