“If I give my number to another guy, there’s nothing wrong with that. Is there?” Ruby
asked sitting on her bed once she got home.
“Who’d you give your number to?” Natasha asked while she put on her make-up.
“My English professor,” Ruby answered.
Natasha turned away from the mirror. “Why?”
“I saw him at the park today and we hung out for a couple hours.”
“Is he cute?”
“Oh my God,” Ruby said laying down. “So cute. And smart too.”
“Well, what about Zac?” Natasha mentioned.
“Well nothing happened. I just gave him my number. And I like talking to him,”
Ruby defended as the phone rang.
Natasha smiled and returned to getting ready. “Guess who,” she said referring to
Zac calling.
Ruby picked up the phone. “Hello?.... Um, yeah she’s right here. Hold on a
second.” She held the phone out for Natasha. “It’s for you.”
*******************************************
“Get your fucking arm off me,” Taylor said scooting forward on the couch in the
living room of his apartment as he played National Hockey League on Nintendo 64..
“I’m not touching you, asshole,” Zac shot back furrowing his eyebrows in
concentration as his fingers rapidly pressed the buttons on his controller.
“Watch, watch this,” Taylor said getting ready to hit the puck into the goal.
“Ha,” Zac smiled as he blocked Taylor’s shot.
“Bitch,” Taylor said trying to regain control of the puck.
“Fuckface.”
“Oh pizza’s here. Josh, get the door,” Taylor instructed.
“Give me some fucking money,” Josh said standing up.
“No way. I’m busy,” Taylor said. “I’ll pay you back later.”
“All I have is five bucks. Pause the damn game,” Josh said holding his hand out.
Taylor paused the game and stood up to give Josh money. Zac reached over and
unpaused the game and continued to score on Taylor’s goal.
“What the fuck?” Taylor exclaimed looking at the TV. “You bastard,” he said
tackling Zac. They rolled off the couch onto the floor wrestling while Josh got the pizza.
“You suck,” Zac laughed rolling on top of Taylor.
“Look at you. You’re trying to make out with me,” Taylor said squirming under
Zac’s heavier body.
“Shut up,” Zac laughed.
“You want to kiss me.”
“Fuck you,” Zac said covering Taylor’s face with his hand and standing up.
“Fuck you. Get me another beer, bitch,” Taylor said getting back on the couch.
*********************************
“So are you going to tell him that you have a boyfriend?” Natasha asked while
Ruby got ready to go out to dinner with Jacob.
“Yeah,” she said zipping up her black boots and standing up so her black pants fell
over the ankles. “I mean, it shouldn’t matter. Cause it’s not a date.”
“Right,” Natasha said skeptically.
********************************
“That’s really pretty,” Jacob said touching his finger to the ruby on her necklace.
“Oh thanks,” Ruby said looking down as she walked down the street after dinner.
“My um.. it was a gift.”
“Nice,” he said sticking his hands in the pockets of his khaki pants. “So would you
rather take a cab back home?”
“Oh no, that’s okay. I’ll take the subway,” Ruby said crossing her arms over her
chest because she was cold.
“No. My treat,” he insisted. “I’d go with you but I probably shouldn’t be on
campus with you since, well... you know.”
“Yeah,” she laughed. “It’s okay.”
“Well I hope we can go out again. I had a nice time,” Jacob told her.
“Me too. Thanks for dinner,” she smiled.
“No problem,” he said holding his arm up for a cab.
“So, I guess I’ll see you on Thursday.”
“Oh right. Class,” he said as a cab pulled up on the curb. Jacob held his finger out
telling the driver to wait a second. “I’ll give you a call,” he said rubbing his hands up and
down her arms. “We’ll go out again.”
“Alright. Sounds good to me,” she said looking up at him.
He briefly wet his lips and leaned forward to kiss her. She was startled by the
rought texture of his slightly prickly face but loosened up as he pulled her body closer by
her arms. She gently pressed the palms of her hands against his stomach and took hold of
his sweater. He slowly pulled his lips away from hers and kissed her one last time.
“Goodnight,” he whispered.
“Night,” she said as he opened the cab door for her. She climbed in and he shut
the door. “9th and 3rd please,” she told the cab driver. She leaned back in the seat and
played with her tingling bottom lip between her thumb and index finger. “Okay, maybe it
was a date,” she thought to herself.
********************************
Ruby got home to an empty dorm room and Natasha had left a note on the white
marker board on the wall.
“Ruby-
Hope your non-date was good. Listen to the message on the answering machine and tell
me it doesn’t break your heart.”
-Natasha
p.s. If you want to come out, we all went to the bar on Union Square.
Ruby walked over to the dresser and pressed play on the answering machine.
“Hey Ruby, it’s me. I just wanted to call and say hey and let you know I’m thinking
about you. When I got up this morning I went downstairs and um, Avery was watching
Saved by the Bell. It was your favorite one where Jessie gets addicted to caffine pills and
freaks out,” he explained with a small laugh. “It made me think about you. So anyway,
um, I guess you’re out and about. I thought you were going to be home tonight. I
wanted to talk to you and hear your voice. Well give me a call if you feel like it. I’ll be
here. Love you, bye.”
She looked down and twisted the ring Zac had given her around her finger.
***************************
“Okay, why don’t we weigh your options here,” Natasha said later that night after
she came home from the bar to find Ruby still awake. “Who would you rather be with?
Jacob or Zac?”
“Well Zac, of course. But he’s not here and I miss boys,” Ruby pouted holding
her stuffed monkey in her lap while she sat on her bed.
“You miss Zac, or you miss dating other guys?” Natasha asked.
“Both,” she said quietly.
“So okay,” Natasha said sitting up and crossing her legs Indian style. “There’s
Jacob. 26, lives on the upper east side of Manhattan. Zac - 17, lives with his parents in
Oklahoma.”
“He’s 18,” Ruby corrected.
“Whatever. Jacob - Ivy league eduacated English professor. Zac - high school
senior who works at a coffee shop,” Natasha continued.
“You’re not helping,” Ruby said. “You’re supposed to be convincing me that I
fucked up by kissing Jacob and that Zac’s such a great boyfriend.”
“Is Zac a great boyfriend? A great boyfriend who’s never around?”
“He is a great boyfriend,” Ruby affirmed. “I don’t know why I kissed Jacob.”
“Did you like it?” Natasha asked.
Ruby looked down and ran her fingers through the fur of her stuffed animal.
“Yeah,” she answered.
“Well okay, think about kissing Zac,” she told her.
Ruby nodded.
“Do you like that better?”
“When we’re together I do. But he’s not here and it’s like, total void of guys,” she
said.
“Well maybe you and Zac should break it off for a while,” Natasha suggested.
“No, I don’t want that,” Ruby said.
“So what do you want?”
“I don’t know,” Ruby moaned falling over on her side, burying her face in her
comforter. “I mean, I like Jacob. He’s cool and I like being with him. What’s wrong
with that?”
“What if Zac liked another girl and just thought she was ‘cool’ and kissed her?”
Ruby scrunched up her nose at the thought of Zac kissing another girl. “Okay, so
I shouldn’t have kissed him.”
“So tell Zac what happened,” Natasha said.
chapter 18.
