Dirt, Sweat, and Tears

Halsetta paced back and forth biting her perfectly manicured nails. Dohre sat at the edge of her bed, watching her with a lazy smile. After a minute, Dohre got up and embraced her from behind. "Babe, what's wrong?" whispered Dohre.

Halsetta slowly pulled out of his embrace, turning towards him with crossed arms and a pout. "Isn't that what you call Ruing? Why are you calling me the same thing?" pouted Halsetta.

Dohre smiled as he uncrossed her arms and held her hands. Looking into her eyes he replied, "I call her baby, I call you babe. There's a difference, you can't love a baby like how I love you, babe."

Halsetta's head slowly looked down at their hands, tears forming in her eyes. "There's only a letter difference," mumbled Halsetta, her voice quivering.

Seeing the tears in her eyes, Dohre felt his heart constricting, he panicked. "Okay, okay, I'll change it! What would you like to be called? what pet name?"

"You have to come up with it or it won't be special."

"I have to come up with it? How about honey? because you're sweet like honey."

Halsetta's face became visibly gloomier, "That's such a common endearment."

"Ah okay, I will think of another one, don't cry," cooed Dohre as he wracked his brain for a suitable endearment for her. After a minute of deep contemplation, his eyes lit up as he thought up a name.

"Sole Mio!" smiled Dohre.

Halsetta gave him a heartbroken face as tears began to stream down her face. "How could you call me by another girl's name?" whimpered Halsetta pulling her hands back.

Dohre laughed as he wiped her tears away. "Oh sole mio. Sole mio, you're wrong. Sole mio, my sun in Italian, that is what sole mio means. My sun. You're like the sun to me, always giving me warmth and light, even if you don't know it."

Halsetta wiped away her tears and allowed herself to be pulled into his embrace. He led her to the edge of the bed and sat down, pulling her with him.

"Sole mio, what's wrong?"

Within the warmth of his embrace Halsetta finally spoke her mind.

"I don't know what she was thinking. She took off her protective mask even when she knew it was dangerous. What was she planning?" Dohre sat silently next to her, keeping her close, listening to her queries, "She might mess up my plan! What if she actually becomes head researcher of sector 8? All my hard work down the drain."

"Didn't you give her something to drink so that she would feel sick and sleep?" questioned Halsetta.

"Yeah, I did," frowned Dohre.

"What exactly did you give her?"

"Rohypnol."

"You gave her a roofy?"

"The side effects aren't too dangerous."

"Then how was she able to go through with her examination?"

This was a question neither of them could ever find the answer to, no matter how long they thought about it.

-November 13, 6:54-

Ruing awoke early the next morning, glancing at the clock, she found that it was 6:54.

It's still early.

Ruing got out of bed to brush her teeth and wash her face. She took extra care to make herself presentable today. As she was about to leave her room, Ruing spotted a picture on the ground next to her cardboard boxes of books. Picking it up, she realized it was picture of her and her parents at her high school graduation. Ruing smiled as she recalled the memory.

- four years ago, May 23, 20:56-

Ruing stood in line attentively as they called each student's name. Ruing was the last student in her line, she had watched everyone walk across the stage, and now it was her turn. The woman at the podium smiled as she called, "Ruing Haffrus Laulan." The entire building erupted in applause as Ruing walked up to receive her diploma, everyone calling somebody else's name. Ruing walked off stage and held up her diploma and the photographers took her picture. As she was walking back to her seat, she made one final scan of the crowd, searching for a familiar face in a sea of strangers. Ruing sat in her seat, in sync with the rest of her row. The crowd was finally quieting down for the next row to be called Ruing heard a familiar voice shout out.

"WOOOH, RUING!!! WOOOH!!!"

Ruing raised her head to search for the source of the sound. In the back corner, Ruing found her father screaming at the top of his lungs as her mother tried her best to quiet him down. Ruing could practically hear their entire conversation.

"YOU DID IT RUING!!! WOOOH!!! YOU'RE THE BEST!!!"

"Shut up! I'm still in uniform! This is-" whispered Vena before eventually giving up. At this point she turned towards the center and screamed as well.

"IF I'M GOING TO BE PUNISHED FOR BEING IN UNIFORM AFTER CLOSE OF BUSINESS, SO ARE YOU!!! GO RUING!!!"

Ruing dropped her head as she felt the tears stinging her eyes. Her long black hair covered her face as the tears fell upon her tightly balled up hands. Ruing was so happy, she felt like laughing, to stop the urge, Ruing bit on her lower lip, making her look pitiful.

The person next to her stroked her back saying, "It's okay, it's only twenty hours of community service. You can knock that out in two days!"

Ruing simply nodded as she tried her best to keep the flood gates of snot closed.

Afterwards, Ruing and her parents took a picture together, in which her eyes were still red and her cheeks still stained with tears. Her father was still in his lab coat and his work lanyard was still on, oddly enough, there was dirt and mud on his shirt, a stark contrast to the clean and spotless lab he worked in. Ruing could even see the sweat stains on his shirt. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her in for hug. Her mother was, of course, still in uniform, with all the dirt and grime that came with it. Ruing's mother pulled the two of them in and smiled.

"PT sweet heart!" laughed Vena looking towards the camera, "Say PT!"

"PT!" yelled the three of them as the flash went off and the picture was taken.

- November 13, 7:48-

Ruing remember her mother and father telling her the story of that night. They had already told her ahead of time that they might not make it, but they managed to rush there just in time. They had run from the back of the parking lot up half the flight of stairs before her father had fallen to the ground out of breath.

"The hell are you doing?" yelled Vena.

"Give me... Just... A second," huffed Illyun.

At that moment, they heard the sound of Ruing's name being called. Ruing's mother was breathless as she tried to retell the next part.

"So your dad was on the ground right? Well, I gave him one look and said, 'Nope!' and ran, picked him up, slung him over my shoulder and ran into the room!" guffawed Vena at the time.

Ruing laughed as she held the picture in her hand. As she was laughing, she heard the sound of her alarm clock beeping, 7:50, she was going to be late. Ruing stifled her laughter and hastily set the picture on her desk before running out the door.