#thread 3 ft. ruby elliot

The alcohol had more or less faded out of her system by the time she got to the coffee shop to meet up with Ruby. Grabbing the small backpack she'd packed, Aliye swung it over her shoulder, bade the Uber driver a good afternoon and trotted on inside to find her friend. Plopping down into the seat across from Ruby in the corner of the shop, Aliye offered a giant grin as she stretched out comfortably. "Fancy seeing you here," she greeted as she grabbed one of the gummy worms from her snacks, bag on the table in front of them now to offer Ruby one. A frown furrowed across her brows as her phone started pinging again. "Jesus. My phone's been blowing the hell up for the last like ten minutes. I swear, people have no respect for when a girl is on a vacation."

A sense of numbness had taken hold of Remi since seeing how bad things had gotten with her mom with her own eyes. Hearing about it was one thing, but actually being there and being struck with the grim reality that she found herself in was a whole different beast. The itch to run was taking root and it was a battle every day to stay put, to be there for her family in whatever small way she could. Rather than hopping on the first plane away that she could afford, Remi had instead had begged a ride from Ruby to take her to a store a few towns away that sold old telescopes and other cool space things. Zoning out a bit on the ride, Remi yelped when she accidentally knocked her Mountain Dew over, eyes wide when she saw the mess. "Shoot, sorry, I can - here, I have napkins." Immediately, she reached to her bag to find a napkins, pulling a bunch out to try and sop up some of the liquid. Handing some of them over to Ruby, Remi stopped abruptly with another yelp, grabbing back at one of the napkins to pull back into her bag. "Sorry -uh, that one um. Not that one." It had taken all of a few seconds to realize that she had accidentally pulled out the napkin Hope had written her number on, a heart and the imprint of the other woman's lipstick standing out against the white of the napkin. "Sorry 'bout the mess."