"Don"t you have somewhere to be?" I"m anxious in case Ruby arrives. It"ll be hard enough explaining the Lauren situation to her without Stu here to disrupt things. "Friends of your own to irritate?"
"You"re going to have to stop disapproving of me at some point, Kaz." Stu smirks.
"Unlikely."
Owen, who has been preoccupied wiping his face on the front of his T-shirt, now clamps a hand on Stu"s shoulder.
"Go away, Garside. You know who we"re waiting for." Owen"s warning isn"t without warmth and Stu feigns injury.
"That"s me told. Nice to meet you, Lauren. Later, Kaz, O..."
But as the boys clamp forearms in farewell, Owen"s fingers tighten briefly around Stu"s as he looks him in the eye. "I meant what I said. Steer clear."
The humour vanishes from Stu"s face so that I almost see something real in his eyes something that has more in common with hurt than with anger. "I thought we were friends?"
"We are." Owen relaxes his grip and steps away. "But family comes first."
"You and Lee get married on the sly, did you?" Stu waves away whatever reply Owen was about to make. "I get it: stay away from Ruby. First Kaz, now you you want a go, Lauren?"
But Lauren holds her hands up in surrender. "I"m just a bystander. I literally have no idea what any of this is about."
"Guess Kaz has some explaining to do." Stu"s eyes bore into me for a moment, before he turns away, his gait more predatory than ever.
"What were you doing fraternizing with the enemy?" I say to Owen, aware that Lauren"s attention is still focused on Stu"s diminishing figure.
"Stu"s not the enemy, Kaz." Owen looks at me carefully. "Just because someone makes a bad boyfriend, doesn"t make them a bad person."
"Whatever he is, Stu"s bad news," I mutter.
RUBY.
I hold on to the thick wire supporting the Heavy Tent and watch as he talks to them. In a moment, I will worry about what Lauren"s doing there, but for now, the only person I have eyes for is Stu.
Whatever I"m feeling, it can"t be healthy, or I wouldn"t feel so faint.
Alternatively, perhaps I need to eat.
My throat closes at the thought of food, my body reverting to the weird kind of lockdown it went into after I dumped Stu.
I"m not sure whether my hands are clamped so tight around the guy rope because I"d crumple to the ground without the support, or because it"s an anchor stopping me from getting swept over to Stu on a wave of weak willpower.
He"s leaving now, sent away before I get there, by Owen or Kaz, not by Lauren, judging by the way her gaze follows him. It"d be hypocritical of me to criticize her for it as I watch him prowl through the crowd.
For a moment, just before he turns around the corner of the stalls towards the main stage, Stu"s eyes slide in my direction.
We stare at each other for a fraction of a second.
Then he"s gone, walking away with the crowd, and whatever spell he had on me vanishes with the sight of him.
Seriously. What the f.u.c.k is Lauren doing here?
18 * SITUATION
RUBY.
She got my name wrong.
Rachel? f.u.c.k. Right. Off.
"It"s Ruby. As in "Ruby, Ruby, Ruby"...?" I Kaiser Chiefs it.
Blank look.
"As in "Ruby Soho"." Best track on ...And Out Come the Wolves, a stone-cold cla.s.sic.
Lauren screws her face up.
"As in the gemstone."
"Well, obviously." The look I get very clearly indicates that she thinks I"m a nut job before her expression opens up in astonishment. "Oh my G.o.d, are you the Ruby that Stuart Garside was just talking about?"
I glower at Kaz for an explanation, but it"s Owen who steps in. "Garside is Ruby"s ex, if that"s what you mean."
Love Owen for putting it that way and my heart trembles at the small sympathetic smile he gives me.
"I can"t believe you dated him!" I am really not liking her tone. I might not be a fox, but I"m not a complete moose either. Also "dated" is a revolting word.
"We went out for a bit. It"s over now."
"That"s not what it looks like to me," Lauren singsongs and I want to punch her.
"Not wishing to be rude" so wishing to be much ruder "but why are you here?"
KAZ.
Ruby doesn"t take the news well.
RUBY.
We walk back to our spot on the hill. When we get there, Dongle moves over to make s.p.a.ce for Lauren and Kaz and it is very tempting to shout across and ask if Lauren is "that fit girl from the tearooms" who he was talking about yesterday, because she"s the one who is going out with Rugby Tom. A fact that no one seems to be acknowledging, because IT WOULD BE TOO f.u.c.kING WEIRD.
