Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Do you want to stay over?”

Ruby asked Otis as she leant over her snoring father, looking upwards expectantly towards Otis, but it wasn’t Otis who responded, Jeffery her dad’s weird but sometimes funny drug dealer friend rambled on about getting home himself. Ruby shot him a look that said “Not you dickhead”.

Otis was in two minds, he wanted to go home and patch things up with Ola, he had been very touched by what Adam had told him back at the Moordale Lanes just a few hours ago, putting it into perspective that he wasn’t the only one struggling with the transition, what if he went home and everyone was asleep? Maybe it should wait until the morning and besides just look at Ruby, dressed up to perfection just for him now looking up to him asking did he want to stay over, if none of her friends had ever even entered her house, he knew that this was a pretty big deal and meant a lot to her.

“Otis?” Ruby asked again as it had been at least 10 seconds and there had still been no response from him, making her worry that he was having second thoughts.

“Yes, yes i do” Otis finally responded and Ruby offered a soft sweet smile in return.

“Right I’ll leave you two love birds alone then, tell your dad to give me a call in the morning” Jeffery announced as he left the room and Ruby nodded along to his words.

Ruby bounced off her father’s bed, facing Otis on the opposite side. “Right, I’m going to have a quick shower, you can wait in my room, I don’t sleep naked as you know, it’s highly unethical and bad for my skin, you can borrow some of my PE shorts if you want” Ruby smiled and span her way out the room leaving Otis alone with her father whose volume of snoring had increased dramatically over the past few minutes.

While Ruby was in the shower, Otis had done exactly what she had asked of him and was waiting in her room and Otis was being a nosy parker inspecting every aspect of the room, especially the photos framed on her walls, of course, there were many photos of her, Olivia, Anwar and a few others looking ‘Iconic’ at various parties over the past few years, but there was so many of a young Ruby with father and mother (Who Ruby was the spitting image of he noted), but not too many recent photos, which was a sad reflection of the situation they were living in.

Otis sat himself down on Ruby’s bed, gently stroking Ruby’s dog Baby, He should probably text his mother just in case she was up, He doesn’t want another search party out looking for him like that time Otis went back to Eric’s when they were 14 after an evening at the arcade and the police ended up knocking on Eric’s door at 11 at night. After he had dropped a text to his mother, Otis moved over to the ‘Calls’ section on his phone and while there was plenty of calls back and forth between Ruby, Eric and his mother one name stuck out, ‘Maeve’ he glanced over her name for a moment, thinking about what she wanted earlier in the day before Ruby interrupted them, but Otis train of thought was interrupted again this time by a text from Ruby’s phone, he leant over to see who it was.

Adam (2 Coke Bottles Adam): Just started, the spin off will let u know how it goes

It wasn’t the text that caught Otis’ attention or what Adam was saved under in Ruby’s phone, It was Ruby’s lock screen, Him and her sat on one of the benches outside school the day they became official, it was the end of the day and Ruby handed her phone to Eric demanding him to take a photo of first herself as it would be one of the final times she would be wearing her own clothes to school then she called him to sit down next to her, but the photo wasn’t what it originally what it was, it had been edited into black and white, it got Otis thinking, this, the date, Ruby always going on and on about him to her dad, they were getting pretty serious now, maybe? Otis had barely kissed a girl before Ruby and all he could tell about the situation is that he definitely liked it.

Again Otis’ thoughts were interrupted, by Ruby knocking on the door.

“Otis?” She called from the other side of the door.

“Yes” He nervously responded as he threw the phone back to its original place on her bedside table.

“I need you to turn around.”

“Why?”

Otis could hear Ruby get sigh gently on the other side, “Because I need to get changed stupid.”

“But I’ve seen you naked like 100 times before” A confused Otis shot back.

“Just do it alright!” Ruby replied with a little bit of aggression in her tone.

“Fine fine” Otis muttered as he rose from Ruby’s bed facing the opposite direction to the door, which he heard creep open and then the sound of Ruby’s towel dropping to the floor, then her drawers opening as she got her clothes for bed, Otis was nervously playing with his fingers as he wondered just what was going on.

Eventually Ruby flicked the light switch off and Otis spun back around, “Okay, let’s go to sleep, come on Baby, off the bed now!” Ruby said almost like she was in a rush.

Otis couldn’t see a thing now Ruby had turned off the light, just barely able to make out Ruby’s figure as she approached him. “Ruby? What’s going on?” Otis asked her.

“Nothing, it’s just time to go to sleep now, come on” Otis could feel Ruby grab his hand and drag him towards her bed.

Otis pulled his hand away from hers, “Well I just need to go to the toilet, so-” Otis said as he walked back towards the door but Ruby followed him standing in front of the light switch.

“No, no don’t switch it on!” She almost begged, but Otis managed to wiggle his fingers in between hers to flick the switch back on “No!” She called out one more time before the light filled the room back up. There they both were in the corner of Ruby’s room pressed up against one another in her last-ditch attempt to prevent him from turning on the switch.

“What’s the problem I don’t seem to understand?” Otis asked staring deep into her eyes.

Ruby sighed heavily, “I didn’t want you to see me without makeup on”

“Why?” Otis asked.

“Because nobody has ever seen me without it before okay Otis! And I don’t want you to start thinking you have an ugly looking girlfriend” Ruby replied doing her best to avoid eye contact with him.

A laugh was all she got in response, “What the fuck are you laughing at” She shot back but was shut up by his lips crashing against her’s.

“I think it’s physically impossible for you to look ugly Ruby Matthews” Her heart fluttered slightly at the use of her full name, as he softly brushed one of her curls that were sticking out placing it back behind her right ear. “In many ways, I think this is the most beautiful you have ever been” And he truly meant it.

“No, now that’s physically impossible, Anwar’s third party in March this year is definitely my best ever look” She replied, Otis wasn’t there so he couldn’t possibly comment so he just kissed her again placing his hands on her waist as she wrapped hers around the back of his neck. As this kiss intensified Otis brought his hands up to Ruby’s breasts, but Ruby placed them back down and broke off the kiss “Otis, as much as I am turned on by your ridiculously kind comments, I don’t know how comfortable I would feel having sex with my dad in the next room and the possibility that my mum could walk in from work at any moment.”

Otis nodded his head in response, “Maybe we could just cuddle?”

‘Cuddle’ Ruby doesn’t think she has ever ‘cuddled’ with a boy before and would normally vomit if she ever heard the word, but coming from Otis it felt just right. “Yeah-yeah okay, but I really do need to turn the light’s off now, electricity bills and all, but I can turn on the lamp if it makes you more comfortable.”

“Whatever you want,” Otis said softly in response, Ruby smiled at him once again flicking the light switch, then taking Otis’ hand, guiding him through the dark to her bed, then flicking the small lamp as they both climbed underneath her covers, staring into one another’s eyes to the sound of silence for a few moments.

“My dad was so embarrassing tonight, I’m so sorry about that” Ruby whispered across to Otis.

“It’s fine, it’s fine. He’s a… he’s a funny guy” This made Ruby’s face light up in the dark, hearing somebody for once say something nice about her father, the person she had looked up to and adored all her life.

“Yeah he is kinda great isn’t he?”, Otis just nodded in response “Thanks for helping me out with him, you’re the best.”

“It’s no problem, I had a good time”

“I’m glad”.

For a few seconds again they stared into one another’s eyes from across the bed before Ruby took in a deep breath, “Okay, I think we should get to sleep”

“Yeah” Otis breathed back.

“Night then Otis”

“Good Night Rubes”

She thought about their whole relationship right there and then, her and Otis fucking Milburn, probably the only straight boy in the whole school or that she had ever met that wasn’t desperate to get in her pants, the only boy to ask how she is during sex (Even if it was every ten seconds, but he had improved to around an average of around 30 seconds), the only boy to ever take her on a date, the only boy who wouldn’t laugh at her house, the only boy who wouldn’t laugh at her father and the only boy who would help him out, the only boy who would say she is just as beautiful without makeup as she was with it and genuinely mean it, all just some of the reasons she loved him so much…………….

She loved Otis Milburn…………..

The kid she once called a ‘That weird sex kid who looks like a victorian ghost’. And it was so fucking true, maybe deep down she had thought about it for a little while now, but the perfect night they had resulted in the three words coming together in order for the first time.

“I-” She began out loud, she wanted to tell him so badly, she was acting like a giggly pre-teen who had just laid eyes on their crush for the first time and he was there, right in front of her. It led her to panic a little as he sleepily looked back at her. It was late, he looked like he could barely keep his eyes open in the dark after she had taken her god damn time in that shower, It was already a perfect night, it didn’t need to be any more perfect. “I- was wondering how tight the shorts were?” She asked saving her sentence.

Ruby hated how much she panicked, Ruby Matthews shouldn't panic, just the boy she loved was right in front of her and it all became too real for her. She just couldn't let it go...

“Oh-” Otis chuckled looking downwards towards the shorts “Very” He responded and they both laughed and Ruby kissed him once last time before stretching it over to switch off her lamp, before backing herself into Otis as he wrapped his arms around her waist and sunk his head onto the back of her hair. Ruby bit her lip and that giddy smile reappeared on her face as she closed her eyes knowing that she was very much in love with Otis fucking Milburn.

Otis woke up the next morning to see that Ruby had gone, but not to worry she had been replaced by Baby who’s tongue was aggressively attacking Otis’ face. “Ow! Ow! Ow!” He complained as he tried his best to palm the dog away. Otis could hear movement in the kitchen and two voices just Ruby and her dad’s. Otis quickly changed into the pants he was wearing the previous night as he didn’t want to walk into the kitchen with Ruby’s shorts on in front of her dad because they were well as he said the night before they were very tight.

Otis walked into Matthews’ kitchen/dining room to reveal quite the shock, it was so much of a shock Otis just stood completely still, not moving a muscle he was in that much disbelief, “Are you alright son?” Roland asked lifting his head from the morning paper. Ruby who was already dressed in her full school uniform spun around to face Otis. “B-bacon” Otis said pointing towards the bacon and all the other items of food that Ruby was manhandling.

“Oh don’t worry, I’ll still be having my nut milk, I’m doing my dad a full English” She responded.

“On a Tuesday?” Otis quizzed.

“Ey, Rubes does me a full English, on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday,” Roland replied.

“And on a Sunday?” Otis followed up.

“Oh no, Jeffery comes round on a Sunday and we get stoned talking about the football,” Roland replied and despite that rather unpleasant ending, Otis was still left with a smile on his face directed towards his girlfriend knowing how much she cared for and looked after her dad.

Breakfast was fairly quiet between the three at the table with Ruby’s misophonia and all, but Roland did try and ignite some conversation towards the end.

“So Otis, last year of school? What are you going to be doing after? University? Get a job?” He asked.

“Oh well, I haven’t really decided yet, I suppose I’ll decide after I see what sort of results I get,” Otis said after carefully taking a bite out of his bacon sandwich.

“Rubes tells me your top of all your classes” Roland replied and Ruby rolled her eyes again as her dad was telling Otis how much she goes on about him again. “But she doesn’t tell me what your parents do?” Roland asked and just like that Ruby shot up from her seat.

“Right you come on, We need to get you back to your place to get you changed or Hope is going to have your head” Ruby pulled Otis by his jacket almost dragging him up from his chair. “I’ll see you later dad, call me if you need anything yeah,” Ruby said as she ran to the other side of the table planting a kiss on the top of her dad’s hair before she ran back around to Otis taking his hand and dragging him towards the door.

“Bye, Rubes! Bye Otis, it was nice meeting ya.” Roland called.

“Bye Mr Matthews!” Otis called back as he was being dragged out of the door.

“What the hell was all that about?” Otis asked as they walked towards Ruby’s car. “Why did you seem to have a panic attack when he asked what my parents did?” Otis asked again.

“Did I, I didn’t think I did?” Ruby lied as they both hopped into the car waiting for the sunroof to come down.

“If you think it’s embarrassing the job that my Mum does you are wrong it’s perfectly natural, Actually I can think of 37 other jobs that are more embarrassing right on the spot like-” Otis began to ramble but he was cut off by Ruby.

“Fine-” She said sharply, “It’s your dad”

“My dad?” A confused Otis asked back.

“Yes my dad, is in love with your dad”

“In love? Like he wants to marry him?” Otis panicked he had already been here once before with Ola’s dad and his mum.

“No!" Ruby scoffed, “He loves some of his books and how he is taking back masculinity to the 21st century” Ruby air quoted whilst rolling her eyes.

Otis just began to laugh hard in response.

“Why are you laughing?” Ruby asked.

“I just hope he never meets him.” Otis replied still giggling to himself.

“Why not?” Ruby asked hands resting on the wheel ready to go.

“My dad’s a real arsehole” Otis responded and this time it was Ruby’s turn to laugh. “Why are you laughing now?” Otis quizzed.

“It’s cute, I just don’t think I have ever heard you say ‘Arsehole’” Ruby replied continuing to laugh.

“Actually there was that time in the abandoned toilets when-” Otis began.

“Right that’s quite enough of that!” Ruby shouted over him as she put the car in gear and drove off.

Otis sharply hit the brakes outside Otis house as Ruby always loved to arrive in style even if nobody was watching.

“Right go on then,” Ruby said nodding her head towards Otis’ house.

“Where was your mum this morning?” Otis asked, “Just last night you said-”

“If she works late sometimes she will stay at Tracy’s, my mum doesn’t drive,” Ruby said assertively “Now hurry the fuck up or we are going to be late!” They weren’t going to be late really, they were going to be late for the ‘Optimum time’ as the untouchables called it, the optimum time being when most people would be arriving through the school gates so they could have more eyes on them as they graced the school with their presence.

Otis skipped down the steps and pretty much bounced through the door, sprinting up towards the stairs before he was called by his mother.

“Otis!” Jean called and Otis skidded across the skirting boards to bring himself to a stop.

“Yes”

“How was your double date?” Jean asked while she sipped lightly on her tea.

“It was fun-best be going now” Otis replied, attempting to shoot off again but there was no escaping his mother when she was curious.

“You stayed the night, you have never stayed anywhere but Eric’s since you were eight, do you remember that time when-” Jean was about to tell another embarrassing story but Otis was very conscious of Jakob lurking in the corner.

“Jesus mum!” An annoyed Otis snapped back.

“I’m just surprised you like her that much, I didn’t think she was your type,” Jean said taking another sip.

“I didn’t think Jakob was your type, but that was the happiest I’d seen you in- well forever” Otis replied as both he and his mother turned to Jakob who was shouting at the smoothie machine in Swedish.

“So you like Ruby a lot then?” Jean asked trying to divert the conversation away from her own relationship problems.

“Yes,” Otis replied.

“Love?”

“Jesus mum again with the personal questions!” Otis snapped again, luckily Jakob was still having a fight with the smoothie machine so he would have two adults on his back.

“So that’s a no then”

Otis sighed heavily, “No mum, but one day… maybe yes……..”

Chapter Text

PE, Otis hated PE and do you know what Otis hated more than PE? Rugby in PE. Why couldn’t they play any non-contact sport, like Netball where Otis could just hide in the corner and he and Eric could gossip for the hour. But there would be no hiding in Rugby, there wasn’t even any Eric. Mr Lawson the PE teacher who occasionally did a bit of geography on the side stated “It was best people like him should sit this one out”, It was probably the first time Eric had appreciated a bit of homophobia so he, Anwar and a few others could join the girl’s PE session, Adam, Nick and Rahim had all elected to play, they were a lot braver than Otis as he would have taken any excuse to sit this one out. 

The atmosphere in the girl’s PE session was very different, Miss Wheldon the girls PE teacher spent most of her time on tinder chatting to boys half her age, everyone would stand still and then pretend they were running when she lifted her head up every ten minutes. Ruby was leaning over the green metal bars to get her best view of the boy’s PE session, her eyes fixed upon Otis. Ruby didn’t know anything about Rugby but she was pretty certain that the aim of the game was not to run away from the ball which is what Otis seemed to be doing, for a moment he stopped and turned towards Ruby offering one of his signature awkward waves, it brought a smile to Ruby’s face that he could see across some 40 yards that separated them as she waved back. 

“Rugby, if you remove the g, it becomes Ruby,” Otis thought with a smile on his face before he turned his attention back to the game and charging towards him with the ball was Ryan Love, the school rugby captain, a man who probably weighed three times what Otis did and was the man who Ruby had hooked up with before their ‘Summer of Sex’ began. Otis let out a small scream as Ryan charged towards him, colliding with him at full force knocking Otis hard to the ground, 

All Ruby could offer was a huge wince as she watched her boyfriend hit the floor and Ryan celebrating the try with his teammates. 

“Ow” Otis winged on the floor, as Ryan and a whole host of other jocks towered over him. “I have no idea what Ruby sees in you Milburn” Ryan said as he and his mates jogged off laughing, leaving Otis still stranded on the floor and still very much in pain. Thankfully he had a saviour, Adam appeared offering his hand to Otis “Come on new kid” He said as he used his strength to pull the wounded Otis up from the ground. 

“Thanks,” Otis said as he finally stood up straight immediately looking up towards where Ruby had been watching, but Ruby had vanished nowhere to be seen. “Oh shit.”

Back in the changing rooms, Otis was still hurting but it was definitely his ego that was hurting the most. ‘ What did she see in him’ those words were going round and round in his head as his eyes scanned the room at all the six-packs and all the hulk-like muscles on offer, Otis could never offer that Adonis-like body and strength that someone of Ruby’s beauty deserved.

Just as Otis began buttoning his shirt up and with most of the room still in their underwear the boys changing room door burst open creating a loud thud against the wall that resulted in most of the room into jumping back in fear. Entering from the other side of the door was Ruby, strutting into a room like only Ruby can, the first few buttons on her shirt were undone to reveal the top of her cleavage and her skirt just a few inches shorter. 

Otis’ eyes widened like most of the room when she came charging towards him. “Oi! You can’t be in here!” Mr Lawson shouted across to Ruby as he was scoffing on his sandwich. 

“Sorry Mr Lawson I hope you don’t mind, I’m just here to pick my boyfriend up” Ruby replied as she stopped in her tracks when she reached Otis corner of the boy’s changing room pulling him into a deep kiss in front of everyone, pressing her whole body against him so Otis could feel Ruby’s breasts against his chest. The rest of the room heckled via a range of different noises, including a cheer and a clap from Adam, while in Ryan’s corner he and his gang of hooligans dropped their heads. 

“Come on now dear” Ruby grabbed Otis by the hand to drag him out of the changing room waving smugly to Ryan on the way out. 

As the couple exited the changing room they immediately stopped outside the door so Ruby could fix her uniform back to ‘normal’ and Otis could do up his tie as Ruby had dragged him out before he could finish. “What was all that about?” Otis asked. 

“They were being mean to you” Ruby responded in a pitiful tone. “Needed to show them what they are missing” 

“You” 

“Yes of course me, I’m perfect, so you being with me automatically makes you better than them,” She said smiling as she had now fixed her uniform while Otis was still struggling to do his tie.

“Ruby you don’t need to-” Otis began before being cut off sharply by his girlfriend. 

“Otis, you don’t need to go on about how you can protect your masculinity, because let’s face it both you and I know that you don’t have any” Ruby said as Otis didn’t respond, still transfixed by his tie problems. “Come here,” Ruby said pulling him closer as she fixed his tie for him, keeping her eyes locked on his at all times before pulling the tie-up really tight to finish the job.

“Ow” Otis complained. 

“Come on now” Ruby replied dropping her hands to his and entwining them to walk together towards the school exit. 

“What is your mum and that strangely attractive Swedish man doing walking towards us?” Ruby commented on the pair who were walking towards them on the main path that leads to the school entrance. 

“Oh fuck” He had forgotten. “It’s that meeting tonight, for the France trip for students and parents.” 

“Ugh” Ruby groaned “Do we have to go?” 

Otis nodded towards his mother and Jakob who were now only a few meters away. “Looks like we have to now” He whispered. 

“Hello Otis, Ruby” Jean spoke while Jakob just smiled at each of the teens. “Will your parents be here tonight Ruby?” Jean quizzed. 

“No, it’s not really their thing, anyway see you inside” Ruby again dragged Otis’ hand away racing back up to the School’s main doors. 

“Did you just call Jakob attractive?” Otis asked as he and Ruby walked at a frantic pace. 

“Yeah, he is, for a man in his mid 60’s” 

“I don’t think he is that old Rubes” 

“Oh”

A few yards back Jean and Jakob observed the pair as they walked behind them. “She is a very strange person” Jakob commented on Ruby’s reaction to a slightly personal question. 

“That may be Jakob” Jean began then noting their entwined hands and the smiles on their faces as they shared a joke in front of them “But if she makes my son happy then I am happy.”

The meeting was fairly dull, Hope first again reiterating the new school uniform but this time to the parents and how this trip was a chance to show off the new Moordale internationally, “Ah yes, because the people of France are dying to meet the famous Moordale secondary school” Ruby whispered across to Otis causing him to laugh and even brought a smile to Ola who was sat on the right of the pair along with Jean and Jakob. Then Hope introduced Miss Sands and Mr Hendricks to explain the activities of the weekend, which the latter managed to ramble his way through. Friday morning, drive to Beaumont Hamel spend the night at a local hotel, Then Saturday drive to Paris spend the day there and on Sunday the long drive back. 

Hope then reappeared after Miss Sands and Mr Hendricks were clapped off the stage. “Now back to the brand new sex free Moordale, we will be reinforcing that in this trip” Everyone’s attention was gained as the world’s slowest projector began to load. On the projector was a diagram of what looked like seats and beds with the signs you would see for ‘Male’ and ‘Female’ toilets plastered all over them, some with green ticks next to them and red crosses against some. 

“On the coach, you will be required to sit next to someone as the same gender as yourself, then the same rules will be applied for the hotels, can all students please submit who they want their coach and hotel partner to be by Thursday to Miss Sands and Mr Hendricks” Hope just about managed to finish her sentence as she was been heckled and abused by the students below her.

“That’s absurd!” Someone stood up and shouted. Otis and Ruby turned to one another with Ruby sporting a massive ‘O’ face as that had definitely thrown a spanner in the works for their romantic french plans. 

“Where will I be sitting then Hope ey!” Cal also rose up and shouted in the direction of the headmistress. 

“Ola” Jean leaned over slightly “Who is that?” She motioned her head in the direction of Cal. 

“Oh that’s Cal, they are non-binary, I think they are incredibly brave always standing up to Hope’s bullshit rules,” Ola said and Jean seemed to keep a keen interest in Cal. 

Hope was still, being abused by students left right and centre, but still tried to keep a bright smile as or many of the parents this was their first impression of her. “What about us gays, we can still fuck then!” Anwar’s boyfriend Nick called out, getting a great cheer. 

“Mind your language, more information will be released in the coming days,” Hope said as she walked off stage, followed awkwardly by Miss Sands and Mr Hendricks.

“God that is such bullshit!” Ruby said as she pulled up outside the Milburn household. 

“What?” 

Ruby scoffed “The France trip, Otis have you not been listening to me for the whole drive home!” 

“What? You have been going on about it the whole drive home? I didn’t notice” Otis responded in the most sarcastic way possible. 

Ruby rose her eyebrows at her boyfriend’s cheek “Seriously Otis are you not annoyed?” 

“Nope” Otis bluntly responded and Ruby shot a look that could kill. “There is a very easy solution to all this” 

“Go on.” 

“If you and Olvia decide to room together and me and Malek decide to room together we can just switch over in the middle of the night.” 

Ruby just stared out of the window pondering Otis suggestion. “Oh….. I hadn’t thought of that” 

“See” Otis replied sporting a big smile.

Ruby smiled in return, turning back to face Otis. “You are ever so clever aren’t you” Ruby leant over cupping both of Otis cheeks and squeezed them gently. 

Otis narrowed his eyebrows in return. “I would hardly say it was an Einstein inspired move, just more of a logical step that one has to take.” 

“Shut up you dork” Ruby brought Otis in for a kiss which deepened very quickly, Otis was smirking all throughout the kiss as dork technically was an insult but coming from Ruby it felt right, everything with Ruby felt just right. 

At that moment the couple were interrupted by Jakob, Jean and Ola arriving with Jakob smirking at the wheel of Jean’s car. “Do you want to carry on upstairs?” Otis nodded his head towards the house.

“Absolutely”

Otis and Ruby had a momentary blip in their relationship for a couple of hours when thanks for a Sex ED talk at school, Ruby was convinced that she had to stay away from Otis’ penis, but thankfully after a talk with a professional Otis and Ruby were back on track and hand in hand as they loaded their luggage into the bottom of the coach. 

“Otis Ruby!” Mr Hendricks exclaimed as they wanted for him to tick the off the list.”Do you guys have a ship name yet, because me and Miss Sands are shipping the hell of you right now, She really likes the popular girl nerdy guy trope, Although I’m starting to think that’s where I currently stand, but anyway what have you gone for, Rutis? Maybe”

“What’s a ship name?” An extremely confused Ruby asked. 

“It’s two people’s names merged together, giving them a couple name, therefore me and you are Rutis” Otis said with a smile on his face which he shared with Mr Hendricks who was nodding his head in approval. 

Ruby pondered it for a moment. “That sounds like the name of a poorly rat” Ruby barged past Mr Hendricks to get on to the couch. 

“You are next to Olivia!” Mr Hendricks called up to Ruby but she was long gone on the steps. “Now Otis, Otis….” Mr Hendricks turned his attention back to Otis looking for his name “Ah you are sitting next to Malek, I didn’t know you were friends.” 

Otis leaned into Mr Hendricks ear “There is a lot you don’t know about me Mr Hendricks” Otis whispered in a serious tone to mess around with Mr Hendricks as he boarded the coach. 

“Woah” Was all Mr Hendricks was left with. 

Otis walked down the aisle, looking for his seat but also looking for Ruby, Otis thought of how this was another mark on how their relationship was going, some 15 seconds they had spent apart from when Ruby had boarded the bus and he was desperate to lay eyes on her again, he was definitely going to have a sore neck by the time they got back with all the twisting and turning he would have to do. But there she was just towards the back of the bus, she offered a sexy wave and a smile then mouthing “Good luck”. After Ruby moved out of the way, his vision was nothing but Maeve, he wasn’t even aware she was coming on the trip, he hadn’t seen her once since, Ruby called her ‘Cockbiter’ the night of their double date, Had Maeve even been in school? He thinks this must have been down to the amount of time he had spent with Ruby. Another thing he noticed is that probably for the first time since that party at Aimee’s house well over a year ago he didn’t get those special butterflies he got in his stomach every single time he saw Maeve. He had now realised that he had been staring for some time now, to the point to where Maeve had clocked on, he threw on a quick smile and offered a small friendly wave, which Maeve returned. 

Otis span around sitting in his chair next to Malek, “Hi Malek, I was wondering if-”

“I’m still not over that whole ghost thing-” Malek snapped and placed his headphones in. 

‘Ah great’ This is going to be fun Otis thought as the bus pulled away from the school. Then his phone buzzed in his pocket.

Rubes: Hey x 

Otis span his head around, to see a smirking Ruby with her phone out and there were those butterflies that he used to feel, but these butterflies were slightly different, they were warm and safe, nothing he ever felt with Maeve. 

The bus bounced into the channel tunnel, where it would be spending the next 35 minutes as Moordale high school transitioned across the English channel. Mr Hendricks was relieved after the stress of the paperwork which was made all the more harder after Brexit which he made everyone aware of one to many times. “Right!” Mr Hendricks shot up from his seat to face the class. “I don’t know about you but I need a Fucking Shit, I suggest you do the same”

With that very Mr Hendricks statement, everyone began to filter off the coach. “Do you need the toilet?” Adam asked Rahim, the first words he had spoken to him all trip, but there was no response, Rahim just continued to flick through his book. Adam just simply nodded and rose up and followed everyone else out. 

Otis was stood on the outside of the bus nervously twitching his hands waiting for Ruby to get off the bus, Jesus it had only been two hours and they had been texting the entire time and he was turning around every 34 seconds just to catch a glimpse of her. What was this girl doing to him? And there she was bouncing down the steps with a wide smile on her face that she only reserved for him, she almost continued to bounce as she approached him until she leapt into his arms. 

They embraced and swayed side to side holding onto one another tight, “I missed you” She breathed into his shoulder as they continued to rock sideways. Thank god he wasn’t the only one . 

While Otis and Ruby were having a good time, It wasn’t to everyone’s taste as they could both hear the comments, “ I Still can’t believe it’s not a dare” was one of the most regular one’s and there was plenty as people came flooding off the coach. “God they make me sick” Maya or ‘The Blonde Bitch’ Ruby would refer to as to Otis, “Maya, don’t be jealous just because you spend your evenings looking for socks in bins” Ruby didn’t even look her just kept her face buried in Otis’ chest as they continued to rock together. 

“Well aren’t you two adorable,” A voice said from behind Otis and Ruby causing them to finally let go of one another. 

“Adam!” 

Adam looked down to the floor “Sorry to break up the love in, just I don’t think I have anyone to talk to and I think Rahim is plotting my murder up there.” Adam slowly looked up to Rahim in the window, “Don’t all look” Adam said but they all did and now Rahim definitely knew they were talking about him. Otis tried to style it out by offering an awkward wave. 

“Come on then Adam, let’s have our latest Kardashian catchup” Ruby dragged Adam by the arm this time to somewhere they could sit down while Otis followed on from behind ‘ This is going to be great.

“And if you are still lacking your Kardashian fix, I would recommend watching The People vs OJ Simpson, while it’s not directly about them there is lot’s of good content, David Schwimmer as Robert Kardashian, There’s Kris and Bruce and all the young children” 

Thank god it’s finally over Otis thought as the 20-minute straight Kardashian ramble looked to be coming to a close, while Otis was a little frustrated that the conversation due to his interest in the Kardashian family being next to zero (He may have watched the Kim sex tape once or twice, but only for research purposes) It was nice to see Ruby being herself in public, which Otis had seen a lot more of her true self in private ever since the double date, the warm, smiley and kind person he knew she really was. 

“Didn’t you fancy Rahim?” Otis’ train of thought had seen him miss the next part of the conversation. 

Ruby gently stroked her hair “I mean who didn’t when he first arrived” 

“Even when you knew he was gay?” Adam asked back. 

Ruby looked up to the top of the bus again to where Rahim was, “Well you always have to hold out hope for someone who is such a fine specimen” 

Otis hung his head down, Once again he was reminded of his lack of physicality, he wasn’t a fine specimen or anything close in fact. 

“Awww, don’t worry Otis, Rahim is one of only 14 guys at the school to never look at my breasts, teachers included, so don’t worry Rahim is definitely gay” Ruby reached over Adam to reassuringly pat him on the arm. 

“Right all aboard!” Mr Hendricks called doing his best Tom Hanks impression from The Polar Express. 

The journey into France was rather uneventful, Ruby took one of the scheduled power naps and Malek not batting an eyelid at him since they put their seatbelts on, Otis had no option but to stare at the French countryside over Malek’s shoulder for the next hour and a half. 

Beaumont Hamel, was quite interesting well at least it should have been as Otis was very interested in the WW1-WW2 period of history and he was keen to take as many notes as possible, on the other hand Ruby was keen to take as many ‘Cute’ selfies as possible in the most inappropriate of places and Olivia and Anwar were bitching about how this part of the trip was essentially pointless and they were only here for Paris. When Otis suggested that this was disrespectful and rude it created tension within the group leaving Otis and Ruby to split off on their own from Olivia and Anwar. 

“I’m sorry Ruby,” Otis said chasing after Ruby who was walking forward with purpose. 

“What are you sorry for?” Ruby asked. 

Otis paused, ‘Yeah what was he sorry for’, It was Olivia who was disrespecting the thousands of young soldiers who had given their lives for King and country over 100 years ago. “Making you angry” 

Ruby rolled her eyes “I’m not angry with you Otis” 

“Olivia and Anwar, I had no idea you felt so passionate about the soldiers who lost their lives in the Battle of Somme” Otis rambled on. 

Ruby stopped dead in her tracks facing Otis in front of an unmarked grave. “Olivia and Anwar hate you, Otis.” 

“Hate? That’s a bit of a strong word” 

“Well it’s true” Ruby sharply replied. “For years, I’ve slagged off and insulted every partner Olivia and Anwar have ever had, because ‘they dragged down our reputation’ or ‘Their hair was comparable to the big bush in Atlee park’ and now I finally have someone I really like and now the shoes on the other foot, maybe if I hadn’t been bitch for so long..” 

“You were struggling with your dad.” 

Ruby groaned, “Otis, you can’t defend everything I do with the fact that I have problems with my dad, what you going to do when I knock someone over in the car are you going to stand up in court and say ‘Sorry your honour, but Miss Matthews has to look after her dad so she should walk free.”

Ruby was quite a dangerous driver but he never imagined her knocking someone over.  “Why are you so desperate for their approval anyway?” 

“They are my best friends Otis, how would you feel if Eric didn’t approve of our relationship or vice versa.” Otis looked over towards Adam who was jumping over graves like he was in the Olympic 400m hurdles final, Otis and Ruby were still very early in their casual relationship when Eric and Adam and Ruby would throw him out of the car if he tried to have a remotely personal conversation with her, so she had no idea how Anti Adam Otis was and how far he had come in accepting him. 

“Maybe just give them time, okay,” Otis said turning away from Adam and began facing Ruby again. 

Ruby nodded, but she had just told a lie, ‘She didn’t have someone who she really liked’ she had someone who she really loved. She wanted to correct that as soon as possible, “Otis when I said I like you” She began nervously, her heart beating as fast as it did the night after the double date when they were inches away from one another on her bed and she was so close to telling him there and then. 

“Yes,” Otis said with a wobble in his voice. 

“Erm… I- really did mean it” Ruby backed out again, she had accepted that admitting her dying love for Otis Milburn in front of a soldiers grave was about a million times worse than admitting it when the pair could barely keep their eyes open on her bed a couple of weeks ago. 

“Phew” Otis replied as his voice returned to normality. “I really thought you were going to tell me it was a dare this whole time then. 

Ruby smirked, “Never” She brought him in for what she would later dub, ‘Their first overseas kiss’ 

Poo 

There was lots and lots of poo, all scattered across this poor Frenchman’s car. Ruby hadn’t let go of Otis’ hand since the crash, Otis’ had tried to do some brave superman type shit running up to the coach while it was swaying up from side to side just to ‘try and keep her safe, It was stupid and dumb but also really brave and sweet. 

“We’re checking socks mate!” Mr Hendricks announced and there was a large groan from all of the boys. 

“If it is you, I think I will have to break up with you on the spot,” Ruby said turning towards Otis. It wasn’t true of course, but her reputation would well and truly be in the shit, no pun intended of course. 

Otis was relieved himself when both of his socks were very much present even though he knew he wasn’t the one who threw the shit out of a window, he couldn’t decide what would have been worse, to be exposed as the man who had a shit on the bus and threw it at a car in front of everyone or to be dumped by Ruby Matthews in front everyone. He was surprised when Adam was the one to be revealed as the culprit as he could have sworn he never saw him move. 

The whole poo saga had very much put Otis on edge, so it was best to try and force one out before he got back on the bus, but when he had washed his hands and exited the toilet there was no bus to be seen, just him and Maeve Wiley. 

Ruby’s next scheduled power nap had been completed, she couldn’t be tired if she and Otis were going to have their usual super amazing sex in this hotel they would be staying at. They shouldn’t be too far away now if she had timed it right. 

I’m awake again OT x 

She sent the text and waited for the response, but one didn’t come which was strange, Otis was the fastest person ever to respond to a text, If she texted him at 4 in the morning she wouldn’t be surprised if he responded 0.4 seconds later, there were no tricks or mind games with Otis. She undid the seatbelt, Olivia didn’t bother asking where she was going as they still hadn’t spoken since Beaumont Hamel. Ruby walked down the aisle to where Otis was sat. 

“You haven’t fallen asleep have you?” Ruby raised her voice in an attempt to make him jump out of his skin, but there was no Otis, only Malek who didn’t move an inch. “Malek” Ruby tapped him on the shoulder as he removed his earphones, “Have you seen Otis?” Malek just shook his head. 

“Sorry Ruby I’m going to have to ask you to sit down,” Miss Sands said appearing from behind Ruby. 

“Miss Sonds” 

“Sands” She corrected, Ruby didn’t really pay attention to the female teacher’s names, they were all interchangeable to her. 

“Yes, have you seen my boyfriend?”

“How are you and Ruby doing?” Maeve asked to fill the awkward silence between the pair. 

Otis smiled at the mention of her name, “Well, really well” Otis just laughed. 

“Why are you laughing?” Maeve asked. 

“Just imagine a year ago or even six months ago you would ask me how my relationship with Ruby Matthews was going?” Otis continued to chuckle. 

Maeve smiled awkwardly in return, but she wasn’t smiling on the inside, she was hurting, because she knew Otis and she could tell he was genuinely happy, that warm bright smile she never saw anytime when they were close. 

“She’s not how you would expect her to be, she’s really kind and caring” Otis followed up and this time it was Maeve’s turn to smirk. 

“She’s bullied me for years, she still calls me cock biter Otis, I never remembered her being exactly kind to you either” 

Otis avoided Maeve’s gaze for a moment. “There is a lot you don’t know about her.” 

‘There is a lot I don’t know about you” Maeve thought, Well one thing in particular, that voicemail. 

“Otis-” She wants to bring it up so badly, she wants to hear what he said, how he felt and she can tell him the feelings she had been holding on the inside for so long now, but It was a long time ago now and that smile Otis had just produced when Ruby’s name was mentioned whatever feelings she would bring up Otis wouldn’t feel the same way. She had already messed up one of her most special relationships today, she couldn’t do that to another. 

“Otis I want us to be friends again” She decides to go with her. 

Otis smiled “Me too”

“Good, muppet” Maeve called him by his old nickname as they jumped off the fuel pumps and embraced, their embrace was cut short however as they were both blinded by the yellow lights of the coach that had finally returned for them. 

Ruby eagerly jumped up, leaning over the seat in front just to ensure that her boyfriend hadn’t been eaten by a bear, or was it Canada that had the bear problem? They spoke French there, all the same to her. Her boyfriend hadn’t been eaten by a bear, but he was separated only by a few inches from Maeve Wiley. 

Maeve Wiley always had always hung over their relationship, as much as Ruby refused to admit it or even mention it, because Ruby couldn’t be seen as a jealous type, especially towards someone she called ‘Cock Biter’. She knew she and Otis shared a ‘special’ bond, I mean you had to if you are going to run an underground sex clinic together. She had seen it first hand herself when she came to them desperate for help when Olvaia threatened to release that photo of her, they worked well together, they were a good team, no a good pair. Ruby wouldn’t admit it but she had been through Otis’ phone once while he was taking a shower, she was relieved to find that they hadn’t communicated for months just one unanswered call, but as she scrolled further back on the messages, their bond was undeniable, she could make him laugh constantly, while Ruby could also it would never be as frequent. Every time she would see them at school together, Ruby would make sure to race home and throw him on his bed and fuck the brains off him as no matter what Maeve could do to Otis’, Ruby could do it 10x better in the bedroom she was certain of it. And here they were Otis and Maeve inches apart in front of her very eyes, there could have been a very reasonable explanation for what was going on, it could have been the angle she was looking at, but there was no doubt the pain in her heart she was feeling. 

“Told you so” Olivia added next to her.

Ruby had been in a sort of trance for the journey to the hotel, all the way through Mr Hendircks proposal, Kyle’s rambling speech about love and Otis numerous attempts to text her and catch eye contact. He waited for her outside the bus like he did in the Channel Tunnel and she treated him like she did all her life up in till that night he cooked a roast chicken like he didn’t exist. 

Again Otis tried to engage a dialogue from a distance as Ruby and Olivia’s card wasn’t working to let them into their room but as soon as the problem was fixed Ruby slammed the door behind them hard, leaving Otis stranded alone in the hallway. 

“Don’t talk to me” Was the first thing Ruby said as she and Olivia entered their hotel room. 

“Wasn’t planning on it”

Ruby got changed into her evening wear and placed her earphones in ready to listen to the soppiest shit possible, but she couldn’t move from her lock screen, since she and Otis became ‘official’ she had changed it at least ten times, but one had been settled for a few weeks now, the longest she had ever had one single lock screen. It was her and Otis at the bowling alley, She had asked Eric to take the photo and pretty much forced Otis to get in the frame, wrapping her arm around his and she smiled, she actually smiled, it’s because she realised that this was the happiest she had ever been. She almost stroked his stupid smiling face through the screen because this is definitely one of the worst she has felt all because of Otis Milburn and Cock Biter. She finally scrolled through some of the text messages Otis had sent her since he got back on the bus. 

Otis😘: Are You Okay x 

Otis😘: Don’t know if the signal is working x 

Otis😘: I hope you are okay anyway x 

Otis😘: If you are annoyed about me and Maeve that was nothing x 

Otis😘: You are not jealous are you? X 

Otis😘: Okay I just saw your face you aren’t joking around xx 

Otis😘: It was nothing xx 

Otis😘: We was just sorting something out and hugged at the end xx

Otis😘: I was sticking up for you actually xx 

Otis😘: It wasn’t what it looked like xx 

Otis😘: Rubes please text me back xxx

Otis😘: Please xxx 

She probably should speak to him, she had only seen a few seconds of what had gone on, It could have been nothing or it could have been a lot worse. She would speak to him in the morning. 

But someone wasn’t going to give her that choice. 

There was some kind of movement outside of their balcony, some kind of groaning. “What the fuck is that” Olivia called as both she and Ruby rose up from their beds. 

“Ow, Ow” Ruby knew the sound of the voice. She opened the doors to reveal Otis still dressed in his uniform dangling from a pole and eventually dropping to the balcony hitting the floor quite hard. “Ow, Owwwww” Otis winced again as he hit the floor. 

“What the fuck are you doing Milburn?” Ruby asked with her arms crossed. 

“You were ignoring me can I come inside please it’s really cold I just saw Miss Sands and Mr Hendricks having sex through the window” Otis motioned towards where he had just climbed to get to Ruby and Olivia’s room. 

That did sound pretty disgusting Ruby thought “Go on” She said to Olivia, nodding her head towards the door. 

“Go and sit on Malek’s dick or whatever you do” 

Olivia groaned “Fine” She grabbed her stuff and stormed out of the room. 

Otis shook the dust off him that he had picked up from climbing along the side of the hotel. “Gross” Ruby responded as Otis shut the balcony door behind him. “What did you want then?” Ruby asked. 

“I think you know” 

“It was nothing like you said” Ruby shrugged her shoulders. 

“Well it obviously wasn’t to you was it” Otis approached her, standing the same distance apart he and Maeve had been a couple of hours ago. 

Ruby sighed “What’s the deal between you and cockbiter?” Ruby asked, it’s always what she wanted to ask even when they were still shagging in cars and toilets she was curious to wherever when they were having sex she might have been on his mind. Mostly because it would be an all-time low for her if another human boy was thinking of Maeve Wiley while they were with ‘Sex Godess’ Ruby Matthews, but also because she weirdly valued what the Victorian ghost thought of her. 

“We ran the clinic together” 

“I know that Otis” Ruby tried her best not to think back to that time she was begging cockbiter in a toilet for help. 

“Now we don’t, We used to be friends then we weren’t, I was just trying to fix that” 

“Did you ever want to be more than friends?” 

There was a long pause from Otis, He couldn’t lie to her, lying always made things worse. His dad was his biggest example of that. So he nodded his head in response. 

Ruby dropped her head, she didn’t really know why she felt so much pain right now, She had always known this, everyone with eyes at the school knew this. Know for the most important part. “Do you still want to be more than friends?” 

If this question was asked a few weeks ago it may have been a different answer, but walking away from this double date he realised he had never smiled so much in one single night. Since then it had been Ruby, Ruby, Ruby . Sitting down for a family meal, ‘ Ruby’, playing Rugby ‘Ruby’, Alone in the shower ‘Ruby’ . She was all that had filled his thoughts, no time for Maeve Wiley who used to fill his dreams for months on end. 

“No, that’s what it was all about, being friends again, we hugged. That’s why we were so close when the coach pulls up. I don’t want you to be the type of girlfriend who doesn’t let me have friends, I’m not exactly the biggest fan of Olivia and Anwar, you said yourself that they hate me, but i’d hate that you would have to break off your life long friendship just for me” 

Otis reached out to hold her hand and she accepted, a smile repairing on her face. “You said you stuck up for me” Ruby referred to one of Otis’ many earlier texts. 

“She said you were a bully, I told her otherwise." 

Ruby smiled, It was sweet of him as always to stick up for her but she had to correct him. But before she could respond, he did something very Un-Otis, he pressed his finger against her lips. Then he walked over to Olivia’s bed, pushing it together with Ruby’s to create one big bed. 

“Where has this confidence come Milburn?” 

“I can show you some more if you like.” 

Ruby chuckled, Ruby would normally be the one who would have to initiate sex, so to see this swagger and confidence, was a little bit strange but she definitely enjoyed it. 

It was now the early hours of Saturday morning and the sun was shining into Ruby and Otis’ hotel room. The couple were both awake with Ruby’s head resting on Otis’ right shoulder whilst making patterns with her fingernails on his bare chest, which she just about let him get away with as long as he was wearing something below his waist, so it doesn’t violate her ‘no sleeping naked’ rule. 

Otis smiled watching Ruby concentrating so hard on whatever patterns she was making on his body, it was almost cute, but Otis wouldn’t chance that again. He said she looked cute on the first day the uniforms were put in place especially with that red headband. 

“Baby is Cute Otis’, not an 18-year-old teenager, now don’t say that again or I’ll rip your balls off"

Otis turned his attention back down to where Ruby was drawing and It brought something fresh in the memory that had been bugging him "Do you think I should get a six-pack?"

Ruby just laughed, really loudly. Which did wonders for Otis’ confidence. “Oh you are serious,” Ruby said when she glanced up at Otis’ motionless face. 

“Just, all your other boyfriend’s have six-packs and these ridiculously big muscles,” Otis said mostly thinking of Ryan who had cleaned him out in Rugby last week. 

“And just how long have I lasted with these boyfriends?” Ruby asked and there was no response from Otis. “Otis I like you for many other reasons that are much more than how big your chest is, If you want to go a six-pack then that’s fine by me, but I will be really annoyed that process will leave you less time to spend with me, okay” Ruby finished giving Otis a quick peck on the lips and then returned to his chest and making patterns, which she was thankful he hadn’t noticed she was writing ‘I love you’ over and over again.

Saturday included the drive into Paris, but instead of being free to explore the city of love, all the students were still required to stick to their uniform and was on a tour bus detailing the key events of the French revolution after all this was supposed to be an educational trip.

All the students were gathered around the tour guide listening in as he described how King Louis XVI met his end.

“So they really chopped off his head” Ruby whispered to Otis who just nodded in return. “My dad being Irish, fantasises about chopping the Queen’s head off all the time, which is a shame because I think she’s a fashion Icon, Kate as well, but not Camila she looks like she has been run over by a tow truck” 

Otis smirked out loud at Ruby’s description of individual members of the Royal Family, but this just happened to be at the exact same time the tour guide, told of how King Louis XVI’s wife met the same fate moments later, making it a very awkward time to smirk loudly and now the whole trip, teachers and tour guide were staring at him. 

“Sorry, Mary Antoinette was a very horrible person who looked down on those below her with pleasure, Viva la revolution!”  Otis attempted to style it out but not many people bought it and everyone was still staring at him, While Ruby was attempting to hide her own giggling while tightly holding onto Otis’ arm. 

More historical tours followed before the students were supervised in a cheap Parisian theme park that wasn’t too much different from the one in Moordale, I guess it was Hope’s idea of giving us some fun time. But Otis and Ruby did all the stupidly adorable things that would normally make Ruby cringe, well they did but it was with Otis. Going on the Ferris wheel together (Even if she did to go on with Rahim after for old times mistake,) Playing games together and Otis’ winning pizes for her. 

“Here is your prize sir,” The man at the stall said, Otis hadn’t done particularly well so he achieved the lowest possible prize and of course it was That , god Ruby was going to love this. 

Ruby was chatting away with Rahim as Otis approached with the prize in hand. “Oh, what did you win?” Ruby spun around when she saw her boyfriend approaching but her face dropped when she saw what he had won. “A fucking rat!” She exclaimed. 

“It’s Rutis” Otis waved the toy rat up in the air. 

“What’s Rutis?” Rahim asked. 

“It’s our ‘Shipname’” Ruby air quoted. “It’s where you put two-” Ruby began.

“Yes, I know what a ship name is” Rahim added. “But why is this Rat Rutis?” Rahim asked. 

“Ruby said that, Rutis sounds like a poorly rat” 

Rahim laughed in response, but Ruby gave him the evil eyes like all of a sudden she cared about this stupid little name which was theirs joined together. “I will go,” Rahim said and he disappeared, leaving Otis and Ruby alone in the middle of the Parisian sunset. 

“Why do they even give away rats as prizes?” Ruby asked him as Otis passed over Rutis the Rat. 

“Well, Paris has quite the connection with Rodents-” Otis began before he was cut off. 

“I don’t need a fucking history lesson Otis, we have had enough of that today. Right now I just want to kiss you” Ruby cupped his cheeks and brought him in for the kiss while Rutis the rat got squashed between them.

The only time they were allowed to change out of their school uniforms was for the evening meal, Hope was clearly not bothered about Moordale’s reputation inside this hotel. Otis who had ‘Tried’ his best to smarten himself up as he nervously adjusted his top button outside of Ruby and Olivia’s hotel room, he had been waiting a long time outside her room, ‘Fuck it’ he was just going to knock on. After a few seconds Olivia who appeared at the door looking him up and down. “Is Ruby ready?” Otis asked nervously. 

“It takes time to look this perfect, OT” Ruby called from deep in the room, he had heard that phrase a few times before. 

“Okay, I’ll wait downstairs” Otis nodded and Olivia offered a weak smile back before shutting the door in Otis’ face. 

Otis did go and wait downstairs, sitting next to Adam at the dinner as everyone was still required to sit boy-boy and girl-girl, with Vivian scanning the room making sure everyone was following the rules. Everyone was seated at the table bar the untouchables, Mr Hendricks gestured towards Otis as if he would know where they would be, he was starting to get used to being a spokesperson to the untouchables weird behaviour. He went down to his phone. 

Starters are here soon, everyone is waiting for you x 

He wrote the message out and just as he was about to send it he heard Adam over his right shoulder. “Fucking hell” The untouchables came down the stairs and into the meal room, just like it was the first day at school where they would dress to 11, just to make sure everyone haven’t forgotten him over the summer. But while everyone’s eyes flicked between the three of them, Otis only had eyes for Ruby and her stunning short dark blue dress. “You are one lucky fucker new kid,” Adam said and Otis awkwardly smiled, watching her all the way to her chair as Anwar pulled her’s and Olivia’s chair’s out for them to be seated, Ruby put her phone out on the table and it pinged as she sat down. 

Otis😘:You look incredible xx

Ruby looked up from afar and smiled back at him. It was frustrating as almost all of the known couples had been placed as far apart as possible, damn Hope’s ways.

Otis was struggling to eat his meal, okay the food wasn’t great but he was so distracted by Ruby, every few seconds he had to look up just to keep confirming what Adam had told him at the start of the meal that he was ‘One lucky fucker’.

 But Otis wasn’t the only male distracted by their partner at the dinner table, Mr Hendricks was eyeing up Miss Sands like she was his meal, he was all loved up himself after their proposal. “Kids, me and Miss Sands are going to skip dessert, you kids look after yourselves” Mr Hendricks announced much to everyone’s amusement as his knees hit the underside of the table as he got up to race up the stairs with Miss Sands.

While everyone was still laughing at the pair, Otis caught Ruby’s eyes again and she gestured towards the door. Ruby got up as Otis followed after her. 

“Hey,” Otis said as he met her outside of the hotel. 

“Hey” Ruby responded with a wide smile on her face, one Otis had began to see more and more frequently as of late.

Otis looked to the floor before looking back up to her. “I know I text it you before, but you look incredible.” 

Ruby scrubbed Otis shirt “You don’t look too bad yourself” 

“Even with my homeless coat” 

Ruby smiled “You know the homeless coat is starting to grow on me” Of course she did, Otis wasn’t Otis without his coat and She loved everything about him. 

Otis took her hand as they began to walk the Parisian streets. “You know it’s really cold, so you should put it on.” 

“It hasn’t grown on me that much Otis” 

They walked for a few more minutes before Ruby started to shiver despite the warmth of Otis’ hand in hers. Otis shot her a look of ‘I told you so’. 

Ruby groaned “Fine I’ll take your stupid Coat.” Otis carefully began to wrap the coat around her, Ruby wanted to shout at him “I can put the coat on myself, I’m not a child” But her heart did flutter several times as Otis made sure it got on her okay, straightening out the coat where necessary. She looked up at him in adoration as she was now draped in his coat and he pecked her forehead with a kiss as they continued to walk onwards without any of them saying it they both knew where they were going. 

Eventually, the couple reached the Eiffel Tower, looking up at it from the bottom. 

“Would you like some obscure and non-interesting facts about the Eiffel Tower?” Otis said as his cold breath shot out in front of them as they continued to look upwards. 

“Not really but I feel like you are going to anyway” 

And he did, Again it was so Otis’ just like his jacket, their most romantic moment yet as a couple and here he was rambling on about this 19th century moment, Ruby wasn’t really paying attention to what Otis was saying, she was thinking about how this was now the perfect moment to tell him those three words that she was dying to tell him. She was going to shut him with a kiss and then she was going to say it. 

“Fact 5-” Otis was interrupted by Ruby’s lips, full of passion, probably the most passionate kiss they had ever had and when she broke it off her eyes looked desperate. “Otis, I-” 

“RUBYYYYYYYYYYY!” A scream came from behind Otis and the pair let go of one another, It was Anwar sprinting across the road, cars beeping at him with Olivia following close behind. 

“What the hell” Otis said as both he and Ruby squinted their eyes and they could see that Anwar had been crying. 

“NICKK DUMPED ME!” Anwar sounded like a 4-year-old child who had accidentally stood on some of their lego collection as he crashed into Ruby’s arms. 

“Oh dear oh dear oh dear,” Ruby said in the embrace as she stroked the back of his hair, they separated apart for a few moments with Ruby looking him dead in the eye “Just remember you have a more expensive shoe collection than him okay” Ruby managed to say over Anwar’s extremely loud cry as she pulled him back into the hug and Olivia joined them draping her arms around the pair of them to complete the untouchables group hug. 

Otis stood awkwardly on the side of the pavement, as the untouchables held onto one another and just for a brief moment Ruby’s eyes appeared from the huddle connecting with his as he wondered what she was about to say to him.

Chapter Text

Ruby was kicking herself, both literally and figuratively, Paris had all that been on her mind from the moment they had gotten on the bus on the Sunday morning, mostly because by the time the seatbelts Anwar and Nick had already gotten back together and split and got back together another three times since they got back to Moordale, they were going through a rocky patch in their relationship, she believes the initial argument in Paris came through Anwar’s frustration at Nick’s table manners, but she didn’t blame Nick or Anwar, she blamed herself. Ruby Matthews doesn’t freeze, everything she does is with confidence and precision, so why does she falter when she just has to say three simple words to Otis Milburn? Okay maybe those words carried a bit more weight than other words, especially considering she had never said those words to anyone before outside of her mother and father, but she still should have got it over and done with, she should just tell him straight up next time she picks him up for school, “Hi Otis, You really need to wash that jacket, oh and I love you” That’s how it should be done, life wasn’t a movie with over the top music reaching a crescendo as two lost souls admit their dying love for one another that was always the way she imagined it, probably some ‘jock’ type arsehole who had a big dick but more importantly a big bank account and they would probably tell one another after another round of amazing sex, but she could never imagine how special Otis would be to her and therefore she wanted it to be special. 

The reason she was literally kicking herself was to pass the time and nerves as she waited outside the Milburn door as she had been invited over for dinner. Why was she nervous? She had met all those inside the house several times individually, but never all together in a formal ish setting. She had knocked on the door already to no response, normally she would just charge through the door or knock on the door constantly until someone answered, like she did with her car horn in the mornings, which she had calmed down as Otis told her it pissed off pretty much everyone in the house, she would still press it hard 3-4 times as Otis would take forever, disrupting her ‘optimum time’ for the school entrance, but not the 10-11 like she would normally do. Small changes just for him , despite him, telling her on numerous occasions he liked her exactly the way she was. 

She knocked on a second time, she could just about make out Jakob, she thinks that’s his name anyway, shouting aggressively in Swedish not too sure to whom though. She turned her gaze towards the treehouse that had progressed in its completion more and more every day she came round. It made her think about how her and Otis’ dynamic might change when his brother or sister would come into the world, would they spend less time together? She tried to distract such thoughts by playing with her jacket, she was wearing her yellow jacket, because what would have been yellow day if she hadn’t dropped the untouchables dress code rules and regulations, but mostly because yellow was slowly becoming their colour, the yellow they were wearing that night in Olivia’s cupboard, he had told her several times that it was the colour that looked best on her even as far back as their casual days and Ruby would snap at him in the woods as he was becoming ‘too personal’. It was the colour she was wearing when someone first found out about their ‘secret sex affair’ and more recently Otis had caught her singing ‘yellow’ by Coldplay awfully in his shower last week and he has been sure to remind her at least three times a day since. 

She smiles at the thought as it was annoying, but adorable as he would sing it back to her mimicking her voice almost perfectly. She stops her smile as she hears footsteps behind her, it was that weird alien girl. 

“Hi- L-” Great another name she couldn’t remember. 

But there was no response, she just charged past her. Ruby was ‘A bitch to everyone’ and for what she remembers Ruby was particularly mean to ‘the weird alien girl’ in the past few years, after she hadn’t grown out of her alien obsessive phase in high school she was one of the easiest targets in the school to express her superiority over. She accepted that she probably wasn’t her biggest fan, but she might not be the only cause for her mood, Otis had mentioned that Ola and … Lily! That was her name, had been particularly cold since coming back from France. 

Speaking of cold, we were moving into Winter now and she had been outside for some time now and….. Oh, Lily clearly had the same idea and just barged through the door first time. 

“Okay,” Ruby said out loud, appreciating Lily’s action’s a touch as that’s exactly how she enters her English Language class on a Wednesday afternoon. 

“Lily! Ruby!” Jean called as Ruby followed her through the door. “Did you come together?” Jean asked. 

“Absolutely not” Lily responded as she placed herself on the couch next to Ola and the pair exchanged an uncomfortable smile, with Ola offering her hand out to Lily and Lily reluctantly taking it. 

Ruby meanwhile awkward loitered next to the coathangers as Jean and Jakob restarted whatever argument they were having before Lily and Ruby entered. Thankfully the sound of some all too familiar footsteps came to Ruby’s rescue. 

“Mum please-” Otis began before he clocked Ruby on the other side of the room, his face lighting up immediately as Ruby smiled softly in return, Otis approached her kissing her on both cheeks. 

“How are you?” He asked still with a giddy smile on his face. 

“No different from when I called you twenty minutes ago to tell you that I was leaving Milburn” 

“Coat” He nodded attempting to remove it from her gentlemanly like.

All Otis received was a smack on the arm as if it to say “I can do it myself you arsehole” but in the most playful way possible. 

“Ow” Otis winged and Ruby mocked his cry and they both chuckled, Across the other side of the room Ola looked on at the contrast at Otis and Ruby’s current situation compared to her’s on Lily's. 

Vegan was a very new concept for Jakob who had been stressing about what they could all eat as well as Ruby however he was very much relieved when Otis let it slip that Ruby was very much a part-time vegan and would only claim it as her diet when it suited her, Otis thought back to her devouring that burger while laughing with Adam about their favourite Kardashian ‘storylines’. 

So Jakob kept a very keen eye on Ruby as she took one of her first bites into one of Jakob’s dishes from back home. 

“Fuck this amazing” Ruby suddenly felt the eyes of everyone in the room upon her “Sorry” She apologised, the atmosphere was very different to that of the dinner table at her house, especially with her dad’s rants. 

“It’s okay” Jakob replied laughing. “How are you enjoying your last year of school?” Jean asked Ruby who was in a very similar scenario to Otis’ when he had breakfast at Ruby’s that time and her dad was quizzing him, just this time there was the absence of weed that was stinking out the room from the night before. But Otis knew these questions were coming, his mother very much saw Ruby as an enigma in the very little interaction they had previously. 

“Well is it possible to enjoy school?” 

“You’re school days are the best days of your life” Jakob responded. 

“My dad is always going on about that, I mean If I got paid to do so then maybe” 

“Money isn’t everything” 

“I know,” Ruby said softly, she knew more than most deep down. 

“What do your parents do Ruby?” Yup this is definitely going like breakfast with Otis’ Ruby thought ask Jean asked. 

“Well my mum works as a nurse at the hospital” 

“Oh I haven’t bumped into a nurse Matthews at the hospital yet, there is a Dr Matthews though, your dad doesn’t work there also does he?” 

Ruby panicked, catching Otis’ eyes. “Erm, no, my dad-” Again Ruby turned to Otis for help.

“Mum, when you asked Ruby over I don’t think she was expecting to be quizzed” Ruby smiled as the conversation moved away from her and her dad.

Jean sighed and held her hands up, “Sorry Ruby, always on duty” 

Ruby smiled “It’s fine, I just felt like I was in court again” 

Ruby had gained the attention in the room. “You never told me you went to court?” A concerned Otis asked. 

“Did I not tell you about the old lady I ran over in Sainsbury’s car park” Silence filled the room. “I’m Joking” Ruby transitioned away from her serious face Otis, Jakob and Jean all laughed and Otis in particular breathed a sigh of relief, he then squeezed her hand extra hard under the table as he could see that she was really trying to make a good impression.

Lily had announced her exit as soon as dinner had finished, Everyone watched on as Ola awkwardly said goodbye to her at the door, the other three in the room who weren’t sex and relationships therapists didn’t need to be one to realise that all was not well with the pair. 

“Otis, Ruby do you want to do the dishes, I would normally as host but” Jean just simply rubbed her baby bump. 

“Of course-” Otis began to rise from the table before Ruby placed her hand on his shoulder. 

“It’s fine, I can do it myself, I take my pot washing game very seriously, you will only serve as a distraction” 

Otis chuckled “Of course you do” He watched her begin her process with that warm smile on his face again, while Jakob watched Otis’ face of adoration, knowing that’s how he looked at his wife and unbeknown to him, how he had begun looking at Jean. 

In what seemed like record time, the tap had stopped running and Ruby had returned to her seat. “Oh, are you done, Ruby?” Jean didn’t believe it was humanly possible to have the pots full washed in that time as she slowly spun around it was to her surprise that the pots were as clean as they could be humanly possible. “Oh,” Jean remarked. 

“Like I said, serious pot washing game.” 

“And why is that?” 

“Oh well with my dad being the way he is you get a lot of practice” 

“The way he is?” 

Oh, shit , Ruby had gotten too comfortable, she had just gone a blabbed about her dad out loud. “Yeah, he’s an awful pot washer” She forced on a fake laugh. 

“Mum you said we’re going to play monopoly” Otis saved her again. 

Everyone bar Ruby knew what happened the last time they had all tried to play monopoly, but this was a happier, harmonious, relaxed atmosphere, well again everyone bar Ruby who was taking the game extremely serious. 

“Hahaha £200 pounds!” 

“No Ola, there is £10 pounds missing there.” 

“Otis, hurry up with my money, you are an awful banker.” 

“Ooops, that wouldn’t be my hotel you just landed on their Jakob” 

But then again was Otis’ surprised, Ruby Matthews had to be the best at everything. It was extremely adorable, to see Ruby’s face, so focused and so transfixed on the game, watching every players move and then downloading it into her brain to make sure she was three steps ahead. 

“I’m bankrupt” 

“I’m bankrupt” 

“I’m bankrupt” 

One by one they all fell to Ruby’s mercy and even in the end, even Jakob had to concede defeat. 

“That’s it I’m done” 

“Haha yes!” Ruby squealed, sweeping up all the money into her arms, “If this was real I couldn’t tell you how many new handbags and heals I would be buying.” 

“You are very good at monopoly Ruby” Jean added. 

“Well, it’s what happens when you attend after school monopoly club for the past 4 years” Silence filled the room again. “Another joke.” The whole room smiled again as thunder began to strike outside. 

“Otis, will you quickly help me bring the washing in?” Jakob asked. 

Otis just nodded in response and the two boys headed outside. 

The three girls sat in silence as they were left alone. “Excuse me girls, I need to prepare my notes for tomorrow’s vagina workshop” Jean began to rise up from the floor, wincing in pain. 

“Do you need a hand?” Ruby shot up offering her boyfriend’s pregnant mother her hand which she accepted and thanked Ruby as she waddled out of the room in her heavily pregnant state. 

This left just Ruby and Ola alone sat on the floor of the Milburn household. Ruby brought he knees up to her chest and just began flicking her way through all of the monopoly money she had just claimed as hers. 

“Ruby I heard a lot about you when I first came to Moordale” Ola broke the ice. 

Ruby’s eyes hid from Ola’s gaze. “Let me assure you Ola whatever you heard was true” 

“Oh, I don’t doubt that” Ola sharply responded. 

Harsh but true Ruby thought. 

“Just it was nice to see a different side to you tonight” Ola added. 

Ruby just turned her gaze to Otis who was collecting the washing with Jakob as the rain began to fall down hard. “Otis says he likes it when I’m out of my comfort zone” 

Ola also looked out of the window, “Yeah he really likes you, a lot more than he ever liked me” 

Things got pretty awkward after that comment, It was weird enough when Otis made that half-arsed joke about the strangeness of the situation in the Moordale Lanes, but having Ola mention it right in front of her was ten times worse, made Ruby feel sick thinking about the times she had caught Otis and Ola holding hands or kissing at school back when he was still the creepy victorian ghost. 

“Sorry, that’s pretty weird to bring up” Ola apologised. 

“It’s fine, it happened I guess we just have to live with it…… Did he try and go all the way with you?” It was now or never to ask this question, not to the extent that Maeve Wiley did but it had always bugged her and she definitely didn’t want to have the conversation ever again and she was pretty sure that Ola didn’t want to either. She just wanted to know if she really did take Otis’ virginity, not like it would make any difference to their relationship but she just felt like she had to know. Ola and Otis had been together for a while, that’s why her voice was so high pitched and full of surprise when she said ‘You’re a Virgin?’ that day in the woods, she thought that despite being an awkward gangly human Otis Milburn was getting some action back in the days before she took an interest in him. 

“No” Ola laughed to herself.

“Why do you laugh?” Ruby asked back. 

“We tried, but Otis’ was terrible to be honest, that’s why I was so surprised he was hooking up with you, the hottest, most popular girl at school” Ruby raised her eyebrows at that statement. “I mean, You are Hot, but I don’t fancy you, but you are hot-, I mean, I know I’m pansexual now, So I just don’t want you getting the vibe that I fancy you,” Ruby thought back to that day in the woods and wanted to pat Ola on the leg and say “Sure you don’t” But it was quite clear Ola had just got her words mixed up. 

“It’s okay” Ruby reassured her. It was hard for Ruby to imagine Otis’ being bad at sex, the whole reason they had a summer-long fling which turned into the relationship they had now was because Otis was ‘good at sex’. But maybe Otis was bad at sex at least for the first few times they met up in the woods, she was just blinded by the fact there was a boy actually asking her what she wanted to do and made her feel valued and she wasn’t some sort of achievement and reward to just throw around. Thinking back on those times it made her smile again as much as she loved being able to proudly hold his hand on the school corridors she enjoyed the thrill of sneaking around and secretly shagging this nerdy dork. 

“Terrible how?” Ruby was curious now. 

Ola slowly glanced at the clock on the wall before deciding to spill the beans. 

Outside, Otis and Jakob, we’re taking the washing down at a solid pace before the rain was going to hit. “Treehouse is coming along well” Otis noted to Jakob. 

“Yeah needs a little more work, but we will get there” 

“I can always help if you like.” 

Jakob chuckled for a moment. “You don’t strike me as a manual labour sort of man Otis.” 

“That may be” Otis conceded “But you haven’t seen some of my artistic builds on Minecraft” 

“Is that stupid game with blocks Ola is always playing” 

Otis took a serious look of offence. “It’s not stupid and it’s Swedish, you know Markus Peerson?” Otis asked about the creator of the game. 

“Yes we went to school together” Jakob replied bluntly as he folded up the last piece of washing. 

“Shit really!” Otis said excitedly not factoring in the age gap. 

Jakob shook his head while Otis hung his down. Jakob smiled at Otis’ dejectedness and realised how his joke had been similar to jokes someone else had been pulling tonight. “She’s very nice Otis,” Jakob said as both he and Otis looked onwards through the window to Ruby and Ola chatting away. 

Otis smiled shyly. “Yeah, I know.” 

“It’s very special when a man fall’s in love for the first time” 

“Pftttt, Love I said no such thing” Otis cowered away from making direct eye contact with Jakob. 

“No, Otis you said no such thing, but your looks. They are very telling”

“I hope you and your girlfriend are okay, I don’t think my presence helps I haven’t exactly been the kindest to her through the years,” Ruby said to Ola back inside the house. 

Ola shook her head. “It wasn’t you, It was me” 

“What happened?” Ruby could add this to her ‘things she didn’t expect to happen in the last six months’ list, relationship council with Ola Nyman. 

“Okay, you know how Lily loves aliens” Ruby want’s to say ‘really’ in the most sarcastic tone possible, but she could see this meant a lot to Ola, so she is serious for a second. “Well we have sex dressed up as them all the time and I don’t want to anymore” 

And there went that second as Ruby sniggered hard, trying to control herself from going into laughter. “Sorry, sorry” but Ruby’s laughing fit got a little out of control. Ola looked quite offended at first but began laughing herself “I knew she was into aliens, but I never knew she actually wanted to be you know… In to Aliens” Ruby said as he laughing calmed down but a smirk still remained on her face. Maybe this wouldn’t have been as funny to her if she had seen the Shakespearean sex play last year as she had to go and rush home back to her dad. 

“I know it’s silly, but dressing up can be fun, it’s just all the time!” Ola complained, “Have you and Otis’ ever dressed up?” 

Ruby laughed again, “Otis, dressing up really! Although there was that time he was dressed up as macaroni cheese”

“Macaroni Cheese? How does that even work?” Ola asked as they both laughed again. 

“What are you laughing about?” Otis called from behind them as he and Jakob re-entered the house with the washing in hand. 

Both Ola and Ruby looked at one another and just giggled, while Otis and Jakob turned to one another in a state of bemusement. 

Everyone had retired for the night in the Milburn household and Ruby and Otis were in their usual sleeping arrangement of Ruby being the big spoon, Otis said usual because out of nowhere Ruby sometimes would offer no explanation and want Otis to hold her. When they were in their usual arrangement, Otis would try and stay awake for a little bit longer without Ruby’s knowledge as Otis loved how tightly she would hold him by the waist, Ruby held Otis just as tight as you could before it would become painful for him, so it was both protective and caring at the same time and maybe Otis’ favourite part is that Ruby Matthews was a snorer a very loud one at that as well. Otis had never mentioned it to her for a few reasons, the first being if she found out that he knew she would somehow cut it out and second of all she would probably threaten his life again but this time might actually go through with it to protect her secret. But it wasn’t an ugly snore, it was beautiful, soft and cute only Ruby Matthews could make such a loud snore become that, again he loved that about her. 

‘Loved’. 

He had just used that twice to describe her. He thought back to the washing with Jakob said he was falling in love for the first time, it made his heart do things it had never done before when he thought about it. 

But Otis couldn’t think about it anymore as Ruby’s phone began to vibrate on Otis bedside table, Ruby quickly burst into life to grab it.

 “Hello,” Ruby answered.

“Yeah, yeah of course” 

“No mum don’t worry about it, I’ll come back now”

“No don’t worry about it” 

“Okay I’m on my way, love you bye” 

Otis gently stroked Ruby’s hair throughout the call “Is everything okay?” 

“Yeah just my mum has been called in again and you know my dad has been getting worse so you know I can’t leave him on his own,” Ruby said as she quickly gathered all of her things. 

“Do you want me to come with you?” 

“I’ll be fine Otis’ honestly” She said as she had now gathered everything she needed and stood over him while he lay in bed sleepy. 

“Just be careful driving it’s dark out there” 

“I think i’ll be fine” 

“Oh you never know, that old woman you ran over in Sainsbury’s might rise from the grave to haunt you.”

Ruby rolled her eyes. “Good night dork” She bent down to kiss him softly. 

“Call me when you get in just so I know” 

“I will” She kissed him one last time, before heading for his door. 

Otis stayed up waiting for his call from Ruby, panicking a little bit when half an hour had gone by, but he knew deep down that she was just making sure her father was all settled and had everything he needed. It was a nice relief when the facetime call came through. 

“Hey” 

“Hey, I’m very much still alive” Ruby twisted the camera around the room to show him. 

“Good, she didn’t come back to haunt you then, what was her name Moreen or Nina?” Otis quizzed. 

“Helen” 

Otis smiled, but his look changed when he noticed something in the background. 

“What’s wrong?” Ruby asked when she noticed his change in expression. 

“Is that Rutis the rat” Otis noticed in the background the small rat prize he had won for her in Paris, that she claimed she had threw in a nearby skipp. 

“What! No!” Ruby conveniently turned the camera away from where the Rat was just at the side of her bed, almost like she had been snuggling with it when he was not there. “Maybe it’s your tired eyes and the bright light, I definitely threw that thing away.” 

“I know what I saw Rubes” Otis replied adamantly. 

Ruby paused for a moment and then let out a groan “Fine, but it’s only for the label as it’s in french it gives me good practice for my class.” She flipped the camera and zoomed in on the rat’s label.

“You don’t take French” Otis replied quickly. 

Ruby paused again Otis laughing at her stuck face as she had flipped the camera back around to her face thinking of how to quickly change the subject, she had struck gold when she thought about what Ola had told her earlier. 

“Otis dear, what’s the clockwork technique” 

“Oh no…”

Otis walked down the stairs the next morning to Ola and his mother up for breakfast while he could hear Jakob working outside on the treehouse. 

“Morning darling, are you alright?” His mother asked with a strange amount of compassion in her voice. 

“Yes, why wouldn’t I be?” Otis asked back sharply. 

“Just I heard Ruby, get up and leave in the middle of the night, I was wondering if you two had a argument and I just wanted to say it’s perfectly normal for couples-”

Otis shook his head franticly “No, no mum, Ruby and I didn’t have an argument, she just had to head home, not everything is that deep” Otis said as he took his place at the table. 

“Why did she have to leave?” Jean asked. 

“Is that Lily in the paper?” 

“What?” Ola asked as the mention of her girlfriend’s name got her attention. 

“Otis, Don’t think I noticed every time I asked Ruby something personal you tried to deflect it, I just wanted to get to know the person you have chosen to be your partner and I notice you are doing it again.”

“No seriously, Lily’s in the paper” Jean rose up to join Otis and Lily looking over the title of the Moordale Gazette. 

New Head fails to clean up Sex School 

Chapter Text

Rubes: Sorry, I can’t pick U up this morning. Just making sure my dad is okay. Will see u at school x 

So Otis was cycling to school for the first time in a while, no Eric to cycle with also who was still in Nigeria and he missed badly. Whilst his relationship with Adam was improving they weren’t on ‘let’s cycle to school together terms yet’ and Ola had shot off early when she saw her girlfriend’s face in the paper. 

As he had initially been waiting for Ruby to pick him before her late text, Otis raced in record time to school so he could make the school assembly in time. Otis entered the main hall relived that the assembly hadn’t started yet so the whole of the sixth form wouldn’t have to turn at him as he entered. He made his way to the untouchables row where only Olivia and Anwar were seated. 

“Where the fuck is Ruby?” Olivia asked as Otis took his usual seat.

“Erm... she is running a little late. You know beauty routine” Otis waved his hands over his face to somehow signify his point. 

Olivia gave him a dirty look in return, before eyeing him up and down. “Is there something on my face?” Olivia asked Otis as she eyed up the chair that separated them. 

“Oh, I just thought, If Ruby-” Otis began before being interrupted by Olivia. 

“Yeah well it just looks awkward” Olivia shot back as Otis nervously moved into Ruby’s chair and next to Olivia.

Otis tapped his feet and then looked over Olivia’s shoulder and over Anwar to spot two more empty chairs. “Where’s Malek?” 

“We broke up” 

“Where’s Nick?” 

“We broke up”

“Oh”

At that moment Hope entered and the assembly began and it was excruciating. Firstly the name change, Otis wouldn’t exactly describe himself as ‘proud’ to be from Moordale, but removing the town name from the school felt empty and soulless. Speaking of soulless, if there wasn’t any doubt before Hope had just confirmed herself as it, as she forced Adam, Cal and Lily onto the main stage with their shame signs enforced onto them. For the first time since he left, Otis was glad Eric wasn’t here as Adam was shamed in front of the school, Otis briefly imagined what he would be like if Ruby was on the stage, Ruby wouldn’t mind if she was shamed for being a ‘bitch’ she knew she was as did everyone in the school, but Otis imagined if she had been forced to tell everyone about her secret, about her dad, there was no shame in it whatsoever but Otis knew that Ruby would feel shame and it would be an opportunity for all those who Ruby had hurt throughout the years to hurt her back.

That thought had filled Otis up for the rest of the assembly except when he tried to find Ola’s eyes to make sure she was okay. He also wanted to know if Ruby was okay and was expecting to see her waiting at the door for him, but all he found was Maeve on the phone with a concerned look on her face. 

“You okay?” Otis asked. 

“No, I need to go to Anna’s there’s an emergency” 

Otis had figured it was something to do with her sister, Otis had only ever seen this look of distress on Maeve’s face once before when Otis had lost her sister the day of her first time on the quiz heads. “Do you want to borrow my bike?” He offered, practically chasing her down the school corridor.

This went well, ended up somehow with Maeve shouting at Otis because she was never taught to ride a bike. 

“Everyone always lets me down” Otis again thought back to that day. “I can take you” He shouted down the hallway. 

“What?” Maeve span around. 

“Do I really have to wear this?” Maeve asked looking at his blue helmet. 

“Well, if we end up crashing halfway through our trip, I would rather you be able to run onwards while I bleed to death on the side of the road” 

“Now is not the time for jokes Otis’.” Maeve shot back. 

“Right of course” Otis nodded and quickly undid his bike lock as both he and Maeve hopped on, with Maeve gently holding onto either side of his waist. 

They set off quickly down the path, Otis was quick to check Ruby’s usual parking space, her car was now there. Otis breathed a sigh of relief as firstly it meant her father was now okay because Ruby would never leave for school if her father wasn’t okay and secondly it would be quite awkward if they had bumped into one another as she entered and he exited. 

I mean Otis was only sneaking out of school with the person he had previously admitted love for and Ruby had openly admitted to him about her insecurities of them together, he was sure it would be fine.

Another thing Ruby would never admit to anyone else and especially Otis is that between periods Ruby would walk the long way round to her next class so she could just catch a glimpse of Otis in his class as the top sets class would always run a little bit over time. Ruby would just pop her head ever so subtly over the window to see Otis’ ultra-serious face concentrating on what the teacher had to say, It was so fucking adorable , she would think as she would bite her lip before ducking back down before anyone could notice what she was doing. Initially, these thoughts would make her sick but now they had become very much accustomed to her.

