devil's in the details (open)

[RUBY GRACE HONEYCUTT]

I left out one thing

No one to love me, And no one to love

Ruby was frustrated. It wasn’t often that she was so frustrated, so the feeling was rather unpleasant for her. She wasn’t used to this hot burning stress in her stomach. She hated it, hated the fact that her frustration was due to another person. Ruby liked to live a rather self contained life; liked her emotions to by tied up in herself and only herself. She wasn’t a cold or a distant person, on the contrary she was actually rather nice to those in her life. She just didn’t like to wrap herself up in other people so that her emotions were tied to them. She made her own happiness and didn’t let herself get disappointed by others. So what was her problem? Why could she not get that mo-hawked ass-face out of her head?

She’d had two encounters with him. Or well, one and an internet one. You could barely call that an encounter- it was just text. Already though, she could feel him under her skin. In truth? She had kept his I.D card for a reason. She’d been intrigued by him. He wasn’t the typical sort of guy she usually associated with at all and that was kind of the point. She’d been curious about him. So, instead of handing in his card to student services she had kept it and tracked him down. It wasn’t hard to do at all, in fact it took mere hours. The fact she’d put any effort into looking him up at all though was rather shocking to Ruby. She’d never really ‘chased’ anyone before, so why was she starting now?

What was worse, was that she had been playing the IM conversation they’d had in her head all day. He’d been a douche at times but she’d kind of liked it. Intriguing her even more. What was frustrating though, was the damned butterflies in her stomach. She was actually nervous about seeing him tomorrow; actually thought about how upset she’d be if he didn’t turn up. And that, that was just not okay as far as Ruby was concerned. She didn’t get excited about seeing people. She didn’t get her hopes up. She made it a point not to. So why should now be any different? What was different about Corbin? So what if he wasn’t like most people she knew. That shouldn’t even matter.

She couldn’t sit around the apartment anymore, it was driving her crazy. So out she’d gone, walking the short distance to campus from the apartment building. With two of their children in the same place, and Sam not dealing too well in the dorms last year, the Honeycutt’s had paid for a place off campus for the siblings. Ruby didn’t really mind, it just meant she kind of missed out on the true experience of campus life. It would be fine though, she’d told herself. She’d spend most of her free time on campus. Besides it would be kind of nice having a space she could call home without roommates or something. She’d heard a lot of horror stories about how getting an annoying dorm-mate could ruin your whole year at College. She liked hanging out with her brother, and could put up with all his antics, so there wasn’t any issues there.

Now, during her campus tour, the girl had noted that the rec room had all sorts of fun things that would assist in taking her mind off things. So that was where she was headed. After a slight (or maybe slightly big) detour due to getting completely lost, Ruby pushed open the door, stepping inside the slightly cluttered room. There was a few groups of people scattered around, but for the most part it was pretty empty. Which was good- it meant the Scooby Doo Pin-ball machine was still open. She wasn’t exactly brilliant at the game, but she did love playing it. Putting her over-sized hand-bag down, the girl fished out a dollar from her purse to insert so she could start on her mindless entertainment.

[CORBIN TYLER MONROE]

When he had the time between classes or when he really needed to just relax or at least attempt to, Corbin found himself in the rec room. That’s what it was for, after all, and since he lived on campus it made access all the more easy. It gave him something to do when he wasn’t busting his hump, something Corbin always seemed to be doing just to prove to himself that he wasn’t wasting his time at Emerson. College had been a pretty big deal for him, after all. Every moment had to be worth his time, had to be teaching him something or useful to his degree. He was a smart boy, but possibly a little bit too worried about making it through the four year requirement.

Still, even those who were toughest on themselves found a way to relax now and again. If Corbin couldn’t go out (or just didn’t want to) he found stuff to do on campus. Usually he’d play video games with the guys on his floor or come down here and do the same, sometimes movies and other times he would actually participate in what some people here jokingly called sports, usually consisting of Frisbee on whatever open lawn that could be found. Or there were the times when he ran into pretty girls in hallways and was then stalked by them until he was forced to buy them coffee, even if such was done against his will and only so he could get his student ID back. Now, he didn’t really mind having to go get his student ID or even that he was being forced to buy coffee for some girl he didn’t know, it was much more that he felt she wanted something more from him than he was willing to offer. He wasn’t sure what set off that vibe. Maybe it was because she had contacted him at all in the first place. Most people wouldn’t have bothered and would have just returned his ID to the school’s lost and found and been done with it. But she had done it all the hard way.