That"s not the only thing that"s weird, because Kaz and Lauren don"t just have matching taste in Toms, they also have matching fake-flower crowns. Sitting together, Kaz in a sun dress and Lauren wearing a pretty cotton vest, they look like a pair of fairies made real. All they need are the wings. I look down at the limp-looking daisy chain Kaz pushed on to my wrist, my big black boots and faded Army & Navy vest.
I do not look like a fairy.
It"s a shame Lee"s still up his lute-loving a.r.s.e in the Mellow Tent with Anna and Parvati kind of need someone to b.i.t.c.h with. I try Owen instead, although I"m not over-hopeful.
"Does she ever shut up?" I whisper, as Lauren finishes telling the tedious tale of Naj and the crowd-surfer before embarking upon some other entirely boring drama that seems to have Dongle and Kaz rapt.
"She"s just nervous." He clocks my best Come Off It Face. "This is hard for her, hanging out with people she barely knows, one of whom used to..." I can"t help but laugh at the sound effect he uses instead of the words and Lauren glances over.
"Sorry." I wave at her to carry on with her story. "I was laughing at Owen, not you."
KAZ.
Ruby does this sometimes. Ninety-nine per cent of the time she can gel with anyone she could instafriend Voldemort. But every now and again, as if she"s proving something to herself, Ruby will take against someone. In this case it"s Lauren, something about which I can"t help but feel bad, since Ruby"s only doing it to be partisan. (I think.) She doesn"t need to be though. I like Lauren. She"s funny and chatty someone I could imagine being friends with. If it weren"t for the fact that I had s.e.x with her boyfriend last night.
Oh G.o.d...
I can do without added guilt over Ruby"s bad att.i.tude.
When I see her get her phone out, I fire off a message: Could you please change out of your grumpy pants and put on your happy ones? I add in a picture of a chihuahua suspended from a doork.n.o.b by a pair of Y-fronts. Animal pictures are excellent emotional currency wherever Ruby"s concerned.
It doesn"t take long for it to reach her. When she checks the message, she glances over at me, eyebrows raised as she mimes slitting her (my) throat.
What"s with the bloodl.u.s.t? Don"t you like small dogs? EVERYONE likes small dogs. Or is this more your thing?
This time I attach a hideous picture of an aye-aye and watch her try not to smile as she opens it and turns to give me a bug-eyed stare. I give her my best back.
"Are you two having some kind of stare-off?" Lauren says. I turn to answer, but Ruby beats me to it, pretending to give Lauren laser eyes, using her fingers as beams, finally mustering a smile. Or something approaching a smile. A grimace that"s shaped like a smile, perhaps.
At least it brings her into the conversation ...
"So what subjects have you chosen for next year?" Dongle asks me.
... at exactly the wrong time.
RUBY.
Someone really needs to update Dongle on the list of "Subjects Best Avoided Around Ruby". Fiddling with the daisy chain around my wrist, I can feel Kaz"s nervous glances as she tells him she"s signed up for French, Latin, Geography and Chemistry. When he comments on what a weird combination it is, she steers the conversation towards wanting to be an archaeologist and I have high hopes for us veering off-topic entirely and discussing Indiana Jones films, until Lauren s.n.a.t.c.hes that hope Belloq-style.
"What about you, Ruby?"
It"s not fair to resent her for asking, when Owen would say that she"s making an effort, but I do. "Not sure I"ll be taking any at all at this rate."
I"ve plucked all the petals from one of my daisies and I look up from the bald yellow seed head to catch a glimmer of confusion on Lauren"s face before Kaz jumps in with an explanation.
"Ruby"s just being melodramatic." She smiles at me to take the sting out of it. Not that it works. "Your results weren"t that bad!"
I know she"s trying to big me up, but all it does is make me feel that much smaller.
"They were bad enough that Flickers won"t let me stay on for sixth form. They have standards and I don"t meet them." I never have. Standards aren"t something I"ve ever taken seriously. "The only way I get to go is if I stay back a year and resit." I concentrate on my daisy-bracelet, ripping out petals in chunks as I carry on speaking. "Either that, or I"ll be heading over to Canterbury to do something less academic and more useful."
"Oh." Lauren actually sounds like she might be disappointed for me. "That"s a shame."
She earns a smile for that and I shrug, saying, "It"s cool. I think I"d like it there."