All Over Again

| Chapter Twenty-One |

"Why is there a bonfire on a week night?" Ruth groaned, falling into the pile of clothes Terry had collected from her closet. She rolled into a comfortable little ball and refused to move away from the comfort of fresh vanilla, even if Terry was giving her the biggest glare she could muster.

Her brown arms crossed tightly over her chest, her hip jutted out like she meant business. Her fingers angrily make a 'shooing' motion, trying and failing to get the stubborn girl to move. A dark whip of fire stirred in her gaze and she frustratingly nudged her cousin with the tip of her boot.

"We're on a time crunch, Ruth. We don't have time for this," she growled. "Your ass is going."

"My ass is actually comfortable staying right here, thank you very much."

"Nope. She already agreed that she wants a couple smores to celebrate the start of Fall."

Ruth snorted. "What are you, an ass whisperer?"

Terry's stern expression smothered over in amusement, a small smile of amusement tugging at the corners of her lips. "Maybe. Now get up and let me pick out an outfit for you."

The grumble from Ruth's lips was ignored as she rolled off of the pile. When Terry and Jana first presented the bonfire idea, having been told to come by Eddie and Johnny, she refused. She protested for hours, claiming how unfair it was to have it on a school night, but somehow, they finally got her to concede. NYU was starting to be a damn weapon.

Terry forced Ruth into a new pair of ripped, black skinny jeans, and an olive off-the-shoulder bodysuit. She tried to hide her frown at the bodysuit, but it made Terry happy, so she left it on. She did, however, stick to her usual very little to no make-up routine, much to her cousin's annoyance, and shoved her curls over her shoulder. There was no way those messy tendrils were going to get in a scrunchy.

Jana's purr of approval was all she needed to boost her confidence in such a skintight outfit. Though it was just a bonfire among a few different friends, they all still wanted to look presentable. Especially Terry, who kept biting the corner of her lip at the mention of Johnny. Ruth smiled teasingly at her every time, but never said a word about it after leaving the apartment.

Ruth smelt the bonfire before she saw it after they parked in a random lot near the woods. The night was warm with the occasional breeze running over goosebumps ridden arms. It wasn't chilly yet, but Fall was just around the corner, hence the bonfire. The bonfire was meant to be a gathering among friends, an intertwining of different cultures and tribes as they come together as one. An ancestors dream.

Oh, and smores.

Couldn't forget the smores.

The hazy, illuminating glow shimmered in sunset colors. Licks of yellow and oranges flickered behind shadows of hunched over bodies gathered around it. Though it was supposed to be a small group, Ruth easily counted over twenty people, and her glare towards her cousins was swift and just.

"Five people?" she growled.

Jana smiled with a shrug, and Terry ignored them, her gaze stuck on Johnny the closer they got. Everyone there was already sitting on a log from what Ruth could tell, which meant one thing.

They were late.

Johnny's dancing eyes caught the three of them walking closer, a smirk drooping across his evocative, pretty lips. "Well, well, well. Look who's late."

"Can't be that surprised. You know we run on Indian Time," Jana joked as the chuckling group turned to look at them.

Ruth's met most of them at some point in time, but not enough times to be able to put a name to a face. The few she remembered exchanged smiles with her as her gaze made it's way around the fire, though most of everyone's attention was stuck on the two cousins they got to grow up around.