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She vanished out the front door again, into the twilight.
“Are you using Mom and Dad’s car?”
“Mom said I could,” Ruby said, bending over and digging into the back of the small SUV. “She said Dad never goes to town anyway.”
Dahlia supposed that she shouldn’t find that annoying. Particularly considering she was living on her parents’ property for free.
Ruby appeared, not with bags as Dahlia expected, but a very large box. “I drove into Medford. I went to Target. You said that I needed my own desk.”
“Why are you retail therapizing?” Dahlia asked, watching as Ruby hefted the long box and carried it inside. Then she went to the back of the car and grabbed hold of the bags that were sitting in there. There were many.
“I had a whole day,” Ruby said, waving her hand. “And I felt bad, so I thought I should throw some money at it and make it go away.”
“You realize this is a very small space, right?”
“Yes. I do. I needed a desk, though, and I needed storage. But my desk can go next to yours.”
Cozily, Dahlia thought with much annoyance.
“Yeah,” Dahlia said.
“Also, I got some succulents,” Ruby said. “Because of your plant.”
Dahlia shook her head. “You’re a whole thing—do you know that?”
“What?”
“You came in here and basically took over, and just when I start to get irritated at you... I can’t.”
“I don’t want you to be irritated with me.”
“I know,” Dahlia said. “I know you don’t. And I can’t stay irritated at you anyway.”
“I didn’t mean to take over either. I’m just trying to... Help.”
Dahlia grimaced. “You always are.”
She watched as her sister made manic about the room, unloading her bags and putting knickknacks on every available surface.
“What bad emotion exactly are you banishing?”
“Heath called me a mascot,” Ruby said. “And then Dana...well, she was Dana.”
“I’m sorry. Heath called you a what?” Dahlia frowned.
“A mascot. The town mascot.”
“While I would love it if the high school were in fact The Fighting Rubies, I don’t think your head could stand to get any bigger.”
Ruby’s eyes went large, and her frown deepened. “My head is big?”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake, Rubes. I was teasing you.”
“Dana said I’m not a miracle.”
And while Dahliareallywanted to tease Ruby about being devastated that someone didn’t find her miraculous, she could feel there was something more serious there, and she didn’t want to be mean. Poking at Ruby was fine. Knocking some of her glitter off on occasion was Dahlia’s sisterly duty to the whole of the world.
But she didn’t want to hurt her.
