Sunset and The Brunette Boy Chap. 3

Chapter 3

The blonde girl stared at the boy, eyes furrowed. She knew that he will ask her about her name soon or later.  But until this point she still found it unnecessary to get to know each other. She hated her distrustful personality and wish to get rid of it at times like this, because who wouldn’t want to get close to someone this friendly and shameless? Yeah well, the blonde never really mind to be friend with shameless people because in fact, someone like him is so entertaining and it feels good to be around him. Since she’s not loud, at least she needs someone like him to balance this unbalanced tiny relationship. 

Sighing, she turned her gaze back to the front, “Call me Ruby.” She finally answered and bite her burger hurrily. 

The handsome boy smiled widely at her, “Now it’s not that hard, right, Ru?”

Ru?

The girl, Ruby, scrunched her nose, feeling weird at the friendly nickname. But didn’t say anything. She will let him call her whatever he wanted. It’s not like she didn’t like it though. She continued to chewed her meal. 

“Oh my..” The boy’s sighing made Ruby turned her head towards him, face confused. 

“You don’t even want to ask my name? What is this one-sided feeling, ha..” The brunette rubbed at his left chest and wore his best fake hurted expression, tried to look extremely disappointed. Ruby couldn’t help but smiled at that. This boy is so dramatic, gosh. 

“I thought you’ll just introduce yourself without having to ask you first.” She replied casually, eyes looked at him teasingly. This made the boy grinned.

“You’re right. I’m Tom by the way, Dave Franco’s long lost brother.” He cheerfully answered and reached out his hand in a mannerly gesture. Ruby scoffed at the introduction.

“You’re so lame.” The blonde shook her head in amusement, small smile plastered on her lips. 

Tom laughed, “Well, thank you very much, princess. Nice to know you, too.” He put down his awaiting hand, knowing that she wouldn’t return his friendly gesture. He could already tell by now that this girl is far from friendly. But we can change that, he positively thought.

The brunette grabbed the bottle he had bought beside him and drank its content until its fully empty before asking, “Since you never missed one day without ‘hanging’ on that tree, I suppose this is the first time you dumped your sunset for someone else?” 

The question made the blonde girl frowned in confusion. She turned her head towards him and gave him a questioning look, demanding answer as to why he knows she’s always there on that tree (definitely not hanging) enjoying her own moment. 

Tom smiled innocently at her, aware of her suspicion, but decided to play innocent.

“You stalked me.” She then stated. Looked at him in disbelief, and the brunette’s smile turned into a pout. A cute one. Ruby stared at him in disgust. What the fuck is he doing now..

“Well, you can’t count that as stalking because I basically saw you everyday there when I walked home and I believe everyone noticed it too but decide to ignore it!” He defend himself, trying to look as serious as possible.

Ruby stared at him skeptically, half believing what he said because she knew as well that everyone usually throw glances at her but never say anything about it. 

“Then why don’t you?” The girl then asked. 

Tom blinked, “Uh?” 

Ruby glanced away and stared at the empty burger plastic in her hand.

“Why don’t you do the same as the others?” She repeated. Not sure whether she wants to hear an answer to it or not. He’ll give me stupid answer anyway, as always.

Tom pursed his lips into thin lines, looked as if he’s thinking something. But then it changed back to playful expression, “Well I’ve told you, right? You look like someone who need someone to talk to and I couldn’t bear seeing it. So I’m willing myself to be sacrificed.” 

“Sacrificed?” Ruby asked with a straight face, unamused. 

Tom snickered, “I mean I’m being generous to be your chit chat friend. I can be a friend who brighten up your day, no? Where else can you find a handsome funny friendly charming guy like me in the world? Nowhere!” He explained with voice boomed excitedly, making Ruby felt embarrassed by his act. She looked around them to see if someone watching them and quickly mumbled an apology to a middle-aged couple who looked at them weirdly.  

She turned to Tom and stared with tired eyes, “You sure so proud of yourself, huh?”

“Ah why? What’s wrong with that? Shouldn’t we proud of yourself ourself? Who else will do if not ourself then?” He replied back confidently. 

Who else will do if not ourself?

Ruby chewed on her lower lip, thinking about the last word Tom said. 

“Well.. alright. You’re right. You have to be. Right?” She then said, nodding to herself. “Lucky you and your confidence.” She continued and looked at Tom with an unsure smile.

Tom sensed a hint of sadness in her voice, and looked at her worriedly. What is it that she possibly has been through? Why the gloomy straight face? Why is she always alone by herself? She’s a girl so she should have many friends around her but she isn’t. Where’s that attitude coming from? Who makes her being like that? Is she getting bullied? But she looks pretty fine physically. So is it non-verbal bully?  What is exactly happening? Those questions are now coming back into his mind. Tom has been curious since the very start. 

