Ruby Unscripted (23 page)
“It's all so twisted.”
“So what do you think?”
“What do I think? What are you asking, exactly?”
“Aren't letting me off easy, are you? Well, Ruby Madden, will you go to the prom with me?”
And before I even think it through, I say, “Why, yes, Nick Miller, I will go to the prom with you.”
At last Kate and I have time together.
Dad takes Mac and Grandpa fishing in the afternoon, but I ask to go to Kate's instead. She wants me to meet James, but at the last minute he can't meet us at the mall, so we stay in her room and get into our pajamas, even though it's not even five o'clock.
I'm curious to meet James, since I've only seen pics that Kate sent me. He looks pretty cute, in a Kurt Cobain sort of way. But mainly, I wish the guy would disappear from her life. And I worry that my anger might rise on seeing himâI've actually thought of telling Carson and his friends. They'd take care of him even if they are younger.
Kate finally admits that he's almost twenty. She's fifteen.
“He makes me happy. With you gone, it's nice to have someone who really cares about me.”
“Does he love you?” I ask. I'm torn between hating this guy before even meeting him and wanting to be open-minded. He can't be very smart; he could go to jail for this.
“He does, but we don't say that to each other.”
“Then how do you know he does?”
She gives me the I-know-what-you're-doing-Ruby-so-stop-it look.
“I'm sorry. It's so weird for me. You have this older boyfriend suddenly, and you guys have had sex.”
And from the look on her face, I see that it's happened more than once. I drop my head in my hands and groan.
“It's weird for me too. My life doesn't feel weird; it feels exactly perfect, except for all the lying I have to do to be with James. But your life. You have this whole new life, new friendsâit's just as weird for me.”
“But, Kate, I know you are making a huge mistake.”
“And how would you know? I support everything you do, but you just assume I'm ruining my life when you don't even know what's been happening with me.”
“I don't have to know much to know this isn't right for you. You're living a lie. And why would this guy want that too?”
“Oh, why would this guy want me? Is that what you mean?”
“That's not what I mean, and you know it. Does he want to stop hiding your relationship? Does he want to meet your parents and family? Have you met his friends and family?”
“I'm not talking to you about this.”
But I can't stop. I want to save her from this, wish I'd already saved her. “Kate, I'm leaving till next weekend and the prom. We need to talk about this.”
Kate stands and walks to the door. “Let's not talk till next weekend.”
Home.
I'm not sure if I'm leaving it or going toward it as I ride in Dad's truck to meet Mom. Soon I'll leave Cottonwood and go to Marin like we left Marin on Friday and came to Cottonwood.
On the way to our meeting spot, we pass the cemetery, and I wonder if Little Tony is buried beneath the ground there. Country music is playing, which I can only tolerate when I'm with Dad. He sometimes breaks into singing with exaggerated movements. Mac always joins in, and that's when I turn my iPod up loudly. Usually. Once in a while, I sing along with Dad and Mac. But I don't tell anyone else that.
Mom isn't in the Holiday Market parking lot yet. We go inside the Elegant Bean for ice cream and coffee. The owner greets us and wants to hear about my new life in the city. When I was younger, I asked her for a job, and she always mentions that to me. After I tell her about working at the Underground, she says that if I move home, I'll have a job waiting.
Homeâthat illusive place.
Mom comes up behind us and gives Mac a hug.
“Did you have a good weekend?” she asks as she kisses me on the cheek. “No parties?”
I don't find it very funny to have any party reminders, which then makes us both smile.
“Hi,” Mom says in a slightly awkward tone. That would mean Dad has returned from the restroom.
“Where's Austin?” my dad asks in his super-friendly voice.
Whenever Austin is around, Dad's overly friendly to the point I want to say,
It's okay that you don't want to be around him.
He won't have his feelings hurt.
“In the car,” she says.
“I bet there's a lot of work to be done on Aunt Betty's place. Last time I was there, I was worried about that roof.”
“She had it replaced a few years ago.”
Mom doesn't ask about Tiffany. While Dad acts over-friendly, Mom just avoids the subject of Tiffany's existence when at all possible. Once she tried explaining it to me, that she didn't have hard feelings anymore and some other stuff, but I couldn't process it and didn't really want to. They are divorced, that's it, nothing more to say or explain or discuss.
Something always feels off-kilter when I see my parents together now. They are polite and cordial, like two professionals or strangers making a business transaction. We all have the memories of their love and years together. I remember, Mac remembers, and I know they have to remember sometimes too. But while we have the memories, we want to forget, or at least they surely do. We want to act like this is all okay, because strangely it is.
I'm not sure if it's weirder with the stepparents or without them. With the stepparents waiting outside in the cars and us in here, it's almost like we're a family again. Almost, but then, not really at all.
“I'd like to see the kids more,” Dad says.