Maybe, he considered, it was that she had worked her way into his thoughts. Naturally, Corbin didn’t find himself with a lot of time to care about what other people were doing or just didn’t believe it at all mattered. But with the thoughts of this girl he had only run into once, only spoken to once, clogging up his mind he was kind of… well, irritated. Of course, he couldn’t blame her. It wasn’t necessarily her fault that he was thinking of her, even now as he made his way into the rec room, it was his fault for thinking far too much about what few words he had spoken to her. She was, well, nice. For the most part, anyway. Beyond attempting to get him to buy her things (which Corbin could only reduce to wanting to possibly get to know him) on some sort of day-date between two strangers, she seemed to have a sort of friendly air about her. Damn, why did he even care?

Digging his hand into his pocket with every intention of getting a soda from the nearest machine, Corbin rounded the corner to be faced with the inhabitants of the recreation room. Mostly the same kids who found themselves there, some freshman exploring and a pretty girl playing pin ball. It figured. Either she was stalking him or some how his thoughts had magically manifested a fully fleshed out person.

He watched her for a moment before making his way over to the soda machine (it seemed every room in this building had one). Well, maybe she had his ID card on her now and he could skip the coffee thing completely. Cracking the tab and sucking in a breathe, he pulled a metal folding chair he picked up against the wall near the soda machine toward the pin ball machine and plopped down next to it, eyes finding Ruby’s face.

“Left flipper is kind of sticky, push hard and it should eventually come loose.”

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[RUBY GRACE HONEYCUTT]

I left out one thing

No one to love me, And no one to love

She’d thought about him a lot. More than a lot. But even with all her thoughts, she still didn’t know the sound of his voice. Which was perfectly understandable, really. She’d spoken to him briefly once. If she already knew the sound of his voice- well then that would be just a little creepy now wouldn’t it? She’d already earned major creep points for stalking. She didn’t want to get herself more. But in her defence, shouldn’t he be like, flattered or something that some pretty girl wanted to get to know him? Not that she thought she considered herself pretty. Wow, now she kind of seemed up herself for even thinking it. Good thing she wasn’t silly enough to voice her thoughts now wasn’t it?

Frowning, she took her eyes off the little silver ball. Turning to her head to see who had informed her of the sticky flipper. Hehe, sticky flipper. That sounded funny. Anyway, turning her head resulted on a huge shock for the blonde. Corbin was really the last person she had expected to see. But oddly enough, the first person she’d kind of hoped to see. Not that she was at all going to admit that, even to herself. There was a lot Ruby didn’t like to admit. The fact she sometimes liked to visualise herself in some beautiful fairy-tale being one of those things she didn’t share. She found her thoughts running away with her a little, but never acted on those thing, which she felt made her far more level headed then most.

Biting the inside of her lip, the girl did her best to hide her shock. Though she knew her features were betraying her. Eyes bugging out. Lip curling into a smile she never really planned on letting slip. She didn’t want him to know she was pleased to see him. Worst of all, she didn’t want him to be right. “Oh?” She raised a slight eyebrow, trying to look sceptical. With her eyes still on him, Ruby attempted to push in the button in question. It was, in fact, rather stiff. Frowning, she pressed it a few more times. Which didn’t really help. Sighing, she looked down and pressed it as hard as she could. Dammit. He was right.

Worse than that, she’d been so busy focussed on what he’d been saying, she hadn’t been paying attention to what her ball had been doing. Her eyes found it just in time to slip down in between the flippers. Causing her to fail epically. The girl let out a small curse under her breath. Now she had two reasons for being sulky at him; being right and making her loose. “What, are you trying to make me un-happy?” She turned to lean against the machine, body angled towards him. “First you rag on cobbler and now you distract me from my game?” She stood for a small moment, frowning at him. Though her instinct not to let him affect her too much cut in.

“I’ll just have to start again and wow you with my epic skills..” She flashed him a slight smirk as she turned away, reaching into her purse for another coin. It was just her luck though, that after that display of bravado, there wasn’t actually a coin left in her purse for her to use. God dammit. Why did the universe like to tease her so? Trying to save face, she coughed and stepped away from the machine. “Eh... Maybe I’ll just.... go home.”

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[CORBIN TYLER MONROE]

It wasn’t Corbin’s intention to come swooping in and piss Ruby off. He was only trying to make up for his prior behavior by possibly being more friendly than he had been up until this point. The pinball tip hadn’t been to make her lose or to distract her from what she was doing. It was simply his way of being nice. Perhaps he hadn’t thought through all the consequences of speaking to her while she was trying to concentrate. It never occurred to him that she would right away try to loosen the flipper and lose her game or that she was going to leave once she did.

“No, no, let me…” he dug into his pocket and extracted a quarter. It was only fair as he had been the cause of her loss in the first place. There was no way he was going to just let her leave when this was his fault. Besides, he still hadn’t gotten a chance to ask her if she had his identification card on her or not and that had been the initial reason for her approaching her. “Hey, I was not ragging on cobbler. I was ragging on being conned into buying you cobbler when you’d already conned me into buying you coffee. You know, we could simply both ventures and you could just let me pay for this game of pinball and I’ll continue being my cheap, happy self.” Joking, Corbin grinned. Of course, if she still found it necessary, he would accompany her for coffee whenever she chose.