So she was a little disappointed when she didn't spot Otis at the end of the first period, but there could have been a reasonable explanation for this, he could have been asked to swap places with someone who was misbehaving or he had been asked to collect something at the back of the class. But when it happened a second time, she was immediately worried. What if he had died cycling to school? Okay that was a bit of an extreme thought but it’s where her brain went to immediately and she definitely would have blamed herself as she couldn’t take him to school.

:Where R U? Xx

She pulled her phone out and sent the text before racing off to meet Olivia and Anwar for the first break of the day. 

“Have you seen Otis” She shouted from a distance as she hobbled towards them as fast as she could without her looking like an idiot.

“No” Anwar shot back. 

Oh god. 

“Yeah, he was in assembly, but haven’t seen him since,” Olivia told her as Ruby sat down next to her almost out of breath. Thank god he wasn’t dead. “Actually I saw him walking off with Wiley after assembly, then I haven’t seen him since”. God, maybe she did wish he was dead. 

“Just give me a minute” Ruby rose back up, attempting to style out the pain that was clearly evident on her face. 

“Maybe they are going to finally break up,” Anwar said as they watched Ruby race off the other way. 

Olivia just smirked “Maybe.” 

Ruby meanwhile was walking across the school campus looking for Otis’ or even cockbiter so she could be put out of her misery. 

“That little dweeb finally dumped you for the library Matthews” One of the arseholes from the swim team called out who Ruby may or may not have slept with called out. Ruby had gotten used to these comments and would normally stop and embarrass them in some way but there was no time for that now so Ruby just stuck her middle finger up in response as she spotted Aimee Gibbs across the campus with that stupid fucking goat that was so close to shitting on her heels the other day in Otis’ house. Otis had mentioned that Cockbiter and Aimee had a falling out, at least she thinks he did she wasn’t really paying attention, she wishes she did now, why was Otis even going on about Cockbiter when they were laying on his bed? But they were friends like Otis told her and Ruby constantly went on about Olivia and Anwar’s problems. But was she the type of friend to sneak around school with? 

All these questions and more were spinning around her head as she made her way to Otis’ bike lock a special place for them, where they had shared their first kiss, okay not their first kiss that was when they both stumbling and giggling up the stairs of his house, but it was their first real kiss when she wasn’t ashamed to stand side by side with the weird victorian sex ghost. His bike was there then but it wasn’t there now only some keys left on the floor by where Otis’ bike should have been, some keys that had a pass on it for a caravan park.

Fuck

Otis awkwardly bumbled into Anna’s sitting room carrying five cuppa’s. One for himself, The Police Officer, Anna, Maeve and Issac who was being strangely aggressive towards him for a man he had met twice, once at his party where he was aware he had been a dick to nearly half of the room, but he wasn’t aware of pissing him off and the second time, well that was the time he told him ‘Tell Maeve to check her messages’ whatever happened to that, despite how far he had come with Ruby he was still curious to what had happened to it. 

Issac kept attacking Otis every time he spoke, almost like it was some sort of competition to him, but Otis never rose to it, more concerned about being there for his friend who was extremely distressed with her missing sister.

Ruby pulled up at the caravan park, she cringed as her tyres hit the grass, imagining her heels in the vile mud that covered the whole site. Ruby was hoping there was some kind of desk where she could hand the keys in. But my god Cockbiters living situation was worse than she imagined. 

“Ugh gross,” She said aloud as her trainers sunk into the mud. “Ugh, ugh, ugh” Was the noise she made as she navigated her way across the sight, she had no idea how she was going to identify Cockbiters caravan, hopefully looking for some Cockbiter Esque clothes outside and hopefully no sign of her and her boyfriend.

“Matthews!” A voice called from behind her, How did someone know her in the shithole. Great, it was her fucking dad’s drug dealer topless out of his window. Ruby lifted her head up and smiled. “How are you kid? Give me a minute” Jeffery hit his head on his window as he pulled away and Ruby winced as she could hear him complain from inside the caravan. She quickly scanned around to check if anyone was looking as if she was caught chatting away with her dad’s drug dealer in this fucking caravan park it may have been worse than being caught shagging Otis Milburn in the woods in the summer. 

“Didn’t know your dad was sending you over to pick up his gear these days?” Jefferey said walking out of his caravan to meet Ruby. 

“No, what makes you think that?” 

“Just he told me last night, how nice you have being doing a lot more for him now his conditions worsening” 

Ruby dropped her head just a touch “Yeah”. 

“So what are you doing here then?” Jefferey asked shoving his hands deep into his pocket. 

Ruby glanced around again making sure nobody was watching “I’m here to drop off coc- Maeve Wiley’s keys for her, she left them at school” Ruby corrected herself. 

“Oh I didn’t know you two were friends, give em here I’ll on to them till she gets back, that’s her caravan there” Jeffery nodded behind Ruby, who felt like correcting Jeffrey labelling her and Maeve as friends but really wasn’t worth the effort as she passed the keys over. 

“She hasn’t come back from school earlier, just I saw her leave?” Ruby asked pretending to be concerned, but in reality, she just wanted to know if she and Otis had snuck back here only to realise Maeve had forgotten her keys. 

“No no, always watching me” Jeffrey chuckled and strangely touched his nose. 

“Any idea where she might be?” 

Jeffrey paused, “Yeah actually, she’s at her sister foster parents a lot, Cynthia’s got an address in her book as she’s dropped her off a couple of times” Jeffrey walked back into the caravan before reading the address out loud to Ruby who wrote it in her phone. “Let your dad know I’ll be round later then” Jeffrey added. 

Ruby just nodded her head as she shut her phone down and was on her way. 

Everyone flooded out of Anna’s house, with Maeve being consoled by her Otis thought it probably be best to let an adult speak to her first so he stood aside, well it’s mostly because Anna and Maeve had whipped out a cigarette each. 

“You’re 17. You shouldn’t haven’t to deal with stuff like this anyway. It’s too much.” Anna told Maeve and as she did Maeve’s phone buzzed in her pocket. 

Cynthia: You left your keys at school, a friend of your’s dropped them off for you Luv

Maeve quickly checked her pockets even though she had clearly read the text, but just as a confirmation. “Shit” Maeve blurted out. 

“What’s wrong?” Otis asked approaching her despite the smoke. 

“I must have dropped my keys on your bike” Otis’s eyebrows rose “It’s fine though, Cynthia said someone dropped them off” That had troubled her if it was Aimee, Cynthia would have said it was her not ‘a friend’ even if they weren’t really friends at the moment, Otis was stood right in front of her so it was literally impossible it could be him so that only left Jackson as to who knew where she lived, considering what happened between them and how she left him, it was kind of him, considerate. 

“Are you going to be okay?” Otis asked softly and Maeve nodded “I’ll let you know if I see anything,” Otis said in regards to Maeve’s missing sister. 

“Thanks’ Otis, I appreciate what you did for me today” Maeve replied and Otis smiled in response and Maeve brought him into a hug. Maeve smiled as she held onto him especially as neither Otis or Anna could see her face, god knows where Issac was. She closed her eyes thinking about how much she wished she could do this every day.

“Eventually Otis pulled out of the hug and went to put his helmet on.”See ya” Otis smiled as he climbed onto his bike and Maeve waved as he rode off. 

Anna turned to Maeve as she watched in a trance this strange pale young boy cycle away. Anna forced her weight to her right bumping into Maeve “You like him don’t you.” Maeve didn’t even respond she just carried on watching Otis cycle under the bridge. “Wow you really like him” 

“Yeah” Maeve breathed. 

“Then go and get em, smart pretty girl like you should be able to get any guy you like” 

If only if that was so easy Maeve thought to herself. “I would do, but he’s in love with someone else” 

That someone else had pulled up down the street that Anna lived, far enough down that nobody would see her but close enough to see the house, five people came out of the house, one of whom was in a wheelchair who left immediately another was a police officer who headed straight for their vehicle. Phew, they weren’t alone Ruby thought unless it was some kind of weird orgy, with the police officer giving a striptease. But still, why was Otis here? she accepts that it was obviously important if the police were present but it was still worrying that Maeve had immediately turned to him in a crisis. 

Ruby watched as Maeve patted down her pockets, Shit the keys Ruby sunk a little bit lower in her chair to hide herself. She did rise back up as Otis and Maeve engaged in a hug, obviously, she couldn’t compare them directly but she imagined her face now was somewhat identical to that in France when the bus pulled up with Otis and Maeve inches apart, in a way this pained her a little bit more watching Cockbiters hands all over the back of her Otis doing something only she should be able to do, part of her wanted to jump out of her car and rip them apart and another thought back to that night after the bus had caught Otis and Maeve in France and how Otis hoped Ruby wouldn’t be the sort of girlfriend who wouldn’t pick and choose who he could and couldn’t hang out with, it’s just Ruby felt very protective of Otis she hopes he would understand her concerns considering she had never had a real boyfriend before and hopes he would understand that she would be very protective of him around cockbiter as she felt like she still didn’t have a 100 percent understanding of their relationship especially from her side that’s why it hurt a bit more to watch them hang on to one another for a few seconds longer than normal friends hugged, well it’s not like Ruby had ever hugged anyone outside of Otis and her mum and dad. She once again ducked back down as she watched Otis cycle away. 

Ruby sat on her bed hours later dressed in her usual nightwear makeup long removed. She wanted to fall asleep but there were two things preventing that. First was her dad and Jeffery laughing in the next room and while it was extremely distracting she could live with it as her dad had been down in the dumps despite Ruby’s best attempts to cheer him up, so it was nice to hear her dad laughing in any scenario even if she suspected the weed was having an effect. The second was her phone, every two seconds she would reach over to check if there were any notifications appearing over her and Otis’ faces on her screensaver, but there was nothing. She was planning to give him the silent treatment anyway, but it was annoying her he wasn’t spamming her messages especially since this was the first day since the day before Olivia’s party they had not seen one another. Did that mean he had gone back to see Maeve? God this stupid boy! 

She buried her head in her pillow attempting to sleep, but that was again interrupted by a knock on the door. “I’ll get it!” She jumped into life, because her dad under the influence of drugs may have been stupid enough to think he could make it and Jeffrey was also under the influence unable to stop him. 

The thought process of who might be at this ungodly hour didn’t even cross her mind but when she opened the door she was surprised to see “Otis” She breathed softly. 

He smiled holding onto a bag over his shoulder then leaning up to kiss her passionately, “Sorry I just had to do that”. 

A small smiled twitched onto her face “What are you doing here?” 

“Well I haven’t seen you all day, I know I’m being a bit presumptuous but I brought all my school stuff so if you are okay with me staying over, which I hope you are we can spend an extra hour in bed and go straight to school actually now I think about you will probably have to get your dad up, which renders my whole plan pointless, actually how is your dad?” Otis rambled on at about 100mph. 

Her dad was going to be her excuse but that was thrown out of the window when he and Jeffrey chose the worse time possible to exchange in a belly laugh and Otis smiled “Fucking come inside then” Ruby shouted dragging him in from the cold. 

They walked down her hallway as Roland called from the other room “Hey Otis man, good to see you again!” 

“Oh Hi, Mr Matthews-” 

“Absolutely not” Ruby shot still dragging him by the hand and now into her room. Ruby slammed the door shut the door and then reappeared two seconds “That wasn’t what it looked like by the way” Ruby told her father didn’t want him to think his daughter was having sex in the next room, even if he probably didn’t register what was going on, but the main reasons Ruby wanted Otis to avoid the front room was for him to avoid Jefferey, she didn’t want him blabbering on about Ruby’s trip to the caravan park and her hunting around after him and cockbiter. 

“What was all that about?” Otis asked from her bed. 

“Oh, just they are really stoned. Best we don’t bother with them” Ruby uncomfortably smiled at the door. 

“So how was your day?” Otis asked as Ruby sat down at her desk pretending to read through some of her work. 

“It was fine, normal” Ruby replied which led to Otis to realise that something was wrong as it was unusual that Ruby didn’t want to waffle on about Olivia and Anwar’s various problems and how some ‘bitch’ had pissed her off in History. 

“Are you okay Rubes?” A concerned Otis asked. 

“I’m fine, how was your day? Otis!” Ruby responded with some spite in her voice particularly when she said his name. 

Oh shit, she definitely knew about what happened somehow. He was going to lie, tell her he had a very busy day with classes to catch up but lying was only going to make it worse particularly when he had been sneaking around town with Maeve Wiley when Ruby was distressed about her father. “I was helping out my friend”

“Cockbiter” 

“Maeve” 

“And when were you planning on telling me this information?” Ruby asked still with a passive-aggressive tone in her voice.

Otis sighed, “When Maeve’s sister had been found”

“What” For the first time in her life, Ruby felt sorry for cockbiter as it all clicked in her head, everyone gathered at the foster mum’s house, the police car, everything. 

“Maeve’ sister went mis-” Otis began but there was a disruption in the next room, what sounded like really sudden movement in the living room and Jeffrey’s call of “Whey hey!” 

“Dad” Ruby said with concern and leapt from her chair and out her door with Otis following close behind. In the front room, Ruby saw Jeffrey attempting to get her father up to dance to the music that was filling up the room. “No no no no no!” Ruby shot between them holding onto one side of her father while Otis grabbed the other, “Careful Otis” Ruby told him as they began to settle him back down. Ruby’s dad winced heavily as he slowly moved down “You’re okay, you’re okay” Ruby whispered to her father on repeat until she and Otis guided him to his chair. 

Roland breathed heavily for a few seconds “I’m okay” He eventually managed to get out. 

Ruby span around to Jeffrey as Otis turned the music off. “You need to go,” Ruby said to Jeffery as she rested her hand on her father’s shoulder supportingly. 

“I-” Jeffrey began realising his mistake of getting Ruby’s dad up out of his seat and he could see how angry she was with him. “Let em stay!” Roland shouted. 

“No, I.. I should go back to the old caravan” Jeffrey grabbed his coat. 

“Hey Rubes, Jeffrey told me you were at the caravan site today,” Roland said with his eyes barely open as Ruby glanced worryingly at Otis’ “Said you we’re dropping some keys off for a friend, that’s kind.. You are such a kind girl…” Roland managed to get out before he transitioned into sleep. 

Otis put the pieces together, he definitely knew someone who lived on a caravan site, how had Ruby ended up with them he had no idea and look to her for answers while her father snored between them before being interrupted by Jeffrey. 

“I best be giving you a hand with him before I go.” 

So just as they did the first time Otis was here he and Jeffrey carried Roland to his bed and Jeffrey head to the door and as soon as the door shut Otis had one thing on his mind. “How did you end up with Maeve’s keys?” 

Ruby sighed, “I just found them on the floor, I gave them back that’s pretty normal Otis” 

“Why didn’t you hand them in to the school lost and found?” 

“Because she fucking worries me Otis!” She says loud enough to show her aggression but quiet enough to not wake her dad or even catch Jeffrey’s attention who couldn’t have walked too far away from her drive in his state. 

Otis was left rooted to the spot “I thought we went through this in France.” 

Ruby breathed in heavily “I know you did, but just look at the way she hugged you today” Fuck she didn’t mean to let that slip  

“You followed us…” 

“Yes…” 

“That’s not normal Ruby! Unlike hugging your friend which is very normal indeed” Otis had now raised his voice to match Ruby’s. “Her sister had gone missing, what did you want me to do? Just abandon her?” 

“I didn’t know that at the time,” Ruby said with sincerity in her voice. 

“In France, you agreed that you wouldn’t be the type of girlfriend who doesn’t let me have friends, so far I don’t see you living up to that agreement.” 

It was clear to Ruby that she had genuinely upset Otis, which she had never done before, she had annoyed him with the changing of clothes and more but seeing him upset because of her actions really hurt her more, time for some more truths, she reached out to hold his hands, Otis was reluctant to accept them so her hands were just sort of resting on top of his as she began “I have lot’s of ‘boyfriends’ before and if I saw them with any other girl, I would be annoyed sure, I’m Ruby Matthews why would anyone look away for even a second” Otis smiled as he appreciated that one “But with you, it’s different I care about you a lot and I appreciate you opening up about in Maeve in France, I know all about the struggles of opening up trust me, it’s just I Have no idea how she still feels about you and it just puts me on edge because obviously you were so close and I just hope you can accept that.” 

Otis was now holding on to Ruby’s hands. “She said she liked me, a long time ago I tried to tell her how I felt back and she never responded” Otis referenced the voicemail.

“Why?” 

“I think she moved on. There is this other guy, Issac I think they are a thing now, he was there today I don’t know if you saw, looking through the bushes or wherever you were” Otis joked. 

“Ugh gross, I was in my car Milburn.” 

“They must be a couple, because he was being strangely aggressive to me, who knows maybe he was jealous” 

“I don’t know what he has to be jealous of you for being a badly dressed stick man” Ruby quoted one of her previous insults towards Otis. 

“The same badly dressed stick man who you ‘care about a lot’” It was Otis’ turn to tease with a previous quote as well as slightly mocking her voice. 

“Shut up” She kissed him passionately forcing him up against her wall. 

“I thought you didn’t want to have sex with your dad next door?”

Ruby removed her hands from his body and folded them as she took a few steps backwards. “I don’t, I’m just teasing you, seemed to have worked.” Ruby nodded down to his pants where his erection was very visible through his jeans.

”Ruby! You can’t just leave me like this!” Otis groaned. 

“Hmmmm, maybe don’t mock my fabulous voice Milburn.” Ruby smiled as she span off towards her bed and Otis followed her knowing he would just have to settle with snuggling her, but still snuggling Ruby Matthews wasn’t bad at all.

After staying the night at Anna’s Maeve headed back to the caravan site to collect a few of her things for school. She was almost in autopilot mode as she completely forgot about her lack of keys going straight for her door before realising. At least she would get the answer to who had dropped them off, even though she was 90% sure it was Jackson. 

She knocked on Cynthia’s caravan and Cynthia appeared in her dressing gown moments later. “Hiya dear, any look with your sister?” 

Maeve just shook her head “I heard you have my keys” 

Cynthia reached around the corner and then she had Maeve’s keys in her hand. “You’ve got to be careful with these things love, you’re just lucky they ended up in the hands of a kind soul” 

“Who dropped them off again?” Maeve asked. 

“Jefferey, what’s Roland’s daughter called?” Roland who the fuck is Roland . 

“Ruby” Jeffrey called from another room. 

“Ruby” Cynthia repeated. 

What the fuck….. “Ruby Matthews?” Maeve asked still in a bit of shock. 

“Yeah she’s a lovely girl bless her, she looks after her dad he’s got MS” Cynthia whispered towards her. 

“Oh right” was all Maeve responded with as this was definitely not what she expected.

Chapter Text

“Why are you around here so often?” Ruby asked as she and Otis lay face to face on her bed, their respective noses just about rubbing against one another ever so gently. 

“Wow, I’ll go then” Otis joked. 

It was true, Otis had now stayed for three nights in a row and it wasn’t annoying her she was just curious. “You can talk to me you know” She reached down to hold his hands. 

“No talking Milburn!” Again Otis mocked her voice this time going back to those days in the woods when Ruby would snap at him when he would try and talk about anything other than how good the sex was. 

She slapped him lightly on the face and Otis complained. “You really are a softie Milburn” 

“Yeah I am,” He said like he was proud of the fact before going back into a trance. 

“What’s wrong then?” She kicked him underneath the covers. 

Otis pondered his girlfriend’s question for a few moments “Home’s a bit stressful at the moment, my mum and Jakob have split up” 

“Oh, Jakob’s single now is he?” Ruby tried to make light of the situation but Otis was clearly having none of it. “Oh, I thought you didn’t like having Jakob and Ola around ‘always in your space’” Ruby wagged her fingers in the air. 

“I don’t know I did, but it became nice having a bit more of a family almost normal,” Otis said it like he wasn’t getting another sibling very soon. 

“Well I’ve always been an only child, couldn’t imagine it being any different, me dad and mum” Ruby replied sweetly, Otis thought about that final word ‘mum’ despite staying three nights in a row he had still not met Ruby’s mum. 

As if it were fate Ruby and Otis jumped up as the front door opened. “Mum” She whispered and climbed from her bed as Otis awkwardly loitered behind her. He had heard about how much Ruby looked up to her mother, she was hard-working, dedicated, loving and perhaps most important to Ruby stylish. As Otis first laid eyes on Claire Matthews as he peered from Ruby’s door behind her, he could confirm that well Otis wouldn’t say it because he was obviously a self-respecting male so Otis could confirm that Claire Matthews would be referred by the swim team as a ‘milf’. While had seen pictures of her before plastered across Ruby’s bedroom wall, seeing her mother in the flesh it was very clear where Ruby got her good looks from, not so much her lack of height as her mother was extremely tall, she began to press her long legs down as she began to kick her shoes off. 

“Hiya mum” 

“Just hold that a minute Rubes” Claire offered her bag to her daughter as she carried on getting her shoes off. Otis smiled at the change in power balance as Ruby seemingly went her whole school life having her bag carried around by someone else and yet here they were. 

“How was your day?” Ruby asked as Claire carefully arranged her shoes with all those, still not noticing Otis run down shoes that stuck out like a sore thumb. 

“Long and tiring honey” 

“Erm mum, this is Otis” Ruby gestured towards her boyfriend behind her like he was some school art project she was proud of and was smiling waiting for her parents approval. Otis meanwhile awkwardly raised his right hand in the air. 

“Oh” was all that Claire said. ‘ Seriously mum’ was what Ruby thought of her mother’s response. All that she had gone on about this stupid boy and the best she could come up with is ‘oh’. Granted she was ‘going on and on and on’ about Otis to her father more because they spent more time with him and strangely she felt more comfortable talking to boys about her dad, the opposite of most stereotypes, but still her face did drop a bit at her mother’s response as she checked out Otis from head to toe. “Sorry it’s nice to meet you, Otis, I’ve just had a long day that’s all.” 

“It’s fine” Otis smiled in his response. 

“See you in the morning dear” Claire kissed Ruby on the cheek as she headed into her’s and Roland’s room. Ruby would normally just hover over the door as she would like to secretly watch her mum perform the same routine of rubbing her dad’s hair and then kissing his forehead, but with Otis behind her she didn’t want to seem like she was a total creep and they both returned to her room. 

“Oh, oh oh, I didn’t have anything on my shirt did I?” Otis asked as Ruby shut the door behind them. 

“She said she was tired alright” 

“I know I know, I was just messing” Otis smiled as they now both stood over Ruby’s bed. “Big spoon” Otis nodded towards Ruby. 

“Big spoon” She repeated and they got into their usual positions. 

The next morning Ruby was sat having her breakfast in peace for once as she didn’t feel she had to rush as her mother was making, as her dad and Otis were in a deep discussion about his music collection in the corner she was flicking through the bills, her dad’s disability benefits and her mum’s payment statements, Ruby was no financial expert but as she glanced at the statement she didn’t expect such a low amount for the amount her mother was working. “Mum are you sure something is not right about these statements, just Otis has been telling me a whole lot about how women are discriminated against in terms of equal pay in the workplace” Ruby commented and Otis span away from Roland to nod towards Claire. 

Claire walked from the kitchen to the dining table and quickly snatched the statement from Ruby’s hands. “Ruby you are only 18, you shouldn’t have to concern yourself with these sort of things.”

“Exactly Mum I’m an adult now I shoul-”

“Is everything alright dear?” Roland asked interrupting his daughter. 

“Yes love, just Ruby fancies herself as a bit of a Martin Lewis” Claire waved the statement up in the air before ripping it up and placing it in her pocket before sitting down next to Ruby. 

“Mum, I just-” Ruby began before being interrupted again. 

“Sush dear, so then Otis” Claire distracted her daughter by bringing up a topic she knew she wanted to talk about. 

“Yeah, what do you think?” Ruby asked with a giddy smile on her face as they both watched Otis and Roland interacting from afar. 

Claire paused for a moment as she continued to watch on, making Ruby all the more nervous “He wasn’t what I expected” Ugh great mum still not giving anything away. 

“What were you expecting?” 

“To be honest some steroid-induced, rich jock” 

“You can’t say that mum!” 

Claire smiled “I’m just joking, he must be very special to you, it’s been donkey’s years since you had anyone over” By donkey’s years, she means primary school in their old house. 

“Yeah, he is” Ruby got lost in his trance as she watched her dad and Otis share a joke about some artist from the 80’s she couldn’t care less who it was, but seeing her boyfriend’s adorable smile and her dad’s smile that she wishes she saw more often joined together in harmony was one of the best things she had ever fucking seen. 

“Milburn” Claire pondered on that for a moment, Ruby was expecting some kind of joke about his name which she was willing to defend. “He’s not related to Jean Milburn is he?” 

“Yeah she’s his mum”

Claire’s eyebrows shot up “Shit really!” She whispered. 

“Yeah, you haven’t seen her at the hospital have you?” Ruby asked. 

Claire just shook her head “Why is she okay?” Ruby did find it a little odd that with the amount her mum was working in the hospital she hadn’t seen Otis’ mum at least once.

“She’s pregnant” 

“Fucking hell, It’s not with Remi Milburn is it?” The realisation kicked in for Claire she turned to where Roland kept Remi’s books“Fucking hell, Remi Milburn. Don’t tell your dad” Claire finished and they both shared a laugh. 

Otis had a giddy smile as Ruby drove through the school gates, Eric was back today and he couldn’t wait to hear about his trip to Nigeria and equally ramble on about everything that had happened in France and beyond with Ruby, but most importantly just to have him around again. Ruby and Otis still got the glares and the stares, Ruby didn’t care because ‘she was Ruby fucking Matthews’ it did normally unsettle Otis but not today his thoughts was Eric, Eric, Eric. 

Otis turned to Ruby immediately as soon as she hit the brakes in the regular parking space. “Go on,” Ruby said like she was letting a dog off their lead. 

Otis smiled and jumped over Ruby’s door not even opening it up. He jogged out of the car bumping into someone on his way due to his excitement “Sorry, sorry” Otis apologised before carrying onwards.

Ruby watched it all unfold still at the wheel of her car. Firstly she rolled her eyes but then just smiled out of pure adoration, This fucking dork she thought as she climbed out of her shutting the door behind her with style, everyone staring at her excellence Result. But there was one pair of eyes on her she wishes wasn’t. Maeve Wiley power walking into the school grounds, this had happened every day since the keys incident just this unspoken tension between them, well extra unspoken tension really, she really wants to shout “What the fuck are you looking at cockbiter!” But she really just wants the keys issue to be left behind them and it would be extra mean considering her sister was still missing. 

Otis had finally found Eric stopping his sprint to jump over his back “Eric! You’re Back! Yes!” 

“Hey!” Eric responded also with total delight to see his best friend again. 

“I missed you! How was Nigeria? Tell me everything!” Otis wanted to get straight into all the gossip, unfortunately, they were interrupted by Adam’s chafing problems and then an explanation of the shame signs. 

Then it was Maeve’s turn to interrupt the pair “Hey, sorry, hi, Have you seen Aimee?” 

“Hi, no anything about your sister?” Otis asked. 

“Yeah, I think I found my mum,” Maeve says pretty much bouncing away. 

“Do you need any help?” Otis called down the corridor. 

“It’s okay I’ll let you know how it goes” She calls back. 

“What’s going on?” Eric asked as Otis span back towards the lockers. 

“Maeve’s mum has kidnapped her sister” Otis replied. 

Eric gasped “Really! God, what else have I missed?” 

Oh you really shouldn’t have asked that  “The school name is being changed to spark side academy, My mum and Jakob have split up and Lily had a sex story on the front page of the Moordale Gazette, but apart from that not much!”

Eric didn’t even respond as he was just processing all of the information he had just received. 

“Well, anyway Nigeria did you meet a new best friend who is going to steal you away from me and Adam forever” Otis joked. 

But to Eric, this was no joke he froze, immediately thinking Otis somehow knew what had happened through secret spy agents Ruby someone how knew from her extensive popularity, Ruby! That’s how he was going to deflect away from the Nigeria situation. “Actually I want to hear all about how the Moordale King and Queen Ruby and Otis Matthews” 

Otis narrowed his eyes towards his best friend “Why do I have Ruby’s last name and we are definitely not the King and Queen, Ruby definitley is the Queen and I'm still the court jester.” 

“Come on Oatcake, we all know who wears the pants in your relationship.” 

Otis couldn’t even respond as it was 100% true. 

“So come on then? What have I missed.” 

Otis smiled thinking about the past week or so with Ruby. “Well we did all of the cheesy couple activities in Paris like kissing under the Effiel Tower, I met her mother this morning and she’s opening up more and more each day all while still being Moordale’s sassy Queen B, which I think is the perfect balance by the way and the sex is still unbelievable” 

Eric stopped him in the middle of the hallway. “And what about those three magic words?” 

“Huh?” Otis pretended to play dumb. 

“I…. Love…. And You” Eric did a little dance and snapped his fingers each time he said a word. 

“Er-” Otis began but thankfully Jackson interrupted them. 

“Otis, can you help me out with something? For the ‘thing’ Our computer guy had dropped out, so we need a replacement and I thought of you ‘cause you seem nerdy.” 

“Yes,” Eric accepted the offer on Otis behalf. 

After Otis tried to wriggle his way out of it but Eric wouldn’t back down and Otis was told to ‘be more Eric’ which was a statement he agreed with, everyone should be more Eric. Jackson disappeared and Otis and Eric were left alone again. “What’s the thing?” Eric asked and Otis quickly filled him in. 

After she and Aimee were quickly reunited, they were on the road together in pursuit of Maeve’s mum. 

“Right what happened with you and Otis in France, you looked pretty close to someone who has a girlfriend” Aimee commented on that moment when the bus pulled up and Otis and Maeve were stood inches apart. 

Maeve sighed “That was the end I think Aimes’, he pretty much admitted his dying love for Ruby in front of me.” 

Aimee took her eyes away from the wheel again to see Maeve sulking leaning her head against the window “I’m sorry babes” Aimee pondered for a moment, “I just don’t understand what he sees in her over you, I’ve been ‘friends’ with both of you and let me tell you that you are better in every single way Maeve Wiley” 

Maeve smiled as it was some sort of small moral victory. But something else that Aimee said in that sentence had caught her attention. “You said you and Ruby were friends” 

Aimme pondered at the wheel for a second “I wouldn’t really say friend, I was just someone who had the biggest house” Aimee replied, “Well I say biggest, none of us ever got to see Ruby’s house.” 

Maeve narrowed her eyes “What do you mean?” 

“She just got really defensive when we got personal with her, the only thing we knew was that when we had to order her a taxi it would go to Moordale Zoo, there was a rumour that her family owned the place.” 

“Did she ever tell you her dad has MS?” Maeve asked turning to face her best friend. 

“MS? What’s that like a snide Nintendo DS?” Aimee was as awkwardly as clueless as ever asked. 

Maeve just shook her head “No Aimme, it’s a disease that attacks the central nervous system makes it difficult for you to even move.”

Aimee turned to Maeve in shock “Aw Poor thing! I mean Ruby’s still a bitch, but I hope that happens to nobody.” Aimme’s words made Maeve think back to that day in Aimee’s house when she was dressed up stupidly to meet Jackson’s parents and Otis looked strangely sweet dressed up for Hedwig with Eric, “No one deserved to be shamed, not even Ruby ”

Otis and Eric were primed and ready in position for ‘the thing’ to take place with Eric now having a clear idea of what was about to go down. 

“We hope you enjoy” 

That was their cue from Jackson down below “It’s a very slow screen”

“It is a very slow screen” 

But eventually, the projector reached its complete size and they hit the play button and Jackson and Viv’s creation had begun. It was very difficult for Otis to see anything down below him, he was trying to pick out Ruby in the crowd. His inability to see Ruby also meant his inability to see Hope who had now got out of her seat and was heading up towards Otis and Eric. 

Down below had been a little disappointed that Otis couldn’t sit down with her for ‘the thing’, but it’s not like he would have been interested in her anyway only interested in chewing Eric’s ear off and vice versa she did wonder as the video began if Otis and Eric were talking about her and what would they say. Ruby’s brain did kick back into life when Hope shot up past her heading towards Otis. He was in trouble, he needed her. 

“ I’m literally perfect ” Ruby’s message appeared on the video screen, Ruby wouldn’t agree to wear a ‘stupid, ugly, tacky’ vagaina costume, but had made a small compromise to hold a small penis one in her hand. Otis smiled as her message came on the screen, watching her deliver her line with such confidence and prowess. ‘ She was literally perfect’ . Otis’ happy train of thought was interrupted by the door flying open behind him and both he and Eric shot up from their chairs. 

“Stop the video now!” Hope shouted getting between the pair of them, with Otis and Eric just sort of hovering over her. He couldn’t be a ‘softie’ as Ruby had referred to him earlier, this was important for the school and for his peers, the very least he could do was try. 

“Ugh, no, no” Otis tried to place his hands in the way to stop Hope from getting to the plug but it was to avail, with Hope overpowering him to pull the plug still having to fight off Otis’ hands as she did so. Thankfully for Otis, there was a saving grace. 

“Excuse me can you get your hands off my boyfriend?”

“What?” 

“Ruby?” 

Ruby charged towards Hope as she and Otis jumped apart with the plug still firmly in her hand. “Drop the plug. I said drop it!” 

Ruby and Hope began a squabble for the plug with Otis and Eric awkwardly commentating from the side. They thought for a moment before Ruby saw an opportunity to pull off what was very much her speciality in the days of years and 8-9. 

“Oh my god, that’s a burn!” Eric shouted as Otis repeated as Hope winced in pain before Ruby threw her halfway across the room. 

“Oh my god!” Ruby had now plugged the plug back in it’s place and the video was restored, before Hope pulled Ruby by the hair, Otis really wanted to go and help his girlfriend but he didn’t think he was anywhere near the strength put on show right before his eyes. “Are you okay?” Otis tries to ask Ruby as Hope pulled the plug for the second time, but Ruby took no interest in him, immediately heading towards her inside blazer pocket for her strongest perfume and sprayed it in Hope’s eyes. “Ow, Ow!” Both Otis and Eric called from the side almost like they were feeling the pain themselves. 

Ruby restored the video for a second time, “That is very expensive perfume!” Ruby responded genuinely livid that she had to resort to that just for this stupid vagina video to play out. 

“You are incredible!” Eric called. 

“I know” “She is,” Ruby and Otis said at the exact same time before smiling at one another. 

“Ugh, I thought you two dating was some kind of joke?” Great even Hope had heard all the whispers. 

Ruby responded by dragging Otis across the room entwining their hands and standing in front of the projector system to prevent her from getting access. “It is very much not, Mrs Hadon,” Ruby said proudly as Otis offered an uncomfortable smile in Hope’s direction. “By the way, your lipstick is shit I’d consider changing it up sometime” Ruby went back on her first words when meeting Hope. 

After spending a brief time at the iconic ‘wall of cock’ Otis found himself chasing Ruby down the pathway out of school. “Ruby! Ruby!” Otis shouted as he skipped down the pathway. 

“Thought you had dumped me for Eric” Ruby smiled taking his hand into hers. 

“Well while I would like to spend as much time as possible with my best friend, I think he wants to spend some alone with his boyfriend” Otis replied still practically skipping along, Ruby want’s to do the same like they are a couple in some cheesy musical skipping through beautiful green fields as the smile and giddiness on his face was infectious. But then if she did skip across the Moordale campus with Otis Milburn her reputation would reach a new all-time low. 

“Ohhh, does that mean we’ll get some alone time too then” Ruby replied as they stopped in front of her car Ruby fiddling with his stupid jacket she had grown to love. 

“Well no one Is in at my place, my mum is out with Maureen Groff at some pregnancy thing.” Otis said as they moved closer together. 

“Excellent” Ruby moved in to kiss her boyfriend, deepening it immediately and then biting on his bottom lip like she always loved to do as he would make this small little whimpering sound but as she did she felt the need to pull away as someone was standing very close to them. 

“Ola!” Otis said as he pulled away from Ruby. 

“Can I have a word?” Ola asked nodding away from the car. 

“I’ll be back in a minute,” Otis said to Ruby as he followed Ola further into the school car park. 

“I’m worried about Lily, she hasn’t spoken to me after everything that happened with Hope, could you go and talk to her please?” 

“I’m not a therapist, Ola.” 

“I know, but she told about how much you helped her with the vaginismus stuff, I think she really trusts you.” 

Otis quickly glanced over to where Ruby with most of her bare legs exposed below her white skirt that she had changed into after ‘the thing’.Ola had caught on that Otis was very distracted. 

“I mean if you have more important things to do then that’s fine” Ola turned away in a huff. 

“Ola-” Otis tried to call but it was too late, he had fucked that up there. He turned back towards Ruby who gestured to her car in away that said ‘Hurry up nerd, we are wasting valuable time’, Otis jogged over as Ruby climbed into the car. 

“Well, that reminds me,” Ruby said in reference to Otis mentioning Maureen Groff “Adam’s invited us to watch his dog jump through some hoops or some shit tomorrow,” Ruby informed Otis as he joined her in the front seat. 

“Sorry what?” A confused Otis asked. 

“Well I’ve been invited, your my plus one” Ruby smiled and patted her boyfriend on his shoulder “He’s going to invite Eric later also don’t worry” 

“You two are really getting along,” Otis said in reference to all the time Ruby had spent texting or calling Adam it made him happy that he, his best friend and their respective partners were all getting so close, everything he had ever wanted.

“Yeah well someone refuses to watch reality tv with me” Otis would personally rather slowly poke his eyes out with a fork.

They pulled out of the car park with Ruby storming past Ola who was cycling on her way to her shift at work Otis briefly caught eyes with her still with that sense of hurt. “I need you to go to Lily’s,” Otis said as Ruby turned the bend. 

“Who’s that?” Ruby asked

Seriously “Lily Igleheart” Ruby narrowed her eyes. “Ola’s girlfriend” Still narrowed eyes. “She wrote that story in the newspaper” Still narrowed eyes. “The sex alien girl” 

“Ah, that’s the one” Ruby’s brain kicked into life. 

“Don’t call her that though, Ola said she’s been going through a tough time and wants me to go on talk to her” 

Ruby pondered the proposition for a moment. 

“It would be really-” 

“Fine!” Ruby shot back and they were off to Lily’s.

Otis directed her to Lily’s house and eventually, they arrived and as Ruby looked the house up and down like they were a new kid at school so Ruby could add them into her fashion ranking tier list. “Do you reckon she keeps the UFO in the loft?” 

“Not now Ruby” Otis shut down her joke as he got out of the car. 

“How long will you be?” Ruby asked. 

“As long as I have to” 

And Otis was as long as he needed to be, it was painful to see Lily down like this, for someone who is normally so full of life well normally alien life but it hurts nonetheless to see someone not their usual self. So he links that to his finishing line “You’re Great just the way you are” his mind strays at that moment, even though it shouldn’t to Ruby all these little changes she would try and make for him and was so adorable seeing her put the effort in that way but Otis lied Ruby wasn’t great the way she was, she was perfect, cheesy he knows and she would probably slap him if he said it in front of him, but it was true. 

As he walks away from Lily’s bedroom and then through her door with his mind full of Ruby, his mind strays again where it shouldn’t to this time, to Maeve. He wants to check his phone for Elsie’s sake, but Ruby was right in front of him and when he pulls his phone and she asks him what he is doing and Otis keeps up his track record of not having the ability to lie it will be an absolute shit show as he knows how Ruby feels about Maeve and it would annoy her especially when she is looking at him like she is going to shag his brains out when they get back to his house. 

And that’s what she does, that’s what she always does and after some more sex in the shower, the pair are downstairs watching the Moordale report on the TV with Ruby leaning her head on Otis’s shoulder.

“I think I’m going to cook you dinner,” Otis says jumping up from the couch. 

“Let me guess? Roast Chicken?” His ‘signature’ dish. 

“Of course, I think it could be used as one of your 3 non-” 

“I’ve moved graduated from 3 non vegan meals to 4 Otis I did tell you this” Ruby calls from the couch twisting her head to see him from the kitchen. 

“Yes of course you did” Otis replied as he began gathering everything he needed from the various cupboards.

“You know if you’re cooking, you should wear your mum’s apron” Ruby with her chin resting on the top of the couch watching Otis in adoration just about managed to gesture her eyebrows to where Jean’s apron was hung up. 

“Ohh this one” Otis pointed towards it and Ruby nodded. “Okay, okay” Otis mumbled as he put it over his head “How do I look?” Otis twirled around and pulled out some awful dance moves attempting to give it some style. 

“It’s one of your best looks, but that really isn’t saying much.” 

Otis decided to carry on with his awful dance moves and turn on the speaker as his usual 80’s playlist began to play. Ruby thought she had escaped that for the night with no one else in the house they didn’t have to play music to hide what they were doing in his bedroom even though Jean was no idiot. That was another plus of the night as she got to hear him moan her name as loud as possible instead of matching it to the tune of the music, taking her back to the days of the woods. 

“ Dancing in Heaven! ” God his singing was even worse than his dancing resulting in quite a dire combination, but still, she couldn’t help but grin as she watched this stupid nerd that she had fell so hard for manoeuvre across the kitchen whilst holding a chicken. She was going to tell him now. It isn’t all Eifel towers under the night sky, sometimes it is while your boyfriend is holding an uncooked chicken while singing Britain’s 1982 Eurovision entry.

And she had decided she didn’t want it any other way.

As she prepared herself to jo join him in the kitchen, her eyes were distracted by Otis phone ringing ‘Jakob’ it had been ringing for a few seconds Ruby had just been so away in her thoughts, she had picked it back up with the intention to call him back, after all, she knew his passcode, her birthday and her’s was his. But before she could call back a text popped up instead. 

Holy fuck. 

“Otis! Otis! Otis!” He could just make out Ruby’s voice over the music, she had definitely gotten to the point where she was getting embarrassed by his moves and that is exactly what he wanted as there was something so sweet about Ruby’s voice when she was desperate for something even when she was desperate for him to shut the fuck up. 

But it was definitely not so sweet when she slapped him across the face to get him out of the zone. “Oww!” He squealed, “What was that for?” 

“Otis it’s your mum”

Chapter Text

As soon as Ruby processed to Otis what was going on they had shot out of the door with Otis forgetting to lock the door on the way out with Ruby insisting that it had to be locked. Otis was an absolute wreck on the drive to the hospital, Ruby was almost certain that Otis was going to kick through the floor of her car as his leg nervously bounced up and down,Ruby would normally threaten Otis with his life if he made a scratch on it, but perhaps this wasn’t the time. They didn’t know what to expect as Jakob’s initial text was rather devoid of specific details but when he called again and explained to Otis what had happened she slowly watched his face dissolve into yet more pain and when Otis had told Ruby what had happened she put her foot down a little more. 

Ruby knew the route to the hospital all too well and how to minimise any lost time entering the hospital car park, parking in her usual spot. Otis had opened the passenger door before Ruby had come to a standstill again she wants to scream “Watch the fucking door!” As he nearly scrapes the VW Golf on their left but again it isn’t the time. 

“I’ll get a ticket!” Ruby shouts but she doesn’t think Otis even registers her as he sprints down to the hospital entrance, people don’t know normally ignore Ruby Matthews but again this isn’t an ordinary situation. 

Fuck she thinks as she hits the ticket machine as it takes its time to print her ticket. She is used to it wacking the machine as hard as possible eager to get inside to see her dad, her parents decided it was best for her to drive as soon as possible, with her mum’s inability to drive and her dad’s condition beginning to pick up someone in the Matthews household had to drive and it certainly wasn’t going to be Baby. It helped that Ruby was the oldest in her entire year with her birthday on the 1st of September so she could pass her test as soon as possible, Ruby thinks she probably would have failed her test the first time if she didn’t wear her best low cut top and batted her eyelids at her driving examiner, Ruby would do anything for her family. 

Now she was here wacking the machine as hard as possible while Jean Milburn lay in the hospital with her fate unknown, what made it worse than it already was is that she knew Otis had been anxious about this possible outcome, constantly telling her about the risks and potential after-effects of having a baby at an older age even dating back to when she was sat in his lap on the passenger seat of her car out in the woods and she would just slap him silly “Nothing Personal Milburn”

As she turned into the hospital doors she could hear a scream and several concerned voices, she jogged a little to get into the waiting room to see Otis on the floor almost throwing himself back and forth breathing extremely heavily with Ola and Jakob stood over him squabbling amongst themselves. 

“He’s having a panic attack!” Ola called. 

“Well, what do we fucking do!” Jakob shouted back at his daughter. 

“Meds, he used to have meds” 

“Well, Jean said he doesn’t have to have them anymore!” There was a distinct amount of pain in Jakob’s voice when he said Jean’s name. 

The argument had now transcended into Swedish but Ruby was now close enough to intervene. 

“Otis! Otis, it’s me!” Ruby knelt down to her boyfriend’s level as he was slumped up against the hospital reception. 

Otis breathing saw no sign of slowing down so Ruby rotated his face via softly grabbing his chin and turning it so their eyes met, At this moment Ruby perhaps wished she was someone else with kinder reassuring eyes as she could sometimes look at boys at school and they would simply run away at her glance it was a fun game she liked to play, but at this moment, at this time, with this person, it seemed to work. 

When Otis removed his hands from covering his eyes and connected them with Ruby his breathing seemed to come down a slight touch. “It’s okay, I’m here, I’m here” Ruby began to stroke his hand “I’m here, I’m here” Otis breathing got slower and slower until it returned to a normal level “It’s going to be okay,” Ruby said as a now tearful Otis leant into her side. 

“Is it going to be okay” Ruby mouthed up towards Jakob and Ola. 

“I don’t know” Jakob answered 

Ruby just continued to stroke Otis back as he continued to sob “Shhhh” she attempted to soothe him. 

“I’m going to call Lily,” Ola said watching Otis and Ruby from above. 

“Okay dear” Jakob patted his daughter on her shoulder as she went to retrieve her phone. 

That reminded Ruby, someone else should be here also. So she gently reached into Otis pocket to retrieve his phone. 

Eric was roaming the streets at night, he didn’t do this often as he knew the risks of being who he was out this late at night, but right now he needed to be. He had gone home immediately after he had confessed to Adam about what happened in Nigeria, he had sat in his room for a while sat on the edge of his bed thinking through what he had just done. He didn’t need to tell Adam, it wasn’t like he was going to pop off to Nigeria and accidentally bump into Oba, did he tell him out of guilt? Or because he ‘didn’t want to pretend anymore’ and Adam was full of pretences.

What he hated most was Adam’s silence, even if he gave any sort of hint of emotion either way it would have given some sort of sense of where they were at. Even on text message, it was just silence. 

So Eric had felt trapped in his room, so he just walked and walked and walked to the point to where his legs were in pain just so he could feel something. 

Eventually, he felt something else another humans body crashing into his as he turned a corner for what felt like the 1000th time today. He was relieved to look up to see the person he had crashed into wasn’t some 6’5 bodybuilder but was someone at one time he thought was scarier than a bodybuilder. 

“Maeve” 

“Eric” Maeve looked down towards the floor “Your phone” 

“Whoops” Eric quickly scooped up his phone from the floor as it must have dropped when they collided “Isn’t smashed thank goodness” Eric waved the phone up the air. “What are you doing out here anyway?” Eric had never been to the caravan sight but he knew that it was a long way away from this part of town. 

“My Sister’s foster parents lives around the corner, I couldn’t sleep so I thought I’d walk around the block” 

Eric’s brain kicked into life “Oh my god your sister! Is she okay?”

Maeve smiled at Eric’s concern “Yeah we found her she’s fine now” 

“Wow that must have been pretty scary” Eric responded. 

“Yeah but it’s all good now,” Maeve said as they both began to walk together both with no idea where they were going. 

After a few minutes of comfortable silence, Maeve moved onto a reflected mood “Do you remember when the three of us stood in that stupid toilet and planned to take over the world” 

“Well I don’t think it was the World Maeve just the money of sexually frustrated teenagers” Eric joked back. 

Maeve smiled again “Yeah I suppose”  

“Well I got dropped from that team pretty quickly” Eric joked thinking back to his inability to organise anything probably a trait he still holds. 

“Things turned out well for you though, you and Adam” 

Eric smiled to cover up the pain that he was feeling inside “Yeah, How is Issac?” Eric tried anything to move the conversation away from Adam as quickly as possible. 

Maeve narrowed her eyes at him. “How do you know about Issac?” She quizzed. 

“Oh, Otis told me about him” Eric winced a little hoping he had not landed his best friend in any kind of trouble. 

To Eric’s relief, a Smile again reappeared on Maeve’s face as she thought about how Otis still at least spoke to his best friend about her. “Is he happy, Otis?” Maeve quizzed she had heard how Otis was from the man himself how about an outside opinion. 

“I think so, obviously it’s hard to say as I’ve only just got back from Nigeria but before I went Me, Adam, Otis and Ruby went on a double date and they were the cutest thing I had ever seen” Eric rambled on about the happiness of that night and how he would do anything to take that feeling back and not for a second thinking about how her words could affect Maeve. 

Maeve dipped her head slightly thinking about how that could have been her if things had turned out differently. 

“Sorry” Eric apologised. 

“Eric it’s fine” Maeve replied whilst fiddling with her hands. 

“She is very different. Ruby” 

“Yeah, so I keep hearing” Maeve shot back towards him. 

Before Eric could muster up a response his phone began buzz in his pocket “Excuse me, Oatcake!” Eric’s face lit up when he answered the phone

Maeve smiled to herself again at their use of cute nicknames, thinking of all the nicknames she could have used for him and it definitely would have been a better one than ‘OT’. 

“Oh Ruby, to what do I owe the pleasure.”

Great fucking great, Even though she imagined and knew Otis and Ruby did a lot more things together just the simple intimate act of them using one another’s phones hurt her even more. But Maeve quickly realised something wasn’t right via the quick change in Eric’s expression. 

“Oh, oh my god, yeah I’ll be as quick as I can” Eric hung up the phone practically shaking. 

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s Jean” 

Back at the hospital, Otis was now sat up in the waiting room chairs struggling to keep his eyes awake Ola had long been asleep and Jakob was pacing up and down. Ruby was returning from the vending machine to collect her third diet coke in the past hour. 

“Hey,” Ruby said as she sat down next to him. 

“Hmmm” Otis groaned as he could now lean his head back on her shoulder. 

“You know you can go to sleep, Me or Jakob will wake you up if there is any news” Ruby nodded to Jakob across the room talking to himself. “But don’t give me too much time alone with him” Ruby followed up within reference to the running joke she has with him about fancying Jakob.

Otis laughed for the first time what felt like years with how long they had been waiting placing a smile back on Ruby’s face also. “Is everything going to be okay Rubes?” The sleepy Otis asked as he turned his head slightly to see her eyes as his head still rested on her shoulder. 

“Yeah” She kisses him very lightly on the top of the forehead. Of course in actual fact, Ruby had no idea if everything was going to be okay all she did know is that they would try their best to make the best of whatever situation they left the hospital in. 

“I think I’m going to go to sleep now Rubes” Otis mumbled settling deeper into Ruby’s shoulder as she slowly and softly ran her hands through his hair. 

“Okay,” She kisses his forehead again and continued to run her hands through his hair until she was pretty confident he had drifted into sleep and she decided to say those words she had never said before the words she was supposed to say a few hours ago, the words she had wanted to say a few weeks ago and the words that had first come into her brain a little over a month ago. She leans in that little bit closer to him and softly whispered “I love you” 

Unbeknown to her Otis was pulling his usual trick of holding onto consciousness for that little bit longer to enjoy the way Ruby holds onto him, but this is not what he expected this time around, his heart nearly explodes out of his chest when he hears the words, but one thing he is certain of is that his eyes shoot back open without Ruby’s knowledge as he is still buried in her shoulder, he didn’t have time to plan his next move as two pairs of footsteps entered the room. 

Ruby shifted her head towards the two footsteps while still concentrating on the patterns she was making in her boyfriend’s hair. “Hiiii,” Eric says softly entering while Ruby clocked eyes on cockbiter. 

“What are you doing here?” Ruby asks. 

Otis knows he can’t move, If he wakes he adds heightening the tension between them.

Maeve stands at the doorway. It all pains her, the way Otis was so content in Ruby’s  arms and how she skilfully ran her hands through his hair and with the venom she asked the question. “I can’t do this” Maeve said out loud shaking her head in the process and walked out. 

Maeve stormed outside and began lighting her cigarette still furious with Ruby, even in a time like this when Otis’ mother could be dying a few rooms down and the future of this newborn child unknown and Ruby Matthews was still treating her like she is a piece of shit like it was some sort of game to her and yet there was the stupid boy she fell for draped all over her body. The whispers always said, “They thought it was a dare” and that Ruby would come clean and make Otis look like a fool. But Maeve thought it was a dare in the opposite direction, while yes every straight guy at the school would kill to spend five minutes with Ruby Matthews and Otis would be no exception to that but just the way she always believed about him requiring a connection and his kindness would collide with her and surely Otis wouldn’t date Ruby Matthews and here they were in his moment of need and it was Ruby not her in his arms it was all starting to become very real for her. 

Speaking of real, the ‘real’ Ruby Matthews appeared, joining her outside the hospital ‘Oh great’ Maeve muttered as Ruby approached. 

“Do you have one going spare?” Ruby asked nodding towards Maeve cigarette packet. 

Maeve chuckled “You smoke?” Thinking of Ruby’s extremely healthy routine as she passed over the cigarette. 

“We all do things you don’t expect” Oh she definitely knew what she was doing there Maeve thought as she lit the cigarette for Ruby. “Just don’t tell Otis, I can’t be arsed with him giving me a 40-minute lecture on the subject,” Ruby said as she began smoking. Maeve just smirked as it did sound like something Otis would do. “I do it when I’m stressed sometimes but only at home and not that often. 

“You know Jean Milburn well then?” Maeve asked as they both smoked in unison as far away from one another outside the hospital doors. 

“Yeah she’s great, did you ever get to meet Jean?” Ruby turned towards her asking like it was some form of competition. 

“No never” Ruby simply smirked. “When else do you get stressed? In a relationship? Most popular girl at school? Doesn’t sound very stressful” 

Ruby paused for a moment thinking about what elaborate lie she could think up. “School, you know exams” Normal people get stressed by exams Ruby Matthews couldn’t care less about exams, but whatever she could do to cover up her secrets. 

“It wouldn’t be about your dad would it?” Maeve asked not making any eye contact with her. 

What, how did she- “What did you just say!” Ruby stepped in closer to Maeve, so much so she triggered the automatic sensor that opened the hospital door. 

“Your dad, he has MS Right?” Maeve asked casually. 

“You keep my dad’s name out of your mouth cockbiter! Ruby snapped. “How did you know?” 

“You paid a little trip to the caravan sight right, thanks by the way” Maeve waved her keys up in the air. “Turns out your dad’s drug dealer lives opposite me, what are the chances of that ey” 

While she was furious that someone like cockbiter would know something so personal about her, there was some relief that it wasn’t Otis who had spilled her secret as she would have had to have a very serious conversation with him. “Fucking Jeffrey” She muttered. 

“I’m sorry” was all that Maeve said. 

“What?” A confused Ruby asked. 

“I said I’m sorry” She repeated.

“No, I heard you right. All those years of everything I had said and you are sorry?” 

“Yeah” Maeve replied bluntly.

“Why?” 

“Because nobody deserves to be dealt a bad hand in life, no matter in what form and besides you weren’t even the worst ” Maeve put out her cigarette and began to walk away back into the darkness as opposed to back into the hospital. 

“Wiley!” Ruby called and Maeve span around. “Don’t tell anyone about this, or I’ll kill you” Ruby tries to say her usual line with some menace but it doesn’t quite come out as expected. 

“Not if I kill you first,” She said with a smile and with that Maeve was gone into the night. 

“Fucking Cockbiter!” Ruby stomped on the cigarette and pulled out her perfume to kill the smell of the smoke before heading back inside. 

If Cockbiter wasn’t already in her head far too much than she should that conversation had only made things ten times worse. Why was she trying to be fucking nice to her? Was this mind games? She didn’t know. 

All thoughts of cockbiter were gone when she walked back into the waiting room and she spotted Otis back awake with a smile on his face talking to Eric. 

“Hey,” Otis said as he noticed her presence back in the room. 

“Hey” Ruby settled back into her seat brushing his hand on the way back down. 

“Where is Maeve?” Eric asked looking around for her. 

Ruby nearly made a joke about slaughtering her to death in the car park, but maybe it isn’t the appropriate time to joke about death. “She left” She admitted. 

“You didn’t say anything did you?” Otis leaned over. 

Ruby simply shook her head. “No, actually I didn’t.”

Again Otis fell back to sleep along with Eric, Ola and even Jakob. Ruby was just far too used to this place and was back at the vending machine, not the one directly next to the waiting room that one was shit, this one was a little less shit, Ruby knew all of this places little tricks, but still, this vending machine was still shit as she smacked it waiting for what her 7th? 8th? 9th? Coke zero of the night and she still doesn’t feel like she is going to explode but she might if this machine doesn’t fucking work! She smacks it one more time. 

“Watch it you!” A hand appeared over the machine. 

“Auntie Tracy!” Well, she wasn’t Ruby’s Auntie at all she was just her mothers best friend who after all these years she still called Auntie. 

“What the hell are you doing here?” Tracy asked in disbelief. 

“Coke Zero” Ruby nodded towards the vending machine. 

“No you idiot, I mean in the hospital because your dad isn’t in again is and I thought it was only diet you drank?” The redhead quizzed. 

“It went out of fashion” Ruby replied deadpan. 

Tracy chuckled. “Never change, young Matthews never change, but seriously what brings you here?” 

“My boyfriends mum is having a baby” 

Tracey’s eyes widened as she gasped, Oh no Ruby thought. “Ruby’s got a boyfriend, Ruby’s got a boyfriend” She teased and sang like she was an 8 year old in the school playground. Ruby and Tracey always had a great relationship, she was her godmother after all, always talking about fashion, celebrity gossip and boys of course it was always boys. 

“Shhhhhh” Ruby shushed as Tracey clearly wasn’t aware of the situation that was going on. 

“Oh, I wondered why I hadn’t seen you for so long! Go on what’s his name!”

“His mum haemorrhaged” 

Tracey’s facial expression went from 100-0 really quick. “I presume you mean that’s what happened because that would be a pretty fucked up name” 

Ruby rolled her eyes, Tracy was always trying to make light of any situation “No that’s what happened” 

“Oh thank god, I mean no that’s terrible” Tracy quickly corrected it as Ruby finally got her drink out. 

“Yeah, it is” Ruby took her first sip and walked back to the waiting room with Tracy following close behind. 

As they entered the waiting room, Tracy was very confused as she scanned the room there was no one very ‘Ruby like’. “Which one is your fella?” Tracy asked curiously. 

Ruby slowly pointed towards Otis who along with Eric were inches away from leaning on one another. 

“Oh” Was Tracey’s response. 

Well, Ruby had been here before . 

“Sorry, it’s just not what I expected, didn’t think he was your type” 

Ruby smirked. “Yeah, I get that a lot”. 

“He’s been coming here for a while with his mum, very caring, he seems really nice Rubes,” Tracy commented. 

“Yeah, he is” Ruby smiled watching her boyfriend sleeping. 

“Better getting a nice boy at 18, don’t want to end up like me and having a child with an arsehole and have him run off a month before the birth.” 

“I can’t believe my mum hasn’t mentioned Otis at least once” Considering she was ‘always going on and on about him. “Where is she by the way?” Ruby had thought it odd that she had been here for all these hours and it was silly o’clock in the morning and she hadn’t seen her mother at least once. 

“She isn’t on shift tonight” 

It was now Ruby’s turn to respond with “Oh” She could have sworn her mum said she was on shift tonight but had been a very long night maybe she was becoming delirious. “Anyway I better get back-” She pointed towards Otis. 

“To your Toyboy” Tracey filled in the blank for her. 

“Shut up”

It had eventually got too much for Ruby and now she had fell victim to sleep once the sun had come up. 

“Does she really snore like that?” Eric asked as he watched mesmerized by the noises Ruby was making. 

“All the time,” Otis said with a smile reappearing on his face, which hadn’t happened too much in the last 10 hours or so. He began to slowly stroke her hair. “Does Adam snore? I bet he does like really loud” Otis asked but there was a drop in Eric’s smile. “What’s wrong?”

Eric took a deep breath “I kissed someone else in Nigeria. I told Adam. I think we might be over” 

Otis weirdly felt broken by the news he had just been told, again just as he was getting used to and enjoying having someone or something around they were gone. 

“You’re not a bad person” Otis has to reassure Eric after he explained what happened. 

Then some footsteps approached again, for what felt like the tenth time waiting to hear “Sorry there is still no news” 

“Is my mum going to be okay?” Otis asked. 

“Sorry it’s still too early to tell, but we should have some more information for you soon.” 

A different way of phrasing it, but it was still all the same.

“Would you like to meet your sister?” 

Finally some positive news, Otis got Ola’s attention, he thinks about waking Ruby but she seems far too peaceful so he strokes her hair again before heading to meet his new sibling. 

“I’ll stay here and look after snoreasuars.”

It’s a remarkable sight to see this small girl who is going to be in his life in some way or another till the day he dies, watching her some of her first-ever movements whether it be a small twitch of a hand or a tiny kick of a leg. But perhaps the strangest thing after all these years of being a single child, this new baby was not at the forefront of his thoughts, his mind kept turning towards a few rooms down where his mother could be taking her last ever breaths and he wouldn’t even know it. 

After Jakob reassures some of his fears, Ruby walks through the door, looking incredibly fresh and beautiful. Despite Otis telling Ruby how she looked equally or even more incredible without everything on her face, she would still normally wake up early to add it on so it was nice to see her like this again. 

“I’ll let you kids be,” Jakob says standing up leaving his chair for Ruby. “Let’s just hope she doesn’t snore like you Miss Mathews,” Jakob says as he passes her and heads out the door. 

Ruby scoffs as she watches Jakob leave and then turned her face back to Otis “Do I snore?” 

Otis smirked and ducked his head and Ruby’s face turned bright red, thankfully there was a newborn child that could swiftly move the conversation away from Ruby’s embarrassment.

Ruby hovered over the baby with Otis also jumping up from his chair. “Well it’s official, she’s already better looking than you,” Ruby said as she scanned her face. 

“Hey!” Otis called back. 

“Well it’s true” Ruby continued to study the baby “Even more so when I get her some designer clothes.” 

Otis chuckled, he was really happy Ruby was here, she was able to cheer him up at the worst of times. 

“Well, we can’t have her being influenced by your fashion Milburn, she’ll be bullied at school” 

“Ruby you can’t be planning her whole life ahead she is barely half a day old!” 

“Yeah, we’ll I’m just saying she is lucky to have someone like me around” Ruby nearly got ahead of herself by saying “lucky to have someone like me in the family”. 

Otis bends down to lift his sister’s little hand up “Hiya Ruby!” Otis imitated a child’s voice while creating a waving motion with the baby’s hand. 

Ruby grins heavily and she and Otis eyes lock on above where the baby lay. Otis had been through a lot in the past few hours but he had definitely not forgotten what Ruby had said when she thought he was asleep. 

“Ruby I-” Those words she said to him had come flooding back to him and the feeling in his chest returned. “Ruby I-” He struggles to get out. 

“Otis,” She says ever so softly, making it ten times harder for him to bring this back up as just the tiniest little things she did could make his heart race faster.  

But his thoughts turn to his mother again, Now is not the time. “Ruby I need you to do me a favour” 

“Anything.” 

“I need you go to Adam’s dog thingy tonight still” 

Ruby narrowed his eyes at him. “Why?” 

Otis looked out to the door just in case someone was going to walk in “Eric kissed someone else in Nigeria, they look like they’re over. He’ll need cheering up” 

“Oh no” Was all Ruby could say as she was deep in thought as she and Adam had become really close recently and often would gossip about their other sides, How nervous Adam was to publicly express his relationship in public as this was all very new to him, something she could relate to heavily. 

She wanted to follow up with more details as she was genuinely hurt by what had happened but Jakob and Eric burst through the door. 

“Jean is out of surgery.” 

As Jakob and Otis went to see Jean, Ruby and Eric were left alone with no sign of Ola. 

Eric kept checking his phone throughout the comfortable silence. 

“You should really do something about that” Ruby commented as Eric checked his phone for the 7th time in a few minutes.

“Do something about what?”

“Adam, Otis told me about what happened.” 

Eric scoffed at his best friends telling his secrets. 

“Oh come on Eric, you definitely didn’t tell half the school that me and Otis had been shagging all summer.”

Eric laughed “Yeah that’s true,” He said as he played with his own fingers. 

“You should talk to him, I’m the master of not telling the truth,” Ruby thinks about extending a handout to Eric but maybe she isn’t quite there with Otis’ friends yet. 

“Yeah,” Eric says to himself and then Otis reappears with Ruby and Eric waiting patiently for news.  

“My mum thinks she’s the king” 

“What?” Eric and Ruby say in unison. 

“She’s high on anaesthetic, she told me she’s the king of everything,” Otis says as he places himself next to Ruby again. 

Eric laughs and Ruby was just Ruby “Does that mean you are finally going to get some new clothes?” She said as she stroked his coat. 

“Yeah actually I’m thinking of getting a crown, some golden shoes a robe but I’ll be keeping the coat,” Otis replied straightening his famous coat back out again. 

Eric watched on as Otis and Ruby looked at one another with all the love in the world and thought back to what Eric had said to her a few moments to go. “I’m really glad your mum is okay, but I think it’s time I go talk to Adam. 

“Thank you, Eric” 

“See you” Ruby adds on.

Eric leans in to hug with Otis holding onto him for a few seconds longer, probably from the pain they would have both felt if something had happened to Jean in the end. 

Otis and Ruby were now left alone with Eric gone, Otis returning his full attention to her. “You know if you are going to see Adam’s dog thing later, I think you are going to have to go home and have a shower because you are quite stinky right now. 

It was true they had been here for a while now “Excuse me! Ruby Matthews does not smell! I’ve regularly been topping up” Ruby pulled out her perfume again spraying it over her again. 

“Maybe a little bit” Otis tried to visualise by how much with raising his hand leaving a tiny gap between his right thumb and right index finger. 

“Well if I stink a bit, you really fucking stink” Ruby playfully smacked him. 

“Yeah but at least I own it” 

“You’re gross”

They both leaned in for a quick kiss but just after their lips connected a voice towered over them. “No kissing in hospitals” 

Both Otis and Ruby jumped apart. “Mum!” An embarrassed Ruby said attempting to hide her blush from her mother who had clearly just arrived for work. 

“I heard about your mother,” Claire said looking down at Otis’. 

“Yeah” He sighed. “But she is on the mend now” 

“Have you decided on a name yet?” Claire quizzed. 

“No, not yet” Otis confirmed. 

“I thought you were supposed to be on shift last night?” Ruby asked her mother changing the tone. 

Claire looked around the room and just shook her head. 

“I could have sworn you said you were”

Claire shook her head again, “I think you are just tired darling” Claire leaned in placing a kiss on her daughter’s forehead, Otis smiled as Ruby was clearly embarrassed next to her at her mother’s display of affection. “By the way, you both stink,” Claire said as she walked off. 

Ruby rose up after her mother left. “Right I think I better go and get ready for this stupid dog thing.” 

“But it’s not for hours” Otis glanced up at the clock. 

“Beauty takes time Otis, plus my dad’s on his own now don’t want him to be alone for too long” 

Otis nodded and Ruby leaned down to kiss him. 

“See you.” 

“See you” 

As they both turned around from one another, one walking out the hospital doors, one remaining in the chair they both had a wide smile on their face both thinking about how lucky they were to have one another.

Ruby was definitely severely overdressed for the “Midgeville County Dog Trails”, but Ruby was always overdressed no matter what but this was weird. She thought about bringing Baby but Baby would just want to be the centre of the attention, so probably not the best idea.

Ruby awkwardly hovers over the course before a friendly face greets her.

“Ruby, I didn’t know you were coming” Maureen Groff tapped her on the shoulder. Ruby had gotten to know Maureen a while she had been round at Adam’s watching Kardashian re runs. 

“Hello Maureen” Ruby would much prefer to call her ‘Mrs Groff’ but after Adam had told her about the divorce situation it was probably best not to go there.

“I’m weirdly excited,” Maureen said as she and Ruby headed towards their seats. “I just wish he would be more open with me” 

Adam’s unwillingness to open up to his mother had convinced Maureen that Adam and Ruby were a couple in the early stages of their relationship. 

Ruby and Maureen took their seats as Maureen waved to Miss Sonds? Miss Sands? Behind them, god they were like the worlds worst female pop group. 

But Ruby did have a good time, especially when Madam the stupid dog who is constantly trying to curl up on her lap against her wishes while she is trying to watch the latest Kim and Kourtney drama is running around but definitely the best part about the experience was Adam’s joyful smile as he patted Madam after their performance and while she hasn’t known Adam probably for that long she knows that the smile doesn’t come out that often. Her heart did sink a little bit when Adam didn’t place on the podium, but she certainly gave a huge cheer and big clap for Adam when he receives his special mention. 

Back at the hospital, Otis is enjoying a game of cards with his mum discussing his brief encounter with Hope outside, he was actually glad Ruby wasn’t here at this moment as that would have been a pretty awkward experience all around as Otis did still notice a mark on her arm where Ruby had given her a burn. 

“You must be exhausted, why don’t you go home and get some rest?” Jean proposes to him and as much as he was for once enjoying a heart to heart with his mother he was in need of some sleep again. 

Otis leans in to give his mother a light peck on her right cheek “I love you” He says. 

“I love you too” 

Those words make him think when he begins to walk out of the hospital doors. “Ruby said she loves me mum” Otis span around to face his mother again.

Jean smiled at her son “Did you say it back?” She asked ever so softly. 

“No, not because I didn’t want to, because I was asleep, well that’s not true I was half asleep” Otis began rambling again. 

“Okay, let me phrase it differently darling. Did you want to say it back?” 

Otis thought for a moment about his current situation about how happy he was, His mother was alive and well in front of him, giving him a stable and healthy family for once in his life, he had a brand new sister a few doors down and he was very much in love with Ruby Matthews. “Yes mum, I do” 

Otis pretty much bounces out of the room at all the happiness he was feeling right now, he had to tell her so he dived his hand straight in his pocket to reach for his phone. 

“Well done” Ruby says as she walks next to Adam as the head out of the venue. 

“We didn’t win” Adam says half deflated. 

“Well as my dad said when I had a tantrum after not winning the year 4 egg and spoon race, it’s not the winning that counts it’s the taking part.” 

Adam narrowed his eyes at his friend. “I think every parent tells their kid that” 

Ruby smiled it was true, she was mostly smiling about the memory of her dad out and about, jumping up and down as he cheered her on and his annoyance after when Ruby demanded that she had to be first completely ignoring his advice. “Speaking of parent’s telling kids things, I think you need to do the reverse of that and tell your mum that we’re not a couple because I think she was planning our wedding back there”

Adam chuckles at the thought and nodded “Okay” He didn’t want Otis to ‘mess him up’ he thinks back to the day he first saw Otis and Ruby together in the shop, when Otis did his best attempt to threaten him if he did anything to Eric, Eric…..

Ruby got her phone out as Adam joined his mother just in front of her, she had around 20 missed messages from Otis, detailing her on how his mother’s condition was getting better, awkwardly bumping into Hope and they had decided on a name Joy, a nice name. 

She was glued to her phone and a smile was glued to her face as she loved how Otis would text in the exact same way he would talk and she could hear his stupid rambling voice through her phone, now she wanted to hear it for real. But before Ruby could make the call, his name popped up on her screen. 

“Hey” Otis said from outside the hospital. 

“Hey” Ruby replied still navigating her way out of the venue. “So Joy then” 

“Yeah” Otis smiled “Do you like it?” 

“Well it’s certainly better than Otis, I won’t have to shorten that one.”

Otis smiled again, leaning against the brick wall outside the hospital. “Ruby’s a nice name” 

Ruby narrowed her eyes as she exited the building “What are you after Otis?” Ruby asked as she was suspicious of the change in tone in his voice. 

“Erm, Erm I-” He muttered, he wasn’t really sure how he was going to word this one.

“Otis” 

“I heard what you said this morning when you thought I was asleep before Maeve arrived.” 

Ruby stopped dead in her tracks and now she was leaning on a brick wall. ‘Oh, shit’ she mouthed. 

“I do it all the time, stay up when you think I’m sleeping, because I like, no love it when you hold on to me really tight and the way you snore is like extremely adorable I didn’t want to tell you because you would threaten to ruin my life again, but now you know anyway, these are some of the things I like no love again about you so what I wanted to say-” Otis rambled before Ruby cut him off. 

“No, let’s do this properly,” A beaming Ruby said from the other side of the phone, “I love you,” She said smirking into the phone waiting for him to say it in return. 

“I love you too” 

Chapter Text

“You’re Instagram is so shit,” Ruby says from one end of the bed carefully and slowly scrolling through his feed.

After their love confession to one another over the phone, they had both raced back to Otis’ house for some extra passionate sex. Now they were both lay at the opposite ends of Otis bed with their legs all tangled up in the middle. Ruby had decided she would begin scrolling through her boyfriend’s Instagram feed and yeah she wasn’t impressed. 

It was mostly just photos of records and other nerd shit, the occasional photo of him with Eric whether it be badly lit selfies in the cinema with their popcorn, on a cycle ride or at a gaming convention? What the fuck even is that? Ruby had never even followed Otis on Instagram until three weeks into their summer affair as she needed to be extra cautious especially after she had managed to squash the rumours that they had slept together after the party at his house but eventually she gave in as she missed his stupid face when she would have to cancel their meet up in the woods due to a problem coming up with her dad, even though she would never admit it and tried to tell herself that it was just a little reward for him for giving her such excellent pleasure. While Otis was a private account that had barely scraped over a 100 followers, Ruby had well over a 1000, featuring all of her best outfits and looks, regularly updating every time she felt she was ‘on fleek’ Sometimes- well correction all of the time she really did question how they were a couple.

“I know,” Otis said smiling as he scrolled through his own phone, making his way over to Ruby’s Instagram. “Why is there nothing of me on your Instagram.” Before entering a relationship Otis hated how other people’s social media was defined by their relationship, whether it be names or initials in bio’s, constant spamming of stories just to remind everyone that they were together and just the inability to upload a photo with anyone else. Otis still did feel this way, but surely one post wouldn’t hurt, he just wanted as many people as possible to know how lucky he was.

“Why is there nothing of me on your Instagram” Ruby correctly pointed out. 

“Rubes, you know I hardly use it, you on the other hand would probably have a fit if you didn’t upload for a week” Otis replied. 

“I’ve never posted any of my boyfriend’s on Instagram” She pointed out again and she wondered how what was supposed to be a light-hearted joke about his Instagram had turned into a sort of attack on her.

“How many boyfriends have you dated for over two months and how many have you told them that you loved them” Otis leaned over to grab Ruby’s hand. 

“None” She whispered keeping her eyes away from him for a moment. 

“You’re not embarrassed by me are you again?” This is what Otis had worried about the most. 

Ruby sighed heavily “No Otis, I’m not embarrassed by you, except when you wear those jeans-”

“Ruby” Otis stopped her, wanting her to be serious. 

“I’m doing it to protect you.” 

“What?” A confused Otis asked. 

“There are lot’s of people who still don’t know about me and you” She began as she played with his fingers “And I know certain people who wouldn’t say very nice things, I think you know exactly who I am talking about” 

“Yeah, I do” Otis paused for a moment. “Ruby you know I don’t care what people say about me I have heard it a million times before. 

“Yeah but I do” 

Otis smiled as he looked away from the sincerity on her face back down to his hands that she was still playing with. It was very sweet what she had just said “Aw is it because you loveeee me” Otis teased.

Ruby rolled her eyes. “God I wish I never told you.” 

“No you don’t” Otis leaned towards her and Ruby did the same in return. 

“No, I don’t.”

They both then leaned in further to connect their lips. 

“I love you,” Ruby said in between kisses.

“I love you too” Otis responded and Ruby smiled before picking up the pace of the kiss. 

Before things could get any further they were interrupted by the knocking of the Milburn door. 

“Ugh” They both groaned as they got off the bed and put their clothes back on to head to the door. 

“Eric!” Otis said as he swung open the door. 

Eric just eyed Otis up as well as Ruby in the background who were both straightening themselves and their clothes back up. “Is now a good time?” Eric asks. 

Otis narrows his eyes “Yes, I invited you over remember?” 

Eric shook his head at his silliness “Yes of course, sorry.” His head had been all over the place with the events of the past 48 hours or so. 

Otis quickly grabbed his coat and the trio headed outside with Otis and Eric giving lead. 

“So what are we doing?” Eric asked. 

Otis stopped dead in his tracks just before the treehouse. “I thought it would be nice to try and finish it before they get home, Jakob’s going to be parenting and stuff. 

“Oh, I don’t really think I’m dressed for DIY” Eric looked down at his outfit. 

“Yeah, you do look amazing by the way, Uncle Eric” 

“Yeah, you look fierce Eric” Ruby called from behind them. 

Eric blushed extremely hard, it meant a lot to him coming from the person whose fashion he had pretty much idolised all the way through school “Thank you Ruby.” He muttered very quietly and nervously.

“Right” Otis offered out some tools to Eric. 

“Er- I’m not touching any of that fucking shit,” Ruby said in disgust towards the pile of wood. 

“I know” 

So Otis and Eric began their best attempts of assembling together this treehouse, while Ruby sat down below in a camping chair watching the boys work wrapped in a blanket Otis had fetched for her sat in front of a fire Otis had also assembled from the pieces of wood he didn’t think they would need, all while sipping on a glass of wine from a bottle she had stolen out of Jean’s cupboard. 

She was beaming with the happiness she had become used to since being with Otis, what had started out as a welcomed distraction from all of her problems at home, to this her heart constantly fluttering in her chest as she watched him do even the most minor of things. She thinks back to what Otis had said back in his bedroom about being embarrassed to be with him on social media, so she decides to appease him a little bit by taking out her phone and she takes a picture of the night sky in front of her with Otis’ and his stupid jacket just about visible if you squint hard enough in the distance. She adds a love heart to the post and adds it to her story.  Baby steps.

Meanwhile, up on the treehouse, Otis and Eric are trying their best in a field they couldn’t be more out of depth in. 

“How did it go with Adam?” Otis asks. 

“We broke up” Eric confirms “It was horrible” He mutters on at the end of his sentence. 

“Do you want to talk about it?” Otis puts down the hammer for a moment to turn to his best friend. 

“No” Eric responded swiftly “Tell me something happy.”

A wide smirk appeared on Otis face as he knew just what to tell Eric. “Ruby told me she loved me.” He leaned and whispered being extra careful in case Ruby overheard them. 

Otis caution was rendered pointless by Eric’s reaction who squealed “OH MY GOD!” before leaping up in the air nearly falling back through the wood on his way back down. 

“Okay! Okay!” Calm down! Calm down!” Otis repeated over and over again calming his friend down. 

“What the fuck is going on up there!” Ruby called from down below. 

Otis and Eric both jumped up, leaning their chins on the wood to view Ruby “Nothing, nothing” They both repeated in unison. 

