The Ineffable Ruth Rhodes

19 words in the english dictionary

ruth

Ruth Rhodes was positively angry with herself.

It had nothing to do with how she was waist-deep in homework, but instead of tending to it was watching Glee for the third time, and everything to do with how she kept checking her phone every ten minutes to make sure Vincent hadn't messaged her and she just missed it.

Ruth frowned. It was pathetic, really.

Thinking back to their conversation, she could've sworn she told him it was her birthday... and yet he had been ignoring her at every turn and treating her as a stranger. Now that the day was almost over, it sort of upset her.

Don't get her wrong, she was well aware the whole arrangement was staged, and she shouldn't have been expecting anything from him in private, but she couldn't help but still expect something. Perhaps a birthday card (even though she found them tacky, she still would've been grateful), or a simple, verbal 'Happy Birthday'. She'd been expecting it, even after he promptly walked past her in the halls, or when he made eye contact with her in fourth and didn't even smile like he usually did, but there was nothing, even though the day was slowly coming to an end. Three people had asked if they were breaking up, which she honestly didn't know herself.

She finished watching an episode of Glee and decided she'd just go do something else to distract herself.

It was silly, she told herself. She should've let it go.

So she did.

And as if on cue, her bell went off.

She stalked up to her door, brows furrowing.

"Who is it?" she called.

"Vincent," the muffled voice came.

If even possible, her brows furrowed more as she swung it open, finding the last person she was expecting standing there.

"Vincent. You're..." Ruth blinked. "At my house... hi."

He grinned easily, dressed in a a beanie and a dark green sweatshirt above jeans. "Hi, Ruth."

"Why are you here?" she glanced back into her house as if someone would be watching. "Today's—"

"Your birthday, I know." His eyes dropped to her shirt, and there was a gleam in his eyes. "Is that my shirt?"

Ruth looked down hastily, dread filling her as she came to the mortifying realization that she was using his shirt from the first time she spent the night at his place.

"Oh..." was all she said.

"Anyway," he started, and she got the feeling he did it because she'd grown uncomfortable and didn't know whether she was embarrassed or endeared. "I'm a really bad liar, so I've been avoiding you all week. Apparently I itch my nose when I'm lying— I didn't want to risk it."

"... Huh?"

"I mean," he said, and she only then realized there was a small gift in his ringed hands, wrapped in her favorite color— periwinkle— with white ribbons holding it together. "I avoided you so I wouldn't tell you anything. Happy belated birthday, Ruth."

She stared at it for a while, a little perplexed, a smile pulling at her lips. Then she began opening it.

He sort of laughed as he held his hands out to stop her. "Don't open it now— open it when we get back."

She stopped. "Get back from where?"

"Come on." He nodded towards his sleek car, parked outside her house. "You'll see."