What was so wrong with making friends and why couldn’t Corbin allow himself to be nice in the first place? There was nothing wrong with Ruby as far as he could tell outside of doing a bit of stalking but these days who didn’t? Facebook pages and twitter and things of the like made it all the more easy to see what people were up to even before you knew them and Corbin imagined he wasn’t half as hard to find as he first thought. He was in the student server, she had his ID card. Really all she had to do was look it up and she could find his student email and from there many different things about him. Why he reacted like an ass, he wasn’t sure. Defensive, he supposed, or maybe just unsure as to why this girl wanted to talk to him beyond giving back the card he had dropped.

After he passed on the quarter, he returned to his slouched position in the fold up chair and took a swig from the chilled can of soda he had purchased. He couldn’t even remember what he was going to do once he got here now that he had found Ruby. Though a safe guess would say that his intention was to have a Mortal Kombat duel with whoever would sit down long enough and try to defeat him between cries of GET OVER HERE! and FINISH HIM!. Oh, Mortal Kombat, how much fun you are.

“You wouldn’t, by chance, have my ID card on you, would you?”

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[RUBY GRACE HONEYCUTT]

I left out one thing

No one to love me, And no one to love

Ruby bit her lip. She wasn’t usually the sort to take things from other people. Well, alright, besides trying to get coffee and cobbler out of Corbin. He’d been kinda rude to her though right off the bat. So really that was just her way of getting him to make up for it. Usually though, she didn’t take stuff from other people. She didn’t like to feel like she was in debt to others, and she was sort of cynical when it came to other people’s motives. She wasn’t sure she believed they did things just to be nice. That though, was a whole other issue. She knew what Corbin’s motives were; to get out of coffee with her.

And why shouldn’t he? She’d conned him into it. He didn’t know her though, and really had no reason to want to get to know her. What was Ruby to him? Just some stupid little freshman. Really, did she expect she’d be the type of girl he went for? Just because he intrigued her, did not mean she had anything of interest to him. Maybe if she wasn’t a plain blonde with a boring taste in clothes- he probably liked a more edgier sort of girl. Which was something Ruby just wasn’t. And probably wouldn’t ever be. And really? She wasn’t going to change herself for someone. Ruby had long-since grown comfortable with who she was. It was simple, really. She liked Peach Tea and Board-games and that was that.

Letting out a slight sigh, she held out her hand. “Alright then.” She took his coin, setting her own purse into her bag. Looking down at the metal between her fingers. It felt heavier than most coins. But then, that may have just been the weight she was placing upon the exchange in her own mind. She hesitated with putting the coin in the slot though, because she knew what was coming. He was going to ask about his I.D card. Which was safely tucked behind her own in her purse. She didn’t want to pop the coin in and start playing, only to have him draw her focus again. Ruining the only constellation prize she was going to get. Instead she flipped the coin over in her fingers a few times. Seemingly lost in its shiny distraction.

Sure enough, Corbin did not disappoint. His next words had everything to do with his I.D card. Struggling to keep her face neutral, Ruby turned to him. To be honest, the smallest part of her had ideas that maybe he wouldn’t ask. That maybe he’d be all cute and use it as a chance to see her again. She’d told herself long ago not to get lost in the silly fairy-tales she created in her mind though. They didn’t come true. The nice guy didn’t get the girl, the dick-head won, and her little adorable sister was probably going to die of cancer, despite how much she deserved a life. Those were the cold, honest facts. And you needed to just deal with them.

“Oh right. Of course..” she offered him an apologetic smile. As if she’d completely forgotten about it. Stowing his coin in her pocket, the blonde bent down and picked up her wallet for the second time in a few minutes. Sliding his card out, she handed it to him casually. “It’s probably good I ran into you now... I probably don’t have time for coffee anyway. I wasn’t going to even order Coffee. I like Tea.. And hot-chocolate...” Blushing slightly at her rambling, she bit the inside of her lip. “Anyway, thanks for the quarter... Have a good life I guess?” She gave him a small nod, before turning her attention to the coin slot on the machine. Oh Ruby, why must you shut people out just because they disappoint the little expectations you have?

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[CORBIN TYLER MONROE]

“Oh, you are my savior. I really need to study tonight and the guys on my floor are noisy.” He frowned and took the card from her, slipping it into his back pocket for safe keeping this time. “The library seems like the only retreat anymore.” As he listened to her attempt to tell him that she had no time for coffee, Corbin found himself shaking his head and waving a hand to get her to stop. There was no way in the world she didn’t have time for coffee. She had put too much effort into getting him to agree to go to suddenly have zero time. It wasn’t as though Corbin was trying to get out of it, he just needed his card, and he was about to make that known. “I still want to go for coffee, or hot chocolate, or whatever. Cobbler too.”