“I'd like to see Carson more too.”
“We'll have to figure something out.” Dad picks up Mac and turns him upside down, which makes him laugh hysterically. “We had a good weekend though, right, kids?”
“Yes!” Mac yells, and I smile at Dad.
Our coffees arrive on the counter, and Mom chats with the owner a few minutes.
Then Dad says, “Let's get your stuff from my truck.”
Dad looks sad as he drives away, even with his smile and wave. The sadness was in his eyes, and tears form at the edges of my eyes. I want to yell at Austin to stop the car, and I'll grab my stuff and stay here. Instead I plug in my earbuds and turn my music up loud.
About a half hour later, with some distance behind us, we go through the usual answers to Mom's questions about our weekend. Mac always tells way too much, until I want to tape his mouth closed. Finally he winds down, especially because Mom isn't fully responsive. He puts in a movie on the handheld DVD player, and then it's silence and the roadâand my music playing in my ears.
“Dad said you want to come back next weekend?” Mom asks in a tired tone.
“Yeah. Nick asked me to the prom.”
“The prom? In one week? How are you supposed to get ready? I'm not sure if we are driving up again next weekend.”
“All I need is a dress and shoes. One of the dresses Frankie gave me might just work.” Though I really want that green dress. “Maybe we can meet Dad halfway.”
“Maybe. What about film group? You missed this week, and aren't they filming next weekend?”
“Oh no,” I say, hitting my forehead with the palm of my hand. “I forgot.” How could I forget?
And for a while I don't want to go back to Aunt Betty's house, don't want the film group or anything else of Marin County. Then the closer I get toward Marin, the more Cottonwood disappears behind me. I wonder who came into the Underground over the weekend. I want to catch up on my MySpace messages. I wonder if Blair isn't going to confront me after all about Jason, though how could she hate me any worse than she already does?
Awhile later Mom closes her cell phone and motions for me to turn down my music. “Aunt Jenna called with a message for you.”
“What?”
“It's about a certain guy,” Mom says with a grin.
“Which certain guy?”
“One of your film guys.”
“Which one? What did she say?”
“I guess he was asking about you.”
“Asking what?”
“Where you were, what you've been doing.”
“One of the guys from my film team?” I think of Rob, Sound Guy, Darren. “I'm not really interested in any of them.”
“Oh, re-ally. Not interested in the yard-and-moving guy?”
“Kaden?”
“Yeah, that's the one.” She smiles.
“A unique opportunity has come up,” Rob says at the special Monday night film group meeting he called unexpectedly. He presses his five fingers against the others and paces back and forth before us.
Once again Kaden is missing, so I doubt he's in this groupâhe hasn't been here since the first meeting I attended.
“We had a month and a half until the final premiere. However, I received a call from my father, and since then I've been working on something he proposed.”
“What? Don't keep us in suspense, Rob,” Olivia says with all the drama of a Broadway star.
“My father will be in Marin in two weeks. He asked if it was possible to have the premiere early, or a special movie release night with the other groups. He said there had to be at least four teams competing. He'd attend and bring several of his producer friends to watch the short movies and be the judges. And this is the exciting part: the group with the best film gets to spend a week on the set of the movie he's producing this summer; have a workshop with the director, crew, and actors; and . . .” Rob pauses for dramatic effect. “And receive $15,000 from a foundation he works with for the group's next project, with the possibility of additional backing to try getting the film into the indie festival circuit.”
We stare first at Rob and then at each other with shocked expressions.
Cass jumps up and down, screaming.
“This is beyond cool,” Darren Duke says, shaking his head.
I gaze around at the people in my group, some I'm getting to know and others I've barely talked with, and know that they deserve the excitement of this moment. They've been eating and breathing movies and moviemaking for years, some since they were young children. And here I am coming in on it so late and getting to be part of such an opportunity.
Something in me thinks that we'll win. I'm already imagining going on a movie set, maybe getting asked to be an extraâmaybe I'll be one of those talents discovered by near accident.
Okay, calm
down, Ruby,
I tell myself.
Rob continues with a satisfied grin on his face. “So I called the other three film groups in the area. They agreed to move up the date and join the competition. I only need our group to give the thumbs-up, though I obviously assumed it'd be a yes. But you have to know what we're facing. For the next two weeks, none of you will have a life. Everything outside of school and jobs needs to be eliminated. Since
Solitude
is the farthest in production, we're going to focus completely on that one and get it perfected. We've got to jump right on it. And this weekend we'll need someone's house for an all-weekend lock-in. I think we have a real shot at this.”
“We need to get Kaden back,” someone says.
“I'm working on that as well. He's had some family things going on in the past month, and he wasn't sure when he'd be with us again.”
“Get him back,” Darren Duke says. “We need him.”
Kaden will be part of this . . . What do I think of that? Then I remember. The prom with Nick.