The Actor's One & Only

Chapter 1

They first met when he was 10 and she was 9. He was the new bloke at school, born and brought up in Bathgate, but whose parents moved around so much that he hardly ever remained in his Scottish hometown.
Anyway, he was here now and she hoped he'd stay, since she'd developed a crush on him. While everyone else grew up on MTV, he grew up watching classics like Scarface, Gone with the wind and all those others. She liked the way he regaled her with the storylines of all the movies he watched, without spoiling them for her. She was the only one who took any interest in the lonely boy and they were inseparable.
"It's beauty an' the geek!" Bronco the bully mocked as he made his customary appearance at the cafeteria, swiping at Jack's milk carton and squashing it with a hand to demonstrate his strength. His henchmen cackled, the other kids shuddered and young Ruth rolled her eyes. "Go away, Bronco. We're not in the mood to talk to ya." she shooed him away, but he stuck like glue...really stinky glue! "Neither am I. But he looks like he's cruisin for a beatin. Now, hand o'er yer lunch money, O'Donnell!" Bronco ordered, pulling up the skinny, freckled boy with the frightened amber eyes. Before he could respond, down came Bronco's fist, flying towards his face to give him his umpteenth shiner!
Jack knew he loved her at the first punch- Just as she swiftly caught the big bully's pudgy arm, stopping it midway as he prepared to land one on the side of her friend's face. Then, she threw her own fist at the bully, bringing the entire cafeteria to a standstill and bringing Principal McEnroe rushing over to haul the lot of em into detention. The tomboy that she was, she flashed him a toothy grin as he mouthed thank you.
Their friendship continued well into their teens. She still acted as the one who beat up bullies for him. Although, at 16, the bullying was more out of jealousy than his lunch money. Mostly about the fact that the cinemaphile/ aspiring actor had landed his first acting role in an anti-smoking ad and was now the one hogging all the popularity (plus the mockery) in high school!
The worried young Ruth skipped a class just to go see him in the nurse's office where he was recovering from a punch square to his jaw. He only cracked a painful smile, when she swiped a notepad off the table, raising it up with that friendly, sunshiney smile, as if requesting an autograph from the to-be star in order to cheer him up. They wouldn't see each other again until they were well into their twenties, since he moved to London soon after that with his folks.
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"Where is he? Where is that horrid boy?!" the young woman yelled, storming into his childhood home as soon as Mrs. O'Donnell answered the door. She'd heard from Mia Harper that he was back in the Highlands and hopped onto her bike to meet him."Up in his room. My, it's so nice to see ya all grown up, Ruthy...Oh! She's in a hurry!" Mrs. O'Donnell greeted, laughing on seeing her greeting cut off by the anxious Ruth who lost no time in hurrying up the stairs to her friend's room.
"Oi, you! Look at that...too busy to even look up from his bloomin scripts! Not so much as a hullo, Ruthy, how are ya?!" she scolded, finding him sprawled on the floor with his face buried in scripts. He didn't look up until she deliberated perched herself on the remainder of the scripts strewn across the carpeted floor in front of him. "Wow! Look at ya! How long have I been gone?" he sat up on seeing her, spreading his lanky legs out and punching her in the arm playfully. "Too long!" she cried out excitedly, punching him back, albeit harder and roughly. "Aye, I know! Look at ya...You've developed the round things! I don't like em!" he teased, referring to her breasts, scrunching his face up as he feigned disappointment. The show off that he was, it was just so that he could show off his acting skills to his pretty friend! "Sure, I'm not a large cup size like that chubster Mary-Louise from across the street...who, by the way, is a real slut..." she muttered, taking him seriously. "An' apparently, yer more o' a gossip girl now? Finally stop beatin up on fellas bigger than ya?" he chimed in, flashing her a kooky grin. "Aye. Especially since I didn't really have a poor freckled boy to rescue from those fellas! Takes all the fun outta a good, fair fight, ya know? I missed ya!" she exclaimed, unable to hold it in as she moved closer to hug him. "I missed ya too, Ruthy!" he whispered, caressing her hair as he felt hot tears roll down her cheek and land on his green Hulk tee.
"Oi, look ere, I've got ya a gift..." he revealed, pulling away from the hug and standing up to walk to his unpacked suitcase on the bed. She wiped away her tears and followed him. He pulled out a snowglobe from under the pile of clothes. "Oh! It's pretty." she cooed, unimpressed by the gift, but thankful he'd remembered to buy her something atleast! "Aye, the finest gift I could find at Edinburgh Airport. Sorry. I was just so busy studyin actin at RADA..." he apologized quickly, realizing she didn't seem too impressed by it. She wasn't as good an actor as he was! "That's alright. Yer ere an' that's all that matters to me, Jack." she whispered with a wide grin, kissing him on the cheek and eliciting a blush from him.
"Besides, ya can make it up to me. They're playin that new Nancy Myers movie I wanted to watch..." she added with a mischievous grin, linking an arm around his as she led him out the door. "Oh, no...not another chick flick!" he sulked, liking all other movies...save for the romcom genre!
"Suit yerself. I'll just go with one o' the lads from my school." she declared, starting to descend the stairs. That, of course, was unacceptable to the twenty-something Jack! The only reason he forced himself to tag along to these ooey-gooey, lovey-dovey flicks with her was so that they could share a huge tub of popcorn and find their hands accidentally brushing and meeting as they reached into the tub for the buttery treat together. Or so that he could pretend to yawn and wrap an arm around her in the dark theatre, while she pretended to not notice and let him do so! "No, I'll come along! I'll just grab my jacket an' put these scripts in order. Be along shortly. Just wait downstairs!" he promised, calling out after her as he scurried about to gather his precious scripts off the carpet and pulled on his new leather jacket before following her downstairs, almost tripping over the carpet as he did so.