The Notorious R(uth) B(arakat) G(rimaldi)

Chapter 47: A Person's Worth

AN: Only two or three chapters left!

Ruthie barely remembered the rest of the New York trip. They only had two days left, and she spent most of it in dry-eyed silence, only speaking when spoken to. The Broadway play, Central Park, the museums, everything had been robbed of its joy, though Pepsi, Linda and Gordon tried to cheer her up.

She told Ms. Pomerantz the exact truth about where Elliott was, saying that he'd found his passport and an old credit card and returned to England for an important audition. She knew that it didn't even really matter; what were they going to do, extradite him from England back to the US? Only the students knew the rest of the story, with more or less accuracy depending on how well they knew Ruthie.

"What?" Ruthie heard Joanna's tittering laugh when they were on the plane back to California, partially because Joanna was sitting right in front of her, but mainly because Joanna had the most annoying laugh in the world. Joanna sat up and turned around in her seat so she was facing Ruthie, and Pepsi, who was sitting right next to her.

"Ruthie Grimaldi, I just heard the whole story about our hunky Englishman, and I just can't believe it!" Joanna pressed her barely covered breasts against the head rest, creating an even larger cleavage than usual, probably for the benefit of the boys who were watching. "Did he really just screw you in his apartment and then just leave you for his big audition in London, England?" Joanna made her eyes very big and round, again, for her male admirers. "Did he really pull a fuck and duck on you? Hm?"

Pepsi spoke before Ruthie could even open her mouth. "I don't know where you're getting your info, but Ruthie didn't sleep with him first, Joanna bigmouth."

Joanna digested this news quickly and readjusted her aim. "You mean he didn't even toss you a quick fuck first? He just left you high and dry? He couldn't even be bothered?" She looked down at Ruthie, her face a parody of sympathy. "Aww, no wonder you've been so down in the dumps. Poor Ruthie."

"Oh, make up your mind, you miserable cunt, either they fucked and it's sad, or they didn't and it's sad, you can't have it both ways," Pepsi snapped, putting an arm around Ruthie. "Just turn around and flash your boobs at the front half of the plane for a while, hm? I feel like I'm being stared at by one of those goldfish with the protruding eyeballs."

And this made everyone around them laugh, even Ruthie, who leaned over and pecked Pepsi on the cheek. "I love you, Pepicita," she declared.

"Love you back, idiot," Pepsi declared, popping the tab on a can of soda and taking a long drink.

Gordon and Linda, who were sitting on the other side of the aisle, were laughing as well, and Ruthie reflected that this would've been so much worse without her friends around her.

Explaining to Ms. Piper at school the next day was no fun for sure.

"He what? When is he coming back?" Ms. Piper asked, her face white as paper.

"I'm sorry, I don't know, he didn't say," Ruthie was forced to admit. She was glad horrid Joanna wasn't around to hear this conversation.

"What about the play? Did he say anything about it?"

Ruthie shook her head.

"But I'm sure he'll be back before performances, Ms. Piper. He's a professional, he'd never screw up the production like that," Ruthie tried to reassure her teacher.

"Well, that's a nice opinion, but we start tech today, we have run throughs all week," Ms. Piper replied, sounding desperate. "Did he say anything at all?"

Again, Ruthie had to shake her head.

"It all happened really fast," she explained.

"Has he texted or anything since then?"