november
november
if you would’ve told a seventeen-year-old rue that this is the way her friday night would look in ten years, she would have laughed in your face and told you to go fuck yourself. but, here she is, phone in hand, sitting on her sofa.
ten years ago she would’ve been awaiting a phone call from a very different caller. maybe fez, calling to see if she was doing alright. or maybe lexi, asking if rue had done the homework for their algebra class (the answer was always no, and lexi always offered to send it). most likely though, she would be awaiting a call from jules vaughn.
rue glanced around the apartment, her eyes catching the kitchen table. at the moment, you couldn’t even tell that the table was intended to eat dinner at, as it was covered by endless yards of fabric that jules had collected at a market last week.
jules was running late tonight, she had texted rue that the wait for takeout sushi was longer than normal, the two of them had developed a friday night takeout tradition when they got married 4 years ago. they switched off who picked each week, and this week was rue’s turn to pick.
the front door flung open, and the sound of jules’ keys hitting the counter rang through the apartment.
“hey,” jules started, pausing briefly to walk over to the couch and kiss the top of rue’s head, “i didn’t miss it, did i?’
“nope, still waiting” rue responded as she stood and let her arms wrap around jules. jules’ hair was pinned up today, a departure from her usual style.
rue gathered her hair into a bun, even though half of her hair was desperately trying to escape the constraints of the elastic. she sat back down next to jules on the sofa and opened her container of sushi, breaking apart her chopsticks.
the phone rang.
“fuck” rue mumbled as jules reached over and laced their fingers together.
“it’ll be okay either way. we got this.” jules said with a toothy smile. rue let her finger slide across her phone screen to accept the call.
“hello?”
“hello, this is kristin from the manhattan fertility clinic, i’m calling for rue bennett-vaughn?” rue can hear jules breathing, it’s the way she breathes when she’s anxious.
“this is her” rue says, trying to suck up the nerves that she’s already been holding in for the last week.
“hi miss bennett, could you confirm your date of birth for me please?” the voice on the other end of the phone sounds cheery, calming, and rue is more confident that this is good news.
“september 14th, 2001” jules runs her thumb over rue’s knuckle.
“alright miss bennett, thank you. so i am calling with your test results, is it alright if i give those to you now?” this is it. this is the moment rue has been waiting for.
“yes that’s fine” rue says, she lets herself smile for a brief moment.
“okay miss bennett, so i’m looking at your test results and i do regret to inform you that you are not pregnant. i can have your doctor call with more information about how to move forward if you’d like?” rue’s blood runs cold.
jules places her hand on rue’s back and speaks into the phone after a minute or two. time feels longer right now, and rue hates it. rue isn’t exactly sure what jules says, she just registers the beep that her phone makes when the call ends.
rue’s sushi is left untouched on their coffee table, and the house has never been as noticeably quiet as it is that night.