[Friday]"So," Owen said sitting in front of Ruby who was sipping a cup of hot chocolate. "Why did you run away? Actually, forget that. I can understand. I want to know what made you run away at this moment in time."
Ruby sat as if she was being interrogated. She sat across from him on his bed and looked at him with a blank expression as if she was a hostage and was communicating through blinking.
"Don"t make this difficult." Owen said.
"S-sorry," Ruby said.
"Don"t apologise, you"ve done nothing wrong. The old you would have tried to insult me back. So," Owen said falling onto his bed towards Ruby, looking up at her. "Where do we start with this story? Back to last week? This morning? This evening?"
Ruby gently placed her cup on the floor and looked at Owen who was laying down in front of her with his eyes closed.
"Last week." Ruby said. "It was always getting worse but it became worse when he found out I was going out more and more. He always said that I wasn"t allowed to date people and watched my move to make sure I wasn"t talking to boys."
"This is the first I"ve heard of it." Owen said, still resting his eyes.
"That"s because it was never an issue before. Although he doesn"t like me hanging out with you all. My mother managed to convince him. As things moved on, he limited the amount of time I could come out for. How long I stayed back after school and what I was doing in my free time."
"What a controlling dad," Owen said rolling over to his side.
"Yeah, exactly."
"So, the hair dye was the last straw," Owen said. "He kept abusing his control over you and made you dye your hair back. I"m guessing you decided to argue with him about it and he forced you to not communicate with anyone for the week?"
"Yup. You know me quite well."
"Alright," Owen said sitting up and looking Ruby dead in the eyes "I don"t need to know anything else. You can take my bed, I"ll sleep downstairs. My parents will deal with your parents if they look here. I"ll explain it all to them and they"ll cover for you. Oh, and a few more things."
"What is it?" Ruby replied trying to process all the sudden information.
"Why did you run away? I didn"t think you would. I thought you wouldn"t want to worry your mum too much."
"I-i know. when they wake up they"ll find I"m gone and she"ll probably cry. But after seeing you all come to my house and look for me. I thought that I should give it a go. Maybe there was a way for me to fight back. Honestly, I"m scared. I"m terrified of what will happen when he finds out."
"So why did you come here? Why not go to Kaylee?"
"I... I don"t know. I feel like she would make a big deal out of it all. I don"t really know why I came here but it was the first place I thought of."
"Alright," Owen said. "Get some sleep. I"ll wake you up in the morning."
# # #
The following morning, at the first sight of dawn. Ruby woke up to realise that she slept in a guys bed. Her hair was a mess and she was too worried from the previous night to have cared, but now that she was awake, she remembered everything that happened.
"You"re up early," Owen said as Ruby walked downstairs whilst he was eating breakfast.
"I could say the same to you."
"Here," Owen said pa.s.sing over some toast. "Have some."
"T-thanks…"
The two of them ate in silence with Owen on his phone the whole time.
"Once you are ready, we have somewhere to go. "
"Where are we going?" Ruby asked.
"You"ll find out soon. But don"t worry, we aren"t going back to your stepdad."
# # #
After almost an hour of travel on the bus. They got off outside of an overgrown cemetery.
"H-how do you know about this place?" Ruby asked.
"I asked your mum. Don"t worry, she won"t tell your stepdad."
Owen began to walk forward but stopped outside the gate. She wasn"t able to take another step. She looked at the sign and kept shaking her head.
"I can"t do this." She said.
"Maybe you can"t," Owen said. "But how long has it been since you spoke to him. How about this. The music bet that I won, I"ll use it here to force you to see your dads grave. I couldn"t think of anything else."
Owen continued to walk leaving behind Ruby. She looked around and watched as he got further away and started to run after him, grabbing onto his hand.
"C-can I… H-hold your hand?" Ruby said turning her face away.
"S-sure…" Owen replied, "Whatever helps..."
They walked to the place where Ruby"s dad rested. Many years had pa.s.sed since the accident that took him out of this world. During that time, it is unsure how many people visited his grave. It wasn"t that he was a hated man, he was loved by many, including his wife and daughter, but perhaps it just became difficult for people to see him after putting it off for so long.
"H-hey, Dad." Ruby said talking to the grave from behind Owen gripping his hand tightly. "I-I"m sorry I never visited."
The wind picked up as Ruby came out from hiding behind Owen.
"I"ll go get some flowers," Owen said leaving them alone, pulling his hand away from Ruby.
Ruby watched as Owen walked away and looked at her dad"s grave, barely holding back the tears.
"I-i"m sorry," She said as she started crying. "I"m sorry I"m not good enough. You never got to see me perform. You never got to see me grow up. "
She stood unable to think of what to say. She was left alone and could say whatever came to her mind, but what was there to say other than to apologise.
"Dad." She said as her own throat betrayed her. "I wish you were here. I wish you and mum were still together and we were listening to you play the piano like you used to. I hate him, dad. I hate the man my mum married. I wish you were still here."
Hate was a strong emotion. To say you hate someone is something you can"t take back. It can bring someone to tears, it can cause tons of worry. To say you hate someone that your mum chose, was something that Ruby never thought. Even now, as the tears don"t stop and land on her dad"s grave, she thinks back to her current family, and the pain her stepdad caused her.
"Dad," She said wiping away her tears. "I"m going to be brave. I"m going to stand up to him. I"m nearly 18. If only you could see me. I wonder what you"d think of me now? Would you think I ended up like you? I think I have." Ruby looked back at Owen who she could see walking back up with flowers. She smiled at him and turned back to her dad and said one final parting. "I wonder what you would think of the guy I like? I think you"d like him." She said before running back down to Owen only to steal the flowers and run back to place them on her dad"s grave.
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"Goodbye… Dad. I will never forget you."