“Just spit it out.” 

Ruby looked at him confused, “What?”

“If you want to say something, just tell me. I’m listening.” Tom reassured with a soft smile on his lips, making Ruby felt warm at the sincerity. She sighed tiredly and then gave him a wry smile. 

“I have nothing to tell you.” The blonde said playfully. Alright, if this guy sitting next to me right now is to make me feel better, then let’s erase the gloomy atmosphere. You can’t be sure he will be here to do the same the next day right, Ru? 

Tom nodded his head in understatement, but felt glad to see her brightened up a bit. 

“Okay, if that so, I’m gonna ask you. Why sunset?” 

Ruby blinked at him. “Huh?” 

“I mean,” Tom cleared his throat, “You date sunset. But why sunset? Isn’t it too far? You can’t reach it. And it doesn’t’ speak. And is too bright. You can’t stare at it and fall in love and kiss each other.” Ruby threw him unimpressed look.   

“You can’t hug it, it’ll be too huge for you and it’s hot you’ll burned. You can’t meet sunset at night. Nor the day. So you just meet sunset at the end of the day. Are you spending the day missing the sunset or what? It looks like a one-sided love, you know?” The brunette shaked his head slightly.  

“Come to think of it, I don’t fully understand this kind of relationship.” He ended his monologue (Ruby was busy cursing him the entire time he talked) with a shake of head and concerned looking face.      

Ruby scrunched her nose, having a light mental breakdown by Tom’s sentence. Ah what to do with this boy.. 

She sighed for the nth times today and gulped down her mineral water until the bottle was empty. “I don’t get along very well with people. Guess that’s why.” She answered quietly, didn’t really expect Tom to hear it. But Tom was beside her anyway. 

“I can see that. You pushed me away, remember? This handsome guy..” He said with a disbelief face, left hand fanned his face and looked at her mockingly. Ruby shot him a bored look as a reply, silently cursing his over confidence in mind. 

“But that’s not what I mean, though.” Tom interrupted her thought. 

“Why sunset of all things. You could just pick something that is clearly available on earth but you decided to choose something out of the galaxy? You could’ve just picked your bed pillow to date and bring it out for a date. At least it’s fluffier and hug-able. And you can kiss it to sleep.” He continued with his explanation that got Ruby’s corner of lips twitched to form a little smile, but managed not to do it. 

“Sun is still in our galaxy system.” She corrected innocently. 

Tom gaped at her, “Just answer my question!” He yelled, felt dumb at her correction. And suddenly felt embarrassed for yelling. He cleared his throat. 

“Just answer the question.” He repeated. This time was softer, shied away from Ruby’s gaze. And Ruby smiled a little at that.   

There was a brief silence before she voiced, “I’m not sure, either.” She answered shortly, didn’t tear her gaze from Tom. 

Tom was confused, “You’re not sure?” 

Ruby nodded. “I don’t even know why me dating sunset become a question, honestly.” She unconsciously snickered, this made Tom pouted at her, feeling mocked. 

“I mean I actually never call it ‘dating’. It’s weird. But people spend their precious time with someone they love and call it a date. And I love sunset. It’s not as bright as you said and it’s kind of soothing to watch sunset when you have a lot of thoughts. With the light of it smeared across your face and the cool winds dashed your whole body. It feels nice. It feels like a therapy. One moment you had tons of problems at once you can’t handle to bear with it anymore and you feel sick and tired and you just have to rest under the sunset to feel better again.” Ruby’s eyes were glistening in wonder while she explained, and it made Tom felt out of place all of a sudden. At the moment it felt like the blonde wasn’t here beside him, it felt like Ruby had gone to her own world and left him alone in the amusement park.   

Does she really don’t have someone to talk to that she thought this way?

 “It feels nice.” The blonde continued after a brief silence. Tom didn’t say anything, thought that Ruby hasn’t done yet. 

“But I’m running away.” Ruby ducked her head, eyes filled with conflicts and regret. 

 “Everytime I have problem I’ll run to the sunset to feel better, to get away of the sick feeling. I feel better, but my problems always remain unsolved, never get fixed. Sunset makes me run away from my own problems.” Ruby said, rubbing her back of left hand with her thumb, a vexation tinted her voice. Her whole gesture made it looks like she screamed for help, and Tom felt a huge sympathy at her, and sad.       

Tom rubbed chin, feeling unsure of what to say.  

“But I can’t stop it. I hate feeling hurt, and most of the time I just want to run away and forget. And since I don’t know where to go, I always end up being on that tree, thinking that it’s the best place to hide from everyone. And for several first times it was always happening in the evening, so I always got to see sunset closer when I’m hiding. And since then I decided to come there everyday to watch sunset.” She said, nodding to herself.

