the cool box behind Stu.
My attention snaps back to the game when the bottle knocks against my foot. It was Dongle’s spin and the neck end is pointing at Stu. His groan is cut short as Dongle dives on him and they roll around on the floor with Dongle making kissing noises that we can all hear because his face is about a foot away from Stu’s.
Stu’s laughing when he’s released and the sight of him squeezes at my insides.
I require more tequila.
KAZ
Ruby looks thunderous as she tips her head back to drain her cup before pouring another slug of tequila into it. I try and tot up how much she must have drunk today.
“Shit.” Both Anna and Tom have gone very still on either side of me.
“What?”
Neither of them say a word and I follow their gaze to the bottle that’s sitting on the rug in front of Stu. Pointing at Ruby.
RUBY
“What you waiting for?” Stu smiles across the circle at me. “Nothing we haven’t done before, right?”
My words in his mouth, mocking me.
Bollocks. If I hadn’t talked it up I could have just taken the shot.
No going back now.
Not that I want to. Every muscle in my body is clenched tight with excitement at the thought of kissing him. I can remember the way it feels … the way it tastes…
No way in hell will I admit to it though.
I shrug. “Whatever.”
It only takes seconds for him to crawl the distance from one side of the circle to the other, his eyes on mine, but time seems to slow, the same way that the noise fades and the people around cease to matter.
My pulse starts thrumming in my throat and I swallow, the last few drinks loosening my grip on reality.
When he’s right in front of me, I can’t escape the look in his eyes, as if he can see my memories of everything we’ve done together playing on my retinas like a film reel. His clothes are infused with the warm smell of weed and wood smoke. I breathe in a short, shallow breath and taste the memory of sun on his skin and the beer on his breath.
“Come here, then,” Stu says in a low voice, a murmur that no one but me can hear. That no one but me has heard before. He raises a hand to my jaw, his fingers brushing my hair back off my face and behind my ear as he brings his face to mine, his nose brushing my cheek and I don’t mean for my lips to part, but…
I can’t do this
.
KAZ
No one seems to know what happened. One minute Stu’s about to kiss her, the next Ruby’s leaped up and away from him, downing her drink so fast it spills across her cheek. Wiping her face with the heel of her hand, she kicks the bottle across the circle to where Stu’s sitting back on his heels.
“Spin it again.”
And she’s gone, fast, unsteady steps on legs that look thin and cold and white in the dark night. When I look over at Stu, all he does is shrug. It’s only as I’m running after her, following a rushed goodbye to Tom and a hop and skip over the guy ropes blocking my path, that I realize that Stu might have looked like he couldn’t care less, but it’s the first time he hasn’t been smiling about something.
Good
.
10 • BIGMOUTH STRIKES AGAIN
RUBY
“Ruby!”
I can’t even identify the emotions that are flooding through me at the sound of my name.
“Ruby – wait!”
All I do know is that the person calling me is Kaz – not Stu – and she’s not the one I’m running from. Within seconds, Kaz has caught up with me and I feel her arms round me, pulling me in for a hug that’s more reassuring for her than it is for me.
“Are you OK?”
“No. I’m not OK.” I glare at her, too angry with what’s just happened for it not to spill out into everything I see or hear or touch. “What the fuck was Stu doing there?”
“I don’t know.” Kaz looks pained. “I’m sorry, Ruby.” Actually, Kaz doesn’t look so much pained as
guilty
. “God, this is all my fault.” She almost whispers it, then, louder, she says, “I saw Stu earlier and—”
“You
what
?” I explode, my brain barely
My attention snaps back to the game when the bottle knocks against my foot. It was Dongle’s spin and the neck end is pointing at Stu. His groan is cut short as Dongle dives on him and they roll around on the floor with Dongle making kissing noises that we can all hear because his face is about a foot away from Stu’s.
Stu’s laughing when he’s released and the sight of him squeezes at my insides.
I require more tequila.
KAZ
Ruby looks thunderous as she tips her head back to drain her cup before pouring another slug of tequila into it. I try and tot up how much she must have drunk today.
“Shit.” Both Anna and Tom have gone very still on either side of me.
“What?”
Neither of them say a word and I follow their gaze to the bottle that’s sitting on the rug in front of Stu. Pointing at Ruby.
RUBY
“What you waiting for?” Stu smiles across the circle at me. “Nothing we haven’t done before, right?”
My words in his mouth, mocking me.
Bollocks. If I hadn’t talked it up I could have just taken the shot.
No going back now.
Not that I want to. Every muscle in my body is clenched tight with excitement at the thought of kissing him. I can remember the way it feels … the way it tastes…
No way in hell will I admit to it though.
I shrug. “Whatever.”
It only takes seconds for him to crawl the distance from one side of the circle to the other, his eyes on mine, but time seems to slow, the same way that the noise fades and the people around cease to matter.
My pulse starts thrumming in my throat and I swallow, the last few drinks loosening my grip on reality.
When he’s right in front of me, I can’t escape the look in his eyes, as if he can see my memories of everything we’ve done together playing on my retinas like a film reel. His clothes are infused with the warm smell of weed and wood smoke. I breathe in a short, shallow breath and taste the memory of sun on his skin and the beer on his breath.
“Come here, then,” Stu says in a low voice, a murmur that no one but me can hear. That no one but me has heard before. He raises a hand to my jaw, his fingers brushing my hair back off my face and behind my ear as he brings his face to mine, his nose brushing my cheek and I don’t mean for my lips to part, but…
I can’t do this
.
KAZ
No one seems to know what happened. One minute Stu’s about to kiss her, the next Ruby’s leaped up and away from him, downing her drink so fast it spills across her cheek. Wiping her face with the heel of her hand, she kicks the bottle across the circle to where Stu’s sitting back on his heels.
“Spin it again.”
And she’s gone, fast, unsteady steps on legs that look thin and cold and white in the dark night. When I look over at Stu, all he does is shrug. It’s only as I’m running after her, following a rushed goodbye to Tom and a hop and skip over the guy ropes blocking my path, that I realize that Stu might have looked like he couldn’t care less, but it’s the first time he hasn’t been smiling about something.
Good
.
10 • BIGMOUTH STRIKES AGAIN
RUBY
“Ruby!”
I can’t even identify the emotions that are flooding through me at the sound of my name.
“Ruby – wait!”
All I do know is that the person calling me is Kaz – not Stu – and she’s not the one I’m running from. Within seconds, Kaz has caught up with me and I feel her arms round me, pulling me in for a hug that’s more reassuring for her than it is for me.
“Are you OK?”
“No. I’m not OK.” I glare at her, too angry with what’s just happened for it not to spill out into everything I see or hear or touch. “What the fuck was Stu doing there?”
“I don’t know.” Kaz looks pained. “I’m sorry, Ruby.” Actually, Kaz doesn’t look so much pained as
guilty
. “God, this is all my fault.” She almost whispers it, then, louder, she says, “I saw Stu earlier and—”
“You
what
?” I explode, my brain barely
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