Ruby Red

II

"...Don't forget to cover up tonight, temperatures will drop drastically by 6pm. It might be time to light up the fireplace. Thank you for tuning in, have a great night." I pull my earphones out of my ears and stuff them into the pocket of my coat. Fireplace? It's barely even autumn. Ahead of me, I see the sun setting beautifully. It's one of those magical sunsets, where the sky turns different shades of pink and orange. It reminds me of cotton candy. Maybe I'm just childish.

I swing my backpack over my shoulder and use Mr Nirbnwad's keys to lock the metal bars surrounding the glass door. Since I'm alone, I have to take care of everything he normally does when he closes the shop. I put the keys in my pocket and tug at the metal bars to confirm that it's locked. All good. I look at my watch. 5:43pm. I better get to Aria's place before the temperatures start dropping drastically. I grab my phone and my earphones. I scroll through my favorite playlist until I see the perfect song to enjoy during this beautiful sunset. The moment IU's sweet voice starts playing through my earphones I feel relaxed. I start walking to the main road. Good thing Aria doesn't live very far away.

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"When did you learn to make this delicious popcorn? The best friend I remember always bought ready made popcorn." Aria says, stuffing her mouth with a handful. We're sitting on her bed with face masks on. It's girltalk day. We do this every week and to not do it would be a disgrace to our friendship. Truly. We've been doing this since we were 12 years old. It started out with just snacks, but as we got older, the face masks and nail polishes gradually became a part of it. Kinda ironic how we both always used to say makeup is too 'girly' and facials are only for 'snobby girls'. Yet here we are.

She takes a picture of the popcorn, swipes a few times to add a filter, and puts her phone down again. "Well." I say, grabbing a handful myself. "There's always room for improvement here and there." I gently tap my face mask with my free hand to see if it's doing it's work. Aria nods and points at me briefly before grabbing more popcorn. "That, my friend, is very true." She says in a weird accent. I laugh, shaking my head. She's a dork, but she's a dork whom I love a lot. I trust her more than anything. The fact that her house is like a second home to me makes my love for her ten times stronger. She literally feels like home.

"By the way," she says, swallowing the remaining popcorn in her mouth. "I started talking to this guy." I roll my eyes. Aria isn't the type to commit to a serious relationship. She likes fooling around. Prime example would be Leo from our friend group. A few years ago, they kissed at a houseparty. At the time, Leo was head over heels for Aria. Poor guy was on cloud 9. Aria then confessed to him, but it was the opposite of what he hoped to hear. She said there weren't any feelings attached and that she wanted to remain friends. I can't imagine how painful that must have been for him.

Since then, however, they have been really close. Instead of becoming distant from each other their friendship has evolved into an even better friendship, and I think that's pretty cool. Something in me hopes Aria will open her eyes soon, because even I see the way he cares for her. But hey, for the time being I guess she enjoys the 'no strings attached' way of life.  "A new boy toy. Congrats." I say, flicking a piece of popcorn into my mouth.

"It's not like that" She says, grabbing her phone. I look at her and see her semi smiling. Is she serious? "I think this might be for real." she says, scrolling through her texts. She hands me her phone. I start to read. There are a lot of text messages, and they all seem pretty friendly. The more I scroll, however, the more heart emojis I encounter. At one point there's even a kiss emoji and that's when I decide I've read enough. She deserves some privacy. I'm convinced.

"I'm quite... in shock." I say. She smiles as I hand her her phone back. "I know right!" She laughs. "Look here's a picture. I mean, you can't see him very well because of the lighting and he's with frien-" She keeps talking but I don't hear what she's saying anymore. My brain completely blacks out when I lay my eyes on the picture. I keep hoping it's just my imagination fooling with me, but the longer I look at it, the realer it becomes. My heart thumps in my chest, and it's not the good kind.

On the picture, I see the guy with two of his friends. One of them has a beer in his hand, the other is holding a tequila shot. I feel nausea develop in the pit of my stomach. I remember exactly how his filthy big hands felt on my body. I feel so numb that I don't even know what to do. I want to scream, I want to run.

"Hey!" Aria says, waving her hand in front of my face. "Are you okay? What's gotten into you all of a sudden?" she asks. I slowly peel my face mask off. My heart feels like it's about to burst out of my chest. I toss the face mask in the plastic bag we use for the wrappers. She peels her own off and looks at me worriedly. "You're seriously starting to freak me out. Can you at least make eye contact with me? Say something." she says. I can tell by the tone in her voice that she's seriously starting to worry. "Sorry." I say. I look at her, and force a small smile onto my lips. "He looks familiar, that's all. I'm happy for you."

"You seriously freak me out sometimes."