Chapter 3: The red dress

Ruby played with the red dress in her grip. There were so many things wrong with it. For one, it was way too short for her liking. It also showed a lot more cleavage and skin than she was comfortable with, and if she wore this dress, it only meant she couldn’t wear her glasses. She was going to have to wear her recommended contact lens tonight.

“This thing really is a hassle to put on,” Ruby murmured to herself.

Should she just lie down on her bed and feign sickness? If she did that early enough before Donna and Kimberly got back from where ever it was they usually went to on Friday evenings, maybe one of them could call Aiden and tell him she couldn’t make it because she had suddenly fallen sick?

But she doubted he would buy it. He would only get angrier at her, and she wasn’t trying to make him any more upset than he already was with her. Besides, she had a mission tonight. She would just get this over and done with.

Ruby put the dress on and twirled in front of her vanity to admire herself. Next, she straightened her hair with her curler, wore her contacts and applied a mild makeup to her face. She was deciding whether her black boots or nude mules’ slipper would go better with her look of the night, when her roommates walked into the room.

“Fuck me!” Donna announced as soon as her eyes met Ruby. “Sweetheart, you look ravishing!”

“Perfect choice of word.” Kimberly agreed as she firmly shut the door behind her.

“Is that the dress Aiden got you for your birthday?”

Ruby’s lips guiltily pulled to the side in a pout. That was the lie she had told the girls when Aiden had failed to get her a gift for her birthday.

In Kimberly’s words, she hadn’t even thought Aiden would remember and Ruby knew Kimberly wasn’t far from the truth. Aiden had absolutely forgotten her birthday as he had done the year before that and even the one before that.

To hide her embarrassment, Ruby had taken a large chunk out of her AFTER GRAD savings—because that was what she had it tagged as— to purchase the red dress she currently wore from a high end boutique. She did it to save face and it had worked. Aiden had seen her in the dress and instantly loved it on her figure.

The dress clung to her like a second skin and if her math was correct, it probably only covered her bum by an inch. It also didn’t help that her hips made the dress frequently ride up and each time, Ruby had to pull it back down.

Despite it all, it was a lovely dress perfect for her mission tonight, so Aiden was on point when he’d given her the idea to wear it. And from her roommate’s reaction, she knew she could pull it off.

Ruby smiled and nodded at the girls as she quickly tried to salvage the situation before they pried any further. “The boots or the mules?”

Donna thought for a while. “Well, it depends. I’d go with the mules if I wanted all eyes on me—it’s not like all eyes won’t already be on you even if you wore regular slippers, sweetheart.” She thought some more. “The boots, if I were going for comfy, yet spectacular.”

“Comfy, it is.” Ruby kept the mules aside and stepped into the thigh high boots. She already knew she would get enough attention as it was with the dress. There was no need to put a stamp to it by wearing the mules tonight.

Her roommates quickly dressed up and in less than thirty minutes, they were already in Ruby’s Honda Civic Sedan, passed on to her by her sick aunt. The old thing still worked just fine and served well on days like this where she had places to be and would rather not go by foot.

During the ride, Donna and Kimberly kept talking about family dynamics; a topic that wasn’t a favorite of Ruby’s. Of course, they were so engrossed in their argument that, luckily, Ruby didn’t have to force herself to contribute to a topic she’d rather avoid.

“I’m just saying,” Kimberly carried on from the passenger seat. “Everyone our age has unstable parents. It’s basically statistical. They either fight come rain or shine and basically ruin the mood of the home, or they take it a notch high by noticeably favoring one sibling over the others. I have a billion more analogies if you’d like me to carry on.”

“I mean, fair argument, Kim. But generalizing it is a far stretch, don’t you think? My household isn’t perfect, but it’s my happy place.” Donna replied, smacking her lips as she threw her lipstick into her purse.

“All the time?” Kim obviously didn’t agree and her tone drew a laugh right out of Donna.

“A good number of the time, yes.”

Ruby rounded a corner just as the GPS on her phone told her too. She’d been to Aiden’s place a gazillion number of times, but using the GPS to her was like second nature. It was just something she often couldn’t help using. From the corner of her eyes, she saw Kim aggressively shake her head.

“I refuse to believe that. You mean to tell me that every time I’ve come to your home and your mom gives me leftovers labeled ‘LEFTOVERS’ on them, that that’s actually normal? She never complains after I’m gone?”

Donna laughed again, something actually genuine. “No, she doesn’t. My parents are just decent people, I’m sure.”

“Okay, now you’re bragging.”

Ruby snorted despite herself, and that was her mistake. She’d intentionally managed to go silent all this while. Two heads swiveled towards her like owls.

