Ruby Alleyway's Crushes

The Bad News

The Bad News The crowd here was overwhelming. Ruby stood at the high-table with a glass of wine in her hands, looking at the actors taking picture with everyone. It was almost good but also bad. She did get recognized for her work, but the story she created bought more fame too the people who acted for it.

She took another sip. It wasn’t that she was jealous, she preferred it that way. Imagine getting pointed at everywhere you go. Not being able to have a proper dinner every time you eat out, not being able to live a life without being noticed.

She knew some people preferred it that way, looking at the actress before her she knew that she was one of those people. Enough thinking about famous lives, you have more pressing matters to ponder upon, Ruby told herself.

First of all, she was being forced into coming to this reunion. If she had any choice, she would spend her night in a dog house than go to that school building.

Of course, some of her best friends were from this high-school, but that was just luck. She never liked the teachers, always judging everyone on the basis of marks. Maybe that’s why most of the city-toppers were from her school.

Not only teachers, she never felt accepted in that building, her friends and their mischief were all she found worth remembering from that place. The day she left she vowed to never return to that place.

We all know what was the main reason that she never felt like having good memories of the place. That reminded her, would he be there? It didn’t affect her in anyway, she had so easily moved on when she blocked him.

It was actually very easy; she had told her friends to never take that name or say ABCD ever again. Whenever someone asked her about her high-school experience, she never mentioned him. She only wished she had done it a year before she actually blocked him.

Thinking about school reminded her that she had promised to a conference call with Gemma and Emmet. She fished out her phone from that tiny clutch which was the size of her phone and made the call.

“Hello! I thought you forgot, its nearly twelve” Emmet’s voice sounded sleepy.

“Really? I’m sorry I forgot what the time was” she quickly peeked at the clock on her phone, there were five minutes to twelve.

“No. No. I sound sleepy because Ria is making me watch this very boring documentary on buildings” Ruby smiled, it felt like everyone in her old friend group had found someone perfect for them.

“Wait I’ll add Gemma”

She added Gemma to the call and they began to talk about the reunion, much to Ruby’s annoyance.

“You are bringing Ria, right? Because I’m bringing Drake and Jasper is bringing Kyle” Gemma asked Emmet.

Now Ruby knew she was next, they’d probably ask about if she was bringing a date. She hadn’t even asked Derek yet, but considering their position it was given right? She’ll ask him to be sure, what if he’ll say they were not at that phase yet? They did go to his office ball together, so maybe he’ll say yes.

“What about you Ruby?” Emmet turned the question to her as she came out of her thoughts.

“Yeah, I guess I’ll bring Derek” she replied. But there was also another question on her mind “Who else is coming?”

“Everyone” they both said in unison. That was not very clear on the details. So, she questioned more specifically this time.

“Everyone as in from our stream or as in the whole batch?” he was from a different stream so maybe it wasn’t that sure for him.

“Everyone as in the whole batch” Gemma replied. “I am actually a part of the arrangements, they hired me as the party planner. As far as I know everyone has returned their RSVP as yes”

Okay, so probably he would be there. At least she'll bring a date with her, that'll be good for her confidence. They talked for a few more minutes and she said goodbye to them. Now she had two more things to do. She made her way to the elevators.

Looking at the time she knew he wasn’t asleep, she dialed him.

“Are you missing me?” Derek’s voice came to her ears.

“No, Yes! but I suddenly remembered that I didn’t officially ask you to come to the Reunion with me, so-"

“So, you are calling me at one a.m. to ask me” Derek chuckled. “You did know that I was coming right? but were you not planning on taking me?” he replied.

Ruby couldn’t speak for few seconds, not because she wasn’t planning to but she was looking for her hard-drive. “What? No, I was totally planning to. I just thought I should give you a proper chance to answer” she replied, as she took her mind off the hard-drive for him.

She was tired and said goodnight to him after talking to him for fifteen-minutes. She’ll find that hard-drive soon enough, that was her second task which she’d do in the morning.

As she woke up from a very tiring nap, she looked at her phone. Holy…! It was twelve in the afternoon. She took a bath and changed into her normal cloths; she had slept in her dress. As she looked out the window, she remembered her task.

She jolted for her bag and emptied it on the bed. There between the chocolate wrappers and brochure of the city was her hard-drive. She quickly connected it to her laptop and began scrolling through various documents.

Her phone beeped; she saw it was a message from Derek. But her mind was on finding that one folder. After scrolling for about five minute and not finding anything she began typing on the search bar.

As she waited for the results to show up, she looked through her messages.

“I’m sorry honey but I’m busy for the week when your reunion is, it’s my chance to make it as senior partner. Don’t be mad at me”- Derek’s text read.

As she took her eyes off the phone, she saw the folder appear on her laptop. She quickly clicked on it and there they were, fifteen word-documents which she wrote four years back. All arranged by numbers. As she clicked through the last chapter, nostalgia draped her mind.

Great, she was going to the reunion; without a date, all alone and worst of all, he was going to be there.