Hers (Ruby Rose)

38| Touché

"NOT GONNA LIE, that was by far better than the Grand Canyons." I said while Ruby pulled out from the Yellowstone parking lot. "But don't get me wrong, the Grand Canyons were still amazing."

"I dare you to use another word beside 'amazing'."

"Incredible." I said as if that was a new one.

I smiled stupidly at her, still unable to wrap my head around the idea that Ruby and I were getting along like peanut butter and jelly. After all we had been through, it was hard to believe.

I swiped through the photos I took, reliving the moment I saw the Grand Prismatic Spring in all its glory. I had only ever seen a picture of it before, now I got to see it with my own eyes and was able to feel the heat radiating from it against my skin.

The new memory felt so surreal it brought a tear to my eye.

"Are you crying?" Ruby asked, obviously caught off guard by my sudden waterworks.

I quickly wiped at my tears and let out an abrupt laugh. "No," I said, although my voice begged to differ.

Ruby fell silent, trying to keep her eyes on me and on the road at the same time.

"It's just that," I inhaled sharply, "I haven't been this happy in a long time."

I felt like things were looking up for me. Like life would get even better from here, now that I had Ruby on my side.

"Really?" Ruby said, sounding like she did not believe me.

"I mean, before moving here I was pretty lonely. I lived alone and all I did was work. It didn't help that Gemma was miles away."

"What about family? Didn't you see them?"

When I realized where the conversation was going, I had to consider whether or not I wanted to talk about it. It was a subject I often kept to myself. I barely talked about it to Gemma.

"Not really. I've always had a small family. My dad was an only child and my mom had one sister, who I'm pretty sure lives in Greece."

It fell silent for a few seconds. I was about to change the topic before Ruby finally spoke.

"Ellis, I know your parents died last year."

I felt a pang in my heart. I gave her a surprised look to mask the pain.

"Oh, really?"

Ruby nodded. "Gemma told me before you moved in. But I never knew what happened. She never told me that detail."

I looked straight ahead, focussing on the street lights. I imagined it was the last thing my mom would have seen before...

"It's too depressing." I tried to laugh.

"Yeah, I understand."

Again with the silence.

"I didn't even know my dad had problems. My mom never told me. I was mad at her for a while, until I realized I couldn't be mad because she was gone too." I weakly smiled to show that I was okay with talking about it now.

"What happened?" Ruby frowned.

"All I was told was that they found drugs in his system after he crashed into a tree. My mom was with him." I said. Suddenly the trees in the distance made me feel sick.