"hey, don't forget it's your day to get ruby from school. please please please, don't be late." tyler's words from this morning bounced around in pete's mind as he ran out of the studio.
"dude, where ya goin'?" one of the producers yelled out, watching pete run around people on the way to the parking lot. "we still got an hour left to record!"
"i gotta go get my stepdaughter! im already... shit, im already 20 minutes late!" he ran faster, hustling to get his keys out of his pocket.
hopefully, ruby was still at school, maybe in the dance room rehearsing. maybe she lost track of time and hadn't realized that her stepfather was running late. maybe she hadn't called tyler and told him.
shit, what was tyler gonna say if he found out? pete groaned quietly as he finally reached his car, quickly starting the car and pulled out of the parking lot. the first time ruby said she was cool with him picking her up and he totally forgot!
"fuck!" he hit his hand against the steering wheel, seeing all the cars that suddenly needed to go somewhere just as soon as pete needed to be at the school. he looked down at the radio, hoping that maybe his phone had lied, that she was just getting out of school.
2:45.
'god, i don't really pray all that much but if you let me get there in the next five minutes, I'll take all the kids to church and baptize em right then and there.' ( mak note: currently cackling bc petes a vampire n tyler is a demon)
zooming through traffic, he ran a hand through his hair nervously. what if she wasn't even at school? she's tiny, especially for a seventeen year old. it'd be almost too easy for a perv to roll up and kidnap her.
finally, he saw the stupid private school's entrance, their electronic sign showing what time it was, almost rubbing it in pete's face.
3:10
"shit, shit, shit." he mumbled as he pulled into the car ramp, quickly slamming on the brakes to put the car in park. practically jumping out of the car, he looked around, eyes wide for any sign of the kid.
just as he was about to give up, ready to call tyler and tell him that he managed to not only forget to pick her up, but also lose their daughter, he heard a quiet voice followed by a cough. just a little further up from where he parked the car, he saw ruby sitting on a table underneath a tree, her back facing him. long blonde hair sat atop her head in a perfect messy bun as she hunched over what was no doubt a book she had to read.
"rubes!" pete yelled out, a grin spreading across his face. but despite them being the only two on campus, he was surprised that she didn't hear him. could she be ignoring him as some sort of petty revenge for forgetting her? or was she just ignoring him until he walked up to her?
he sighed, soon realizing that she'd never see him if he just stayed where he was. jogging over to the bench, he scrunched his nose slightly, ready to say her name when he saw her earbuds plugged in, music blasting from them like no tomorrow.
"you can make all the moves, you can aim all the spotlights, get all the sighs and the moans just right.." she sang quietly, highlighting a line in the book with a bright yellow. here she was, sitting under a tree and singing one of his songs. pete couldn't help but grin as he sat down on the bench, listening to ruby's occasional singing.