Ruby suspiciously eyed the pair up “Right, just don’t disturb me unless one of you dies” Ruby said returning to her wine and comfort. 

Otis and Eric both spun back around now sitting with their backs up against the treehouse’s insides. 

“Oh my god, oh my god!” Eric whispered with excitement and Otis didn’t even respond just that grin repairing across his face. “I’m guessing you said it back?” 

With a wide smirk begging to form on his face Otis nodded back. 

“Ah!” Eric squealed again bringing his best friend into a quick embrace, they had both come a long way from “This is a new frontier my sexually repressed friend.” On the first day of the sixth form.

Maeve made her way across the gravel road that led to Otis’ house and realised the vastly unhappy memories she had of this place. The first time she had been here was when she was going to return his jumper to him and hopefully express in some way how she felt towards him but instead, she was greeted with him snogging that Ola girl from the dance. 

The second time was his party and she had been left embarrassed by Otis cutting her down bit by bit in front of what felt like the whole school year and of course, it was the first time he and Ruby had slept together. Well, that’s what she believed anyway as most of the school had disbelieved the rumour when Ruby did what she did but Maeve had looked at Otis directly in the eye and she knew it to be true. 

Hopefully, the third time wouldn’t be such a failure. All she wanted to do was tell him about tomorrow and then leave.

She can hear a kerfuffle of noise in the distance and what sounds like Eric’s voice and two others, one of them must be Otis and the other judging by the car outside the other must have been Ruby’s. Great, she could have done without Ruby here and even questions why she is here. She could just text him, but with everything going on with the baby he could be called back to the hospital at any time so this could be the last time she could see him for a while. 

“Otis?” She calls when she doesn’t see anyone. The first person she sees is Ruby as she spins around from a camping chair, the pair glare at one another for a moment before Maeve averted her eyes up to where Otis and Eric popped up from a treehouse? That wasn’t there before. 

“Maeve?” A shocked Otis asked. 

“Just wondered if I could have a word for a moment” 

Otis nodded and Maeve and Ruby made eye contact once again as Otis made his way down from the treehouse. 

“Congratulations,” Maeve said as Otis appeared in front of her.

Otis quickly looked over towards Ruby “What for?” He nervously asked Maeve. How the hell did she know? 

“The baby, idiot”

Oh, thank god Otis thought. “Yeah thanks, my mum seems to be on the mend now, she might need to spend a few more days in the hospital.”

“That’s nice” Maeve smiled in response. 

“Well, what brings you here?” Otis asks looking at the surrounding. 

“America” 

Otis again scaned his surroundings “No this Moordale.” 

Maeve smirked at his typical Otisness. “No idiot, I’m going to America.” 

Otis eyes widened “Holy Shit Maeve!” He said remembering the scheme she had mentioned to him previously. 

“Yeah, Holy shit”

“When are you going?” Otis asked. 

“Tomorrow, I’m leaving for the bus for the airport at five and Aimee and Isacc are going to see me off and you’re another one of my three friends, so I wondered if you would want to see me off?” 

Otis gave a quick glance towards Ruby before turning his attention back towards Maeve “Of course I would.” 

For a moment they stared at one another in silence, unsure of where this was going, but it was Ruby who broke the silence, by rising from the chair and approaching Otis and Maeve “I’m going to bed, don’t be too long.” 

“Okay,” Otis replied as Ruby leaned in to press a kiss to his cheek. 

“I love you”

“I love you too” Ruby again stares into Maeve’s eyes as a sign of victory as those words left Otis mouth as she bounced off into the Milburn household. 

“Love?” Maeve asks as soon as she knows Ruby is gone. 

Otis again smirked as he awkwardly forced his hands deep into his pockets.

“I best get going, I’ll see you tomorrow,” Maeve says twirling back towards his steps. 

“See you” Otis responded as Maeve set off on her way. As soon as Maeve was out of sight Ruby reappeared from the door. “I thought you had gone to bed?” Otis called as Ruby made her way back to her camping chair.

“No, she was just staring at you for too long.”

When it became clear that his mum would need to spend more time in the hospital just going through several checks before it was okay for her and Joy to return home Otis text Maeve letting her know that he would be able to make it to her ‘sending off’. The question was now how was Otis going to get there. 

Obviously, he could take the bus there but he was still on standby if he was needed at the hospital and being stranded in the middle of nowhere after jumping off the bus while his mum needed something was not going to be great. So his only option was Ruby who was sat across from him at the breakfast table having her nut milk which Otis had made sure there was enough bought for her at the latest supermarket shop.

“Ruby?” Otis began to propose.

“What?” Ruby snapped back with some anger as she had already warned Otis about eating too loudly from across the table. 

Oh, he already knew this was going to go great . “Erm- I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind taking me to the bus station later?” 

Ruby eyed him up and down in silence for a few seconds “So you can say goodbye to cockbiter.”

“Mae-” Otis tried to recorrect her but it was quite clear that Ruby had no plans to change her position on that one.

To be honest Ruby did sleep a little better last night knowing that cockbiter would be thousands of miles away by tomorrow and unable to disrupt their relationship anymore than she currently did by simply just being present at Moordale. But Ruby definitely wasn’t a fan of the big over the top goodbyes. 

“Yes, I’ll take you, but you better be fucking quick” 

Otis smiled and returned to his cereal taking a loud crunching bite. 

“Oh for fuck sake!”

Ruby was late, Otis was a little frustrated as he did want to see his friend for the last time for several months but he couldn’t be annoyed at Ruby she was already doing him a big favour as she was not exactly Maeve’s biggest fan and had just been back at her dad’s for a few hours. 

When eventually Ruby arrived and Otis hoped over the car seat, it was clear that something wasn’t right.

“Rubes?” 

It was quite clear that Ruby had been crying, which had come as a surprise to Otis’ as since they had began dating Otis had seen some surprising emotions that Ruby had never shared with anyone else, but he had never seen Ruby cry.

“I’m fine Milburn, just caught something in my eye with the hood up.” Ruby gestured upwards to her convertible roof.

“Ruby-” Otis attempted to begin and reach his hand out to her. 

“I said I’m fine Otis’!” She replied waving his hands away from him and began to start the engine. 

There was a very uncomfortable silence as they drove to the bus stop, with Ruby often sniffling or wiping her eyes on the way as Otis would try and sneak glances at her as she did so.

Eventually, they arrived at the bus station, they could spot Maeve surrounded by Aimee, Isaac, Anna and Elsie and lots and lots of bags. Ruby sped past them heading deep into the car park making sure nobody could spot her face. 

“Ruby” Otis said from the moment Ruby pulled the hand brake. 

“Just hurry up and say goodbye to cockbiter already” Ruby replied waving her hands out of the window in the direction of Maeve. 

“No, cockbiter can wait” Otis reached over to grab his girlfriends hands, whose eyebrows rose at Otis use of the word ‘cockbiter’, Otis didn’t want to call his friend that especially as he knew she was nothing like that, but he hoped a quick joke would calm and soothe his girlfriend. “So what’s up?”

Ruby looked down at Otis’ fingers which were gently stroking the top of her own. “My dad had a bit of a breakdown.” 

“What happened, you can tell me you know.”

Otis was right, it did feel good to have someone outside of her mum to talk to this stuff about. “He just kind of broke into tears, calling himself useless and a waste of space, which he isn’t.”

“Nobody’s a waste of space-” Otis began. 

“No therapizing Otis” Ruby snapped back. 

“I’m not therapizing, I’m just saying that everyone feels low and it’s okay to feel low and cry even if you are the big bad Ruby Matthews”

A small smile appeared on Ruby’s face through the tears that were now flowing. 

“If it keeps happening I can give you a number of a therapist, an ordinary one that won’t quiz you on your sex life” Otis joked on his mothers part.

“I’m not taking him to see one of those freaks!” Ruby realised quickly her mistake realising that she had said this to her boyfriend who had a therapist mother and had aspirations of following similar footsteps himself “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay” Otis could clearly see that Ruby was far from herself.

Ruby shook her head trying to stop the tears “I just don’t like seeing him upset” But this only made things worse and now Ruby was close to full blown sobbing her father was probably the most important person in her life and any time that smile on his face that she had grown up with wasn’t present it could turn her into an absolute wreck as he really did deserve the world.

“Hey Hey” Otis reached over and pulled her into an embrace rocking her body from side to side. This was definitely the most removed from the front Ruby would put up at school that Otis had seen, extremely vulnerable and emotional and in a way Otis was glad this was happening and Ruby felt comfortable enough with him to show another side to her. 

They simply held onto another for around a full minute in silence continuing to rock from side to side until Ruby’s tears stopped. He knew he was missing Maeve’s departure but right now he couldn’t care less about Maeve. 

Eventually Ruby removed herself from the hug. “Go on, go and wave Cockbiter off.”

Otis smiled as he placed his hands on her cheeks “I love you”

“I love you too” 

They were never going to tire of telling one another that.  

Otis gave her a quick kiss before, jumping out of the car. He walked through the car park he spotted Issac and his brother Joe? He thinks Maeve told him that was his name. 

Issac along with his brother were clearly moving away from the bus station and when he clocked eyes with Otis from across the car park, he called back towards Maeve “He’s here”.

Ah great they were definitely waiting for him. Otis began to lightly jog around the corner where there he met Aimee, Anna, Elsie and of course Maeve. 

Maeve’s face lit up when she realised that Otis had made it. 

“Hey” 

“Hey” 

They both repeated to one another as Otis joined the quartet.

“I think we’ll give you a minute” Aimee ever supportive of her best friend awkwardly nudged Anna who was holding Elsie and they all moved back leaving Otis and Maeve alone. 

“You excited” Otis nodded towards all of her bags. 

“Yeah, yeah I am” Little old Maeve Wiley from Moordale caravan park would be travelling to the big US of A. 

“You gonna miss me?” Otis asked. 

More than you know she thought. “You wish muppet.” 

They awkwardly stood in silence for a few seconds, before Meave realised it was now or never to finally get answers to something that had been playing on her mind over and over again ever since she found out. “Otis” She breathed softly.

“Yeah.”

“I know you left me a voicemail.” 

Otis quickly everted his eyes as his cheeks flushed up with embarrassment, all those memories of pain when he had been ignored by her for nearly six months now. “Are you sure this is the right time?”

“Why?” 

Otis nervously chuckled to himself “You know what it says, I don’t think it’s very appropriate to talk about it now.”

“I never got it”

What

“Issac deleted it.” 

“What?” He says aloud this time and begins scanning the car park for where Issac might be but there is no sign of him. 

“He said he was trying to protect me, apparently”

Otis just sighed, his head spinning with old thoughts he thought he had buried. 

“So what did it say?” Maeve prompted as Otis still hadn’t responded. 

“I don’t think it’s appropriate to say now” Otis nodded towards the bus that had now pulled up.

“Otis please”

Otis breathed in heavily again “It was something I felt strongly about at the time, but you ignored me and I’d be lying if I said these were my feelings now.” 

“Otis, I just need to know.”

He takes in another breath before telling her, he can’t repeat it word for word like he would used to be able to when he was alone at night his thoughts spinning around “Maeve, Maeve, Maeve, Maeve”. 

“Cause it’s always been you, I love you. But like I said it was a long time ago” Otis keeps his head firmly planted towards the floor, not daring to look Maeve in the eyes even once. 

A small tear slowly trickled down Maeve’s eyes as she heard ‘all that she ever wanted to hear’ but it was too late, far too late. “Okay” was all she could come up with. 

Otis finally lifted his head up to look Maeve in the eyes “Come on Miss!” The bus driver called who had held off long enough. 

Aimee, Anna and Elsie rejoined the pair ready to say their final goodbyes. 

“Aimes,” Maeve said as she brought her in for a tight embrace. 

“You call me the moment you land!” Aimee said within the hug. “You know about those air crash investigation programmes I watch with my mam”

Maeve smiled at her best friend’s poor timing considering she would be up in the air in a few hours. “Don’t worry I will” 

Next Maeve moved on to Anna and Elsie. “You are going to look after this little one aren’t you.”

“Of course” Anna responded. “You going to say goodbye to your big sister.” Anna gestured to Elsie before passing her over to Maeve. 

“Where are you going?” Elsie sweetly asked.

“Just away for a little bit, not for long though” Maeve patted her nose softly. “You are going to be so big by the time I get back though,” Maeve said planting a kiss on her forehead before handing her back to Anna. 

“Okay” Elsie responded not quite sure what was going on. 

That left only Otis to say goodbye to. 

“I’ll see you around.” 

“See you around muppet” 

They stared at each other again before Maeve jumped in wrapping her arms around him, closing her eyes on the other side as she held onto him tightly. When she pulled out of the hug Maeve planted a small kiss on Otis’s cheek, before returning to her bags. 

Aimee, Anna, Elsie and Otis watched Maeve give one final wave before getting on the bus and headed off to the airport they all watched on as the bus turned the corner. 

“What are we going to do now Otis?” Aimee said as the bus disappeared from sight. 

“I don’t know Aimee, I don’t know.”

Anna and Elsie headed off in the opposite direction to Otis and Aimee who were walking back to Ruby’s and their own cars respectively. 

“Why did you do it, Otis’?” Aimee asked breaking the silence between the pair. 

“Do what?” 

“Choose Ruby over Maeve, I mean you’re a clever lad I get it that Ruby is some sort of goddess when it comes to looks but are you really going to grow old and get married with Ruby Matthews, seriously Otis.” Aimee expressed. 

Otis didn’t like jumping ahead to the future, especially when they had been together a little over two months and pledging your marriage and everlasting love to someone at 17 years of age was cheesy and corny, but Otis couldn’t help but say what was on his mind as Ruby came into view adjusting her makeup in the front seat of her car, taking out her phone taking selfies of herself posing very ‘Ruby like’ as Otis liked to say. 

“That sounds nice actually”

Chapter Text

“No, no more central” Ruby called from down below as Otis listened to her give him instructions.

Jean had now spent a few days in the hospital and was given the all-clear and it was time for her to come home along with Jakob and Joy. At the house, they were setting up for a small gathering at the Milburn household with Ola and Lily preparing a small buffet and Otis and Ruby putting up the banners and balloons, well Otis was putting the banners and balloons while Ruby was shouting instructions on how to make it as ‘stylish’ as possible. 

Jean had initially dismissed the idea of the party but she quickly realised that everyone who wanted to meet the baby would have to come one by one to see the baby and would be a long exhaustive process so if she got them all out of the way in one go then she could rest, well rest as much as a mother with anewbornn child could rest.

“Hello, hello, Hi,” Eric said as he entered willing to help out. 

Everyone greeted Eric with warm remarks except for Otis who was groaning on the top of the small ladder. 

“What’s up with him?” Eric asked Ruby approaching her at the bottom of the ladder. 

“He’s just a tad stressed about the family coming round” Ruby said looking up to her boyfriend at the top of the ladder.

“Got it!” Otis celebrated as the banner finally stuck and he jumped down from the ladder creating quite a large thud that startled Ruby. 

“Watch It”

“Sorry”

“Are you looking forward to meeting the rest of Otis’ family?” Eric asked. 

“Yeah actually” She was very intrigued if they were going to be more Otis or more Jean. 

“Well, she shouldn’t.” Otis forced on a fake smile. 

“Who’s coming by the way?” Eric asked. 

“Well Ola’s sister Bele and her boyfriend….” Otis looked over towards Ola for assistance. 

“Aaron, he’s a fitness junky” Ola confirmed. 

“Uncle Remus…” 

“Like out of Harry Potter” Ruby interjected. 

Otis and Eric were both left in stunned silence. “You watch Harry Potter?” A bemused Otis asked as it seemed very Un-Ruby like.

“I think it would be weird if I didn’t?” Otis and Eric still didn’t react, still rocked by the information. “Me and my parents always ensure we watch all eight films before Christmas, What?” She asked as she looked back and forth between their shocked faces. 

“I’m going to pull you up on that information later” Otis finally responded before continuing to list the attendees “Uncle Remus and his daughter Nell, Auntie Lainie Mum’s cousin Florence who I can already confirm will be drunk out of her mind and Grandad who I apologise in advance for everything he does.” 

“Why?” Ruby quizzed. 

“He gets very worked up getting stuck in an old peoples home for such long period’s of time and let’s say his views can be very-” Otis tries to put it as nice as possible. 

“Old fashioned” Eric finishes Otis sentence who thanked his best friend with a smile. “But you are going to love Uncle Remus, he’s so Dreamy,” Eric says towards Ruby. 

“Eric!” Otis tried to cut off his best friend who always seemed to be like this whenever his Uncle Remus was even alluded to. 

“He’s a businessman, he’s the 515th Richest person in Britain and he’s even got his own Wikipedia Page.” Eric rambled on.

“Does he now?” Ruby raised her eyebrows. 

“I don’t know how accurate that is,” Otis said specifically in reference to the money. 

Ruby pretended not to know, she knew after googling Otis in the summer just interested if anything came up about him in relation to articles about his mum and dad who must have been like J-list celebrities, but was interested to find out that Otis had another semi-famous relative in his uncle Remus.

There was a knock at the door followed by some stumbling “Whoops.” They could hear as heels collided through the door. “Your mother does need to get some new steps honey, where is the fridge?” Florence, Jean’s cousin came charging into the living room in the usual mess that Otis had predicted. 

Florence flew to the fridge, pouring herself a glass of wine in record time before jumping onto the couch spilling some of the wine she had just poured. 

With everyone was intently staring at Florence nobody had noticed that Bele and Aaron had walked in awkwardly loitering in the doorway.

“Bele!” Ola practically leapt up from the buffet table. 

“Ola Bear!” Bele replied letting go of her boyfriend’s hand to embrace her younger sister. After what Adam had told Otis, Ruby and Eric on their double date they knew how much this meant to her. There was a noticeable size difference between the pair, Bele also had long braided hair with some red highlights, but it was in the eyes and other facial features it was very clear they were sisters. 

It did bring a smile to Otis’ face to see Ola so happy in their long embrace before she introduced them to Lily. 

“You must be Lily,” Bele said offering her hand out to her sisters’ girlfriend and Aaron did the same. 

“Wow you’re tall,” Lily commented looking Aaron up and down. 

Otis quickly realised how awkward it could become when meeting Ola’s sister considering his past relationship with her sister. 

Thankfully the door opened once again causing everyone in the room to turn to see who was coming through next. 13-year-old Nell walked through with her face firmly glued to her I phone and with her headphones in also, there was no chance of her even registering anyone. Behind her, there were groans of “Bloody Hell!”  “She really needs to get rid of them stairs!” The unmistakable growly voice was Otis grandfather as he held onto his walker and headed into the front room. 

“That’s what I said Uncle David!” Florence called from the couch. 

Monitoring Otis’ grandfather from behind was Remus owner of one of Britain’s biggest construction companies and was a majority shareholder of a championship football club walked in looking as dapper as ever in one of his signature designer suits. “Mama mia” Ruby whispered to Eric in admiration who giggled in response.

“You sit down dad, rest those legs,” Remus said as he guided his dad onto the couch. 

“I’m going to need a full week on this couch after that!” David Franklin complained again as he sat himself down. 

“Otis man, welcome to the world of siblinghood,” Remus said with a warm smile on his face embracing his nephew. “Your mother hated it when I was born, how are you feeling about it all?” 

“I’m looking forward to it!” Otis responded giddily, he really was after all those years of being concerned about sharing a space with anyone really, he was looking forward to being a big brother. 

“Well, I’ll come back to you in a few weeks when you have been forgotten about” Remus joked, leaving Otis in reflective thought as Remus moved onto the next person in the queue. “Eric man, long time no see how’s the trombone?” 

“Oh you know could be better could be worse” Eric replied trying to posture himself as best as possible for Otis’ uncle.

Remus narrowed his eyes as he came face to face with Ruby an unrecognisable face “I don’t think we’ve met.” 

“Oh, I’m Ruby” Ruby replied smiling whilst stroking her hair “Otis’ girlfriend.”

The smile on Remus’s face seemed to drop and everything went silent from members of the Franklin family, David narrowed his eyes at Ruby, Florence removed her sunglasses to get a closer look and even Nell removed her headphones. 

“What?” Ruby asked nervously as the whole eyes of the room were on her, nothing she wasn’t used to but it was normally fellow teens staring at her in adoration, not her boyfriend’s family who she was eager to impress judging her. 

“It’s just we thought he was gay dear” 

“Florence!” Both Otis and Remus shouted in unison at the response of Florence.

“That’s Auntie Florence to you” Florence pointed towards Otis. 

“2nd Auntie” Otis muttered.

“I think you weren’t what we were expecting for Otis’ first girlfriend,” David said spinning back towards Ruby. 

Otis, Ruby and Eric all winced as Otis’ real first girlfriend was across the other side of the room and they both now shared a baby sister. Again Otis needed something to break the unbearable cringe they ended up with and thankfully it came again with his phone buzzing in his pocket. 

“Ah, Jakob says they are just around the corner.”

“Does that mean I have to go back up those bloody stairs!”

The whole party climbed back up to the gravel path in front of the Milburn house some a lot quicker than others. 

Ruby felt anxious again as she felt like all eyes were still on her, especially Otis’ cousin Nell who was weirdly eerie as she seemed transfixed by Ruby with her headphones on. As ever though Otis did what he always did, the right thing as he stroked the top of their entwined hands and gently leaned over “Are you okay?” 

Ruby smiled and nodded as a car appeared around the corner, but this wasn’t Jakob’s car it was one unrecognisable to Ruby. Once the car pulled up a small blonde woman popped out wrestling with her own bags. 

“Auntie Lainie” Otis whispered in Ruby’s ear filling in all the information he could to Ruby about his mother’s youngest sibling. Also lives in London like her brother, lawyer and married to the job is all Otis manages to get out before a breathless Lainie began to join the rest of the family. 

“Sorry, sorry,” Lainie said as she joined her brother’s side placing a kiss on her dad’s forehead. 

“We’ll one of us made it out of the traffic fine,” Remus said to his sister as she scanned up the line smiling at all too familiar faces and a not too familiar one. 

“Whose that?” Lainie asked slyly nodding her head towards Ruby. 

“Otis’ Girlfriend” Remus excitedly whispered to her youngest sister eager to see if her reaction was full of the surprise that he had. 

“Fucking hell,” Lainie said a little too loudly meaning everyone’s gaze fell upon her. “How did he manage that one?” Lainie now whispered to her brother. 

Remus simply shook his head but as ever her dad had something to say, “You know when you are in the shit when Otis is closer to getting married than you are Love” 

Lainie simply rolled her eyes at her dad’s constant nagging at the lack of a partner in her life. “Hello to you too dad.” 

Then it really Jakob’s car turning the corner, whispers of excitement began to build as Maureen Groff navigated the car alongside the countless others outside the house with Jakob, Jean and Joy in the back. 

Jakob was the first to exit the car to assist Jean and Joy’s exit despite Jean’s constant complaining that it wasn’t necessary, there was a special twinkle in Jakob’s eye when he spotted his two girls stood by side for the first time in a while and the Joy of introducing them to another. 

As soon as Jean stepped out of the car everyone who hadn’t seen the baby before plus Otis and Ola jumped forward to get a look at Joy Milburn? Franklin? Nyman? That one still had to be decided. 

“Oh wow” 

“Gorgeous” 

“Wow look at her” 

“She looks like she has grown already” 

Everyone muttered as Joy slept in Jean’s arms as Jakob and Maureen assisted her.

“Alright, alright” Jean tried to calm the crowd to no avail.

“Oh wow” 

“Gorgeous” 

“Wow look at her” 

“She looks like she has grown already”

“ALRIGHT!” Jean shouted somehow not disturbing Joy as everyone jumped back at Jean’s roar.  “You can all get a good look once I get inside, just let me fucking sit down first” Maybe the drugs hadn’t fully worn off Jean as of yet but at least she hadn’t proclaimed herself as the king…. Yet. 

Everyone was now gathered in the Milburn living room some lucky enough to park their bums on the couches while the rest had to settle with the wooden chairs that had been brought inwards to form a makeshift circle. 

Eric was the one currently holding Joy who was stretching up her little arms towards him. “Awww, I think I know who your favourite Uncle is going to be,” Eric said as he softly patted her hands in return. 

“Oi!” Remus playfully challenged Eric from the other side of the room. 

“Eric why don’t you let Joy say hello to her big brother,” Jean said to Eric.

“Oh Sorry” Eric responded in a tiny bit of a panic as he had been holding onto Joy all for himself for a little bit too long. 

Ruby saw a smile twitch on Otis’ face when his mum said ‘big brother’ which in turn brought a smile to Ruby’s face. 

Otis took Joy into his arms, carefully cradling her. Ruby watched on as Otis was being even more grossly cute than usual as played with his baby sister, gently popping his finger onto her nose and said “Bob” then giggled, this boy really was going to be the death of her. 

“Rubes” Otis whispered as he gently shifted across the couch to bring his and Ruby’s bodies closer together so they could both hold Joy at the same time. 

It’s almost like Otis could read Ruby’s mind and what she was stressed about, she was worried about having to be the ‘Other Ruby’ the soft and affectionate Ruby in front of people who wasn’t Otis and mostly strangers. So by Otis sharing Joy with her everyone’s attention would be split between the pair rather than just her if she held Joy on her own. Also, it allowed Ruby to lose herself for a moment as she and Otis gently whispered to the baby together and then giggled together when she groaned in a funny way back to the young couple. But as Ruby stared deeper into Joy’s eyes some old feelings that she thought she had a buried a long time ago returned… 

Otis was loving this little moment that he and Ruby were sharing and he decided to avert his attention away from his baby sister and up to Ruby’s face as while he would never push Ruby out of her comfort zone he did adore when she was free from all of walls and front. But as he moved his neck to see Ruby’s face he saw something he did not expect, something only someone who was sat so close to Ruby could see, the tiniest of teardrops falling from Ruby’s right eyelid. 

“Erm, who’s next?” Ruby took full control of Joy as soon as she noticed that Otis had clocked on to her tears. 

Jean watched on from the other side of the living room as Ruby rose up to pass Joy onto the next person who happened to be Florence who wobbled slightly as she rose up. 

“Is she drunk?” Jakob whispered to Jean as they both watched Ruby ready to give the baby over. 

“Yup,” Jean replied popping the p. “Actually Ruby, I think it’s time we put her down now” Jean rose to her own feet. “Do you mind helping?”

After Ruby had settled Joy down into her cot for the very first time along with Jean and they returned downstairs and the buffet was in full flow and light music was playing in the background as various members of the Franklin/Milburn and Nyman families mixed together.

Ruby had decided upon avoiding Otis for as long as humanly possible to steer clear of one of his signature integrations. She noticed Eric was very much the odd one out and was standing alone in the corner so she decided to go and join him. 

“You look like you have seen a ghost,” Ruby said as she joined his side but there was no response from her boyfriend’s best friend and Ruby Matthews wasn’t ignored, so she nudged Eric slightly which kicked him back into life. 

“Sorry, Just I keep getting these looks from Maureen Groff like she is staring into my soul.” 

Ruby turned her head towards Maureen Groff who was interacting with Ola and her sister plus their respective partners and everything seemed fine until she turned her neck slightly and…

“Oh my god she does”

“I know, it’s freaking me out” Eric replied still sort of shivering from the latest glare. 

“Well you did break her son’s heart,” Ruby said as bluntly as possible after taking a sip from her cup of coke zero which Otis had especially ensured had been added to the fridge for her again.

“Yeah well, she wouldn’t know that it was all, ‘mate ‘mate’” Eric repeated in annoyance before taking a sip of his own drink. 

Ruby paused for a moment as she knew what she was about to tell Eric could come as a little bit of a bombshell to him. “You know he’s told her that you were boyfriends.

Eric sharply rotated his neck to turn her his full attention to Ruby “What? When?”

“At the ‘Midgeville County Dog Trials’” Ruby sarcastically wagged her fingers in the air.

Eric scoffed loudly “After all that.”

Ruby want’s to say something deep and meaningful to Eric to try and express how Adam was feeling as Adam had a little cry with her on his couch two days ago which made Ruby deeply uncomfortable at first as Adam buried his head into her shoulder before she could even react as he sobbed really loudly but eventually as Adam calmed Ruby did her best to embrace the scenario as Adam Groff was someone she now considered a friend? Yes, a friend. So while she would like to try and explain all of this to Eric she feels like she could only make it worse as talking was something she had struggled with all her life and she wasn’t the famed underground sex therapist like her boyfriend was so she chose like what she does most of her life, remain silent. 

“How did that go by the way?” Eric asked genuinely curious. 

“Oh, Adam won the esteemed ‘best debut performances I have seen in a long time award’” Ruby says doing her best to mock the announcer’s voice. Ruby notices a small smile appear on Eric’s face in response to his ex’s achievement. 

“You and Adam are good friends now, huh?” Eric asked.

“Yup,” Ruby replied as she took a sip of her drink. 

“Plenty of Kardashians?” 

“Not just the Kardashians, Love Island, Too hot to Handle, just any reality tv we can gossip about really.” 

“Wow,” Eric raised his eyebrows as he realised that Adam and Ruby seemed to share more bonding time as friends than he and Adam did as boyfriends. “You haven’t got Otis into any of that have you?” 

Ruby chuckled “No he’s more like, let me tell you the life story of this background actor from this obscure 80’s tv show”

Eric smiled whilst shutting his eyes as he had been on the receiving end of many of those conversations himself, he just wanted to imagine the look on Ruby Matthews Queen of The Untouchables face whilst she was receiving that treatment. “How are you finding the rest of Otis’ family?” 

“I don’t really know so far, I only thing I do know is that I think Nell is slowly plotting my murder,” Ruby said in reference to Otis cousin who like Maureen Groff would shoot a look up every few seconds that really did startle Ruby.

Eric smiled “No that’s just how she looks at everyone and besides let’s not pretend that’s how you look at everyone at school. 

Ruby sharply raised her eyebrows at Eric’s cheek. 

“I’m sorry” Eric ducked his head quickly realising his error of attempting to banter with the queen of the untouchables. 

Across the other side of the room, Otis was occasionally glancing over towards Ruby and Eric whilst he was talking to his uncle Remus. 

Remus eventually had clocked on to where Otis’ eyes kept flickering. “I think we should address the elephant in the room.”

Otis spun his head around the living room. “Where? I don’t see one.” 

“Well, not really an elephant…” Remus thought about his next words very carefully “Without wanting to give off Prince Andrew kind of vibes, you have done really well for yourself.”

Otis chuckled before glancing back over to Ruby with a glowing smile on his face “I know.” Otis had always got on with his uncle Remus better than anyone in his family outside of his mother, while he was extremely successful in his field of work and had gained everything through his hard work and knowhow he could be a big kid sometimes always having the ability to cheer Otis up. He was nothing like his two children who definitely got their cold-hearted traits from their mother who had an affair and had divorced some seven years ago now. The other child Nathan who was only two years younger than Otis hadn’t turned up today because he was a ‘miserable teenager’ according to Remus which Otis believed to translate to he would rather get high with his mates in London than come and see his new baby cousin. 

“So how did it happen?” Remus quizzed. 

Just as Otis had thought about the close relationship between himself and his Uncle Remus they weren’t close enough for Otis to tell him the truth about how Ruby’s relationship came about and their constant shagging in the woods over the summer just gone. Otis decides to settle with “We just got close over summer and thing’s went from there.” 

“Sorry about what your Auntie Florence said before about thinking you were gay,” Remus said after just glancing over towards his father who was in conversation with Jakob hoping that he hadn't started another conversation about Brexit.

“You never had your own theory?” Otis quizzes. 

Remus stuttered a little bit “I just thought you’re mother had creeped you out with vagina’s plastered all over the wall.” 

Otis chuckled “It’s not like there is massive penis sculpture’s hanging around, hang on.” Otis leaned over the couch to grab one of them. 

The pair chuckled as Otis held it up the air before passing it over to Remus to examine it “You’re mother really needs to take these down or she is going to have another messed up child”

“Another?”

Remus and Otis stared at one another for a few seconds before bursting into laughter with the wooden penis between them.

“Remus! Otis! Put that back!” Jean shouted from across the room. 

“Sorry mum” Otis replied as he returned the wooden penis.

“Yeah, sorry mum” Remus repeated as Jean simply shook her head at her younger brother’s childish behaviour.

After talking for some minutes he decided to check on Ruby as the last he had seen her she was chatting with Eric but on his last few glances over he had noticed that Ruby was nowhere to be seen. “Have you seen Ruby?” Otis asked Eric who was now chatting away with Ola and her sister. 

Eric shook his head “She went to get a drink and haven’t seen her since.”

“Huh”

Otis looked all over the house, not in any kind of panic or anything but he was curious if it was linked in any way to the small tear Otis had noticed earlier. After checking every room upstairs and spending a few minutes watching his sister sweetly sleep the night away. He was getting a little suspicious as she definitely wasn’t downstairs or upstairs so he checked on her car to make sure that was still there. The car was still there but with the roof down which was a change from when they were all outside earlier to great Jean. 

As Otis approached the car he noticed small bursts of smoke rising up from the driver’s seat, Otis cautiously peered his head around the driver’s seat to reveal Ruby calmly smoking. 

“Ruby!” 

“Otis!” 

Ruby jumped out of her skin as Otis scared the life out of her the way he crept around. She quickly discarded  the cigarette and posed like nothing out of the ordinary was going on. 

Otis simply rose his eyebrows as he had definitely caught her out. 

“I don’t do it often alright!” Ruby conceded defeat. 

“I know”

Ruby narrowed her eyes sharply at him “What do you mean?” 

Otis smirked and leaned over placing his hands on the side of the car’s front door on the driver’s side. “Well Ruby, I don’t know if it escaped you but I have been in some rather compromising positions in your car and every now and again my eyes would catch your secret stash just under the passenger seat.” Ruby simply rolled her eyes “And not even Ruby Matthews perfume sometimes can’t cover up the smell.”

“Ugh” Ruby groaned in response. 

“But your right It isn’t often,” Otis said but there was no response from his girlfriend from inside the car. “Why do you do it?” Otis quizzed. 

Oh great Ruby thought as she was prepared for Otis’ smoking lecture that she had mentioned to Maeve outside of the hospital. “Just sometimes I get stressed, People get stressed Otis and people smoke it’s a perfectly natural thing to do,” Ruby said at 100mph hoping it would convince Otis to leave her alone and accept her reasoning. 

“What are you stressed about?” Otis softly asked still towering over Ruby from outside the car and again Ruby had no response, this time she simply averted her eyes from her boyfriend. “Does it have anything to do with you crying when you held Joy?”

Ruby still didn’t make eye contact with Otis, she just stared into the sunset through the windscreen of her stationary car. “Yes,” She softly responded. 

“Do you want to talk about it?” 

“No”

“Okay, that’s fine.”

Ruby sharply twisted her head back around to face Otis “No that’s the point Otis where you are supposed to go ‘No you can tell me anything!’ or just pretty much beg to get it out of me.”

Now it was Otis’ turn to narrow his eyes as he was left very confused by Ruby’s actions. “But you said didn’t want to talk about it.”

“Exactly” 

“So you do want to talk about it?” 

“NO!” 

Silence fell back between them after Ruby pretty much roared in Otis’ face. He knew from pretty much everyone who had everyone who had been in one that relationships were confusing, but this was beyond confusing as Otis had no idea what was happening right now. “What’s wrong Rubes?”

Ruby sighed “You’re just so fucking nice Otis!”

Great this hadn’t cleared anything up for Otis, he was being shouted at for being nice?

“All the fucking time Otis” She began with her voice breaking up slightly “If I don’t want to talk about something we don’t talk about it. If I don’t want to do something we don’t do it, why are you always like this?” Every relationship Ruby had had prior or something that could be defined to somewhat close to a relationship always ended with Ruby’s partner being extremely forceful both whether it be in the bedroom or prying to get Ruby to open up. But here was Otis Milburn with “It’s okay”, “It’s fine”, “Do it in your own time” His kindness and understanding was increasingly getting on her nerves as it made her feel that she didn’t deserve someone like him. 

“I guess it’s the way, my mum brought me up. ‘Treat others how you would like to be treated.” Otis quoted. 

“Everyone’s parents say that Otis.” Ruby took in a deep breath “When I held Joy it reminded me of something that happened a long time ago, I don’t feel like telling you yet, but I will when I’m ready.” Ruby didn’t want to feel like she was shutting out Otis again as she thinks that he thinks that they are at the point where she is ready to tell him anything, but some things are too delicate even for the ‘Other Ruby’.

“That’s Okay,” Otis said as he began to play with Ruby’s fingers where the windscreen should have been. 

Ruby got up on her knees, still on the driver’s seat and pulled Otis into a kiss who in turn leaned over more making it easier for her to gain access to his lips. Otis groaned at Ruby deepened this kiss as she tried to use all of her strength to throw Otis over the side and into the car. 

“Wait wait” Otis gently blocked her arms to keep himself upright on the gravel road and not tumble in the car. “I don’t think now’s a good time, I don’t fancy Nell wondering outside just to find you on top of me.”

“Okay,” Ruby sulked a little as she took Otis hand as he led her out of her car and back towards the house. 

“Remember don’t tell anyone else about this or else….” Ruby began waiting for Otis to finish off her sentence. 

“You will ruin my life.”

“That’s one” Ruby smiled.

“Yeah because smoking definitely isn’t vegan” Otis teased her as it was a quote he had heard her thrown around before. 

The pair walked back to the house through the balcony entrance where they were greeted with Florence in tears in Jean’s arms. “Go on, get yourself cleaned up,” Jean whispered into Florence’s ear who then disappeared back into the house. 

“Is everything okay?” Otis asked once it was just Himself, Ruby and his mum left on the balcony. 

“I just had to have a conversation with your Auntie Florence that maybe she didn’t want to have about her recovery.” 

“Is she going to be okay?” Otis asked, his Auntie Florence’s alcoholism had been a problem pretty much all of his life, he had been presented with some ugly scenes throughout the years and while Otis may have not understood it while he was younger, the older he grew the more he was struck by the tragedy of this routine that Florence had gotten herself into.

“I don’t know, but I can only try and offer her the best assistance possible.”

After returning back inside there was a small game of ‘quiet karaoke’ where everyone was attempting their best karaoke without pushing the notes high enough that would wake Joy upstairs. 

Ruby smiled as she and Otis played with one another’s hands as they watched Otis’ uncle Remus and his grandfather despite his old age performing an awful version of Wonderwall but it was definitely a valiant effort. At this moment that Ruby realised that Otis’ family situation was quite a mess, divorces, absent children, extreme stress, problems at home, people who used to date now sharing a baby sister. But here they all were with a smile on their face as the word’s “ You’re gonna be the one that saves me!” Rang around the room, they were all making the best of their situation and while the problems were different in the Matthews household they were also making the best of the hand they had been dealt with. 

“ You’re my Wonderwall!” 

Applause and light cheers filled the room as Remus and David’s duet came to end. “Otis!” Remus seemed to offer the microphone in his direction. 

Otis simply shook his head in response “No no!” He called back but it was clear to him that Remus was not letting him go. Otis turned towards Ruby.

“Absolutely fucking not!” 

He then tried Eric who sighed before jumping up “Fine! I was hoping to go up on my own, don’t cramp my style.” 

Otis and Eric jumped up onto the makeshift main stage in the Milburn household as a round of applause as Nell pressed the karaoke wheel spinner before it landed on American Pie by Don Mclean. 

Groans came from both Otis and Eric as everyone else laughed at them. 

“Can we not have another, it’s so long!” Otis complained. 

Nell shook her head “No expectations”. 

“How I gonna work with this?” Eric also groaned. 

Before they could continue their complaints the music had already begun, Oh god . 

“ A long long time ago…. ”

Otis and Eric cringed their way through the first couple of lines, but eventually, they began to lose themselves within the music. 

Ruby giggled to herself on the sideline as she very quickly became less self-conscious about Otis catching her singing in the shower a couple of weeks ago as his singing was definitely a lot worse than her’s, Eric though wasn’t half bad if he had a sob story Simon Cowell would definitely put him through to the next round of X Factor. Ruby’s brain quickly kicked into life as she realised this could be a great opportunity for blackmail and she pulled out her phone and began to film his singing, knowing Otis he probably wouldn’t care if she threatened to put on the internet, he probably would be proud of his god awful singing, so she would keep it for her own personal uses as it was like everything he ever did, really fucking cute.

However, the show was over when Eric hit a note far too high and Joy’s cry could be heard from upstairs. 

“Whoops,” Eric said once he realised what he had done. 

“I think quiet karaoke is over,” Jean said as she rose to her feet while the instrumental continued to awkwardly play in the background as Nell struggled to shut it down. 

Eventually, it became time for everyone to go so Jean could settle Joy back down.

“Do you want a lift, Eric?” Ruby asked as she gathered her own bag. 

“Yeah that would be great thanks” 

“You not going to stay?” Otis asked with a little bit of pain in his voice as his bed could become very lonely without Ruby’s arms draped around his waist. 

“No, I should get back to my dad.” 

Otis nodded in total understanding before he headed up the gravel path to see them out. 

“So then,” Ruby said as Eric had jumped in the car leaving Ruby stood in front of the driver’s door with Otis stood in front of her. 

“How did you enjoy my singing?” Otis asked. 

“Hmmm” Ruby pondered for a moment “I don’t think you will be winning an Oscar anytime soon” 

“Grammy you mean, Oscars are for acting, Grammy is for singing, I think you might have got them mix-”

“Shut up nerd” Ruby sharply cut him off. 

Otis just smirked in response “Make sure you text me when you get home.” 

“Of course nerd.” Another one of the tiny things Ruby just adored about Otis, even if it was a bright sunny day and she was heading home at midday he would always want to know that she got home safe. 

“I love you” 

“I love you too” Otis brought his hands onto Ruby’s waist and bent down so their lips could meet. However their kiss was cut short by Eric pressing down Ruby’s horn really loud, Eric clearly had done this as some sort of joke, but Ruby didn’t see it as a joke and shot Eric a look that could kill as she turned away from Otis, staring Eric down through the car window forcing her boyfriend’s best friends expression quickly change. 

“Are you going to have to kill him?” Otis asked. 

“Unfortunately yes,” Ruby replied extremely bluntly. 

“At least make it a quick death.” 

“I’ll think about it” 

Otis gave Ruby a quick peck on the lips before she hopped in the car and off she and Eric went. 

As ever Otis waited up for Ruby’s text message, not like he was going to get any sleep this time around with Joy crying a few doors down. 

RUBES❤️: I left Eric’s mutilated body in the woods, but I made it home just to fine x

Otis smirked at her response before typing his own. 

:That’s a shame I’m going to miss Eric x 

RUBES❤️: Well I just get you all to myself now x 

Otis shakes his head with a smile on his face as she really was the softest person he knew when she wanted to show it. 

:Well do you fancy facetimeing, as I don’t think I’ll be getting any sleep time soon the way Joy is going x 

RUBES❤️: Sorry nerd, too busy burning my bloody clothes x 

Otis smirked again and went straight to the facetime button, but there was no response either way and the call just rang out which was strange considering their back and forth messaging.

:Can you not answer? X 

RUBES❤️: Like I said, Clothes to burn x

Otis could read her from a mile off trying to use humour to deflect what she was hiding, Otis thought back to her crying before when she held Joy and how that was probably playing on her mind again. 

:Are you okay xx

RUBES❤️: Why wouldn’t I be? X 

:I’m always here if you need me xx

Across town in the Matthews household in Ruby’s room, she was sat on her bed with her dad’s snore in the next room filling the noise as she read Otis’ text as tears fell down from her eyes for the second time today as all those old feelings came flooding back once again…..

Chapter Text

“Well, I’ll come back to you in a few weeks when you have been forgotten about”

That’s what his Uncle Remus said to him when Otis first told him he was looking forward to being a big brother a few weeks ago when everyone was around for the gathering after Joy’s return home and oh boy he should have listened. 

It all started off very subtly with Otis asking if he could spend five minutes holding his sister, “Not now darling, she just needs some time bonding time with her mummy, don’t you, don’t you” Jean said putting on her baby voice to communicate with Joy. But when it happened the 5th, 6th and 7th time Otis really started to get annoyed, he could tell Ola was also annoyed but let’s say Otis was more upfront in expressing his anger. 

This initially didn’t go down too well…

“You shouldn’t speak to your mother like that!” Jakob would scream.

“I think you are being very inconsiderate Otis,” Jean said much more calmly. 

“I’m Being Inconsedirate?” Otis said sarcastically. 

Eventually, they all sat down and it was agreed that Otis and Ola could take Joy on a walk in the pram together. 

But after Otis and Ola break out into their own argument on the walk with Joy, Otis and Ola are put on a temporary ban of spending time with Joy unless one of Jakob or Jean were present. 

Then Otis’ entire existence seemed to be forgotten about it would again start off small with being ignored in a conversation, if Otis would ask if she had seen any spare batteries for his PlayStation controller or never asks how his day is when he comes home from school. Then Jean completely forgets about making Otis tea, while Otis is 17 and could make his own tea and doesn’t expect his mother to always to make his tea but when she had specifically promised that she would and he comes downstairs and there is tea for everyone but him he isn’t happy. 

“Oh, I’m sorry darling, I completely forgot.”

It’s another week later until Otis completely loses it. 

Otis and Eric had been out at the mall playing the brand new laser quest that had been installed just two days ago. Otis had asked Ruby to come with them but she said she had plans and ‘she wouldn’t be seen at a place so tragic anyway’. But it would probably be for the best anyway as it would make Eric feel the odd one out with a lack of a partner. 

The place was rammed as the people were desperate to play the new Lazer quest, Otis and Eric had managed to get in on the opening weekend due to Abigal. 

Abigal was in the year below Otis and Eric at Moordale and had recently joined swing band, Eric had formed a little bit of a friendship with her she was really nice, quiet and softly spoken. She worked part-time at the laser quest so had managed to squeeze Otis and Eric on the first Sunday it was open.

They had a good couple of games which was helpful for the pair as it allowed Otis to take his mind off problems, he had been having at home and Eric away from the confusion he had been feeling from his break up with Adam.

The pair then met up with Abigal after their final game as her shift was coming to an end.

“You put my phone on charge in the locker didn’t you?” Otis asked Abigal who nodded in the direction of the locker. 

Otis headed towards the locker where Abigal had put his phone on charge at the start of their first game as Otis had drained the battery texting Ruby all afternoon. he pressed the button to bring his phone to life expecting the screen to light up with a photo of him and Ruby but there was nothing, no light. He moved his eyes back down towards the charger port which wasn’t in fully. 

Otis sighed but he couldn’t be angry at Abigal, she was only trying to do him a favour, he just now had to hope that Jakob was aware that he would be picking him and Eric up after his mum had said she would let him know.

“Thanks for that,” Otis said as he passed Abigial’s charger back over to her as the trio walked in a comfortable silence through the shopping centre and then outside to the taxi waiting area.

It was December 1st so despite it already being only being 6:30PM it was already pitch black and cold, so very cold and Eric’s lack of a coat wasn’t helping him as he shivered heavily.

“Do you want a lift, my dad’s taking me home.” Abigal nodded towards the car that had just pulled up.

“Yes please!” Eric exclaimed running towards Abigal’s dad’s car not able to wait a second longer for some warmth.

“No my-” Stepdad? Mum’s Swedish boyfriend? Half Sisters dad? Otis didn’t really have time to explain his strange family dynamic to someone he had only just met “Friend is picking me up” If Otis could describe Jakob in one word it definitely wouldn’t be ‘Friend’ but it seems this most suitable in this situation. “Thanks for asking though.”

“Okay, bye” Abigal smiles and walks off jumping into the car with her dad as Otis waved her and Eric off. Eric did look a little confused through the window as to why Otis had not hoped in with them, but Otis hoped that Eric would understand he couldn’t drag an angry Swedish man away from his newborn baby to pick someone up who wasn’t there and had no way of communicating with them.

Otis simply settled down under the bus stop to avoid the heavy rain that began to fall and wait for Jakob. 

10 minutes pass by, 20, 30… He would hop on the bus if he had any money on him but he didn’t so his only hope is to carry on waiting, maybe something had held him up and obviously he couldn’t get through to him because his phone was dead. 

40 minutes, 50 minutes an hour goes by and he finally has to accept that Jakob isn’t coming, his mum had forgotten to tell him. He groaned really loudly as he slapped his knees preparing for the long, wet walk ahead.

Back in the Milburn household Jean and Jakob were sat in front of the warm fire inside the house with Joy sleeping between them. 

“Are you sure you are happy with Nyman?” Jakob asked Jean over the decision they finally took a couple of hours ago about Joy’s surname. 

“Yes! none of her parents are really Milburns, I haven’t been called Franklin in a long time so the only suitable option was Nyman.” 

Jakob had already asked the question several times already but he just wanted to hear her say it again. “Thank you,” Jakob said as he looked into Jean’s eyes with adoration. 

Jean smiled “You don’t think she’s too close to this fire do you?” Jean asked turning her attention back towards her daughter. 

“No-” Jakob began before the door flew open smacking hard against a nearby plant pot the sound of the rain and thunder filled the room before Otis finally stepped forward dripping from head to toe in the rain that had consumed him due to his lack of coat. He stared almost evil like manner towards his mother’s direction. 

“Oh Otis darling I’m so sorry, I completely forgot,” Jean said as soon as she realised her mistake. 

“Forgot what?” Jakob asked. 

Otis could hear his mum muttering under her breath to Jakob as he charged towards the stairs. 

“Otis be careful, you’re soaking” But there was no response as Otis slammed his foot hard onto each step as he headed towards the bathroom. Jean simply sunk back into her position on the couch and groaned as she did as she realised she had royally fucked up.

Some minutes later Otis reappeared coming back down the stairs after taking his shower, now with his raincoat on and a big bag in his hands that seemed to be full of clothes. 

“Otis’ where are you going?” Jean asked as Otis bounced back down the stairs. 

“Oh sorry mum, surprised you even recognised me, I’m going to Ruby’s where I’m valued and appreciated,” Otis said as he began to put his shoes on. 

“Otis don’t say that, you’re just overreacting.” But it was complete silence from Otis in his response. “At least let Jakob drive you, dear.”

Otis span back around “Haha, see you can’t wait to get rid of me, so you get back to your precious Joy, Joy this, Joy that, you’d shoot anyone if they touched your precious Joy god forbid her own brother!” And with that Otis slammed the door and headed back out into the rain.

“He’s just a teenager,” Jakob said stroking both of Jean’s shoulders. 

Otis knew he was rude to his mother and was acting childish but he thought it would be best to get away for a couple of days, well that of course depended on if Ruby let him in of course.

The hour walk from his house to Ruby’s took longer than it should have done mostly due to the big bag he had strapped over his shoulder and the hour and a half walk he had completed from the shopping centre back to his house had completely shattered his legs, but he got there eventually. 

He knocked on the Matthews door with no initial response, Ruby had said she ‘had plans’ but despite their constant texting throughout the afternoon she wouldn’t let slip what those ‘plans’ were. 

But just as that thought passed through, the door opened to reveal Ruby makeup-less in a Christmas onesie.

“You have another coat?” That was the first thing Ruby said as she examining him.

Otis was, in turn, looking Ruby up and down in her Christmas onesie, her own hair was still slightly wet from a shower she must have had recently, she looked very-

“Before you start, I don’t look cute, remember…” Ruby waited for Otis to finish her sentence. 

“Baby is Cute Otis’, not an 18-year-old teenager.” Otis quoted Ruby. “What about me?” Otis teased as the rain continued to hit down on Otis. 

“You’re 17 Otis” 

“So I can be cute?”

Ruby tapped her fingers on the inside of her door “Hmm sometimes.”

“Are you going to invite him in our what darling, you can’t leave him out there freezing.” Roland called from the Matthews’ living room.

“Oh” Ruby said as she watched Otis look up to the falling rain and she suddenly realised how soaked he was. She pretty much pulled him into the house “Yuk” She said as she removed her hands from Otis’ body as he was pretty much sodden wet through. 

“You need a shower.” 

“Yup.” 

So Otis took his second shower in just under an hour and a half, getting changed in the bathroom as he didn’t fancy awkwardly crossing the Matthews’ house into Ruby’s room wearing just a towel with the opportunity for Roland and Claire to catch a glance at him.

So when Otis appeared out of the bathroom in another fresh set of clothes he heads into the living room where all of the Matthews’ are present with Roland in his usual seat, Claire on the opposite seat and Ruby on the main couch withher feet up on the table and had Baby on her lap. All three are wearing the same christmas onesies just in different colours, Roland in green, Claire in blue and Ruby in red. They were all carefully taking big grabs from their popcorn bowls as they studied the tv screen where Harry Potter and The Philosphers Stone was just heading past the half way point, If he only Ruby from this snapshot he had been presented with he would find it to very confusing to why Ruby had kept her home life hidden as everything just seemed so nice and warm and comfortable and the joy that radiated of Ruby’s face was electric, but of course there was other factors. 

Otis placed himself next to Ruby on the couch, who averted her eyes away from the screen for a moment just to greet Otis with a smile. 

“Must have been one hell of a storm son” Roland said turning his attention to his daughter's boyfriend. 

Before Otis could even open his mouth to respond Ruby sushed her father for disrupting the film. 

“Rubes darlin, we watch the films every year it’s not like the stories going to change in front of you and don’t pretend I don’t catch you watching them 2 or 3 times earlier in the year. 

Again Ruby shushes her dad firstly because he was still disrupting the film and secondly he clearly gave that last bit of information away to try and embarrass her infront of Otis. Her father conceded defeat and Otis took that as his cue to stay silent during the film and not disturb Ruby but Otis felt his own left hand being disturped as Ruby slowly moved her right hand over and joined it with Otis’ all while keeping her eyes totally on the screen. While she didn’t really show it as she was stuffing her face with popcorn butterflies were racing through her stomach, she was doing one of her favourite things, holding hands with Otis as it made her feel like they were as one when their hands were entwined, watching her favourite film series, everything for once in her life was so fucking good. 

There were only two more disturbances through the rest of the film, firstly when Ruby’s mum announced that she had too tired and had to go to bed, Ruby initially complained that she was ruining the tradition but her father made sure to remind her of the hours her mother was working and she deserved some rest and this time it was Ruby who admitted defeat as Claire kissed her husband goodnight on the forehead. The second came when Otis began to eye up Ruby’s popcorn, he had joined halfway through the movie so he was left without anything to eat, he could have taken Claire’s but there was nothing left in her bowl, so every now and then he would glance over towards Ruby’s popcorn hoping to get some sort of seal of approval but she was too focused on the film and there was no way Otis would take a chance and just reach for the popcorn himself as he feared Ruby may bite his hand right off if he tried such a thing.

Eventually, Otis persistent glances were caught on by Ruby “What?” She asked and she quickly noticed his puppy dog eyes staring down at her popcorn bowl. “Absolutely not” Ruby fired back towards him. 

Otis settled back into the couch sulking. 

“Here Otis’ I don’t want anymore.” Roland stretched out from his chair in an attempt to offer his bowl out to Otis. 

“No Dad!” Ruby quickly waved away his offer not wanting to force any unnecessary movements out of him. 

Ruby turned back to Otis who was still pulling those ‘please feel sorry for me Ruby’ eyes which definitely had an effect on her. “Fine!” She groaned as she placed the bowl in the very small gap between their thighs, Otis simply chuckled to himself as he took his first pieces of popcorn from Ruby’s bowl. 

As for the film itself, well it didn’t matter as Otis had seen the Philosopher’s Stone a million and one times before, but he had never watched it with Ruby before. The back of his mind thought Ruby had just said she liked Harry Potter to further twist with the enigma that she still was even to Otis, considering how she was disgusted with how much ‘geek shit’ was plastered on his walls and in and around his room and Harry Potter was well fairly geeky and he could predict some kind of practical joke where Ruby would ask him to come over to watch ‘Harry Potter’ only to force him to sit down and watch yet another Kardashian rerun. But no, this was not one of Ruby’s games, she was fixated by the screen and every now and again Otis would catch her mouthing the lines a few seconds before they were said on the screen. Of course, Otis himself could do this with ease but this was Ruby Matthews Queen of Moordale and the Untouchables as well as all-round tough girl quoting Harry Potter right next to him. Also it’s the way she would gently stroke his fists when there was any kind of emotional scene, he had to sometimes pinch himself to see if the dream would end, this was Ruby Matthews, the most popular and hottest girl at school going all soft for him Otis Milburn, the weird victorian sex ghost. 

When the film came to an end Ruby helped Otis get her father to bed, she thought for a moment about waking her mother to add a little bit of more strength to the operation but she deserved the rest with all the hours she was working to help the family afloat. She was so tired that she didn’t even move a muscle as Otis and Ruby guided Roland next to her in bed especially when there was extra wincing from Roland compared to usual as there was Ruby’s distinct lack of physical strength from her small frame that was all that was supporting him from one side.

After Ruby kissed her father on his forehead she and Otis headed into her bedroom “Are you okay?” Ruby asked as soon as she shut the door. 

“Oh, I’m allowed to talk now?” Otis quipped back. 

 “Yes, nerd.” 

Otis raised his eyebrows in response “Oh I don’t think, you’re in any position to call anyone a nerd.” 

Ruby shook her head and headed towards her bed. “Everyone likes Harry Potter Otis, no need to make a big deal about it.” Ruby lifted the cover of the bed as to invite Otis in but Otis just stayed still “OT!” She shouted and Otis kicked himself into gear and moved towards the bed and got under the covers with Ruby and they lay facing one another. 

“So what’s wrong, because I know I’m insanely hot and fabulous but walking an hour in the rain just to see me seems a little extreme,” Ruby said as they both adjusted their bodies to make themselves as comfortable as possible.

“My mum again, she’s still pretending like I don’t exist.” 

Ruby pouted her lips before responding “Understandable to be honest, you are quite bland and boring.” 

“Hey!” Otis responded to Ruby’s typical wit. 

Ruby smiled before leaning in and pressing a quick kiss to her boyfriend’s lips “Don’t worry, I love you.” 

“When?” 

Okay, that wasn’t the response that Ruby had been expecting. “What do you mean?” 

“I know you are not exactly in the highest set but I hope they teach you what when means, ” Otis teased resulting in a light dig under the covers from Ruby. “Ow!” Otis groaned. 

“Yes Otis, I know what when means” 

“So then when did you realised you loved me?” Otis asked softly staring deeper into Ruby’s eyes which were just a matter of inches away from him. 

Ruby sighed Why was he making her do this “Fine!” Ruby gave up and Otis smiled slipping deeper into the pillow waiting for Ruby’s response. “When you came back here after the bowling, you didn’t judge me or my dad or my house and to be honest I hadn’t had that much fun in years that night and it was all because of you,” Ruby whispered in response and lightly patted him on the nose with her index finger when she said ‘you.’

Again for about the 1000th time in their nearly three months of dating Otis was left surprised yet again, it was crazy enough that Ruby Matthews was in love with him, but it was even crazier that she had fell before him.

“What about you?” Ruby asked back. 

Otis probably should had foreseen that he was digging his own grave by initiating this conversation as, to be honest, he had no idea when he realised he loved Ruby and he really felt like he should have known considering how important it was to him and clearly how important it was to Ruby with the way her face would light up every time they shared those words. “I think when you destroyed me at monopoly” Otis lied. 

Ruby chuckled “Seriously Otis,” She said eagerly. 

“I don’t know” He decided that honesty was the best strategy. “Love’s weird and complicated.” 

“Love’s just dumb luck,” Ruby repeated Otis words from when he was trying to talk Liam down from the moon that night at the dance. 

“You remember that…” Otis was a little bit shocked considering that he and Ruby had only had around five interactions up to that point. 

“Well I was just enjoying how embarrassing Liam was being, your annoying voice was just getting in the way.” 

“You looked really beautiful that night” Otis remembered back to that night and Ruby’s red dress, but unfortunately Otis could only remember Alfie’s hands all over her, the former goalkeeper for the school football team who had recently been expelled for dealing drugs on school grounds. 

“I always look beautiful Otis.” 

“I know you do.” Otis leant over to kiss her. “How did I look?” Otis enquired straight after the kiss. 

Ruby paused for a moment pretending to try and remember how he looked that night, but she knew exactly how he looked that night.  “Above average, Which is okay for your usual scruffy standards.” She leant in to kiss him again. 

“All I know is that when you whispered it in the hospital, I wanted to jump up and say it back,” Otis said after the kiss, getting back to Ruby’s original question. 

“Good.”

Otis spent the following week at the Matthews’ house and it was nice and simple. He and Ruby to head to school in the morning, come back and sort out tea for Roland and for Claire if she was there of course which in itself changed from day to day, then they would all sit in the living room discussing their days at school. The routine was changed on Wednesday when they took their next step in the Harry Potter marathon watching the Chamber of Secrets, Claire was busy at work so Otis had some popcorn for himself this time but still felt a little out of place due to his lack of Christmas onesie. 

Roland had his moments that naturally upset Ruby leading to one of those rare occasions where Otis had to be the big spoon when they headed to bed on Tuesday in order to console his girlfriend. 

Now it was the end of the week, Friday and it was Anwar’s birthday. Ruby initially accepted that she wouldn’t be able to go out with her friends due to her dad’s condition and her mother was working, Ruby would have to think of one hell of an excuse as the untouchables didn’t miss one another birthday’s.

Thankfully for Ruby, Otis had offered to stay in with Roland considering Anwar said he was ‘ strictly not invited’ and Otis had been in the Matthews’ household for the whole week already and had no plans of going home, Ruby gave Otis one hell of a ‘thank you’ kiss when he made the offer. 

When Friday came around, Ruby, Olivia and Anwar all asked to go to the toilet in their respective classes with half an hour of the day to go so they could all begin their ‘beauty routines’ in preparation for the night ahead. It would be a simple strategy, head to Moordale’s most expensive restaurant, then to Moordale’s best gay bar and get blind drunk. 

Ruby driving Olivia left Otis without a lift back to the house and considering his bike was still at his mum’s house he had to get a taxi back, Ruby was very insistent on paying for it, but Otis was equally insistent on Ruby having as much money to enjoy her night. 

Otis and Roland tucked into a signature Otis Milburn roast chicken at the dinner table, which Roland complemented, Otis just hoped he didn’t ask for anything else in the future as Otis could struggle sometimes to assemble even a ham sandwich. 

There was a quick drive-by from Jefferey who dropped off some weed for Roland, he couldn’t stop by himself as he and Cynthia was off out on a date themselves, which was a shame for two reasons, firstly it would fill most of the long awkward periods of silence that would often fall between the pair, which Roland was clearly quite comfortable with but Otis, however, was completely the opposite,  silence always felt like a confirmation that he had messed up or done something wrong, people felt uncomfortable around Otis when he would weird them out, maybe Otis needed to realise that sometimes people wanted their own space and their own time which for a moment made his mind cross to his mother back at home and what had happened last Sunday.

The second reason is that Otis had no idea how to roll a joint and was making an absolute fool of himself and for once he was glad that Ruby wasn’t here as she would be ripping him to shreds by now. Roland awkwardly guided him from across the couch until Otis managed to assemble something that was somewhat respectable. 

“That’ll have to do” Roland said and Otis passed it over and lit it for him. 

After that extremely uncomfortable experience, Otis settled back into the couch and what was quickly becoming ‘his space’ on the couch. He pulled out his phone and noticed a notification that Ruby.Mathewss had uploaded a post on Instagram. 

“Holy shit!” Otis said out loud once he followed the notification up. 

“What’s up kid?” Roland asked taking his first few puffs of weed.

Otis didn’t know how comfortable he would be admitting to Roland that he was currently drooling over his daughter, so he quickly tried to think of a believable lie. “Oh erm, my friend Eric just got a new high score on this game we play together.” 

“Right..” Roland replied clearly not believing Otis' quick thinking. 

But Otis really couldn’t care and returned to his phone and to Ruby, He didn’t think he had ever seen her more stunning before, in her white flowery dress and-, well Otis had to clarify something to himself for a moment as he did mean it when he said Ruby was equally beautiful without makeup but she was literally glowing even through his phone screen, It had been the first time she had been ‘out’ properly since their relationship began and sure their hundreds of photo’s on Ruby’s timeline of her out and all ‘glammed up but this was the first time she was his. Otis didn’t really like using that term, as it made Ruby seem like a possession of his but just look at her as she pouted and posed as she held onto her glass of wine. Otis felt even more lucky as he scrolled through the comments which were already flooding in telling her how stunning she was from names he recognised to those he did not, Otis wanted to do the same but he understood and respected Ruby’s boundaries and decided forward the post into her DM’s.

OtisMilburn1234: You are Incredible 

Ruby.Matthewss:🥰

Across the other side of town, Ruby smiled as the notification came through that she had been waiting for ever since she had uploaded the photo, leaving her phone out on the table waiting for it to come through. 

“God you can put it away now Prince Charming has responded” Anwar groaned from across the table.

“Sorry,” Ruby responded as she put her phone away and into her bag, she was sorry this was Anwar’s day today and surely she could put the ‘badly dressed stick man’ to the back of her mind for a couple of hours. 

“Has Nick begged for you to come back yet?” Olivia asked Anwar. 

“Don’t know, couldn’t give a shit” Anwar responded sharply, 

Anwar and Nick had been broken up for some time now but Olivia and Ruby were placing on big bets that Nick would try a big over the top romantic gesture to get him back on his birthday, Ruby and Olivia looked across to each other in disappointment as there was potential for it to be an absolute shit show. 

Instead, Anwar’s phone buzzed and Ruby’s and Olivia’s eyebrows rose with interest “Has he sent you a long loving poem.” Olivia teased. 

"Oh Anwar, Oh Anwar, please take me back." Ruby added on in her and Olvia's little tag team.

But there was no response from Anwar he remained transfixed by whatever message had just come through. Ruby turned her head back towards Olivia, Ruby could tell immediately whenever Olivia and Anwar were hiding something, probably due to how she had become the master of said art. 

Ruby leaned over and snatched Anwar’s phone from across the table “Hey!” He called back and his immediate reaction was to steal Ruby’s phone in response. “Give it back or I’ll expose your’s and Milburn’s horrible lovey-dovey texts.” 

“Why what’s there to hide Anwar?” Ruby teased as she held his phone close to her chest. 

“Fine then!” Anwar replied and went to work on opening up Ruby’s phone after all she did know her password-, huh he could have sworn he put it in right, he tried another time and another but Ruby’s phone wouldn’t open. “Ugh, you haven’t changed it to Milburn’s birthday have you?” 

Ruby smugly smiled while Anwar just shook his head before throwing the phone back over to Ruby “21st June 2002.” She continued her smug look as she collected the phone, before turning her attention back to Anwar’s phone, her eyes widened when it became clear who Anwar was messaging “Holy shit!” Anwar just shook his head as Ruby passed the phone over to Olivia to reveal who it was he had been messaging. 

“Rahim!” Olivia shouted allowed. 

Anwar shook his head again, before snatching his phone back. “It’s just a couple of messages alright, cool your tits!”

“You know I never said I was stopping my boyfriend hunt of him.” Ruby teased back before taking more sips of her wine. 

“I think that was over when you were sneaking around with Otis fucking Milburn.” Anwar scoffed. 

“Nothing it’s over till I say it’s over,” Ruby said like the true queen of untouchables. 

“So is it serious?” Olivia asked eagerly. 

Anwar smirked before settling back into the booth they were sat in. “Maybe.” 

Ruby and Olivia seemed to explode with giggles, pleased that their best friend was back in the game, also Rahim could make an excellent new member of the Untouchables, hot, stylish and a rumoured connection to the Kardashians. he wouldn’t even have to fill out of an application form. 

Their fun was put on hold for a brief moment as the waiter came over skilfully holding all of their meals in his hands. 

“Ooh, ooh.” Anwar’s eyes lit up as his food was placed down first. Immediately grabbing his phone from his pocket to put it on his Instagram story

“There you go, gentleman and ladies.” The waiter placed the meals down, moving his eyes over to Ruby, who had caught his eyes a couple of times from across to the kitchen a couple of eyes, he was very tall and looked devilishly handsome in the tuxedo he was wearing. 

“It’s terribly busy and loud to hear in here so if you have a problem with your order you can text me on this number, he passed down a small piece of paper that had his number inscribed on it right in front of Ruby. 

“Do you often have to do this…” Ruby squinted her eyes looking for his name on his pin. 

“Dylan.” 

“So do you often have to do this, Dylan?” Ruby asked while seductively sipping her wine from her straw. Olivia and Anwar smiled to one another as this was the Ruby they knew and loved.

“Only for certain customers..”

Ruby picked up the paper that the phone number was on, twisting and turning it. “And when should I text this number, when I need some extra salt and vinegar or tomato sauce.” 

“If you like or you could call me once my shifts done, in about an hours time.” Dylan made sure to show as much of his expensive watch as possible. 

Ruby tutted “That’s a shame, I’ve got to go back to my boyfriend’s.” Ruby made sure to slightly tap her phone so her phone screen would light up so Dylan could just about make out the outline of two people. 

“Can’t be half as good looking as me though right?” God this guy was unbearable. 

Ruby compared this 6ft 3+ handsome and well-dressed waiter in front of her and her victorian ghost boyfriend “Yeah your probably right, but I couldn’t give a shit to be honest.” 

Dylan’s face changed to one of confidence to one of confusion very quickly “What?” 

“What I’m saying is fuck off, kitchen boy.” 

With that Dylan scoured off with his head held down as Ruby groaned before turning back to her friends. 

“You really are in deep aren’t you,” Anwar said as Ruby had always flirted with people whilst in relationships in the past attempting to play the game for as long as possible, sometimes for the full night, sometimes for a few days even weeks, but that interaction lasted less than a minute. 

Ruby still did enjoy teasing and flirting with other men as she was very aware of the power she had over them and the effect she had, so it was funny to see these big strong proud men reduced to whimpers by any slight interaction with her and she loved the game it was fun, but she used to do it for the attention and to feel loved for just the briefest moments of time, but she had that now, every day when she went home and all from Otis fucking Milburn and it was genuine and wasn’t looking just to get into her pants, okay maybe sometimes he did but still she would hate to betray that even for a little fun and games for a few minutes which he would never find out about. 

She still feels extremely guilty about it though, so she reopens her phone and her Instagram opens back up to where it last was, her’s and Otis DM’s and she decided to take to type another message. 

Ruby.Mathewss: I love you xx

The notification pops up on Otis’ phone, and as always his heart flutters slightly especially when it’s those three words, but he doesn’t think he should respond, it’s supposed to be a night without him and he should keep it that way. Keeping Ruby addicted to her phone isn’t going to help his relationship with Anwar one bit, which he genuinely wanted to fix, not for himself but for Ruby as he would know how much it would mean to her to have her boyfriend and her best friends to at least have a moderate accepting of one another.

Strangely it had been Olivia who had been the most harsh on Otis as of late. The reason Otis thought it was strange is that Olivia is that she was the only one Otis had somewhat of a connection to, after helping her out with her ghost-related issues, they even worked on a history group project in year 11 and had never thrown the insults at him and Eric that other Untouchable members had up and down the years. 

Otis put that and Ruby’s message to the back of his mind as he was quite enjoying Roland wax lyrical about a diverse range of topics but even that goes south pretty quickly. “You haven’t read these books have you son?” 

Oh no..

Roland Matthews picked one of his father’s books from the small table on the right-hand side of his couch. Otis somehow had managed to avoid any mention of his father from the morning after the double date and Ruby had told him about her dad’s obsession with his dad’s book.

“Ermmm…” 

“They are brilliant, really gets into the Male Psyche, something you don’t always get nowadays, lives in America got the same last name as you actually.” His girlfriend’s high father laughed off at the end. 

Otis awkwardly bowed his head as he began “Yeah, erm he’s kinda like my dad, so-” 

Roland looked like another shot of drugs had burst into his system “Holy Shit! That makes so much more sense now! Hahaha I can’t believe it.” Roland shook the book in the air like it was the premier league trophy. 

“Yeah..” Otis said quietly as Roland continued to laugh.

“I see it now, he mentions an ex wife back in England, who’s a writer, It all makes sense, it all makes sense.” Roland lightly clapped his hands together in a way to signify some sort of victory. “Wait until I tell Claire Ey! Oh, to be fair she probably worked out herself, which kinda explains why she’s been acting so cold towards ya! Sorry about that by the way, she can be very protective over her little girl.” 

“It’s okay,” Otis replied softly. 

“I’m glad she chose you Otis, not just because you’re the son of like my favourite author, but you make her really fucking happy.”

Otis offered a smile back. 

“She has that look in her eyes I haven’t seen since well, before Charlotte really.” Roland looks upwards towards the ceiling as talks to Otis. 

Huh, “Charlotte? As in the place in America?” 

Roland didn’t respond for a brief moment, thinking about how best to structure his response, “I mean yes and no, It was our last family holiday back in 2014, Claire found out she was pregnant again almost 13 years after Ruby I mean what are the chances of that ey? When we found out we were gonna have another girl, I mean we had to call her Charlotte right? We would have two C’s and two R’s, Claire, Charlotte and Roland, Ruby and considering there was a town 10 miles away from Charlotte called Matthews it was destiny right? Well no, 20 whole minutes we had her for, she couldn’t breathe properly the poor thing, Rubes saw the whole thing she was only 13  ,no one should have to see something like that.”

Otis really did know how to respond, he was never good in any normal social situation, so when Roland told him probably one of the most heartwrenching stories he had ever heard, he freezes instead thinking back to the look on Ruby’s face when he held Joy just under a month ago. “I’m sorry.” Is all Otis could think to say.

“It’s okay son.” Roland said as the silence began to fill the room until Roland’s signature snore began to replace it.

Ruby, Olivia and Anwar had now left the restaurant and into Anwar’s favourite gay club in Moordale. It was the club the untouchables visited the most as Ruby and Olivia throughout the years often found themselves in a ‘fuck boys’ sort of mood or more accurately ‘fuck straight boys’ after a recent breakup and tipsily danced the night away, but this time as she drunkenly danced on the dance floor she couldn’t be helped by her thoughts being full of Otis, wishing he was here mostly to see how adorably out of place he would be as on many times he had expressed how he hated nightclubs.

So as she waited at the front of the queue waiting to order drinks, she pulled out her phone gently trailing her fingers over Otis’ face on her screensaver, It was useless in messaging him as it was now quite late, well late for Otis’ standards and he would probably have fallen asleep by now and speaking of messaging why didn’t he respond back before?

She put it to the back of her mind as she collected the shots for her and Olivia and Anwar, but as she gathered the tray she noticed someone awkwardly cramped up in the corner of the club, surely her eyes weren’t deceiving her and that was Adam Fucking Groff bobbing his head lightly to the music. 

“Hey, Rubes-” Olvia began as Ruby placed the tray of shots on their table. 

“Give me a minute.” Ruby firmly placed one finger up to signify her point before spinning away from the table and back into the crowd. 

“Adam! Adam!” She called, she hoped it was him or she was going to make herself look like a right fool. “Adam!” She called one more time and he finally turned his head in recognition of her shouting. 

“Ruby?” He asked surprised and a little embarrassed. “Are you and Otis alright?” 

“Why?” Yes Adam why wouldn’t we be alright?

“Just you’ve not gone lesbian have you?” Adam asked circling his head around the rest of the nightclub. 

Ruby chuckled, it was so beautifully Adam thinking that only LGBT+ people could enter a gay nightclub like there was some kind of gay pass to enter the building. “No, we are here for Anwar’s birthday,” Ruby shouted over the music and then directing her head towards the table where Olivia and Anwar were seated.

Adam lightly nodded in his response.

“What are you doing here anyway?” She asked. 

“Just thought I’d try something different,” Adam replied taking a sip from his drink.

Ruby really didn’t even need to ask why he was here, she knew exactly why he was here. Adam had been through the conversation with Ruby in full detail when Eric revealed what had happened in Nigeria and how it had been kick-started by Adam not really feeling ready to go to a place like that yet. So here he was trying to write his wrongs or what he felt in his own head was wrong.

“Do you want to come and sit with us?” Ruby asked, as Adam nodded Ruby stole his hand and dragged him across the dancefloor and across to their booth. 

She could see Anwar sigh as he saw Adam approaching and he mouthed “Fucking Hell” First Otis Milburn and now Adam Groff being introduced to the untouchables did she even want them to exist anymore.

“It’s Adam’s first time at a club like this” Ruby said as they sat down and Adam awkwardly nodded. “So be fucking nice yeah.”

After a couple more drinks Adam became very much a natural and his nerves were calmed, his dancing though was anything but calm very wild and erratic, he made full use of his long arms and legs to create some rather wild moves that left Ruby in stitches as they bounced on the dancefloor. 

Eventually Ruby began to see about 8 Adam Groffs in front of her. “IM GONNA BE SICK!” She shouted across to Adam. 

“What!” Adam shouted back 

“IM GONNA BE-” But there was no rest of the sentence from Ruby as she puked all over the dance floor, some of it clipping the beginning of Adam’s shoes.

After being escorted to the bathroom by Adam, she was now crying in toilets whilst throwing up, Adam was sat on the floor with her leaning on the outside of the cubical. 

“That was so fucking embarzin-” Ruby said from over the toilet bowl. 

“Yeah, it was pretty embarrassing.” Adam who was still fairly sober replied whilst chucking toilet roll up in the air then catching and then repeat as away to pass the time as Ruby had been throwing up for some time now.

“HEY! That’s not very nice” Ruby got some more sick out of her. “Otis is nice, so very nice” 

Adam smiled turning his neck to see Ruby who normally didn’t use such language while she was sober. 

“I love him loads Adam, like just as much as my makeup set.”

“Yeah?” 

Ruby pondered on her previous statement “Okay maybe a bit more than that, like a lot a lot.” Ruby threw up again. “Can you pass me my phone pretty please?”Ruby asked and Adam began to collect her phone from her designer bag which he was wearing over his neck. 

Once Ruby had her phone in her hand and her eyes adjusted to the bright light that was radiating from it she made her way to her contacts, to ‘favourites to ‘Otis❤️’ 

Otis headed to Matthews’ next-door neighbour’s house to go and get Pete an elderly gentleman who would always help Ruby get her father to bed when she was left alone and Otis himself wasn’t much stronger than Ruby so she instructed him to go and get Pete once her father dozed off.

Then it was his turn to doze off, comfortably resting in Ruby’s bed with Baby sleeping just at the bottom of his feet. 

His sleep was disturbed by his phone buzzing from underneath Ruby’s pillow where it was on charge.

Rubes❤️ along with her phone number and picture popped up. “Hello?” He groaned as Baby moved at the bottom of the bed in response to his voice. 

“OTTTTTTTTTTTTT!” Ruby shouted from the toilet bowl. 

“Rubes? Is everything okay?” Otis asked as he began to sit upright whilst stroking Baby.

He could hear giggling on the other end of the phone. “Heheh, I love it when you call me Rubes, I just love you in general really.” 

Otis chuckled as he was starting to get a sense of how drunk she was. “Yeah, I love you too Rubes.”

Ruby chuckled again “I normally slap people who say that name, but I love you so that’s okay, I think I should let Adam call me that too, because I love him too.” 

Otis was really awake now his heart splitting slightly “Wait, what?” 

Ruby laughed allowed, “Hahaha, you were so worried that’s so cute! I was talking about Adam Groff and not in that way in the friend way. Say hi Adam!” Ruby passed the phone down to Adam. 

