All Over Again

| Chapter Thirty-One |

"Raffo!" Ruth mocked gasped after he helped her stand to her feet. Her butt was numb from sitting on the grass for the last hour and a half so she needed to get up and walk around for a bit before watching more dancing.

She was in the middle of teasing him about one of the dancers who periodically kept her eye on Raffo through most of the dance. He didn't pay her much attention, but there was something deliberate about it, almost like he was embarrassed. Was there history there?

"Come on," she drawled. "She definitely had the hots for you."

"I didn't notice," he lied, raising an eyebrow. His mouth twitched with amusement. "And who says "the hots" anymore?"

Ruth scoffed, rolling her eyes and ignoring his question. "How did you not notice? She was the hottest one out there! I couldn't take my eyes off her she was that captivating."

His eyebrow rose higher, reading the tone of her voice and the words beneath it. Instead of recoiling, judging, or pushing her away for it, he stayed neutral. There wasn't anything negative there, and despite how casually she tried to slip in who she was into a general statement, she was glad he caught on. She was never the greatest at explaining or blurting it straight out, so she did her best to bring it up casually.

"We sorta had a thing a year ago," Raffo shrugged. He grabbed her hand back in his and tugged her in the direction of the moving crowd. "We had a couple classes together, so we tried to date or whatever, but I stopped it."

"Stopped it? Why?"

"I couldn't connect with her," he admitted. "She was flashy, I wasn't. She wanted to rub us seeing each other in everyone's faces, I didn't. And she wanted everything to go how she wanted."

He looked over at the same girl briefly, his annoyance towards her clear across his face.

"She wanted to show off that she had you? Like a trophy?" Ruth asked, disgust filling her voice. Raffo was worth so much more than a prize to be won, and she quickly realized how the same thing happened to guys as well. It wasn't just girls who were treated like an object in a display case for the world to see. It was men as well.

"And I fucking hated it," he agreed, tugging her beside him.

Ruth glanced over to find the girl staring at them through a narrowed gaze, her lips thinning out into a hard line. Her dark eyes were spitefully watching Ruth, her nostrils flaring like a bull. Ruth didn't know why she looked so angry; she should have realized what she had when she was with Raffo.

"She doesn't seem to like me very much," Ruth commented, looking back up at him, amused.

He snorted. "She doesn't like anybody. Just ignore her; I usually do."

"Is your advice always that good? Or am I just lucky?"

His laugh was sweet and wonderful.

Before either of them could say anything more, Ruth heard a loud call from somewhere in the crowd behind them. It was so faint at first, she didn't know if she actually heard it. But then it came again, and she had to listen to it harder to make sure it was really another person saying her name.

"RUTH! RUTH OVER HERE!" the same voice shouted.

Confused that time, Ruth subconsciously pulled away from Raffo, who got so caught up in the crowd pushing around them, that their fingers disconnected. She didn't think anything of it when she spun around and tried to search for the person who spoke to her, knowing she'd find Raffo in a second. She walked in the direction of the voice, swiveling her head from side to side until she made eye contact with a familiar pair of opal eyes and dark hair.