“Sweetheart, what do you think?” Donna asked at the same time Kim said, “Please tell me you agree with me.”

Ruby swallowed. She didn’t have the best relationship with her family; not her parents or her two older sisters, especially her first.

“They’re…okay.”

“Ha!!” Kim scoffed to prove her point and Donna sighed.

“That’s not a confirmation.” Donna looked at Ruby. “Right? They can’t be that bad.”

“My mom isn’t exactly, um,” Ruby studied the road ahead of them with great intensity “She’s not winning Mother of the Year or anything like that.” Not like her mother wouldn’t want to hold a large celebrate to commemorate the award. “But she’s, you know, she’s trying. I think. She’s doing her best with what she’s, uh, got.”

Silence.

Ruby didn’t need to give them her full attention to know she’d just completely caught them off guard with her rambling. Because that was what that was.

Kim snickered from beside Ruby. “So in essence, your mom is also a bitch.” It wasn’t a question. “Good to know I’m not the only one.”

“Hey, I did not say that.”

“You’re so cute.”

The conversation ended there and as they got to their destination and were walking up the steps to Aiden’s apartment, Ruby realized that she’d never actually explained her family’s relationship dynamics to anyone before. Not since she’d gotten admission to study Public Relations at Fairmont University.

Not her roommates knew about her personal life. Not really. Not even Aiden did.

Though she suspected she would come undone and spill if Aiden had ever deemed it fit to ask her about home. But he’d never taken the initiative to do so. She often always told herself it was better that way. She didn’t want to scare him off nor did she want him to think she was weird like her family probably thought.

But deep down, she knew Aiden’s ignorance bothered her. A lot.

She didn’t have a lot of time to dwell on her thought before the voice of her friends arguing behind her tore through the haze.

“Shut it. I know you’re only here because Asher Kings will be at the party.”

The friends cut through the throng of sweaty bodies as they finally made their way into the house. In the hallway, even though the party hadn’t even begun that long ago, people we’re already actively high and making out in the hallway.

Ruby watched a pair of two couples exchange partners as they locked lips and to Ruby’s dismay, started peeling off their clothes. She quickly diverted her eyes to give them some privacy, not like Donna and Kim knew the meaning of the word considering they were unabashedly staring them down, while still fully into their argument, of course.

“That’s why you always come to these parties whenever Asher’s in town.” Donna continues poking at Kim, meanwhile Ruby had just mentally done a double take.

Wait, this wasn’t the first party Asher had been present at?

Why was this the first one she’d been invited too by Aiden?

Wait, why did she even care?

Kim rolled her eyes. “Everyone comes to Aiden Kings parties whenever Asher’s in town, Donna. Don’t make my being here today sound so special. Besides, Ruby’s here too, why don’t you drill her?”

It was Ruby’s turn to frown. How come they always had to involve her? She was having a swell time being in the background of that conversation. Or she probably didn’t want to admit it, but she was curious with herself as to why she wanted to hear the remainder of the conversation on Kim’s presence today being as a result of Asher Kings.

She could only wonder how many other girls were here today because of Asher. Then again, she had never been privy to the fact that this wasn’t his first time being on campus during one of Aiden’s parties.

“Fine, then I won’t tell our dear Ruby to let her man know to say hi to his brother for you.” Donna jokingly huffed in which Kim responded with a “Whatever. He hardly shows up for these things, anyway.” as she crossed her arms.

The girls were headed for the kitchen to gets drinks when Ruby spotted Aiden. He spotted her at the same time she did and it only made her smile morph into a grin as she waved him over.

Both Donna and Kim turned in Aiden’s direction just as Aiden joined them, a swoon-worthy grin directed at all three of them. Aiden wasn’t empty-handed. He held a small empty keg in one hand and other contents Ruby couldn’t see because they were in a nylon bag.

“Hey, love.” He leaned down to plant a kiss on Ruby’s cheeks before acknowledging her friends. The extra attention almost made Ruby’s legs melt from underneath her. Aiden didn’t do PDA’S that often, but she noticed that on the occasions he did, he usually went all out.

She could already feel the stares being directed at them. She had to admit, they made her feel hot all over.

“Here, let me help you with that.” Ruby said to Aiden, rushing forward to take the heavier of the two items from him—but her hand was immediately redirected and she found herself reaching for the empty keg instead. She looked back to see which of her friends had stylishly done that. It was Donna.

Aiden let her take it from him but before they could walk any further, Kim blocked their path, took the keg right out of Ruby’s hands and handed it back to Aiden.

“Wouldn’t want to stress out the beautiful lady now, would we, Aiden?” Kim asked not so fondly. “I’m sure you can handle these just fine. Right?”