Otis did breathe a huge sigh of relief as he could hear the phone being moved about “Hi new kid.” before the phone was passed around again. 

“What’s Adam doing there?” 

“He’s just looking after me, he’s being really nice, I’ve been sick like twelve times.”

As much as Otis was enjoying drunk Ruby she clearly wasn’t in a great state and he wanted to make sure she got home okay. “Do you want me to order you a taxi?” 

“No, I’m a big girl Otis! I can do it myself! I’ll be home soon and I’ll give you a big big kiss.” 

Otis smiled “Okay then Rubes, I’ll see you soon.” 

“Yeah see you soon I love youuuuuuuu!” She shouted down the phone. 

“I love youuuuuuu too” Otis mocked from the other side of the phone. 

“I love youuuuu moreeeee!” She shouted again before hanging up. 

Ruby just about managed to order a uber from the club, she was paying far too much for the taxi but she couldn’t really care, she just wanted to be back in Otis’ arms again. 

She was leaning her head on Adam’s shoulder as the taxi drove through the streets of Moordale at whatever silly o’clock in the morning. 

“I’m sorry” Ruby groaned as she leaned further into Adam’s shoulder. 

“For what?” A rather bemused Adam asked.

“For talking a lot about love back in the toilets, Otis says I shouldn’t talk about relationship stuff in front of you, because you are heartbroken, Forever a therapist, Otissss” She smiles as his name leaves her lips. 

“Oh okay,” Adam replied, he thought he wouldn’t be able to get Eric off his mind all night being in that club, but dancing and having fun with Ruby had taken his mind off it for the majority of the night. 

“Did you love Eric?” 

Adam paused for some time whilst looking out of the window “Yeah I think I did.” 

There was no more response from Ruby as she had now fallen asleep on Adam’s shoulder as the driver completed the rest of the journey. 

“Here you go, mate.” The driver said pulling up. 

Adam slightly nudged Ruby to wake her up “Is this the right place?” It was really dark and Adam had no idea where Ruby lived so he needed some guidance. 

“Yeah” Ruby groaned, Adam isn’t even sure Ruby looked out the window properly, but they had to get out anyway. 

“Make sure you’re girlfriend gets through the door mate.” The driver said to Adam in the back. 

“Oh, she’s not my girlfriend.”

Adam catches the drivers narrowed eyebrows through his mirror “What’s she doing all over you then?” He asked.

And just like that day in the PE changing rooms, Adam says rather proudly “Because I’m a bit of a poof.”

Adam climbed out of the car on one side before assisting Ruby out on the other and once he got her upright he realised Ruby’s mistake. 

“Ruby are you sure you live here?” 

“Yeah, this is where I live,” Ruby complained at Adam’s constant questioning as she waved her hands to the house in front of her. 

“I don’t think it is…”

Otis had decided to wait up for Ruby, it had been some time since she called and he was starting to get a little worried, so he pulled out his phone but as he went to call her an incoming call came from Ruby herself. 

“OTTTTTT, I need you to come and pick us up, Darlin.” Otis just about heard Ruby say as he could hear Adam complaining in the background. 

“Rubes you know I can’t drive.” Otis was taking his lessons now so he had his provisional license so could drive with an adult supervisor, but waking Roland or Pete up from next door probably wouldn’t go down well. 

“New kid it’s Adam,” Adam said down the phone as took the phone from Ruby.

“Adam, did you get in a taxi yet?” Otis asks whilst rubbing his own eyes. 

“Well we did, but it went to your house instead, we need you to let us in.” 

Great. 

Otis picks up his keys, locking the Matthews’ door with Roland’s keys before posting them back through the letterbox. He does his best Mo Farah attempt and jog all the way home, unfortunately for Otis, he isn’t a 4 time Olympic gold medalist and has to take several breaks to calm his breathing down, but he gets there eventually, back at his house for the first time since Sunday. Ruby and Adam were on the chairs outside with Ruby wrapped in both her’s and Adams coats fast asleep again. 

“Hey, thanks for looking after her.” An out of breath Otis said. 

“No worries new kid,” Adam replied as Otis waved his keys in the air.

After opening the door to the house, Otis and Adam carefully carried Ruby’s sleeping body through the door and then up the stairs and into Otis bedroom all while making as little noise as possible to not wake any of Jean, Jakob,Joy or Ola up. 

Otis let out a massive sigh as they lay Ruby down on his bed, completely shattered from the carrying and the jogging. 

“I would offer you the spare room, but Ola occupies that now,” Otis said as they both looked down at Ruby. 

“The couch will be fine new kid.” 

As Adam finished his sentence Ruby began to snore down below them. “Damn and I thought I snored loud,” Adam commented

“Yeah” Otis chuckled. “But don’t tell anyone or-” 

“She’ll ruin my life I know, I get that one a lot also.” 

Otis smiled, never in a million years did he think he would be stood in his bedroom bonding with Adam Groff about Ruby Matthews weird quirks. 

“Good night Adam. Thanks again.” 

“No worries New Kid, And I do apologise if your cushions smell of my farts by the morning.”

Jean woke up the next morning heading for an early shower to start her day, she got undressed in her bedroom so her clothes wouldn’t get soaked on the bathroom floor. She wrapped a towel around her, thinking about how she definitely should call Otis today, she can’t remember the last time they spent six days apart. 

She dropped her towel as she entered the bathroom spinning around and she screamed her lungs off at the sight of a teenager sleeping in her bathtub. 

“AHHHHHHH!” 

“AHHHHHHH!” Adam also screamed back when he woke up and realised where he was and there was a naked Jean Milburn screaming at him.

After that extremely awkward moment and an explanation was given, Adam and Otis were sat downstairs at the kitchen table as Adam was tucking into a full English that Jean had made to him. 

“Why did you move into the bathroom?” Otis whispered from across the table.

“Thought it would be more comfortable,” Adam replied without a care in the world as he was destroying the breakfast in front of him. “This is fantastic Mrs Milburn.” 

“Thank you Adam,” Jean said as she began to wash some pots. 

“You’re bangers are amazing…..”

Everyone fell silent as they realised what Adam had said and how relevant it was to what he saw in the bathroom about half an hour ago. 

“I meant you’re sausages,” Adam whispered as he returned to his food especially trying to avoid Jakob’s gaze from across the room while he played with Joy. 

“You not having any new kid?” Adam asked as he looked at Otis mat that had no food or plate on it. 

“Don’t think someone wants to make me one,” Otis said with some spite towards his mother. 

“Well someone is 17 years old and is perfectly capable of making their own breakfast.” Jean fired back and the tension between the pair filled up the room.

The rest of Adam’s breakfast was ate in silence until he ate his final bite and his belly made a very unsettling sound, “I think the toilet is calling my name.” He announced and he rose from his seat and headed up the stairs.

This left Jean and Otis the only two people in the kitchen again in silence both wanting the other to initiate the healing process.

“I’m sorry.” They both said at the exact same time. 

“I’ll go first.” Again they both said in unison. 

“I’m the senior Otis, I shall go first.” Jean took a huge intake of breath to relax herself as she began. “As you may have noticed we have welcomed someone new into our home” Jean nodded to Joy who was bouncing up and down in Jakob’s arms on the couch. “Someone from my own flesh and blood and as you are aware this hasn’t happened to me for over 17 years and while I stand by my decision to give my maximum attention to someone who isn’t even capable of walking yet, however, this shouldn’t be an excuse to neglect you the way I have been doing recently and in no way did I ever want you to feel like you are not wanted Otis, because you are and always will be my first baby.” 

Otis nodded lifting his head up to face his mother. “Thank you,” Otis says with some sincerity before preparing for his own apology. “I think you know my issues with welcoming new people into this house, but I think because she did come from your own flesh and blood I became so jealous like it was an opportunity for you to start all over again and make a new and improved Milburn, actually have you decided on a surname yet?” Otis asked going on a little bit off topic. 

“She’s going to be a Nyman,” Jakob said from across the room. 

Otis nodded, while he would be lying if he said he didn’t have a preference, he would have loved if she was either a Milburn or a Franklin but obviously considering the circumstances Nyman was the most appropriate option. “Anyway, what I’m trying to say is I was being a jealous brat and I shouldn’t have spoken to you the way I did on Sunday night and I need to realise I can do some more stuff on my own.” 

“Just don’t go running off on your own again.”

“I won’t.” 

“NEWWW KIDDDD!” Adam called from up the stairs, the last time he had shouted like that in this house Adam thought he had discovered a secret sex dungeon in the house. 

Otis raced up the stairs to find Adam stood at the edge of his bedroom door watching Ruby roll around and groaning in his bed. “I think she’s alive, just,” Adam said in a deadpan tone. 

Otis tried to concentrate to try and make out what Ruby was saying but he was distracted by Adam who digging his phone out from his pocket. 

“What are you doing?” Asked Otis lowering his voice a little as to not disturb Ruby too much. 

“Taking a photo for blackmail,” Adam said and followed through with is statement, best trying to capture her worst angels. 

“Why?” 

“Funny,” Adam said chuckling to himself. “Don’t think your in the clear new kid, I just saw your mum naked this morning.”

“You didn’t take a photo then did you?” Otis asked. 

“No, but it’s all in here.” Adam pointed his index finger to where his brain was.

After Maureen came up to pick Adam up, Otis returned to his bedroom with a fizzy lucozade in hand to give to Ruby. “Morning” He started settling down on the edge of the bed. 

“Ugh, I’m never drinking alcohol again.” She groaned still with her head in Otis pillows. 

“Well, I brought you the cure.” 

Ruby slowly raised her head up and squinted her eyes noticing Otis waving the lucozade in the air. “And I’m definitely not drinking that fizzy shit!” She still accepted the drink when Otis passed it over. “God that is vile.” She said taking her first sips. 

“Well, an alternative is going on a walk, a bit of fresh air can do you well.”

Ruby lifted up the cover from her body as she was still in her clothes and heels from the night before. “I don’t think I’ve got the clothes or shoes for that Otis.” 

“I left something out for you,” Otis said smugly again quoting Ruby as he turned to the top of his drawers. 

15 minutes later Otis and Ruby began their walk from his gravel road, with Ruby wearing Otis spare trainers, pair of shorts and the Moordale High School leavers jumper which was essentially pointless as 90% of people at the school at the time would be carrying on into sixth form. 

“Ugh, this is hideous,” Ruby complained from inside the hood of the jumper.

“How was your night?” Otis asked. 

“I had fun, I think Anwar wants to kill me though.” 

“Why?” 

Ruby pulled her phone out and read a text aloud from Anwar “It was my 18th birthday and you spent the night texting Otis Milburn and dancing with Adam Groff.” 

“Is everything going to be alright?” 

“Yeah he will come round, you know he has been texting Rahim.” 

“Shit, really?” The relationship merry-go-round was quite a fascinating one. 

“Yeah, How was my dad?” Ruby asked as they turned a corner.

Otis didn’t respond initially, his thoughts turning to the conversation about Charlotte.

However, the long pause caused Ruby to have a small panic. “Oh my god is he alright!” 

“He’s he’s fine.” Otis calmed her nerves quickly before returning to his stuttering self. “It’s, it’s-.”

“What did he say?” Ruby threaded her left arm through Otis right arm to cling on to him in case he decided to run away after she feared her dad might have said something to scare him.

“Well firstly, he found out who my dad was.” 

Ruby chuckled “Did he admit his dying love for him.” 

“Almost and then- and then-” Otis began stuttering and stopped walking. 

“What Otis?” She asked as she let go of his arm and they now were both facing each other.

“He told me about Charlotte…” 

Ruby dropped her face to the floor slowly and then began to look at the trees around her or anywhere that wasn’t Otis face as she needed to compose herself as this was the first time she had heard the name ‘Charlotte’ in a long long time.

“I’m so sorry Rubes.” Otis reached out taking her hand and putting it into his. 

“What are you sorry for?” She muttered back. 

“I don’t know…..” God Otis felt incredibly small right now, like last night with Roland he didn’t quite know the right words to come out with fearing he would only make things worse. 

Ruby knew that to she didn’t want to make Otis feel uncomfortable, she just needed time to prepare herself as they didn’t talk about Charlotte at all at home she was just this awful cloud that sometimes had the tendency to hang over them.

“It’s weird, I thought I was doing well, all summer you talking about your pregnant mum, how giddy you got when talking about having another sibling, the panic when you wondered if she was going to be okay  and then even looking at her in the hospital room it was fine, I only realised a couple of days ago it’s because I did all of those things, but I never got to hold her Otis…” 

“Rubes,” Otis said and he seemed to move inwards to embrace her but she raised her free hand to signify that she was okay. 

“I really did want to tell you Otis and I will tell you more,” She said as she continued to play with Otis right hand. “but like you said, in my own time.” 

“In your own time,” Otis repeated and then brought her into an embrace, they held onto another for around 2 minutes with their joined bodies rocking from side to side. When the embrace was finished Otis slowly pulled down the hood to his jumper that she was wearing and they shared a short but passionate kiss. 

“How bad was I last night on the phone?” Ruby asked as they continued their walk while holding hands this time. 

“You were pretty funny, you were just crying telling me how much you loved me.” 

Ruby winced slightly “That’s not that bad.”

“You did call me ‘darlin’ once though,” Otis said with a smug smile on his face. 

“Oh, that’s going to have to go,” Ruby replied slightly embarrassed. 

“Yeah well, you can spare your blushes for a few days if you want as I’m going to go back to my mums. 

“Good, you were beginning to make my bed smell of boy.”

Otis narrowed his eyes at her in response “I thought you liked how I smelled, In fact, I think the exact quote was ‘your aftershave is so cheap it turn-” Otis tried to finish his sentence but his girlfriend sharply cut him off.

“That’s enough of that Milburn!”

Chapter Text

“What the fuck.”

Otis had never been more lost in life.

Eric doesn’t help he just stands there laughing at him, the same way he did when he admitted that Maeve lightly stroking his eyebrows gave him an erection in the school swimming pool last year.

The pair were out Christmas shopping with Eric trying to assist him in trying to find gifts for Ruby. Otis had never been Christmas shopping in his life, he had only ever bought presents for two people in his life before, his mother and Eric. Even then it was scrolling on Amazon for five minutes before finding a new gaming accessory for Eric and a new book for his mother. 

So here they were in the Victoria Secrets situated in the Moordale Shopping Centre and Otis was staring at the various options like they were alien life forms with three heads attached to their long slimy necks. 

“Can I help you?” 

Otis pretty much just jumped out of his skin placing his hands on to his shoulder as if to protect himself, “Erm, J-just browsing.” He manages to bumble out once he settles down towards the young blonde woman who worked at the store offering her assistance to him. 

“For a friend, mother, sister-?”

“Girlfriend,” Otis confirms much to the surprise of the store assistant. 

“Anything you have in mind?.”

“Erm…. that one.” Otis just waved at a random pair of bra and knickers that was hung up in front of him.

“Size?” 

He had no idea. “Erm…. Give me a second.” Otis sprinted away from the store assistant grabbing Eric’s arm and he charged out of the store with Eric walking close behind. 

“What the hell was that?” Eric asked as Otis walked at a fast pace as far away from the store as possible. 

“I don’t think Ruby needs any underwear,” Otis muttered. 

“Well, she’s going to need something.”

They had been in at least five or six stores and every time Otis thought that he had found something he was content in buying, he imagined Ruby’s disappointed face as she unwrapped the present. “I know, I know…”

“Look why don’t we just get some lunch first.” 

So that’s what they do, heading down to the food court and began scoffing on some burger king on a table for two.

“Did you hear about Rahim and Anwar?” Otis asked as he took a bite into his burger but Eric’s reluctance to respond makes him think that he made a mistake. “I’m sorry.” 

Eric shakes his head. “No, it’s fine. I guess it was kinda inventable, two best looking gay guys in our year, just a matter of time.” 

Eric expects some kind of response of support from his best friend but he just hums as he further digs into his burger. “Hey, Ruby’s really rubbing off on you man.” 

“I’m sorry.” Otis apologised putting his burger down. “I’m sorry, I’m just really stressed about this present thing,” Otis said as he watched another young couple walking around the food court with several bags draped along their arms. 

“I don’t know what you are worried about man, have you seen the way she looks at you?” Eric asked him but there was no response. “I’m pretty certain you could deliver her a bag of shit and she would be happy with you.”

Otis narrows his eyes as his mind crosses to what Ruby’s actual reaction would be if he waved a bag of his own shit in the air at her, then he pictures her slowly chopping up his body and distributing it across the woods. 

“Okay maybe not literally, but you get the picture.” 

“How is this helping Eric?”

“I don’t know to be honest.” Eric was hoping his words would lead Otis to some form of inspiration that would lead to a light bulb flicking inside his head and he would now know what to buy. 

At that very moment, Otis’ phone began to buzz. ‘Rubes❤️’ popped up, ‘Ahhhh’ he panicked and his hand wandered above the accept or decline button, he wanted to decline but he imagined the ‘78 calls’ that will follow if he declined now.

“Hey! Rubes! Rubester!” He tries to sound cool but his actions only make things worse, this is confirmed by Eric’s shake of the head from across the table.

“Hey…..” A rather confused Ruby said whilst lay on her bed after her dad had begun his afternoon nap. 

“Erm, is everything okay?” 

“Yeah, I just thought I’d see how you were doing?” Ruby’s excitement for Christmas didn’t help his nerves. They decided on their plans a couple of days ago, they would still spend Christmas with their respective families, but for an hour in the middle of the day Ruby would pick Otis up from his house and they would drive to their spot in the woods and exchange gifts in the car. Ruby initially protested at how gross the idea was, but Ruby couldn’t deny how stupidly romantic and cute Otis’ idea was and the next day she told him how much she was looking forward to it just as Otis was about to suggest a change of plans. Ever since then Ruby’s face seemed to light up every time the word ‘Christmas was mentioned.

“Oh you know, presents, presents, lot’s of presents.” Great  Otis just kept digging himself into a deeper hole. Eric had his head in his hands from across the table as Otis winced at his own comments. 

“I’m looking forward to it,” Ruby replied from the other end of the phone. “I also wanted to see if you could come out, 9 O’clock tomorrow morning.”

“Tomorrow morning?” This did confuse Otis as she wasn’t normally an early bird, especially on the weekend. 

“No questions nerd, just be ready.” 

“Okay,” Otis said with a calm tone for the first time since the call had begun. 

“I love you”

“I love you too.” 

The sound of the call ending rung in Otis’ ear as he had that lightbulb moment that Eric had hoped to give him a few moments ago. Ruby’s words weren’t normally calming, they would make him erratic and nervous but when she said those three words, it very much calmed him and allowed him to strip a lot of the mess back, she loved him, loving him allowed for many doors to be opened into her personal life, her hobbies, her interests, what she truly cared about. 

“She loves me….” Otis said as he began to rise up from his chair.

“Okay…..” Eric also began to rise with him. 

“She loves me…..” 

“Are you going to say anything else or that on repeat forever and ever?” Eric asked as he chase his best friend out of the food court. 

Knowing Ruby as he truly did, he ended up finding it quite easy to shop for her in the end, not the Ruby Matthews who roamed the Moordale halls throwing insults left right and centre at peoples style and accessories, while she did care about that and of course Otis would get a gift towards that, deep down Ruby was a very appreciative person and Otis tired to picture Ruby’s smile when picking up potential gifts rather than her menacing thrown. And mainly she loved him and if he was true to himself in getting the gifts he wanted for her, she would be happy with them. Right? There is still a small doubt in his mind, but he ends up satisfied. 

Eric also throws in his own thrown’s towards some of the presents Otis finally decides on, feeling slightly worried for his best friend as Otis would simply offer no explanation to some of the gifts, but Otis looks happy so Ruby should be happy. 

They decide to head into the GAME store before they leave for their own self-interest listing off potential new releases they were keen to get their hands on. They were discussing the local gaming club that they attended every Saturday and had just been at a few hours before they started shopping. 

But their conversation stops dead just like Otis’ whole body as they pass the Starbucks en route to the bus stop.

“What’s wrong man?” Eric asked as Otis nearly dropped all of his bags in his trance that he had slipped into. 

What was wrong was what was going on inside of the Starbucks they were around 20 yards away from

Inside the Starbucks on one of the tables closest to windows was a couple in their 40’s leaning in close to another laughing together as they held their respective coffee cups. It was nothing out of the ordinary and it wouldn’t have been if one of the pair wasn’t a married woman, that married woman was Claire Matthews. 

There could be a reasonable explanation for all of this, Friends can laugh and share a joke over a cup of coffee right? It just all seems too personal. Ruby told Otis how she had never had a friend that was a straight boy they were always too busy trying to get into her pants, maybe Claire had the same problem as her daughter, Was this her Anwar? But it was different for older people they were beyond that petty bullshit, right? She was supposed to be at the hospital right now, but she could be on a break, no this was too far away from the hospital. 

The two sides of Otis’ brain that were squabbling in for the defence of Claire Matthews behaviour and the prosecution were put to rest to by the live evidence right before his eyes as they both leaned in for a short, sweet kiss one that reeked of familiarity and understanding between the pair.

Fuck. 

“Hey.” Eric softly smacked Otis’ ribs to bring him out of his trance. “Are you possessed or something.” 

Otis shook his head still processing what he had just seen. “No, I just thought I saw someone.” He replied as they began to walk away, Otis still keeping one eye on the Starbucks over his shoulder.

“Who?” 

Otis knew he wasn’t going to get away with his excuse, because of their very small social circle Otis and Eric knew every acquaintance each person had. Which made it all the more difficult hiding his and Ruby’s summer affair from him.

“Erm.. Ruby.” That seems the most plausible excuse. 

Eric laughs, little did he know how far from funny this situation was. “Man your having visions of her after only a few hours apart, you are in so deep!” Eric’s laugh increased in its volume, he thought about jumping onto his best friends back but he knew he could have destroyed Ruby Matthews Christmas presents in the process. 

“Yeah,” Otis whispered, before looking back at the Starbucks one last time where Claire was gathering her bag and leaving, her and this mystery man shared one last kiss before heading off in separate directions. 

What the fuck was he going to do?

For most of the night this question circles around Otis’ head as he struggles to sleep. The most annoying thing is that he half suspected it, there had been countless occasions where a couple had walked through his front door to speak to his mother when someone in a relationship had either had thoughts of or actually gone through with having affair because their partner could not sexually satisfy them due to a physical or medical condition. Extra-long shifts but underpaid bills, that time she was supposed to be in the hospital when his mother was giving birth, the signs were all there but how could he possibly act on those thoughts? Mention it to Ruby? Who looked at her parents all gooey-eyed when Claire kissed Roland goodnight like they were the most idealistic version of love. If he tried to suggest there might be a chance all might not be as it seems maybe she might have actually gone through with the whole chopping his body into little pieces and spreading it across the woods. Besides, he barely knew this woman he couldn’t just go around throwing assumptions, little did he know that he would be proved right.

His finger hovers above ‘Rubes ❤️‘ in his contact list, he needs to tell her, he has to tell her, but telling someone something important over the phone just seems like a recipe for disaster, just look what happened with Maev- No! He should not be thinking about her right now, he thinks of Ruby’s reaction when he delivered the news to her, she would need him there, he should wait until tomorrow. 

Tomorrow comes around and Otis is nervously fiddling with his own fingers as he waits at the top of the stairs leading to the gravel outside of his house. His thoughts had been so full of what he had seen yesterday at the shopping centre, he doesn’t have time to think about where Ruby was taking him.

Rubes❤️: 9 o’clock remember! Try and wear something nice-ish x 

Otis glances again at her latest text, why the hell did he have to wear something ‘nice’ it was 9 o’clock on a Sunday morning, well 8:55 to precise he had already been stood outside for ten minutes, he couldn’t risk being a second out of line and risk Ruby’s wrath. 

His version of ‘nice-ish is the brown suit he wore when he went to the abortion clinic with Ma-. Nope not again, especially as Ruby’s VW was now pulling up in front of him. He catches her eyes through the window, how remarkably similar they were to her mothers startles him and again his mind is full of yesterday afternoon. 

Fuck

She honks her horn at him.

Double fuck, she obviously knows somethings up with him as he was staring at her like he had just seen a ghost, she was obviously going to pull him up on this. 

He smiles awkwardly, hoping to use some of his clueless charm that somehow worked on her, but she only threw him an eye roll as he walked towards the passenger door. 

“Here take these” Ruby says the moment he opens the door handing him some yellow tulips.

“What did I do to deserve this?” Otis asked as he scanned the flowers. 

Ruby scoffed “They are not for you nerd, no questions remember.”

Otis nodded in response before Ruby began to scan his attire up and down. “Why do you look like you are going for a job interview as a librarian.” 

“Well, I didn’t think of anything else.” Otis was now panicking, the flowers, up early in the morning, this was clearly very important for Ruby and he had messed it up, again. 

Ruby smiles at his level of worrying before placing a hand on his left shoulder “Hey, you look nice.” She leaned over the gearstick to kiss him. “Ish” She whispered after the short kiss and back to the wheel. 

Otis smiled back and for the first time since the shopping trip he felt calm, it was a rare occasion that Ruby complimented his appearance compared to the thousands he threw at her, it was nice to receive her reassurance. 

Once Ruby started the engine though his thoughts turned back to that incident, Ruby was right next to him, he thought about how he was going to word it or when really? What if she didn’t believe him? Otis is quite thankful for the whole ‘no questions’ thing as she would definitely be pulling him up on why he isn’t waffling at 100mph about yesterday’s game club meet up. 

Across from Otis in the driver’s seat, Ruby is confused why he isn’t waffling at 100mph about game club. She hated game club, firstly because it took him away from valuable weekend hours that they could be spending together, but overall she is fine with him going as it made him happy and it allowed him to spend more time with Eric as again she didn’t want to be that ‘girlfriend’ who restricts the amount of time their significant other spend with their friends. The second reason she hates it is because he gives her some kind of fucking match report, like she gives a shit about nerd computer games and ‘speed runs’ which sounded like some kind of drug bust. But then again Otis is extremely fucking cute when he is going on about something he is passionate about. So maybe she doesn’t hate game club, it is a love-hate relationship instead. But in terms of Otis’ quietness right now she doesn’t question it when she realises he is probably just listening to her ‘no questions’ instruction, which she appreciates right now, she needs it. 

After some time of driving Otis begins to get extremely confused at where they were going but as always ‘no questions’ They had been driving for sometimes now, but they hadn’t left Moordale, they were so deep into the town, he could even swear that Ruby drives around the same street twice, not because she was lost but more that she was questioning to where she was going was the right place to be. He hadn’t been to this part of town since his Nan-

Oh, of course, the graveyard….

Otis doesn’t stare at Ruby when they pull up to the cemetery, he keeps his eyes firmly straight ahead. If they are clearly going to see who he thinks they are going to see, this is a big moment for Ruby and she doesn’t need any added pressure of his gaze. 

“Here.” Otis passes the flowers to Ruby as they climb out of her car. 

She entwined her fingers with his, holding on perhaps tighter than she ever has done before as she tried to remember the right spot. 

They remained in total silence until they reached Charlotte’s gravestone. 

In Loving Memory of 

Charlotte Matthews 

2014-2014

Daughter To Claire & Roland

&

Sister To Ruby

“I haven’t been here for years….” “Only mum and dad visited and well now it’s just mum….”

Are you sure that’s where she was…….. The terrible thought couldn’t help but slip into Otis’ brain.

“I just found it hard you know it’s ahhhh.” Ruby groaned she really didn’t cry in front of Otis, again… 

“People deal with g-” 

“No therapy Otis.” She cut him off again. 

“Sorry.” She gave his hand a little squeeze as she wasn’t intending to be mean to him this time, she just wanted to do it in her own time. 

“I guess this was kind of the start of it all, of course, I wanted to keep people away from my shitty little house, but I told nobody about Charlotte. I thought it would be kind of cool if just boom…. I had a sister, I thought it would get a shit tone of likes of Instagram.” Ruby chuckled through the tears. 

Otis smiled supportingly it was all very Ruby…. And this time it was him giving a squeeze to their entwined hands. 

“But twenty minutes that’s all we got and It wasn’t twenty minutes you could saver and remember, the noises she made…. The very few noises she made, they kept me up at night.” 

“I missed a full week of school.”

Thinking back Otis can remember, Eric and her were in the same group project for their English language presentation, he told him that she was just faking illness so she didn’t have to take part. 

“But I had to go back even if I didn’t want to, people would talk, even if I was just ‘ill’ fucking queen bee Ruby Matthews can’t even be ill, that’s a sign of weakness. The more time I spent at school where Charlotte Matthews didn’t exist, the easier it became for her not to exist at home. Dad didn’t redecorate her room for over a year, I went ape shit at him for keeping it up for so long. I’d disgraced her memory, I’d felt so ashamed to even turn up here.”

“You’re here now,” Otis whispered. 

“Do you think I’m a bad person Otis?” She looked down at their hands as Otis’ thumb gently twirled over her knuckles. 

“No! God no!” But I can think of someone who is.  

Otis turned to face her directly, stroking her hair in the process. “Then why do I do so much bad shit?” She whispered back. 

“You’re a teenage girl Ruby you-”

“You’re always sad.” Ruby attempts to distract. 

“No- You are going to make mistakes, I definitely wouldn’t expect anyone to be the best version of themselves at 18 years of age.” 

“Okay,” Ruby whispered looking down at her other hand this time and the yellow tulips she had gripped firmly. She let go of Otis’ hand to lean down and place the flowers in front of her sisters grave. 

Otis’ whole body twitched when the top of the flowers stroked ‘Claires’ name on the headstone, He had to tell her. 

“Thank you so much for coming here today, I love you.” Ruby rose back up from the headstone and embraced her boyfriend, wrapping her hands tightly around his waist. 

“Ruby….” Otis decided he had to tell her as soon as possible, the longer he held the secret from her the worse it would be and more importantly the more hurt she would be. 

But when Ruby pulled out of the hug, there was already a distinct amount of pain in and around her eyes, still very much red from the tears that had just washed away. If he told her now he could only make things ten times worse, she was clearly no way near emotionally in the right place to receive such news. 

“I love you too.” Otis bails out with as Ruby smiled back and brought him in for a quick kiss before returning into their hug.

Otis glanced over Ruby’s shoulder when they were back in their embrace, again his eyes found their way to Claire’s name on the gravestone.

He couldn’t do it.

He couldn’t fucking do it. 

The next day when they are back at school it is much of the same for Otis, his mind constantly lingering over how he was going to tell Ruby about her mother. This time she does call him out on his quietness. 

“Baby kept me up all night.” 

That isn’t true, because of Otis’ unique position in the house he is the least susceptible to Joy’s tears at 3 o’clock in the morning. 

He avoids Ruby all day at school, skipping break and lunch with the untouchables which is still mostly unbearable due to Ruby’s misophonia, which the level of that condition seems to change drastically depending on who she is with and where she is. But at least she lets him sit next to her now and having Rahim there the past week had been nice as it was now two bearable human beans in the Untouchables who he could have a conversation with. 

: I’m in the library sorry need to finish off this assignment x 

He sends the text which is a complete lie, he had finished his weeks ago he was mostly just helping Ruby finish her pre Christmas assignments as of late. It’s not like he can spend lunch with Eric either because he would instantly realise something was wrong with and would despite Otis’ persistence eventually get it out of him.

So Otis spends most of his time away from the classroom on the last Monday before they break up for Christmas walking the Moordale school halls like a double 0 agent, instantly taking cover behind lockers or diving into an empty classroom when he spots someone who might want to instigate a conversation with him.

When he was in the classroom his mind turned to how he was going to tell Ruby again, they were going back to his place to hopefully finally submit Ruby’s assignment with only 2 days to spare, he could tell her then. 

But then Otis’ has a lightbulb moment again, Why the hell should he be the one to tell her? He didn’t cause this, Ruby’s mother did, if he could only try and put her into a position to tell her family. 

“Sir.” Otis’ hand rose up and Mr Hendricks came bouncing towards him.  

“Yes, Milburn.” 

Otis motioned with his hands for Mr Hendricks to come closer to him “Hemroids.” 

Mr Hendricks stepped back and gestured his hands towards the exit door. “Duty calls brother.” 

As Otis arrived at the hospital after hopping on the bus he had no idea what his plan was, was Claire even on shift? He hadn’t bothered to ask Ruby this morning as the mention of his girlfriend’s mother made him very uneasy and if she had told him would that have been the actual truth of her day anyway? 

He awkwardly loitered around the desk, thinking about what he was going to ask the lady in the reception, could you even ask for a specific nurse?

But as if by sheer fate when Otis was next in line at the cue, Claire came around the corner with a notepad in her hands, she stopped in her tracks when she recognised her daughter’s boyfriend. 

“Can I help you, sir?” The lady at the desk asked Otis. 

“Er-.” 

“I’ll take this one, Maureen,” Claire said to the elderly woman as she walked off and Otis followed her closely behind through the hospital corridors. Eventually, Claire found an empty room and ushered Otis inside. “Sit there.” Claire pointed to a chair in the corner instructing him to sit down. 

She turned on the light for the room and the hospital humming sound filled the room. “Look Otis’ I just want to get straight to the point, I know that you know.” 

What….

Claire smiled at the disbelief on his face. “Come on Otis’ you have the worst ‘I’m going to pretend I didn’t see that’ face. Plus I have a good eye.” 

“Suppose you have to when you are hiding an affair from your family.” 

Claire scoffed “You do have some spite, I like it!” 

Otis was still in disbelief, what sort of game was she trying to play with him?

“I just want you to know that I love my husband and daughter more than anything in the world.”

It was now Otis turn to scoff. “Then why don’t you tell them the truth, that’s the very least someone you love deserves to hear.” 

“Okay say I go home right now and tell Roland and Rubes what I’ve been doing, I’m told to leave, who keeps the roof over their head? Who is going to look after Roland?” 

Otis was left completely grounded. 

“I’m not doing this to break apart my family I’m doing this to save my family, as Roland can offer me everything but one thing, so here I am getting that one other thing and my marriage has never been better and now Ruby’s happier than ever with you I would think very carefully about disrupting that.”

“What about the money?” Otis asked in reference to the missing bills. 

“The money is fine Otis as long as I am still in work, How do you think we had enough money to buy Rubes all of the latest designer clothes without having something in reserve. There is some stuff even she doesn’t know.” Claire glanced up at the clock. “I’ve got to go now, sometimes you might think you are doing the right thing Otis’ but you couldn’t be further from it.”

As Otis left the hospital he couldn’t believe he had just had a talk with Claire Matthews and she made some good points about keeping her extramarital affair a secret. But she also made some pretty shitty points and could be clearly blackmailing him just to keep the affair running. 

But what about Roland and Ruby how would they cope on their own? Did Roland already know? And what were these other secrets that even Ruby didn’t know? Everyone who didn’t know was confused to Otis and Ruby maintained a relationship when they believed they shared nothing in common but Otis would give one away for free, they both had extremely complicated families. 

Despite all of this he should still tell her, things like this was a ticking time bomb and was always going to blow up in all their faces. The longer it was hidden from her the worse it was going to be when it was going when the inevitable happened. He had to tell her. 

Then his phone began to buzz in his pocket. 

‘Rubes❤️ ‘

Fuck. 

“Where the fuck are you Milburn?” Ruby was waiting outside of her car for Otis to come out of the school entrance, she had lost it when even the geekiest of geeks had come flooding out and there was still no sign of Otis she knew there was a problem.

“Erm, I’m at the hospital.” 

“Oh my god, are you alright?”  The transition in Ruby’s voice from the annoyance and aggression to the caring and softness in tone was pretty much Ruby in a nutshell and for a split second took Otis mind away from the problem he was facing as it reminded him exactly why he loved her. 

“Yeah, It was just something that happened in PE.” Another lie, but this was the last one. 

“Was it fucking Ryan again? Cause I’ll chop his fucking bollocks off if he touches you again!”

Otis smiled, “No it wasn’t it was just me, I was being clumsy.” 

“That’s not a surprise, well as long as you are still breathing as someone needs to finish off my assignment for me.” 

Silence fell between them, now was the right time, he didn’t care about the whole ‘don’t tell important stuff over the phone rule’ that had gone out of the window now, he had to tell her one way or another.

“Rubes, on Saturday when I was out shopping..”

“Yes…..” Ruby lead him on after the pause in his voice. 

He wanted to continue, he was going to continue but the pause had allowed those questions to fill his brain again. ‘But what about Roland and Ruby how would they cope on their own? Did Roland already know? And what were these other secrets that even Ruby didn’t know?’.

Fuck he couldn’t do it. 

“We got the bus back and now I have no more spare change on me, could you pick me up please?” He tried to make his sentence sound as natural as possible. 

Ruby groaned. “Yes of course nerd, see you soon.” 

“See you soon.”

He couldn’t do it.

He couldn’t fucking do it.

Chapter Text

There were several occasions in the few days leading up to Christmas where Otis nearly tells Ruby whether it be on the phone, finishing off her assignments, or watching a film with the rest of the family on the couch. He wants to tell her, more than he did before. A few days perspective allows him to realise how much he was being manipulated, he was going to walk into the hospital and put the world to rights and tell Claire Matthews how she was being extremely selfish and had let both her husband and her daughter down, but how did it end up with her lecturing him with what’s right and wrong and him walking away like the small little boy he really was. 

The longer he leaves it the worse it will be and him telling her, will be better than her finding it out from him. Otis is definitely the 2nd worst liar in Moordale behind Eric, his summer fling with Ruby is probably the only secret he has ever kept to some degree, that was probably down to Ruby’s constant threats of him ending up in a ditch and even in the end he ended up giving it up to Eric. 

Ruby obviously knows something is wrong, but she believes it to be how anxious he is about them exchanging Christmas gifts which she definitely doesn’t constantly tease him about. 

Very soon the Christmas fever sweeps the Milburn household for the first time in years, Jean and Otis were fairly festive, each Christmas consisted of digging out the same small tree they had owned since Remi was here and a run of Christmas movies in the week leading up to Christmas, it was sweet and simple.  

The Nyman family however were on a different level of Christmas hype. A  huge new tree that gently brushed the ceiling of the Milburn’s unusually shaped house, far far too much bunting and Jakob obsessing over the Turkey which caused some tension between Jean and Jakob as several times in a heated debate Jean accused him of caring more about the Turkey than Joy. 

With a week to go until Christmas, the day Bele comes back from university to spend Christmas and New Year with the rest of the family, (thank god Ola is small as the two sisters top and tailing in Ola’s bed for two weeks could be quite the squeeze) Otis decides to escape for a little bit and head upstairs and skype his dad. 

They hadn’t spoken since August, 4 months wasn’t an unusual time gap for him and his father not to speak, but it definitely had been the most eventful 4 months of Otis’ small life so far. 

“Heyyy Otis man.” He pops up on the screen wearing the most unbearable Christmas jumper Otis had ever seen. 

“Hey, dad,” Otis responds not quite matching the enthusiasm of his father. 

“How’s big brotherhood hey, well technically you have been a big brother for years and years, one day you will meet Harry and Sean, I’m telling you, you will get on great…” He replies not very convincingly. 

“Yeah, she’s great Joy’s great.” 

“How’s Jakob?” 

Otis narrows his eyes through the computer screen, not how was his mother? How was Jakob? “He’s a great dad…” It took Otis a few seconds to realise what he just said. “To Joy, I mean, of course to Joy.” That was an honest mistake, right?

Remi chuckles through the screen. “Good, good. Any update on your quest for love?” 

Otis smirked, his dad always asked him his question when they skyped, it was always “No dad!” or “That doesn’t interest me.” or “Do you even to ask?” But this time his response. 

“Yeah actually...” Otis continues to smirk as he ran his hands through his hair with excitement. 

Remi jumped up out of his chair and screamed in the same way when his beloved Chelsea (who he suspiciously starting supporting in 2003) scored a goal. “Whayyyyyyyyy!” 

Otis chuckled at his dad’s response.

“Wow, I’d never thought the day would come, Let me guess the lovely Maeve finally came around?” Remi asked when he settled into his chair.

Otis’ expression quickly changed and the mention of Maeve’s name. “No dad it isn’t Maeve.”

“Oh sorry son, I wasn’t to know.” 

“That’s okay,” Otis whispered back. 

“So then what’s her name or his of course?” 

Otis rolls his eyes at his dad’s pathetic attempt to be ‘woke’. “Ruby, Ruby Matthews.” Otis isn’t quite sure why he adds Ruby’s last name, maybe just in case, Ruby’s reputation had somehow spread across the Atlantic Ocean. 

“Wow a pretty name, do we have a photo or?” 

Of course, his dad asks what does she look like first, not what’s she like or how did they meet? Actually, Otis is glad he didn’t ask the former as that was an odd story. “Yeah,” Otis says as he digs his phone from out of his pocket. 

He sends his dad two photos on What’s App, the first one being Ruby holding onto her wine glass at Anwar’s birthday meal and the second was the one of them at the bowling together just to prove to his dad that she really was his girlfriend. “Fuck me dead, she’s gorgeous.” 

Not creepy at all dad, Otis thinks as he awkwardly smiles at his dad’s response. 

Remi finally lifts his head up from his phone. “Wow Otis, I don’t know what to say.” 

Neither did Otis, but then a third voice  that came through the computer screen on Remi’s end interrupts the silence “Come on Remi Big boy, I want that big fucking co-” 

“Wow! I’ll be there in a minute Carrie, I mean Casey!, Casey, Casey, Casey.” He whispered to himself. 

Otis couldn’t decide what was more awkward, his dad perving on his girlfriend ten seconds ago or what was happening right now. 

“Look I think I better go….” Remi tries to smooth the situation out. 

“Wait!” Otis calls before his dad closes the computer screen as there was a purpose for this call. “I need you to do me a favour.”

It was Christmas Eve and Ruby was walking out of the cinema in the Moordale Shopping Centre as she had her left arm threaded through Adam Groff’s right one. Otis had supposed to be going with her to watch ‘Last Christmas’ the new Christmas movie with Emilia Clarke, he pulled out at the last minute, he was acting really odd recently, I mean he was always odd but even more odd was terrifyingly odd for one single person. Otis had already paid for the tickets so insisted that she still go with either Olivia or Anwar, but strangely it was Adam’s name she went to first, she tells herself it’s just purely because he was the first name in her contact list, but she likes Adam he’s nice even if he scoffs on his popcorn increasingly loud next to her like even worse than Otis and his crisps at lunch, but she recognises that Adam is going through a tough time with his parents and his breakup with Eric so she realises her usually mean words could cut deeper than usual.

“I didn’t really get it,” Adam says in reference to the twist at the end.

“No neither did I, to be honest.” Ruby smiled as she looked up towards Adam.

“I think I was distracted you know by Emilia Clarke’s big tits.” Adam gestured the shape of breast with his free hand. “But that weird ghost guy he was okay also.” 

“Yeah, he was.” Ruby chuckled, she thinks of Otis in this moment as she had previously described him as something close to ‘that weird ghost guy’ Her smile wideness at the thought. 

They walk in silence for a few moments before Adam somewhat nervously asked. “How’s Anwar and Rahim?” The two hottest gay guys hooking up seemed to be the talk of the town at the moment. 

“Well It’s early days, but they seem really fucking good together.” Ruby nods with intent, she really hopes this one works out for one of her best friends. 

She glances back up towards Adam as he hadn’t responded to her yet, when she manages to get a full view of his face he seems somewhat upset? Before she can follow up on this Adam who is looking straight ahead blurted out a name she hadn’t heard for a short while.

“Maeve?” 

Ruby spun her neck around and Maeve Wiley was popping out of the store in front of them whilst holding onto a small number of bags. 

“Oh.” 

“Oh.” 

Both Maeve and Ruby said as the three were now separated by a few meters. 

“I thought you were in America?” Ruby asked.  

“Well, clearly not,” Maeve replied as she looked herself up and down as if to confirm that she was indeed right here. 

Ruby scoffed at her cheek. “Well, I can see that cockbiter. why are you back then?” 

Maeve eyes scanned the mall and all of the Christmas decorations that were hung up. “It’s Christmas…. better to spend it with Elsie than locked up in some accommodation in Atlanta. The scheme pays for the expenses so….” 

Ruby scans the bags in her hands, was one of them for Otis? Then her mind went to the worst possible place, Otis had pulled out of their cinema date at the last minute, He said he had to help Jakob with one of Ola’s presents and he would explain in the morning, while she was pretty annoyed she accepted his story straight away, what if he was sneaking around the shopping centre with cockbiter now she was back in the country, those were a lot of bags for one person to be carrying. “Who are you here with.” 

“Not your precious OT, if that’s what you were thinking.” 

Ruby narrowed her eyes further as cockbiter used her stupid but affectionate nickname for her boyfriend, only the spirit of Christmas was preventing her from charging forward and slapping the bitch silly. Well, that’s what she told herself anyway. 

Then from behind them, Anna appeared pushing Elsie in her trolly that she was starting to get slightly too big for. 

“Sorry about that, this one wouldn’t let go of the frozen toys,” Anna said approaching the pair before stopping when she realised Maeve had company. “Oh, are these some of your friends?” 

“No!” Both Maeve and Ruby shouted in unison. 

“Oh,” Anna said as things got more uncomfortable than they already were. “Look we better getting going.” 

“Bye Adam.” Maeve let on as she Anna and Elsie moved away. 

“Bye.”

Ruby reconnected her arm with Adam as they carried on towards the exit. 

“Well, that was quite scary.” Adam broke their silence. 

“Huh?” 

“You and Maeve, like two lions fighting over a piece of meat.” 

“Erm excuse me, I’m vegan.” Ruby lightly slapped Adams’s arm. 

“So no Christmas turkey tomorrow then?”

“No, I’m not that vegan Adam.” 

“Otis, Otis!” Ola patted Otis’ face. 

“Errrrr, what.” Otis groaned as his eyes fluttered into life. 

“Come on wake up it’s Christmas, you idiot!” Ola patted him harder. 

Otis groaned harder. “What time is it?” He asked with his extremely groggy voice. There was no response from Ola so Otis kickstarted his phone into life, it was 6 in the morning, exactly 6 in the morning. Otis groaned again.

“Come on, This is your’s.” 

Ola appeared to chuck something green at Otis, was it just green or was there more colour? Otis’ eyes were still adjusting to the light around him. 

“It’s your elf hat.”

Otis hit his heaviest groan so far and hit his head back on his pillow. 

In the end, it’s all actually quite fun, Ola and Belle despite being well into their late teens they still act like kids as they unwrap one another’s presents, the actual child in the room Joy is not even 2 months old and clearly has no idea what is going on but has by far the most presents of anyone in the room and Jean and Jakob are clearly having the time of their lives as they unwrap the presenters for her, he wondered if any of them thought this might be possible when Jean first asked him “What were your earliest memories of your penis?”

As for Otis, his mother gets him a new CD’s he had been after, some jeans and some socks nothing out of the ordinary for those two a distinct lack of tops though, he wonders if she had just left them upstairs or something. His grandfather gets him some more lynx aftershave (Ruby will be happy about that), His uncle gives him money of course and a ‘how to be a good boyfriend’ book which makes him chuckle, There is a new game from Eric, but this doesn’t come as a surprise to him considering they both bought the same game in front of one another, weird he knows but at least they owned it. 

“Right there is one present for each of you two.” Jean nods towards Otis and Ola. 

Probably just the t-shirts , Otis thought before Jakob spoke. “You are going to outside.”

Huh?

“Oh and you are going to need to wear these.” Jean waved a pair of blindfolds up in the air. 

Otis doesn’t want to imagine what they have been used for in the past. 

“This is ridiculous Mum!” Otis shouts as she guides him up the stairs, while Ola is quite excited at what is going on as she is guided by her father as Bele held Joy.

“Right you can take them off now,” Jakob said as they reached the gravel path.

Jean removed Otis’ and Jakob removed Ola’s, In front of the two teenagers were two brand new cars on the driveway in addition to Jakobs van and Jean and Belle’s cars. 

“Merry Christmas Darling.”

“Merry Christmas Kid.”

Jean and Jakob whispered into their respective children’s ears. 

“What? Dad! How did you afford this!” Ola spat out to her father. 

“Well, considering I sold the house there is a bit of money going spare,” Jakob replied to his daughter. 

“DAD! You sold the house!” 

Jakob chuckled looking back towards the place they now called home. “Well, we don’t live there anymore, we live here now.” He said as he stroked his youngest daughter’s shoulders. 

“Which one is mine?” Ola asked.

Again Jakob laughed to himself “You think you’re old man was going to buy his daughter her first car and it wouldn’t be a Volvo.” 

Ola smiled as she kissed her father on his cheek before racing off to the Volvo. 

This left Otis knowing that blue Golf would be his, “Mum I don’t know what to say.” 

“How about thank you.”

Otis smiled and launched himself into his mother’s arms “Thank you mum.” He whispered into her shoulder.

“That’s no problem darling.” They both lay in the embrace for a moment as they both knew moments like these were few and far between. “But you have to pass your driving test first or I’ll be taking it off you, because I think I’m due an upgrade. You can use some of that money your Uncle Remus got you for some more driving lessons.” 

“I will,” Otis said with a smile on his face.

“Once you have done that, well I would say you can go out and impress all the ladies but you appear to be quite smitten at the moment darling.”

“Yeah, I am.” His smile grew just that little bit wider.

“What time is Ruby coming to pick you up?” 

“12.” 

12 O’clock came around and Otis and Ola were heading back up the stairs outside the house this time without blindfolds on. The pair were off to see their respective partners, Ola would actually be going to Lily’s house instead of hiding out in the woods like Otis and Ruby would be, while it was supposed to be ‘romantic’ Otis was glad that he didn’t have to go to Ruby’s house as laying eyes on Claire Matthews might set off another panic attack. 

Just as Otis and Ola touched the very final step Ruby’s car pulled up as ever sharply hitting the breaks. She climbed out of the car to open the boot so Otis could pop the presents in. 

“Woah.” Otis and Ola said in unison as they both took in Ruby’s appearance. She was wearing what would be deemed a ‘sexy Santa outfit.’ with a fancy short red and white dress, red high boots and a Santa hat on top of her head, leaving a lot of leg and cleavage on show. 

“You are one lucky guy Otis,” Ola said as they both continued to stare. 

“I know.” He breathed softly. 

“Well don’t just stand there OT! Hurry the fuck up and get a move on.” Ruby clapped her hands together in an attempt to rush her boyfriend. 

“Good luck,” Ola said to Otis as she began to open the car door of her new vehicle. 

“You too,” Otis replied heading towards Ruby’s car. 

He popped the presents in the back before hopping into the front seat of Ruby’s car. “Hahaha, did you know My mum got me a car, which is a gamble considering I haven’t even passed my test-” Otis rambled whilst getting his seatbelt on before being interrupted by the sound of Ruby clearing her throat to get his attention. 

“Erm dork, excuse me.” Ruby eyed up the fake mistletoe which was dangling down from the roof. 

“Oh-” Otis leaned in to kiss his girlfriend who deepened the kiss immediately as she cupped his cheeks. “You’re incredible,” Otis whispered once kiss came to the end.

“I know.” She replied as she flicked her hair around before narrowing her eyes at the top of his head. “What the fuck is that?”

Otis placed his hands onto his head “Oh it’s my elf hat.” 

“You know Otis, I thought you might be the only person in the world whose appearance would be improved by terrible Christmas clothes, but no you still look like shit.” She teased.

“Merry Christmas Ruby Matthews.” Otis smiled smugly, as he ensured that his hat remained on his head. 

“Merry Christmas Otis Milburn.” They shared another quick kiss before driving off.

It was so cheesy and sickly and Ruby would have publicly shamed anyone else who shared such interactions, but Ruby felt she was now so blinded by her love for Otis that things like this didn’t even register anymore.

They arrived at ‘their’ spot in the woods and gathered all of their presents into the front two seats. 

“You wrap like shit,” Ruby commented on her boyfriend’s present wrapping ability. 

“Sorry.” Otis apologised. There was a huge difference between the presents that Ruby had wrapped, they were smooth, clean and fancy with nice sparkling bows placed onto the top of them and then the one’s that Otis’ had wrapped were very messy and you could even see some of the presents peaking through as they hadn’t been wrapped fully.

“And why do they have numbers on them?” 

“Oh, that’s just in case I forgot which one’s which.”

Ruby shook her head at him. Why was that so stupidly cute though?

“Do you want to go first?” 

“Okay,” Otis said with a giddy face as he picked up his first present which was clearly by the outline line some sort of clothing. 

It was a matching onesie to Ruby’s one along with her mother’s and father’s. “So you don’t feel out of place on movie night.” 

Otis chuckled “Thank you, will I be able to steal from your popcorn bowl though?” 

“Dream on nerd.” They both shared a grin before Ruby began to pick up her first present.

“No, no.” Otis stopped her from picking up the smallest present. “That one has to be last. Ruby rolled her eyes as she picked up her first present. 

The next presents for each of them was game-related. Otis had got Ruby a Moordale version of Monopoly, which she knew she would kick his arse at and anyone who dared challenged her. While Ruby had got Otis a new game for his PlayStation which wasn’t the same as the one Eric had got him as she corresponded with him on that one as she was so out of her depth. 

Otis was next up again and he began to tare up Ruby’s wrapping paper. 

“God, you make such a mess.” She thought of the clean up she would have to do afterwards as Otis was definitely not as elegant as she was at taking the wrapping paper off. 

But Otis really couldn’t care less as his eyes were fixated on the next present. “Oh.” He said as he managed to open up the present. 

A dagger felt like it had stabbed right through Ruby’s heart. “What’s wrong?” She asked seriously worried, this was one of her favourites presents that she had bought him. 

Otis chuckled “No it’s fine, Just open number 4.” 

In record time Ruby shredded open number 4 not caring for her so-called ‘elegance’ of unwrapping previously. “Oh.” She said also chuckled as she realised what had happened. 

They had gotten one another identical presents, a framed photograph of them that Eric took back at the bowling alley on the double date. The same frame and everything! “Great minds think alike.” 

Ruby smiled as they shared a kiss whilst they held onto their respective photo frames. 

“Right open that one nerd, If you have gotten me the same thing for me I will have to kill you.”

Otis smirked as he opened up what was T-shirt after T-shirt stacked on top of one another all in different variations of colour from his favourite pattern of T-shirt. “Homeless clothes!” He exclaimed as he rose the presents up in the air. 

“Yeah, we’ll I ordered those one’s online, so you will have to check if they came as the right size, because I wouldn’t be seen dead picking up those in a public store. 

Out of everything so far, even including the car this was his favourite present, yes the exact same range of bland T-shirts he got every year, it is because they came from Ruby Matthews, she hadn’t tried to Anwar him up again, which he honestly feared she might have of, again she was breaking all of her rules and regulations just for him, he leaned over to kiss her again. 

“As much as I love kissing you Otis, we can’t be doing it after every present as we are going to be here all-day because some of us have got a turkey to put out.” Ruby said as their lips departed from one another. 

“Okay, okay,” Otis reassured her. 

They whizzed through the last couple of presents until there was only one left, the one Otis’ had purposely told her to leave right to the end. 

“Number 1.” Otis said nodding his head towards it. 

“Pretty stupid to give the one you wanted me to leave last, the lowest number.” 

“Well I more thought it was the number 1 present so…”

Ruby rolled her eyes back at him “So cliche.” She neatly disposed of the wrapping paper and eyed Otis’ smirk up when she recognised the brand on top of the tiny box she knew the sort of price range they were dealing with here “Oh my god Otis.” She gasped as she opened it up, it was a gorgeous golden neckless with the initials ‘RM’ On it. 

“I know you already have one similar with just the ‘R’ on it, but I knowing you as I know you I know how much your family means to you, your dad and y-your mum.” He stumbles a bit over that one. “So I thought you would want to show off your family name more, even if you still aren’t comfortable with everyone meeting them.” 

She wrapped it around her neck replacing it with her current one passing it into Otis’ hand. “I love you.” She whispered. 

“I love you too.” He said back as she pulled him into a kiss. “Hey What happened to the kissing after every present rule, you said you had one more.” Otis just about managed to get out in between the attack on his lips. 

“Yeah, here it is now.” Ruby stretched her right leg over the gearstick and the other one followed suit until she was placed firmly into Otis’ lap. 

“Oh my god, Rubes.” He breathed as she attacked his neck with kisses this time as he groaned heavily. 

“Like what you see nerd?.” 

He could only whimper a nod in response as he still couldn’t quite believe he is the guy lucky enough to have Ruby Matthews in a Santa outfit on his lap.

They had sex in her car plenty of times of course but there is something different this time, they both knew loved each other, last time it when they held each other close on the passenger seat there were all these unspoken thoughts that were swirling around in one another’s head, know they though where they both stand it’s so much more free and easy and it’s less sex and more making love to one another. 

Some things don’t change though, Otis’ constantly questioning if she is okay which from day 1 has always been one of the most stupidly attractive things about him to her and once they are finished the way Otis looks like he has just run through a war zone as he slumped back into the passenger seat as far back as possible. 

“Maybe as a tribute to old times I should kick you out and leave you here,” Ruby says as she fixes her dress.

Otis takes his time to respond as he is still very much catching his breath back. “T-that wasn’t funny Rubes, e-especially the first time, I leant against that tree for ten minutes waiting for my breath to come back and I didn’t even have my bike remember? So I had to walk home!” 

“Awww I’m sorry……” She replies in a baby-like voice whilist pouting to tease him even more. 

“Shut up.”

When Ruby gets back to the house, she immediately puts all of her presents into her room whilst still proudly wearing her new neckless. 

“That’s new.” Her mother comments on her neckless as she walks into the living room. 

“I know,” Ruby says still grinning from ear to ear. “He got something for both of you also.” Ruby passed Otis’ awfully wrapped presents over which were clearly both books one bigger in width than the other.

Ruby didn’t even know what Otis had got her parents so she waited over them eagerly. 

“Aw, he got me his dad’s new book! And it’s signed! That’s fantastic that is.” 

Her dad began to read whatever Otis’ dad had written on the inside of the book as she turned towards her mother. “I’m guessing he didn’t get you, the latest Remi Milburn release.” 

“No.” She replied rather bluntly, “He got me this new fantasy book I’d seen advertised, I’ll get round to it, tell him I said thanks.” Claire rose up hiding the book from the view of her husband and daughter.

“Where are you going?” Ruby asked. 

“Just to get my dressing gown on darling, it’s a little cold don’t you think.” Claire rushed into the room and hid the book deep into the bottom of a bag packed with old clothes. 

It wasn’t a fantasy book at all, Otis had bought her a children’s book titled...

‘Why you should always tell the truth.’

Chapter Text

“Is it Christmas again?” Elsie asked her big sister who was sipping a cup of tea whilst sitting in Anna’s front room. 

Maeve chuckled whilst looking down at her sister “Not today Elsie.” 

“Awwwww.” Elsie groaned as Anna joined them in the living room. 

“You got any plans today dear?” 

Maeve shook her head as she took another sip of her tea. 

“How about you go and see one of your friends? How about Otis?” Anna lightly bumped into Maeve with a smirk on her face, enough to slightly rock her but not enough to make her tea spill.

A smirk also appeared on Maeve’s face but again she simply shook her head.

“Is he still with that girlfriend?” 

Maeve nodded. “You’ve met her you know.” Anna’s face blanked completely “Christmas Eve at the shopping centre.”

“Ohhhhhh.” Anna narrowed her eyes “Well to be honest she sounded like a bit of a bitch, to be honest.” 

Maeve nearly choked on her cup of tea as Anna had just hit the nail on the head. “Yup.” 

“Are you sure that Otis’ is all that then, if he wants to be with someone like that?” 

Maeve shook her head “That’s not him, at all.” 

Silence broke out in the room as both Maeve and Anna returned to their cuppa’s “You’re the best Maeve.” Elsie broke the silence. 

“Thanks, Elsie.” Someone had her back then. 

When Maeve headed back to her temporary room and whilst she was lay on her front on the bed her finger was hovering over Otis’ name in her contact list. 

She wants to tell him all about America, how the girl who was locked away in the Moordale caravan park was getting on in the big and mighty U,S of A. Just as she did with Aimee that night she came back, well as soon as she got off the plane to be exact when Aimee pretty much ambushed her.

But while she wanted to do all of this, there was her . 

The way Ruby spoke to her at the shopping centre two days to go, confirmed to her that she still hadn’t softened, despite all the bullshit Otis would tell her and what’s with Adam Groff hanging out with her? Maeve wondered if the reason her perfume was so heavy was that it sucked people into her and past her toxic personality. 

She imagined calling Otis right now and Ruby’s face snuggled in next to him and her incoming wrath as her voice came through the phone. 

Maeve groaned as she put her phone down and Aimee’s words ran around her brain “Just some stupid boy.”

Ruby wasn’t quite sure what to expect as she approached the ‘The Wandering Cock’ pub, she assumed Otis’ was playing some kind of practical joke on her when he told her that every boxing day he, his mother and Eric would head to the pub. 

But when she walked in the three of them were cramped around a very small table, Jean sipping on a glass of wine, while her boyfriend and Eric were on full-fat coke’s.

“Would you like a drink Ruby?” Jean rose up as she laid eyes on Ruby.

“Oh, I can get one myself.” Ruby rushed her hands towards her bag to gather her purse.

“I was on my way up anyway, I insist.” 

“I’ll have a coke zero please.”

Ruby concedes defeat and joined Otis and Eric on the table, scoffing at the state of this “Ugh, this place is disgusting.” Ruby began to wipe down the surface in front of her. She scanned the rest of the room, the mess and the smell and the 50-year-old men belly laughing and snorting in shirts that barely fit their bodies. She scoffed again “How did you end up in this place.”

“Well when my mum and dad were still together, they would come here every boxing day so Dad could watch the football and even when my dad left mum just carried on the tradition, Eventually Eric joined us and now here you are,” Otis mentioned his hands to his best friend first and then his girlfriend. 

Ruby shyly smiled as no matter how stupid they were it was nice to be let into the Milburn family traditions. 

The mention of his dad allowed Otis’ mind to flashback to the last time he spoke to him and sorting out a signed copy of his new book for Roland. “Did your dad like his present?” Otis asked and Ruby’s face dropped. 

Otis quickly realised his mistake, Ruby was still nowhere near comfortable talking about her dad in front of anyone other than Otis’ and here was Eric a few inches away from them and Jean had returned just in time with her’s and Ruby’s drinks. “Yeah, he liked it,” Ruby muttered softly as she decided that saying something would draw less attention than saying nothing at all. 

“Mum, why don’t you tell Ruby about how much Joy loves the outfit Ruby got her.” Otis tries to move the conversation on as quickly as possible. 

“Ah, yes it’s very fancy,” Jean says as Ruby thanks her for the drink she has just placed in front of her. 

‘Well, we don’t want her to have the fashion sense of her older brother do we?’ Is was what she wants to say but probably best to leave it in front of the woman that raised him. Also, she wants to complain about how she has got her full-fat coke and not coke zero but again it’s not the right time. 

Once Ruby settles in the deeply uncomfortable school again she is surprised by how much fun she has as Jean shares one-two many embarrassing stories about a young Otis and Eric chimes in with some more embarrassing recent stories, Ruby entwines their hands underneath the table and gently strokes the top of his fingers when it becomes very close to feeling like ‘bully Otis day’. But then again why is she surprised that she is having fun, Otis is here, if he is here she is happy. 

She is brought back down to earth when her phone buzzes whilst Otis is trying to take his own back at Eric with the infamous ‘Tromboner’ story. 

“Sorry.” She announces and rises up to take the call from her mum. 

Otis watches her intently as she rushes to the corner of the room to take her call, her face growing evermore concerned the longer the call lasted. 

Ruby takes a deep breath, it’s her dad again of course it is, she’s worried about that of course but right now she is worried about how she can leave the pub without making herself look like too much a twat in front of Jean and Eric. She has made many fast exits in front of Olivia and Anwar before, but this is was in front of Jean Milburn a therapist, a sex and relationships therapist but a therapist nonetheless. 

Just act natural, people have to leave suddenly all the time, just need to try and attract as little attention as possible. 

She walked at a fast pace back towards the table she had left in a rush moments earlier and swiped up her bag. “Sorry, I’ve got to go back home.” Ruby pressed a kiss to Otis’ forehead. “My Uncle is coming to visit.” She turned to Jean and lied directly to her face, she didn’t have an uncle, well as far she was aware she didn’t anyway. “Okay bye.”

Ruby rushed out of the pub door, Jean and Eric turned to Otis for answers immediately. “I need to go to the toilet.” 

“What is going on?” Eric whispered as Otis left for the toilet. 

“I have no idea Eric, I had no idea.” 

Otis managed to avoid questions about Ruby’s random exit for the final hour they are at the pub but it is evident that Eric and Jean are left a little puzzled by the incident. 

Rubes❤️: My dad is fine, he had another fall (not one of his worst one’s) just Pete has gone to see his sons for Xmas so mum needed my help. X

Rubes❤️: Your Mum and Eric didn’t think I was weird for leaving like that? X

The two texts come in back to back when Ola is driving them on the way back from the pub. Otis calms Ruby’s nerves by explaining how things went once she left the pub all while calming Joy’s tears in the backseat along with Eric. 

After dropping Eric off at home, the Milburn + Nyman family are all gathered around the TV watching Elf, despite Otis’ complaints that there were 364 days to go until Christmas so the need for yet more Christmas movies was not necessary. 

So it was a welcome relief when Ruby’s face flashed up on his phone as she rang him, “Hey Rubes.” He said as he answered it and leapt up from the couch. 

“Oh Ruby, Ruby, Ruby.” Ola teased as he began to walk out of the room, 

“Hey, I’m sorry about before,” Ruby said throughout the phone sat on the edge of her bed. 

“It’s okay, it’s okay, you needed to do what you needed to do.” Otis looked back making sure his voice was being picked up by anyone in the living room.

Ruby smiled as she knew how blessed she was to have someone with the understanding of Otis, don’t get her wrong he could be completely clueless in some area’s, in fact, most area’s of life, but when it came to her family he was perfect allowing her to open up things she thought she never would. “What are you up to?” He could be doing nothing and she would be interested. 

Again Otis looked back towards the living room. “Oh, we’re all watching Elf, it’s-”

“I love that film.”

“Unbearable.” 

Ruby and Otis said at the exact same time and Otis chuckled through the phone “Of course you do.”

“You are just a misery guts, Otis Milburn.” She complained back.

“Yeah, but you love me for it.” 

“I know I do.” 

God, he’s just unbearable making her grin like an idiot through the phone while saying all of this sickly shit. “My dad wants to say thank you for the present,” Ruby asked after a period of silence as she lay there smiling whilst imagining he was doing the same.

“Oh okay.” 

Ruby bounced up from her bed to head into her front room. “Dad!” She called “It’s Otis, you’re on speaker.” She added to her boyfriend. 

Otis cleared his throat, the fact that Ruby’s mother could possibly be sat next to Roland right now was very off-putting for him.

“Hey Otis man, can’t tell you had chuffed I was opened the present mate.” 

Ruby shook her head at her dad for calling her boyfriend ‘Man’ and ‘mate’ whilst she held her phone up for him. 

“Ah well, it’s the least I could do.” Otis replied. 

“When’s your old man back from the states, he said we could go for a pint, like.”

Ruby shivered at the thought of her dad and her boyfriend’s dad hanging out, she can’t even remember the last time her dad left the house. Little did she know however that the catalyst for the next time was about to happen. 

Otis struggled for a response as he genuinely had no idea for when he would next see his dad but his train of thought was interrupted by his mother’s voice bellowing from the next room. “Otis!” “Will you ask Ruby if her parents will be coming for the new years party?”

Because Ruby’s phone was on speaker her parents heard Jean’s voice and exactly what she said, Ruby’s eyes widened as she realised what was about to happen. 

While his daughter’s eyes widened, Roland’s lit up “There’s a party? I’d love to go to a party.” his smile was wide as he turned to his wife “Would you like to go to a party?” Claire paused for a moment before nodding. 

“Well Otis tell your mum, we would-” Roland began. 

“We’ll get back to you.” Ruby cut her dad off before cutting the call off. 

“Ruby-.” Otis said as the call went silent, he checked the screen and yep the call had been completely cut off. “Oh.” 

“What did Ruby say?” His mother asked as Otis walked back into the living room. 

“Oh, she’ll get back to me.” Otis awkwardly waved his phone in the air and ran up the stairs. 

“What is going on?” Jakob asked, while he wasn’t at the pub earlier Jean had filled him in on what happened and he even thought about when Ruby first came round and was very reluctant to respond when she was quizzed on what her parents did.

Jean had no idea, she was completely lost in this puzzle that her son and his girlfriend had created. 

Otis had first mentioned the new year’s party a couple of weeks ago to Ruby, Otis and Jean had always headed to London for new years for a big lavish party that Otis’ uncle would always hold, but with the addition of a new baby and so much more meant for the first time in over ten years, they would be staying at home for new years. 

So they were going to have a small gathering, the Milburn’s, the Nyman’s, Eric, The alien girl and herself were also invited and when Otis asked there was no mention of her parents probably because Otis’ already knew what her answer would be.

But now his mother had shouted it out whilst she was on speakerphone and her dad couldn’t be more excited, her mother who she thought would take her dad’s side and decide that it would be great for him to get out of the house for the first time in a while but strangely she took Ruby’s side and tried to argue that perhaps it would be too much for him right now. In the end, they can’t terminate the excitement from her fathers face, it’s rare he gets out for much of a walk these days, definitely going to be tough to convince him to go the whole night with his walking stick.

Ruby would be somewhat fine with her parents meeting Otis’ parents, correction, parent even if she still wasn’t ready for that yet she accepted that it would have to happen eventually. But it wouldn’t just be Jean, there would be Jakob, Ola, Belle, Eric, the alien girl and if her parents were invited did that mean the alien girl’s parents would be there? Would Eric’s parents be there? Why had she never seen Otis’ and Eric’s parents interact despite them being friends for donkey’s years? Did the alien’s girl’s parents have three heads? All of these questions and more were spinning around her head as she accepted that her parents for the first time would be interacting with people from a school life. 

Otis is fast asleep when his phone begins to buzz before quickly stopping, then his window to the left of his bed is being pelted by stones, Otis probably shouldn’t compare the buzzing of a phone and some stones hitting the window to a world war two air raid, but in the late hours of the night/early hours of the morning, it definitely feels like one. 

He slowly creeps out of the bed his eyes still adjusting to his surroundings, he peers over his window and down below he can just about make out Ruby’s figure down below. 

“Let me in nerd.” She called and Otis shushed her to make sure she didn’t wake Joy up. 

He didn’t question why Ruby was here at silly o’clock, he just did as he was told and dropped some keys out of his window and down on the ground so Ruby can enter the house. 

Otis winced hoping that Joy or anyone in the house really wouldn’t wake up as Ruby’s footsteps were extra loud coming up the stairs. Thankfully when Ruby reaches the door there is no baby crying or a Swedish man screaming. 

“What are you doing here?” Otis whispered as she shut the door behind her. 

Ruby narrowed her eyes at him as she kicked her shoes off, “I came to see my boyfriend, it’s nothing out of the ordinary Milburn!” 

Otis glanced at his clock “It’s 1:27 in the morning.” 

“I couldn’t sleep.” She replied without a care in the world as she hopped into bed with Otis. She scanned his body up and down noticing his lack of shirt, she simply cleared her throat.

Otis knew exactly what to do, he knew how Ruby felt about sleeping without items of clothing on so he stretched over to pick up one of his discarded shirts on the floor. Otis thinks it a shame the only time they ever slept together naked was the very first time and Otis was so blind drunk he still can’t remember what happened. 

“Yuk.” Ruby scoffs at his shirt that still stunk of the pub from earlier of the day. 

“Why couldn’t you sleep?” Otis asked while they were facing one another on Otis’ tiny bed. 

“No talking Milburn, Just let me cuddle you.” 

Otis obeyed and span around so Ruby could wrap her hands around his waist, Otis smiled to himself now his face was now out of Ruby’s vision, he still found it hilarious that Ruby Matthews would use the word ‘cuddle’. 

Despite Ruby’s demand for silence, just a minute later she was the one who broke it. “My parents are going to come for new year’s.” This is why she had come round in the first place anyway. 

Otis shifted his body back around, momentarily allowing his waist to be free  but Ruby reconnected her hands to it as they were now back face to face “That’s great.” Is what Otis says but what he really means is, “ That’s going to be super awkward for me as I know a secret that can tare your home life apart, but I am happy your dad will be getting out of the house.”

“Is it though…” 

“Why?” Otis asked looking deep into her black eyes.

“My dad, I don’t know if I’m ready for something like this…” Ruby everted her eyes from her boyfriend, preferring to trace patterns on his pillow instead.

“Why?” Otis repeated. 

Ruby sighed “People, lot’s of people.” She said as she continued to trace. 

“Rubes, If we were going down to London and to my uncle’s house, yes that would be lot’s of people, but it’s me, My mum, Jakob, Ola, Belle, Eric, Lily and Lily’s parents, I don’t think any of them are going to spread nasty rumours around town do you?” Otis asked and Ruby shook her head. “The worst that could happen is that your dad becomes an inspiration for a character in Lily’s alien books.”

“Ew.” 

“Okay maybe that’s not the best way to put it, but still I think it will be fine, but then you shouldn’t be forced to do anything you don’t want to,” Otis said as he gently stroked Ruby’s hair. 

Ruby offered a weak smile back “He really wants to come, maybe if I wasn’t such a selfish bitch this wouldn’t be such a problem.” 

“You’re not a selfish bitch Ruby, why are you laughing?” 

Ruby breaking out into a tiny burst of laughter had caused Otis to stop in his tracks. “Just you saying the word ‘bitch’ it’s very un Otis.” 

“You’re one to talk, going bowling, playing smash bro’s with me and Eric sometimes, monopoly master, buying me homeless clothes all very ‘un Ruby’.” 

Ruby smirks back at him, “Very funny Otis.” 

“Look, we can talk about this tomorrow if you want.” Otis said as Ruby nodded in response. “We can go back to cuddling if you want, another very ‘un Ruby’ thing.”

“Shut up.”

Because of how late Ruby had come round last night and disturbed Otis’ sleep they have a lie-in and are the last to wake up. 

Everyone is already gathered downstairs tucking into breakfast while Ruby taps her foot on repeat while sat on the edge of Otis’ bed. She’s not nervous about telling everyone that her parents would be coming round for new year’s, but she was nervous about revealing her dad’s MS, telling them now would give them some context as to why she had been acting so weird whenever her parents were mentioned, she’d hate to think that her boyfriend’s ‘family’ thought of her as ‘weird’. Secondly, it would give everyone a sense of understanding for when her dad did come round they had an idea of what to expect and then her dad could enjoy himself and not have to explain his demyelinating disease to a bunch of strangers. 

She was made to wait even longer because she demanded that Otis get in the shower as he still absolutely reeked of that pub, ruby meanwhile had taken the same clothes she always took when she was at Otis’ house without any of her own clothes brought along for next day, they were as ever the school leavers hoodie and black shorts as they were still the ‘least worse’ clothes that he owned. 

Otis eventually reappeared from the bathroom water still dripping down his body while he was still in his towel, Otis turned to his girlfriend staring at her for a few seconds like he expected some kind of action from her. “Could you turn around please?” 

Ruby narrowed her eyes at him “Are you forgetting how many times I’ve seen you naked Otis?” 

“The shower was colder than usual.” He shyly replied and Ruby groaned before turning around to give Otis his privacy. 

“Wow was it really that cold?” Ruby spun around after a few seconds of being turned away. 

“Ahhh!” Otis jumped out of his skin and wrapped the towel back around him. “Ruby!” He complained back.

“I’m teasing,” Ruby smirked before turning back around.

After Otis had dried himself down and thrown on his homeless clothes he and Ruby began to head downstairs. “Are you okay?” 

Ruby had heard that question plenty of times from Otis’ since she decided she wanted to grind on him the night of his ‘gathering’, usually, it was when he was breathless when she was on top of him or he was in between her legs, but this couldn’t be any further from those scenarios. Ruby was completely comfortable during sex, it was a place for her to forget all of the stresses in life, especially with Otis however this time she was about to spill her biggest secret to people who were relative strangers to her. 

“Yeah” She whispered and Otis entwined their fingers and they headed down the stairs. 

“Good morning O- Ruby!” Jean was surprised to see her son’s girlfriend’s walking down the stairs as while it had been a hectic couple of days, she was pretty certain she wasn’t in the house when she and Jakob went to bed.

“Morning.” Ruby awkwardly muttered as all eyes were on her as Otis rushed to pull up an extra chair at the table for her. 

“Good thing I put out extra then,” Jakob said as Otis and Ruby settled down at the table, this was clearly some kind of dig at Jean as she rolled her eyes in response to him.

Everyone tucked into their breakfast in silence with a little tension evident in the air, not only from Ruby but it was quite clear that Jean and Jakob had some kind of argument prior to Otis and Ruby appearing from down the stairs.

The tension was relieved however when Lily arrived for her day at the shopping centre. “Hello, Lily,” Jean called as Lily walked through the front door without knocking again.

“Hello, Dr Milburn,” Lily replied as she raced over to Joy in her high chair.

“There is no need-” Jean began to explain for what seemed like the 1000th time that ‘Jean’ would do perfectly fine before Lily made a pretty left-field comment about her daughter. 

“She’s looking a little fat isn’t she.” 

Everyone turned to look one at another just to make sure that it wasn’t just them that heard Lily’s comment. 

“Not now Lil.” Ola patted her girlfriend on the shoulder. 

“My parents are wondering if there is any kind of dress code for the party?” Lily asked Jean as she turned away from Joy. 

“Oh well it’s not really a party, just more of a gathering of family and friends, so casual will do just fine.” Lily nodded “Did we hear anything from your parents Ruby?”

Well here we go , Ruby thought, she had wanted to do it on her own terms rather than being prompted, but now was the time nonetheless. “Yeah, they will be coming.” Ruby after taking a chunk out of her toast. 

“Oh that’s lovely, I look forward to meeting them, I don’t think I caught their names last time we spoke,” Jean said in reference from the first time Ruby was sat at this table.

“My dad’s called Roland he’s Irish, My mum’s called Claire she’s English.” 

“That’s lovely Ruby.” 

“There’s something else you should know….” Ruby began and Otis connected their hands underneath the table squeezing them down hard. “My dad he-.” two words, she only needed two more words, she looked for Otis for help, but quickly averted her gaze she had to do this by herself. “He has MS.” She received another tight squeeze of the hand from Otis as if to say that he is proud of her. 

Jean’s face quickly changed from one of curiosity to one of sorrow, this poor girl in front of her. her therapist’s brain was kicked into life and now so many of Ruby’s little actions joined together made so much sense to her now and this clearly wasn’t a secret that she had let go of lightly. 

“What’s MS?” Ola asked looking across for answers. 

Ruby had quickly realised that saying the words “MS” Wasn’t going to be the hard part, far from it, explaining what it did would be far harder but she had begun now, she might as well finish. “It’s a disease that attacks the central nervous system, which makes it hard for the brain to send signals to the rest of the body.” Ruby hated science, definitely her least favourite subject but she had studied every single NHS booklet or article on MS off by heart and that was just a slimmed-down version to make sure everyone could follow. “It makes it difficult for him to walk, he can be randomly paralysed at any moment, bladder problems, it’s all very painful for him, but me, my mum and now Otis sometimes look after him.” Ruby smiled at her boyfriend when she said his name and it was her turn to squeeze his hand this time, but their smiles were short-lived. 

