All Over Again

| Chapter Thirty-Five |

"Ruuuuuuttttthhhhhiiiiieeee," Jana groaned, flopping over her lap in her Black Widow onesie costume.

Ruth hid her grin behind taking another sip from her chai tea latte and patted her cousin's head sympathetically. "You'll be fine."

"You're gonna leave me with Talkative Terry over there who's gonna want to stay with Johnny for hooooours. What part of that sounds fine?"

"I heard that, asshole!" Terry shouted from the room over.

"You were meant to bitch!"

Ruth laughed loudly that time, and placed her tea on the little decorated table. Her cousins loved Halloween, so they decorated the apartment in orange Halloween lights and lit up pumpkin candles that gave the room a soft glow to go along with the aroma. Their carved pumpkins sat on the porch still with their three silly faces carved with different emotions. That was just about as Halloween as Ruth could get.

"Come on, Jana. We're running late as it is," Terry murmured, walking back into the living room with her purse swung over her shoulder. She looked gorgeous in her Kim Possible getup with her natural hair flopped over to one side and make-up done perfect with her shaded lip and outlined eyes.

"You sure you don't want to go, Ruth? You're already semi-dressed up," Terry asked, gesturing to her clothes.

Ruth rose a brow. "You call striped shorts and a Christmas sweatshirt dressed up?"

"You could always throw on a pair of pants over your shorts."

"It's okay guys. I'm okay watching scary movies for the night," she waved them off. "School was exhausting this week so a night in is definitely what I need. It's already 7 anyway."

Terry gave her a curious look, but before she could comment any further, Jana was standing up and getting ready to go. Shoving her purse over her arm and grabbing a handful of Ruth's popcorn, much to her protest, and pushed Terry out the door.

"Alright, Ruthie. We'll say hi to lover boy for you!" Was the last thing Jana called out before they slammed the door shut behind them. Ruth didn't even have time to feel guilty before they were gone, though that quickly dissipated after she waited a solid five minutes and then pulled out her phone from her pocket.

Ruth: Okay, they're gone. Come in!

Ruth quickly bounded off of the couch and tidied up the room with the first Insidious playing in the background. There wasn't much to put away, but she still wanted to make sure everything was perfect. She had never invited a guy over to the apartment before, let alone Raffo, so she had to make sure there was nothing embarrassing out. She even cleaned up her room, though she didn't know why she did that. They were probably just going to stay on the couch the whole night watching movies and eating the snacks scattered about. There wasn't going to be any . . . well, of that.

Her cheeks flared up just thinking about the possibility.

She didn't have time to ponder it for long before there was a hard knock at her front door. She mentally cursed under her breath as she bounded over, knocking her knee into the wall on accident while doing so. Hissing sharply under her breath, she gave herself a minute for the throbbing to go away and shook the nerves out of her fingertips. There was no reason to be nervous. It was just Raffo, for goodness sake. It wasn't like they were going to another powwow.

Ruth purposely stayed in her lounge clothes because she wanted to feel comfortable and in her zone. She wasn't eighteen anymore, she could invite guys over all the time if she wanted to. All adults invite people over.

That was normal.

Right, okay.

Taking a deep breath in, she finally opened the door.