After She Left

EIGHT

If you just set out to be liked, you would be prepared to compromise on anything, wouldn't you, at any time? And you would achieve nothing."

-Margaret Thatcher

"Is this really necessary?" I rolled my eyes, furious at the gang.

"Yes," Andre and Blake replied at the same time, not even turning their heads at me.

We were now heading back to the apartment in 2 separate cars - me, Andre, Blake, and Lilly in one and Eden, Hanna, Angel, and Luke in the other.

"f**k this," I mumbled, ripping off the tape that was put over Lilly's mouth.

"Ruby!" the guys shouted the same moment as Lilly, though for different reasons.

"Sorry, Lil," I gave her a half-smile, then turned at the guys, glaring, "you better hand me something to open these handcuffs, otherwise I will seriously make your time living with me pure hell."

Yes, they actually had the guts to tape her mouth and put handcuffs on her, saying she had to come with us so they could dig up all information about her to make sure she didn't have the wrong intentions.

Blake ignored me, whilst Andre looked at me for a second through the rear-view mirror, handing me a key, probably understanding I was actually being serious from the glare and vibe I was currently giving off.

"Andre! What the f**k?!" Blake yelled while I grinned in victory, undoing her handcuffs.

Lilly massaged her wrists, red marks covering her skin. I winced, feeling guilty for putting her in such a situation: "I'm so sorry, Lilz."

She gave me a wink, smiling: "compared to being arrested in Paris for skinny dipping in a fountain and spending the next two nights in a prison, this is nothing special."

I stared at her with my mouth hanging open, and so did Andre, Blake only rolling his eyes.

"Are you being serious?" I asked her.

She smirked at me: "are you sure you want an honest answer?"

I laughed: "I think I'm fine. These guys will probably find out all the answer anyways."

She shrugged: "I hope they won't judge me for my record, because there's certainly some embarrassing stuff there."

"Trust me, you've got nothing on these group of people," I mumbled lowly, avoiding any eye contact.

"Okay, then I swear that I totally had nothing to do with that drug dealer," she mumbled, "he was just very hot and I... well, I was horny. It just happened to be during the night they got raided."

The guys seemed to ignore anything she had said, still processing the words that had left my mouth. I could easily tell that they were both glaring at me.

I guess I hadn't taken enough time to think about the fact that these guys were also the ones to betray me, not just Eden. Since Eden hurt me so badly, it was very easy to disregard their role in the situation, so no one could really blame me. Yet after snapping at them, I could clearly tell my anger issues might be hurting some people.

"You forgot to tell me you had a girlfriend, babe," Lilly snapped us all out of the silence, squinting her eyes at me.

"Why? Wanted to get in my pants, huh?" I laughed.

She rolled her eyes: "unless you're hiding a d**k in your pants, I'm not."

Andre choked on his drink, while Blake burst out laughing.

"I'll take that as a no," I smiled, rather relieved, knowing I certainly needed a straight girl in my life, "sorry for not giving you heads up about Hanna, didn't get a chance to while being chased down with snipers."

Lilly shook her head, yet smiling as if she knew more than me.

"What?" I asked, rolling my eyes.

"Let's talk about it when these two aren't listening to our every word," she promised, winking at me.

Blake gave me an uneasy glance in the rear-view mirror, probably not that into someone that none of them knew being my friend and giving me advice or even talking with me. It was obvious they all had control issues, but I guess it came along the high-class criminal status.

Hanna hadn't said a word to me after calling me out near the lake. I couldn't deny that the tension between me and Eden was taking a toll on us and so was this town. My feelings, the situation we were in -nothing seemed to be going good for us at the moment.

"Time to go," Blake said, stopping the car. He and Andre quickly got out of the car.

They both opened the doors for us, but when I looked around I realized this wasn't the front of "Argent", it actually seemed like a back entrance of it or secret entrance which I was originally unaware of since it wasn't even in the blueprints I'd seen before.

Blake stepped closer to us, reaching out for Lilly's hand most likely to drag the poor girl upstairs, but I quickly stepped in front of him, giving yet another death glare to him, to which he responded with an eye roll, holding the door to the building open.

Lilly looked around curiously, pretty unaware of what was happening, but she seemed to be unfazed by what had already happened, not very affected by it what so ever. But then again, she seemed to be full of surprises, you could tell she wasn't one of them regular girls.

We were in a part of the building that I hadn't known about, now standing in an elevator. The elevator stopped and we walked down a darker corridor I recognized as similar to the one I'd walked down once I'd gotten behind the secret exit door. I rolled my eyes.

"Do you guys even know how I managed to escape?" I smirked, as we had finally reached the door to the apartment.

"Do you really think you should be pushing anyone's buttons right now, Ru?" Blake asked, his jaw clenched while he held the door open to the apartment for me and Lilly.

Before I walked through the door, I turned to him: "what is it, Blakey? Can't handle someone beating you in your own field?"

He glared at me, but it wasn't angry as I'd expected. He seemed to be disappointed and sad with me, which threw me off the guard. But before I could step on his toes and succeed, Andre grabbed my shoulders, forcing me to move into the apartment.

"Don't act this way, Ru," Andre whispered in my ear, his arms still on my shoulders.

I rolled my eyes, laughing as I turned back to both of them: "act like what? Like the b***h, I should've been in the first place?"

They both looked at me with that stare, the sad and disappointed one. That's the stare I was far too familiar with, I hated it with passion.

"What?" I stepped closer, pushing Andre, which was no use since he didn't move an inch, it was as if running into a wall and expecting it to move, "stop looking at me as if I'm a kid that failed you by getting a bad grade, jeez."

I couldn't control the anger, it wasn't too hard to tell either, considering my hands were shaking. Somehow, this just didn't feel fair. The thought of being where I was, with the people that I was with completely destroyed me. There's nothing worse than letting yourself down, huh?