“Can he die?” Lily asked completely out of tone.

“Lil!” Ola muttered. 

Ruby swears if she wasn’t connected to Otis’ family in any way she would have threw this bitch out of the window. “No it’s fine-” It really wasn’t. “It’s rare, but he’s in the progressive category so, yeah,” Ruby whispered before arrowing her head away from everyone and down to the floor, Ruby Matthews can’t be seen in pain especially in front of her boyfriends family, but again all it takes is a gentle squeeze of the hand from Otis to remind her that everything is okay and she raises her head back up again offering him a weak smile which he returns.

“Ruby….. I’m terribly sorry to hear about that, I don’t want you to feel like we pried that out of you in any way.” Jean says softly from across the table. 

“No it’s fine, I’m glad we’ve spoken about it.” Ruby smiled and Jean offered a comforting one in return, it was the first time she felt like she had made a genuine connection with Otis’ mother and across the table, Jean was having the exact same thought. But again a sombre moment was ruined by Lily.

“It’s like when everyone at school found out I responsible for a star wars sex romp fanfiction involving Darth Vader and Jabba the Hutt, it felt better to talk about it.”

What the fuck……

“How did you think it went?” Ruby asked Otis as they pushed his sister in her pram across the gravel road outside his house after breakfast. 

“Don’t you think that should be a rhetorical question?” Asked Otis holding onto the left side of Joy’s pram while Ruby held the right.

Ruby paused for a moment, it really had been a success, after Lily’s final weird comment she and Ola left for the shopping centre and there Jean and Jakob were incredibly supportive, they made sure that they had Ruby’s number in their phones and vice versa telling her not to be afraid to call if she ever needed any help, even though she would be reluctant to ever call anyone but Otis’ or next-door neighbour Pete, she really does appreciate the gesture. Even Bele who Ruby doesn’t think has ever spoken a word to her in her life before offers some words of encouragement. 

“Yeah, it went really well.” 

“Good” Otis replied as they both shared a smile. 

“Anyway, how far are we walking her Milburn?” 

“Oh just around the corner really.”

“Good, I can’t be seen in public in this monstrosity of an outfit.”

“Poor thing.” 

Otis had just filled Eric in on the condition of Ruby’s father whilst everyone was arriving for the New Year’s gathering, while Otis was sure Ruby would have preferred to tell him personally but their paths weren’t going to cross again before the party so it fell upon Otis to tell him. 

“I wouldn’t let her hear you say that.” 

“No of course of course, just how did she keep that from everyone for so long?” Eric was mostly confused as he would consider holding down a secret for five minutes a success. “Like not even Olivia or Anwar!” 

“I don’t think she would have told anyone if I didn’t overhear her that day in the pharmacy.” 

“Aw, Bless.” 

Everyone had now arrived for the party, everyone but the Matthews’, which Otis made a little nervous of the fact that they may have changed their mind at the last minute or something had happened to her dad on the way, he constantly checked his phone to see if there was any kind of update from Ruby. 

While Eric told Otis to ‘chillax’, Jean and Jakob seemed to be getting along well with Lily’s parents Sophie and Eddie, while Lily herself was hanging out with her girlfriend and her full sister Bele and half-sister Joy, Otis could imagine what things Lily was saying about Joy again while Bele held her in her arms.

“Oh, the other day-” Otis was going to fill Eric in on Lily’s comments from a couple of days ago but just very faintly in the distance, Otis could hear brakes being applied very suddenly on the gravel path. That could only mean one thing, The Matthews’ had arrived. 

Otis was followed by Eric outside, then by Jakob and Jean to greet their guests. 

Roland was cautiously making his way down the steps to Otis door, supported by his walking stick and his daughter and his wife on either side of him. “These stairs really are a bugger Otis!”

“Yeah sorry, we get this a lot,” Otis replied ducking his head slightly.

Roland sighed as he reached the bottom of the stairs, with both Ruby and Claire asking if he was okay. “I’m okay, I’m okay.” He said as he began to approach Jean and Jakob. “You must be Jean.” Roland shook her head “And Jakob, Ruby’s told us lot’s about you.” 

Jean took a quick look at Ruby as they hadn’t really spoken all that much, so she was intrigued to what may have been said. 

“You’re a handsome bastard aren’t you,” Roland said as he looked Jakob up and down, wishing he could age as well.

Jakob chuckled in response, “Well we can only try to be.”

“Right let’s get you inside dad,” Ruby tried to usher him inside before her dad could say anything more embarrassing. 

Again Roland is manoeuvred by Claire and Ruby and onto the couch this time and again he took in a big inhale of breath. 

Once she made sure her dad was okay she headed over to Otis and Eric. 

“Hey.” 

“Hey.” 

They shared a quick a kiss before Otis nodded over to her father sat down in the chair and her mother who was just now making her introductions with Jean and Jakob. “You going to be alright?” He asked whilst stroking her hand.

“Yeah.” She breathed. 

And as ever she wonders why she ever hid away from these sort of scenarios for so long as she watches her parents, seemingly getting on swimmingly well with Jean, Jakob and even Lily’s parents as they all laugh together over a bottle of wine, she even feels comfortable enough to leave them on their own as she initially began watching them like a hawk ready to step in if she saw something she didn’t even like. 

Like she had been told it wasn’t really a party, it was gathering sort of similar from when Jean and Jakob first returned home from the hospital with Joy, there is a nice buffet for everyone to tuck into, but firstly Ruby heads upstairs with Otis and Eric and attempts to understand the nerdy as hell game they were playing, with Ruby making use of one of her Christmas presents from Otis, her own controller because despite how much she protested, Otis knew deep down she wants to join in when he and Eric were hogging the controllers. After her pathetic performance on the console, she makes more to destroy them at monopoly giving Eric her first glimpse at her tactical skills, before they all do their best to keep Joy entertained where Otis’ is at his most adorable, which really was saying something. 

Her attention turns away from her boyfriend and to her parents as her mother gathers a plate for her father, choosing his ideal plate from the party food on offer, she returned the plate to him this time full of food, he smiled back at his wife as she stroked his hair. 

Otis noticed Ruby’s transfixed gaze and the direction it was heading to, her parents. No matter what he knew, Otis did believe Claire when she said she loved her husband more than anything in the world, as while Otis’ doesn’t think of himself as Sherlock Holmes, he feels like he could instantly spot if loved was being faked and especially his mother would have noticed and definitely would have flagged it up with him by now. “Tell me about them,” Otis whispered as they both watched onwards. 

“They met when my dad first came over to England at 14, It wasn’t always very easy being Irish in Britain then.” Otis can only imagine, it wasn’t quite the era of ‘no blacks, no dogs, no Irish stuck on pub windows, but still. “But my mum didn’t pay attention to any of that bullshit, she just focused on him,” Ruby said as she ran her hands through Otis’ hair identical to how her mother had done to her father moments earlier. 

“They must have been together for a while before they had you,” Otis said as he began joining the dates up together. 

“Yeah, I came along and ruined everything.”

“Yeah……” 

Ruby smacked the top of her boyfriends head. 

“Ow!” He squealed back. 

“You’re supposed to say something supportive there, Milburn!” 

“Well, I was just thinking about how loud you snore now, back then you must have been horrendous.” 

She repeated the smack again. 

“Ow!”

As the night dragged on and got closer to midnight Otis was helping Jakob put all of the fireworks outside that they would be letting off at the stroke of midnight, Jakob had asked him to collect some from the balcony out back while he headed for the van. While Otis was collecting the one’s at the back he was joined outside by Claire Matthews, Fuck. 

“Otis.”

“Mrs Matthews.” 

Claire began to gather her lighter from her pocket. “I got your present, little petty don’t you think.”

Otis shoved his hands into his own pockets all be it a little more awkwardly  “Well It’s not as bad as having an extramarital affair so…” He said as he kept her eyes as far away from her as possible. 

“Thank you.” 

“Huh.” Otis rose his head back up to meet Claire’s eyes, Was this more mind games? 

“For helping me realise my mistake.” Otis didn’t respond and waited for Claire to continue. “I love my husband like I said, realising that I could break up my family would have killed me and made me realise how selfish I was being and no stupid fling was worth it.” 

“So you’re saying you broke it off…”

Ruby’s mother grabbed her phone out of her jacket pocket opening it up and heading to her messages and showed it to Otis. 

What Otis saw was a number with no contact name, exchanging times and locations similar to how Otis’ and Ruby’s relationship worked in the summer. The majority of the screen was taking a huge paragraph sent from Claire to her lover, who Otis learnt was called ‘Sandro’ within the paragraph. The paragraph detailed about her decision to break it off and how nothing was worth being separated from her husband and she would never be able to offer him what he truly wanted ‘her heart’ as that was well and truly taken. Then there was a number of texts from Sandro across several dates asking for time to talk, then right at the bottom a total of ‘37’ missed calls. 

It could staged to try and cool Otis’ tensions and then they could carry on their secret love affair without the possibility of Otis’ exposing it over them, but her words for once do seem so genuine and Otis’ had always been a believer in second chances, if you make your mistake, learn from it and better yourself then you could and should be forgiven. But there was still some doubts in his mind naturally. Then what if he still did tell Ruby and it turns out it was true, the affair had ended and Claire was willing to return and put her family first and help her husband, he would have ended up splitting it up for what? The truth right? Either way she still had cheated and let her family down. 

No matter whether she had meant it or not this time, Claire Matthews had him questioning himself like crazy again and more importantly, he felt cornered, again. 

Before Otis could respond everyone began to flood outside, it was now seriously close to midnight. 

“Otis!” Jakob called across. His time spent with Claire had distracted him from the job at hand, the fireworks. 

“Yeah come on Otis!” Ruby teased as Otis swept up the remaining fireworks and rushed over to Jakob. 

They were now really pushing right up to the midnight deadline, Otis’ was certain that the Swedish being thrown his way wasn’t exactly very friendly as they just managed to get all set up in time. 

“How long, how long?” Jakob asked. 

“30 Seconds!” Jean called whilst keeping Joy warm by snuggling her extra tight. 

“Okay be ready, we go a little early remember,” Jakob said to Otis who nodded.

“10.”

“9.”

“8.”

“7.”

“6.”

“5.”

“4.”

“3.”

“2.”

“1!”

Otis and Jakob had set the first fireworks off a little early so they exploded right on zero and 2019 became 2020. 

Otis jumped back from the fireworks to join Ruby’s side and Jakob did the same to join Jean and Joy. 

Ruby tightly held onto Otis left arm with both of her own arms. At the same time, their necks twisted to look at one another. 

“Happy new year Otis.”

“Happy new year Rubes.”

Otis narrowed his head downwards to allow Ruby access to his lips, meanwhile Ruby was feeling her heart on the verge of explosion, here she was snogging her boyfriend Otis fucking Milburn who she was absolutely crazy about, in his back garden, fireworks exploding around them, in front of his dysfunctional family, in front of her dysfunctional family, his best friend and even the weird alien sex girl and her parents. 

“Huh hmm.” Speaking of Otis’ best friend, Eric was clearing his throat from right behind them. 

“Eric, come here.” Otis said as he broke off the kiss with Ruby and pulled Eric in towards them “Happy new year.” 

Eric and Ruby then both exchanged ‘Happy new year’s.’ before Ruby leant her head on Otis’ left shoulder and Eric did the same on his right as they watched the fireworks welcome them into this new year.

Chapter Text

Believe it or not Ruby Matthews wasn’t always the Queen of the Untouchables, well in her mind she always was and in the mind of others too, but there was no disputing there used to be a battle for the throne between Ruby Matthews and the Cseszneky twins. 

Bianca and Camilia Cseszneky with their Hungarian businessman father and English model mother would shake the Moordale school grounds with their crisp blonde hair and long dreamy legs plus their slight twang of a foreign accent was enough to make any of the boys at Moordale secondary drool in front of them. 

There wasn’t much direct conflict between the three of them, just they knew they were the hottest girls in school and therefore ruled it. 

‘Three of them’ was a little bit of an incorrect statement, as the Cseszneky twins were virtually interchangeable, both rude unsufferable privileged snobs with no regard for others. The only difference was a single letter which came from their nicknames ‘BC’ and ‘CC’ if they weren’t being referred to as just ‘the twins.’ 

They had left Moordale for London after high school, Ruby was sad as two of her closest friends wouldn’t be around every day, but also it would be Ruby’s time to shine as the definitive leader of The Untouchables. 

In the year and a half that they had gone, there was plenty of facetime calls and trips down to London with Olivia and Anwar. The last trip was in the summer and it Ruby was down there on her own, annoyingly however she couldn’t enjoy herself as her mind was in a completely different place, specifically the passenger seat of her car whilst sat in Otis Milburn’s lap. 

Since she had got together with Otis, she hadn’t breathed a word of it to BC and CC, she had limited how much she would facetime and the duration of those calls would come right down in case they tried to get it out of her, she also had asked Olivia and Anwar not to mention Otis to them in their chats and they obliged probably because they were equally disgusted in her choice of boyfriend as they would be. 

Well no that’s harsh, there was a reason Ruby found it easy to say “It’s true.” When Otis cycled past at the end of the day when the rumours first broke out. While she was prepared for the backlash from Olivia and Anwar, nothing could prepare her for what the twins reactions might be, because BC and CC were Ruby levels of mean and the spite in which they threw their insults would cut people deep. Besides she had seen them insult Otis for five years of high school and of course they were nasty to him ‘he was a weirdo, a freak, below them. Ruby wasn’t innocent in this and it killed her every day that she was mean to a person to someone whose heart was so full of love, even if it was just passing comments in the hallway every now and again, but with BC and CC it was a little more personal for them. After a rough patch in their mother and father’s relationship, their mother headed over to Dr Jean Milburn for advice on how to spice up their relationship and when this backfired and the twins overheard this information in an argument that lead to a temporary breakup, the twins were sure to take their aggression out on Otis, ensuring that they spent their time passing his locker with insults about his family was full of freaks on a regular basis (looking back Ruby realises this would have cut Otis deep as he could take insults about himself on the chin the people close to him that was a different matter.) One time they went even as far as asking CC’s boyfriend at the time Kayden to loosen Otis’ bike tyre’s before the end of the day. So yeah they didn’t have the best relationship with her boyfriend, that’s why she was protecting him by hiding him away on social media. 

One time before the Christmas break, Otis and Ruby are hanging out of her place listening to true crime podcasts, yup they did that now. Strangely the true-crime podcast wasn’t even the weirdest thing going on right now, it’s what they were doing while they were listening. They were both lay flat on their backs on apposing sides of her bed with their feet up in the air at 90-degree angels pressed against one another (with socks of course, Ruby hated the sight of bare feet.) It was weird, no, it was really weird but it was cute as if one person moved one foot the tiniest inch the other would follow and to keep them lined up. 

That and the murder podcast is broken off by Ruby’s phone ringing, Ruby groaned as she leaned over to grab her phone. “Fuck it’s CC.” 

“Can’t you just ignore it?” Otis asked his voice breaking slightly.

Ruby really does consider just dropping the call there and then because of how sweetly Otis asked, how did one person have the right to be that adorable? “I can’t, I’ve ignored calls for three days in a row, they will probably send a search party out for me.” Otis nods and Ruby leans over to give him a quick peck on the lips as if it was a little reward for his sweetness before asking him to ‘shoo’ off the bed and then Ruby accepted the facetime call a few seconds before it would have expired. 

“Oh My God Rubes, your alive!” CC squealed as all three laid eyes upon one another.

“That I am,” Ruby replied as she scanned the screen where her two friends were holding glasses of champagne , it was 4:30 on a Monday afternoon for god’s sake!

“We we’re thinking of sending a a search party out for you.” BC said through the phone and Ruby very subtly turned her eyes towards Otis who was cramped up in the corner of the room reding a text book, just to say ‘I told you so’. 

“Baby!” Ruby called just as a cover in case the twins got suspicious to why her eyes were moving across the room. 

“Awww!” “She’s so precious.” The twins called as Ruby swooped her up and showed her to her friends. 

“Yeah whose Moordale’s baddest bitch?” Ruby asked the dog who hummed something back. “That’s right, me.” 

The twins chuckled through the phone “You know Rubes, If you are struggling to find a +1 for next month, you can always bring Baby.”

Next month , the twins 18th birthday down in London, promised to be one hell of a bash. The untouchables would be there of course, along with a few other people from Moordale who the twins mixed in social circles with. Ruby had asked if he was particularly bothered about missing the trip, to which he replied ‘no’. 

“Couldn’t think of anyone better,” Ruby replied as she lifted Baby back up in the air. 

“Heyy, it’s been a long time since you were on the horse girl, how long has it been?” 

Well if Otis Milburn didn’t exist, it was 8 months. “I have no idea.” She shakes her head, Fuck they are totally going to notice she’s acting different . 

“Pffff, that’s not the Ruby Matthews I know.” CC calls from through the phone, Ruby doesn't want to respond she could only make it worse. “The last thing we heard was that fucking rumor about you and Otis Milburn.” 

Shit 

“What?” Ruby’s eyes widened and tried her best not to turn her them towards Otis but she can definitely feel his gaze upon her.

The pair are laughing in front of her. “Last what was it? April, March, May?  Who gives a shit it was that period, Anwar told us.” CC followed up with.

Oh, the original rumors from when Otis and Ruby slept together after his party which were quite a buzz for a couple of days until Ruby effectively managed to kill them dead in there tracks.

“Oh god those one’s.” Ruby scoffs, she’s an expert liar her whole life has been a lie and only was just beginning to unravel, so this was easy for her. 

“I mean just imagine” BC also scoffed. 

The pair were laughing to one another at the thought of Ruby Matthews and Otis Milburn having a sexual encounter, this allowed Ruby to catch another glimpse of Otis who was still slumped against her door and offered a weak smile clearly through a bit of pain. 

“ Yeah just imagine .” 

After moving awkwardly on, they discussed Moordale’s tacky new uniforms and it’s current financial problems, before gushing all about their outfits and the venue before wrapping up about Anwar’s new boyfriend Rahim. 

“Bye Boooooo.” They called as Ruby hung up the phone and turned straight to Otis. 

“I’m sorry about that.” 

“No, it’s fine, just your obviously ashamed by me,” Otis said as he shut the textbook. 

“Otis you know it’s not like that.” She pleaded as she jumped up from her bed and joined Otis on the floor. 

“Well, you make it seem like you are.” Otis was looking away from her whilst playing with his own fingers. 

“Otis..” Ruby breathed and stopped his fidgeting fingers, entwining them with her own. “I’m definitely not ashamed of you, by your clothes sometimes yes. But you, definitely not.” 

“Then why didn’t you just tell them then…..”

“How about I do one better.” Ruby began and Otis looked up at her for the first time since she joined him on the floor. “And you can come to London with me and I can show them how embarrassed by you I am.” 

“Really?” Otis brought his puppy dog eyes out. 

“Yes Milburn, if you want to of course.” 

“Yeah, I’d love to go, pie and mash, bees and honey.” Otis all giddy provided his weak cockney accent impression. 

“Don’t do that.” Ruby scolded him.

“Okay.”

So they were going to London together on January 10th, the twins birthday was on the 11th but they were travelling down the day earlier and there was no need for hotel rooms anymore as Remus was out of town so he offered it to Otis for the weekend when Otis rang him up hoping to score some extra brownie points with Ruby. 

Jean was stressing of course, Otis and Jean had only ever not been in the same town a few times when Jean was on a book tour and never had Otis been away without his mother. She makes sure to check his case over and over again making sure he had all his essentials. 

“Mum I’m only going to be gone for 2 and half days!” 

Otis would complain but his mother would continue to worry about him. 

She also holds onto him for far too long after she drives them to the train station Ruby smirks over his mothers shoulder where Otis’ neck is currently rests. 

“Mum I’m only going to be gone for 2 and half days!” 

He would complain again but of course, his mother was always going to worry about him. 

Ruby and Otis walked through the train station together, with their respective cases drastic in size, while Otis’ mother stressing about him had made his suitcase seem like he was going away for a week opposed to a weekend, Ruby being Ruby had made her suitcase seem like she was going away for a month apposed a weekend. Otis does offer to take Ruby’s much larger suitcase, but this is wasn’t school where Otis would carry her bag to free up her hands, she was going to have to carry something, either way, this time, it might as well be her sparkly and fancy one apposed to Otis one which looks older than he is. 

Anwar and Rahim are already waiting for them just outside of their train, Ruby apologies frantically for their lateness “Somone’s mum couldn’t say goodbye to their precious boy.” Ruby says mockingly in Otis’ direction. 

“Right.” Anwar surprisingly doesn’t throw any kind of insult Otis’ way, had Rahim softened him like how Otis had softened Ruby or maybe it’s just because Otis’ was letting him stay in his Uncle’s luxury home.

“You know my grandparents cried for 4 days straight when my parents first came to England and they are in their 70’s, It’s perfectly natural for parents to be worried about their offspring no matter what the scenario,” Rahim said. 

“Thanks Rahim” Otis smiled back at Rahim and then turned to do the same at his girlfriend who rolled her eyes in return. 

“Ugh, where is she anyways?” Ruby asked in frustration spinning her head to look around for Olivia who was holding the pair up. 

“Maybe, she’s forgotten that she dumped Malek months ago and is waiting for him outside his house.” Anwar spat out. 

“Ha, again.” Ruby muttered as she and Anwar shared a joke and Otis and Rahim shared a look of confusion. 

Rahim turned away from his laughing boyfriend and his best friend and something appearing from the crowd caught his attention “Oh my god.” he said his state of shock and everyone followed his gaze to see what had caused him to be so startled and well of their jaws hit the floor.

There was Olivia walking towards them hand in hand with probably the tallest man any of them had ever seen, his muscles were almost breaking through his light blue top and then his smile appeared and his ultra white teeth pretty much shone from a distance. 

“Wow.” Anwar said joining his boyfriend in his shock, Ruby pulled down her purple sunglasses in the same fashion as when Anwar had rebranded himself as ‘the pimp on fire’ but maybe even a little lower this time just to make sure it was all really, damn those pants were really tight . Even Otis who is the only one of the four who isn’t attracted to men, feels like he should be bowing in the presence of some sort of god.

“Ruby, Otis, Anwar, Rahim this is John, John this is Ruby, Otis, Anwar and Rahim.” Olivia pointed out each of them individually. 

John such an old name for someone young and fresh, Ruby says as she shakes his hand outstretched hand first as she is nearest to him. 

“Pleasure to meet you John.” Rubys says with a hint of flirtation on her face. 

“Livie has told you me so much about you Rosie.” Ruby raises her eyebrows at first at the use of a nickname she has never heard for one of her best friends but then dropped them down to her typical narrowing position when he gets her name wrong. 

“Ruby.” Olivia corrects him 

“Oh right, sorry Rosie- Ruby!” 

After everyone’s rather strange introduction to ‘John’ they all hop onto the train to London. Ruby and Otis are joined by John and Olivia on the table for four with the luxury of having a table in between, while Anwar and Rahim are cramped in further back down the train. All of the seating arrangements were decided by a game of rock paper scissors beforehand, John and Olivia had to sit in the table seats because John needed the leg room, so that left the rock paper scissor to be contested between Otis + Ruby and Anwar + Rahim.  Otis tried to whisper into Ruby’s ear about how rock paper scissors was a game of ‘skill and mind games.’ But Ruby threw all of Otis’ logic out of the window and just threw down ‘rock’ which beat out Anwar’s ‘siccosrs’. “It’s just a fucking game Otis.” She says smugly as she walks away with the victory. Anwar complains and demands a best of three but is ushered away by Rahim. 

Again Otis and Ruby are dilled into their favourite true-crime podcast, each sharing an earpiece from Otis wires. Normally Ruby wouldn’t be seen dead with wires, Airpods were far more fashionable and expensive, also they wouldn’t cause such a mess, Ruby had her AirPods in her pocket but she really did like using Otis’ wires it made them feel more connected. 

Ruby is trying to concentrate on why Chris Watts would brutally murder his pregnant wife and two children, but she is heavily distracted by John’s gaze directly in front of her, he looks like he is about to say something to her so she removes her earpiece. 

“You two look like a cute couple.” 

“Oh.” Weirdly she’s blushing, it’s nice to hear something nice about her and Otis as a couple for once. “Thank you, John.” 

He looks like he means to say something else but it doesn’t come so she puts her earpiece back in. 

She doesn’t hear what’s being said with the volume restored in her ear but it seems like Olivia is scolding him for something, oop domestic, she’s glad she and Otis hadn’t had a public domestic yet, for Otis sake that is because he would definitely come off worse. 

Just as she settles back into the podcast she feels John’s eyes on her again. 

“What?” She snaps as she throws the earpiece onto the table. 

“I meant really bad couple.” She initially felt sorry for John for how she unnecessarily  snapped and she was cursing her god damn stupid walls but after his comment that sorrow went out of the window, she looked at Olivia for answers who herself is shaking her head at him. “I mean like, you don’t look like a couple, you’re stunning and he’s…… small.” 

Ruby had heard several variations of the same sentence, but the way John awkwardly made his way through the sentence, something felt odd… “Right…” Again Ruby looked to Olivia for some kind of reaction and again she was shaking her head at John, something was really off. This is probably how Olivia and Anwar felt when she first came out with her Otis revelations. 

Thinking of Anwar, she pulled her phone out to text him about what a strange interaction she just had.

:He’s hot but he’s weird 

Anwar💚: A little like you then…. 

She chuckles out loud, fuck you Anwar, fuck you.

After Ruby guided them through the train station, there into a minicab en route to Otis’ uncle’s place. John has his head stuck out of the window of the cab like he was Macaulay Culkin in Home Alone 2 as they dive deeper into the rich London neighbourhoods. 

Ruby scoffs at the taxi fare when they arrive, thankfully Remus had sent over some more money to Otis’ just for this type of scenario. He’s sat in the front seat to sort this out while everyone else is cramped in the back, She misses him. God she knows she is in deep when this thought passes through her head, at least when she was kicking herself about missing him when they got off the bus in Channel Tunnel from the France trip she’s sat a few rows behind him and it was a few hours of driving, this time she is sat right behind him and they are driving for less than an hour, it’s just when she can see him and she can see him and she can’t hold him or touch him. She loves his touch , they all seem so personal, so real, it really does make her heart skip a beat every time their hands are entwined, no matter how many times they do it which she herself ensures it’s a lot.

She ensures it happens again as soon as they are out of the cab and their luggage was out of the back, Otis lets go of his luggage momentarily so he can still hold onto Ruby’s hand while he fetches the key from his jacket pocket, his uncle had someone drive up to Moordale just to drop the key off because that’s what you can do if you are a rich bastard. 

He opens the door up and everyone began to flood into the house, Otis had been to his Uncle’s a million and one times but everyone else was taking it all in, it was almost Tardis-like, in that it very much seemed bigger on the inside than it did on the outside. 

“If you had shown me this before, maybe I would have jumped your bones earlier,” Ruby whispered into Otis’ ear, he chuckled in his response as he headed into the kitchen where there was a note waiting for him on the kitchen surface. 

Have a good time kid.

Just don’t shag your bird in my bed. 

-Love Uncle R

Otis laughed as he scrunched the note up before anyone else could catch a glimpse of it. 

“You were a very cute child Otis,” Rahim said as he observed a photograph he had spotted on the living room wall. 

Ruby and Otis decided to join Rahim to get a closer look, Otis knew the photograph well as there was an identical one in his mum’s room. It was the summer of 2007 Jean and Remus, surrounded by a 5-year-old Otis’, 3-year-old Nathan and barely a year old Nell. 

“I still think he’s cute now,” Ruby said as she held onto Otis’ arm with one of her own whilst looking up to him

Otis smiled and pulled his girlfriend in for a kiss. 

“Should we be expecting a visit from these people?” Rahim asked pointing to the face’s of Nathan and Nell on the photograph, just so he could stop Otis and Ruby from engaging in a kiss next to him. 

“They are at their mum’s, so no we shouldn’t.”

They all ordered a takeaway and got stuck into that, making a right mess of Remus previously immaculate kitchen. Then it was off to bed for all of them, maybe a little earlier than they all normally would, but it had been a busy day of travelling and they all wanted to be fully rested up for tomorrow. 

It wasn’t time for bed Otis just yet, he needed a piss and badly. Unfortunately for Otis, the toilet was already taken up, now there were 2 more bathrooms downstairs but all the lights had all been turned off and Otis wouldn’t admit it to Ruby or anyone for that matter that he was still quite fearful of the dark, home was just about the only place he could manage it and home was where he was not. 

So he decides to wait it out but whoever was in there was damn sure taking their time. “Hello?” He knocks on the door but there was no response in the form of words, only heavy, correction really heavy constipated groans. “Jesus,” Otis whispers to himself. 

Eventually, the toilet does flush but there is no sound of the tap running and hand washing, instead, the door opened to reveal John. Otis had half expected it to be Rahim who appeared after Adam told Ruby the truth about the France trip and then Ruby passed on the information onto Otis, but still, Otis couldn’t believe such a classy Frenchman could do something- well, unclassy.

“I wouldn’t go in there if I were you… I’m glad for your sake you didn’t have the curry.” John patts Otis on the shoulder, considering he didn’t hear the tap run and where that hand had just been Otis’ whole body shivers as he watched John head into the room that he and Olivia had chosen out of the wide variety of choices. 

Otis had then begun to creek open the bathroom door and the smell hit him instantly “Oh my god.” He breathed, his eyes were almost burning from the state of it, Otis thought he was far away from the ideal Untouchables partner, but he was hundred times closer than John Dunst, Scruffy, unintelligent, forgettable, a distinct lack of table manners and now this? 

“What took you so long?” Ruby asked as Otis returned to their bedroom for the next two days. 

“John Dunst, did one hell of a dump in the toilet.” 

Ruby smiled as he practically jumped onto the bed with her. “Come here.” She called and brought him tightly into an embrace. Ruby and Otis spent most of the time sleeping together on Otis’ bed which may have been the smallest bed owned by any teenage boy anywhere in the world, they mostly end up on top of one another most nights, Otis doesn’t complain though when Ruby’s large breasts are pressed extra tight to his chest. Ruby’s bed is a tiny bit better but of course, they don’t spend most nights there, there was two other beds they had slept together in, the one in Beaumont Hamel and the other in Paris and they were nice, but this was a full king size bed. But despite all of that they still hold each other just as close as they would in Otis’ stupid little bed in back in Moordale but it’s still nice to have a little room to stretch their legs out into. 

“He’s a little weird isn’t he?” Otis whispered to Ruby as they lay face to face. 

“Who?” 

“John.” 

Ruby paused for a moment. “Yeah, but what was ever wrong with a little weird?” She whispered back as she lightly poked his nose. 

Otis laughed before kissing his girlfriend. “You make a compelling point.” 

She’d be throwing up right now if the exact same thing happened in one of those god damn romantic comedies Otis’ forced her to watch with his mother on Friday nights, she secretly loved them though not so much for the content of the films but more her boyfriend would have his head buried into her shoulder and she would play with his hair and they would fill Jean in on all of the latest school gossip. Her love for Otis was a little less of a secret these days, well to some anyway. “Er- what are you doing?” Ruby asked as Otis wriggled free of her arms around his waist.

“Going to google him.” Otis said as he leant over to pick up his phone on the bedside table which was a lot further away than the one at Otis’ house so required one hell of a stretch. “A little bit of the old google-a-roony.” 

“Please don’t say that ever again.” 

That was word/phrase 433 that Ruby had banned Otis from using ever again, he thought as he typed in ‘John Dunst’ into google, thankfully there wasn’t many John Dunst on the internet and “Oh my god.” He said out loud when he found an image that matched the John Dunst sleeping a few doors down from him. 

“What? What is it?” Ruby quizzed before Otis turned the phone around to show Ruby what he had just discovered. 

After they discussed the rather initially surprising information which turned out to make a lot of sense and answered a lot of their questions, they laughed at the craziness of it for a while before they fell asleep in their usual Ruby big spoon Otis small spoon positions, but because of their limited sleep they are the only one’s who react when Remus front door flys open in the early hours of the morning.

They both rise up and Ruby slung a protective arm across Otis body. “What was that?” 

Otis’ insists that he should be the one to go down and check “It’s probably just that little shit Nathan.” He says at first and he’s pretty confident at that fact, but when Ruby is leaning on the banister watching him head down the stairs he begins to question himself “He did lock the door right?”, rich people were targeted for big robberies like this all the time, what was Otis Milburn going to do armed with nothing but a flashlight which he had only taken because of his fear of the dark, maybe he should wake ‘Big John’ and he could put his size and strength to use. 

As he gets closer to the bottom of the stairs he begins to pick up three voices, one of them very familiar to him even if it is a little deeper than when he last heard it and his nerves were calmed and he let out a huge sigh, the sigh was so loud it was picked up by the three in the other room. 

“What the fuck!” One of them called. 

“Pick that up G!” There was the sound of something sharp hitting the surface Otis saw this as his opportunity to jump in. 

“Woah, woah it’s me!” Otis literally jumped into the doorway into the kitchen with his hands raised in the air like he was surrendering to become a prisoner of war. 

“Who the fuck is that?” 

“My cousin, Otis” Nathan said staring directly at him and Otis dropped his hands in the air. “I forgot you were coming. I guess that explains all the mess.” The 15-year-old turned to all of the takeaway mess behind him. 

“What is wrong with you people, a slight sound of trouble and you pick up a knife.” Otis said nodding to one of Nathan’s goons who had put the knife down he had picked up at the sound of Otis’ sigh. 

“You were sneaking around my house, how’s Poordale?” His two goons laughed along with him, They really thought that was genuinely funny huh?

“Otis…” A voice croaked from around the corner and a pair of feet could be heard making their way down the stairs. 

Ruby appeared from around the corner, her eyes still adjusting to the light of the kitchen. 

“Woah.” The three 15-year-old’s breathed when they got a full view of her in her usual stripy pink and white nightclothes, her cleavage very much exposed to them. 

Ruby caught what their eyeline was staring at and she looked down at her own breasts. “Oh you see these, their called tits something you’ll never get to touch.” Ruby said as she rose her head back up “Now go on, piss off.” Ruby gestured her head towards the front door. 

“You can’t kick me out of my own house!” Nathan spat back. 

“You been smoking weed again?” Otis eyed up the bag on the table “Don’t think your dad would want to find out, would you? Not for the first time either.” Otis took a confident step forward and leant a hand on one of Remus stools. “Now you can go and smoke that wherever you like and I won’t tell your dad, all though smoking is highly bad for you and I wouldn’t recommend-”

“Fine, fine!” Nathan groaned and he grabbed his coat and the weed and his friends followed him “Kicked out of my own house.” Otis heard Nathan mutter on repat whilst shaking his head as Otis watched them out. 

Ruby leant against the doorway of the entrance of the kitchen as she watched Otis shut the door behind him. The way he bossed them around, sure they were only 15 and Ruby had got the ball rolling for him but still it was kind of…. Hot? Otis was cute virtually all of the time, but never once outside of the bedroom had she ever thought of him as Hot. 

“What’s up with you?” Otis asked watching his girlfriend. 

Ruby sunk her back further into the doorway as she bit her lip and then formed a very telling smirk “Nothing.” 

The following day was the day of the twin’s party, while Otis had not seen the twins for over a year and a half he had an idea of what to expect from the phone call he had overheard and what other stuff Ruby filled him in on the idea being that they were very much still bitches, but that was the image Otis’ had of Ruby some nine months ago, so positive thoughts only. You should always try and think the best of people

Nine months ago……. It had been nine months give or take since Otis’ small gathering with a roast chicken included. So if Ruby’s 3.5% of doubt in her mind about the missing condom had come to fruition and Otis had only purchased nasal spray it would probably be about time for Otis to ‘ Quit school, get a job and provide for Ruby and his newborn child.’ That would make Joy only two months older than her niece/nephew, making his family just that little bit stranger than it already is. Otis also thinks about how Ruby would give him virtually no say in the naming of their child, not even the middle name, he laughs out loud at this thought but then Ruby shoots him an aggressive look while she is working on her eyebrows. 

“Something funny Milburn?” 

He frantically shook his head, he couldn’t let Ruby know he had been thinking about his and Ruby’s non-existent child.

The day had mostly consisted of waiting around while Ruby, Olivia and Anwar got ready, Otis had wanted to wait on their bed to watch her perform her ‘beauty routine’ first hand, but this lasted barely twenty minutes before Ruby snapped at him for asking too many questions. 

So he waits downstairs instead, scanning all of the family photographs on the walls, it makes him get all deep about life and his current situation. The news of Moordale secondary’s financial situation had become more clear in the past few weeks, there was enough money just to last until the end of the year with Miss Sands acting as a caretaker headteacher but after that it was going to go bust. Many parents in the year’s below had already been out looking for other schools outside of Moordale, of course, none of this would affect Otis’, he would get his education and then move on with his life. But then Otis began to scan the wall of photographs in front of him again, every generation of ‘Franklin’ that he was aware of in every shape of form had passed through the Moordale school system, was he really going to be the last? What about Joy? What about his own children with Ru-

“No!” He says aloud this time catching Rahim’s attention who is sat behind him scrolling through his Instagram feed.

He had to stop thinking like that, Ruby was 18,  he was 17, it was absurd to be thinking like that, they had been ‘together, together’ for 4 months. 

Otis’ manages to avoid thinking about a potential offspring from himself and Ruby Matthews for a third time while he waits for her and the rest of the Untouchables to come downstairs. Otis constantly refreshes his Instagram feed as that’s where he will see Ruby’s in her full glory first as she Olivia and Anwar would be sure to make sure of the ‘Insta potential’ corners of Remus’ house, besides he knows it’s coming because Ruby has just called Rahim up the stairs presumably to capture photo’s of the three of the, 

It’s when Rahim makes his way back down Remus’ stairs his feed updates and Ruby’s latest post lights up his feed. He always likes to try and be the first person to like her post which is quite a challenge considering her large follower count and this time even though he has the opportunity to, he is simply left stunned by how stunning she is. Wearing her favourite hoop earrings, the neckless he bought her for Christmas and aggressive heels and red mini dress.

How did he get this lucky….

The reason he stalks his feed waiting for a Ruby update is so he doesn’t make a fool of himself by drooling in front of her but it doesn’t stop him from doing so when she Olivia and Anwar appear, just how could one person be so ridiculously incredible. 

The group of six arrive at the large ballroom where the party is being held ‘fashionably late’ as always, so the maximum amount of people can gaze at them as they enter. But this is London, not Moordale so of course, she gets some gazes because she is still Ruby Matthews it’s not as many as she is used to, she tuts aggressively at this as she realises she might not be as much as a household name as she would like.

“Do you want to get something to drink?” Otis asks as he firstly scans the room and all the big balloons reading ‘18’, then ‘AC’ and ‘BC’ before his eyes land upon the bar. 

Before Ruby has the chance to respond her attention is caught by a squeal in front of her. “Rubes!” It’s BC and CC joins her in squealing, so did Ruby they were her friends after all and she didn’t get to see them all that often. 

She raced forward as fast as her heels allowed her to and into the twin’s arms. “You look stunning girl.” CC commented. 

“Likewise,” Ruby replied as she transferred her eyes across both of the twins.

“Look, there are  some people we’d like you to meet.” CC pretty much grabbed Ruby’s hand to pull her down to where they were sat, as she is being pulled by the hand she glances back to where Otis was but he’s no longer there. 

Ruby is forced down onto a table in the corner where 3 boys are waiting for them. 

“Rubes this is Mitchell, my boyfriend.” 

“Rubes this is Aaron, my boyfriend.” 

First BC said followed by her sister in identical tones. 

Mitchell and Aaron let on smiles and Ruby smiled back. “They both play for Spurs Under 23’s.” Great, footballers. “And this is Adam their teammate.” BC nodded towards the third and final boy whose smile is a little more flirtatious compared to Mitchell and Aaron before him. “He’s for you. I heard he’s an absolute dream in bed.” Ruby’s eyes widen at the information BC was whispering in her ear before she felt something strange rub against her dress. “Just in case you didn’t bring any, I know it’s been a while,” BC whispered again as Ruby had noticed the packet of condoms she was sneaking across for her.

For once in her life, Ruby Matthews feel small, so very small as she lightly sips on the champagne CC had stolen for her from another table. This areshole Adam keeps going on and on to her despite the fact she is giving him nothing in return, her eyes keep scanning across the room, she spots other Moordalians who have travelled down here, she’s slept with 3,4 no 5! Of them, that makes a total of six in the room, she’s looking for the sixth and eventually, she spots Otis diagonally across the room, he’s chatting away Rahim and he’s got that dorky smile on full display, she gets lost in it completely and Adam’s words go even further into the back of her brain, she’s in a sort of trance state as she watches him from a distance, her heart full of butterflies as again she reminded herself of how much she loved him. Adam doesn’t even notice she’s staring in a completely different direction to him, that’s probably because he’s transfixed by her tits. 

Eventually, Otis turns around in the direction of Ruby catching her gaze and redirects said dorky smile towards his girlfriend which only increases the size of Ruby’s smile and the butterflies in her stomach. 

“ Are you okay?” Otis mouthed across the room. 

Of course, he asks that…. She thinks as she nods back at him. 

“I’m going to get us some drinks,” Adam says as he places a hand on Ruby’s thigh before he stands up and leaves. 

What a fucking freak. Ruby thinks as she snaps back into the reality in front of her. 

Thankfully Olivia comes and takes his spot before he comes back. 

“Oh my god, Liv, Hi!!!!” BC squeals as Olivia sit’s down next to Ruby. 

Olivia, BC and CC have their quick catchup before BC wants to get down to the gossip. 

“So Olivia any gentleman in this building who may or may not have travelled along with you?” She asks as she sips on the drink. 

“Oh yeah there’s John.” Olivia pointed over to John who was still towering above everyone in the room. 

“Fucking hell Liv, where did you find that beast.” BC replied as she took in the size of the man.

You wouldn’t believe it….. Ruby thought back to last night when she and Otis found out who he was.

But BC wasn’t the only Cseszneky twin in a state of shock, CC had spotted something else next to John or to be more accurate someone else who definitely shouldn’t be at her party. 

“Is that Otis fucking Milburn?” CC asked. 

“What, where?” BC span around trying to find him as Olivia and Ruby shared a look of concern for what was about to come. “What the fuck is he doing here? He didn’t come with you guys obviously.” 

“Obviously,” CC added as the twins looked around for who he potentially could have come with. 

Ruby decided now was the time to come out of this nervous shell she had been hiding in since she had got here, she needed to be confident and decisive about this news because she was not ashamed of Otis Milburn. 

“Actually….. He is.” Ruby leant further over the table putting on her best RBF. 

“What?” BC asked narrowing her eyes at Ruby. 

“He’s my boyfriend,” Ruby said firmly. 

“What?” Both twins spat back in unison. 

“I’ll say it again, Otis Milburn is my boyfriend, yes that rumour was true that we slept together and we have slept together plenty of times since and he have super amazing sex and I love him very very much.” Ruby stabbed back at them. 

The two girls just exploded into a fit of laughter but Ruby was hurt by it she just continued with her RBF. “You’re joking right.” 

“No.” Just like with the waiter on Anwar’s birthday, she taps the touch screen of her phone in front of her so she and Otis at the bowling alley flashes up on the home screen. 

“Come on, this is a prank right, like another Lang.” 

Jack Lang, head of the Moordale chess club who Ruby pretended to fancy for a week as a result of a lost bet with Olivia. 

“No.” Ruby repeats again extremely deadpan. 

CC smirked “I still don’t believe you.”

“Fine! Don’t believe me.” Ruby gathered up her coat and purse as she rose up from the table. “Come on Liv.” Ruby extended her hand out to Olivia and they both left the table. 

Just as Ruby and Olivia were leaving the table Adam reappeared with drinks in hand for him and Ruby. “Where are you going? I got us drinks!” Adams says a little bemused. 

“Fuck off Adam, you perv.” Ruby said as she let go of Olivia’s hand and raced across to the other side of the ballroom towards Otis. Just before she reaches him, she spins her head around just to make sure the twins were still watching her, which they were. “Kiss me, dork,” Ruby demanded placing her hands on his waist. 

“W-What?” A confused Otis’ asked, looking up towards Rahim as some sort of apology as their conversation seemed to be interrupted. 

“Fine, I’ll do it!” Ruby said before their lips crashed together and Ruby pulled him in tighter allowing her to deepen the kiss. 

Across the other side of the room on the birthday girls’ table are left into a stunned silence as they watch Otis and Ruby engage in a passionate kiss. 

Just as the kiss comes to an end BC does manage to string together a sentence. 

“What the fuck.” 

As Ruby slowly removes her hands from Otis’ waist and he does the same in return she spins her body back towards the direction of the twins and raises both of her middle fingers in the air.

They all decide to stay, despite Ruby not giving two shits about whose party it is anymore she just wants to enjoy herself and enjoying herself she is as she watches her boyfriend’s awful dance moves as he and John are trying their best to move to whatever old school rubbish the DJ is playing that Otis somehow enjoyed. 

She’s at the bar alone with Olivia, it’s the first time they had been alone together since last night when she found out where John had come from. 

“Liv…” She begins as she turned towards her best friend who appeared to be sulking, resting her knuckles onto her chin a stark contrast to Ruby who was still beaming from watching her boyfriend’s dancing. “I know that John is a prostitute.” 

“What? What the hell are you on about?” Olivia pretended to play dumb. 

“Otis googled him Liv, there is no need to lie.” 

Olivia’s face trailed off from what it was as she seemed to accept she wasn’t going to get out of this one.

“I told him not to use his full name at all what the hell!” Olivia cried out as she looked out to the dancefloor to where John was trying to whisper something in Otis’ ear. 

“Yeah well, he was the only one who ordered the Indian so he gave Otis his phone to put the address in.” 

“What?” It was getting really hard to hear over the music. 

“It doesn’t matter, look I just wanna know why?” 

Olivia sighed and averted her eyes away from Ruby for a moment. “I just didn’t want to be alone alright? Anwar has Rahim and you have Otis..” She knelt her head down in some form of shame. 

“But Liv, you’re stunning over half the guys at the school would have come down if you asked them, why did you waste all of that money?”

Olivia shyly smiled in her response, it was good to hear something nice come out of Ruby’s mouth about her, instead of mean comments about ‘thigh gaps’ etc. Is this what being with Otis did to someone….. 

Olivia doesn’t know if it’s the compliment or the drink getting to her, most likely a combination of both, that gives her the confidence to say something that she shouldn’t. “There was another reason though, I wanted to-.” Olivia began but her blushes are spared by a scuffle on the dance floor. 

A few moments prior Otis is on the dancefloor dancing like an absolute idiot with John the prostitute of all people or sex worker as his mother would correct him to use the more friendly terminology. 

He can see Ruby smirking at him in the corner of his eye as she takes a sip from her wine glass, how did he get away with being a complete idiot and the hottest girl he had ever seen could still look at him like that. 

John notices their little exchange to and begins to lean over to whisper something in Otis’ ear. “I’m sorry for what I said before about you and Ruby.” 

Otis hadn’t heard what John had said on the train at the time but Ruby had filled him in on it later on. “It’s fine!” Otis shouts back so John can hear him over the music. 

“You do seem like a nice couple, that’s why I said it, it’s just Olivia she-” John began but his voice began to break up. 

“What?” Otis asked back leaning in closer to John to hear him better. 

“Olivia she told me to- Olivia she-”

Was he about to throw up ? 

“Olivia - you, I’m here-.”

It was getting worse now and Otis on his own instincts decided to get out of the way and as he did John threw up everywhere, on himself, on the dancefloor and on the white shirt of the person in front of him. 

The person in front of him was Aaron, CC’s boyfriend he slowly span around to see who had landed the sick on him. “What the fuck bro?” 

CC Screamed next to him which got the attention of pretty much everyone in the room who were now looking on in disgust at the scene in front of them. CC eyed John up and down and then turned to Otis “Was this you Milburn!” 

“W-What, No!” Otis shook his head, rather confused to why he was getting the blame laid upon him. 

CC was now breaking down in tears like she was a child who had been told she couldn't have her favourite toy anymore. “You’ve ruined my Birthday, YOU DICKHEAD!” She was now screaming which really startled Otis.

“Erm, what’s going on?” Ruby had appeared joining Otis side. 

“Your ‘boyfriend’” She was clearly very emotional as she wagged her fingers in the air. “Has ruined all of this dancefloor, ‘oh god the bill’.”

“What about me shirt?” Aaron complained from next to her/ 

“Shut it Aaron!” CC cut him off as she approached Otis wagging her finger at him. “You did this, IT’S YOU AGAIN MILBURN and your freaky-”

Ruby stepped in between the pair so she was staring CC straight in the face. “Think very carefully about your next words Camilia.” 

Her next words were not so pleasant and resulted in Ruby slapping her across the face.

They all get kicked out, well Otis, Ruby, Olivia and John were kicked out, Rahim and Anwar were nowhere near the incident at the time and as soon as it was decided the damage to the dancefloor was not what CC made it out to be, the party was continued with a very drunk CC being taken home. 

Speaking of very drunk, Olivia had taken John back to the house, maybe to secure some kind of discount from the man she had paid to just follow her around London a weekend or maybe it’s because she is just being kind. 

That just leaves Otis and Ruby walking around the streets of London, they have no idea where they are going, they are just going off instinct or maybe they are just following landmarks they can spot in the distance. It’s fairly cold, so Otis tries to offer Ruby his jacket to go on top of her own, but just as in the French capital she initially refused before giving into her boyfriend’s demands. 

They are walking across Westminster Bridge their hands as ever entwined when Ruby spots a young mother walking with her child and Ruby decides now is the time to do something she should have done a long time ago. 

“Sorry excuse me can you take a photo of me and my boyfriend please?” Ruby asks politely. 

But the woman shook her head “No, no English.” She just about managed to get out. 

“Oh.” Ruby said before she motioned with her hands the outline of a camera and “Chook a choo.” Ruby makes a strange sound to signify a camera taking a photo, Otis smirks at Ruby but whatever she did managed to work as the woman in front of her was now nodding “Thank you.” Ruby said as she passed her phone over to the woman. 

She and wrapped her hands around his waste leaning into him and they both smiled as the woman took the photograph. “Thank you, thank you,” Ruby said as she took her phone back, she isn’t sure if the kind woman understood her but she’s smiling herself as she walks away. 

Ruby smile increases as she scans to the photo and heads over straight to Instagram to upload it. She adds the location and adds the caption ‘My Love❤️‘

She uploads it, there aren’t as many likes as she usually gets and she even notices her follower count go down, probably from boys who thought they stood a chance of getting into her pants. All stuff she would usually have cared about but not anymore.

Because she definitely wasn’t ashamed of Otis Milburn.

Chapter Text

“Ugh! This is the last fucking time no matter what happens on Monday.” Ruby groaned as she pulled the car up outside of the hall that housed ‘game club.’ 

“Well next Saturday, hopefully, someone is going to have their drivers license.” Otis smiled thinking about his upcoming driving test on Monday. 

“Yeah well, you won’t be here next Saturday anyway.” 

Huh, Otis never missed game club . “Why?” 

Whatever Otis had forgotten about it had pissed Ruby off, she threw down her yellow sunglasses that she had stolen from Otis during the summer and clearly had some affection for them if she is wearing them in mid-February or maybe that was just Ruby being Ruby. “Ugh, Milburn!” She groaned as the sunglasses bounced around the front of the car. 

Ruby was looking at him like whatever he was missing was the most obvious thing in the world but Otis was left completely clueless. “Oh yeah, of course, wouldn’t miss that for the world.” Otis tried to pull off that he and Ruby were totally on the same wavelength, he doesn’t think his effort is very convincing but Ruby seems to buy it. 

“Good.” 

“Okay see you.” 

“Have a nice time.” 

They both lean in to share a kiss before Otis hops out of the car. 

“On the hour you better be out here or you're getting the bus.” This wasn’t just a threat either, one of the first times Ruby drops Otis off at ‘Game club’ she really does drive off after Otis and Eric come out at quarter past after Otis’ progresses further into the tournament of the day than he expects. Eric offered Otis a ride on his bike but while Otis could pedal while Ruby or Maeve sat in the seat, he and Eric are far too big for that and they manage half of the way there before it becomes too uncomfortable. So ever since that day Otis’ makes sure he brings enough for a one-way ticket back to the bus stop nearest his house. 

“Will do.” Otis smiled as he removed his hands from the side of Ruby’s car and headed towards the building. 

Walking from the opposite direction but heading for the same building was a girl barely over 5’0 tall, her hair as ever in a short ponytail and her huge glasses that looked like they belong in the 1980’s not the 2020’s, although they were probably like this way as they managed to obscure the view of the majority her freckles that were plastered all across her face. Meet Ally Hopkins. 

Otis and Eric mostly kept themselves to themselves at the game club apart from Ally, she was really sweet, kind and really talented at gaming, sometimes competing at some Esports level, so Otis and Eric were always able to pick up tips from her at virtually any game. She was the same age as them but wasn’t from Moordale, her mother 

Ruby watches on as they do their dorky gamer handshake greeting ritual as she drives off, Weird weird weird she thinks as she does so. 

“Where’s Eric? I didn’t see his bike?” She asks and Otis peers his head over to the bike stand and she was right no sign of Eric Effoing’s bike. Otis began to chuckle to himself, “What’s wrong?” Ally asked with a nervous smile directed back towards Otis’ as she had no idea why Eric’s bike being missing could be considered as funny. 

“Ruby’s forced Eric on To Grindr and he went on his first date last night.” 

“Oh.” Ally nervously giggled as they walked through the front doors.

Otis collected his phone from his pocket to ring up Eric, it takes a few moments for an answer but eventually, the sound of the ringing was replaced by Eric’s groan. 

“Morninggggggg.” Otis teased and Ally’s giggles increased. 

“Go awayyy.” Eric replied whilst his head was buried in his pillow.

“Did you have a good time?” 

“I did actually.” Eric croaked back. 

Otis narrowed his eyes. “It doesn’t sound like it.” 

Eric had now managed to get himself up from his bed. “No he was great, he just drank a lot, like a lot, a lot.”

“He’s an alcoholic?” 

“No! No! I just couldn’t keep up with him, he ended up having to put me in a taxi at 10 oclock.” 

Otis laughed back through the phone imagining his best friends state. 

“It wasn’t funny Otis!” 

“Sounds, kind of funny….” 

“Whatever, say Hi to Ally for me.” 

Otis smiled and looked over to Ally as they made their way through the building “I will do.” 

“Well, I guess that’s it for another week as I guess I won’t see you next Saturday.” 

“What?” Otis asked back, what was it with next Saturday?

Eric hit’s his head back on his pillow as he realises his head still isn’t in the right place for him to get up yet, his phone drops slightly away from his ear as he does so he doesn’t hear his best friends question. “Look I’ll see you on Monday mate.” 

“See you.”

It was strange being at game club on a Saturday morning without Eric by his side but Ally is good fun, she is really shy but when the games get going she really does come out of her shell and get’s really competitive and so full of life. 

“It’s not Mario Kart Otis!” Ally said as she watched Otis on one of the driving games sliding all over the place. “I really hope you aren’t like this for your test on Monday.” 

“I can’t be that bad?” Otis complained back. 

“Oh you are terrible, here let me try and help.” Ally isn’t sure what comes over her as she scoots onto the racing seat, pressing her’s and Otis bodies together. “Oh I’m sorry, is this okay?” Ally asks. 

“Yeah.” Otis nods a little nervously himself, he doesn’t know why. This was Ally, little, sweet Ally, none threatening, like a carebear. He thinks back to that time when he was first giving out his sex advice at that Aimee’s party when he was a non-threatening carebear? He still is that right? Anyway, that would be his explanation if Ruby suddenly stormed into the main gaming hall. 

Ally’s coaching and Otis is able to get himself into the top 100 on the leaderboard of everyone at the game club, Ally’s ranked deep inside the top ten of course. 

They stay around for a little longer, Ally mostly kicks his arse at all games, which makes him miss Eric even more as he actually stands a chance at beating him, but Ally well she was born for this. 

Otis glanced up at the clock,3 minutes to the hour. “Yeah that’s going to have to be my last game.” 

“Oh okay,” Ally says looking a little defeated. 

“I’ll see you next week though,” Otis said pretty much bouncing away as the hall they were in was really big and they were stood on the complete opposite side to the exit and he really didn’t fancy the bus. 

“Oh, I’ll walk out with you.” Ally called back and jogged up with him. 

Otis did think it to be a little odd that Ally would walk out with her as while the session officially ended on the hour you could easily get another half an hour of gaming time if you are friendly with the organisers and if you came from this far away surely you would like as much gaming time as possible. 

“I didn’t think you were going to be here next Saturday?” 

“Ugh, what is it with it with next Saturday?” Otis asked back sounding a little annoyed. 

“I’m sorry.” Ally grows a lot smaller than she already is as Otis snapped at her. 

Otis shook his head. “No I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have reacted like that. It’s just first it’s Ruby, then Eric and now you going on about Saturday and I have no idea what’s going on.” 

“It’s valentines day……” 

Oh, that makes a lot more sense in Otis’ mind now. Otis had always hated valentines day, not like had ever had any to ‘celebrate’ it with anyone, the only way it ever affected his life is that his mother would make sure more romantic movies were put on the shortlist for their movie nights. To Otis, it’s just another ‘unrealstic portrayal of romantic love.’ But he imagines what it means Ruby, gifts, love and attention, yup it would be right up her street.

“You forgot….”

“A little bit.”

“I’ve never met your girlfriend b-but I don’t think she would be best pleased with you if you forgot, s-she seems quite angry.” Ally just about manages to get through her sentence. “Sorry.” She adds on at the end as she had just insulted his girlfriend.

Otis chuckled “It’s okay, she doesn’t always come across as she wants to.” Otis also wants to say ‘If you got to know her she’d like her.’ like he would to most people but maybe Ally and Ruby are probably too far apart on the social scale for that, even further than Otis and Ruby were.

Ruby arrived into the car park in front of the ‘gameclub’ a few minutes after the hour but that’s okay as she can scold him of how she had been waiting outside for so long when he eventually arrives but to Ruby’s surprise Otis’ is already out of the building and there is so sign of Eric, he’s with that girl Ollie? Ally? She thinks that’s the one. They have some Nintendo magazine stretched out in front of them and they were laughing at it together? In what world was anything gaming related funny? 

She slammed her hand onto her car horn an action that made both Otis and Ally jump and the magazine dropped to the floor, Otis jumped down to save it. 

“Here you go.” Otis offered it back to Ally who was shaking her head. 

“No, you keep it.” 

“But it’s your’s” Otis waved the magazine at her as an indication for her to take back. 

“I-I already have one at home.” 

“You bought two versions of the same magazine?” Otis quizzed.

Ally froze at his question but she and Otis jumped out of their skin again as Ruby bellowed from behind them “Otis!” She was starting to lose her cool and Otis knew he was a few seconds away from the bus. 

“I’ll see you,” Otis said as he awkwardly jogged away from Ally and into Ruby’s car. 

Ruby drove away before Otis managed to put his seatbelt on. “Woah!” Otis shouted as the car accelerated time. 

“Did you have a nice time?” Ruby asked as they pulled out of the car park. 

“Yeah, I did.” 

Ruby narrowed her eyebrows at him from across the car. “Aren’t you going to break down individually each game you played and tell me how you got on?” 

This time it was Otis’ turn to narrow his eyes “I thought you hated it when I did that.” 

She really fucking didn’t. “Who was that girl you were talking to?” Ruby tried to move the conversation on, bringing up that ‘girl’ (who she fully well knows who she is) seems like a reasonable move. 

“Oh, I thought I told you about Ally?” 

“Nope” Ruby said bluntly as she made the next turn. 

“Oh well-” Otis began before he was cut off by his girlfriend. 

“She’s small.” 

Otis looked Ruby up and down in the driver's seat “Your hardly Tyson Fury Rubes.” 

Ruby scoffed “Since when did you watch any kind of sports, besides I’m 5ft 4 which is the UK average height for girls,so..” 

“In a pair of heels maybe.” 

Ruby scoffed for the second time in a matter of moments. “Oh, you are in so much trouble when we get back Milburn. 

“Am I really?”

The day of Otis’ driving test comes and Jean is holding Joy as Otis chats to his instructor to give him support before he heads off for his test. 

They are supposed to be joined by Ruby who is still getting changed after school. 

“Is your big brother going to pass his test, Yes well I think he is.” Jean said to her daughter as she held her close. She could hear heels heading up the stairs behind her that could only mean one thing. “And what does R-” Jean began as she turned to face Ruby and spotted what she was wearing “-uby think?”

Ruby was wearing her ripped denim shorts that were so so short every time she moved a step her butt cheeks would almost come into full view in addition. 

“Jean, Joy.” Ruby smiled as she walked past the pair and straight towards the car that Otis is taking his test in. She can see his eyes practically shake through the window when he spots her approaching. 

She walks around the wrong side of the car to get access to her boyfriend but there is a very good reason for this. She knocks on the window of Paul’s side, Paul being the arsehole driving instructor who also did her test nearly a year and a half ago now. She smiles as they both turn around and yup, Paul is still looking at her the same way he did on that September day of 2018. She opens the car door on Paul’s side and leaned over his body to kiss Otis, he gets a good look at her breasts as they are almost pressed against his face. “Good luck.” She whispers and she pulls away, shutting the car door behind her and as she struts away she can feel their eyes on her from behind even through the window. 

Jean, Joy and Ruby head back inside as it’s too cold for Joy to wait outside for that like and Ruby had the same problem with that outfit she was wearing it was mid-February after all. 

“Dr Milburn.” Ruby began, she didn’t like the idea of calling her boyfriend’s mum ‘Jean’, it was far too informal especially for someone so well respected. Sure this was in a complete conflict with a couple of moments ago when she called her ‘Jean’ as she climbed up to the steps towards Paul the instructor’s car. That’s because she was in the zone, focused on charging towards the car to give Paul something to think about instead of Otis’ suspect driving skills, there was no time for awkwardness then, but now they were sat on the couch with a brew in each of their hands trying to break the silence that had filled the room ever since Jean had put Joy to sleep, saying her first name out loud didn’t feel right.

“Ruby, we have been over this before, Jean will do just fine,” Jean said a little frustrated as she thought they were making progress on this particular subject. 

“Right, Jean…..” She cringed. “Did you know about me and Otis in the summer?" Ruby asks. She knows Otis' didn't tell her if it took over three months to tell his best friend he definitely wouldn't have told his mother, but did she suspect? 

Jean smirked slightly whilst taking her sip of tea. "Well, my son had to do a suspicious amount of 'homework' for summertime." Jean thought back to Otis' bumbling together an excuse after suddenly having to leave during their movie nights. "Adding that to him trying to hide his changing of bed sheets, due to nocturnal emission, along with the smile on his face when he would come from 'homework'.

It warmed her heart that she was having an effect on him hours after their romps in the woods, but one part of Jean's sentence was leaving her a little confused. "Nocturnal emission?" She repeated. 

"Wet dreams, dear," Jean said as if it was the most natural thing in the world. 

As for Ruby, she didn't discussing her boyfriend having wet dreams about her in front of his mother wasn't natural at all and she snorted her tea out of her mouth and nose creating a mess on the floor.

Before Ruby can move to clean it up the door flys open and everyone turned around and eagerly waited for someone to appear from it. Because of the amount of time it takes for Otis to appear through the door, both Jean and Ruby are really hopeful, because knowing Otis’ like they do he is probably putting on some sort of big reveal but they don’t want to jump to any conclusions. 

His feet finally peered through the front door and when the rest of him became visible, his face was beaming and he was holding something behind his back, If he was gunning for some kind of big reveal he was bloody useless at hiding it. 

“Well…” Jean prompted. 

Otis’ beaming smile formed into a smirk as he pulled a piece of paper from behind his back. “I passed!” 

Both Jean and Ruby cheered back at him, identically they slapped their hands on their knees before rising up to meet him. Jean was nearest to the door so was the first to bring her son into an embrace. “Well done you, well done, well done, well done.” Jean began peppering him with kisses on the cheek. 

“Ow, mum.” Otis pattered her away with his driving certificate a little embarrassed by his mother’s physical affection in front of Ruby. 

“Sorry Darling I’m just really p-” Jean began but was cut off by the sound of Joy crying upstairs, clearly Jean and Ruby’s cheers were enough to disturb her sleep, Jean sighed before heading upstairs to leave Otis and Ruby downstairs alone. 

“Well done you,” Ruby said as she approached her boyfriend placing her hands on his waist and standing on her toes to gain easy access to his lips. 

Otis groaned in the kiss and then again as their lips departed and then copied her by placing his hands on her waist. “What’s with the outfit?” He asked looking at her up and down. 

“Well, it’s the same outfit I wore when I passed my test, though it would be a good luck charm. Extremely tight though, so I hope you appreciate the gesture.” 

Otis smiled back as he knew exactly what sort of tricks she was up to “If they are so tight, maybe I could help you take them off.” Otis rubbed his hands up and down Ruby’s exposed skin not sure in exactly which direction to take them. 

Ruby narrowed her eyes at him and span her neck around the room. “In the middle of your living room?” 

“No I-” 

Ruby sharply cut him off “Nope, this is Instagram story worthy first,” Ruby began to dig her phone out of her shorts’ rear pocket.

Ah yes, Instagram.  

It had been over a month since Otis and Ruby became ‘Instagram’ official? Was that a real thing? And Otis wasn’t to sure how he felt about it.

At first, he absolutely loved it, being able to express his adoration for her in the comments on her feed, he even broke his own Instagram drought to upload a photo of him and Ruby at a party hosted by one of the swing band members.

Whilst past problems in their relationship arose from Ruby’s ‘embarrassment’ of Otis and wanting to change who he is, this time however it couldn’t be further from that. Ruby constantly flooding her stories of her sat on his bed watching him play on his Nintendo or PlayStation, cuddling up on the couch watching a movie together, their entwined hands as they went on a walk or in the cafeteria at lunchtime. It was a lot and that was Otis’ problem, he felt like he couldn’t go fifteen minutes without Ruby shoving a camera in his face, making him redo his pose because she had changed her mind on the filter she wanted to use or the song that would be played over it. 

It had all become a little irritating. The day of their first ‘breakup’ when Ruby brought her hands over her breasts and expressed ‘I’m a very private person Otis’, some of this was true in regards to her home and for a period of time her love life but in literally every other aspect of life Ruby Matthews love to scream about it from the rooftops, Snapchat it, Instagram it, the lot. While Otis preferred for things to be more ‘real’ and live in the moment, social media was just a facade, a small insight into someone’s real life.

But to ask Ruby to stop would make Otis a hypocrite. 

“I don’t want to have to change who I am in order to hang out with you”

Social media is another one of Ruby’s happy places, she is allowed to bitch with her ‘internet friends’ who all live in much more exotic parts of the world than Moordale, show off all her glamours outfits and take in all of her love in the comments. She is allowed to express stuff she is passionate about but Otis guesses that makes him one of the things Ruby is passionate about. 

She has a rule, if a post doesn’t hit a certain number of likes within 12 hours it goes. The posts uploaded with him in it don’t hit anywhere near the target any time never mind 12 hours, but she keeps them up anyway. 

“Shake it around a little,” Ruby calls as she squints her eyes trying to get the camera to focus on him and his certificate. “Thank you,” Ruby says as she puts the phone back down. 

She uploads the Boomerang to her story with the caption “Proud Girlfriend❤️“

Maybe having Ruby Matthews constantly gushing about him on social media isn’t the worst thing in the world. 

Rubes❤️: 12:30 I’ll be outside. Homeless clothes are fine x 

Is the text Ruby sends him on the morning of their first valentines day together. Otis still had no idea what to expect as Ruby had been in charge of planning the day. He spent all week working on his present, he had created a sort of vase that had all of the valentines day cliches sticking out of it, flowers, chocolates, wine, all that jazz -well when he said he ‘created it’ he began to create it before it kept falling apart and then Jakob and Jean came to his rescue. 

He is surprised when his Valentine's card from her arrives in that morning’s post. His name on the front ‘Otis’ used in Ruby’s fancy pen, he does desperately want to rip it open to see what a Ruby Matthews version of a valentines day card is like, but he decides to wait until she arrives to open it. 

She arrives as ever on time and as ever is spamming the car horn from the moment her foot leaves the brake peddle. 

“Have fun, be careful of the present going up the stairs,” Jean calls as he stumbles towards the door.

“Yeah have a nice time kid.” Jakob’s shout followed as he exited. 

Ruby’s eyebrows rose when she spotted Otis come up’s the stairs from his house, well when she says Otis she means all of Otis bar his head which is being covered up by What the hell was that anyway? Sort of a cardboard box that had been shaped into some sort of vase? With holes sticking out of it. 

She leans over to the passenger door to open it up for him as whatever that thing was he was carrying was taking control of his hands. 

“Thank you, thank you,” Otis mutters as he ducks down to avoid his present falling apart by hitting the roof of Ruby’s car. 

“Is that for me?” Ruby asked as Otis breathed a sigh of relief when he hit the car seat. “Otis?” She pushed as he still hadn’t responded. 

“Ah yes, yes,” Otis said before handing over the present. Ruby began to examine said present “I made it myself.” He added as Ruby continued to study it, he had picked out her favourite brand for each product that he had bought even an extra bottle of wine for her mum and a packet of hobnobs for her dad which looked really out of place amongst the red love hearts that were also handcrafted from pieces of cardboard and the sparkles that looked like they had been glued on by a year 8 technology student. Was this how he made his fucking Mac and Cheese costume?   All of this she and she can’t help herself to do anything but smile, it’s so dumb but so Otis and that- that is what she loves. 

The smile increases when she reads the little message engraved on the front. 

Although I’m not particularly into it

  I’m very much into to you

Happy Valentines Day Rubes 

Love 

Otis x 

“So you made it all yourself?” 

“Er- my mum and Jakob helped me a little bit, but only a little bit!” He pleads. 

That explains why some bits are actually straight then. She thinks as she gives him a reassuring smile to let him know that she really likes the present. “Thank you Darling.” She leant over the passenger seat again cupping both of his cheeks to kiss him softly while she manages to rest the present on her knees. 

“Did you just call me darling again?” Otis quizzed, this was happening more and more often and it made Otis’ heart flutter every time she used it. 

Ruby blushed heavily. “I just pick it from my dad okay! Being an Irishman and all .” Ruby completes the second half of her sentence in a perfect Irish accent. 

“You should do that accent more often, I like it.” 

“Enough nerd, I got you a card." She said digging into her bag which caused Otis to narrow his eyes "I’m sorry your present hasn’t come yet, apologies for being a shitty girlfriend but we will still have a good time tonight.” She said as she put Otis’ present in the back seat. 

Otis meanwhile was narrowing his eyes at her whilst reaching for the card he was pretty much sat on. “But I got your card.” He said waving it in the air. 

“My card is here,” Ruby said lifting her own one in the air

Otis turned his eyes towards the card he was holding in the air and before his eyes had completed the turn Ruby had snatched it from his hands and was already tearing open then reading the card aloud

“Otis Milburn you are so kind….” 

“Otis Milburn you should be mine………” 

“Your girlfriend could never be so kind…….”

“But she is the one who gets to call you to mine……” 

“She..

Ruby scanned the rest of the card in silence before scrunching it up and throwing it Otis direction. Who then himself began to read the scrunched up poem, it was clear now that it was not Ruby’s handwriting, just someone who shared the same fancy pen and had put a lot of effort into one word and whoever it was-

“Well, whoever it was doesn’t like me,” Ruby said what he was thinking out loud and yes she was right, this letter had been extremely brutal on Ruby’s ‘mean personality’ and how she was a shining bright light, then how he did notice her but she loved him all the same before singing it off ‘ Your secret valentines x’ 

Otis could only hum in response as he watched Ruby staring out of the window. 

“It has to be cockbiter.” She spat, still not looking at him. Otis tutted and that got Ruby’s attention. “Something funny Milburn.”

“It can’t be Maeve that is her name after all, firstly Royal Mail.” Otis pointed to the picture of the Queen on the envelope. “She is any different country in case you forgot.”

“She hates me and she likes poetry and shit.” 

“That wasn’t poetry Rubes, it was just aimless rhyming and Maeve hates Valentine’s day just as much as I do. Do you remember when she pulled that face at Jackson when he walked in with that teddy bear the size of Mr Groff?”

She does actually, she remembers the giggles she Olivia and Anwar got from how embarrassing the whole ordeal was. “Yeah.” She nods her head and calms herself in this moment. “Well, who else could it be then?”

“Well, I’ve got soooooo many admirers, I couldn’t quite tell you,” Otis said with all the sarcasm he could possibly muster.

Ruby scoffed. “Otis! I don’t think you are quite taking this situation as seriously as I am.”

Otis smiled as he leaned over to her, stroking her right cheek. “Don’t worry Rubes, I’m hopelessly in love with you, so no time for secret love affairs, unfortunately, besides I’d be too worried that you might chop me into tiny little pieces and spread me across all four ends of the country to even try.” 

 Ruby chuckled. God how was his stupid charm getting him off the hook in this situation. “Shut it Milburn.” She says as she started the car engine. 

“Er- Where are we going?” Otis asked as he put his seatbelt on. 

“Again, shut it Milburn.” 

A surprise, great.

Otis thinks he knows where they are going but he doesn’t want to say anything because he’s still not too sure where Ruby stands on the whole ‘secret valentines card’ he had just received, she was clearly annoyed and jealous at first but as soon as Maeve was ruled out of the equation she seemed to relax but there was still a person out there who wanted to steal him away from her but whom? 

Otis did hate valentines day absolutely but as Eric always liked to remind him “You’re the most romantic person I know.” So always when February the 14th around as much as scoffed and complained walking into school seeing the over the top romantic gestured being committed across campus, he always secretly harboured for a card or even just a packet of ‘love hearts’ sweets when he opened up his locker but there was nothing there was always nothing. 

For Otis Milburn, valentines day cards were like a London bus, you wait 17 years for one and then two show up at once!

The Valentine’s day card goes to the back of his mind when she pulled into where they pulled into every Saturday, the ‘game club’ car park. He turns to her with a smirk on her face. 

“What? You thought just because it was Valentine’s day, I wasn’t going to let you go to game club.” Ruby said her first words since they set off from his house. 

“I mean you did kind of imply that.” Otis thought back to last Saturday when she more than implied it. 

“I know.” She sighed as she pulled the handbrake right in front of the game club. “But I told you, I don’t want to be that kind of girlfriend.” Otis threw a heavy smile on his face, he really did appreciate the gesture. “Besides it gives me time to knock on every door in Moordale and find out who is trying to steal my boyfriend away from me.” She leaned over grabbing the scrambled up card. 

Otis chuckled back at her. “Well good luck with that.” 

“Look, here’s some bus money, I need to get ready, Just be at mine for six yeah.” Ruby smiled as she passed over the money. 

“Where are we going?” Otis asked hoping to get it out of her. 

“Bowling. I thought we could walk in together this time.” 

“That sounds lovely.” Maybe Otis wasn’t the most romantic person Eric knew, It was definitely Ruby Matthews in Otis’ mind as here she was recreating their first date on valentine’s day. 

 “I love you.” 

“I love you too.” 

Ruby and then Otis exchanged their favourite words for one another before meeting eachother in the middle for a kiss before Otis jumped out of the car. 

Otis turned back towards Ruby as he walked over to the ‘game club’ doors and she was still smiling at him through the car window. He shook his head and smiled to himself as he walked through the game club doors again questioning how he got so lucky. 

Ally and Eric are very surprised to see Otis after confirming in their what’s app chat earlier in the week that he would definitely not be present. They laugh and joke at Otis’ attempt of creating a Valentine’s day present for Ruby when he pulls up a photo of it on his phone, well when Otis says ‘they’ laugh and joke he means Eric laughs and jokes at Otis’ present while Ally says she thought it was very sweet which he appreciates. 

There is nothing extraordinary about Valentines Day at game club, It’s full of tournaments of the day, speed runs and more casual gaming that Otis, Eric and Ally all get stuck into right until the last minute as Otis doesn’t have to leave a little early with no Ruby picking him up this time. 

Eric leaves for the toilet just before they leave, leaving Otis and Ally alone to talk about her victory in the latest smash bro’s bracket. 

“Hi, guys you haven’t signed the card for John have you?” One of the organisers Mark approaches them.

“No what’s going on?” Otis asks looking down at John who was as ever picking the litter up people left behind on the opposite side of the hall.

“It’s his last day today, putting his feet up after all these years.” Mark passed the card over. 

“Awwww bless.” Ally says as Otis took the card from Mark and began scribbling down a short message in the card. 

“Here you go,” Otis says as he passes the card over to Ally, at first Otis isn’t looking at what she is writing as he is listening to Mark’s instructions of where to leave the card once they are finished, but then Otis catches in the corner of his eye the same scruffy handwriting he had initially mistaken for Ruby’s in the card. Surely not.

Ally catches his gaze and looks right down at where his eyes were concentrated, her handwriting, she freezes as she knows she has been caught out.

Both of their eyes connected together now they both knew that one another knew. It’s almost a matter of milliseconds before Ally broke off the eye contact. “I’ve got to go.” She grabbed her bag that she momentarily dropped to the floor before almost racing out of the venue. 

“What happened to her?” Eric asked as he reappeared from the toilet. 

“I-I don’t know.”

Chapter Text

It was lunchtime at Moordale Sixth form, nothing out of the ordinary, everyone chatting away in their respective social groups, The Accapella group practising their new song “Bitch, Bitch she’s a bitch yeah.” and Kyle Norman was running around with his pants off, great. 

Ruby was sat on her own on the Untouchables table, which was unusual that Olivia and Anwar weren’t racing from the lesson to sit down for lunch and that nobody wasn’t fighting to sit on the remaining Untouchable’s seats on the table, after all, they were pretty much Royalty. 

Ruby doesn’t think she has ever been alone at a table before in her whole academic life, even at nursery the kids would flood to try and sit next to her to check out her sparkly shoes compared to the basic black one’s everyone else owned. All of this doesn’t matter when Otis walks into the canteen. She might be the only person, but she genuinely thought he was handsome, especially in his school uniform, he might have been the only person to have received an upgrade from the uniform change. He had just come out of PE, his hair was a little messy, that was okay she could fix that. What she couldn’t fix though was the smell, all the boys smelled after PE, but she would constantly observe the boys PE session to catch an extra glimpse of him and he would barely move around, so where does the smell come from? 

“Hey.” Otis greeted her looking to sit down next to her. 

“Er- Opposite me, smell.” She informed him and Otis ducked his head, following his orders. 

“Your hair.” She commented and leant over to brush his hair. “You look like you have been dragged in and out of a bush at least seventeen times.” She quipped but Otis clearly wasn’t taking it as a joke. “Oh Did I hurt your feelings darling, come here.” Ruby leaned over to cup his cheeks and bring him into a kiss, she planted her lips onto his but he was making no effort to engage with it. “Okay, what’s wrong with you?” She asked as she slumped back onto her stool 

There was no response from him, he just rested his left fist on his forehead looking away from Ruby. 