“So there am I, on the tree ‘hanging’ everyday.” And a grin crossed the blonde’s face. 

Tom chuckled lightly, but he hadn’t covered from the sadness and sympathy he felt, and it showed on his face. 

“Don’t be sad. I don’t want you to cry over me. Especially not here.” She said teasingly and smiled in amusement.  

“I-I’M NOT!” Tom shrieked, face flushed out of embarrassement. He cursed himself for stuttering, and Ruby couldn’t help but laughed at that. Actually laughed at that she had to cover her face with her hands and continued laughing at the poor Tom. 

It feels nice.

Tom himself gaped at the sight. She laughed, unbelievable. Tom couldn’t help the overwhelming feeling he felt for making her laughed. She looked much better like this, face brightened and eyes closed from the laughter she had. And he felt the desire to see more of it in the future. Another expressions that she said doesn’t exist but actually there hidden in her, ready to be knocked out of herself.

Tom smiled in sincerity, watching her laughter died slowly and she tore the fake tears away from the corner of her eyes, still managed to choke out some short laughs while she calmed herself. And then she sighed, feeling the happiness still lingering in her chest. She turned her face to Tom to see him smiled at her in amusement. 

“You laughed.” He said teasingly, grinning widely from ear to ear.

Ruby scoffed, “You should’ve seen your face. You’ll laugh at it too if you saw it.” She mocked back. 

Tom gawked dumbly, turned away from her and muttered some curses Ruby couldn’t catch under his breath. Ruby shaked her head, a smirk plastered on her face. So childish. 

The next second Tom faced Ruby again quickly, making Ruby jumped in shock. Her eyebrows frowned in confusion. Tom cleared his throat, looking nervous. 

“Do you really have no friends?” He asked, face serious. Ruby’s expression changed. 

“I mean, I think it’s impossible for girls to not have friend, though. From what I learned, if they don’t have real friend, girls at least have fake friend as their company.” He explained, eyes wandered as if he’s thinking. 

“So how about you? Where’s your friends?” Tom eyed Ruby again, expecting a honest answer from her. 

Ruby stared at him blankly for a moment, and then tore her gaze away from the brunette. 

“When was the first time you see me on that tree?” The blonde asked. 

Tom looked confused at the moment, but immediately tried to recall the first time he saw the girl on the tree having a date. 

“Um.. One and a half  month ago? Almost two months ago I guess.” He answered unsurely. Ruby nodded lightly. 

“That was the first time I moved here.” The blonde stated. And Tom gaped at the information. 

“You’re new here?!” He exclaimed, eyes widen comically. It almost looked cute to the blonde. 

Ruby nodded casually. And the brunette sighed tiredly, looking at her in disbelief.

“What?” Ruby asked.

“You should’ve told me that!” Tom exclaimed louder, feeling betrayed.

“Why? I don’t even know you.” The blonde said innocently. Tom pouted and gave her judging look. He then turned away.

“But I thought we’re friends.” He muttered lowly, lips still pouting and completely avoiding the blonde’s gaze now, looking like a child who didn’t get his mom’s permission to buy his favorite candy.

Oh my God.. she thought. Is he sulking?!

Ruby couldn’t help the chuckle coming out of her mouth, thinking about how funny the situation she was in right now and how cute and amusing the brunette actually is. 

The blonde ducked her head, tried to repress the chuckle to the thought of Tom probably got hurt by her reaction. She realized that the brunette was actually serious about this let’s-be-friend-and-get-to-know-each-other thing, and she didn’t want to make him feel like it was still a one-sided pure innocent feeling. 

Ruby smiled widely, staring at the starting-to-lessen crowds in front of them. The sky were starting to change color to orange and shade of light pink and purple, it’ll get dark soon. 

“You are the first person who approached me after I moved here.” Ruby said. Tom turned his face towards the girl, eyes innocently waited for the next word she about to say.

“And I have to say that..” The girl chewed on her lower lip. 

“That I feel thankful for it.” She finished her sentence and looked at the brunette with a serious face. 

And then silence. They stared at each other for a good while before Tom broke their gazes and smiled wryly to himself. 

“I knew that I will succeed. I knew.” He said, grinned smugly, feeling satisfied. 

“Tch. Don’t be so high about this.” Ruby scoffed at him, but smiled nonetheless. She slightly hoped that she has made a right choice to let this guy enter her life, to become her friend, and become someone who she can trust from now on. She sighed. 

Please be a good friend, Tom. 

“I’m happy to become your first friend here, then.” Tom’s voice interrupted her thought. She snapped back and looked at him, not sure of what she just heard.

“What did you say?”

Tom looked flustered for a second, but quickly got a grip on himself and sat straightly.