"Babe.." Lilly spoke softly, putting her hand on my shoulder from behind, "I think you need to calm down a little."

I furrowed my brows, turning to her, soon realizing why she had said that. The rest of the gang and Hanna were stood in the kitchen doorway, all staring at me.

"Let's all go to the living room, shall we?" I smiled the fakest smile I could muster up, rushing everyone over there, "go ahead, sit down."

Lilly sighed, not wanting to sit down with the rest of them: "do I need to be a part of this?"

I looked at her, hoping she'd stay, but I could understand why she shouldn't. It was my own battle to fight.

But before I could say anything, Angel spoke up: "you're not leaving this apartment anyways, still a suspect."

"I'm sorry," Lilly laughed, looking at her, "who even are you?"

"Don't test me, boo," Angel smirked, getting up, but Ruby pulled her back down on the sofa, shaking her head.

"There are loads of snacks in the kitchen. Make yourself at home," I pointed in the direction. Lilly nodded, excusing herself.

"I think we could use the whole ex-best friends-that-tried-to-kill-me talk now," I started, cutting to the case. From the corner of my eye, I could spot Hanna, yet I had to swallow the emotions rising up my throat. This had to be sorted, here and now.

Eden sighed: "no one tried to kill you, Ruby, don't be over-dramatic."

"Is that really what you're going to say? Overdramatic?" Looking in her eyes instantly made me sigh, the person I knew just wasn't there. I couldn't even put on the act anymore, as my voice broke saying the following words, "I f*****g loved you, Eden. With all I had."

None of them had the courage to look at me apart from Eden, who looked pretty damn breathless, looking anywhere but at me after I'd said these words.

"I never meant to..." she softly replied, staring at the ground.

I cut her off: "Oh, but you did. That was the plan and you for sure got an A for that part."

She stood up, rage in her eyes: "stop pretending you were so in love when you didn't even care to see me before leaving, have the benefit of a doubt for a person you claim to love so much."

"Do you think I believed it the second I saw it? You were the love of my life, my best friend, soulmate and girlfriend at the same time. I went over every possible scenario of how it could be a stupid prank. But I'm not dumb, Eden, I had all of the necessary proof in front of me."

I continued: "Let's be real, at the end of the day, you did plan it, you did what you did. Don't try and put it on me."

"I would've never hurt you, Ruby," she growled, clenching her jaw, "but you didn't even give me a chance to fix it, fix us."

"You're the damn leader of the most dangerous gang in the world and you couldn't find a way to come after me and fix it? You claimed to love me too, yet for six months, six f*****g months, Eden, you did nothing!" I raised my voice at her.

"What the hell did you want me to do, Ruby?! You made it clear I should stay away!" she shouted back.

The skeleton closed had burst open and I could no longer hold it in. The thing no one seemed to talk about. The thing that nearly killed me.

"I wanted you to be there when I was vomiting for multiple hours in a row. I wanted you to f*****g be there when I had to go through all the damn drugs, making me feel like a piece of furniture instead of an actual human being. I just wanted to see your face before the surgery in case I never woke up and after it in case I did. I wanted your support while the damn cancer was killing me. All I wanted was for you to be there. Or at least try to be."

She looked at me in pure confusion and horror which meant that neither Blake or Andre had told her.

"You didn't tell her," I sighed, looking at Blake and Andre.

"You guys are more f****d up than I thought, and, trust me, that speaks volumes. Whatever," I said, deciding this turned out to be a stupid idea. I turned on my heels, ready to join Lilly so we could do something to forget this day ever happened.

But I guess Eden had a different idea, when she ran to me, pulling me back by my wrist. I noticed tears in her eyes as she shouted at me: "no it's not whatever, Ruby. You should have told me instead of keeping me in the dark."

"You're really f*****g clueless then, huh," I spat, "if you weren't that obsessed with breaking my heart with your amazing plan, then perhaps you would've noticed all the signs that were right in front of you. I was dying in front of you, yet I managed to hide it from someone that was actually spying on me? Guess I'm a damn genius then."

She looked taken back, staring at me as if my words made her physically hurt.

Blake got up, removing Eden's arm from mine and glaring at me: "you're going too far, Ru."

I clenched my jaw, still looking at Eden who was now staring at her hands: "I wanted to tell you when you came back to my place the day I last saw you. I also wanted to ask you to move to the UK with me and come clean about knowing about Quietus since the very beginning. I thought Blake was the leader and was making you do things which were the reason you were so distant and keeping things from me, so I was trying to figure a way out for you the whole time we were together."

All of their heads snapped up at me in a realization, apart from Blake's, but Luke chose to spoke: "which means you were trying to get close to us in order to pretty much destroy us."

I shook my head: "you make it sound far worse than it would've been. I simply loved Eden and wanted what was the best for her, I thought you all put her in danger."

"That's pretty badass," Angel commented, "but I don't get why you're all mad at us, of course, apart from Eden because she f****d up majorly, but you were doing the same thing as us."

Now that she put it that way, I realized that was indeed right. But at the same time, it couldn't really be compared.

"Thanks," Eden mumbled at Angels dig at her.

"You can't just compare them two as if they're the same," I sighed, "my intention was to save Eden, not hurt anyone, yet yours was to become my friends, so you could kidnap me and get money from my parents."

"Just saying, but we were never the plan, it was meant to be just Eden. I think you kind of screwed yourself over when it comes to the rest of the gang," she shrugged, picking at her nails.

"I guess I did," I replied, glancing at Eden who still seemed to be in shock.

I almost got mad at myself for feeling bad for her. There were obvious feelings for her that seemed to want to stick around. All I could do was hope they'd eventually disappear.