“Otis-”

“YOUR JUST SO FUCKING MEAN RUBY!” He shouted at the top of his voice and the whole room fell silent at Otis roar except for “She’s a bitch, she’s a bitch continuing to play in the background.

“Otis-” Ruby pleaded as she ducked her head in embarrassment

“ALL THE TIME TO EVERYONE IN THIS SCHOOL, THINKING YOU ARE ABOVE AND BETTER THAN EVERYONE ELSE! AND IF YOU TREAT YOUR OWN BOYFRIEND LIKE THAT AS WELL THEN HOW IS ANYONE ON THIS EARTH SUPPOSED TO LIKE YOU RUBY MATTHEWS.” The whole room stood up and cheered and clapped Otis words as the lyrics “She’s a bitch” rose louder.

“I- I-.” Ruby was now in tears from such hurtful words from the person she had believed up and till this point who was in love with her. 

“Maeve was never like this.” He rose up from his stool and walked into the parted crowd which Maeve was now walking through with her original blonde/pink hair combo on display. 

For Ruby, all of the cheers suddenly became background noise and she was fully dilled into what Otis and Maeve were saying to each other as they met in the middle of the crowd. 

“You finally come to your senses then?” Maeve asked. 

“Absolutely.” Otis placed his hand on Maeve’s waist and brought her into a passionate kiss. 

Ruby’s heart felt like it had been stabbed thousands of times over and over again as she watch the love of her life engage in a tongue battle with Maeve Wiley right in front of the whole school.

Ruby could even hear their little exchanges of dialogue between kisses. 

“I’m so much better than her aren’t I?” 

“Yes.” 

“You love me so much more don’t you.” 

“Oh god yes.” 

The only other thing Ruby could hear was the acapella footsteps approaching her, while the whole school’s eyes were focused on Otis and Maeve snogging one another in the middle of the canteen they were solely focused on walking in single file like an army preparing to charge into battle all while singing “She’s a bitch, she’s a bitch yeah!” staring into her black eyes, the singing got louder and louder and louder and louder until…..

Ruby’s eyes shot open quickly realising that she wasn’t at Moordale secondary school at all, she was in Otis Milburn’s bedroom and her vision was full of her sleeping boyfriend’s back. She quickly gasped for air, attempting to recover from what she had just witnessed, this woke Otis up, Fuck. 

“Rubes, Rubes what’s wrong?” Otis quickly wriggled free of her arms to spin around and face her.

She got her breathing back to a normal rate. “Nothing, Just a bad dream.” 

“Doesn't look like nothing,” Otis said as he wiped away a tear that even Ruby didn’t know was falling down her cheek. “Do you want to tell me what it was about?” He asked softly but judging the look on her face it was clearly not the time for this. “Or you don’t have to, If you don’t want to.” He reassured her. 

Ruby let off a weak smile at his kind gesture. “Thanks.” 

“Do you want me to cuddle you?” Otis softly asked. 

Ruby didn’t even reply to her boyfriend she just rolled over turning away from him then shuffling closer into his body and her smile widened when his arms wrapped around her waist. There was no doubt Ruby preferred to be the big spoon but every now and then it was nice for the roles for being reversed, especially when she was feeling like this. 

Otis planted a kiss on the back of his girlfriend’s head, he had initially aimed for her neck but that was one of Ruby’s sensitive spots and she needed comforting not turning on. “I love you.” He whispered after the kiss had been planted.

“I love you too.” She replied shifting in a little closer to his warm body. 

Otis falls asleep again quite quickly but Ruby’s mind is full of the dream she had just had, this was the fourth time since Otis’ mystery valentines day card that she had a dream that resulted in Otis leaving her. The other three times it had been a faceless girl, this was the worst one thus far as it involved Maeve Wiley, her rival? No- people don’t have ‘rivals’ in real life, especially when it comes for the love and affection of Otis Milburn. She was just someone who was or still is interested in her boyfriend. The timing of it couldn’t be any worse, Maeve was back in the country now, not for two weeks, but for good. 

She can’t blame Otis for the card, she really does believe him when he tells her has no idea who it’s from, whenever he spoke she could really see the sincerity in his face and it’s very much present when they speak about the card. The way it was so badly written made her think It was probably just someone trying to mess around with their relationship, but their relationship was much stronger than a card, but was She? 

The words had really cut deep for Ruby, she was mean, she knew that but to think that someone thought the way she treated her boyfriend was downright disgusting hurt her bad. She would snap at Otis when he did stupid shit, but that’s what couples do right? Maybe Ruby snaps more than most but Otis does stupid shit more than most but she adores him for it, she isn’t the best at showing it, but she feels like she’s getting better at it, this is her first real relationship after all. 

She can come across as mean to Otis a lot of the time, but people don’t understand the playful banter it has become between them, but what worries her if one day she crossed the line with Otis, something intended as a joke but really hurts him, he was the last person who deserved to be hurt. 

God damn this valentines day card and the bitch that wrote it, they really were going to end up in a ditch. 

Ruby runs over the leaves that were covering her parking space outside of school on a Thursday afternoon. 

Of course, Otis could drive now but Ruby had officially banned him from taking her to school after just one attempt due to him being having ‘the inability to go over 10mph’, he might as well have given her a lift on his bike.

“Ew, god, my tyres.” Ruby cringed after she hopped out of the car looking at the mess on her tyres. “I know money for the school is low, but can they not afford a fucking rake.”

“Well, my Uncle Remus is trying to do something about that,” Otis said as Ruby offered out her hand for him to take as he walked around the other side of the car. 

Otis had spotted his uncle popping into the school a couple of times in the past month or so, having talks with the board and school unions to see if his ability to provide the school with funding to keep it afloat was even possible. Otis had predicted correctly that his uncle would be sentimental about the possibility of Otis being the last ‘Franklin’ to attend school at Moordale. 

Otis takes Ruby’s hand as they head up the steps leading to Moordale’s entrance, the stares they get have reduced as six months would have been too long for even a Ruby Matthews prank. Recently Ruby had been the one doing all of the staring, scanning every girl’s face to see if there were any unusual reactions to her glare as she tried to fish out who was behind the secret valentine’s card to her boyfriend. Just which girls did Otis talk to? The only person Ruby can think of is that Ruthie girl from the library, she is ruled out for obvious reasons in addition that she wasn’t much of an upgrade in terms of kindness from Ruby herself. 

Someone is acting odd today though, that someone being Aimee Gibbs. She’s stood at the main entrance doors, watching her and Otis get closer to the door looking like she wants to say something, Otis doesn’t notice he’s talking about a medical study in China about sneezing, What the fuck? Ruby does notice however and as her glare becomes visible to Aimee she hurries into the main building. 

Several thoughts run through her head as to why she was looking at her and Otis like that, one more prominent than the others. Maeve and Aimee were close, like really close. Going from Ruby Matthews to Maeve Wiley as a best friend Ha! What a downgrade. Ruby gets sidetracked in her thoughts for a moment. Best friends would do anything for one another so it’s not conceivable that Aimee could have posted the card on her orders from America last month. 

Those thoughts run around her brain right up until lunchtime where she is waiting on the Untouchables table with Anwar and Rahim with her eyes firmly planted on Aimee who is loitering at one of the canteen entrances. Otis then comes bumbling through the entrance that Aimee was waiting at and she placed a hand on him to stop him in his tracks. 

“Oh-” Otis said startled as Aimee placed a hand upon his chest. 

“Otis, how are you?” 

“Oh, you know, slowly attempting to crawl to the exam finish line, being a big brother and a boyfriend.” He said proudly glancing towards Ruby on the Untouchables table.

“Right…. Maeve’s back you know, back in school on Monday but she’s back here.” Aimee softly replied.

“Yeah, I heard.” Otis let out a small smile. 

“She wants to see you know, but she’s just a little nervous to get in touch with you.”

That didn’t sound like Maeve Wiley at all. “Nervous?” Otis promoted 

Aimee didn’t verbally respond, instead, she rotated her head to where Ruby was sitting and that gave Otis his answer. 

“Oh-.” 

“Just give her a call and organise something for this weekend yeah,” Aimee said before scattering.

Otis then nervously limped over towards the Untouchables table knowing he would face an integration from Ruby.  

“Hey” 

“Hey.” 

They exchanged a short kiss as Otis placed himself down on the seat next to her that she was gently keeping a hand on. 

“God it’s only been a couple of hours, you two are so gross.” Anwar scoffed at the pair. 

“I think it’s romantic.” Rahim corrected his boyfriend. 

Ruby smiled back at her former crush “Thank you, Rahim, some of us can appreciate small gestures.” Ruby said as she eyed up Anwar and began to play with Otis fingers on the top of the table, grossing out Anwar even more.

“So what did she want?” Ruby asked Otis while nodding her head in the direction of where he and Aimee were talking moments earlier. 

“Oh-.” Otis tries to think up of a lie, but he knows as soon as he opens his mouth he is finished. “She was talking to me about Maeve being back,” 

“Cockbiters back in town?” Anwar asked from across the table.

“You shouldn’t call her that.” Both Otis and Rahim said in unison. “She’s a very nice person, you should know,” Rahim added on. 

“Doesn’t stop her from biting cocks.” Anwar joked looking towards Ruby looking for some kind of reaction from her to join in on his jokes about cockbiter, but she was just left with a blank face. 

“So, what about Maeve?” Ruby whispered to Otis as Anwar and Rahim began debating what was right and what wasn’t right to call Maeve Wiley. 

Otis didn’t want to jump into a response, carefully calculating how to word his reply. “She was just saying er- erm, if- Maeve and I wanted to meet up this weekend, catch up -, as friends, you know.” Otis just about made it to the end of his sentence but Ruby didn’t respond just continuing to pick up her salad with her fork. “You would be okay with that right? Two friends just hanging out…” 

“Why wouldn’t I be?” Ruby asked turning her attention away from her salad and looking directly into Otis’ eyes.

“Right of course, of course,” Otis repeated 

Things were pretty quiet between Otis and Ruby as they drove home from school, Otis figured Ruby despite what she said wasn’t best pleased at the prospect of him and Maeve spending time with one another, It wasn’t helped by Anwar asking if there was any progress on tracking down the person behind the valentines card 

Otis knew of course, what Ally had written was extremely out of character for her, almost like someone had taken over her body to write the meanest possible rhymes possible about his girlfriend. Otis was kicking himself to how oblivious he was to all of the signs that Ally was interested him, he puts this down to the fact that since Ally had joined game club his mind had always been somewhere else, firstly it was Maeve, then it was Ola and Maeve, followed was Ruby and Maeve and now it was just Ruby. He feels like if he had known he could have tried letting her down gently, tried being the keyword as he imagines the shit show that could turn out to be, but at least then it wouldn’t get to this scenario where there was this mean valentines card uncomfortably hanging over them. No matter what Ally wrote, he doesn’t think she deserves to be exposed to Ruby as for all her jokes about killing someone, Otis thinks Ruby might genuinely follow through this time or at least try. He’s just grateful that Ruby hasn’t asked him directly who he thinks it is since the day it happened as he knows he would fold on the spot. 

“Friday’s fine,” Ruby says as she pulls up the handbrake when they come to a halt outside his house. 

“Friday?” A bemused Otis asked.

“For your’s and C- Wiley’s date, Mum’s in work so I’ll be in with my dad anyways” Ruby replied as she checked herself out in the mirror. 

“It’s not a date Rubes, were actually secretly getting married, Ola and Lily are going to be our two witnesses.” Otis nodded from over Ruby’s shoulder where Ola’s car was pulling up behind them.

Otis quietly breathes a sigh of relief when a smile crept onto Ruby’s face and wasn’t taking his joke too seriously. “I bet you’re still going to be wearing that brown fucking suit.!” She quipped back

Otis smirked at her as Ola and Lily walked past them, beginning to head down the stairs. 

“Hi, Ruby.” 

“Hi”

First Ola and then Lily let on.

“Are you sure you don’t want to stay over for tea? Were having Pizza” 

Ruby smiled she knew Otis had ensured there was a gluten-free pizza in every time. “No sorry, me and Adam have organised a play date for Baby and Madame.” 

“So I’m not the only one going on a date.”

Ruby scoffed “Firstly the dogs are the one’s on a date, secondly Adam’s gay dear.” 

“Bi” Otis corrected 

Ruby’s phone began to buzz from her blazer pocket. “Speaking of which,” Ruby said as she checked who the caller was. 

“I’ll leave you too it then,” Otis said as he began to open the car door. 

“Hi, Adam…” Ruby began on the phone, but she didn’t listen to his response as she cleared her throat and called Otis back over to her with her index finger as he was leaving her without something. 

Otis turned around and leaned back over and pressed a soft kiss onto Ruby’s lips. 

“I love you.” 

“I love you too.” 

Ruby and then Otis whispered to one another. 

“No not you Adam, not in that way anyways.” Ruby said back through the phone to Adam who must have heard parts of her exchange with Otis. 

Otis smiled as he walked down the stairs turning back one last time as he watched  Ruby try and clear up the misunderstanding with Adam. He headed straight upstairs and sat on the edge of his bed and began scrolling through his contact list until he reached ‘Maeve’. 

He was so nervous, but why?, it was Maeve Wiley, someone he ran an underground sex clinic for 7 months, they regularly bantered through some of the strangest of clients at said clinic and he had even been hopelessly in love with her and he was never this nervous. Probably the amount of time since they had spoken to eachother had made a difference, it had now been just as long from the voicemail sent in April last year to the first day back at school in September and then he had thought about her nearly every day in between. But he believes the main reason is the last time he spoke to her he admitted his love for her, well former love for her and she kissed him on the cheek.

Otis took a deep breath before hitting the call button. It rang and rang before going to voicemail, Nope! Otis couldn’t be going there again, he hung up the moment Maeve’s voicemail was activated. 

He decided it was best to leave it for now and head downstairs to chat to Lily and Ola considering Ruby was tied up with Adam. But just as he placed his hand on the handle to open up his door his phone that had been left on his bed began to buzz. He was praying it wasn’t Maeve as he had taken himself out of ‘Maeve Wiley call preparation mode’ but inevitably it was her name.

“Okay, okay I can do this.” Otis quickly paced up and down his room getting himself back into the ‘Maeve Wiley call preparation mode’. “Okay, here we go.” He said before picking the phone up at the very last second. 

“You haven’t got Ruby on top of you have you?” Maeve asked, noticing his heavy breathing immediately. 

“What? No! I was er- I was dancing in my room, that’s why it took me so long to answer because I couldn’t hear the ringing!” That was terrible. 

Maeve narrowed her eyes at the image of Otis dancing across his room, his next comment however made her narrow even more. 

“Ruby’s on a play date with her’s and Adam Groff’s dog.” 

“Right……….”

“So I hear your back?” Otis asked as he kicked his legs from the end of his bed. 

Maeve exhaled her last bit of smoke before putting the cigarette out in Anna’s garden. “Yeah, two days ago.” 

“How’s the jet leg?” 

“Not as bad as last time.”

Last time, when was last time? Otis thought before he navigated to the all-important question after the necessary small talk had been completed. “Well if you have recovered by tomorrow night, we could hang out? me and you, Otis and Maeve.” He cringes hard at his attempt to style the sentence out at the end. 

“Did Aimee put you up to this?”  

Fuck. “Er, Erm, Of course not! Of course not!”

“Otis-”

He sighed. “Yeah, yeah she did, but that’s not to say I didn’t want to, of course, if you don’t want to come that’s fine, but I’d like you to come.”

Maeve smiled from the other end of the phone. “Yes Otis, I’d like to go out with you.” 

“As friends.” Otis sharply added on just in case Ruby had hacked in some kind of listening device into his phone. 

“As friends……….”

So Friday after school Otis sets off to pick Maeve up in his VW Golf, Maeve herself wasn’t due to return to school on Monday despite her wishes to return earlier Anna had convinced her she had to catch up on some well-earned rest, is what Maeve told Otis on the phone yesterday, also on the phone yesterday they decided they both very much had the ability not to decide anything, they eventually land on going to the shopping centre with no concrete plan, just go in there and find something to do.

Otis had to go somewhere else first, the hospital. Ever since new years party at his house whenever he could, he would head to the hospital and check if Claire Matthews was where she said she was. He knows he is practically stalking the woman and what he was doing was wrong, but what Claire Matthews did was even worse, he just had to be sure. Every time he went Claire was present, he would even sneak out in the middle of the night sometimes just in case Claire had limited her appearances with this ‘Sandro’ to after dark, but as he said, every time she was there. Little snippets from Ruby helps paint a better picture for him too, she had previously mentioned how her mother was bringing more money home from work and was able to spend more time with her and her dad, she was beaming as she told him this also, ‘ Some good news from home for once.’  

For the first month of his Claire Matthews surveillance, Otis is on his bike for getting to the hospital and back, the second month he has his car which makes his life a lot easier for a number of reasons.

Firstly is time, an obvious one of course, but on the bike, time can be costly. There are a couple of times when he arrives, Claire is already climbing out of her taxi, he likes to see her enter the main building to get absolute confirmation as it’s possible Claire just gets her taxi to the hospital and then heads off to meet her lover, he does accept though it would be a hell of a coincidence if every time Otis was late, Claire had parked up as a decoy and then gone to meet Sandro or anyone else.

Secondly are his legs, the amount of extra cycling causes the size of his legs to increase, mostly coming from the massive hill that comes just before the hospital, and he isn’t t the only one to notice. 

One time directly after school Ruby and Otis end up tearing each other’s clothes off before they reach his bedroom door. Once they finish and they are both breathless with Ruby’ head buried in her boyfriend’s chest, she looks downwards at the rest of his naked body. 

“Are your legs bigger?” Ruby asks squinting her eyes at him. 

Fuck , he panics, Time to bring out that boyish charm “Are you sure your not a little dizzy, not recovered your senses yet?” 

Ruby scoffs at him, rotating her neck to get a better view of him. “Oh, you think you are good don’t you.”

“Oh, I know I am…..”

Ruby bites her bottom lip at one of his rare confidence outbursts away from the bedroom, okay yes, they are in his bedroom and they were naked, but he would normally go back to his default awkward stuttering self whenever they were finished. She climbs on top of him and began to pepper his neck with sharp kisses. 

Otis groaned at the pleasure and smiled whilst looking up at the ceiling knowing he had avoided a close call via a Ruby integration. 

The third and final reason is the absolute freak he looks like whilst he is hiding in a bush around the back of the hospital so Claire Matthews can avoid his gaze. One close call comes when a community support officer comes around the corner and catches Otis hiding in the bush, his excuse is that he had fell off his bike and his phone had gone flying into a bush. 

But now he was in the car, hidden away in the corner of the car park, on time and the size of his legs decreasing. He looks back at his text exchanges with Ruby as he waits for Claire. 

Rubes❤️: Have fun tonight but not too much fun xx 

He smiles, he was looking forward to seeing Maeve again, but he was looking forward to it, even more, knowing that Ruby was somewhat accepting of the occasion. 

His smile increases as he scrolls up further looking at the images that Ruby had sent him at his request of Baby’s and Madame’s play date. 

Otis’ head shoots up at the sound of a car door shutting. There she was Claire Matthews, with her fashionable green coat, strutting towards the hospital doors to earn money for herself, her husband and her daughter. 

Otis smiled as he got yet more confirmation, it’s been over two months now, maybe he has got all of the confirmation he needs and he should end this ludicrous surveillance of his. 

He arrives outside Anna’s house, he tries to get there on the memory of a few months ago when he took Maeve on his bike when she was worried about her sister’s whereabouts, in the end, he finds himself going round and round in circles and has to resort to his GPS. So when he pulls Maeve comes bursting out of the door straight away, Maeve’s fringe has gone, she had returned to her original ‘goth’ look as Ruby had called it, her black roots falling to just underneath her shoulder blades, this was the Maeve Otis found the most beautiful. 

“ You’re back.”

“Changed your hair.”

How those words were still so relevant to today, although this time she wasn’t “Just visiting.” She was back and back for good.

He leans over to open the car door on the passenger side so Maeve can hop in, just before she does however she turns and waves at Elsie who is waving back at her through the window, she had grown a lot from that day in abandoned toilets when he was giving advice to the ‘Scottish Meryl Streep’ Florence Mounsey. 

“Hey.” 

“Hi.” 

Maeve and Otis exchange greetings as she settled down in the passenger seat. 

“Nice car,” Maeve said as she scanned her eyes across the front and back seats.

Otis smiled as he adjusted the windscreen, just to keep his hands busy as he was still quite nervous from Maeve’s presence again thinking about the last time they were separated by a couple of inches. “Mum got it me for Christmas.” 

“Christmas? Not many miles.” Maeve narrowed her eyes at the miles counter next to the speedometer. 

Otis chuckled as he started the car. “Ruby doesn’t let me drive us to school, says I’m too slow.” 

Maeve rolled her eyes and Otis took this as a cue to move the conversation on as he didn’t want to turn it into a Ruby Matthews bashing session from Maeve. 

“So tell me all about it, America.”

She does tell him all about it, her arrival and meeting her roommate Rebecca an extremely cold character who spent most of her time bashing her drumset, which leads to one hell of an argument on the first night, then into a full-on ‘bitch fight’ on the third night when Maeve is trying to dive deep into her studies. The tensions are eventually cooled down by her older brother Steven, who’s a racing driver, he initially comes off to Maeve as a typical ‘American jock arsehole’ but he shows off his soft side when he’s protecting his little sister who has taken their parent’s divorce horribly. They eventually settle into a nice routine, the three of them as Steven checks up on her sister and Maeve Wiley from fucking ‘Moordale Caravan Club’ is free to explore the United States of America, well just Atlanta, Georgia but it’s still a hell of an upgrade. Best of all she had two new friends to share the experience with, Rebbeca and Maeve had a lot more in common than they both realised when she opened up and then there was Steven-. Maeve seems to hesitate when describing him beyond the fact that he was an American football player had a Wikipedia page, had really long hair and how she was surprised by his true self, Otis figures that something happened between the two and whatever it was wasn’t good as when Maeve is talking about her time in America towards the end she says “She pissed someone off.” and refuses to elaborate. But in all, she had a good time she said with a weak smile finishing off her ‘tell-all.’ 

“I’d never thought I’d agree with Ruby Matthews,” Maeve said as they climbed out of the car. 

“What do you mean?” Otis asked as he locked the car and they began to walk from the car park and into the shopping centre. 

“You drive really fucking slow!” 

Otis chuckled. “It’s better to be safe than sorry.” 

Maeve shook her head with a grin on her face as Otis held the door open to enter the shopping centre. This had been the Otis she had missed so much. 

“How about the arcade?” Otis asked pointing towards it on their right. 

“We’re not twelve anymore Otis’.” Maeve groaned. 

“Well I, am,” Otis said with joy, taking a little bounce up in the air in front of the arcade, his hands firmly in his pockets. “Come onnn, It will be fun!” He pleaded as Maeve didn’t seem to have much enthusiasm for the idea. 

“Fine, but your paying for the overpriced tickets.”

Maeve Wiley and Ruby Matthews are a lot more alike than either of them would like to admit, Otis still thinks the pair will never get on but as he watches the ball of the time he and Maeve are having at the arcade, he compares it to Ruby’s reaction when he first told her that their date with Eric and Adam would be at Moordale lanes, the scoffing, the swearing and the outright disgust at the idea and what he knew now from conversations with her about that night that it was one of the best nights of her life. 

Maeve is all grouchy when they first walk in, but when Otis lets her win at one of the virtual gun games, she is in competitive mode, Otis then levels the score when they take to air hockey and then they return to the gun games but this time Maeve legitimately kicks his arse. Then they move onto the dodgems when they literally beat the shit out of one another, ramming into eachother at high speed far too many times, they are the only one’s playing it before the man in charge tells them he’s shutting it down. 

Otis and Maeve can’t stop giggling as they jump out of their respective karts barely able to stand from their giggles, leaning on one another for support. 

“You and your boyfriend have probably broken the record for the most goes on this for a single night.” The man in charge of the dodgems said as Maeve and Otis reached him, still clinging to one another. 

“Oh we’re not-” Otis began before they both burst into laughter before they ran away. 

The man simply shook as he watched the two belly laughing teens move away. “Teenagers.” He muttered. 

Otis and Maeve threw their backs onto one of the machines to give their stumbling balance some support. They rested their heads onto the machine also and angled their necks towards one another continuing their laughs, eventually, they slowed down into just heavy breaths, Maeve stared into his ocean blue eyes, one’s she had thought about every day in America, even more since he admitted her love for her, well previous love, but it was a love she had longed for so long, a love that could be reignited? She leaned forward a hand to reach out to touch his cheek. 

“I think we should get some food, I’m hungry, are you? I-I think they I left my phone on the dodgems.” Otis pretty much jumped back before quickly spinning around and heading back to the dodgems to collect his ‘phone’.

Once Otis was out of sight Maeve slammed the back of her head onto the machine she was leaning on, they were having a nice time, a great time, one of the very few human connections she had in the last couple of months and she had ruined it. This was all she had ever wanted Otis, to feel free with him, to laugh with him, to hold onto him but it was now so very clear to her that those feelings he once poured out to her into a voicemail were now long gone. 

“So no Otis tonight Rubes?” Roland asked as he took in his blunt while Ruby was tucking into a tub of ice cream while they progressed their way through the second season of game of thrones, Ruby had wished that they had waited for Otis to watch it as she thought dragons and tits would be right up his street for a nerdy sex connoisseur, but Otis had informed her that he had already watched it and that the ending to the show was horrifically bad, Way to motivate me to keep watching nerd. She thinks it’s probably just a diversion so she doesn’t get to see the likes of Jason Momoa, Kit Harrington and Richard Madden without too many clothes on. 

“Nope,” Ruby replied before taking another stab into the ice cream with her spoon. “He’s out with a friend.” 

“Ah, Eric- Adam’s Ex.” 

Yeah, she gossiped with her dad about Otis’ friends now, considering he knew briefly of Adam he thought she’d like to know the connection. At first, when she would go round to Adam’s for a reality TV binge she would just lie to her dad and say that she going round to see Otis’ again, but it didn’t take her long to realise that she wasn’t afraid to have Adam Groff as a friend either.

“No, she’s called Maeve dad.”

“Ah right……. Rubes you know last summer when you and Otis were getting to know one another.”

Getting to know one another was one way of putting it, dad. “Yeah…” 

“You said Otis liked someone else, Is this the one?” 

Last summer when she and Otis were sneaking around together, she would come home with a huge grin on her face, her dad would constantly press her into what had got her in such a good mood all of the time, eventually when he suggested it was because of a boy she caved in. But she explained it wasn’t like that at all and Otis liked someone else, mostly to try and get her dad off her back and because it was true, it wasn’t ‘like that’ she and Otis were filling one another’s sexual desires and were both feeling a little lonely, her reason was very different to Otis’ he was hung up on Maeve Wiley, she didn’t know to what extent, she just knew that things had ended pretty drastically for them at that party. It also added an extra dimension to their summer fling, the fact that Otis was supposed to be thinking about cock biter but she could change those thoughts into all about her and reduce him to whimpering in her passenger seat was a real turn on for her. 

“Yeah, yeah it is.” 

Roland raised an eyebrow at his daughter whose head was hiding behind the ice cream tub. “How’d you feel about that darlin?” 

Ruby everted her gaze for a few more seconds before responding. “Not great, but my boyfriend should be allowed to hang out with one of his friends, did mum let you hang out with friends that were girls?” 

“I didn’t have many friends period Rubes.” The Irishman said as he exhaled once again. 

“Don’t say that dad.” She pleaded with him even if she knew it to be true. 

“Rubes I think…. I think………” He began his sentence but began to doze off as he carried on and it wasn’t long before Roland Matthews’ signature snore was filling the room. 

Ruby rolled her eyes at him, she honestly had no idea how he could transition into a deep sleep so quickly, it was like a superpower. It wasn’t all bad though, her mum wouldn’t be at work too late tonight so he could get comfortable in bed soon. Another bonus is that another raunchy sex scene had begun on the tv, watching a sex scene with her dad was definitely one of the most uncomfortable experiences imaginable, up there with him saying ‘hang’ or calling Otis ‘dude’ occasionally, she had no idea how Otis and Jean were so relaxed when it happened at their house. 

The thought of Otis and what was on the screen gave her an idea, Time to cause a little bit of trouble.

It’s pretty uncomfortable between Otis and Maeve as they begin to eat their burger king in the food court, they both knew what Maeve had tried to do back in the arcade and it was making it pretty unbearable. Maeve thinks about bringing it up and just apologising for the whole thing and attempt to move on, but she just can’t bring herself to say anything and she sure as hell knows Otis’ isn’t going to bring it up. 

There is a welcome break when Otis gets a Twitter notification, He has NintendoUK on Twitter notifications? Of course, he does. Maeve doesn’t think she can break the ice with Nintendo UK’s Twitter account but she can with his lock screen. “When was that?”

“Oh, me and Ruby went to London over the Christmas holidays.” While Ruby would keep to the one photo for her lock screen, Otis was extremely indecisive, constantly changing it as he thought through the countless memories they had made together already and he would grab his phone whilst thinking of one particular memory trying to find a photo from that day, deciding that was his favourite before inevitably changing his mind only days later.

“Was it hard for her to leave her dad for a few days?” The question comes so naturally to Maeve. 

As soon as the words leave Maeve’s lips, Otis brings his head up to look Maeve in the eyes for the first time since she tried to kiss him in the Arcade some twenty minutes ago. “How- How-, You’re not supposed to know about that.” His mind immediately goes to Eric, the notorious spiller of secrets, but Maeve had said in the car on the way here she had only seen Aimee and him since she landed. 

“Jeffrey, he-” 

“Jeffrey? The weed dealer?” How had that one happened?

Maeve squinted her eyes at him “Weed dealer?”

“Yeah, yeah, how do you know him anyway?” 

“He lives on the caravan site with, technically it was his wife Cynthia who told me, but still..” 

“Did you tell anyone else?” 

“Just Aimee.” 

Otis sighed heavily. 

“I’m sorry Otis, I just thought she might have known considering they were close friends for five years! Maeve had now raised her voice at him.

Otis doesn’t want to do the same back, It was a pretty logical step for Maeve to take, there is no way she could have known about Ruby’s resilience to keep it a secret, no one did until Ruby let it slip when they were buying the morning-after pill.

“I know, Just Ruby’s very sensitive about who knows and who doesn’t.” 

Maeve smiled back at him “I’m sorry for shouting, it sounds pretty terrible.”

Otis lets off a light nod. “Yeah, she looks after him on her own a lot, I help and so does her mum, but she does most of it on her own,” Otis says softly. 

“Where is her mum?” 

Otis shakes a little bit, it was just a simple question he could answer it. “She, she- w-works at the hospital, she had some time away but she’s back a lot more now.” He completes his sentence and he is already kicking himself as to why he added on the bit about her ‘having some time away.’ 

Maeve narrows her eyes at him as he made such a simple answer sound so convoluted.  

“She’s a very caring person Maeve.” As much as it’s a far fetched dream, he really does want them to get along. 

“Still doesn’t give you an excuse to be horrible to people.” 

No, it doesn’t. Otis can’t make any excuses for Ruby’s behaviour towards  Maeve or anyone else at the school throughout the years, all he can do is quickly move the conversation away from Ruby. 

“How was the airport? Because you know it’s the world’s busiest airport Atlanta, which has always fascinated me because it’s not like a capital city or even one of America’s most famous city’s.” Otis rambled on even though he knew that statistic was about to change. 

“No- Oh yeah I did know that.” Maeve thinks back to the quiz finals last year where that question popped up. It should have been a happy memory, but she can’t think of anything happy from that day anymore, the day she handed Elsie over to social services, the day her mother disowned her, the day she missed Otis’ love confession. 

“I’m going to top up my drink, do you want me to do your’s?” Maeve asked as it was now her who needed to move on from a conversation. 

Otis nodded and Maeve took his cup, as he watched Maeve head towards the drinks machine he heard the Snapchat notification buzz twice on his phone. 

Otis never used Snapchat, so without looking at the notification he knew what it was going to be. He looked around him to make sure nobody was watching him, despite no sign of eyes on him he held the phone extra close to his body. 

Two Snapchat’s from Ruby👸🏻

The first was of a closeup of her already huge breasts being squashed closer together with her arms all in support of her yellow bra. Otis practically shivered when he first laid eyes on them, Otis also knew that what combination of what underwear she would wear day by day and today was not a yellow day, she had just thrown it on because she knew it was his favourite.

He then moved on to the second one. “Oh my god.” He said aloud and he dropped his phone back onto the food court table, he quickly scooped the phone back up as his noise disturbance had garnered him some attention, the second snap wasn’t a picture but a video of her slowly tracing her fingernails along  the front fabric of her yellow knickers with the caption. 

Missing you x

He had to quickly shut the video down as he could feel Maeve’s footsteps approaching from behind him. Maeve smiled as she popped his cup back on the table, but Otis was rather distracted with what was going on inside his jeans. “Fuck.” He lightly breathed. 

“What?” Maeve asked back thinking something was wrong with the drink. 

“N-nothing.” 

Otis had had an erection in front of Maeve before, in the swimming pool back when they were first running the clinic together, but this was a whole different ball game.

Otis M: You idiot, you’ve given me a full-on hard-on while I’m trying to talk to Maeve about my fascination with Atlanta’s International Airport!

Ruby👸🏻: That sure sounds like a you problem, not a me problem darling x 

Across town and back at Ruby’s house, she smiled in her bathroom at the messages as her plan had well and truly worked. 

Back in the summer of last year, Ruby had forced him to download Snapchat and go against his hatred of the app, so she could send him pictures to tease him while they were apart, Otis had insisted that he didn’t want to send anything back as he had major privacy concerns with big social media companies and he would later admit to her that he just didn’t feel particularly confident in doing so. Ruby was fine with this, she insisted that she wanted to do this as it made her feel ‘even hotter than she already was’ but also the little compliments Otis would send back would make her heart warm. 

This wasn’t the Otis Milburn of last Easter holidays when he was getting hard on’s left right and centre and there was only one way to make them disappear. Otis had now learned several techniques to get it back down without having to ‘take action. 

But this wasn’t a random woman on the side of a shampoo bottle, this was his girlfriend Ruby Matthews touching herself because they had spent a few hours apart. So every time he manages to get the erection back down it reappeared a soon as he thinks about the video again even for just a split second. He is actually glad at the tension between him and Maeve that had returned once they hopped into the car as she is staring out of the passenger window unable to think of anything but her attempt to kiss him back in the arcade. 

He drops Maeve off and after an awkward goodbye, he sped (well an Otis version of ‘sped’) off to Ruby’s house. 

He thought about just barging through the door, but he didn’t want to give Ruby a fright and it’s quite possible Roland is asleep at this hour, so he knocks on a little bit too eagerly. 

“Otis-” Ruby says as she opened the door dressed in her usual nightwear. 

Otis jumped up into the house smashing his lips against Ruby’s. 

“You missed me then.” Ruby managed to say in between kisses as Otis shut the door behind them. 

“Oh yes.” He whispered softly which made Ruby shiver as they returned to attacking one another’s lips. 

Otis took both of his hands to squeeze both of Ruby’s breasts, pushing them together just as she did in the first photo, he then angled her neck to the side so he could pepper kisses at her sensitive spot. “Oh, Otis…” Ruby moaned from the pleasure she was getting from his hands circling her tits and his lips on her neck, but as much as she wanted it to she knew this couldn’t go any further or she would become uncontrollable. “Otis, Otis we can’t do this,” Ruby said as she took a step back. 

“Why?” Otis moaned. 

“Otis! My dad is right there.” They were still in the hallway so there was a clear view of him snoring in his usual chair. 

“He’s asleep.” 

“My mum could walk through the door at any minute! Otis, you know how I feel about this…”

“Okay…” Otis as ever listened to her instructions and admitted defeat, he gave her his sad puppy dog eyes in return. 

It was a strange cloud over their relationship that they had never had sex at her place as Ruby would just never feel comfortable shagging her boyfriend while her dad was in the next room, but they had done other things in her house and as she looked down at his jeans, there was something they could do right now….

“Well, I can still help you out with your little problem, which I can see has returned…” Ruby said as she gently moved her hand down to his jeans, lightly tracing her fingernails up and down his erection through the jeans. Otis immediately gasped at her sudden touch. 

“‘Little’s’ a bit harsh don’t you think.”

Ruby smirked up at him. “I didn’t mean it like that, now do you want me to help you out or not?” 

“Yes please.”

AN: That was the end of this chapter, I'm just making this note here because I think It's important for everyone to see.

So If you go into the comments of this chapter you will see a Motis shipper has come on here to blast me with hate for no reason what's so ever. I'm just asking you guys NOT to do the same with Motis stories, I used to ship Motis so I know there are some incredible stories on this site for people to read and nobody else deserves any kind of hate. 

People should be able to enjoy their ships as much as they want, If it's Motis, Rotis or any other ship in the fandom. I'm not very active on social media but I did read somewhere that a Motis shipper felt like they were being bullied off social media by Rotis fans, don't be like this guys, I think everyone should just be able to love and enjoy their own ships.

This is the second time this has happened now.

I know l sound like some stuck up celebrity here  

But spread love not hate

Thanks guys. 

Chapter Text

Following Eric’s awful rendition of the school anthem and Jackson’s introduction as Moordale’s new head boy, all students at Moordale have it drilled into them on the very first day of sixth form how this one big build-up to University. 

This worried Otis, he genuinely has no idea if he’s actually really talented at anything at all, he half had a pipe dream that he and Eric could open up a comic book/gaming store, that’s if he could ask his Uncle Remus very nicely for some money to kickstart it. As Mr Groff delivered his speech about how important the next two years were it really does hit Otis that things are about to get serious. 

This leaves Otis in a bit of a panic as he heads to his form class, mostly because the writing on his timetable is really small and therefore can’t quite read where his form room was, this causes him to bump into Maeve Wiley on the way. 

“Fuck off snowflake.” 

So he does as he’s told and fucks off like the little snowflake he is. Probably best to stand still and read his timetable. “Mr Hendricks 17A.” So the science labs, great sat on uncomfortable stools for fifteen minutes every morning for the next two years.

He walks in and he must be one of the last to arrive as Mr Hendricks is already in full flow. “Ah Otis man! Good to see you let me get the seating plan back up.” Mr Hendricks races over to the computer to move it back a slide. 

Forms seating plans were always in surname alphabetical order and despite forms being reset once already in Year 10 and then again now, he would be sat next to the same person for three completely different form classes, Ruby Matthews. 

As he spun around after receiving confirmation of where he was sitting he could already see the most popular girl at school glaring at him. “Am I going to have to get a restraining order against you freak?” Ruby spat as he sat down next to her.

“No, It’s just that our names are next to eachother on the register so we sit next to one another.” 

“Yeah but if form classes are randomly generated like they say are, what are the chances of us being in the same class three times in a row.” Ruby knows form classes are randomly chosen by a computer because three times she had been into the school office in high school to see if Anwar, Olivia, BC and CC could all be put in the same form room. Obviously, this nerd next to her had definitely hacked into the system to sit himself next to her three times in a row, because he obviously fancied her, not because he ever gave her any signals but because what straight boys didn’t fancy her? 

“Well-” Otis begins to tell her the exact probability. 

“I really don’t care, you would be a lot less annoying if you would just shut the fuck up.”

And for the second time in a matter of minutes, he listened to the angry girl next to him and did exactly as he was told.

Now Otis and Ruby can laugh about that conversation together and also tell themselves it was fate trying to force them together by placing them in the same form together in three different variations. 

Form was always Ruby’s favourite lesson, that’s because the teachers wouldn’t do shit if you didn’t turn up, Ruby would pop her head into form maybe twice a month just so the teacher knew that she was still alive or there had been an Untouchable row and Ruby wasn’t going to be hanging around on her own for fifteen minutes because Ruby Matthews couldn’t be seen alone. Form was still her favourite lesson but for very different reasons, she didn’t skip it once now, that’s because it’s an extra fifteen-minute she gets to hold Otis’ hand whether it be shyly underneath the desk or proudly on the top.

Ruby’s form attendance may have changed but the main topic discussed in it had not. “Right there’s a trip up to Manchester UNI tomorrow for those who have applied for it will any of you be heading there.” Mr Hendricks asked. 

Otis slowly raised his spare hand up in the air. 

“Just you Milburn? One half of Rutis! Oh, no word on the street these days me it’s Rotis.” Mr Hendricks looked at Otis and Ruby for some kind of confirmation on the change of their ‘ship name’. But Ruby could only give him her special ‘blank stare of death’ Otis also took this as a confirmation not to respond as the rest of the class giggled around them. He was right though the word on the street together, they were quietly referred to by those who were rooting for them (Mostly other nerds in the library who saw Otis as an example that anything was possible) were calling them Rotis. Ruby even decided to change the name of that stupid rat he one for her in France to Rotis as it sounded ‘less sickly’.

The mention of the University use to make Otis shiver with nerves, as he scrambled around in his head for something to do in his future. But then the sex clinic got up and running and Otis finally found something in life that he excelled in, something he believed in. The belief factor had come mostly from Maeve who really did transform him from the guy in the corner, Whatever happened to that letter? That was the original whatever happened to that voicemail?

So Otis Milburn had found something he was good at, sex therapy, but it wasn’t just the ‘sex therapy’ it was the general therapy, “ You like giving advice!” As Eric would tell him, he enjoyed helping people in whatever capacity it was. This lead Otis to find out via his mother and a deep dive on the internet that it wasn’t as straightforward as just being a therapist, there were so many different roles in said subject area, psychologist, psychiatrist, counsellor, therapeutic counsellor and just so much more, it was too much information for Otis. But when he sits down with his mother scrolling through all of the university courses available and not the god awful careers officer at school, he has his set on one place and one course only, Psychology with counselling and psychotherapy course in Manchester. He could learn a wide range of skills whilst keeping his options open of which particular specific area he would enter post-education. There is another sentimental reason he wants to go to Manchester, it’s where both his mother and father went to university, not for romantic reasons because their marriage was nothing short of a disaster, but there was no doubt they had both been successful in their fields, besides he already had his love. 

Even if Ruby Matthews wanted to go to university, she couldn’t, she had to be there for her dad, she had her carer’s allowance for looking after her dad as her only source of income and knew soon she would have to get a part-time job if she wanted to help her parents with rent despite her parents reassuring her that all was okay..Then after school who knows? She like Otis had a pipe dream, it was a little more grander than Otis’ Ruby wanted to be the best fashion designer in Britain, if  Britain not then Europe, If not Europe then the world. But where did she possibly start with that one?

Right now though as they sat on Otis’ couch watching a movie after school and Ruby’s mind was on Otis’ trip to Manchester tomorrow to see his number 1 university of choice, this was when it was starting to become real for her. She hated it when her dad said ‘the school days are the best of your life darlin’ Ruby would often scoff back at him, School was a large inconvenience to her, back then Ruby just wanted to get out of this shitty little town, earn her own money and live in her own fabulous house. A lot had changed since then, her dad had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and she had fell head over heels for Otis Milburn and now he could be heading away from her. 

“Are you looking forward to tomorrow?” Ruby asked breaking the silence. 

“Hmmmm yes,” Otis said as he scoffed on the popcorn not a care for the world for Ruby’s misophonia outside of school. 

“Do you want me to drop you off in the morning? Will save you buying a parking ticket.” Ruby asked as their hands brushed as they both went for the same section of the popcorn bowl between them, with Otis conceding to Ruby allowing her to get the grab at whatever popcorn she wanted. 

“Won’t you be late for school?” Otis narrowed his eyes as he thought about what time the bus left and when school got underway. 

“It’s only form Otis…” 

“I thought you liked form now?” 

Their fingers brushed again in the popcorn bowl, but this time nobody relinquished for the other leaving Ruby’s hand resting on top of Otis’. “You know I only go because of you Otis.” 

That stupid smug smile appeared on Otis face that to Ruby was either the most annoying or heartwarming thing in the world. “Oh, that must make me pretty special then...

“Dream on nerd.” Ruby leaned over to bring Otis into a kiss, deepening it as soon his lips made contact with hers, because he was so fucking special to her and the future ahead of them was worrying her. 

“Keep it PG you two.” Ola came down the stairs ready to leave to meet up with Lily, her voice bellowing out caused the pair to jump apart, It caused Ola to chuckle as she doesn’t think she had ever seen Ruby Matthews worried before. 

“We-we are, don’t remember we always have one over on you.” Otis said back to Ola as Ruby smirked from over his shoulder. This was in refrence to a few weeks prior when Otis and Ruby came home early from a date night after Ruby threatened to kill the waiter for bringing her the wrong desert and with Jean and Jakob taking Joy down to London for the weekend to spend sometime with the rest of the Franklin family Ola and Lily had the house to themselves. When Otis and Ruby walk through the door the house is uncregonisable, dressed up in purple ‘space foam’ while Ola and Lily are hidden in the corner riding on Lily’s specially made wooden ‘space horses’ and ‘space bikinis’ from amazon, It take over 30 minutes for Ruby to stop laughing. 

“Oh, Shut up!” Ola fired back as she raced out of the door behind them from the embarrassment of the memory. 

Otis and Ruby laughed together as she left, seeling one last quick kiss.

So the next day Ruby takes Otis to the coach station for his trip up to Manchester, it’s absolutely pissing it down, it was England in springtime of course it was. Ruby grabbed her pink umbrella which would have matched her outfit for ‘pink day’ as it normally would be if she wasn’t in this stupid school uniform. 

Ruby immediately pops up the umbrella to ensure it doesn’t destroy her beauty routine which she had completed in Otis’ bedroom this morning. Technically Ruby doesn’t need a beauty routine today, the only person she was interested in impressing wasn’t going to be in school today, but she’s still Ruby Matthews, she can’t be seen slacking. 

As Otis approaches she slightly adjusts the position of the umbrella so his lanky frame could fit underneath. “Have fun then, but not too much fun.” 

“You know the last time you said that, I received some……. Rather-rather revealing photographs, I was wondering if I could expect the same.” He manages to bumble his way through, although it was a text message last time he hopes she understands where he was coming from.

“What do you take me for Milburn? Some kind of Only Fans subscription.?” 

“Oh no! Erm- Ruby I would never devalue you as a person like that, I hope you under-”

“I’m kidding dork, maybe if you are a good boy and give your girlfriend a kiss maybe I’ll think about it.” Ruby cut off her bumbling boyfriend. 

Otis responded by stepping inwards underneath the umbrella and kissed Ruby softly on the lips who responded by standing on her tiptoes making the kiss easier on both their necks as the mandated school shoes left her at a disadvantage compared to when she was in her usual fabulous heals. 

“Be here 5:30 on the spot or you’re getting the bus,” Ruby said as they separated, But Otis left hand was resting on top of Ruby’s right which was in turn gripping the umbrella. 

“I’m not the one driving Rubes, you would have to tell the bus driver,” Otis replied, turning his head towards the driver who was scoffing on a Greggs pasty in the driver’s seat before they set off.

“Well, would you let him know that you have an extremely angry and mean girlfriend who doesn’t like to be kept waiting!” 

“I thought everyone knows who you are….” 

Ruby shakes her head at him with a smile creeping on her face at his ability to remember the tiniest of moments from their story thus far. “You better get going, don’t want to miss out on the best seats.” Ruby quipped at the lack of Moordale students who were getting onto the coach. Otis quietly chuckled in his response as Ruby stood on her tiptoes again to give him a peck on the cheek. “Now go on, I love you.”

“I love you too.” Otis lightly stroked the underside of Ruby’s hand which was still on top of his before placing his coat over his head so he wouldn’t be attacked by the heavy rain coming down. 

Ruby waited in the rain for a couple of more minutes before waving him goodbye. It’s at this point she realises that in a best-case scenario this was a scenario she would have to be getting used to.

Despite worrying that Otis had built up his expectations too high for his university of choice, Otis really enjoys his time touring the university, checking out the facilities, meeting his future lectures and students. Of course, it’s pretty awkward, a brand new place with all these strangers and he’s Otis Milburn he’s about as awkward as it gets, however even though she’s not here, Ruby Matthews makes it easier for him. Being with her, even back in the summer when it was a secret that they are seeing eachother, she gives him more confidence, an extra spring in his step and allows him to come out of his normally nervous and shaking shell, he can still be like that, sometimes in the opposite direction, he’s shaking and nervous because of Ruby, he’s never done this before, not probably anyway and she is Ruby Matthews after all, the girl who once dumped Glen Jacobs for wearing the wrong socks to school, but she always had a way of relaxing him and calming him back when she could see she made him nervous because like him she had never done this before. 

Speaking of Ruby, when they were being guided through a corridor Otis’ can feel a very faint vibration in his jacket pocket. 

Snapchat

Ruby👸🏻

“Can I just quickly go to the toilet?” Otis asked the student who was guiding them. 

“Yes, of course.” The guide gestured towards the nearest toilet with his arms. 

Which Otis pretty much raced into whilst holding his phone close to his chest. Shutting the toilet door behind him, then the cubical door behind him, placing himself down on the toilet seat to open up his Snapchat.

It was a video, it was Ruby standing in the girl’s toilets back at Moordale, her bag was dumped on the floor next to her with her blazer on top of it, the phone was facing at the bathroom mirror so Otis got a full view of Ruby’s reflection. Then extremely slowly, Ruby began to seductively undo her top two buttons, zooming in just a little bit more as each button came undone, before the camera suddenly zoomed back out and Ruby raised a middle finger in the air, smirking back at the mirror. 

Not today Milburn x 

The caption appeared on the screen, 

Such a tease

So when the bus returns to Moordale a little over ten minutes after its expected return time, Ruby is stood there waiting in the pouring rain, still in her school uniform, still holding the exact same umbrella, stood in the exact same spot. To everyone on the coach and even to Otis if she hadn’t sent him that video at lunchtime of her teasing him, it must have looked like she hadn’t moved an inch waiting for him in this disgusting weather, she thought for a second how much of an idiot she must have looked and how her position in the social hierarchy was dropping in the minds of the other 7 or 8 Moordale students on the coach, but all of those thoughts disappeared when Otis’ bumbling smile appeared as he got off the coach. 

“You can kiss me in the car nerd, need to get out of this stupid fucking rain!” She shouted over to him so he could hop straight into the passenger seat rather than approach her. 

“Come on then!” Ruby said quite frustrated as she and Otis had now been inside the car for just over 5 seconds and he still hadn’t given her a kiss. 

“I’m just a little confused as to why you waited in the rain then when you could have waited inside the car.” Otis pointed out after they both leaned over for a quick peck on the lips. 

She wouldn’t like to admit it to him, but she had waited outside her car in the rain because it would mean she would get to see Otis’ stupid face just a few seconds earlier than she would have if she had stayed in the car. “You always have to ask a question for everything don’t you Milburn? anyway, how was your day?” She asked as they got their seatbelts, but there was no response from her boyfriend he just stared straight out of the window almost like she was invisible to him. “Erm Milburn!” 

“You always have to ask a question for everything don’t you Matthews?” 

She scoffed at his cheek and the use of her last name like that before driving away. 

On the drive back to Otis’ house, he does eventually fill her in how his time in Manchester had gone, with that same dorky look on his face as he did when she picked him up from game club, he had clearly enjoyed himself. She should have been happy for him, but she can’t help but feeling totally the opposite as that feeling returned from last night when they were watching a film and when she waved him off this morning. She’d never block him from pursuing his dreams, it was just this unspoken thing about what would happen to them as a couple if he did go off to Manchester, which she was as equally at fault for as he was. 

She doesn’t say a word as Otis blabbers on about the University, stopping just as she pressed the brake pedal outside of his house.

“We’re not going to break up are we?” Ruby began as she switched the engine off. 

“What! What? No, no, no! What did I do wrong?” Otis instantly jumped into a panic as he couldn’t have imagined what he could possibly could have done which prompted Ruby to say what she said. 

“It’s not what you are doing wrong Otis, It’s what you are doing right.” Ruby sighed.

“Huh?” 

“You’re going to be going to university Otis and I’m going to be here in Moordale and I hate those stupid romance films you and your mum watch, where a couple break up because they have to move an hour apart from one another, giving it all that ‘long distance’ bull shit! It’s just been getting inside my head” 

“Rubes…” Otis leaned over the gearstick to place his hands on top of hers as he could tell this was making her feel very emotional. “I haven’t even got in yet… I need to pass my exams first” 

“Yeah, but you will Otis! You’re the smartest fucking person I know, you’re brilliant, I’d bet they let you into fucking Harvard if you applied.” Ruby said through the tears which were now appearing on her face. 

“Rubes, I don’t think I’d get into-” He began before being cut off sharply by Ruby. 

“Shut up, just shut up okay! What were you going to do just wait until you got your exams and we’d go from there? Did you even think about us Otis?” 

Otis took in a deep breath to prepare himself this time. “Yes of course I did, I was just nervous about how you would react, I just wanted to stay things to stay as they are for as long as possible I guess, life is always going to move on Rubes, but I don’t want it to move on without you.” Otis gently stroked the side of Ruby’s cheek and she let off a small smile not just at his cheesy words but that she know knew that he was in the same boat as her, “You know those stupid movies are normally American so people travel halfway across the country to study, I’m only going to be a three-train journey away and without sounding ultra cheesy, I think our love is stronger than a three-hour train journey.” 

Ruby nodded and smiled back at him. “I’ve just never done this before Otis…. I’m sorry for shouting at you for no reason.” 

“Me neither.” Their foreheads were now pressed against one another as Ruby’s tears calmed down. “We can make this work, I know we can because I-I- I’d do anything to still be with you.” 

“Yeah me too.”

Chapter Text

March 2018 

The worst time of year for Ruby Matthews was parents evening, one of the few times in life where her home life and her school life and home life would be forced to be mix. 

Anwar, Olivia, BC and CC knew to steer well clear of her on these nights, that’s because of the lie she had created between them. She had told her friends that her parents hated them from a time in year 8 when Ruby came home drunk on tequila at just 13, this wasn’t further from the truth at all as she doesn’t think her parents actually hated anybody, they were upset at the incident of course but no sign of any hatred towards a bunch of teenagers, but Ruby’s exaggeration of the incident to her friends meant there was now a barrier between them, which suited Ruby as you wouldn’t see her friends pushing to come and invade her personal space and more importantly her home. 

Claire Matthews like her daughter was fashionable and fabulous, however, her father’s sense of fashion was more akin to a skip, so Ruby would often beg her father to not attend parents evening or at the very least put on his best jacket so it wouldn’t shatter the image of the lavish life that the students of Moordale believed  Ruby Matthews led. 

But right now, Ruby would do anything to have her father here with her. It had been just over a month since her dad had been diagnosed with MS, there had been tears as they exited the house as it would be the first time her dad would be left alone since the diagnosis, Ruby begging them not to go, Claire saying that if it wasn’t the last parents evening before her GCSE’s they wouldn’t be going and also countering that Ruby could stay at home and look after her dad. 

Ruby couldn’t stay at home because it was her special trick, if she came with her parents to parents evening and sat right next to them as the teachers delivered their reports and gave them her evil eyes she feels like they would be less inclined to tell her parents how much of a bitch she really was, instead just opting for sometimes Ruby would sometimes ‘misbehave’ rather than outright bully people. 

As they walked towards the queue to speak to her English teacher Miss Sands, Ruby caught the eyes of her current casual hook up Oliver, she widened her eyes as he looked to approach her and her mum with a look which screamed "Piss off right now or you'll never get to come on my amazing tits ever again". Thankfully Oliver seemed to understand the language of the Ruby Matthews glare and scattered away.

“Ah, Ruby.” Miss Sands called over after Otis Milburn and his weird sex mum had finished their talk in front of them. “So Ruby how do you think you did in your last assessment?” Miss Sands asked as Claire and Ruby settled into the chairs in front of her.

“Hmmm, I don’t know.” Ruby shrugged as she went with her tone that might suggest to her mother that she might care just the tiniest, tiniest bit. 

Miss Sands sighed, “Look I’m going to be honest Ruby, It wasn’t great, you scored the third lowest in class.” Fuck , Ruby could feel her mother's eyes on her, she didn’t want to look at her, imagining the disappointment on her face, instead, she keeps her eyes on her English teacher as she continued her sentence.”Look we’ve been here before with you haven’t we Ruby…..”

Ah yes, Ruby would put her family home and savings on what Miss Sands was about to say next and it’s not the last time tonight she will hear this phrase. 

“You’re a very smart girl Ruby, but only when I push you, you’re very easily distracted and I feel like that’s gotten worse as of late.” 

The ‘worse of late’ was new, but the rest is pretty much as Ruby expected. 

“It’s getting close to crunch time Ruby….”

Present day

It was true, Ruby Matthews was smart but it was also true she was easily distracted, Firstly by boys, her outfit, her Instagram aesthetic and other pointless things that were all necessary for being the Queen of The Untouchables, then came her father’s illness which was the reason her distraction had ‘gotten worse as of late’ in Miss Sands words over 2 years ago. Distractions let her down and led her to being in a lower set than she should have been

It was crunch time again, Ruby had just, Just gotten through her GSCE’s, but now they were upon the next step, A-Levels. 

But this time Ruby had an ace up her sleeve, Otis Milburn. 

“You have your own exams you know Otis?” Ruby asked as they lay on his bed with various textbooks and pieces of paper scattered around them. 

“I know, but considering I’m ‘the smartest person you know I’ll think I’ll be fine,” Otis replied smugly as he scribbled down some more notes. 

“God I wish I had never said that.” Ruby groaned in response. 

It had really gotten to the point that Otis was focused more on Ruby’s exams than his own. At his house, every night after school going through all of Ruby’s exams and what possibly could be coming up on them. 

“You could always pay Maeve to do your exam for you.” Otis joked thinking back to Maeve reading out ‘Ruby's’ Shakespeare essay before the acapella club broke out into a fight last year. But the look on Ruby’s face when Otis mentioned Maeve it was clear to see she wasn’t best pleased. “Sorry…….bad joke?” 

“I just don’t get it why does everything have to be so fucking deep.” Ruby slammed her pen down on her notes, getting frustrated at her English language work. 

“You okay?” 

“No! Just this fucking text, everything’s got to have a deeper meaning, what colour someone’s shoelaces are has no relevance to their inner struggle with their relationship with the postman, this shit doesn’t happen in real life.” 

“Oh why, did purple day not have connotations of how you were superior to everyone at the school?” Otis teased. 

“I am superior to everyone at the school Otis, it isn’t any kind of a secret.” 

Despite her usual wit, it was clear to see for Otis that she was still quite stressed about what was in front of her. Otis scooted over the bed to park himself right next to her and slowly began to run her through the analysis and then the descriptive writing, at explaining it at such a pace that Ruby would be able to understand, sometimes he would go into typical Otis speeds of delivery which Ruby would warn him with a simple raise of an eyebrow. 

“Thank you Otis,” Ruby said softly when he had finished and got her to a level of understanding where she felt a little more comfortable with what she could be faced with in her exams. 

“It’s okay.” Otis's voice was also soft and his puppy dog eyes were on full show. Ruby knew Otis was the one who often felt lucky in their relationship, And so he should she thinks as she is Ruby Matthews, but Ruby Matthews also constantly felt lucky with her partner, this boy was probably one of the only people in the world who would be prepared to help her in this way, she was mean and nasty, he was warm and kind, she didn’t deserve this. “ I love you.” Ruby leaned over to kiss him sharply. 

“I mean I love you too and all but what brought that on?” Otis asked still a little taken aback by Ruby’s sudden leap over him.

“Oh, nothing really,” Ruby replied as she wiped a little bit of her hair that had fell onto his shoulder off him. 

“Oh, speaking of nothing, if your mind goes blank, try and write something that you are passionate about, try and link it to that,” Otis said as he tapped Ruby’s notebook.

“What, like you?” Ruby asked narrowing her eyes. “That wouldn’t be very descriptive would it, stickman, has bad clothes, smells of nothing but Lynx Africa and would probably put Nintendo down as a religion if he was ever asked, sounds pretty dull to me.” 

For Maeve, her return to Moordale had been mixed thus far, there was an obvious difference in the education standards, but she was happy to see Elsie and Aimee again, as well as Otis- well that was a tricky one, she was glad to see him again, but she wasn’t happy about the unresolved tension between them after she tried to kiss him at the Arcade. They had spoken a couple of times, in the halls and in the classes they shared, Otis bless him was trying to act like nothing had happened, trying being the keyword there as every time they made their first eye contact of the day it looked like his whole body would shake almost like he had been electrocuted, which was very similar to his reactions when they first started running the sex clinic, which despite his strangeness being multiplied by a thousand back then, she would kill for their friendship to return to something like that. 

“It’s all getting a little stressful isn’t it?” Otis asked Maeve as they exited Miss Sands class for their final lesson of the day. 

“Why, you’re not scared of a test paper are you muppet?” 

“Well- you know it’s just what people say, exams, stressful, normally go together.” 

“I’m just teasing.” The pair stopped in their tracks as they approached the school's main exit doors. “I’ll see you tomorrow.” 

“Yeah-see you,” Otis responded nervously, but then instead of parting their ways Otis and Maeve somewhat awkwardly headed in the same direction. “Er-”

“I’m going to the library, you?” 

“Yeah-same,” Otis said as he ducked his head. 

“Great I was wondering if I could run a couple of these poems with you and see what you think,” Maeve said somewhat excited by the prospect of her and Otis being able to study together. 

“Oh-” 

Normally at this point, Otis would try and awkwardly hit back at her about needing his help for a class he didn’t even take in the form of literature, but that was the state of their relationship today, sometimes the best it got was “Oh.”

“Great-” Maeve began to fill Otis in on the literature poems that could be coming up in her exam as they made their way to the library, with Otis mostly lightly nodding in response. However, when they arrived at the library Maeve understood why Otis had responded with just an “Oh.” 

“Since when did Ruby go to the library?” Maeve asked as they laid eyes on Ruby who was in the far corner organising her stationary. 

“It’s only her second ever time, surprised she actually knows where it is.” Otis joked and Maeve lightly chuckled in response, but as they smiled together Ruby glanced over at them for the first time. “Look I’m going over, you can join us if you want?” Otis asked. 

Maeve knew he was only asking to be polite as there was no way Ruby would want her to sit down with them. “No, I’ll be fine Otis.” 

“Okay.” Otis smiled and bumbled off towards the table where Ruby was sitting. 

“What did she want?” Ruby asked as Otis sat down shaking the table in the process and disturbing Ruby’s neat placement of all her stationery which caused Ruby to groan. 

“Woops.” Otis said as he began to reorganize Ruby’s stationery to exactly the way it was all bar one green felt tip pen which Ruby did herself. “You know we share English language final thing on a Wednesday.” 

“What makes you think I take an interest in your’s and cockbiters timetable?”

“Well maybe not Maeve, Maeve remember not cockbiter, but don’t pretend like you don’t keep a copy of my timetable in your second bedside drawer and that you definitely don’t walk the long way to some of your classes just so you can catch a look at me through the window.”

The further Otis went into his sentence, the more red Ruby’s face became and by the end she was heavily blushing, Otis thought it was extremely sweet when Ruby became flushed and embarrassed. “You really shouldn’t be going through a ladies drawers you freak,” Ruby replied once she had composed herself. “Stop laughing alright, it’s not funny.” 

“No, I just think it’s really sweet when you get embarrassed.” 

“I’m only embarrassed by how stalkerish my boyfriend is by going through my drawers,” Ruby said still keeping her eyes away from him. 

“You are in no position to call anyone a stalker.” 

Ruby scoffed from across the table at him. “Right will you shut up and help me with this then?” Ruby demanded looking down at the work in front of them. 

So they settled into their usual study routine, this time in the Moordale school library because despite the position of Otis’ bedroom Joy’s screaming had become unbearable for Ruby’s extra sensitive hearing, then they had tried Ruby’s house but they couldn’t go five minutes without Roland biting Otis’ ear off about something. 

“I’m going to the toilet.” Ruby announced half an hour into their studying, this version of studying had been very different to the ‘studying’ that the untouchables would organise, mostly due to the lack of a bong and the fact there was actual work going on. 

“Okay, try and remember what I said about the tangents you can go on during your work.” 

“Whatever you say nerd.” Ruby said as she planted a kiss on his cheek before leaving for the library exit. 

Otis had a warm smile on his face as he watched Ruby leave for the toilets, as ever admiring her stunning figure. He thought about how ashamed she was even to sit next to him in a form class and now she couldn’t leave for a couple of minutes without some form of PDA. 

However, Otis’ happy thoughts were interrupted by a few whispers behind him, one of them sticking out quite clearly. “Well, at least we know now that she’s only dating him to hide the fact that she is thick as pigs shit.” followed by the chuckles. 

Just as Otis was prepared to turn around to defend his girlfriend’s honour he was beaten to it by his library and orange buddy Ruthie. “You are only jealous Lucy that they will actually go to prom together and you’ve been rejected by four different guys, one of them being Tom Baker.” Ruthie spat back at them not even lifting her eyes up from her textbook. 

After Ruby had returned from the toilet, the next person to come through the library door but this time with a huge slam as the door hit the inside wall was Aimee Gibbs. 

“Where the fuck have you been?” Maeve asked as Aimee sat down opposite her some 40 minutes after she should have arrived. 

“Oh, someone stole Josh Travers pants in chemistry and they wouldn’t let anyone leave until someone owned up to it.” 

“How does someone lose their pants in a chemistry class?” Maeve asked with her eyes firmly narrowed. 

“I don’t know, one minute they were there, next minute poof they were gone, hope it’s not another bad look for our new investor oh I forgot to say, did you hear it’s Otis Milburn’s Uncle?” 

“Yeah…” Maeve said not lifting her eyes up from the paper she was writing on. 

It was now Aimme’s turn to narrow her eyes. “What’s wrong with you?” She asked and Maeve slowly lifted her head up towards Otis and Ruby across the other side of the room, giggling and sharing a joke with one another. “Oh god,” Aimee just sighed. 

Maeve had filled Aimee in on what had happened when she and Otis went to the Arcade when she first came back from America, she received a smack on the head with a newspaper from Aimee followed by a talking down to, Maeve prepared herself for something similar. 

“Right remember how you are always going on to me about stupid boys?” 

“Hmm, hmm.” Maeve nodded her head back at her. 

“Well, that one over there is a stupid, stupid boy.” Aimee motioned her head to over where Otis was “Picking Ruby Matthews over you is some of the most stupid shit I have ever seen, don’t you think you should find someone who appreciates you fully, what about Steven has he texted you back since.”

“Aimes, we’ve been over this.” 

“Okay, doesn’t have to be him, but I think it’s quite clear Otis is happy, I think it’s time that Maeve Wiley was happy.” 

“Good luck darling.” Jean kissed her son on the cheek as the sound of Ruby’s car horn bellowed from outside. For once Otis doesn’t repeal his mother or tell her to mind her personal space, it was the first day of their A level exams so Otis appreciates his mother’s gesture. 

“Thanks mum.” Otis replied and Ruby’s horn was heard for a second time, this was unusual as nowadays Ruby was much more patient when it came to the spamming of her horn compared to the early days of their relationship. 

“You better be on your way, say good luck to your big brother Joy,” Jean said as she played with Joy’s hands, waving them in Otis’ direction. 

Otis smiled looking back down at his sister before Ruby’s horn roared for a third time. 

“You really better get going.”

“Yes-yes-yes,” Otis said as he scrambled to collect his bag on the floor. “Bye now.” He could just about hear his mother respond as he shut the door behind him and raced up the steps not to keep Ruby waiting any longer. 

He could see her hand drop from the centre of the steering wheel as she was prepared to beep a fourth time before she finally got sight of him. “What the fuck took you so long?” She asked as he as ever jumped the car door when the roof was down. 

“You know, it’s a busy house lot’s of people to say goodbye to when your the first to leave,” Otis said as he and Ruby performed their usual ritual of a quick peck on the lips followed by Ruby sorting his tie out, Otis had mastered how to do his tie properly now but nowadays he would purposely leave it a little short because he loved it when Ruby would fix it up for him. 

But that was the last of the normality, it was complete and utter silence for the whole journey, no Ruby updating him on her internet friends or last nights activity in the Untouchables what’s app chat.

She still let one hand off the steering wheel when they came to some traffic lights or she waited for a gap to pull out onto the next road to play with one of his hands for a few extra seconds but this time her tapping of her fingernails upon his hands was much more aggressive and at a faster pace. 

Something was clearly up, but Otis decided to wait until Ruby pulled up into her usual parking spot to quiz her.

“Rubes, Is everything okay?” Otis asked literally at the exact moment Ruby brings the car to a stop. “Just you were awfully quiet back there.”

“I was enjoying the sound of silence, you should learn to do that yourself sometimes you know.” 

“Are you a little bit nervous?” Otis asked softly, not in his usual teasing tone when he found out Ruby was fazed by something he didn’t expect her to be. 

“A little, yeah,” Ruby replied dropping her head a touch. “I just don’t want to fail Otis and be a laughing stock.” 

“I’m not going to laugh at you Ruby.” Otis reached over to place one of his hands on top of her’s. 

“Not you Otis, others, when big bad Ruby Matthews gets one of the lowest scores in the year and is forced into another year of A levels.” 

“You shouldn’t care what people like that think Ruby, you’ve had me as a boyfriend for the past eight months, remember?” 

“Yeah, now that’s actually embarrassing,” Ruby said with a smirk on her face and Otis joined her. 

“You are a lot smarter than even you know Ruby, there have been countless times over the past few weeks when you have had to correct me on something, even with the classes you aren’t even in.” Otis says and the smiler on Ruby’s face grew wider as it did give her a kick when she was able to correct Otis Milburn and his nerdiness and all. “Right come on now let’s do this,” Otis says now Ruby’s face is back full of life and they head out of the car. 

“Will you watch me?” Ruby asks as they walk up to the main entrance with their hands entwined. 

“What? Watch you?” A bemused Otis asked back. 

“In the top right window of the gym hall, they fail to border that one up, if you sneak between the teachers nobody will notice you.” 

“Firstly, how do you even know about that and secondly what am I supposed to do? Mime the answers to a paper that I haven’t even read?” 

“Well me and Olivia used to sneak in there so we could watch all the hot boy's face’s trying to concentrate during GCSE’s and then- well I thought you could, you know smile at me, it calms me,” Ruby made her second point a little more softly and squeezed his hand a little tighter as she did so. 

“Oh.” It did make Otis heart flutter that he could have that sort of effect on her, but there were still some flaws in her plan. “What about the examiners in the exam hall, they’ll disqualify you, you know?” 

“Otis, there from all different parts of the country and who in their right mind would think someone as hot as me would be looking at someone as plain as you.” Ruby quipped at him and Otis smiled back, “I don’t actually think your plain you know.” Ruby stopped them both just so she could reassure him as she was still conscious sometimes about how her banter could come across to him. Ruby then stood up on her tiptoes and cupped his cheeks to pull him in for a soft and slow kiss. 

“Oh god, are you trying to suck the nerd out of him?” One of the girls in the group passing by calls out and Ruby removed one of her hands from her boyfriend’s cheek to raise her middle finger up at whoever it was that said it from behind her as Ruby was still focused on her boyfriend’s lips. 

“Ruby Matthews!” Mr Hendricks called, listing off each student who would be in the next exam as they all waited in the canteen. 

“Remember to call my dad about halfway through, because he won’t want to disturb me even if it’s an emergency because of exams,” Ruby said as she passed over all of her items over to Otis to hold while she was in the exam hall. 

“Yeah got it, you’re going to do great remember,” Otis said as he placed a hand on her exposed left knee.

“I love you.” 

“I love you too.” Otis moved his hands up to her ribs as they both leaned in for a kiss. 

“Ruby Matthews! You know how much of a Rotis fan I am, but I will have to disqualify you if you don’t hurry the fuck up!” Mr Hendricks called and the other students giggled as well as Otis and Ruby as the latter watched the former rise up from her stool and towards the queue for the exam. 

“ Window ” He saw her mouth as she turned the corner. 

So that’s exactly where Otis headed, sneaking back around the teachers and the board’s to get a clear view of the exam hall from a tiny window and more importantly a full view of Ruby. 

They exchanged what would be the first of many smiles when she sat down and first noticed him and that’s what he did, whenever she looked up to him he would offer a tiny smile or a nod of encouragement. It had initially worried Otis that he would be a distraction for her especially when he made the call to her dad halfway through, but her head spent enough time on the paper that she appeared to finish early. 

Otis was trying to motion to her in some way without making it seem to obvious to the others for her to reread her work, but instead, it looked to Otis like she was counting the people and all the chairs in front of her, What the hell was she doing? After she had finished her counting, which she completed over and over again, she appeared to slyly to write something on the chair she was sitting on. Again what the hell was she doing? 

Once time was finally called on Ruby’s first exam he back down to the hall entrance to meet her and exchange items as Otis exam was directly after her’s. 

“Hey! How do you think you did?” Otis asked as he brought her into an embrace. 

“Good actually, thanks for what you did it really helped,” Ruby said as pulled out of the embrace but her arms remained gripped to his waist as she kissed him. 

They then swapped their valuables around just before Otis named was called to enter the exam hall “Good luck and oh, check your seat.” Ruby smiled warmly as she kissed him on his cheek before he fled to join the queue. 

Check his seat? 

But as soon as he entered the hall and spotted his seat, he knew what was up. 

Because of the magic of having their surnames so close to eachother in the alphabet, Ruby had figured out that they would be sat in the exact same seat for this particular exam and she had engraved at the bottom. 

I love you OT with a little love heart next to the message.

He looked up to the window where he had been for the last hour and a half and that was now where Ruby was, smirking back at him. 

Once Otis had completed his paper and before he even reread it he got his pen out to scribble something just below her message.

I love you too Rubes.

"Did you get my message?" Ruby asked after Otis had filled her in how he thought his exam had gone. 

"Oh yes, It gave me all the extra encouragement in the world knowing that you are madly in love with me." Otis teased. 

"I was going to spell out 'Otis' but I had a bit of a panic and thought I might get caught, so you have to settle with OT darling," Ruby said as she clung onto his arm as they headed to their revision club.

"Wow, I must have been so  cool, calmed and composed to write out an extra three letters then." Otis fired back sarcastically. 

"Six OT." Ruby corrected him.

"No three, R-U-B-E-S." He spelt out her nickname like she was a five year old. 

"Well I presume you wrote I love you 'too', that would make it six." 

"Oh yeah," Otis replied as he came to a realisation of his mistake. 

"Maybe I should have been tutoring you all this time, might have got you somewhere then." Ruby teased, going on the offensive but Otis chuckled knowing he had something to get her back with 

"Ruby?" He poised. 

"Yes OT." She replied clutching onto his arm a little tighter.

"You know how you and Olivia used to stare at the 'hot boys' through that window, does that make me one of the 'hot boys' now?

"Dream on Milburn, dream on." 

Chapter Text

Otis and Ruby maintain the same exam routine until its completion, holding onto one another’s things during their exam, peaking through the window whenever their schedule allows and whenever Ruby’s mum’s schedule allowed it, staying over at Ruby’s house. This is because of the chaos of the Milburn/Nyman household and the fact that Claire had told Roland to try and leave the kids alone while they were revising. 

Because Ruby is the one normally stressed out and shattered by a day of revision/exams, she gives in and allows Otis to be the big spoon a couple of times a week, it’s normally once every three or four weeks this get’s to happen, so when Otis gets to be big spoon on consecutive nights, he’s really counting his lucky stars.

One of the times he keeps Ruby’s phone in his inside blazer pocket while she is in her exam and Otis is stuck in his own revision class, and for a second he genuinely thinks he might be having a heart attack, but no it’s Ruby phone constantly buzzing with notifications, with likes, comments, messages, store discounts and so many other things, Otis is convinced that he wouldn’t get this many notifications in a whole year never mind in one single hour. 

But all of it is about to come to an end Ruby’s final exam had just wrapped up and as ever Otis was waiting outside of the exam hall for her and as ever both of their faces exploded into grins as they spotted one another. 

“Hey, how do you think you did?” Otis asked as Ruby took his hand into hers and they began to walk away from the exam hall. 

“Well it’s not like they give you your results the second you put your pen down, so I have no idea,” Ruby replied with her usual snarky tone. 

“Well, I for one think you did well.” 

“How can you possibly know that nerd? Did you invent some kind of supervision goggles to get a closer look and if so why not stare at my tits and not some Shakespeare shit, why are you laughing?” Ruby asked picking up on his tone. 

“Just I think it’s funny hearing you say ‘supervision goggles’, spoken like a true nerd.” Otis teased back at her. 

Which in turn caused Ruby to heavily scoff. “I certainty am not Milburn, apologise instantly or I won’t sleep with you for a week.” 

“I’m sorry.” Otis apologises right away knowing that Ruby could fully well follow through with such a scheme. 

“So go on, I’m curious why did you think I did well,” Ruby asked, looking up at him expectantly as they carried on walking through the Moordale corridors. 

“Well you barely looked up at me, was thinking you had started to go off me or you were just really in the zone and the way you are talking now, all confidence and swagger, you weren’t like that after the first couple of exams.” 

“Erm, confidence is kind of my thing Otis, just in case you didn’t notice.” 

“Oh, so you have gone off me.” Otis picked up on how Ruby hadn’t acknowledged the first part of his evaluation. 

“Yeah I was meaning to tell you I was thinking of relighting the flame with Glen Jacobs, he’s bought a new pair of socks after all.” Ruby nodded towards the dark-haired boy leaning on the lockers talking to his friends. “Something that can’t be said for you.” 

“I’m really proud of you Ruby.” Otis squeezed Ruby's hand as they stepped outside the school’s main doors. 

“Aw, you aren’t going to go all soppy are you giving me some big speech about how this is our last step through the Moordale but another door will open soon.” Ruby groaned before standing on her tiptoes to whisper into his ear. “Because I’d much rather rip these clothes off you right now considering you’ll never need them again.” 

Otis can feel his knees begin to weaken at Ruby’s seductive tone in his ear, but he has to make just one little point. “Erm, well- I will need the shirt for tomorrow, for the-the shirt signing.” 

Ruby pulled away from him and sighed. “You’re not really going to that, are you? We’ve both finished our exams, I thought we could spend the day together.” Ruby said as she tugged on his blazer. 

“Yeah well it will be Eric’s last day, he’s my best friend Rubes, I hope you don’t mind.”

“Fine!” Ruby rolled her eyes “I’m not coming though.”

“Not even for the shirt singing, come on will be fun!” Otis pleaded with her. 

“Having someone’s disgusting marker pen tracing all over my body, no thank you!” 

“Think of all the dicks you could draw on people’s shirts………”

In the end, the prospect of scribbling dicks on the shirts of everyone she hated is enough to entice Ruby to turn up for their final day at Moordale, doesn’t stop her complaining when she realises a potential extra hour or so in bed together has gone to waste just to get ready to go to a school where they had both officially finished. 

“Last time you’ll ever park here,” Otis said as Ruby pulled the handbrake. 

“Oh god, you’re not going to be like this all day are you? ‘Last time you’ll walk down this corridor, last time you’ll walk in this classroom, last time you’ll use the toilet’.” Ruby mocked him. 

“Last time you’ll check yourself in the mirror before you walk into school.” Otis teased as his girlfriend completed said routine. 

