The Homecoming

Chapter 6

"What am I even doing here?"

I kept talking to myself while pacing back and forth, hands in my pockets to keep them from shaking, head bent down, shaking with the silliness of it all. And yet, it was all too real; I stood in front of a house I hadn't seen since the day I moved to College, and the front lawn still looked exactly as it had all these years ago, with a shabby chic that didn't look completely abandoned. The hedges were neatly trimmed, and I remembered the animals the man of the house had once tried to carve into them, before he had to admit that his artistic talent just didn't go as far as gardening.

Suddenly, the front door opened, and I momentarily startled; because of my nervousness, I was way too early, and she had never been one to be punctual, because it somewhat went against her ethics or something. When I looked up, my heartbeat slowed down, and I grinned at the young woman who came down the pathway towards me, handbag slung over her right shoulder, and her gait sparkling with confidence.

I hadn't seen Ruthie Spiegelman for as long as I hadn't seen Margo's childhood home, but in comparison to the front lawn, she had massively changed. Her once tomboy-like body had grown into that of a slim-built young woman. Her hair, which had always been a dirty shade of light blonde, had turned into a rich, dark brown, and she wore it long, strands of it falling into her face. I was almost taken aback by how she and Margo looked nothing alike now.

"Jacobsen? Quentin Jacobsen? Is that you?" Ruthie stopped in her tracks as she recognized me, and I grinned at her, suddenly feeling very self-conscious about how attractive the little sister of my former love interest had become.

"Hey Ruthie. How are things?"

She came towards me with a spring in her step, and, much to my surprise, threw her arms around me, hugging me in a tight embrace. The Ruthie I had known back then had been anything but social towards me.

"Look at you, Jacobsen, still trying to distract me from what really is going on," she said, laughing. The laugh made her face lit up, and I could almost see every single boy in her High School fawning for her.

"You're not interested in me or how a tomboy like me ended up this hell of an attractive young woman, are you?"

I shrugged. "Why not?"

Ruthie laughed again. "Because I know you have a date with my sister who suddenly showed up here a couple of days ago, only to jump onto you on Lincoln's wedding day, kissing you out of the blue, telling you she's grown-up and wants to spent the rest of her life with you?"

I stared at Ruthie disbelievingly, momentarily lost for words. Back when we were teenagers, Ruthie had hated everything Margo had been; she had always been the troublemaker of the two, and therefor, had always got more attention than Ruthie herself, the baby of the family. Margo herself, I knew, had always had a soft spot for her little sister, caring about her well-being more than anybody else's, but as her reputation of the tough, aloof girl had to be kept up, she had never allowed anybody to see that side of her.

"She told you?" I replied when I found my speech again.

"Yeah. Took a while to get it out of her, though. Still, the glowing was as obvious as you being still in love with her." Ruthie smirked, and all of a sudden, I didn't know who was the older one of us anymore.

"What...what did she say?"

"Well, only what I just told you. Oh, and that it'll only be a matter of time until you came around." She shook her head. "I can't believe she was right about that. I thought her fucking up prom for you back then and you becoming a man in one of the most exciting cities in the world with a hell of a great job would finally open your eyes about how bad she is for you."