Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken (Male Ruby x OC!)

Chapter 4

Reuben was now standing outside, holding the confetti cannon, looking at where Arista was talking to one of her friends. When Arista was done talking to her friend, Reuben took a deep breath and walked towards her.

"Hey, Arista," Reuben said as the girl looked up from her book.

"Reuben! Hey, hi. Um, what's up?" she said nervously as she tucked a piece of hair behind her ear.

"So, I was wondering, did you see, like, all those prom-posals around school this morning?" he asks casually.

"Yes," she says

"Hmm," Reuben hums in agreement looking away a bit.

"If I'm being honest, they kind of weird me out. I mean, just ask. It doesn't have to be this big proposal. It's crazy, right?" Arista says as Reuben shoves the confetti cannon into his backpack slyly.

"Oh, yeah, I hear that," Reuben says cooly walking a bit closer to Arista.

"And besides, prom is a postcolonial patriarchal construct," Arista say, standing up as Reuben finishes the sentence with her.

"Patriarchal construct," he says smiling.

"Exactly," the two say smiling brightly at each other. 

"It could be fun to go with the right person, though," Reuben suggest lightly, looking at Arista.

"Oh. Yeah. Totally," Arista laughs nervously, looking at him.

"Reuben... Oh."

"Arista... Oh, sorry."

"Reuben... Oh, hey."

"Arista... Oh, you go."

"No, you go."

"No. You go."

"Yeah, no, you go. I go."

"Wait. Okay, no. But seriously, what-what did you want to say?" Arista asks

"Um, Arista, I... I... ...," Reuben tries to say, before he rethinks it, "Think I'm gonna be sick."

"Whoa. Hey. Are you okay?" she asks as she rubs his back a bit as he faces the ocean a bit.

"Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I get seasick sometimes when I'm next to the ocean. It's a genetic thing," he explains as he stands in front of her.

"You know, my sister does this grounding technique thing," she suggest as the cannon suddenly falls from his backpack. 

"Ooh. Whoops," she says as she picks up the cannon, "Wait, what's this?"

"Hah. Oh. That? Never seen that before," Reuben says walking towards Arista.

"Whoa. Is this a kaleidoscope?" she says pointing the cannon end to herself.

"Maybe put it down," Reuben suggest as he presses a button on the cannon and it turns on.

"It's party time!" the cannon says as the confetti blows into Arista's face.

She fumbles backwards until she accidentally falls over the edge and into the water.

"Arista!" Reuben yells as he runs to the railing and looks down at the water for any sign of the girl, "Son of an anglerfish!"

Reuben looks at the water and starts to slowly go over the railing, grabbing harshly to it. As he finally gets to the other side of the railing, his foot slips off the it and falls into the water with a scream.

As he lands in the water, he sees Arista's unconscious body floating and tries to swim towards it when the current suddenly pushes him back. He tries to swim against it, even trying to grab onto a rock, but the current is too strong and continues to spiral him out of control. He finally sees Arista and tries to grab her, when the current pulls the two away from each other again. 

The current continues to push him further down into the ocean, and he suddenly gets caught in the seaweed. Reuben tries to free himself from the seaweed, but he isn't able to and he loses the last of his breath and falls unconscious. As he is unconscious, his tentacles suddenly start to glow. The glow travels up his arm and towards his gill as he opens his eyes, being able to breath, and a large blue wave is shot out of him and travels throughout the whole ocean.

Arista continues to sink until a large creatures swims up to her and grabs her. A blue tentacle is then seen leaving Arista on the docks as she awakes and coughs out some water. A shadow suddenly looms over her and she looks up as she gasps in shock.

Meanwhile, Reuben drags himself onto the shore and breaths heavily, trying to calm himself down.

"What just happened?" he asks looking down at his hand. 

"Arista," he gasps as he gets up and runs to find her.

As Reuben runs towards the school, he sees that the whole school is crowded around the statue and everyone is chattering.

"Arista?" Reuben calls as looks through the crowd.

"Reuben, there you are. You missed the story of the year, Reu. Alex almost drowned," Margot says.

"I didn't mean to. I mean I-I didn't do it. Gosh, that's crazy. And surprising. Because it definitely didn't have anything to do with me," Reuben laughs nervously.

"Are you feeling all right? Why are you wet?" Margot questions as she moves her head and Reuben gasps upon seeing Arista sitting by the statue with a blanket around her.

"Arista. Are you okay?" Reuben asks standing in front of her.

"Yeah. It was crazy. I just remember there was smoke and glitter. And then the next thing I knew, I was saved by the new guy," she explains.

"The new guy?" Reuben asks.

"The new guy," the guy says as he turns around, flashing a flirtatious small smile around at the crowd.

The boy was slim and tall, with a slender figure, short luscious red hair that was flawlessly flawless, sapphire blue eyes that sparkled with mischievous. He was wearing a black plain shirt, a leather jacket and long blue jeans.

"Thank you. Thank you," he said giving prayer hands to the crowd as they cheered for him while Reuben was giving him a look.

"Who is this guy?" he thought