Teen Dad Series

How I Met Your Mother (Luke & Ruby)

Ruby came home in tears. The college girl across the hall that picked her up after school and babysat when Luke had to work had no idea why. It was Luke's day off so luckily he had time to sit her down and comfort her as much as he could. It took a while to get her to stop crying, and even longer to get her to talk.

"My teacher gave us a craft today." She whimpered, letting Luke wipe the tears away. 

"You love crafts!"  Luke replied, not seeing the problem just yet.

"They were cards for mother's day."

And there it was. Luke froze, staring at the fresh tears rolling down her cheeks, unable to think of a coherent thing to say. He'd dreaded this day for a long time now.

"Oh, Bug." Luke pulled Ruby into his lap and hugged her to his chest. "What happened?"

"Everyone made fun of me because I don't have a mommy!" She wailed, clinging onto his t-shirt and soaking through the material with her tears. "They kept laughing at me and saying mean things."

"Didn't your teacher stop them?" Luke felt pretty annoyed that kids their age would ever htink it was funny to be so cruel.

"No." Ruby mumbled. "She was busy helping with cutting shapes."

So basically, this teacher that had hated Luke's guts since the first day had let kids torment his daughter. He'd talk to her on Monday. He'd let her know what he thought about that.

"I'm sorry they were mean to you Ruby." He murmured, kissing the top of her head and continuing to hold her close.

The morning of Mother's Day came too soon. But Luke had a plan. After having a big breakfast over at his own mom's house and giving her the card that Ruby had made, the two of them took a drive. Ruby gazed out the window, happy and full of good food. When they parked in front of an old bowling alleyway, she looked around in confusion.

 "What are we doing?" she asked, looking at Luke. "Are we going bowling?"

Luke smiled and turned to look back at her. "No. I thought you might like to see where I met your mom." The idea alone seemed to excite her more than anything. Ruby was out of her car seat and in Luke's arms in no time. They walked in and looked around at the almost empty place.

Ruby crinkled her nose. "It stinks in here."

Luke laughed. "Sorry, Bug." He set her down and turned her around to face the alleyways. "She was with a big group of her friends and I was with your uncles. We were right next to each other. Calum kept noticing that she would look over at me so he told me to go talk to her."

"Did you?"

"She beat me to it. She was like that, always up for anything. She liked to put herself out ther. She was a carpe diem type of person."

"What does that mean?"

"I'll explain later." Luke knelt down so he was at her eye level. "We hung out a lot after that. At first, with a group of friends but then on our own. We had a lot in common and she got along really well with the guys, so she was always invited to wherever we went. She worked as a merch girl when we were in our band. I saw her a lot, and I liked that."

Ruby smiled. "Did you like her?"

"I really liked her." Luke scooped her up and carried her back to the car. "I'll take you to the cafe where I asked her to be my girlfriend if you want." With an eager 'yes!' the two of them climbed back into the car and took a familiar direction towards the cafe Luke worked at. 

Luke sat her down in a chair near the window and sat across from Ruby.

She looked around curiously. "You asked her to be your girlfriend here?"

"Well," Luke shrugged. "She came over here to demand why I hadn't already done it yet, so I didn't have many other options. It was her birthday and I'd been pretending I didn't know all day so that I could've surprised her that night." Luke laughed. "She wasn't the type that like to wait. Or surprises."

Ruby gazed around for a moment. "Where did she tell you that you were going to have me?"

"My room. She came over some random afternoon and told me. She was really scared." Luke remembered being scared too. He wouldn't take it back for the world, but he could admit he was terrified to be a dad so young. 

"Is that when you proposed?" Ruby had known her parents would have been getting married not too long after she'd been born, if things hadn't turned out the way they had. 

"No, I asked her at the last place on this tour. The day before you were born." It had been a bittersweet day when Ruby had been born, but the day before had been one of his happiest days. He'd taken her to the park for a day out of the house. She hated the traditional 'get-on-one-knee' proposals, so he'd sat beside her on the swingset and brought up the idea before dropping the question.

The view looked the same even five years later, overlooking the water. The sunset was still as beautiful as ever. It was almost like nothing had changed. Although, looking to his right, he could see evidence that a lot had changed. Ruby was the spitting image of her mom, but she was her own person.

Luke was grateful for her.