Ruby turned away from the mirror to glare at Otis for yet another ‘last time’ remark. 

Once they headed out of the car and up the pathway with their hands as ever entwined Otis broke their comfortable silence. “You know there’s one plus to having the school uniforms, the shirt signing.” Otis smiled imagining Ruby’s face if someone tried to place ink onto her favourite purple top.

“I’d disagree that it’s a plus, but I can think of another…” Ruby stopped them outside the school doors. 

“There’s a lot of space in the inside blazer pocket’s,” Otis said as he dug his calculator out from said pocket. 

Ruby shook her head at him as to why he had still brought his calculator despite the fact that school was done for them. “No Otis, I think- I think you look really like nice in your uniform.” Compliments weren’t exactly Ruby’s forte, especially when they were in broad daylight, she is kicking herself inside for her stutter as that was normally Otis job. 

“Really?” Otis’ face lights up. 

“Yeah, I mean it helps that you actually feel compelled to brush your hair before school, but yeah you do,” Ruby said as she again stroked his collar. “You should probably wear it to prom, instead of that brown suit.” 

“But I like my brown suit! Do you want me to buy a new one, I can get a new one, I’ve still got a lot of my uncle’s Christmas money and it’s my birthday soon so-” Otis began to ramble but Ruby cut him off sharply. 

“Otis, I want you to wear whatever you want, within reason obviously, don’t think homeless clothes are exactly suited to prom.” She said as she cupped his cheeks, she really did like his brown suit, she thinks back to that night at the dance last year and how cute he looked, God he really made her think of such disgusting words like ‘cute’ all the god damn time! 

“Okay.” Otis nodded back at her before she kissed him. 

“You’ve still not even asked me to prom,” Ruby said as she shrunk back down to her normal size.

“Oh- I just presumed we were always going together.” 

Ruby scoffed back at him. “You presumed you were just automatically going to prom with the hottest girl in the school.” 

“Ah- I-” 

“Shame, I was expecting some kind of grand gesture Milburn.” Ruby tutted as she crossed her arms. 

“Well, I don’t think I’m much of a singer like Jackson….” 

“Yeah, I’ve still got that video of you singing from when Joy came home.” 

“You’re one to talk! Coldplay in the shower, such a cliche.” They playfully bickered back and forth. 

Ruby rolled her eyes trying to hide her embarrassment of Otis bringing that up again. “So are you going to ask me or what Milburn? I’ll be taking Adam in a minute.” 

Otis closed the distance between them and took both of her hands into his so. “So, Ruby…..” Otis paused as a sense of realisation hit him. “I don’t know your middle name?”

“Niamh.” 

“Niamh?” Otis repeated. 

“It’s Irish.” 

“Okay, Ruby Niamh Matthews, would you like to come to prom with me?” 

Ruby smiled at the confidence with which he asked her. “Well it would be more you would be coming with me, but I like the idea all the same.” Ruby placed her hands onto his ribs and kissed him for the second time in the space of a minute. 

As they pulled apart hundreds of students came rushing out of Moordale’s main doors, like a scene out of a movie with papers and books being thrown in the air, Ruby cringed at the scene in front of her, but found some humour in people falling over as they tried to squeeze through the tight door. 

“Oatcake!” Eric found his way through the crowd and lept into the arms of his best friend and Ruby took one hell of a step back to make sure she wasn’t caught by Eric’s flying leg which was spinning in the air as Otis and Eric twirled around together in their embrace. “We are finally free of this hell hole! Praise to Jesus!” Eric exclaimed with about as much joy as humanly possible. 

“Well done man, I’m really proud of you.”

“You too, you too.” 

Ruby watched on with a wide smile as her boyfriend and his best friend tightened their embrace to one another. 

Eric then pulled away and without even thinking launched himself into Ruby’s arms. Otis chuckled as he could only see Ruby’s widened eyes as the rest of her body was being buried by Eric’s. 

“Oh- I’m sorry, Ruby.” Eric pulled away from the hug as through his giddiness had only just realised what he had done. 

“It’s fine Eric, don’t worry I won’t bury you, again….” Ruby replied and Eric’s face lit up the same way after all these years when one of the Untouchables registered his existence. 

“So shall we go and draw some penises?” Eric asked and they all scattered to head to the hill where the shirt signing would begin. 

“Are you drawing a penis?” Otis asked Ruthie as she signed his shirt, he had five dicks on his back so far all five in different shapes and lengths, there were some genuinely nice messages he had written on his shirt so far, but most went along the lines of ‘LMAO Still no idea of how you pulled Ruby, but good luck’ Actually Otis preferred those messages. 

“No, I’m drawing an orange, thought it would be kind of fitting,” Ruthie said as she concentrated on engraving the orange onto his back. 

“Thank you for sticking up for Ruby the other day, in the library.” Otis thanked Ruthie as they swapped around and Otis began writing a good luck message on Ruthie’s back. 

“Oh I think I hate Lucy a little bit more than Ruby, she’s still a bitch, a hot one though, that’s what saves her.” Otis narrowed his eyes as he couldn’t quite register if Ruby had just been insulted or complimented. 

“Have a nice life Otis, try not to kill anyone..” 

“Likewise.” Otis nodded and smiled as Ruthie walked away. 

“Er! OT!” Ruby shouted from across the mound with her blazer wrapped up over her waist allowing people easier access to plaster messages all over her shirt. 

Otis approached her checking out the hundreds of messages on her shirt, more than anyone had in the whole school. “There’s a lot of phone numbers on there.” Otis said as he got close, also lot’s of messages about how ‘fit’ she was and people describing what they would do to her which took Otis by surprise. 

“I’d expect nothing less, you got any good one’s.” Ruby checked out his one’s, smiling at Eric’s message on the front, but that smile disappeared when she span him around and noticed a phone number on his right shoulder. “Who the fuck is 07874….” 

“Oh it’s okay when you get phone numbers, but when I get one it’s a big drama!” Otis played along as seeing Ruby jealous was quite the sight.

“You still haven’t told me who it is Milburn?” Ruby asked rather irritated. 

“It’s James Newton’s, he wondered if we could play smash bro’s together sometime and it’s actually his Gamertag, if you count the numbers up it doesn’t make a phone number.” Otis wished to stretch it out for a bit longer but the venom with which Ruby spoke with rather startled him and he realised his little ‘game’ could go very south very quickly.

“Oh, suppose it is.” Ruby span Otis back around to get a look at the number realising it was two digits short. “Are you going to write me a message then nerd?” Ruby offered her pen over to Otis. 

“My pleasure.” Otis smugly smiled and took her pen and leant down to find a small space towards the bottom half of her shirt. 

“Actually- I left for a space for you here.” Ruby pointed to an empty space further up her shirt. 

“Oh-okay.” Otis moved himself and the pen upwards and began to write his message, but as he began he suddenly stopped once he realised where he was writing. “Ruby- did you leave a space to where your heart is?” 

“What! No nerd!” Ruby blushed heavily and everted her eyes away for him expecting him to take her word as gospel, but when she looked back down towards him he was still looking back up at her. “Okay fine, I did! I thought it would be nice okay!” She groaned and blushed a little harder and things were not helped by Otis smirking up at her still. “Just get on with it will you.” 

“Sorry” Otis muttered and he began to ‘get on with it.”

“Jesus you don’t need to write an essay Milburn, we’ve had enough of them lately!” Ruby complained at Otis was taking his time. 

“All done.” Otis smiled at her as he rose up from his crouching position and handed her pen back. 

“Well, what does it say?” Ruby asked after she tried to angle her neck down to get a view at his words to no avail. 

“You’ll have to find out later,” Otis replied and Ruby simply rolled his eyes at him. 

“Let me do you then.” Ruby offered her hand out expecting him to offer her his marker.

“In what way…” Otis attempted to sound seductive but it couldn’t have fell more flat which led Ruby to shake her head at him. 

“The pen idiot!” Ruby aggressively shook her hand to signify her frustration with him and Otis passed the pen over. 

“Sorry I wasn’t as sentimental as you and left a space for you to write, Adam drew a pair of tits over where my heart is anyway,” Otis said as he span around as there was more room for Ruby to write on the back. “Well, what does it say?” Otis asked once Ruby had finished.

“You’ll have to find out later.” Ruby mocked his tone from earlier on. “Now I’ve seen everyone whose important, are you ready to go?” Ruby asked looking around to make sure she hadn’t missed anyone.

“Erm-” Otis began looking over in the direction of the final person he wanted his shirt signed by, Maeve Wiley. 

“Go on then.” Ruby gave him permission “I’ll be in the car, don’t keep me waiting.” Ruby stood upright to give him a kiss on the cheek. 

“I won’t,” Otis said before he and Ruby headed in opposite directions. Otis brushed his hand through his hair as a sort of relaxation technique, he had no idea what he was doing, he just knew that this could be the last time he spoke to Maeve for a while, as he presumed she wouldn’t be attending prom. 

“Hi, Maeve.” Otis nervously began. 

“One-second muppet, just carefully crafting my best version of a bitten cock.” Maeve said as she knelt down signing Vivian’s shirt. 

“Oh Maeve, I had no idea you were doing that!” Vivan pretty much jumped back when the words left her mouth and both Otis and Maeve could hear her muttering “So disgusting, so disgusting.” As she walked away.

“Some people hey?” Maeve said as she rose back up to her normal height. “You want to sign my shirt?” 

“Yes.” Otis lightly nodded and Maeve passed over her pen which allowed Otis to begin to write his message to Maeve towards the bottom half of the shirt. “Maeve, thanks for all that you did for me, with the clinic and helping me better myself, I hope we can stay in touch- OT Otis had signed every shirt with ‘OT’ mostly because it allowed for more space for others to write and Ruby’s little nickname she had created had been to grow on him, but leaving it on Maeve’s shirt felt bad in taste considering her’s and Ruby’s relationship, so he just about managed to squeeze the rest of his name on. -OTIS.

“So you definitely off to Manchester then?” Maeve asked while he was down there signing. 

“Hmm, hmm.” 

“And what does Miss Queen B think about that.” Maeve nodded over to where Ruby was strutting back to the car park.

“She’s a little nervous about the long-distance thing, she’s staying here to look after her dad, she doesn’t really have a plan yet, but we both want to make it work,” Otis said as he rose back up as Maeve nodded in response. 

Maeve took Otis marker and began to sign his back. Otis, thanks for everything- Maeve was all that Maeve wrote thinking of the most generic thing possible as she knows if she writes what she really wants to write it would only cause more trouble. 

“Is Anna still sorting you out with a job?” Otis asked as Maeve began her writing. 

“Yeah, she’s got good literature contacts so….” Maeve said as she began to move onto the cock she was drawing on his back. 

“She seems really nice Maeve,” Otis says with some sincerity as he knew how tough her home life had been previously and from the very little time he spent in the company of Anna whilst trying to help Maeve find her sister, she did seem nice and if that’s where Maeve was settling, he was really happy for her. 

“Yeah, she is.” Maeve applied the finishing touches to the cock and then handed Otis his pen back on completion. 

“Will you be going to prom?” Otis asked as they were now face to face with one another. 

“Don’t really want to, but Aimee and Anna are forcing me to come.” 

“It will be nice to see you there, really Maeve it would,” Otis says again with sincerity as he wanted to say goodbye to his schooling days surrounded by the people he cared about the most. 

Maeve smiled in response and things fell silent between them with each of them struggling to think of the right thing to say next, instead, their eyes caught onto one another, both of them probably think back to the last time they were this close and were making such strong eye contact, Otis was grateful that his phone buzzed to interrupt the awkward situation they had found themselves in again.

“Shouldn’t keep her waiting.” Otis waved his phone in the air with Ruby’s caller ID on display.

“Yeah.” Maeve nodded her heart sunk slightly at the name ‘Rubes❤️‘light up on Otis’ phone screen.

“Yeah, I’ll see you at prom, yeah!” Otis called as he span around to head towards the car park. 

“We’ll see.”

“Who wrote ‘FUCK YOU’ on your sleeve?” Ruby asked as they climbed out of her car checking out the bold writing signed with a kiss on his sleeves. 

“Oh.” Otis checked out the writing he hadn’t noticed from earlier. “I think it must have been Aimee Gibbs.” Otis came to that conclusion after listing all the people who wrote something on his arm

“Ugh, what a bitch.” Ruby muttered as they walked down the steps to Otis’ house hand in hand. 

“She’s a really nice person Rubes.” Otis corrected her all be it from his limited time spent with her, but all reports from Maeve were good. “She’s just being loyal to her best friend.” 

“And I’m being loyal to my boyfriend.” She squeezed his hand as Otis opened up the door and they were met with the sound of Jean chuckling. 

“Mum?” Otis asked as he and Ruby wandered through the front door, Ruby had quite the smirk on her face upon hearing Jean privately giggling to herself. 

“Oh, Otis, Ruby, come and have a look at this,” Jean called them over to the settee where Joy was lying across her lap while she chuckled at her I pad. “The school sent out photos of you all arriving for your first day.” Jean span the I pad around for Otis and Ruby to see, 

Otis can remember the day well, the school photographer shoving a camera in their faces on their first day of year 7, the first photo Jean showed was of Otis and Eric, Otis wrapping his arm over Eric’s shoulder almost like he was strangling him. 

“Awww.” Ruby doesn’t even mean to make the noise she does, it’s almost like an automated response from her brain upon seeing an even more baby-faced Otis from 7 years ago along with his best friend. 

“One of you here too Ruby.” Jean took the I pad back into her chest, swiping across a couple of times before finding the right photo. “Always such a poser.” Jean said as she swung the I pad back around for the young couple to see. The photo was of Olivia, Anwar, Ruby, BC and CC all pouting and throwing peace signs up in the air, as that was the trend back in September of 2013. 

“Awww.” Otis mocked Ruby’s response from the photo of a year 7 him. Ruby shot him a disapproving stare. 

“I recognise these two.” Jean pointed towards Olivia and Anwar on Ruby’s right. “But I don’t recognise the others.” Jean followed up with pointing towards the twins. 

“Bitches Dr Milburn, complete and utter bitches.” 

Jean finally took a good look up at the pair, lowering her glasses when she noticed all the scribbles on both of their school shirts. “Otis, why do you have so many phalluses on your shirt?”

After running Jean through some of the more impressive pieces of ‘art’ on their shirts Otis and Ruby headed upstairs to Otis’ bedroom. 

“I’m going to take a shower, Olivia’s having a schools finished party tonight if you fancy going?” Ruby asked as she placed her bag and blazer on the floor of her boyfriend's room. 

“Yeah, sounds fun.” Otis nodded in response. 

“Just no mac n cheese this time, darling.” Ruby kissed him on the cheek referencing the last time they were both at Olivia’s house before she walked out of his room to use the shower. 

Ruby ran the Milburn shower as she began to remove her shirt that was plastered with dicks, tits and messages of love. That reminded her, Otis’ message. She picked the shirt back up that she had dropped to the floor to find what Otis had written. 

Rubes, you are stunning and beautiful, I’m honoured to write this on your heart and I love you with all of mine -Your OT 🖤

Back in Otis’ room, he had immediately removed his shirt to check out all of the messages that were hidden for his view, particularly Ruby’s even with a marker pen he was able to find her fancy handwriting. 

Otis, you are quite annoying and dorky but they are two of the many reasons I love you so fucking much. -Your Rubes🖤

Otis heart almost jumped out of his chest especially at the way the end of their little messages were so similar, except Ruby’s love heart was much artsier. 

Behind him his door flew open behind him with Ruby in her skirt and purple bra charging towards him. “Ruby-” He began but he was cut off by her lips smashing hard against him as she instigated a hungry kiss, just a show of how his stupid words had an effect on her. 

“Shower now! I need you.” Ruby breathed in between kisses as she wrapped her arms around his waist, tugging at him to bring him out of his bedroom. 

“Ah, Ah, Ruby, Ruby!” Otis broke free from her lips when he had the chance. “My mum’s got clients arriving in any minute, the shower isn’t as loud as you think.” 

Ruby folded her arms staring right back at him. “That’s fine Milburn, I’ll just have to sort myself out then and If the shower is as quiet as you think it is, I can imagine when you hear me screaming out your name, It could become quite........ frustrating for you.” She approached him slowly before whispering it all in his ear while gently stroking the bulge that was beginning to form from inside his school pants. 

“Oh, God.” Otis instantly gave in, almost falling into her arms as he leaned back into her to slam his lips back onto hers. As they messily manoeuvred their way into the bathroom Ruby smiled in between their aggressive kisses as she once again got to see the effect she had on him.

After school had been completed all eyes were on prom. Ever since that photographer took the photo of Ruby and her friends and they walked through the doors Ruby was looking forward to prom, she would be the prom queen and the most stunning person in the room, she was already planning her outfit, changing her mind every couple of weeks. She had to wait even longer for prom than most teenagers in Britain because for some reason Headmaster Groff decided not to hold proms for year 11’s after their GCSE’s, instead saving up for one big prom once A-Levels was finished, probably to save on costs, tight bastard.

Now it was finally here and Ruby was not looking forward to it as much as she should have been doing, not for the reason most people suspected, the fact that the slight drop in Ruby’s reputation due to who her boyfriend was putting her position as Prom Queen elect under threat. It’s the fact that it’s a prom for the class of ‘2013’ so everyone who had been on that journey with them would be joining them, so BC and CC would be back and the last time they were together Ruby smacked one of them across the face for insulting Otis and his family, but there was someone else, someone she hadn’t thought about for a while that was putting her a little on edge.

Ruby Matthews had always fancied lot’s of boys, preferably the ones with more muscle than most, a big bank account and of course social status. 

Otis Milburn had been the first boy that Ruby loved but he was the second boy she liked. That title went to Simon Furthassle. 

Even on the ‘like’ meter, she liked him nowhere near as much she did Otis when she was at that stage but nevertheless, she liked him and she made one fatal error, that was telling him and it backfired on her massively. 

2014 

Simon Furthassle was middle of the range in the social hierarchy, could pass as mildly attractive, but to Ruby Matthews, it didn’t matter as she made her laugh. 

Ruby appreciated a good sense of humour, while she never really showed it she really did. Okay, Simon wasn’t exactly making just Ruby laugh, he would make everyone laugh, the class clown but managed to pull it off without coming across as a twat. 

He was into studying a little bit too much for Ruby’s liking, maybe she should invite him to those study groups they had just gotten started at Aimee Gibbs house. 

There was a party tonight at Claire Tyler’s tonight for her 14th birthday, she was in the year above but like Simon she was nothing special on the social chain so all of those in the year below could easily secure an invite. 

In the week Ruby had asked Simon if he was coming to the party in the ICT lesson they shared without making it seem like she was too desperate to know his whereabouts on a Friday night. 

So for once, Ruby was quite nervous as she stood around sipping on her plastic cup of coke, it was really disgusting shit, she should probably convert to a diet exclusively. 

When he finally walked in, she was a little surprised who he was sharing a joke with as he walked through the door, , Maeve Wiley. Ruby had no idea what to think of her considering their paths never crossed, there was a rumour that she lived in a caravan but Ruby honestly couldn’t care less about her considering she was no threat to someone as fabulous as she was. 

Ruby had waited half an hour before approaching Simon, not to seem too needy.  He had headed outside on his own, now was her chance. 

“What’s got you all nervous?” Ruby asked him as he leaned against Claire Tyler’s brick wall aggressively shaking his leg, it was quite out of character for someone all life and joy. 

“Oh, nothing.” 

Ruby was also nervous but she had a much better grasp to style it out than he did. “Come on tell a girl.” Ruby almost whispered as she approached him. 

“That’s my problem, telling a girl that I like her.” 

“And why’s that.” Ruby was still remaining calm as she edged a little closer but her heart was beating faster than she ever thinks it has done as she felt like they were heading on the same track.

“She can be quite snappy at times and aggressive, I’m just a little nervous about how she might react.” 

Ruby smiled at the fact she was making him so nervous and how she was about to calm those nerves for him. “I don’t think you need to be nervous at all.” Ruby reached out to grab his hand and began to lean in to kiss him before Simon jumped back. 

“Woah! What the hell do you think you were doing?” 

“You said you liked me!” Words were coming out of Ruby’s mouth but she’s not sure she is fully there as she could feel her heart shattering by the second. 

“No! Sorry, I was talking about Maeve.”

“Maeve-Maeve Wiley?” Ruby stuttered her way through the name.

“Yeah, look I-I got to go.” It was Simon’s turn to stutter before he span around to rush away from the awkward situation that was developing towards him.

It took Ruby some time to compose herself and head back inside to the party. She didn’t want to be there of course, she wanted to call her dad and get him to pick her up so she could go home and cry into her pillow whilst snuggling Baby. But Ruby Matthews couldn’t leave the party early, there would be questions and nobody could find out that she had been rejected by fucking Simon Furthassle . 

She decided she would stay until the earliest time possible it would seem acceptable to leave a party of this magnitude without any suspicious arising. Ruby spends most of that time in stunned silence, her eyes often glancing over to that twat Simon and now a girl she had never really noticed before, Maeve Wiley. 

“What do you know about that Maeve?” Ruby asked Olivia who was sitting next to her. 

“Not much really, she had an older brother that was at the school for a while, that’s all I know.” 

“Probably gone off to prison-like the rest of the family.” The stoned boy who was resting on CC’s shoulder further along the couch muttered. 

“What?” Ruby sat up for the first time in a while to get a closer look at this scruff CC had been seeing from year 9 as of late.

“They are all in prison the Wiley family, won’t be long till another one bites the dust.” He chuckled nodding over to Maeve. 

‘Hmmmm Interesting’ Ruby thought quickly of the mess she could try and cause but was it really all worth it this arsehole who thought Maeve Wiley would make a better girlfriend than she was. 

It all gets too much for Ruby when she sees Maeve and Simon head upstairs together. “I’ve got to go,” Ruby announced as she rose up from the couch, she didn’t even care for what time it was anymore, she just needed to get out of here. 

“Rubes, what’s wrong?” Olivia asked as she rose up with her. 

“Oh I’m just feeling a little funny that’s all,” Ruby said as she began to put her coat on. 

“Do you want me to call you a taxi or?” Olivia asked following Ruby to the door. 

“No, it’s fine my dad is going to pick me up.” 

“Oh-right.” Olivia knew to not follow that one up anymore after hearing about Ruby’s parents ‘reaction’ to the Tequila incident. 

As Ruby and Olivia looked into one another’s eyes there was a scream, a boys scream from up the stairs. “What the fuck are you doing?” Could be heard very lightly from a female voice from Ruby and Olivia considering how close they were to the stairs. 

Simon Furthassle came limping down the stairs like a footballer with a hamstring injury. 

“What the fucks wrong with you man?” Jackson asked over the laughter that was coming from the crowd. 

“She-She bit my dick!” Simon came out with and the whole room burst into laughter at Maeve Wiley who had appeared from down the stairs from behind Simon. 

“What-No that’s not what-” Maeve tried to begin but the crowd had already made up their minds and were pointing and laughing at her. 

Maeve felt completed rooted to the stairs, only able to move her neck and turn it towards two of the only people not laughing at her right now, Ruby and Olivia who were just glaring at her. “Help me.” Maeve whispered to them. 

But Ruby didn’t do anything she just increased the level of aggression into her glare the feeling of anger at what had happened between her and Simon bubbling back up and she picked the easy target blame, Maeve Wiley and in this very moment, cockbiter was born. 

For the next three and half years, Ruby carried the anger of how awful she felt that night with her nearly every day, Ruby Matthews shouldn’t be made to feel weak and second-best. She knew she was taking her anger out on the wrong person in Maeve, but that’s probably because she couldn’t look Simon in the eye after what he did and what he knew about her. 

The first year was tough whenever she was in around Simon’s presence, but after that Ruby gained her usual swagger back but was careful not to throw her typical Ruby insults his way in case he revealed what happened that night and allowed Moordale to openly mock her. 

So when Simon left Moordale to go to college in a different part of the country, Ruby was relieved not to have him around anymore, just as a precaution. She probably would have been fine if he came back and she was single, but instead, he was coming back and she had Otis. 

Nothing would probably happen, just those stupid movies she’d watch with Otis, Jean, Jakob and Joy were getting inside her head again, where a couple are all loved up and happy and then someone from their past returns to try and shake things up, causing a little extra drama. 

It was probably going to fine, Otis and Simon probably weren’t going to cross paths at the party as they were never friends anyway, just that small amount of doubt in her mind was driving her crazy, she just wanted to enjoy prom and have the perfect night with her boyfriend. 

“How much more nut milk do you need?” Otis asked as he and Ruby were completing the weekly Milburn/Nyman weekly shop in Sainsbury's. 

“Just the usual, If you don’t mind of course,” Ruby replied as she pushed the trolly up as she enjoyed pushing the trolly around pretending to drift round the aisle’s like it was some kind of rally car. 

“It’s my pleasure to buy your nut milk, Ruby Matthews.” Otis smiled as he took some down from where they were placed and popped them in the trolly as Ruby rolled her eyes at him. 

“My mum has been talking to your parents..” Otis began before Ruby cut him off.

“That doesn’t sound too good.” 

“No, they were thinking about getting us a limo, Lily’s parents as well and Eric’s, we’d all go together,” Otis said as he grabbed the multipack of crisps to go around the house for the week. 

“Oh,” Ruby muttered as she leaned on the trolley waiting for Otis to place the crisp inside of it.

“What’s wrong?” Otis asked as he span back around. 

“I’m getting a limo with Olivia, Anwar, Rahim and the twins and you if you want to come of course,” Ruby said as they began walking to the next aisle. 

“Did you ever plan on telling me this information Rubes?” Otis asked as prom was now only next week. 

“Sorry.” Ruby has had a lot on her mind as of late. 

“My mum’s already put a deposit down on it I think..” 

Ruby sighed heavily. “I’m sorry Otis, I should have said-” 

“It’s fine, it’s fine I’ll sort it out. I guess this means we won’t be travelling there together anymore then.” Otis dropped the tone in his voice in disappointment. 

“No, but you’ll still be my date if you still want to be of course.” Ruby trickled her left hand over to where Otis’ right hand was which he always on the trolly to keep it steady much to Ruby’s annoyance, but this time it came in handy as she could place her hand on top of his. 

“Of course.” Otis and Ruby stole a quick kiss as Ruby continued to push the trolly, with their eyes closed as they shared the kiss they both had no idea where the trolly was heading and when they reponed Ruby realised they were heading straight towards an old woman. “Oh shit!” Ruby pulled the trolly to a halt just before they hit the woman. 

“You shouldn’t snog while you’re pushing the trolly love.” The old woman said after looking the pair up and down, before slowly creeping away, Otis and Ruby just burst into a fit of laughter once the woman had disappeared around the corner. 

Prom for Otis was eerily similar to the only other school dance he had attended, ‘The happily ever after’ dance in the first year of sixth form, all of the dressing up of the school hall was the same, probably the same band setting up on stage too, Otis didn’t know if all the dances were like this or it was just a reflection of the school’s finical situation wich his uncle was oh so close to completing now. 

He, Eric, Ola and Lily had walked through the main doors together and the place was just beginning to fill up, Otis hadn’t expected Ruby to have arrived yet as she had told him about her extra-long ‘beauty routine’ she had been preparing for. 

“Oh my god, you slay queen!” Eric exclaimed whilst scrolling through his phone as he and Otis picked up their drinks for the night. 

“What? What is it?” Otis asked as he passed Eric his drink which he accepted but all while keeping his eyes on his phone screen. 

“Aw man, I can’t wait to see your face when Ruby walks in!” Eric giggled out loud to himself

“You’ve seen a photo haven’t you….” Otis had promised himself not to look at Ruby’s Instagram before she got here as he wanted to have a genuine reaction, but by the look on Eric’s face, he was beginning to regret that decision. 

“Oh yes, I have! Let me tell you, your jaw is going to drop to de floor!” Eric squealed before attempting to jump on top of Otis. 

“Ah-ah Eric, Eric! You are really not helping here” Otis repealed his friend’s attack but Eric just continued to giggle at him. “I’m going to the toilet,” Otis muttered before heading in that direction. 

“You’re not going for the toilet for a wank are you? Because you are going to need that energy for late my horny friend! HAHAHAHA” Eric’s laughter trailed off after he shouted over the music so his best friend could hear him. 

By realising that Ruby had uploaded photos to her Instagram, it meant that she was probably in the limousine and en route to the school from Olivia’s house. Otis had worked out how long it would take until she arrived and decided to take to the bathroom to calm himself down. 

By now he was used to the stares he would get when he and Ruby are together but they were always in small patches of people, tonight the whole school and some people he hadn’t seen in years would be there and everyone would be looking at her and then her awkward and gangly looking boyfriend. Otis was getting better with his confidence, Ruby was by far his biggest helper in that department but still, big crowds left him far out of his comfort zone. 

He splashed water on his face and began to regulate his breathing, again something Ruby had helped him with, after his first panic attack in a while at the hospital when Joy was born and after Ruby had helped him he pulled her up on how she knew exactly what to do when he was in that state and she revealed about how her father had similar experiences after his diagnosis and Ruby taught him a few new techniques. 

Once he had felt comfortable and ready to go outside to get ready to face the music, but then the door swung open to reveal Jackson Marchetti coming through. 

“Hey man.” Jackson nodded to Otis as he made his way over to wash his hands. 

“Hi-Jackson.” No matter what people thought of him nowadays he was still all star athlete and coolest guy at the school to Otis. He was aware that Jackson and Ruby had a brief fling around the time of their GSCE’s, but their revision and Jackson’s swimming schedule had brought things to an end. So when Ruby confirmed to him that he was the best she had ever had, he finds it amusing that he was better in bed (well car passenger seat to be accurate) than a man he viewed as the embodiment of masculinity.

“You looking forward to tonight?” Jackson asked him as he checked himself out in the mirror. 

“Yeah, yes, yes I am.” Otis bumbled his way through his sentence as he pushed his hands deep into his pockets.

Jackson smiled in the mirror. “Do you remember the last time we were at a dance and Maeve was with me but she was hopelessly in love with you.”

Otis was hoping that Jackson wouldn’t go there. “Erm-” Otis wasn’t too sure what to say, while he was almost certain of it now, he wasn’t sure about Maeve being ‘hopelessly in love with him. 

“You know, she never once apologised to me, till this day, just nothing,” Jackson said as he spun back around to face Otis. “I tried to tell you at your party, but I don’t think you were in a good shape.” Otis really can’t remember much from that night despite how much he wants to. “But it pained me for months that she was going to go running off into your arms, but when it never happened it actually hurt me even more, like it was all for nothing.” Jackson paused, Otis wasn’t to sure if he was supposed to say something at this point and even if he was he can’t think of what to say, so he just awkwardly ducked his head. “I heard that night was the start of something special for you man.” 

“Yeah, it was,” Otis mumbled as he finally lifted his head up. 

“I’m happy you found someone man.” Jackson patted Otis’ shoulder, his hand still not fully dry from returning from the dryers before he headed out of the door. 

Cal Bowman had been coming round to Otis’ house to see his mother, the reasons were unknown to Otis but sometimes he couldn’t help but overhear conversations, hearing that they had previously attempted a romantic encounter with a straight person and it hadn’t gone well, Otis didn’t know Cal at all and had never interacted with them but had only spotted them with Jackson in the early parts of this school year, therefore, Otis could presume it was Jackson who they had said encounter with. 

Strangely Otis had managed to link the current pity he was feeling for Jackson to the secret he was hiding for Claire Matthews. Otis was a bad liar, no doubt but he still maintains he is able to hold one if he is not at all pressured. Jackson Marchetti was living proof of that, Otis knew the biggest secret of his life and he never once felt compelled to spill it, if Jackson had asked him what he and Maeve were doing on the 27th September 2018 walking around town sharing flowers, he would absolutely fold, the same if Ruby had ever caught him sneaking glimpses at Claire Matthews through a bush when he was going through a phase of checking up on her. Otis was a feminist and a massive supporter of ‘pro choice’ but his mind would often think about what would have happened if Jackson knew, probably the exact same outcome just with Jackson walking Maeve back to the caravan that day, just again Otis a part of Otis felt for Jackson that a baby that he created was slowly growing inside Maeve Wiley’s body, the girl he loved and he would never know. 

Otis checked the clock on the wall. “Oh shit.” He said aloud as he hadn’t realised how long he had been in this Marchetti induced trance and that Ruby could have arrived or could be arriving any moment now. “Okay, okay.” Otis calmed himself downand stroked his hand through his hair as he exited the bathroom door, through the tiny hallway that separated the bathroom to the main hall which had most recently housed lot’s of tables and chairs for students to sit their exams, now it was dressed up for the students to enjoy one last time before they moved onto the next part of their lives. 

But as Otis opened the doors to the hall, he was only enjoying one thing and one thing only, well one person only, Ruby Matthews in her emerald green dress with it’s high slit and deep v neckline and as ever Otis was convinced her ‘beauty routine’ allowed her skin to glow. Otis was completely rooted to the spot, completely breathless in the presence of her beauty. 

Thankfully for Otis Ruby seemed to recognise this also and Ruby was the one who approached him slowly in her heels. 

“You’re-you’re amazing…” Otis said once she was close enough. 

“I know.” Of course Ruby knew how stunning she looked but still the confirmation from her boyfriend instigated butterflies in her stomach. “And you Otis Milburn…” Ruby closed the gap between them placing her hands onto his jacket. “You’re in and around the above-average range.” With the addition of her heels, Ruby doesn’t have to reach as much as she would in her school shoes to plant a kiss on his cheek. “You look really nice darling.” 

It was Otis’ turn for a stomach butterfly invasion the same as every other time Ruby used that word to describe him. 

“Considering we are the best-looking couple in the building, let’s get some photographs to keep a record of it ey?” Ruby offered out her hand to him which he took instantly as they began to walk over to the photo booth. 

“It’s very green, are you making some kind of environmental statement?” Otis asked looking down at Ruby’s dress. 

“No Otis…” Ruby smiled at his usual dorkiness as they walked hand in hand across the hall. “My dad helped me pick it, I think he liked the colour, For Ireland and all.” Ruby’s Irish accent made a brief appearance again. 

Otis squeezed Ruby’s hand a little tighter at the mention of her dad, imagining how proud and happy he was watching Ruby leave for prom. 

So they went over to the photography booth, with Ruby pushing them 5 or 6 places up in the queue as she dragged him through the crowd and when it was their turn they spent 10 minutes over their allocated time in there, with Ruby splitting their photos into three different categories ‘cute, silly and hot.’  Ruby has some trouble getting Otis to pose for the final one, but she still hopes for good results when they went through them when they got home.

“Looks like I’m going to have to let you off your lead again.” Ruby nodded over towards Eric who was loitering on the dance floor trying to somehow get Otis attention without Ruby noticing, a plan which had clearly failed miserably. 

“Are you sure?”Otis asked back but before Ruby could respond Vivan Odusanya just seemed to spawn in front of them. 

“Votes for prom king and queen?” Vivan passed a card over to each of them, each with a little blank space next to Prom King: and Prom Queen: “Thank god you two are close to eachother alphabetically because these cards are a nightmare.” Vivan was clearly juggling some kind of register, passing out each card in alphabetical order. “And Ruby you can’t vote for yourself,” Vivan added as Ruby began to fill out her card. 

“Or what?” Ruby didn’t seem to give a care in the world as she continued to write.

“Or both of your votes won’t be counted.” Ruby raised her neck upwards to make sure that Vivian was being serious, Ruby then appeared to cross a line through something she had written on. “Can I put down Adam Groff as prom queen?” 

“No actually you-.” 

“Final decision.” Ruby forced the card into Vivian’s pile on top of Otis’ one who had completed his choices a lot faster. Vivan rolled her eyes before heading off to find the next names on her list. 

“Who did you vote for dear?” Ruby asked while squeezing his hand. 

“You, from Prom Queen.” 

“Good,” Ruby said as a small smile appeared on her face. 

“And Eric for prom king.” 

Ruby rolled her eyes. “God such a cliche Otis your best friend and your girlfriend. Couldn’t have gone for someone a little left field to spice things up.” 

“Well, Adam Groff as prom queen is pretty left field, were you more reserved in your choice for prom king?” 

“I voted for Steve Morley, the kilt weirdly suits him.” Ruby nodded over to ‘Top-Heavy-Steve’ “Why is he wearing it again?” 

“His mothers Scottish and did you really vote for him?” Otis asked his voice sounding a little hurt. 

“No! I voted for you idiot!” Ruby lightly digged Otis’s arm. 

“OW!” Otis winged “Did you really?” He asked one the pain had passed. 

“Yes, I know I can come across as quite mean sometimes, but not voting for my own boyfriend wouldn’t be a great look.” 

A small smile crept onto Otis’ face similar to that of Ruby’s one when she found out he had voted for her. “Probably my one and only vote.” 

“Well, I’m very proud to have that honour.” Ruby wrapped her spare arm around his arm she had just lightly punched. “I love you.” She whispered as she planted a kiss on his lips. 

“I love you too.” 

“Now go on, I think Eric’s going to self combust if you leave him waiting for any longer,” Ruby said as she let go of his arm as a signal for him to head off. “Oh and tell Eric he looks stunning will you.” Ruby referenced his best friends bold and expressive suit of choice. 

Otis nodded and Ruby smirked as she watched him pretty much skip to join Eric on the dancefloor.

Adam Groff had been here before, watching Eric Effoing moving across the dance floor with his best friend, they were a little less gracious than the last time, jumping up and down like fools but without half the school engulfing them in a circle. Adam was in a much better place than he was that night over a year ago, he had worked his way back into school and mostly with the help of Miss Sands tutoring he felt like he was in with half a chance of passing his exams, despite his parent's divorce he felt like he now had a stable home life with a good system being worked out by his mum and dad, Finally, Adam felt he had three genuine friends in the form of Ola, Rahim and Ruby. An odd trio he knows, but if there was only one word to describe Adam Groff he knows ‘odd’ will be up there.

Despite all of this Adam feels ten times worse now than he did back then. That’s because he had his heartbroken by the man in front of him, Eric Effoing and even after all these months it still hurt so much. 

“Are you okay?” Rahim asked as he parked himself onto the chair next to Adam. 

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?” Adam sighed trying to mask the pain in his voice.

Rahim didn’t even respond, he just everted his gaze up towards the dancefloor where Eric and Otis were dancing. “Do you want to go and dance?”

Adam let out a nervous chuckle. “What would your boyfriend think about that?” Adam asked while playing with his fingers. 

“I don’t think he will notice do you?” Rahim said and Adam followed the direction of the Frenchman’s gaze where Anwar was chatting away with Olivia, Ruby and the twins who Adam had not seen for over two years now. “And besides.” Rahim began as he offered his hand out to Adam. “I believe it a song you ‘bounce around to’. Adam accepted Rahim’s hand as they walked across the dancefloor. 

Adam had jumped around on the dancefloor before, well it’s all he could do really. Most recently it would be with Ruby when she would take him out to a gay club on the weekend, those visits were becoming more and more frequent and it was becoming really enjoyable for Adam, a chance for him to escape all of his problems. 

But right now as he couldn’t quite find the right rhythm on the dancefloor, he was putting that down to a problem he had been trying to escape very recently, telling himself and stupid and it wasn’t right. He liked Rahim, he really like Rahim.

“I need to go to the toilet” Aimee announced of nowhere while she and Maeve were standing at the bar. 

“Do you want me to come with you?” Maeve asked, she used to hate ‘girly shit’ like that but now if it was part and parcel of having a best friend Maeve didn’t mind. 

“Oh no, I don’t think you do.” Aimee began as she placed her hand over her rumbling chest. “I think that constipation is back again, I'm going to need to go.” Maeve chuckled as she watched Aimee struggle off towards the loo. Maybe Anna and Aimee forcing her to go wasn’t the worst idea after all. 

Maeve barely had time to breathe in the time between Aimee leaving and Viv appearing out of breath in front of her. “Ah, Maeve, nearly there.” Vivan stopped to hand over one of the very last cards left. “Votes for prom king and queen?” 

“Erm, no thanks.” Mave handed the card straight back over to Vivan. 

“What do you mean?” Viv asked back.

“Reinforcing gender stereotypes and a hint of a monarchial system, no thanks!” Maeve patted the card back down on the pile again before smiling sarcastically at Viv before she left.

Maeve span back around to the bar and as she did so she noticed a new person had joined her over her right shoulder. 

“Maeve.” 

“Simon.” 

There is one of the many arsehole Maeve didn’t want to bump into tonight, especially because all the thoughts of that night from five and half years ago was now rushing back into her consciousness. 

“How’s-” Simon began to try and instigate a conversation but he was cut off sharply by Maeve. 

“You made my life hell Simon, just because you couldn’t take a little bit of rejection!”

“I wasn’t the only one,” Simon whispered underneath his breath in reference to how Ruby took that night but Maeve doesn’t quite catch it. 

“Every day of school since then I’ve faced the kind of words, that you would send a little whimp like you crying into your pillow every night and just so you know despite all of the hell you caused I’ve still come out stronger than your sorry arse.” 

“I’m sorry…” 

Maeve chuckled. “That’s it? After all these years and all I get is ‘I’m sorry.’ “

“No, I’m sorry I got your heartbroken.” Simon was nodding over to where Otis was on the dancefloor. “Yeah I heard about that, I also heard he’s going out with Ruby Matthews now, it’s a funny old merry go round isn’t it.” Simon chuckled as he took a sip of his drink. 

“Yeah well I didn’t have my heartbroken for your information, now fuck off or I will actually bite your dick this time!” Maeve spat back at him.

“Gladly.” Simon picked up his drinks he was carrying and disappeared into the crowd.

“Time to go and fetch your toyboy?” BC asked Ruby as the band’s lead singer announced it was time for all the couples in the room to come together as the music was going to get “Slowwwwwww.” 

“Yeah I think it is that time Bianca,” Ruby said smugly as she headed off towards the dance floor while Anwar followed from behind her to go and find Rahim, wherever he had gotten to. 

“Sorry Eric, think he’s mine for this one.” Ruby snuck up behind the pair and began to tug on Otis’ arm. 

“Oh yes, yes Ruby of course.” Eric nervously scattered away as Ruby mouthed ‘you look great’ to him just in case Otis had not delivered her earlier message of appreciation for his outfit, her compliment caused Eric to blush as he disappeared out of sight. 

“Erm- Ruby I must tell you that I’m not much of a dancer,” Otis said as they came face to face on the dance floor. 

“Well, what the fuck have you been doing for the past 45 minutes!” 

“That was mindless jumping in the air, I just don’t think I’m going to be very good-.” 

“Otis.” Ruby stroked the top of his hair to try and calm him. “It’s just rocking side to side together I think you can work that one out can’t you?” Ruby asked and Otis nodded. “Okay put your hands on me.” 

“Where?” 

“Well, you can put them here,” Ruby said as she moved Otis hands to her waist “Or here.” Ruby then moved her boyfriend’s hands onto her arse. “Your choice.”

“Waist, I like waist, not to say I don’t like your bum, it’s really nice, really big, by far the best at the school and-.” 

“Otis,” Ruby whispered before kissing him softly to shut him up. “Just enjoy the music.” 

Ruby had been high many times in her life, mostly from study groups at Aimee’s. But nothing could compare to the high of being with Otis Milburn would give her. None of them know what song is playing from the band on stage, but it doesn’t matter it’s slow and soft and their bodies rock together to it. They steal little kisses from one another, whisper declarations of love to each other at least five or six times, Ruby would rest her head in his chest to listen to his heartbeat over the music as he would kiss her forehead and reaffirm how beautiful she was. 

She genuinely thinks how much she loves him is painful for heart as the music comes to a stop and they share one last kiss. 

She also thinks about what she would be doing if she didn’t have Otis, probably standing in the corner with Olivia slagging off everyone’s ‘cheap and tacky’ outfits. S he was so lucky to have him. 

The smile on her face is much wider than she would normally allow to come through as she sat down next to Olivia on their table. 

“You have fun?” Olivia asked. 

“Yeah- I did.” Ruby voice is almost breathless as she still can’t take her eyes off Otis from the other side of the room as she sipped on her vodka coke. 

“You really do love him don’t you,” Olivia said as she noticed her best friends inability to look anywhere but in Otis direction. 

“Yeah, I do.” Ruby smile had now increased to the size that was normally only reserved for late-night phone calls with Otis when she had to stay in with her dad, she’d normally like to keep that one private even from Otis so he couldn’t tease her for the effect he had on her, but right now she just couldn’t help herself, she was just so fucking happy. “I’m happy that you and Anwar are becoming a little bit more accepting of him, he is a great guy Liv.”

“I know.” Olivia was staring into the middle distance with the same nervous look on her face she had back in London, which Ruby had picked up on. 

“Liv? What’s wrong?” Ruby reached joined her hands up with her best friends. 

“Ruby I-” 

Before Olivia could respond her blushes were spared again, this time by Mr Hendricks and temporary headmistress Miss Sands who appeared in front of the microphone. 

“After that lovely romantic interlude, it’s time to announce the prom king and queen so if you could all gather round.” Mr Hendricks invited the students to gather on the dancefloor on the stage.

“Are you going to be okay?” Ruby asked Olivia as they walked towards the dancefloor together. 

“Yeah.” Olivia managed to squeak back. 

Because the whole school was congregating in one small space, it was impossible for Ruby to reach or even spot Otis through the crowd, so she has to stick with Olivia, BC and CC for the ceremony. 

Across the other side of the room, Otis himself is looking for Ruby but to no avail. He can hear Cal mutter something behind him about how inappropriate having a prom king and queen in today's society was completely inappropriate and not very inclusive. Otis would normally agree, well he did agree but if it was important to Ruby it was important to him. 

“So let’s start with the prom king shall we….” Miss Sands said as she began to open the first of the two golden envelopes. “And Moordale’s 2020 prom king is, Steve Morley!” 

A huge cheer went up for Steve, turns out the kilt had quite the effect in the swinging of the voting. Otis and Eric clapped for Steve, but as Mr Hendricks began to open the final envelope Otis knew this was the moment he had been waiting for. 

“And the prom queen is, surprise surprise Ruby Matthews…..” 

An even bigger cheer went up for Ruby as she began to make her way up to the stage to join Steve in being crowned. Otis was slightly nervous that her relationship with him would cost her the prom queen title, similarly to how participating in ‘sexy Shakespeare had cost Jackson his shot at prom king, but still no matter what she was still Ruby Matthews and was destined to be the Queen. 

Ruby and Steve disappeared into the photo booth to show off their crowns, which Ruby was still wearing when she met back up with Otis on the dancefloor, actually, now he thought about it, Otis was certain she was never going to take it off. 

“Your majesty.” Otis performed a courtesy as she approached causing Ruby to smirk. 

“No Otis, men bow, women courtesy, thought nerds would know this kinda shit.” 

“Well I guess this makes me a prince not a nerd now, I guess if your the Queen and all.” 

“No, I’m married to my faithful husband King Steve over there.” Ruby nodded over to Steve who was showing off his crown to some of his friends. “But you could be my bit on the side if you like,” Ruby said as she tugged on his suits. 

“We’re back to cars and toilets now then?” 

“Looks that way,” Ruby said before she leaned up to kiss him. 

“You know, what would you say if I told you the first time you walked through those doors in year 7, that the last time you would walk through these doors it would be hand in hand with me?” Otis asked Ruby as they did exactly that. The rest of the night had flown by, Otis and Ruby were a tiny bit tipsy, not at all drunk probably because they had spent most of their time on the dancefloor than at the bar, trying to enjoy every last second they were spending in this building. 

It had been a hell of a night for them, made better by both of the little niggles they had about the night had not come back to bite them. For Otis he remained calm throughout from the onlooking crowd as he danced with the most beautiful girl in the world. And as for Ruby not once did she even cross paths with Simon, maybe life isn't like those stupid movies after all  She thinks as she adjusts her crown as they continue to walk. 

“I would have called the police and got an immediate restraining order against you, erm what are you doing?” Ruby asked as he let go of her hand once they reached the bike lock stands and began to grab his keys from his pockets. 

“Just leaving a little bit of artwork.” Otis said as he began to engrave something on what had been known up and down the years as ‘his’ bike stand. 

Ruby leaned forward to grab his free hand, it was awkward as his hand was just hovering in the air to try and give him some sort of balance as he engraved the message, but Ruby didn’t care she just wanted to do one of her favourite things, holding his hand. “Well maybe it wouldn’t have been that bad of a prediction because you know your suchhhhhhhhh a gentleman, you could have just been helping a drunk me leave the school hall.

Otis popped back up from his bike stand and Ruby angled her neck to see what he had written ‘ OTIS WAS HERE’. “ And how about snogging me in broad daylight in front of this very bike stand.” Otis patted the bike stand as they moved closer to that day. 

“Oh, I would have just thrown you straight in jail.” Ruby did the exact same motion as she did on that day Otis was referring to, as she placed her hands onto the back of his neck and brought him into a kiss. 

Ruby Matthews kissing Otis Milburn on Moordale school grounds, for the last time.

Chapter Text

Another reason there was a lot on Ruby’s mind in and around the exam season, is that she was trying to organise Otis’ surprise 18th birthday party. 

It was a very simple plan, they would be going out for a ‘meal’ with Jean, Jakob, Ola and Lily, while en route to the ‘restaurant Ruby would pop into that stupid pub that Otis and Jean would spend boxing day for the toilet give Otis and excuse to come in with her (she was still working on that part) and then surprise! The function room would be decorated with banners and embarrassing old photos as well as it being full of Otis friends and family. 

She was stressing herself out because she wanted it to be perfect for him, he deserved only the best. 

“You’re the best” 

That’s what she told him the very first time he stayed over at her house when she nearly admitted her love for him for the first time and she probably would have done if it wasn’t for his adorable sleepy eyes fighting to stay open in the darkness of her room. 

The time they had spent together since then had only reinforced her point, he was well and truly the best. 

Last September when it was Ruby’s 18th birthday, they were still very much a secret and a few days away from returning back to school. She was very reluctant to even invite him. She had managed to squash the rumours of the first time they slept together at Otis’ party but inviting Otis Milburn to a party he had no right to be at could have re-lit those rumours so for weeks she strictly told him he was not invited and don’t dare try and show up to the house they had rented for her birthday. It was only very late in the day that she decided to invite him when she was getting all glammed up with Olivia and Anwar that she was only was interested in one person seeing her this beautiful and that was Otis. Even when he arrived she didn’t plan on sleeping with him that night,  too many people equlas too risky, she just wanted to see his reaction to her and maybe a tiny bit of her wanted to see him in some smarter clothes. But when she saw him talking to some blonde bitch who must have been important if she was at Ruby’s party, a rage of jealousy hit through her body and she ended up slyly dragging him upstairs. Which ended up being only the second they had sex in a bed after their very first time together, which probably inspired Otis desire to continue having sex in houses a couple of days later on the first day back to school now that she thinks about it. 

Now things were different, they were together, no more hiding from the school or hiding on social media, everyone and their grandparents in Moordale knew that Ruby Matthews was dating chief nerd Otis Milburn. 

But it seemed like no one could help her with the planning, she definitely couldn’t enlist Eric as while he would be a massive help he would definitely babble about the party to Otis within 5 minutes of them spending time together. Jean tries her best but looking after a newborn baby and being a sex therapist limits her time. 

“What do you think of these banners?” Ruby twisted her laptop around to show Jean while she was feeding Joy in her high chair. Otis had left for the cinema’s with Eric about half an hour ago so they were in the clear to talk about the surprise party. Ruby also found it amusing she was comfortable enough to stay in Otis’ house now without him even there.

Jean slowly grabbed her glasses to get a look at the bright screen Ruby had pushed in front of her. “Ah, they’re very nice Ruby, a little expensive for some banners don’t you think?” Jean looked at the custom design with ‘Happy 18th Birthday Otis’ plastered across in the centre, before noting the price tag. 

“Yeah.” Ruby sighed. She just wanted the best for Otis’ special day and had tried to finance as much as of it as she could on her own, but there was only so much your pocket money and her career’s allowance could get her, so she eventually has to give in to Jean’s persistent demands to help her with the costs. 

“Did you speak to Otis’ dad yet-.” Ruby begins but she is interrupted by the ring of a doorbell.

Ruby knew when the ‘vagania’ workshops or others were scheduled and would often listen in just for a laugh, Otis had reminded her that her ‘funny looking labia’ and her ‘sticky out bit’ was very beautiful and very unique enough now, when Ruby said ‘enough’ she means every time he goes down on her. 

Clients were a very story though, with Jean often keeping her cards close to her chest, considering it was client confidentiality and all, but being in and around the Milburn/Nyman household as often as she was, she could always have a gauge at who might walk through the door. Today on this Friday it was Aimee Gibbs. 

Ruby was horrible to Maeve, but Maeve was often too nice to bite back often just relying upon a flip of the bird at the worst of times. However, Aimee would probably die defending her best friends honour, this lead maybe to a tenser petty rivalry between herself and Aimee than herself and her and Maeve these days. 

But Ruby did know why she was here, Olivia had told her the Monday after that Friday detention everything that had happened, the information had to wait till Monday because Ruby spent most of the weekend reflecting on the strange sensation she had in her tummy about her time with Otis. 

Despite their current active dislike for one another Ruby did feel terribly sorry for Aimee and despite the different type of assault Ruby could somewhat relate to her,  she had been groped many times by guys, like Aimee she initially thought nothing of it at the time, even often offering a wink if a good looking guy would grab her arse unexpectedly in a club or walking down the street. It wasn’t until she spoke with Otis about these experiences he made her realise the severity of these incidents and then an even better understanding when she asked Otis to see if his mother would talk to her about it and from that she got to see for the very first time why Jean Milburn was so god damn good at her job. 

“Ah Aimee, so good to see you again,” Jean said as she opened the door and Aimee stepped through. 

“Likewise Dr Milburn, I’ve got a Gecko now, would you like to see him-” The usual joyful tone in Aimee’s voice dropped when she spotted Ruby sitting down at the kitchen table from across the room. 

“Aimee.” 

“Ruby.” 

They glared at eachother like two boxers staring off from the blue and the red corner before the first bell before the first round of a world title fight. 

“Ruby’s just sorting out the invitation’s for Otis surprise party on the 21st, would you be interested, Aimee?” Jean asked as they both filtered into the kitchen. 

“Oh, I don’t think I’ll be invited, Dr Milburn.” 

“Well I think Otis would love to have you there, wouldn’t he Ruby?” Jean asked and Ruby just nodded in response. “Ruby darling will you just watch Joy, while I’m in the session dear?”

“Of course… Jean.” Ruby boasted her ability to use Jean’s name so freely now in front of Aimee, who as she followed Jean out of her kitchen span back around to stick her middle finger up at Ruby who in return did the same but all while keeping her eyes on Joy. “Are you going to spend some time with Ruby are you.” When she was certain Aimee and Jean were out of sight Ruby used her special baby voice that was normally reserved for Baby and sometimes for Otis when it was necessary to tease him. 

Joy seemed to let off some kind of happy giggle when Ruby rubbed the bottom of her chin, Ruby smiled back at the 8 month-year-old in her high chair, before returning her eyes momentarily to the laptop to add Aimee Gibbs onto the list of invitees list. 

The invites were another factor in to Ruby’s stress, she had gathered up a list of people quite quickly but decided to wait until the last week to send them out due to her anxiety that someone would let it slip to Otis, giving them less time to do so somewhat calmed those anxieties. 

She lets Jean handle the family while Ruby tackles the friends, she thinks about describing the slow and painful death to Eric that he would receive if he let it slip to Otis about the party, this seems like a good approach but then she imagines Eric would be so spooked by her threat Otis would obviously notice what’s up. So instead Ruby promised a 1 on 1 makeup session with him if he kept his mouth shut, Eric’s face looks as if he has been told he’s getting 12 Christmas’ at once when he realises alone time with the Queen of the Untouchables would be his reward. 

Ruby chases up lot’s of nerds like that Ally from ‘Game Club’ who sounds like she is shaking through the phone when Ruby calls her after she gets her number from Eric, then those people Otis talks to through a headset while he’s on his Nintendo and PlayStation. Cameron, Ben and TJ. Ruby again through the guidance of Eric manages to get a hold of them, she is relieved that they actually are teenagers like they say they are and not creepy 40-year-old men still living in their basement when she talks to them through the phone and she is 99% sure that none of them has ever spoken to a girl before. 

She invites lot’s more people from the school that Otis is at least semi-friendly with and maybe she selfishly invites Olivia and Anwar but it’s only because she wants them to continue to get along, but she accepts that BC and CC would definitely be a step too far.

There was one more name Ruby was stuck on, Maeve Wiley. 

Obviously Ruby didn’t want to have Maeve around if she didn’t have to and it was a ‘surprise party’ so Otis wasn’t writing up the invite list himself but she knows if he did, Maeve would be one of the first names on his list. It was Otis’ special day not Ruby’s special day she tells herself, he should be surrounded by his best friends. 

So how to get in contact with Maeve? Maeve has Ruby blocked on Instagram which was probably deserved and no one she knew had Maeve’s phone number except for Otis, she worries that if Otis catches her going through his phone the whole surprise could blow up in her face. She could ask her dad, to ask Jefferey, to ask Cynthia, to ask Maeve but that’s far too many steps for Ruby’s liking. 

So Ruby resorts to her final option, heading to where Maeve lives knocking on the front door and asking her that way. 

When she knocks on, Ruby is kicking herself for not asking Aimee when her’s and Jean’s session back at Otis’, but she had a little wobble and Ruby Matthews shouldn’t wobble.

“Is Maeve in?” Ruby asked the moment Anna appeared from the open door of her house. 

“Oh-.” The smile on Anna’s face dropped when she realised it was Ruby in front of her, Whatever Maeve’s told you about me it isn’t good then is it. Ruby thinks as Anna disappears back into the kitchen, but what else did Ruby really expect? 

“It’s Otis’ Girlfriend….”

“What?” 

Ruby can hear Anna and Maeve whisper to one another, it makes Ruby smile that she is referred to as ‘Otis’ girlfriend’ and not some sick insult that she probably deserved. 

“Wiley.” 

“Ruby.” 

The awkward introductions are gotten out of the way as Maeve appears from the living room of Anna’s house and into the hallway. “It’s Otis’ Birthday on Sunday.” 

“I know,” Maeve replies sharply. 

“Otis is having a surprise party, 7 O’clock, The Wandering Cock, don’t tell him obviously.” 

“When would I be seeing him anyway?” Maeve asks as she takes a sip of her tea.

It’s a good point. “Bring a +1 if you want…” 

“Morning or night?” 

“What?” A confused Ruby asked back. 

“7 O’clock in the morning or 7 o’clock at night?”

She’s doing that thing again that she did back at the hospital when Joy was born, trying to make Ruby feel stupid over the smallest of things. “I’ll leave that one up to you shall I Maeve, now I better get back, Otis and I are going roller staking,” Ruby says as she heads back to her car. 

It’s not even true, Ruby just says it so sort of one-up Maeve. She wants to turn around and say ‘let’s stop this bullshit for Otis sake’. Ruby used to be able to crush Maeve in whatever way she wanted like she was a boot and Maeve was an ant but ever since Otis had gotten involved in her life it felt like the roles had been reversed, she would get all twitchy around her knowing what Otis meant to her and what she meant to him and she would always feel like she would walk away coming off second best with Maeve, something she desperately didn’t want to be seen as by Otis. 

But even if Ruby turned around and said that she what she wanted to say, it would probably be to avail as she thinks would she forgive someone who was the worlds biggest bitch to you for the best part of five years? Probably not. 

Next up is sorting out all of the photos that would be plastered all over the pub walls. She had already sent off lot’s of their cutest snaps together to be printed off. Jean and Eric help her out by sending photos of him throughout the years, many of which she hadn’t seen before.

She’s in Otis’ bath on a Friday night scrolling through them on her Ipad that is pressed against the only part of her skin that isn’t touching the water. She loves Otis’ bath, it’s far bigger than her’s and she loves filling it with far too many bubbles that would seem acceptable and lighting candles on the side, she would honestly sleep in here if Cuddling with her boyfriend wasn’t one of the best feelings in the world. She has a glass of wine on the side that she regularly reaches out for when she is staring in adoration at a young Otis, with her boyfriend shouting into his headset to Eric and his other online friends she might actually fall asleep in here tonight. 

Her peace is disturbed when she feels the lock on the bathroom door shaking to the right of her. “Er, I’m in here!” Ruby awkwardly calls out to whoever was on the other side of the door trying to get in. 

But then the door she swears she locked behind her begins to open, Ruby quickly tries to cover up the more private areas of her body all while making sure her I pad doesn’t dip into any part of the bathwater. “I’m in here, I’m in here!” She calls out again with a sense of panic in her voice in case any of Jean, Jakob or Ola walked in. 

The door flys open and thankfully for her, it’s the only person in the world she doesn’t mind seeing her naked. “Oh Otis,” Ruby breathes a sigh of relief as her body relaxed back into its original position.

“Sorry about that.” 

“How the fuck did you get in, It was locked!” Ruby asked with a heavy hint of annoyance in her voice as her peace had been disturbed. 

“Well…” Otis began as he raised a 1p coin in the air. “If you thread one of these where the lock is on the other side you can twist the lock.” 

“Ew, what kind of perv designed that?” Ruby cringed as she looked towards the door lock which she now knew could be opened at any time. 

“Well, I was never any good at design and technology so I can formally rule myself out of the running.” 

Ruby rolled her eyes at his Otisness she had very much become accustomed to and not so secretly adored. “What are you even doing in here Milburn?”

“Well my headset was playing is playing up again, so I’ve gone offline for the night,” Otis replied looking in the direction of his bedroom. 

“Well maybe if you stopped shouting into it….” Ruby arrowed back at him. 

“That’s not why it’s broken Ruby! It’s to do with the adaptor on the end of-” Otis began before he was sharply cut off by his girlfriend. 

“I don’t care about that nerd shit Milburn, you know if you were lucky enough to have a ridiculously hot and generous girlfriend she might get you a brand new headset for your birthday.” 

“Really?” Otis’ face lit up at the prospect. 

Ruby didn’t respond, she only smirked at him through the vast amount of bubbles. “So that’s all you came in here to say? You could have said that through the door?” She nodded in the direction of the door still quite annoyed at the disruption of her peace. 

“Well, I was coming to see if you were coming to bed.” 

“Still could have said that through the door, Milburn.” 

“Well, also I wanted to come in and see you…” Otis thought Ruby was ridiculously beautiful without her makeup on and her hair up in a messy bun to avoid most of it dipping in the water, something Otis had made sure to remind her of frequently.

Ruby smiled back at him as she knew exactly what he was going on about, probably the only boy in the world who would be more arsed about her hair and the lack of what was on her face than her naked body in front of him. 

Otis slowly approached her, leaning on the side of the bath as he stole a chaste kiss. “You really need to be careful of that I pad,” Otis noted the I pad that was resting in the space between her breasts a neck. “What you looking at anyway?” 

“Erm...Nothing…” Ruby can’t think of a usual snarky response that would make things seem like they were ordinary, so her awkward pause in her delivery clearly makes it seem like she was hiding something. Fuck. 

“Let me have a look…” Otis said as he began towards her. 

“No.” Ruby shielded the Ipad away from him as much as she could without it touching the water. 

“Let me have a look,” Otis smirked as he tried to grab the I pad from Ruby. 

“No Otis! No!” Ruby pleaded as she struggled for control of the Ipad, but eventually, it was clear that the I pad would end up in the water if one of them didn’t yield and Ruby was the one to chicken out. 

The I pad had gone off but Ruby had set the passcode on all of her devices as Otis’ birthdate so it was easy for him to gain access, she was kind of worried about what he would think of the photos that would load up immediately, but she was more worried about if he went snooping on her safari tab which would have been full of the custom birthday barries she had just ordered. 

“Hmmm, So you’re alone here in the bath and you’re looking at old photos of me,” Otis said as he began scrolling through the images on the Ipad. Ruby looked up at him nervously hoping he would fill the next sentence. “Wow, you must love me really bad if you can’t spend five minutes without looking at me.”

“Must be something in the bathwater Milburn.” Ruby quipped back as Otis seemed to offer her the Ipad back. “Put it on top of my clothes will you.” Otis did as he told and he carefully placed the Ipad on top of her discarded clothes on the bathroom floor. 

As Otis walked out of the bathroom shutting the door behind him Ruby turned to her wine glass calculating how long it would take her to finish it at a decent pace. “I’ll be five minutes.”She called out to the other room, making sure that he heard her so he wouldn’t be halfway asleep by the time she got back to his room.

“Good morning my birthday boy.” Ruby gracefully spoke as she kicked open Otis’ bedroom door whilst carrying the breakfast she had made for him. 

Otis smiled through his groan as she had woke him up, smiling particularly at Ruby’s use of the words ‘my’ and ‘boy’, If only Ruby Matthews could hear herself. 

“Hmmmm, Is that a Ruby Matthews special?” Otis asked as he began to sit up in his bed, noticing the full English on the tray she was carrying, It was Ruby’ speciality considering every morning that she had been in the Matthews house for the past two and half years she would make it for her dad on every day bar Sunday when her dad and Jeffery opted to get stoned instead. But today was a Sunday and it was Otis’ birthday and she had made one just for him. 

“That it is,” Ruby said as she placed the tray into his lap. “Happy Birthday Otis.” She whispered once he was settled and then leaned in to softly kiss him. After pulling out of the kiss she reached over for her prom queen crown which had been resting on Otis bedside table, she grabbed it from said table and placed it on top of Otis. 

“Oh am I the Queen now?” Otis cheekily asked as he adjusted the crown on his head. 

“Well, you are one for the dramatic darling. now let me run you through today’s itinerary.” Ruby herself settled onto the end of Otis’ bed as he began to get stuck into his breakfast. 

“You made me a schedule?” Otis asked as he began to chew on his bacon. 

“Yes, timing is precise Otis.” Ruby stroked her hair as she began to get her schedule up on her I pad. “Right I know it’s your birthday, but please do take a shower Lynx Africa isn’t going to solve all of your problems.” 

“Are you going to join me? In the shower?” Otis asked as he scoffed on his toast which Ruby would have normally would have smacked him on the back of the head for.

“I’m already dressed, Milburn.” Ruby looked down at her yellow pantsuit she had chosen in the morning, her clothes couldn’t look more out of places in Otis’ scabby wardrobes. 

“Well you could easily be undressed….. and it’s my birthday.” Otis whinged and pulled out his puppy dog eyes. 

“Ugh fine, but were downstairs by nine so you can open up your cards and presents, then after that, you can play on your game for an hour or so, then me you and Eric are going for lunch, after that, I’ll leave you two alone for a couple of hours before I pick you up to get ready for the meal, Sound simple enough?” Ruby smiled at him as she shut down the I pad. 

“Hmmmm.” Otis nodded from the opposite end of the bed as he continued to scoff on his breakfast like a literal child.

So that’s how it plays out, sex in the shower at 8, opening his presents at 9, Otis is delighted as his mum gets him a bigger TV for his bedroom and he gets his new headset from Ruby as well as some new trainers, more photographs of them together to place around his room, meaning now there was just as many photos of Ruby as Eric nowadays in his room, she also whispers into his ear that he will be getting another present later on. Ruby makes sure to lean over when Otis opens his birthday cards, making sure that he hadn’t received any more secret decorations of love.

Jakob helps Otis set up his new tv with his old one going in Ola’s room. She simply watches Otis from his bed as he plays on his Nintendo while as ever she gushes to her internet friends about how lucky she is. She, Otis and Eric having lunch at a cafe at 12, before she leaves them alone at Eric’s house to leave them to get up to whatever strange birthday traditions they have, she leaves him alone for that reason but also it allowed her to head to the pub to see how the decorations are getting on. 

“Fuck sake, I ordered these one’s in blue not fucking red,” Ruby swore as she looked down at some of the banners in front of her. “And why is this Pie so fucking big? Otis doesn’t even like pie.” Ruby stormed over to the buffet table where at the centre of it what she could swear was the world’s biggest pie was staring right back at her. “Fuck!” She shouted aloud. 

“Ruby, why don’t you calm down, I’m sure Otis will greatly appreciate the efforts to which you have gone to try and make it a perfect day for Otis,” Jean said as she left Jakob on the ladder to approach Ruby. 

“Should be perfect,” Ruby whispered to herself as she wrapped clingfilm around some of the food bowls. “Did you hear anything back from Otis’ dad?” 

“No.” Jean sighed the topic of Otis’ dad’s appearance at the party had been a dark cloud hanging over them, like Ruby’s situation with Maeve, Jean would prefer not to have Remi around especially since her relationship with Jakob was the best it had ever been since they had begun navigating parenthood with Joy together, but Jean knows that he should be there for Otis’ sake. But Jean explains to Ruby that conversations with Remi could be difficult“He could be in Heathrow airport right now or a strip club in Las Vegas, that’s just the type of man he is Ruby.” Ruby thinks Otis’ dad becomes more of an arsehole each time a conversation revolves around him, it is quite clear where Otis’ doesn’t get his kindness and sweetness from.

When she picked Otis back up from Eric’s she was glad to hear Otis was only discussing the nice time they had together and not the secret party that Eric had finally disclosed to him. Well it looks like she would be spending time with Eric after all then with makeup palettes, contour, eye shadow and all. 

Ruby makes sure to buy a brand new dress for the day and she is applying the finishing touches to her outfit by applying her earrings when Otis walks in. 

“Woah,” Otis says as he barges through the door. 

“Like what you see Milburn?” Ruby says not taking her eyes away from the mirror in Otis’ room. 

“Are you sure we are just going for a meal……” 

That get’s Ruby’s attention. “What?” The usual confidence in Ruby’s voice is gone and is almost verging on shaky. 

“Just the way you are all dressed up or is it just my really lucky day?” 

Ruby stands up from the chair and walks towards him her swagger restored when she realises Otis is suspecting anything. “Every day is your lucky day when you are with me, Milburn.” She says as she fixes his collar. “But considering it’s your extra lucky day the best your girlfriend can do is look even more beautiful than usual.” 

Otis looks down at Ruby in her short sequin green dress. “You really are beautiful Ruby.” 

“Yeah well, my stickman doesn’t look too bad either.” Ruby places both of her hands onto his chest before moving them back down to his waist to pull him in closer to her for a kiss. 

Joy is left with the babysitter as Otis, Ruby, Ola, Lily, Jakob and Jean get into the taxi which would drop them off at the end of the street where ‘Mario’s Pizza Palce’ was located, but more importantly the ‘The Wandering Cock’ was slap bang in the middle of the street. 

“Suprised you didn’t start an argument with the taxi driver again,” Otis said in reference to one of their most recent date nights where the taxi driver couldn’t drop them off right outside the restaurant and Ruby demanded to be dropped off where she paid for. Of course, this time being dropped off almost a full street away was all part of the plan.

“Yeah well, I’m just trying not to cause a fuss.” She squeezes his hand as the three couples walked down the street one couple after another. Ruby noted the sign of ‘The Wandering Cock Pub’ approaching closer, time for a little roleplay after they had abandoned the toilet idea. “Jean, do they have gluten-free pizza here?” Ruby asked back to Jean. 

“Oh, I’m not sure Dear, I’ve never been,” Jean replied. 

“Just let me go in here and check, I’ll still have the Wifi on my phone from boxing day.” Ruby turned towards the pub door. 

“Ruby we are nearly there can’t you just-” Otis began but it became clear that he was getting no choice in the matter as Ruby pretty much dragged him through the door. “Ruby are you-” Otis was going to ask if his girlfriend was okay as she was dragging him through the main function room but there was no time for him to finish his sentence as they were greeted with an explosion of noise and confetti. 

“SUPRISE!” The room screamed, the loudest cheers coming from Eric and Remus, the less enthusiastic one’s were definitely coming from Olivia and Anwar. 

Otis jumped back from the fury of noise while Ruby giggled holding onto his hand extremely tightly. His eyes were able to adjust once the confetti had fallen down to the floor, there was a huge banner stretching across the top of the ceiling reading ‘HAPPY BIRTHDAY OTIS’ other banners like ‘18’ hiding in the corner, there was lot’s of pictures of Otis around the room with his mum, Eric and of course Ruby. Otis can also see all of his friends standing in front of him from Eric to Maeve to Ally. Then his family, his grandad, Auntie Lainie and all of the rest of the family in London. 

Otis is looking around the room in adoration at what was in front of him, before looking back to Ruby who is, in turn, looking back at him with adoring eyes. “You did this?”

“Well, I had help.” Ruby turned around towards Jean who was beginning to filter through the door with the others.

“Don’t listen to her, she did it all” Jean said towards her son. 

Ruby was blushing heavily as Otis looked down at her before stealing a quick kiss. “I love you,” Otis whispered. 

“I love you too.” 

Otis pulled away from Ruby’s lips as their noses rubbed lightly on the way back. Otis began to look around the room to make sure he didn’t miss anyone, but there are a few faces Otis doesn’t quite recognise. “Erm Ruby, you didn’t invite random people in off the street just to make my party seem cooler.” 

“No idiot, that’s Ben, Cameron and TJ, Well I’m not really sure what order particularly. But I thought considering you enjoy shouting at them through a radio so much, you could do it in person. ” Ruby said smugly

“What? How did you even?” Otis stuttered. 

“Well I’m a lady of many talents Milburn, now go on say hello as much as I would like it, you can’t stand here and hold onto my hand all day.” She releases their joined hands and nudges him to go off into the crowd. 

Maybe Otis is more like the Queen than Ruby originally thought when she made that joke on his bed early this morning as he individually goes around the room greeting everyone one by way. 

“It’s official, this is the lamest party we’ve ever been to,” Anwar said looking around as he took a sip of his drink from his plastic cup.

“Yeah well, it makes Ruby happy so….” Olivia replied as they looked over towards Ruby who was sharing some kind of inside joke with Eric from across the room. 

“You’ve changed your tune.” Anwar shot back. 

Olivia was going to respond but Ruby began to approach and with what she was about to say it was best to keep her mouth shut. 

“You having a nice time?”

Even in the most simple of ways Ruby had changed in her time with Otis, since when did she care if other people were having a nice time? Olivia and Anwar both looked at one another with narrow eyes as if to signify this thought. 

“Erm, yeah yeah.” 

“We are having a great time.” 

"The best."

Olivia and Anwar both replied not so convincingly. 

“The buffet will be open soon, plenty of vegan options,” Ruby informed them before moving onwards to go and solve the next problem like she was the event manager or something along those lines. 

Again Oliva and Anwar turned to one another shaking their heads at how far removed this person was from the Ruby Matthews they had to come to know.

Across the other side of the room, Otis was continuing to make his way around the room greeting each person in the room. Next up was someone who he was surprised was even here, well he wasn’t surprised because they were really close and it was his birthday party, but he was surprised they were here because it was a surprise birthday party with the invites being drawn up by Ruby Matthews. 

“Hi, Maeve.” 

“Happy Birthday muppet,” Maeve replied and they shared a quick and somewhat comforting embrace. “Got you a card.” Maeve passed it over to him. 

“Didn’t take you for somewhat who bought birthday presents.” 

“Yeah well, I couldn’t do any worse than your gift for me last year.” 

It takes Otis a couple of seconds to remember but of course, the five-year diary. 

“Another four years and you’re going to have to buy me a new one.” 

“I will do.” 

“I’m counting on it.” 

Otis is very happy with the state of his relationship with Maeve at the moment, much improved since she had come back from America full time able to enjoy their banter much more comfortably now like they just had, just it’s a shame it’s unknown how much of one another they are going to see with the crossroads they are heading to in their lives now. 

The next conversation Otis want’s to have could be a little more uncomfortable, if he can find them as it seemed that so far in this party and for the last four months. 

Eventually, Otis does spot Ally when she heads over to the bar. After she sent the Valentine’s day card to Otis; she avoided coming to game club for a couple of weeks and eventually after she plucked up the courage to return things were pretty tense. Thankfully Eric who was unaware of the unresolved tension between the two was able to fill in the blanks.

Otis decides that now is the time to resolve said tension. “Hi, Ally.” Otis begins as he leans over the bar whilst placing himself next to her.

“Oh, Hi Otis.” She replies as she ducks her head nervously. 

“Having a nice time?” 

“Oh, Yes, of course.” She replied smiling as she looked around at the ongoing party. 

“Do you think you would be enjoying it more if my girlfriend wasn’t here?” A couple of years ago, Otis would be shaking uncontrollably at a confrontation like this even when he was the one in the right, but firstly Maeve and then Ruby had shaped him into a more confident outgoing person, sure he was always going to have his moments but this was not one of those moments, he knew what he wanted to say and he was going to do it.

“Otis-.” 

“You said some pretty nasty things in that letter Ally. You know Valentine’s day cards are supposed to be a declaration of love not a declaration of hate onto one’s partner.” Ally is still routed the spot with no sign of a response. “But I guess we all do things we don’t mean sometimes,” Otis says as he looks over towards Ruby who is chatting to Olivia and Anwar. “I like you Ally, you’re smart, kind….. Usually, that is…. And you’re ten times the gamer that I am.” Otis finally manages to get a smile out of Ally with that one. “But I just don’t feel about you like that, but considering I’m now a legal adult we can be like grownups and put this one behind us and continue being friends.”

Ally let off another weak smile and nodded back at Otis. “I’m Sorry Otis, I shouldn’t have said what I said about Ruby, she must be pretty amazing to do all of this for you.” She said as she looked around the room.”

“Yeah, she is….” 

“Just off what I saw in the car park sometimes and someone told me some things once, I didn’t get the best picture.” Ally admitted. 

Maybe everyone did know who Ruby was after all… Otis thought about what stories were being shared about Ruby in nearby towns. Otis doesn’t want to get into said stories as he fears some of them might not be too pretty and decides he wanted to smoothly close this one out the same way he had rehearsed it in his head before he headed over. “You’re going to break someone’s heart one day Ally Steiner.” Otis said before planting a friendly kiss on her right cheek. 

After Ally had stopped blushing, Otis took her over to the corner of the room where Eric, Ben, Cameron and TJ were playing on the two small consoles in the corner of the room. Ben, Cameron and TJ are complaining about the age of the consoles they are forced to play on, but Otis has to reassure them that Ruby probably had no idea what specific console to get to rent for a day. It does make Otis chuckle as he pictures Ruby trying to set the consoles up, making sure all the right wires were in all the right places, surely she would have gone to Jakob’s help for that one. 

But again the gesture is massively appreciated by Otis as he, Eric, Ally Ben, Cameron and TJ have a good hour on the games in the corner. 

“Oh yes, oh yes!” Otis cheers as he takes yet another Mario Kart victory, although the victory is a little hollow as he is pretty certain Ally is letting him win considering it’s his birthday as she didn’t even activate the blue shell she had towards the end. 

“Congratulations man, but it’s your 18th birthday and your playing Mario Kart and your girlfriend thee Ruby Mathews is stood right over there.” Eric pointed out to him as Ruby was watching him from a distance smiling. “And the dance music is getting a little slow, you know a little bit of side to side a little bit of kiss kiss.” Eric makes some rather disturbing kissing noises to tease him. 

“Alright, alright! Going to see my girlfriend.” Otis said as he rose from the gaming chair and across the room to Ruby.

“Have fun?” Ruby asked. 

