$ᴜɪᴄɪᴅᴇ ɢʀᴏᴜᴘɪᴇ // $ᴜɪᴄɪᴅᴇʙᴏʏ$

Chapter Six

I had a perfect plan for the remainder of the day. It was called pretend I never said any of those things to Ruby. And it got much worse than that. It was early in the evening, and as the crew were setting everything up in the venue and Ruby and Scrim were rehearsing their setlist, I walked to a Starbucks just down the road. I bought myself and Scrim a coffee and made my way back to the venue. I walked right passed Ruby, handed Scrim the coffee and gave him a kiss, and when Ruby opened his mouth as though he was going to talk to me, I pretended he didn't actually exist.

And I did it well, too. I knew I did, because it stung hard enough to make me wince once I walked away from them. I had to lean against the wall and close my eyes against the little flash I got of his suddenly stormy gaze.

Of course I was better at this than I thought I would be. But even so, I couldn't quite manage the glacial indifference of Scrim, no matter how much like a game this all seemed. Or how hard Ruby wanted to play it.

Because he did, he clearly did. I knew it automatically later on while I was sitting with Scrim, the second he walked up to us. I knew Ruby wanted to play this game because of several very obvious reasons. Firstly, he didn't even say anything to us initially. He just blundered right on over to us as if he wasn't aware that he was interrupting our conversation.

Secondly, he made pistol fingers at Scrim once he was standing in front of us, receiving raised eyebrows from Scrim.

And thirdly... oh dear god, thirdly... the shirt he'd been wearing all day was now suddenly on inside out, with multiple stains on it.

Of course, I got the immediate urge to ask him why his shirt was on inside out for fuck's sake. But then the moment I did a lot of things flooded into my already overheated mind. Like the image of him purposely taking his shirt off just to put it back on inside out with a look on his face that was similar to the one he seemed to be wearing now.

I'd call it insouciance if I was actually able to speak, but for the longest moment I couldn't say anything at all. Neither could Scrim, as it turned out, though I felt this worked out best for everyone. And most especially for Ruby, who apparently had quite a few things he wanted to say, and none of them were even remotely acceptable to either of us.

"Oh hey, guys. I was thinking... maybe I could just skip out on the show tonight. This is my last clean shirt before we do laundry and I spilled food all over it. I'm also tired as fuck. I'm really not up to doing anything. You can perform without me, Scrim?"

I didn't know whose face looked more shocked, mine or Scrim's.

"What the fuck are you talking about?" Scrim asked angrily.

I was speechless, but of course there was no way he would actually not perform. He was only doing this to get a rise out of me. But it was bold of him to say that to his cousin, his now angry cousin who looked like he wanted to strangle him if he was actually being serious.

He'd practically outgunned me with this one. I wasn't sure I knew what kind of dirty punishment would fit this, but one thing made itself abundantly clear. That was what he was pushing for.

Dirty.

Then Scrim stood up, grabbed Ruby's arm to drag him away, most likely for privacy where he could scold him and ask him once again what the fuck he was talking about. But before Ruby left with his cousin, he glanced back at me to see my reaction. And I very clearly and slowly mouthed to him, "One more week. No touching yourself."

♡♡♡

Ruby did end up performing, with his fucking shirt still on inside out, where he made eye contact with me several times from up on the stage.