It's you I'm thinking of > Patrick Feely

Patrick

I sat outside of Ruby's house waiting impatiently for her to come home.

I had slept at my house last night which felt weird because I hadn't since Halloween night. I much preferred Ruby's bed but she slept over at Katie's with Erin yesterday and had been out with them all day.

I think she found it slightly weird to be leaving Oscar with her dad for the day even though he's the parent in that situation.

But still, in the two weeks that I'd been sleeping at Ruby's, I had yet to see her mam. It made me think that every time I let Ruby walk into that house, that she was walking into it feeling completely alone and still knowing that her mam was locked away in the next room over. It must have drove her crazy that the person who was meant to take care of her did exactly the opposite.

She may have been a grieving mother, but Ruby and Oscar were grieving siblings. It's just not right.

A swish of her black hair caught my eyes from down the street. She was wearing her worn out blue jeans that she loved so much, a white tank top, a black jacket and a flat pair of adidas runners I'd spotted in her room last week.

She looked like she always looked- the most beautiful girl I'd ever seen- but she was holding a blood soaked tissue to her nose.

A nose bleed? I'd never seen her have one before.

"I can't believe what I let Katie do to me." She cried out from about twenty metres away.

What could have Katie done to make her nose bleed?

"What did she do?" I questioned, slightly worried at this point.

Ruby waited until she was standing in front of me to pull the tissue away from her nose. Thank god I wasn't afraid of blood because there was a lot of it. But underneath it all was a tiny silvery diamond sticking out of her nose.

I shuddered, "please tell me you didn't let Katie stick a needle into your nose in her bedroom."

Ruby winced and peered up at me, "It sounds bad when you say it like that."

I chuckled before gently taking her jaw into my hand and inspecting the hole on the right side of her nose. "Is it sore at all?" I asked.

"Not yet." Ruby shrugged, I remembered when I had first spotted her belly piercing.

"Okay cmon'." I nodded towards the house and took her hand into mine to pull her down the drive.

The grass had been cut, by her dad, I presumed. At least he was stepping up a bit. Maybe he wasn't as bad as I thought he was.

After Ruby clicked the front door closed, she crept cautiously into the kitchen. She seemed sort of on-edge lately and just the fact that she was creeping into her on house didn't put my worry's to rest.

Christ, I'm not sure I'll ever not worry about this girl. And willingly so. Even when she's laughing and smiling I'm still worried about what's going on inside her head. I just have to have the patience to wait until she finally lets me in.

"Ruby!" Oscar yelped, appearing from the double doors that connected the sitting room to the kitchen. He had a big grin on his face, as well as chocolate spread around his mouth.