Wow, really? An entire personality change in less than twenty four hours? Ruby had caught Corbin quite off guard when she instant messaged him with the news that she had picked up his student identification and otherwise main means of getting from building to building. He was tired and grumpy and reacted badly. There wasn’t a honest to god mean bone in Corbin’s body, nor an impolite one. Okay, maybe one, but he saved that one for special occasions and was always very gentlemanly about it. But that was beside the point. “Whenever you have the time. You have my email, right? Send me one when you get home and I’ll send you my phone number. I’d do it now but I’m lazy and I like to do things ass backward.”

Still seated on the chair he’d pulled over to the pinball machine, Corbin leaned back to further examine the giant toy. He gestured to it and then looked back up at the pretty blonde girl who looked like she was going to bolt if Corbin was the tiniest bit rude to her and spoke, just like they were old friends or something. “What’s your high score? Money says I could beat it in one try.” Oh god he hoped it was low. While he could show off about knowing how to unstuck the flipper and pulling a quarter out of nowhere, he couldn’t exactly beat intense pinball scores. Especially with only one try allotted. Maybe he should learn to keep his mouth shut or actually suggest putting money on things he knew he could win, regardless of who he was playing against. Maybe Ruby would cut him some slack and pretend she didn’t even know how to play. He could use coy and flirty right now, versus cruel and more impressive.

“Like a dollar, ‘cause I think that’s all I have in my pocket.” Lie. He had twenty. Of course, he wasn’t about to give her that information. Not that she would take it from him, but if he lost it fair and square on a bet he would feel obligated. He just didn’t want her to suggest more. What was a little white lie if it saved him some money?

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[RUBY GRACE HONEYCUTT]

I left out one thing

No one to love me, And no one to love

Noticing his hand, Ruby turned to Corbin again. Raising an eyebrow at him as he spoke. She hadn’t really been expecting that from him at all. She wasn’t sure why- but Ruby seemed to have already written him off in her mind. Alright so maybe she did know why. That little flutter in her stomach when he spoke. The way she found her eyes drawn to the shape of his lips. The way she didn’t trust him with those feelings he kindled inside her. Ruby liked to get to know someone before she let them inside. There had already been so much pain connected to those she cared about, not to mention her gut feeling that things were going to get a whole lot worse. She didn’t put her heart out there so fast.

It scared her that she seemed to be letting her feelings get far too invested before she was even sure she wanted to. Which automatically made Ruby not want to trust him; to pull away before her feelings got anymore entangled Perhaps it was just because she just felt as though if he was able to woo her so quickly that there must be something devious about him. Like he was tricking her into liking him so he could upset her. She knew, really, that it was silly. She just could not help the stories her mind created. All she could control was her reactions. Which she wasn’t sure of just yet. She really wasn’t sure what to do with this new him in her life.

Despite everything, Ruby could not help but allow a smile to tug at her lips. He still wanted to have coffee. Knowing that fact sent a warm thrill through the young woman. Her stomach tingling in a not at all unpleasant sensation. Maybe he wasn’t so bad? She could have miss-judged him couldn’t she? Ruby just wasn’t at all sure what to think. In the last few days her feelings towards him seemed to have been on a roller-coaster. What that what all her beloved fairytales spoke about when they referenced love at first site? She considered Corbin for a moment. He wasn’t exactly Prince Charming. But then, The Beast turned into a pretty good guy in the end. Arg, she just wasn’t sure if he was the sort of guy she saw herself with. Despite how he made her feel.

Biting the inside of her lip, to stop herself from smiling too much, Ruby nodded. “Kay. I’ll send you my number when I get home.” She could feel her cheeks flush a little. The boy (or was she at the age now where she needed to start referring to them as men?) had just basically asked for her number. It was actually a pretty big thing. Something she should probably tell her best friend about later, in a completely girly fashion. Then she never claimed to not be a completely feminine girl, so it was alright. You could expect that sort of thing from her.

Tilting her head to the side, she smiled coyly. He wanted to bet on the fact he could beat her top-score? Hmm. That was a gamble. She wasn’t shockingly bad, but not good enough to know she could take him on. “Let’s make it fair. I mean, it could have taken me months to work up to my top score.” She fingers the coin as she spoke. “Two games- one each, right now, worst score pays for Coffee and Cobbler.” She didn’t pose it as a question at all. But it wasn’t bossy or demanding either. Flipping the coin across to him, she stepped aside. “You first.”

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