“I said I’m glad I could make you dumped your sunset for me. No surprise, anyway. I’m the Almighty Handsome Freddie after all. I’m the expert of making everything become possible.” He answered, put his right fist onto his left chest and nodding proudly to himself. 

“Freddie? I thought you said your name is Tom.” Ruby asked feeling shocked and confused. Eyes narrowed in suspicion. 

Tom panicked. He waved his hands many times, face looked like a deer got caught by its predator. “No no no no. I mean yes, Tom is my name and Freddie is my another name. Tom is my middle name.” The brunette explained, tried to look as convincing as possible.

Ruby’s eyebrows narrowed even deeper. “You’re joking with me, right?”  

“I’M NOT!” Tom screamed. “My name is Freddie Tomlins and people usually call me Tom but my family called me Freddie and my mother called me Almighty Handsome Freddie because I’m just that awesome to her.” He tried another attempt to make her believe. But Ruby just threw him an are-you--out-of-your-mind look at his lame attempt of explanation.

“That name sounds familiar. Did you take it from Google?” The blonde accused him cruelly. Tried hard to keep her expression straight even though she was this close to laugh out loud.  

“THAT’S MY REAL NAME!!!” Tom cried out, clunched his hair in desperation. And Ruby rolled her eyes. A small smirk crossed her face and she swayed her hand at him.

“Why do I even talk to you in the first place..” She sighed dramatically, stood up and grabbed her stuffs, leaving the desperate Tom who just realized that the blonde just teasing him all this time after seeing that little smirk. 

“Hey where are you going? We haven’t finished!!” Tom quickly chased after the girl and matched his step with her. 

“Why are you keep leaving me like this? Aren’t we friends? Friends walk home together. You don’t know? Should I teach you the concept of friendship too?” The brunette babbled loudly beside the blonde who had her expression back to straight face and glanced boredly at the boy. This new friend of her is noisy as hell and she’ll be there to listen to all his ramble until her ears bleed.

“Hey, how about watching sunset together tomorrow? I wanna do it today but I need to go home quickly today. Let me say hi to your mate. I guess since you enjoy it so much it would be fun. You know, that light smeared across your face and windy thing you said.” Tom grinned widely, excitedly ramble about the sunset date and all. 

“Can you climb the tree?” Ruby asked, face mockingly at the brunette. 

Tom gasped at the insult, “Are you mocking me? Of course I can! It’s a piece of cake! Those couldn’t climb that tree is a loser. You’ll see me climb higher than you tomorrow..” And he continued rambling about how great he is in climbing tree. And despite how noise the brunette is, Ruby felt better this time. At least she didn’t have to come home in a complete silence surrounding her anymore. She has a new friend to fill the silence. 

Ruby sighed. 

I really hope you’re a good friend, Tom.  

“Hey, don’t you have a job or something? You have to meet me again in here after work tomorrow, alright? Don’t run. I will find you if you run away.” The brunette warned the girl, giving her a dead-ass serious expression. 

“You sound obsessed.” The blonde commented lazily. 

“I’M NOT OBSESSED!” 

Ruby sighed again.    

 

  

=========================== 

Chapter 3 is up!

This is the last chapter of this story, hurray! /clapping loudly/

This really should’ve been a one-shot, though. Since it’s only 6k+ words. But because I couldn’t manage to finish it at once,  separated it into 3 chapters.

Is this story reach your expectations? /sweating sweating

What do you think? One comment would be nice, if you have time to comment. Juseyo :’)))

And whoo, theres the name, hahaha.

I’m actually so bad at picking names and title, I was thinking so hard to make a decision for the character’s name. And I came up with the name Tom and Ruby.

I always like the name Tom, so, picked. And Ruby is a beautiful name. You probably think of ruby eyes once you read the girl’s name. But when I looked for some information about Ruby as name, it’s actually has a beautiful meaning for a girl name. So I decided to pick it. /wink/

During writing the last chapter, I always imagined Tom as Baek Inho from Cheese In The Trap /crying/. It didn’t match perfectly but there’s tiny resemblance of both characters. And I imagined Tom as Baek Inho the entire time I’m writing this last chapter, haha. /cries/

Thank you for reading my story, whoever who’s willing to waste their time to read this. Most of time I just talked to myself, but I couldn’t careless about it now. I just want to thank everyone who read this, those who let me know they read my story (usually it’s brilli and weni), and those who’s a silent reader. Thank you. /bow deeply/

This probably need a continuation, sequel or something. There’s some parts that I excluded in the story. But for now, I’m satisfied with this as a completed story.

I’m going to continue writing and improve my skill. I still have a lot to learn. There are so many authors out there with great writing skills and got me so envy sometimes (a lot), and I want to be like them someday.

Thank you for paying attention to me. Thank you so much. I’ll try to be better next time.

Regards, Meg.

:)