Chapter 4 #2
By the time halftime rolled around and dinner was ready, even more relatives had arrived. Brady’s parents were here, but he was spending the holiday with Tori and her family instead.
Tori’s family lived on the opposite side of the country to ours. Her and Brady were forever going back and forth, trying to spend whatever time they got away from college evenly between her parents and his since they couldn’t be apart from each other for even one night.
Judging by how crazy it was in here, skipping the Richardson Thanksgiving was definitely the right move this year.
People were packed into every corner of the house, eating wherever they could squeeze in.
The twins had coerced Ruby into sitting at their kiddie table, though funnily enough, Ruby didn’t even appear all that big in the child-sized chair.
As I passed with my plate, she caught my eye and gestured to the empty fourth seat.
“I’m way too big, Rubz. I’d never get up from there.”
She opened her mouth to protest, but before she could call me out, one of the twins stole her attention back by telling her all about the cubby their daddy was building.
Savannah’s husband was a police officer and seemed to always get stuck working the holidays. Though really, I think he actually requested to work them. He came from a small family and found ours overwhelming. Hell, I did and I’d lived here for the first eighteen years of my life.
After dinner and the annual game of charades, I retreated to my room for some time out. No matter where I went or sat today, all anybody wanted to speak to me about was the Draft.
I appreciated that my family were so invested, but in all honesty, I would happily go the rest of the day without it being brought up.
It was like this big cloud hanging over me – exciting, sure – but given I couldn’t alter the outcome, I didn’t want to obsess about it and overanalyse a decision I didn’t get to make.
Teams picked players. Players didn’t pick teams.
Before I could even take a breath, there was a light rap on my door.
“Yeah?” I called out, fighting to keep any trace of irritation from my tone.
“It’s just me,” Ruby called back.
“Rubz? Come in. It’s unlocked.”
After nudging open the door, she uncertainly lingered, leaning against the frame. Pushing up the sleeves of her orange knit, she smoothed a hand down her white winter skirt before crossing her black boots at the ankles.
“Our mums just opened their third bottle of shiraz. I give it another fifteen minutes before everyone clears out to avoid their drunken antics.”
I snickered. “Sounds about right. Why don’t you hide up here with me?”
She arched an eyebrow. “Am I allowed to?”
“Of course. I’d never leave you behind.”
After closing the door, she walked straight to my bed and got comfortable, even resting her head on the same pillow as me.
Stealing the balled-up sock I had in my hand, she aimed for the ceiling fan above us. This had been a habit of ours for as long as I could remember – all we needed was a sock and a ceiling fan to waste hours of time, seeing who could land the sock on a blade first.
Every now and then I’d forget Ruby had been over and turn on my fan, only for countless socks to shoot across the room.
“Are you sure about that?” she challenged. “Because I feel like you’ve been dodging me all day.”
I tensed. “I haven’t been–”
“Drop it, Wheels. This is the first year you haven’t picked me as your charades partner. What’s up?”
She overshot her throw, the sock heading for the foot of the bed. Before it flew over the edge, I extended my leg, kicking it back towards us.
“It’s nothing, Rubz,” I muttered, catching it like a Hail Mary in the end zone.
Ruby partially sat up, resting on one elbow to glare down at me. “Don’t make me beat the truth out of you, Ryker.”
Ouch. She’d Ryker-ed me. That generally meant business.
“I’d love to see you try, Rubz.”
To my surprise, she leapt over me in a flash, landing with one thigh on either side of my stomach as she pinned me down – well, barely. I could easily throw her off, but I was willing to let her believe she had the upper hand.
“You do realise I can’t even feel your weight, Rubz?” I teased.
“I’m not trying to squash you,” she huffed.
“Then what?”
Her eyes narrowed and her mouth thinned as she shifted her hands beneath my arms. What was she planning on doing, tickling the truth out of me?
Having spent every waking minute together as kids, Ruby and I had play fought before.
I’d even accidentally broken her shoulder once when we were younger – something she liked reminding me of to this day.
But we generally didn’t wrestle when she was in a short skirt, one that was inching dangerously higher on her thighs.
“Don’t get mad okay,” I prefaced.
“Just spit it out, Wheels.”
I sighed. Here went nothing. “Stefan was at The Dime the night before last and he mentioned something about Noah being there.”
“Okay? And?”
“And that he may have been flirting with a girl.”
Ruby’s expression wavered, but she recovered quickly. “What does kind of flirting mean?”
“That some girl was touching him and he was touching her back.”
Her brow furrowed. “Touching how?”
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I tried asking Stefan, but he said he was wasted.”
Her frown deepening, she rolled off me and got up from the bed entirely, putting a concerning amount of distance between us. “Are you saying you think Noah was hooking up with another girl?”
I sat up against the headboard. “No.”
“Then what?” she snapped, frustration heavy in her tone.
“I – I don’t know, Rubz. I wasn’t sure what to make of it. I didn’t even know whether it was worth telling you.”
“If you didn’t think he was doing anything wrong, then why did you bring it up?”
Honestly? Right now, I wasn’t so sure. Maybe because I wanted to give Ruby the chance to talk to Noah about it.
Maybe because I didn’t like keeping secrets from her.
Or maybe because deep down, I thought there might be some truth to it.
It sounded shady, and shady things usually turned out to be shady.
Based on Ruby’s temper, I’d made the wrong call.
“You’re saying this because you’ve never liked him, Ryker.”
Ryker again. She was pissed at me.
“I don’t not like him, Rubz.”
“You do. He made one comment in high school that he thought football was stupid and you’ve held a grudge ever since.”
I got to my feet, moving to stand in front of Ruby. “That’s not true.”
Maybe a little bit. But I didn’t not like Noah because he didn’t like football. I didn’t like him for a lot of reasons. I found him kind of snobby, and boring, and closed-minded, and I thought he drove girly cars.
But I’d ignored those things because Ruby loved him. I’d put up with any bland boyfriend she dated, so long as she was happy.
She let out an irritated sigh before glancing between me and the door. “I’m going to go.”
“Back downstairs?”
“No. Home.”
“Rubz, wait! Don’t leave. You always sleep here on Thanksgiving.”
“Exactly! You and I share a bed – often, if we’re being honest – and we touch while we sleep. But that doesn’t mean I’m cheating on my boyfriend with you.”
“I didn’t say I thought he was cheating.”
Had I implied it? Slightly guilty.
A mixture of sorrow and anger crossed Ruby’s face. “Just because you sleep with every pretty girl who glances your way, Ryker, it doesn’t mean the rest of the world does too.”
Wow. My third Ryker. I’d fucked up – not to mention ouch. Knowing what Ruby really thought of me was... enlightening.
“I don’t have sex with every–”
I shook my head. That was the line we weren’t supposed to cross. I’d just tried, and look how well it had turned out.
I took a tentative step closer to Ruby, taking a measured breath. “Look, can we just forget it? I don’t want to fight with you.”
“No.” She slowly shook her head. “I can’t forget it, Ryker.”
Four Rykers. That was a record high. I’d royally fucked up. Which is why when she made a move for my door again, I let her go.