Part 7 (1/2)
Owen squeezes me a little harder, and we stay like that for a few moments more before he lets go and we both sit down on the dusty ground.
”You've nothing to be sorry for, Ruby.”
”Lee does.”
”Yes. He does.” Owen's misery is so intense I can feel it creeping over me, seeping through my skin and into my blood, flowing towards my heart.
”You know it was only a joke, right?”
”Sometimes I think our whole relations.h.i.+p is a joke.”
”Don't say that! Lee loves you.”
But the word ”love” has been drained of meaning after what Lee said Well, someone's got to. I can't bear to think that the cheap laugh he was aiming for might have cost him his relations.h.i.+p.
”I know he loves me, Ruby, but that's not much consolation for having the person you wors.h.i.+p call you fat.”
”But you're perfect!” And I launch myself at him, my throat burning with outrage and defiance and conviction. I'm squeezing Owen so hard I'm surprised he has the breath left to laugh as he hugs me back, before gently prising himself from my clutches.
”Every word you've said is what I want to hear” his smile is the saddest thing I've ever seen ”but you're not the Kalinski I want to hear saying it.”
9 * UNGLUED
RUBY.
Owen sends me back to the camp and tells me not to worry. I tell him he's an idiot and of course I'm going to worry. I can't face the thought of those two breaking up. Owen's like a surrogate brother a kinder, gentler one than any of the three I've already got.
Drawing in a long, deep breath, I concentrate on the smoke and the smells and the sounds of the site around me until I'm filled with something other than the thought of losing those I love. It feels like the night's half over. The sun went down ages ago, taking my hopes of a first night full of exciting new people and s.e.xy strangers with it.
Or not. As I catch sight of our camp, it looks as if it's grown, and from the sounds of it, the new additions might just be of the boy kind.
Maybe tonight isn't a total write-off after all.
One, two, three steps closer and- That's when I stop.
KAZ.
I do not know how Stu got here.
”What's he doing here?” Tom asks me and I frown at him, slightly annoyed that he thinks I'd know how would I, when I'd been queuing with him for chips all the time?
Stu and his friends (Cellar regulars Travis and Goz) were sitting round our fire when we got back five minutes ago, pa.s.sing a joint round as if they'd been here all night. When Dongle started to introduce them, Stu waved away any explanations. ”Kaz and I know each other from way back.”
The way he said it made it sound as if we'd dated or something and I felt Tom bristle. If I hadn't been so horrified at the sight of Stu, I might have been pleased about that.
”I've got to warn Ruby,” I whisper, firing off a badly typed text.
Two seconds later, I'm looking at that same message flash up on the phone by Stu's foot. He doesn't notice it, but he sees me looking his way. Murmuring something to Stella, who's next to him, Stu gets up to come over and I forget about the phone.
”Don't even think of sitting down,” I say. He sits down. ”What are you doing here? I told you to stay away.”
Stu feigns a shot to the heart, smirking the whole time. ”I didn't know this was where I'd find you. Dongle called Travis, asking him if he had any weed. Travis kindly offered to drop it off ... and here we are.” He leans round to look at Tom. ”And Tom too. h.e.l.lo, Tom.”
”h.e.l.lo, Garside.” Even when they had a reason to get along, Stu and Tom weren't exactly a good fit.
”All we need is Ruby and it'll be like old times,” Stu says. Tom doesn't look happy, and his discomfort only serves to make Stu all the more amused. ”How've you been, mate?”
”I've been fine. On holiday, mostly.”
”Really?” Stu sips his beer. ”So it wasn't you I saw down by the pier the other day?”
Tom goes very still for a moment, then, ”Probably not.”
”You're right. Probably not.” Stu glances at me and smiles, a flash of teeth in the glow of the fire as he stands up to leave us.
RUBY.
An all-over tingle of adrenalin sweeps through me along with the deep and intense desire to try and tear all his clothes off with my teeth.
It takes a second for my brain to remind my body that we hate Stu.