#ruby:shuoxmas

She’d gotten used to these sort of things; gearing herself up to be in the public eye in D.C., putting on the appropriately modest and glamorous dress chosen for her, acting and smiling as a perfect first daughter all night. And while there were far worse things in the world to complain about, it did get tiring towards the end of the night. Which was why when she sensed a familiar presence walk up next to her, she relaxed a bit, smiling in the company of her friend. “Almost makes you wish this was a Gallagher party, huh?” Ruby joked, blurting the thought out loud before thinking twice about it, then once she fully registered who was talking to, quickly turned to P.J. with an apologetic expression. “Ohmygod, I’m sorry, that just came out, I— I didn’t mean it like that— I just meant because we can’t really do whatever we want, I mean we have to be on the whole night, and barely any of our friends are here and—” she rambled, cutting herself off as she placed a reassuring hand on his suit jacket sleeve, a pained wince on her face. “Sorry...” Ruby muttered, now wishing even more that they were at Gallagher and she could down a flute of champagne to help ease her anxiety. But for her and P.J., they were on display at events like these, and she was thankful for the solidarity he could offer her. “What I should have said was... It’s nice to see you at one of these again,” she tried again, smiling through her embarrassment.