The Girl Who Fell In Love With An Australian

Chapter 15

They arrived at the Sydney Shopping Mall.  They parked and started to climb out of the car.  Chandler had got out, opened the door for Bindi, and got Grace out of her carseat.  Terri climbed out of the car and helped Bindi to put Grace's stroller up.  Ruth was about to ask Robert to let her out from the backseat, but Robert was already opening the door and moving the seat to let her out.  Robert looked at Ruth, held out his hand out to her, smiled and said, "We've arrived Princess."   Ruth started to die laughing while she took his hand, and climbed out of the backseat.  She stopped laughing and replied, "Thank you for helping me out of the car, Prince Robert."   They both started laughing after she said that. They quit laughing, Chandler locked the vehicle and they all started walking into the Mall.   They decided to split up and shop separately. Terri, Bindi, Chandler, and Grace went to shop for some clothes for Grace and to look around the mall.   Robert and Ruth went to start at one end of the mall, while Terri, Bindi, Chandler, and Grace started at the other end of the mall.   Robert and Ruth were walking when they saw an ice cream vendor.   They both got ice cream cones: Ruth got chocolate and Robert got mint-cookie dough.  They continued to walk, eat their ice cream, and talk about all kinds of things.   Robert decided to take this opportunity to ask Ruth something. "Ruth?" he asked.   She replied with a 'hmm'.  He continued, "I was wondering if you would wanna go out with me to the reserve tomorrow?" She smiled and nodded her head because she had ice cream in her mouth.   She then told him her answer, "I'd love to go see all the land that your dad reserved for animal conservation.   I don't really have anything better to do anyway."  Robert smiled and replied, "Okay, I'll pick you up around 6:30 in the morning, if you're okay with that, I know some girls hate getting up so early but I love getting up early."   They had the same thought and at the same time said, "To watch the sunrise!"   They looked at each other and smiled.  They started lightly laughing about how they both had so much in common.   Robert loved getting to see her smiling face and hear her wonderful laughter.   As they continued to walk around the mall, Robert kept having this bad feeling that Ruth was hiding something from him.   He decided to ask Ruth about her family again, seeing as how she didn't answer him last time he asked.   He stopped walking and asked, "Ruth."  She turned around to see why he stopped walking.   She replied with a happy, questionable tone, "Yes?"   He continued by asking and saying, "Why don't you answer me when I ask about your family?   I know you keep avoiding this subject but I can't figure out why.   I mean, is your family some kind of rich family or something?  If that is the case, I don't hold it against you or anything."  Ruth lowered her head and looked at the floor.  She couldn't find her words at the moment.  Robert thought she was going to cry or run off.   He then said, "Please, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to, but I would like to know why-."  Ruth cut him off by saying, almost shouting at him, "Stop! You wouldn't understand, nobody does, nobody ever will understand what I'm going through and have gone through, especially you." Ruth used every fiber of her being not to run away from Robert in the middle of the mall.   She held her tears in as best she could, but that didn't stop her from looking like she was gonna cry. Robert just stared at her with a hurt expression. He couldn't believe that the girl he had known for about a week could snap so easily from such a simple question.   He noticed her eyes filled up with tears.   He went to reach out to her but as he did, Ruth turned away from him.   She ran away from him as fast as she could.   Robert stood there for a minute before taking off after her. As she was running away from Robert, she ran past Terri, Bindi, Chandler, and Grace.  They stood there and watched her run past them.   Then seconds later, Robert was about to continue after her when his mom stopped him.  "Robert, let her be for a minute. What did you do to her?"  He looked at his mom and replied, "I didn't do anything to her.  All I did was ask about her family and she got mad at me for asking."   Bindi chimed in and asked, "Did she say anything to you?" Robert nodded his head; looked at Bindi, and answered, "She said and I quote, 'Stop! You wouldn't understand, nobody does, nobody ever will understand what I'm going through and have gone through, especially you.'  Why would she say that?"  Bindi, Chandler, and Terri looked at each other, shook their heads, and looked at Robert.   They knew what Ruth had gone through because she told them when she had been at their house.   She told them not to tell Robert because she thought he wouldn't like being around her if he knew her past.   Bindi looked at Robert, hugged him, and said, "Mom, Grace, and I will go after Ruth, you and Chandler should have a talk about why she got upset." Terri, Bindi, and Grace went looking for Ruth in the direction she went running off.   Robert watched as they walked away, he turned, looked at Chandler, and said, "I don't get it.  What's the big deal about asking Ruth about her family?"  Chandler looked back at Robert, shook his head, and replied, "Robert, why don't you walk around with me and I'll explain why she got so emotional about her family?"  As they started walking, Chandler started to tell Robert about Ruth and her family.  He told Robert everything as they continued to walk through the mall.  Robert listened intently to every word.   He couldn't believe what Chandler was telling him about Ruth.  He realized now why she had gotten so emotional about his question.  Robert stopped walking, looked at the ground, then looked back up at Chandler.   He now knew why Ruth ran away from him and why she didn't answer his question. Robert said, "I had no idea that she had been through all that.  She told you guys this and then told you guys not to tell me because she thought I wouldn't want to see her again?" Chandler nodded his head.  Robert was flabbergasted.  Before either one of them spoke another word, Chandler's phone rang, it was Bindi.

*Hey everybody!  I'm back.  Sorry it took so long for this chapter.  I have been SUPER busy planning my graduation from high school.  I am so excited that I'll have more time to write this story and work on other stories as well.  I also wanted to "Thank you all so much for over 1,400 reads on this story.  I never thought I would get this far in the writing world.  I owe it all to you guys!"  I can hardly wait to start writing my next book, "The Girl Who Fell in Love With a YouTuber".  I am planning on getting this book done before starting the other one.  Thanks again! - GodLover