Otis rambles on about everything they played and how each of the five got on, she doesn’t give her usual response that would go along the lines of. “I’m not interested in that nerd shit Milburn.” and she listened to him like she would after game club and tried her best to take some interest in what he was saying if she could even understand him with the speed he was waffling on at and some of the more technical words he was using. 

“Well do you fancy a dance? If you want to go back to your games that’s fine…. Just-” 

“Rubes, I’d love to dance with you.” Otis cut her off and took her hand as they walked off to the dancefloor together. 

Their dancing is a lot more smoother than it was at the prom, probably due to Otis’ confidence being increased from that dance and the lower volume of people in the room, but still, it was only rocking from side to side, You wouldn’t catch any of them on Strictly anytime soon, although Otis reckons that Ruby definitely has a few tricks up her sleeve if she had a better dance partner, she is full of so many surprises. Like the playlist the DJ had been running all night had been full of all Otis’ favourite 80’s hit’s that she must have organised for him, but is he surprised really? She loves him, a surprising fact in itself and something he had to double-check with himself every day. 

“I love you.” 

Verbal reminders like the one she just gave him while her face is buried in his chest, but maybe now was time for a bit of fun. “Sorry what?” 

“I said I love you.” Ruby pulled away from his chest and looked up at him. 

“Sorry I can’t hear you.” Otis teased as he pointed towards the speakers for the music. 

“I love you!” Ruby raises her voice a little louder, with a smile on her face despite the silly game he was playing with her. 

“What’s that sorry?” 

“I LOVE YOU!” She pretty much screams getting the attention of many others in the dance floor, but others in the room were distracted by something else, more accurately someone else, who had walked through the function room doors and straight towards Otis and Ruby. 

“Hello, Otis.” 

Both Otis and Ruby turned to their left where the voice came all while their hands were wrapped around one another’s bodies. “Dad….” Otis breathed and Ruby let go of him so he would be free to approach his dad. 

“Welcome to adulthood big guy,” Remi said before Otis wrapped his arms around him holding him close. 

They had a tricky relationship, but at the end of the day, he is and always would be his dad. “You’re, you’re here!” Otis said after they were both released from the embrace.

“Well I was never going to miss my eldest 18th’s, was going to bring Harry and Sean but school’s still a thing for them unlike for you, still heading up to Manchester?” 

“Yeah-Yeah.”Otis stuttered still in a little bit of shock. 

“You’re going to love it kid, It’s where I met your mother of course, not that you need to meet anyone because you must be the beautiful Ruby.” 

Ruby smiled and shook his hand which was extended out for her. 

“Otis just won’t stop going on about you on our calls.”

One of those things must have been that she would have chopped his dick off if he got up to close in personal, which explained the handshake. 

“Anyway, should I get you, kids, some drinks….” 

“Yeah, I’ll have a vodka coke.” 

“Otis?” 

“Make em double,” Otis said, maybe still a little buzzed 

Remi raised his eyebrows and turned towards Ruby “Erm Ruby do you mind disclosing to me what you have done with my son.” 

Both Otis and Ruby let out a small laugh as Remi headed towards the bar. 

“Remi.” 

“Jean.” 

The pair greeted one another as Jean sat on the corner barstool and Remi leaned on the one next to her as Remi confirmed Otis and Ruby’s drink orders and one for himself. “So where’s the kid?” Remi asked Jean as he looked around the room. 

“Well her name is Joy Nyman and she’s with the babysitter if you’re interested.” 

“Nyman.” Remi lightly chuckled as he took the first sip of his own drink. 

“And what would be funny about a girl taking her father’s name.” Jean spat back at her ex-husband. 

“Just checking she’s not mine that’s all.” 

Jean seemed to take Remi’s so-called ‘joke’ very seriously. “We kissed Remi, for someone who has written books on sex therapy I would be hoping for any future releases you didn’t let it slip that you think a couple create an offspring by the contact of the lips.” 

“Well I’ve left all the sex therapy behind Jeanie, more focusing on the male psyche these days, that’s what our son’s future father in law is a big fan of.” Remi nodded over to Otis and Ruby on the dancefloor. 

“They are 18 Remi! You shouldn’t be marrying them off just yet.” 

“No, I just think our boy looks really happy.” 

“Yeah, he does.” 

Remi and Jean Milburn both commented as they both watched Otis and Ruby stealing little kisses from one another while their eyes of adoration were locked together. 

Remi was right, Otis was very happy, the girl he loved was in his arms and all of his friends and family were in the room with him. Because of this buzz inside of him and all of the birthday money he received, Otis maybe orders one two many drinks. 

It only takes a few hours before Otis is throwing up inside the disabled toilets with Ruby stood over his shoulder. “That’s it, get it all out,” Ruby says encouraging him. 

“I’m sorry Ruby,” Otis says as it seems like all of the sick was out of his system, but he was still breathing heavily over the toilet. 

“Don’t be sorry darling, if it wasn’t for you getting drunk we’d probably never be a thing.” While it was probably true, Ruby secretly likes to think they would have somehow have found a way as right now she can’t imagine her life without Otis in it. 

“I just ruined your special day…” 

“No, it’s your birthday Otis.” She corrects him. 

Otis removed his head from the toilet bowl for the first time narrowing his eyes as his drunk mind processed the information he had just received. 

“Oh yeah……..” “I love you Ruby.” 

“Yeah, I love you too darling.” She smiled as she ruffled his hair while he was still on his knees. She didn’t really get to appreciate drunk Otis the first time as she was quite a bit drunk herself and she was only interested in getting his pants off back then.

“Thank you so much for todayyyyy.” 

“Well, it’s the least I can do for you.” 

“I like it when you are nice to me, can you say something nice about me?” 

Ruby smiled as she leaned down to his size, he wouldn’t remember this so technically she could say anything, but she tries to go with the truth. “Well you’re really sweet and kind to me, you’re excellent in bed as well as being really fucking adorable and-” Ruby’s trail of compliments was interrupted by Otis throwing up again. “I mean I was thinking about throwing up just thinking about saying those things, but you Milburn you went a literally did it.” She says as she puts a hand on his back to support him through his vomiting. 

The disabled toilet door flies open to reveal Jean. “The taxi’s here, is he ready?” 

“Give him a couple of minutes,” Ruby said over the sound of Otis throwing up. 

After those couple of minutes passed, she manages to get the lifeless Otis up and out of the toilet and towards the pub door. As she supports Otis with her arm slung across him she bumps into Olivia and Ally in conversation in the hallway. “Oh, I didn’t know you two knew eachother.” Ruby can only make this assumption based on how friendly their chat seemed to be going and she hadn’t seen them together all night. 

“Oh, only a little bit,” Olivia confirms as she and Ally smile in sync.

“Bacjfiinhusrtyirhyterter.” Otis attempts to mumble something but everyone stares at him with narrowed eyes.

Ruby does require some assistance from Jakob for getting Otis down the stairs from the gravel road after they all climb out of the minicab, but once they are passed that Ruby reaffirms that she can handle him by herself. 

“Are you sure you are going to be okay taking him up those stairs, Ruby?” Jean asked her once she and Otis reached the first step. 

“No it’s fine I’ve done this before.” She says back while they climb the first few. 

“Oh……” It takes her a few seconds but Jean eventually realises what she was referring to, Otis was a lot more drunk this time around than the first time she took him up the stairs drunk but she still thinks she can manage. 

“Now you stay there you,” Ruby says as she sits the sleepy Otis upright on his bed before she heads back downstairs to go and fetch a sick bowl from the kitchen. 

“You’re so kind to me Ruby….” Otis says when she returns with the sick bowl placing it down on what had become ‘his’ side of the bed. 

“Correction Milburn, I’m the mean one remember,” Ruby says as she grabs some wipes to clean his mouth up a bit more. 

“You aren’t really mean Ruby, I know you only do it for fun with me, you like me anyway so it’s okay,” Otis said in his robotic drunken voice. 

“Second correction Milburn, I love you.” She kissed the top of his forehead, still not wanting to chance her lips coming into contact with any sick she may have missed from his mouth. “And to show you how much I love you, I bought these.” Ruby went underneath Otis bed to reveal two brand new lingerie sets, one yellow and one green. “Thought you could choose which one you wanted me to take off, but someone had to go and get blind drunk.” She groaned as she placed them into some drawers. 

Otis reached out as if they were in touching distance of them. “Come on Rubes let’s do it.” 

Ruby laughed aloud as she crossed her arms from the end of his bed. “You are in no state mister.” 

“I am!” He cried back and began to move his hands down towards the button’s on his jeans, he put his full force into it but he couldn’t get them undone, Ruby just smirked as she watched his pitiful attempt which was ended by him dozing off right in there and then. 

“Awww, bless you.” She mocked in her baby voice again as she climbed into bed with him, she made sure he was sleeping the correct way so there was no risk of him choking on his own vomit before leaning over to put her crown on his head once more. 

Chapter Text

The Summer of 2020 is very different to the one before it for Otis and Ruby. 

Firstly Otis’ dad is in town for the week after Otis’ birthday so Otis finds himself spending a bit of time catching up with him, but Remi and Roland do make time to go for a pint at the pub which Ruby’s dad was very much looking forward to. 

She stays up late for her dad, him going out for New Year’s to meet Otis’ family was big, this was even bigger as it was the first time her dad had been out without his wife or daughter for a long long time. 

So she is quite relieved when he walks through the door and he and his walking stick seem to all be in one piece, but she is a little annoyed that Remi hadn’t listened to her very strict instructions of walking him back to the door. 

“Where the fuck is Remi?”Ruby asked as soon as she realised he had walked to the door alone. 

“It’s fine darlin, I can walk from the driveway to the door.” Roland groaned as he tried doing too much at once by shutting the door behind him.

“Yeah, but what if you fell and it hit your head off the concrete!” She says as she wraps her arm around her dad’s free one to help support his balance. 

“Ah, I Could hit my head anytime anywhere Rubes, maybe I shouldn’t ever move ever again.” 

His words are upsetting her and is probably hurting himself so Ruby decides not to push him anymore and just focus on guiding him to his bed. “So how did it go?” Ruby asks when he is settled on his bed and his breathing has calmed down. 

“He’s ………” Ruby would normally think he is waiting to catch his breath, but he’s definitely trying to find the right words to try and describe Remi Milburn.

“An arsehole..” Ruby decides to find the word for him.

“Yeah, that’s the one. My fault, you know what they say never meet you, heroes…” 

Ruby narrowed her eyes at him. “I don’t think he was your hero dad, you just liked 2 or 3 of his books, you’re heroes like Roy Keane or some shit.” 

After her dad runs her through his time with Otis dad, he begins to doze off and Ruby kisses him on the forehead to leave him be for the night. She shuts her own bedroom door behind her and jumps onto her bed to face time Otis. 

“Hey.”

“Hey.” 

“You’re still up,” Ruby noted the fact that Otis was sat in his kitchen, she was only calling him out of hope that he might answer from his bed. 

“Yeah, Ola and Lily have been having some problems again, so I was playing therapist.” Otis looks away from the phone just to make sure that nobody else was listening. 

Ruby smiles at him through the phone and the thought ‘ That’s my boy’ runs through her head but it might just be the cheesiest thing Ruby had ever heard so she just elects to smile like a idiot instead. “My dad just came in.”

“Oh god, how did it go?” Otis asked as the conversation with Ola had made him completely forget that his dad and his girlfriend’s dad had gone for a pint together at ‘The Wandering Cock’. Ruby didn’t even respond verbally which was very telling for Otis. “Oh god he thinks he’s a dick doesn’t he.” 

“Yup,” Ruby replied as she popped the p.

“Oh god, does that mean you’re dad is going to hate me now as well?” Otis asked, genuinely sounding quite worried. 

“Dad? What do you think of Otis?” Ruby calls loud enough to make it believable to Otis that she might actually be shouting her dad but quiet enough so she doesn’t actually wake him.Ruby nods in the direction of her door to make it seem like she listening to his muffled reply. “Oh sorry he wants us to break up, I’m quite relieved really you were getting a bit too annoying for my liking.” 

“He isn’t even there Rubes.” 

Ruby doesn’t listen to him though and continues to play along, pretending her dad’s talking to her again. “Oh, what’s that dad? Otis is a skinny and smelly Englishman.” 

“Hey, you’re English too you know.” 

“Yeah but I’m neither skinny nor smelly.” Ruby smugly smiled through the phone. 

“Ruby, can you be serious for a second?” 

But still Ruby doesn’t listen and now was pretending that her dad had walked in the room. “Oh, dad’s going to throw my phone out of the window unless I block you instantly, my phone or Otis Milburn which one will I choose?” Ruby put on a really poorly attempted fake gasp before hanging up the facetime call. 

It takes a matter of seconds for texts to come flooding in from Otis.

Otis❤️: Ruby I know you are messing around but will you please speak to your dad in the morning xx

Otis❤️: I'm being serious also just make sure

A phone call then come from him which she quickly declines, she thinks about stretching this game out for as long as possible with him, ignoring him all the way to the morning, she even thinks about actually blocking him so it messes with him a little bit more. But then she thinks of his stupid upset face lying on his bed and he probably wouldn’t end up getting any sleep tonight and drive round here at an ungodly hour for that long, so she begins to compose her own text.

- I’m sure all will be fine OT I don’t think my dad is planning to kill your dad or something like that he just thinks he’s a bit of a knob (which no offence he is) So rest easy I love you ❤️ xxx

Ruby and Otis could swear they are the only teenagers in Moordale who aren’t embarking on a summer holiday somewhere around the world. Ruby and her mother struggle to leave Roland alone for a couple of hours never mind a week while they are in a different country. Otis and his ‘new’ family were still all very much adjusting to one another, there was always next year.

Eric’s leaving for Nigeria again, he would be staying in Moordale after his holidays attending the nearest University to Moordale only a 20-minute train journey away to study makeup for media and performance, so he was looking forward to this break beforehand, although he did have a small niggle about the trip considering the last time he was there it resulted in an incident that led to his breakup with Adam.

So before Eric heads off he and Otis are heading up north to visit the countries biggest theme park.

Ruby has been invited but she doesn’t really want to go as she feels like she is invading on what should just be an Otis and Eric thing, she wants to get along with her boyfriend’s best friend and leave them as much space as possible seems about right. But it’s on their makeup day she gets to know him better and he lets slip a secret, Otis is scared of rides. 

She wondered why he had been awfully quiet about the whole thing. “Then why the hell would you take him to Alton Towers?” 

“Because it’s my turn to choose and I love seeing Oatcake terrified.” 

Ruby smirked “Yeah that does sound awfully fun.” She really did want to see that now. “I’m a bit jealous of your nickname for him, it’s a lot better than OT.” 

“You can come if you want to Ruby, we can laugh at him together.”

“You’re not just trying to be polite or just because you think I’m fabulous.” 

“No, no, I mean of course I think your fabulous.” Ruby raised her eyebrows and then nodded when his words got back on the right track. “I just thought it would be fun you know.”

Ruby smiled and nodded lightly back at him. 

“So it definitely isn’t a dare then, you and Otis,” Eric says in a tone that seems like he is joking but with a desire to get absolute clarification on the matter.

Ruby groaned heavily “God do people still believe that shit? You know I love Otis loads.” Ruby said as she continued to work on Eric’s eye shadow. 

“Yeah I know you do, just didn’t Olivia date Tyler Horton for a month in year ten for a dare.” It was true this did happen, she knows Eric is just trying to look out for his best friend but it does hurt her to think that even a tiny percentage of Eric’s mind thought she was playing along with some kind of sick game. 

“That was a little bit my fault.” Ruby chuckled to herself thinking back to those days. 

“How come?” 

Ruby was still smiling. “We had a bet on the winners of that year’s love island, obviously my eye for true love was better than Liv’s.” 

“Or you just spammed the phone lines with thousands of votes,” Eric said whilst pulling out one of his signature laughs.

Ruby goes a little quiet at this point, It was on the app not the phone lines and it wasn’t thousands! Just a couple… couple too many….

“Jesus Eric it’s only one night,” Ruby said as she saw Eric come out of the front door and the size of the suitcase was comparable to her own. 

“You can talk.” Otis tutted as he and Ruby had just had the exact same argument whilst they were waiting in the car for Eric to appear.

“Awwwww, are you on your period darling?” Ruby placed her hand onto Otis’ shoulder as she mocked him. 

Otis shook his head at her as Eric jumped in the backseat after putting his suitcase into Ruby’s boot. “Right, Alton Towers here-we-go!” Eric rubbed his hands together before performing a little dance in the backseat, but this was stopped when Eric noticed something in Ruby’s mirror. “Are those my sunglasses?” 

“I thought they were yours,” Ruby said to her boyfriend as she dropped the glasses she stole from Otis over a year ago now. 

“Don’t worry Ruby I’m honoured that you wear my glasses.” Eric leaned forward to reassure Ruby. 

“As you should be Eric as you should be. Right seatbelts on boys?” Ruby asked and they both nodded. 

Ruby thinks she says the words “Shut” and “Up” more times on the drive up to Stoke-on-Trent than the rest of her life combined, no matter what music she puts on the car radio Otis and Eric absolutely butcher it. She maintains that Eric can hold a tune depending on what era of music is playing, but combine him together with Otis and it’s a mess. Otis truly is atrocious, no style, no rhythm, just mostly mindless screaming. She knows she can’t critique him to hard as he’s got a million and one stories about catching her singing, much more softly and gracefully she might add but embarrassing nonetheless. She tries just completely turning off the car radio so they would have nothing to sing a long to, this backfires massively as Otis knows they have got her wound up so he encourages Eric to keep singing with him even without anything playing on the radio, this is a million times worse as at least with the radio there was a least one capable voice on the radio. 

But when they arrive at the theme park, the tables very much turn. 

Otis is insistent on going on close to zero rides. 

“What about that one Otis, look four year old’s are getting on it.” Ruby points out yet another ride that would give them enough of a thrill to satisfy them but would be slow enough that Otis wouldn’t shit his pants.

“They’re more like Ten or Eleven Rubes.” 

“Does it matter? What I’m trying to say is that their voices haven’t even dropped yet and they are getting on it, while you are being such a wimp.” 

“Vice mutation has nothing to do with the fear of getting on rides Rubes, it actually stems-.” Ruby cuts him off before he can go any further.

“There’s nothing sciency about it Otis, you’re a wimp and they’re not, now come on!” Ruby tried to pull him towards the ride but Otis planted his feet firmly to the floor meaning any further pulling from Ruby would send her flying. 

“I don’t want to!” Otis complained. 

“Awwwww, what we going to do, take you on the tea cups or maybe the Thomas the tank engine ride sounds about right for you.” Ruby mocked him in her child-like voice. 

“Teacups sound nice actually,” Otis replied, taking Ruby’s joke a little more seriously than he should have. 

“Look how about the Carousel? That seems alright.” 

“Hmmmmm.” Otis ponders the thought as he and Ruby walk towards it holding hands while Eric loiterers behind them whilst making a mess of his ice cream he just bought. “Only if you get on the same horse as me.” 

“Okay, it’s a deal, are you getting on this one Eric considering OT finally found his balls?” Ruby asked as she spun back around towards Eric.

“Erm- No thank you this ice cream has gotten everywhere,” Eric said as he raised his free hand which was dripping in it.

“Do you want me to hold you or do you want to hold me?” Ruby asks as they wait in the queue.

Otis pauses for a moment as he weighs up the benefits of each possible scenario. “You hold on to me.” 

So when they get onto the ride they get into what is usual to their usual sleeping arrangement anyway with Otis hopping on first and Ruby behind as she wraps her arms around his waist. 

“It’s not got a lot of room,” Otis said as they shuffled around together trying to make sure Ruby’s bum didn’t fall off the edge. 

“Yeah well, that’s probably because-” Ruby began but the man inspecting the ride before it got underway made her point for her. 

“1 person per horse, sorry.” 

“Oh that’s fine, I’ll just get on the next one.” Ruby smiled as she hoped off the end of the horse and she could already see the panic set in on Otis’ face as she walked off the ride. 

“Ruby! Ruby!” He tried calling her back but she just smiled smugly as she walked off to the nearby bench where Eric was. “Oh god.” Otis breathed to himself as the ride began to move and Otis gripped the golden pole in front of him that little bit tighter. 

“You are so cruel Ruby,” Eric said in a fit of laughter as she joined him on the bench. 

“Yes, I am.” Ruby crossed her legs as they both watched Otis wince as the Carousel heads up and down.

“Phone, phone.” Eric indicates for Ruby to collect her phone from her jacket pocket. 

“Who is being the cruel one now Eric?” Ruby teases as she begins to film Otis on the ride, the next time he comes around he is waving his hands in the air as an indication to stop filming but Eric only bellows out. “You’re doing great Otis!”

Once he finally gets off the ride, Otis looks like he has been dragged through a hedge and back 12 times, he walks over to his best friend and his girlfriend who are no support and are only laughing their arses off at him. 

“That wasn’t funny guys!” Otis complained but there was no stopping Eric and Ruby’s laughter.

“Maybe just a little bit.” Ruby teased as she made a gap between her thumb and her index finger. 

“More like this much.” Eric pretty much dropped one hand down to the floor and the other one near head height to signify how funny Eric thought it was. 

Otis just shook his head at the pair as they moved on to the next ride.

Of course, there is one last trip back to school for everyone to collect their A-Levels results. 

“You okay?” Otis whispered as they walked back up the main entrance path whilst holding hands.

Ruby only hummed in response and Otis squeezed her hand for a little bit more support as it was definitely clear that Ruby wasn’t okay. Her dad had another bad night last night and she called Otis over to help, then when they went off to bed Ruby was really restless and struggled to get to sleep. 

Otis took her to her favourite breakfast cafe and Ruby barely touch her waffle extravaganza that she loved so much. 

He knows that he can’t just say “It’s just numbers on a paper Rubes.” Because they aren’t to Ruby, passing her exams gives her more time to be there to care for her dad and to bring some money through the door to help her parents out like she has always wanted to, despite them insisting on her just going out to go and be a teenager.

So Otis opts to say silent because he feels like his words will only make things worse, but mostly because he believes in her. 

Their good friend the alphabet comes to their aid again as their results are extremely close together on the tables that are full of white envelopes, so there is no waiting around for one another, they can just get to it. 

“Do you want to open mine and I’ll open yours?” Ruby suggests as she feels like Otis could lessen the blow for her if what she fears might happen. “Or we can just open them like normal people instead,” Ruby adds on after Otis’ face didn’t seem like it was overly enthused by the idea.

“No, no! It’s a good idea.” Otis says as he offers his envelope to Ruby to initiate the exchange. “Well, here we go then.” Otis takes a deep breath as they both open one another’s envelope's in sync. 

“Well-.” Ruby poised after she scanned Otis’ results and looked up towards him.

“You want me to go first?” Otis asked whilst pointing a finger towards his chest. 

“Well yes, ladies first and all.” 

“Is that because I’m reading your results first or it’s because you see yourself as the more masculine one in our relations-.”

“Otis Please!” Ruby pleaded with him as now was not the time for his rambling nonsense. 

“Okay-okay.” Otis said before turning his eyes back towards the paper in front of him. “Well, you got a C in biology…”

Ruby couldn’t do it like this she just needed to know if she passed everything, she wasn’t bothered about specific numbers like he was so she snatched the paper from him to see the results for herself.

Biology: C

Business:B

English Language:B

“I passed.” She breathed softly as she continued to look down at the results still in a state of disbelief. 

“Yeah, and you passed well Ruby.” Otis smiled down at her. 

“I passed.” She repeated herself in the exact same tone. All of her worries about what she would have to do if she had failed had just been wiped away. 

“You did…” 

“I passed.” She said for a third time as she threw herself at Otis’s chest holding on to him ever so tightly. 

“Two B’s also,” Otis said as he pressed a kiss onto the top of her forehead as it was a massive upgrade on her two D’s and one C she picked up at the same time last year. 

“All thanks to you,” Ruby mumbled as her face was still pressed against one of his stupid stripy shirts. She really doesn’t think she would have been able to do this without all the help he gave her. 

“Well, I couldn’t write it for you could I. You should be really proud of yourself Rubes.” Otis says after his girlfriend pulls out of the embrace. 

Ruby can’t even bring herself to say ‘thanks’, she still feels like she could explode with a mixture of joy and relief at what she just read on her results paper, instead, she just finds herself smiling up at Otis in adoration. 

“Erm, H-how did I do?” Otis asked looking down at the two pieces of paper she was holding onto that had been slightly squashed from being trapped between Otis and Ruby’s hug.

“Oh.” Ruby does feel really bad that she had just completely forgotten about Otis’ results hoping that he wouldn’t view her as being the selfish bitch she wishes not to be seen as by him. She quickly opens back up Otis’ scrunched up letter. “Erm, not bad you know couple of C’s a D in there which is a shame.” 

“Ruby stop messing around.” 

“Oh, didn’t take you as one for arrogance Milburn, you think you are entitled to more?” Ruby teased further.

“Well, it wasn’t me who claimed ‘i’m the smartest person that they knew’.” Otis air quoted. 

“You are.” She said softly with a smile before looking back down at his results. “That’s why you got 2 A*’s and an A.” 

Otis face lit up and it was his turn to snatch his results paper from his partner.

Biology: A 

English Language: A*

Psychology:A*

“Well done you.” She whispered up to him, once again just looking at him in pure amazement of him again, marvelling at how lucky she is. 

Before she can lean up to kiss him like and crack a joke about how they are finished now considering he had helped her pass her exams now and she wouldn’t be needing his nerdy brains anymore, Eric comes almost flying over towards them, the first time they had seen each other since Eric left for Nigeria. Eric has his paper in the air as he screams  “OTIS OTIS!” He throws himself into his best friends arms with a warm smile on his face. 

“I’ll leave you two to it then,” Ruby says to herself as there is no way Otis can hear her over Eric’s laugh.

She looks around for someone else to go and talk to. Olivia and Anwar are both still on their holidays, she does spot their respective Auntie and Uncle who must have been the one’s designated to pick up the results for them. Whilst clutching tightly onto her own paper she spots Adam who is beginning to open his results. 

“Hi Adam, how did you get on?” She asked once she approached him. 

“Well, that’s me fucked.” Adam seemed to try and crack a smile through the pain that was clearly visible on his face which was looking down at his results paper. 

Adam passed the paper over to Ruby and while Ruby wouldn’t describe his situation as ‘fucked’, he hadn’t passed a single one of his courses. “Hey, there is still lot’s you can do, like take a gap year and-” Ruby began to run through the many options Adam had which she had described to her by Otis several times over the past few months when she was getting stressed out by the outcome of her exams, but she was interrupted by Adam who began to cry.

Adam Groff was crying in front of her and falling into her short frame. She and Adam had hugged many times after his breakup with Eric, it was really weird at first and Ruby wished they could just go back to debating Khloe’s top 5 outfits, but eventually she actually began to warm to supporting Adam when he got upset, besides the only two potential witnesses to such an embrace was Maureen and Madame Groff. But this was different, the eyes of the whole school were on them. She has a quick debate in her head about what was more embarrassing kissing Otis Milburn by ‘his’ bike stand with the whole school flooding in or consoling Adam Groff in the middle of the sports hall while he sobbed into his shoulder.

Definitely kissing Otis, at least Adam had a shred of relevance once.

She is reluctant to hug him back at her first, but why should she be embarrassed? Adam was someone who like Otis was genuinely kind to her and whenever they were together he ended up putting a smile on her face. She is not going to see 99% of the people in this room ever again, at least she hopes she won’t, so fuck her stupid reputation she going to give Adam Groff a hug

The angle is awkward because of their vast height difference but she manages to find a way to get one of her arms around the back of him, rubbing her arm up and down. “It’s okay, it’s going to be okay.”

She walks Adam back to his mum’s car, who like Ruby she calms him down and tells him that there are so many other options for him. 

Maureen whispers “Thank you.” to Ruby once she has got Adam settled in the passenger seat. She had noticed a change in the relationship between herself and Adam’s mum once Adam had told her that he and Ruby weren’t a couple, Maureen was very sweet but it was blindingly obvious that she hoped she and Adam could be together. 

Ruby offers a shy little wave to Adam as his mum reverses out of the car park, he returns it with a smile. She is genuinely devastated for him but he had made a valiant to get close to passing considering he had been expelled from school for four months by his own dad and therefore was already playing catchup whilst not being the sharpest tool in the box to start out with. 

She wishes she had asked him to come and study with herself and Otis now, even Ruby might have achieved higher grades than she already had if Adam was there as it would have prevented her from continuously jumping Otis as when he was being all smart was a real turn on for her.

While she knew he was having lessons with Miss Sands, he would often come back to their Kardashian binges frustrated as the temporary headmistress would continuously tell him that he looked ‘distracted by something’. Ruby suspected she knew the reasons behind some of these distractions but chose not to follow up on them because if her suspicions were proven right it could be a serious conflict of interest for her.

Ruby waits for Otis at ‘his’ bike stand, gently tracing her fingers over where he had engraved ‘OTIS WAS HERE’ while parking her bum on the top of it. 

“Hey, how’s Adam?” Otis asked her once he had returned from out of the main building still holding onto his own exam results in one hand, leaving Ruby to immediately connect the free one with her own.

“Not great.” She whispered looking down at the floor. 

“That was a nearly nice thing you did back there Ruby.” He said as he squeezed her hand tightly. 

Ruby smiled back at him in response. “So are you going to treat me now?” Ruby asked whilst waving her exam results at him. 

“Are you sure it shouldn’t be you treating me, considering I got higher grades?” 

Ruby scoffed at her boyfriend. “Nerd does well in exam’s, that’s what nerds do Otis. I’m the one who exceeded my predicted grades so I should be the one who is treated.” 

“Well how about we treat eachother then, tonight dinner at that pizza place we were supposed to go to for my birthday before a load of confetti exploded in my face.”

“I like the sound of that.” She squeezed his hand back, she loved their date nights, getting all glammed up for him and even Otis would make at least half an effort, so she would end up plastering their night all over her Instagram stories before adding it to a highlights reel entitled ‘Otis’. 

They make the long walk back to the car, it’s a long walk because considering they are no longer students of the school they can’t use the student car park, so Ruby has to park a couple of streets away, Ruby bitches about this all the way there as it’s stupid considering there are no students in any way and it’s a real killer for her in her heels. 

“Speaking of treating you….” Otis begins once they hop into the car. “It’s your birthday coming up.” 

“I’m aware of my own birthday idiot.” She pretends to sound snarky while taking off her sunglasses but it’s only to hide the fact that she is bumbling with excitement at what Otis has in store for her for her first birthday in which they have been properly together. 

“Remus is away in Canada the same week so I enquired about the house in London and he said yes.” 

“A whole week?” 

“Yes, a whole week.” Otis leaned across the passenger car seat and placed his hands on Ruby’s ribs. “Which means lot’s and lot’s of sex without the fear of being interrupted, we can do all of the tourism stuff we didn’t get to do back in January and we can eat at all of the nice restaurants, I’m going to spoil you rotten Ruby Matthews.” 

Ruby smirks and bites her lip at not just the news Otis’ just told her but one of his sudden sparks in confidence in delivering his words, but despite all of this there is one thing still troubling her. “Otis what about my-.” 

“Me, Jakob, your mum and Pete have already drawn up a rota for looking after your dad while you’re gone.” Jakob and Roland had become quite close since the new year’s party which probably inspired Roland’s sudden turn on Remi that little bit more.

Ruby quickly placed her hands on Otis’ cheeks and pulled him in for a short but passionate kiss. “You’re brilliant, you really are.” 

“I’m normally the one who tells you that,” Otis replied as they still held onto one another. 

“Yeah well consider it your lucky day Milburn.” She said before kissing him again.

London is as predicted amazing, it gets off to a hell of a start when Remus leaves yet another note for Otis as he and Ruby walk through the front door. 

“Text me exactly this phrase when you see it ‘Hello Uncle R’. 

Otis thinks it’s a bit odd when he reads it for the first time but still, he sends through the text and then a few moments later a bank transfer comes through and it’s exactly to the penny how much Otis had told his uncle he saved up for the trip. 

Uncle Remus: Spoil her young fella x 

Otis spends twenty minutes on the phone arguing with his uncle about how he can’t accept such money for him and he had already done enough, with Remus ending the argument by stating “What’s the point in a shit rich uncle if you aren’t going to abuse him.” 

“Are you having a nice time?” 

That’s what Ruby hears every twenty minutes when they are walking around London completing the various activities he had organised her for across the week they are there. It’s annoying but it’s Otis so she thinks it’s incredibly adorable how he constantly checks up with her on what he had dubbed ‘Ruby’s special week’, she knows this because he accidentally left the notes on his phone open when he handed it to her whilst trying to book a table at a restaurant through Remus house phone. His organisational skills are no way near as good as her’s but it’s sweet as she can really tell how hard is trying. 

What Ruby also thinks is sweet is how Otis organises some days around an article titled ‘The most Instagramable places in London’ so Ruby can get all of the best landmarks for some killer Instagram posts. She does call him out on this and he gets all bright red and flushed.

Also with Otis around, they don’t need a tour guide as Otis basically is basically a walking encyclopedia when it comes to some parts of history in London. It’s adorable to see him waffle on about some artefact from “King someone the something.” That she really doesn’t give a shit about. She does wonder if he read her mind when she said how clever he was a turn on for her.

Speaking of which, the sex is absolutely stunning, he’s definitely been reading some of his mum’s books about female pleasure again or he has just brought his A-game to London for her.

But then again it’s Otis, he always brings his A-game for her in everything and she’s so fucking lucky for it.

But like last summer the whole thing feels like one big ticking time bomb. 

“ What do you think you’re going to have sex with me forever Milburn?” That’s what Ruby said to Otis when she laid down the terms of their agreement, this response came from Otis’ questioning of why this would be a summer-only fling. 

That was all it was ever supposed to be but as the sex got better and better, Ruby found herself not wanting the summer to end, but not just because of the sex but all of Otis’ little isms when he climbed in the car and his huffing and puffing in the passenger seat when they had both reached their climax. So a few weeks before the end of their summer of sex, Ruby agrees to extend their agreement until the foreseeable future 

But this time there would be no turning back, Otis was definitely going to university and there was not going to be any sudden U-turn this time. 

In the week that they come back from London, she makes sure she and Otis spend every night together, she thinks it might be a little overwhelming considering that would be two straight weeks they would spend every night in bed together which would never normally happen with the chaos going on at their respective homes. But those two weeks just confirmed to Ruby that she would never tire of holding Otis close as they drift off to sleep. 

Most of the week is spent making sure Otis has the necessary essentials, with Ruby getting all sentimental about what Otis was taking with him and what he was leaving behind. 

“Otis you really can’t be serious about taking Eddie the Elephant,” Ruby said as she checked through Otis’ bag, grabbing the teddy bear that he had with him since his 1st Birthday. 

“I used to sleep with him nearly every night until someone came along..” 

“Otis.” Ruby began as she rose up from one of Otis’ bags on the floor. “I think you would be bullied out of university and as much I would love to have you around I don’t want to have my boyfriend being bullied,” Ruby said whilst softly tracing her fingers through his hair. “Erm, how many of those posters are you taking?” Ruby asked as she noticed a few more had disappeared since she last checked. 

“Nearly all of them.” 

“Do you really need to take all of them, you are taking the character out of the room.” It was paining her that with each day that passed Otis room was beginning to look more and more lifeless. 

“I thought you didn’t like ‘nerds staring back at you’ while you were trying to sleep,” Otis said as he air quoted some of his girlfriend’s comments from the very first time she stayed the night here. 

“You’re right I just thought-.” Ruby can’t even come up with what she wants to say, she just wants a part of him to be here in Moordale while he was away.

“No, you’re right.” Otis nodded at her and he headed back towards his bag to take out Eddie the Elephant and a few of the posters he had rolled up. 

“Otis I didn’t want to-.” Ruby began before being stopped by Otis who turned back towards her. 

“Ruby we have been over this before.” Otis started as he placed his hands onto Ruby’s shoulders. “Every time you try and suggest something different to me you aren’t ‘changing who I am’, you are just suggesting something different it’s nice to hear something different and this time I agree with you.” 

Ruby nodded at him “Okay.” She was always anxious about scenarios like this, considering he was going to break off whatever it was they had before they became ‘official’ because she was trying to change who he is was and no matter how many times he could try and reassure her it was always going to trouble her. “You should listen to more Milburn, I’m always right.”

Otis closed the gap between them placing his hands on her waist and they shared a kiss.

The night before Otis leaves, it’s Olivia’s turn to leave for London where she would be spending her time at University. 

Otis isn’t sure why he is even here surrounded by Oliva’s family, Anwar, Rahim and Ruby. He shared an awkward hand shake with Olivia before she and Ruby shared an emotional embrace next to her as they promised to share calls every night and when Olivia is driven away by her mum Ruby squeezes his hand extra tight. 

They walk back to the car in silence hand in hand, but when they get in Otis notices a small tear trickle down Ruby’s left cheek. 

“Rubes…” Otis reached over to place his hand on top of her’s. 

“I don’t want you to go,” Ruby said softly as she stared straight out of the window. 

Otis let out a heavy sigh as he could already feel himself starting to get emotional. “Please don’t cry Ruby, because then I’m going to start crying and your car is going to become the equivalent of a swimming pool.” Otis managed to crack a small laugh out upon completing his sentence. 

Ruby sniffled as she tried to compose herself. “Otis your annoying sense of humour isn’t making this any easier.” 

“I’m sorry, but we are going to be fine Rubes, I’m going to be a few hours up the road, first train-.”

“First train back on a Thursday, the last train back on a Sunday I know I’ve heard it all before.” Ruby interrupted him as she grabbed some tissues to wipe some of her tears. “Just it’s not going to feel right not having you this close to me all the time.” Ruby swapped the position of their hands so her’s was now on top of his. 

“Wow sounds like you’re obsessed with me.” Otis again tries to distract from the situation with humour, hoping Ruby would play along also, giving one of her typical responses like “In your dreams Milburn.” but this time she gave a rather different response. 

“What if I am?” Ruby said softly as she and Otis locked eyes for the first time since they got in the car. “I know what you are going to say it’s only four days a week, yes but four becomes eight, twelve and so and so on I just don’t want us to grow apart.” She stops in her tracks as she knows the tears are building up again.“You are everything to me Otis…” 

“And you are everything to me Rubes, that’s why we are going to make this work.” 

They each squeezed one another’s hands before their lips came crashing together, it was slow, soft and extremely sloppy with Ruby’s tears still pouring down her face. 

Once they had gotten back to Otis’ house they had passionately torn each other’s clothes off and were now lying on Otis’ bed both a little out of breath while Ruby leant her head on Otis’ shoulder. 

“Hey which one is your funny looking toe darling?” Ruby asked their feet were both sticking out at the end of the covers and Ruby couldn’t help but think back to that time Otis and Maeve were trying to track down the identity of the person who was threatening to release that explicit photo of her and while Ruby’s whole world was crashing down Otis thought it would be a good time to tell her about his ‘funny looking toe’ 

“Can’t you tell?” Otis said back as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. 

“They all look funny to me…” 

“Hey!” Otis cried back and Ruby giggled at him before shutting him up with a quick kiss. 

“I guess I never thanked you for that day.” Of course, she didn’t, she just went back to acting like he didn’t exist and when their paths did cross she would just shoot him an aggressive glare.  It's strange for her now to think of a time when she looked at Otis and didn't think anything but love and adoration.

“And Maeve.” Otis made sure to include her name as it was definitely her who was the most instrumental in that operation. 

“Yeah…..” Less talking about your ex-love while we lie together naked Milburn she thinks to herself. “I hope I made it up to you.” 

“You did,” Otis replied and they shared another quick peck. 

Falling asleep together that night is hard as they both know what is tomorrow, Ruby makes sure to hold him extra tight, probably the tightest she has ever held him. “Is that okay?” Ruby asks when she first wraps his arms around his waist. 

“Yeah, good night Rubes.” Otis mumbles. 

“Night Otis, I love you.” 

“I love you too.” 

Ruby really does try and get to sleep and with Otis’ face blocked from vision she doesn’t know his current state either, so she just begins to trace words on his back “ I love you, I love you.” Just as she did back in France when she had not even said those words aloud to him. 

But she barely gets to the third time of writing it before Otis spins around to face her out of nowhere. “Can you not sleep either?” 

“Jesus Otis, you scared the shit out of me!” Ruby jumps back as far as she can on his tiny bed without falling off. 

“Sorry, just I could feel you drawing on my back, what were you drawing?” 

Thankfully for Ruby, it seemed that Otis’ ability to recognise what patterns she was drawing on him hadn’t improved from the France trip. “I was going to write Otis Milburn is a creepy fucker and then a massive dick next to it,” Ruby says still a little annoyed about how he had spooked her.  

They end up just staying up all night, laughing and joking about the comedy show they were currently binging through, before Ruby gossips about every single student at Moordale and where life was taking them beyond the sixth form. 

She was going to miss this, just staying up all night chatting with her boyfriend, even when he was pretending to be interested in the new makeup set she had spotted in Tara Reynolds back on results day and she was pretending to be interested in the new Super Mario DLC, it was nice, just so nice.

Their late-night chat had meant Otis was really groggy when he woke in the morning, his mood was not helped by both Ruby and his mother telling him to get a move on in getting ready as he had a long drive up to Manchester today. 

But once he had gotten everything prepared, his mother, Eric and Ruby are stood outside on the gravel trap watching him load his final bag into the boot. 

“Everything,” Ruby says as he shoots the car boot. 

“Everything.” He confirms as he makes his way over to Eric first. 

“Come on Oatcake bring it in.” Eric expresses as he opens up his arms for an embrace with his best friend. “You are on your way to become the best therapist/councillor/whatever else there is to do in the world my friend do you hear me!”

Otis smiles as he pulls out of the hug “Yeah” he breathes and they both cannot help but fall back into eachother for a second embrace, this time just saying nothing and enjoying the peace in one another’s arms. Both Ruby and Jean smiled along from next to them both in adoration of just how real and raw their friendship was. 

Otis then moved on to his mother next. “I’m very, very proud of you darling and you should be proud of yourself.” She says as he stands in front of her. 

“What for loading the car?” Otis jokes and Ruby smirks as he knew just how to perfectly kill the moment. 

“No Otis, I’m very proud of the man you have now become.” Jean and her son smiled at eachother before joining in their embrace. “Now go and say goodbye to your girlfriend before you make an old woman cry,” Jean whispers whilst resting her head on her son’s shoulder.

“You’re not old mum,” Otis says before he walks over to Ruby. 

Ruby had prepared for how she wanted this to go and she nervously twitched her fingers as this was Otis Milburn, there was bound to be an unexpected curveball in there somewhere, she wants to start with what her dad wanted her to say. “My dad made you a card wishing you good luck and I think he wanted to clarify your nerves I told him about after what happened with Remi.”

"Tell him thanks," Otis said whilst smiling down at the card

“And send me a text the moment you get there, you know how slow you drive, can see some idiot driving into the back of you on the motorway.” Ruby wishes she had put her personal pride aside and let him drive up to the theme park as he had never been on such a long drive before. 

“Will you come and visit me in the hospital?” And there was that curveball. 

“Hmmmmm.” Ruby pondered on it for a moment “I’ll have to check my schedule.” 

Otis laughs back at her and when the laugh trails off they stare into one another’s eyes for a moments, until like his mum and his best friend before him he launches himself into her arms. 

She closes her eyes as she holds onto to him, her free arm gently stroking his back. “Remember.” Otis begins as he separates from her hug. 

“First train back on a Thursday last train back on a Sunday.” They both say in unison with a smile and even a little giggle each which for a moment takes over from the sadness in their eyes. 

Otis bends down slightly to kiss her, which Ruby deepens immediately, she doesn’t care that she is passionately snogging him with his mother and his best friend so close to him, she hopes that they understand her needs. 

Once they separate they join their foreheads together and Ruby again is doing her best to try and fight off her tears. “I love you.” She breathes ever so softly. 

“I love you too,” Otis replies and leaves her with one last soft kiss before heading towards the car. As he does that he can see that Jakob has appeared with Joy in his arms who must have finally calmed down. “Bye Joy.” Otis waves weakly towards her and Jakob orchestrated a little wave on her behalf in return. 

Otis took one last look at those he loved the most taking in the heavy emotion scattered across all of their faces, offering one last little wave before hoping in the car. 

He honked the horn as he drove off, ready to begin the next stage of his life. 

-Didn’t die made it here alive tell mum and Eric also x

Rubes❤️: Good I’m kicking their arses at monopoly a hospital trip would seriously disturb my momentum x

Otis smiled as he read through Ruby’s reply picturing the scene back at his house right now, he is trying to make his way through the student accommodation halls to find his room 

He finds his door number, should he knock or just walk in? After his miny debate with himself inside his head, he decides to go for a combination of both knocking and then opening the door himself. He walks in with four people already scattered across the living area, he knew he was sharing with another 5 people, three guys and two girls, but eyes must have been deceiving him right now he could only spot four guys which didn’t make sense in any capacity. 

“Ah, you must be Otis.” The tallest of the bunch rose from the couch to greet him. “Let me give you a hand there.” He grabbed some of the bags of Otis who was clearly struggling with everything he could carry. “I’m Sean by the way, Finance, not my last name that’s my course think it would be nice everyone knew what they were doing first.”

 The tall strawberry blonde led Otis over towards the others in the room. “This is Matt and Sam, both on chemistry and both completely interchangeable.” Sean teased the pair as they played a game of FIFA

“Hey!” They both called back in unison both momentarily turning their heads away from the game. Sean was kind of right, same hairstyle, same poor attempts at a beard, time would have to tell on their personalities. 

“And this is my younger brother by 22 minutes Max, he doesn’t actually live in this accommodation he just has no friends,” Sean whispered the final part of his sentence into Otis’ ear. 

“I heard that,” Max said not taking his eyes away from his nails which he was painting. Otis wouldn’t have thought for a million years that Max and Sean were twins, Max had long dark that almost covered up his eyes from some angels hair with purple highlights, the most noticeable difference was the size of the pair, Max was extremely small and compact, while Sean looked like he had to be careful not to hit his head off the ceiling. “If you are wondering why he’s so tall and I’m so small, it’s because he ate all the food in the womb,” Max said aloud which startled Otis almost like he had performed a Jedi Mind trick and searched deep into his brain about what he was thinking. 

“Whoops,” Sean said as he turned back towards Otis. “Anyway let’s get these bags through to your room.” 

So Otis followed Sean’s lead as they bumbled to what would be Otis home for 4 nights a week for this first year of university. “There you go,” Sean said as he dropped the bags onto Otis bed. 

“Thanks.” Otis smiled as he spoke for the first time since entering the accommodation. 

“So, psychology with counselling and psychotherapy,” Sean said Otis’ course title allowed. 

“Yes.” 

“That’s a hell of a tongue twister isn’t it, anyway I know what you are thinking where are the ‘ladies?” Sean completed a rather poor attempt of adding a seductive tone to his final word. “They’ve already headed out, hopefully, we’ll catch them later at the fresher’s party, which is at eight if you are interested?” 

“Yes.” Otis didn’t know why he was exclusively sticking to one words answers only, it just kept happening. 

“Right I’ll leave you to it then.” Sean smiled before shutting Otis’ door behind him. 

Otis nodded and smiled as he left, he seemed nice enough, almost warm and soft which contrasted heavily with his appearance which was more a kin to a boxer or a rugby player. 

He began to unpack all of his homeless clothes and tried to place them as neatly as possible like Ruby had tried to drill into him. Next setting up his new laptop his Uncle Remus got him for his birthday specifically for university on his desks, next were the posters to go onto the walls and then he left the three items that were the most important to him last, three framed photographs for him to go on his bedside table, the first of him, his mother and Joy sat together on the couch at home, a second of him and Eric at a gaming competition a couple of years ago and the third and final one was the famous photo of himself and Ruby on their first date at the bowling alley. 

Once he feels settled he jumps onto his bed which really wasn’t much of an upgrade in terms of size than his one back at home, but he does feel like it would be less inclined to break if Ruby was on top of him like he often feared it would. 

Speaking of Ruby, that’s whose name he was looking for in his contacts to call. He rings but it rings out, he lets it play all the way through the ‘O2 Messaging service’ bullshit to hear Ruby’s voicemail. 

“ Hey it’s Ruby Matthews, I’m probably with someone far more interesting than you right now but once that’s done I’ll get back to you.” It’s at least 3 years old now Ruby claims and it continues to make Otis laugh every single time, after his laughter his finished, his mind always goes straight to concern and that’s because there is only three reasons Ruby Matthews won’t answer the phone, firstly is if they are having sex, but she will pick up if it’s her mum or dad which would often leave Otis in several compromising positions especially last summer when she couldn’t care how close he was to finishing, she would dive across the car to grab her phone, secondly if she is having a shower and finally if she is attending to her dad. The first is ruled out for obvious reasons so it can only be one of the final two. 

- Hope everything is okay (Or hope you had a nice shower) xx 

It takes a few minutes but he gets his response.

Rubes❤️: Yeah I was just helping my dad get in and out of the bath I will call you later xx

Otis smiles when her response comes through, firstly because her dad is okay and there had been no major incident, secondly a few words come to his mind the very first night he met Roland. 

“She’s such a good girl. So kind to me and your mum.”

She was, she really was. 

So Otis is dragged along to this god awful freshers party, with all of his new housemates and of course Sean’s twin brother Max. Who Otis does manage to strike up a conversation with as Max plays on a Nintendo Switch while they walk to the party despite his brother’s persistence to put it away.  

“There they are,” Sean said as he rested his arm on Oits’ shoulder whilst pointing towards two girls in the middle of the crowd. “The two girls in our accommodation!” Sean shouts a little bit so Otis can hear him over the music. 

“Oh yeah.” See two-word answers, progress. 

“Leah Woods on the left.” Sean began as he directed his finger towards the redhead with curls. “Same course as you, bit of a troublemaker I hear, so I’d steer clear if I were you.” 

Was this guy some kind of walking Wikipedia page? Otis thought to himself as Sean begin to describe the girl next to her. 

“That’s Bethany, I can’t say her last name because she’s French or Spanish or some shit.” 

“French or Spanish or Some shit?” Otis repeated Sean’s previous statement whilst having a quiet chuckle to himself.

“Yeah, it’s all the same right!” Sean completely brushed it off as he ordered drinks from the bar. “So any catch your eye,” Sean smirked as he passed the drinks over to Otis. “Or if that’s your thing, that’s cool, it’s 2020 and all.” 

“No I-I already have a girlfriend,” Otis muttered as he took the first intake of his regular coke. 

“Oh lucky you!” Sean sounded somewhat surprised, he’d be even more surprised in a minute if he asked to see a photo. “She go here or?” 

“No, she’s from back home.”

“And where does Otis Milburn call ‘back home’.” 

“Moordale, small place don’t know if you-”

“Isn’t that where the sex school was.” Sean jumped onto Otis sentence with a wide smirk on his face. “You went there?” The wide-eyed Sean asked

“Erm yes.”

Oh shit.

“Aw mate that sounds like it would have been a barrel of laughs!” Sean slapped his hands together still getting a little bit of a buzz from the information. “I heard that there was like this Shakespeare sex play and students were fucking on stage and shit and even the teachers got involved!” 

Double shit. Highly inaccurate information. But still double shit. 

“Oh erm-.” Otis couldn’t tell Sean at what he read in a newspaper was not exactly true but he was interrupted by a ringing in his jacket pocket. 

‘Rubes❤️’ 

“Sorry got to take this.” Otis span away from Simon, he may have left him thinking that he took part in a live school orgy but this was more important than that. 

“Hey.” Otis just about managed to accept the call by the time he had gotten out of the bar. 

“Are you having a wank?” Ruby asked as she immediately picked up how out of breath he was. “Better have been to me.”

“No, no I was just trying to get out of this stupid party,” Otis said as he lent his head on a nearby brick wall. 

“Oh, party? Are you one of the popular kids now? Must be a pretty lame school.” 

“It’s not a school Ruby it’s a university and besides it’s a fresher party practically everyone is invited by default.” Otis corrects her. 

“Obviously if you’re there.” She smirks through the phone and Otis carries the exact same expression as he continues to lean on the wall outside of the bar. “Any hot chicks in there?” 

“What?” Otis asked a little bit taken aback by what his girlfriend has just asked him.

“You heard me, any hot chicks at the party? Need to keep an eye on the competition, can’t have anyone stealing my stickman while I’m not there.”

“No! Besides I don’t think we are supposed to use the word ‘chick’ any more it’s a very degrading and sexist term used to describe-” 

“I appreciate your support for the feminist cause Otis but god you really to head back into that party and have some fun!” Ruby rolled her eyes as well as shaking her head at baby at the bottom of the bed whilst mouthing “This Idiot.” 

“I don’t think I was having much fun anyway” Otis seemed to sulk “do you mind talking to me whilst I walk back?”

Ruby knows she’s being selfish and should tell him to get back in there and make some new friends, but if her boyfriend can’t be here with her talking to him through the phone would have to do. “Of course not nerd.” 

3 days later, it’s a Thursday and Ruby could barely contain her excitement, she knew Thursday’s were going to become her new favourite day as Otis would be coming home on that day. She decides to get ready for him far too early, his train would be due back around 7:30, she’s glad he has decided to get the train there and back and leave his car there as with his driving she is certain it would be gone ten o’clock by the time he gets back. She really should get on with her job hunting as it was going terribly so far, but it’s like the words just keep spinning around in her head. “Otis is back, Otis is back, Otis back.” She imagines the version of herself from 2 years ago would slap her silly if she saw herself behaving like this after being separated from a nerd for a couple of days.

“Rubes!” She hears her dad call from the other room. 

She rushes out of her living room at lightning speed and towards the living room, she’s already in her heels so she risks breaking a heel and falling to reach him in time, but he’s fine, he’s sat watching the news like he does every other morning. “Dad, what’s wrong?” Ruby asks her with her arms open wide in confusion. 

“I think it’s you who’s got something wrong Darlin, pacing up and down your room ain’t going to bring that boy home quicker,” Roland smirks at her from the comfort of his armchair.

“What?” Ruby immediately blushes. “I’m just doing an exercise routine with Baby.”

“What in your heels?” Roland’s smirk got wider and wider as he knew there was no way out for her now. 

“Oh god, J-Just shut up!” Ruby waved her hands in the air to somehow mask her embarrassment before flooding back to her room. 

“ Oh, love really hurts without you…” 

“Don’t sing dad it’s embarrassing!” Ruby called back from her room.

-Just left the accommodation now x 

Rubes❤️: Make sure you don’t miss your train x 

-On Train see you soon x

Rubes❤️: ❤️

Otis reread his previous message as he wondered to update Ruby that he was only a matter of minutes away as she was probably waiting for him whether that be in the train station or in the car park. 

Otis could have stayed until the end of freshers week, but he decided to leave at the exact time and get on the exact same train he would normally have to work around when lectures started probably so he and Ruby could get used to this routine they were going to have to work out. 

So Otis hopped off the train as quickly as could as he carried his bags which wasn’t as much of a struggle from when he took his bags up to Manchester as he was only carrying half the amount this time. 

When he made his way into the main hub of the Moordale Train Station he spotted her immediately, she had the ‘shame sign’ dangling down from her neck Otis had used back when he was helping Jackson and Co with the ‘The Thing’. Otis’ message about his mum catching him wanking had been removed and had been replaced with ‘Ugly looking Stickman’ Like she was a driver picking up someone up from the airport. 

“Ugly looking stickman.” Otis read the message aloud as he approached her. 

“Can’t be whoever you are, you’re even uglier.” Ruby smiled as he was within touching distance of her again. 

“If I’m so ugly why will you let me do this.” Otis dropped his bags and cupped Ruby’s face before pulling her in for a kiss. “I missed you.” He whispered in between little kisses. 

“Ugh, it’s only been four days!” Ruby said exactly what Otis would have said if she would have been the one to have missed the distance between them first, like she thought she would be considering how many times Otis in the past had to reassure her ‘that it would be fine’. 

“As you so often remind I am a nerd Ruby, I am able to count the distance between a Monday and Thursday.” 

“Well, how about you pass me one of your bags and you can tell me all about Monday to Thursday.” 

“It’s fine Ruby honestly,” Otis said as he scrambled down to the floor to pick up his bags.

“Don’t be all noble and shit Otis and just give me a fucking bag.” Otis accepted defeat and passed her one of his bags. 

“Now have you been gushing to your roommates about me?” Ruby asked as she reconnected their hands again for what had in reality only been four days, but felt like a lifetime. 

“Well, firstly they don’t believe you exist………….” 

Having Otis back is great, they don’t even do anything over the top, they just do what they had been doing all summer holidays. Cuddling whilst watching a movie on either of their couches, walking baby together or pushing Joy in the pram, going for a meal on a Saturday night and sex, of course, lot’s and lot’s of sex, ending their longest sex drought since Ruby and the rest of the Untouchables got spooked by one of Hope’s SRE classes. 

Of course, she has to share him with Eric, Jean and Joy which selfishly is quite annoying but she wants her boyfriend to be happy and anything that makes him happy makes her happy. Expect for game club, thank god he had dropped that on a Saturday in order to spend more time with her. 

And before she knows it, Sunday evening comes along as she’s dropping him off at the train station again, she doesn’t even feel sad this time when she kisses him goodbye she’s just looking forward to the next Thursday, there is an extra special reason for that also. 

but it’s at this moment as she waves him off back onto the train that it sunk in for her

They could definitely make this work.

But two days later at night time, she goes back to longing for him again. It’s brought on by a bad incident with her dad, he tried getting out of the bath without getting her help like he knows he should do and he ends up having a bit of a tumble causing him to groan in pain. 

Ruby’s mum comes home to help try and resolve the situation, which actually makes Ruby feel worse as she knows they aren’t blessed with money, her mum’s cutting her shifts short for incidents like this, Ruby’s struggling to get a job and her dad’s taking tumbles again which he could seriously hurt himself from or even worse.... No she can't even bring herself to even think about it

Clare manages to calm her down, but by the time she gets to bed, she wants Otis to hold her and whisper rambling nonsense in her ear about Donkey Kong or some shit to take her mind off things. She can still try and get this via text if she presents it as if nothing is wrong. 

-Hey are you up? Missing you ❤️ xx

She knows if Otis Milburn doesn’t respond to texts within five minutes, he’s definitely asleep. It’s not freshers week anymore and they would have started their lectures and Otis is probably overwhelmed with all of the new information he is receiving. 

So if she can’t see him, if she can’t text him, she will try the third-best option. 

“Mummy’s off out,” Ruby whispers as she rubs baby before grabbing her keys and her yellow coat. 

It’s fucking freezing at this ungodly hour but she manages to get to the car and direct it to the Milburn/Nyman household. 

She has a key these days, it all started from when she proposed that Otis get a key for her house incase of emergencies with her dad that she couldn’t get to, this was in school time when their revision groups organised by the school didn’t always align with eachother. It was a spur of the moment decision when they were in the lock smiths when she asked Otis if she could have a key for his place, like the dork he is was beaming at the idea. 

So she opens the front door and takes her shoes off so she will make the minimum amount of noise when walking up the stairs. 

After locking the door behind her she manages to creep up to Otis’ room without successfully waking anyone. 

She takes off her clothes and heads straight to Otis’ drawers and puts on the least disgusting shorts and stripy top combo that he had left behind and wraps herself up in his bed sheets. All of this just to catch the faintest sniff of his scent. She takes her phone out to take a selfie of her winking to send it to Otis.

-(IMG)I’m in your bed lol x 

-Please tell your mum when you see this  don’t want to give her a freight

She shakes her head as she reads what she wrote back since when did she use the term ‘lol’. 

Ruby feels like rather than herself, him telling his mum that she snuck into the house in the middle of the night will be a little less of an awkward conversation. 

Ola doesn’t know why it’s taken her so long for her to follow through with this plan and just pinch some of Otis’ vinyl that he had left behind. He had been gone for eight days now, granted he had been back for some of those days, but she only wanted to borrow it for getting ready for work in the morning. She guessed she feared that Otis had employed Ruby to look through the trees, ready to gut her if she tried to dare and touch his collection. 

She had to gasp when she walked through Otis’ door at six in the morning to see that her theory was half right as Ruby was spread out like a starfish across Otis bed. Ola just about manages to stop herself from screaming when she realised it was Ruby, but it was still fucking scary. 

“Hmmmmm Otis.” Ola hears Ruby groan in her sleep. 

She never thought she would describe the big bad high school bully Ruby Matthews as ‘sweet’ but it was very sweet, dressed in her partner’s clothes and humming their name in one’s sleep, it’s a level of connection she and Lily were definitely missing. 

The next Thursday comes around and Otis is even more excited for this one than he was the last one, because it’s his and Ruby’s 1st anniversary of being together. 

Okay, technically they have three anniversaries together as established by Otis himself. 

April 25/26th - The “I don’t want your pale, usually long children” anniversary

September 13th- The “No more cars or toilets” anniversary

September 17th- The “Do you want to be my boyfriend?” anniversary.

The last one was the most important when they were “official” and that’s what today was and it so happened to fall on a Thursday in the year of 2020.

Otis immediately leaned over to grab his phone when his eyes fluttered open to check if there was any kind of messages from Ruby, there were no messages but there was an Instagram notification telling him that Ruby uploaded. 

Ruby.Mathewss - One Year With You ❤️

Ruby had uploaded a number of pictures of them together from the double date, cuddling together on the couch, both London trips, prom and so much more. 

It brought a smile to Otis’ face that she was so proud to be with him, he didn’t think anyone would be proud to be with him, never mind someone as stunning and as wonderful as Ruby. 

He scrolls through the comments which are the usual suspects when Ruby uploads anything of them together, her ‘internet friends’ and Eric spreading love like ‘Cuties’ and ‘so happy for you!’. But there was one surprising new addition to the comments. 

Olivia_Hanan: ❤️

One simple show of support from Olivia, god he must be doing something right! He wasn’t even happy for himself, he was happy for Ruby as he knew how much she desperately wanted her friends to approve of him. Pushing Anwar, BC and CC to comment love hearts in the comments section next? Otis would need a few more anniversaries to make that one work.

Otis uploads just a singular photo of them together from prom, he wasn’t one for Instagram, but he knew it would make Ruby happy so he goes through with it anyway as well as sending her a happy anniversary text before he heads off to his lectures. 

He is really struggling to concentrate in his lecture as he is excited for tonight, he has no idea what to expect as Ruby told him last week that she would be in charge of planning. Another reason for his distraction is that bar her post in the morning it was radio silence from her end, she hadn’t replied to his text of adoration for her which he personally thought he had smashed out of the park and not even alike on his Instagram post, he would slyly keep refreshing the feed in the seminar but there was nothing. 

What kind of games was she playing? 

Otis gets impatient when the clock ticks past the time the session is supposed to end, he has a train to catch and he knows when Ruby organises something timing is key. 

When the lecturer finally dismisses them, Otis leaps out of his seat, nearly forgetting to grab his bag and jacket as he raced for the building exit. 

-Lesson overran, will still make it on time xx 

Otis isn’t too sure of that fact as he presses send, he just doesn’t want Ruby to panic. 

It’s also when Otis presses send when he bumps into someone because he isn’t looking where he is going. “Sorry, sorry.” 

“You should look where you are going, mister.” 

Otis looked away from his phone and up at the person he had jumped into, right outside of the building, “Ruby.” 

His girlfriend is standing right in front of him holding a bouquet of roses that he may have slightly squashed. “Happy anniversary darling.” 

“W-what are you doing here?” Otis stuttered still in amazement at the fact that here she was outside his university. 

“You did hear my last sentence did you not Milburn?” Ruby narrowed her eyes at him and decided to reverse that action when he let back a nervous smile. “I saw some flowers at a service station, I know you don’t even like flowers but maybe you could give them to me.” Ruby offered out the flowers to him which he accepted. 

“Happy anniversary Rubes.” Otis grinned down at her as he offered the flowers back to her. 

“Oh wow, roses! My second favourite, how could you have possibly have known?” Ruby asked back in a mocking town. 

“That’s what nerds do, they remember,” Otis said before pressing a slow and soft kiss to her lips.

Ruby smirked back up to him as she took her hand into his and they began to walk. “Well, I’ve booked a table in town for tonight…” 

Otis wasn’t too sure what Ruby was saying after that, he sort of drifted off into his own little world because of how overjoyed he was that Ruby had come to surprise him like that and that’s when it sunk in for him. 

They could definitely make this work.

Chapter Text

“Hmmmmm, come to bed.” Ruby wrapped her arms around her boyfriend’s waist whilst peppering his neck with kisses.

Otis was trying to run through his notes for his first assignment as he sat at his desk, but it seems like his girlfriend had other ideas. His whole body shivered and he resisted the urge to moan as Ruby’s lips discovered all of the sensitive spots on his neck, when she finally stopped Otis took a few seconds to speak as he got his composure back. “Five more minutes.” 

Ruby kept her arms around his waist and now rested her chin on his left shoulder. 

It had been over a month since Otis had begun life at university and the memories of pain and anxiety that Ruby held before seemed like a very faint memory as maybe she was starting to think that the distance was quite good for their relationship. If you had offered Ruby the chance to spend every day with Otis of course Ruby would bite your hand off however splitting the week in half almost without Otis and then with Otis, it made the time they did spend together so much more passionate so much more special. 

“Oh email from Leah, what’s she doing emailing you at this late hour?” Ruby raised an eyebrow as the notification popped up from his laptop. 

Ruby would constantly ask questions about Otis’ roommates, especially Leah and Bethany considering they were two girls the same age as him in the same living quarters. But Otis didn’t really have much to report on from any of them.

Otis had almost reverted back to his factory settings without Ruby there with him, back to being the ‘guy in the corner again, that was fine though it’s what he wanted. Otis would just lock himself away in his room and crack on with all the studying he needed to do as quickly as possible so he could spend as much time as possible with Ruby when he got back home. He wasn’t there for the university ‘lifestyle’ he was there to get his degree and move on, his social life was perfect at home why would he need another one? 

“It’s not for just me, it’s chained for everyone in our room.” Otis clicked on the notification to prove to her that everyone else’s emails were tagged in as well. 

“Fresher’s ball…..” Ruby began to read across the screen.

“What?” Otis had his eyes on Ruby and hadn’t actually checked what the contents of the email were, so when he turned around he was presented with a virtual leaflet advertising a fresher’s ball next Saturday. 

“Sounds fun, maybe you could go and stop being such a fucking bore,” Ruby said as she rose up and trailed a hand across his opposite shoulder from where her chin was resting. 

“It’s next Saturday, I’ll be at home, with you.” Otis rose up from his chair and cupped her left breast as he began to kiss her. 

“What happened to five more minutes?” Ruby asked in between kisses.

“They are going to have to wait,” Otis replied as Ruby led him by the hand towards his bed.

They were both too tired for sex, but lazily making out was a very good substitute, It was something they had both become accustomed to when Otis came back from Manchester on Thursday nights, not like they did it all the time anyway, mostly when Otis would get all giddy about a film he wanted to show Ruby and she would get bored anywhere between five and fifteen minutes and would get more interested in his lips. 

If they were making out of the couch, sometimes someone like Ola would walk past and screech “Ewwwww.” but Otis and Ruby wouldn’t even flinch and just continue their makeout session. Every now and then Otis would break off the kiss and say “We need to watch this bit.” Even though neither of them had looked at the screen for some twenty minutes, Ruby secretly knew Otis was just taking a breather to cool his erection down with ‘special breathing techniques he had read in one of his mum’s books.

Kissing was one of the only area’s Otis could make a direct comparison from Ruby to other girls whether it be Ola or a couple of randomers at parties when Otis had gotten blind drunk and as ever Ruby ensured she was a cut above the rest. When kissing Ola it was nice no denying that but it was always a little awkward like she was holding something back but Ruby didn’t settle for awkwardness and whether she was being feisty and aggressive with him or she was cupping his face and it was soft and slow, it was almost kind of annoying that she was so good and basically everything he wishes could find a flaw so he could constantly tease her for it, but right now as they lay on his bed he is glad that flaw isn’t kissing. 

It had been five minutes? Ten minutes? Half an hour? (it was very easy to lose track of time in their makeout sessions) when Ruby broke off the kiss. 

“W-what did you do that for?” Otis instantly complained.

“Aww, your poor little thing.” Ruby cooed as she lightly tapped his nose with one of her fingers. 

“What’s wrong?” Otis suddenly got extremely serious as Ruby had never broke off them making out before, it was normally Otis and his “problems”. 

“Nothing.” Ruby lightly chuckled at his sweetness off constantly making sure she was okay. “I was thinking you should definitely go to that ball.” Ruby didn’t want Otis to be a loner and she didn’t want people to make fun of him for it either, she knew what bitches could be like, she had been a bitch for the majority of her life, picking on the small prey and those who seem weak was easy. “I was thinking I could come with you.”

“Why can’t we just stay in and do this.” Otis tried to lean forward to kiss her again but Ruby shuffled back enough to get to get a bit of distance away from her but not enough so she wouldn’t fall off the bed. 

“Ah-ah, no kissing unless you take this girl to the ball.” 

Otis tried his very best with his puppy dog eyes that would normally allow Ruby to give in to most of his demands but this time she was resiting. 

“You’re not embarrassed by me Milburn are you?” Ruby flipped their problems of September last year on its head. 

“I think that is literally impossible.” 

“Could be the perfect time to reveal your ‘Master Plan’”

The running joke that Ruby Matthews didn’t exist began on the first Thursday of the academic year. 

All six of the flatmates along with Max had been as some bullshit freshers speech about the year ahead and were now flooding back into their accommodation after their day of official activities were over. 

“Right then, Pub,” Sean announced as he slapped his hands together.

“Pub.”

“Pub.”

“Pub.” 

“Pub.”

“Pub.”

“Otis? Where’s Otis?” One by one everyone confirmed their attendance at the pub as they met Sean’s gaze, Sean rotated his neck to where Otis should have been but the awkward teen was nowhere to be seen. 

Otis, knowing he was in a race against time to make sure he could get the right train had dived into his room to gather his bags he had already packed in the morning. When he reappeared he must have looked ridiculous as he tried to balance his bags as he barged through the door. 

“Where are you going?” Sean asked as he looked him up and down. 

“Oh- I’m going back home for the weekend.” Otis uncomfortably smiled back as he tried to make his way through the crowd and to the exit door of the accommodation. 

“Going to see your mummy.” Leah teased. Otis thought it sounded like something Ruby would say, but Otis had no more than three conversation’s with this woman, so he thought it to be quite a weird remark.

“Yes actually and my girlfriend.” Otis doesn’t know why he adds the last part, maybe because the thought of being back in Ruby’s arms was filling up his stomach with butterflies. 

“Girlfriend!” Matt almost scoffed and Sam whacked him as a sort of telling off. “I mean girlfriend, congrats man.” 

“D-dont want to miss my train.” Otis returned a smile in Sam’s direction before awkwardly shaking his hand in the air which might have somewhat passed as a wave.

As Otis left out of the door some people waved back and some let off a soft “bye.” 

“What the fuck was all that about?” Sam asked Matt as soon a the door shut behind them

“Don’t know, just didn’t strike me as the type to have a girlfriend.” 

“What are you trying to say Matt?” Max lifted his head up from his phone to shoot Matt a menacing glare and quickly tried to reassure Max that he didn’t mean it like that. 

“He did tell me he had a girlfriend.” Sean cut off his brother and Max’s argument remembering Otis’ brief stint at the fresher's party. 

“Maybe Matt’s just a little jealous.” Leah shot from across the other side of the room. 

“W-what n-o.” 

“I don’t know I think I’m with Matt, I'm sensing some bullshit,” Bethany said which restored the smile on Matt’s smile. 

“See thank you Bethany!” 

On the outside of the door Otis had his ear pressed to it, smiling along as he listened in, he could have fun with this one.

Otis’ plan was to play as dumb as possible when talking about his girlfriend to try and convince as many of them as possible that he had made up a ‘fake girlfriend’. This meant that turning over his photo of Ruby next to his bedside table, refusing to show pictures when they requested ‘proof’ of his girlfriend claiming she was a ‘very private person’ which was true in some aspects, Ruby had said it herself to him a long time ago, but not in terms of how many eyes were on her, Ruby Matthews loved the attention. 

“Do you know when you said they didn’t think I exist?” Ruby asked as they led in bed together at the end of Otis’ third week of university, 

“Hmmmmm.” Otis groaned with his eyes closed enjoying the sensation of Ruby’s hands running through his hair for the past few minutes. 

“Do they still believe it?” Ruby really wanted to hear stories about her boyfriend gushing about her to random strangers, she smiles thinking about early on in their relationship even before the double date when she unexpectedly came round to his house and he was online to his ‘gaming friends’ and when they asked what the disturbance was when she came through the door he ended up going on to them about how beautiful she was leaving her extremely confused to why her heart was fluttering that much when the words left his mouth, she loved hearing how proud he was to call her his girlfriend and she knew how much he loved it in the opposite direction.

“Hmmm think so.”

“Why don’t we just take a selfie now and you could send it to them, I could get my tits out a bit more.” Ruby shuffled the straps on her nightwear so her cleavage would be more exposed. 

“No no, I have a plan,” Otis whispered mysteriously. 

Oh no Ruby knew what this Otis was. He was definitely weird, she loved that about him but this was Otis being weird weird like when he was asking her to straighten out his eyebrows and was performing gymnastics to signify sex. Ruby eyebrows jumped back as she realised what was coming. 

“Okay, so I’ve been acting strange….” Otis confidently began before being cut off sharply by Ruby. 

“You can say that again.” 

“Let me get through the sentence, okay so I’ve been acting strange on purpose whenever they bring you up, refusing to show any photographs, hiding my lock screen so they suspect that you don’t exist and then boom you’ll appear like those magicians who make people appear out of an empty box and their jaws will drop to the floor!” Otis giggled like a little child as he got to the end of his plan, Ruby however was less enthusiastic. 

“I’m not coming out of a fucking box!” 

“No, no, no! That was just an example, it will be at like some sort of obscene social event, it will be funny.” Again Otis beamed like an idiot at his ‘masterplan’. 

“You are very odd,” Ruby said very matter of fact. 

“Yes, but you love me for it.”

“Unfortunately yes.” Ruby traced her fingers across his cheek before she leaned in to kiss him.

Otis didn’t want his big ‘Ruby reveal’ to be this early, he would rather build it up and have more fun with it the longer he left it the bigger the surprise would be, but mostly he was hoping a ‘obscene social occasion’ would fall during the week and not impact his time at home with Ruby which he would much prefer, but Ruby seems quite excited ( well a Ruby version of excited) so Otis gives in agrees to go to the ball with her.

It’s the middle of the week when he tells some of the people in University that Ruby would be coming to the ball, he had reluctantly accepted to go to the pub one night with Sean, Leah, Matt and Sam mostly because Ruby threatened to just stop texting him if he didn’t go and try and socialise. 

Matt and Sam mostly talk about the goings-on in their chemistry class with Matt not so subtly trying to hit on Leah. Otis keeps his head down, smiling when he feels like there was some kind of joke he missed and constantly checking his phone to see if Ruby had replied to his last message. 

“So then Otis,” Leah said his name as Otis sipped his drink he quickly burst into life spilling a little bit of said drink as he placed it back on the coaster. “Can we expect to see your girlfriend at the ball?” 

“Oh-erm, last time I checked yes.” There were a few raised eyebrows from around their shared table at the fact Otis had promised that his girlfriend would be present in a few days time.

Again the intense questioning begins and Otis slowly begins to paint a picture of this insanely beautiful dream girl, there were no lies in that what so ever Ruby Matthews was definitely out of Otis league. However, Sam and Matt were more interested in the size of Ruby’s breasts and bum. 

“Oh yes,very big.” Otis uncomfortably confirmed.

So by simply telling the truth just with a few more stutters in usual Otis had further pushed the theory to his University students that Ruby Matthews was somewhat of a creation to make Otis seem cool, Otis believes he had everyone convinced bar Sean who was as ever being somewhat of an optimist. 

It’s probably due to how much of a lightweight he is combined with the conversation they are having leads to his drunken mind to question is Ruby Matthews even real? No way would the most popular and hottest girl fall for the skinny awkward kid who had panic attacks on the regular. What if it’s like one of those films where it’s revealed they had an imaginary friend all along. 

So as he tries to get his legs to function probably to walk back to the accommodation he calls Ruby to confront her on the issue. Surely a ghost couldn’t get a network provider?

“Hey.” Ruby starts from the other end of the phone as she locks her car door and heads across her driveway. 

“Ruby are you real?” 

Ruby initially narrowed her eyes at his bold and strange question but it didn’t take too long for Ruby to realise that he was drunk, this brought a smile to her face, she liked drunk Otis. 

“I mean I can see why you think that as I am literally perfect.” Ruby quoted her little part in Jackson and Cal’s creation ‘The Thing’ whilst trapping her phone between her ear and shoulder as her hands were concentrating on opening up her front door with her keys. 

“Yeah just me and the guys were talking.”

“The guys?” Ruby mocked his words as Otis definitely not the type of person to use the phrase ‘the guys’. 

“And girls, well one girl, but don’t worry  she and Matt were flirting- no actually it was more one-sided but still-.” 

Ruby smiled as she listened to his rambling whilst she checked on her mum and dad’s room as they both lay asleep together. 

“It’s just I was telling them about you, but not too much masterplan and all. And it just seems like you are too good for me.” 

“Don’t worry I think that myself a lot of the time.” Ruby had now walked into her living room and went straight over to the photo that had been framed of her and Otis at prom which rested on the family mantelpiece, she lightly stroked his stupid little face with her index finger as the words left her mouth. 

“Rubes be serious for a moment please!” 

Ruby knew that Otis’ words didn’t mean he hated their banter it’s just sometimes he wanted a serious conversation. Ruby much prefers their banter because they both know when they really stand when Ruby throw’s cheap ‘insults’ his way, rather than talking about feelings, because while it had been over a year now, there had been eighteen other years in Ruby’s life where she would mostly repress feelings. “Otis we both know that sometimes you feel like you aren’t good enough for me and sometimes I don’t feel like I’m good enough for you, but let’s face we are both pretty fucking awesome,” Ruby exclaimed as she threw herself down to her couch, stretching her feet out to the table in front of her.

“Yeah.” Otis breathed.

“Me a little bit more than you though.” Ruby went straight back to teasing him. 

“How was Adam's?” Otis asked as he tried to maintain his balance walking back, he wasn’t hammered like at his previous parties, but he wasn’t in the best of states.

“Well-.” Before Ruby could explain that it was the first time in a while where she hadn’t been a shoulder to cry on, Otis jumped straight back down the phone.

“Do you remember when you drunk called me and cause I thought you were with someone random called Adam and not Adam Groff and you thought it was cute how jealous I was or should I say cuteeeeeeeeeeee.” Otis recaptured his girlfriend’s tone from that night. 

“Yeah well consider that a once in a lifetime opportunity Milburn. Anyway, do text me when you get back through your door don’t want you hitting your head of a slab or some shit.” Ruby quickly moved the conversation away from Otis’line of questioning that was quite embarrassing for her.

“Awwwww, that’s sweet, is it cause you really really care about me?” Otis grinned through the phone. 

“No, because your family will force me to do a speech at your wedding and unless I’m getting a big chunk of your Will, it won’t be worth it frankly, Hey baby,” Ruby said as her dog snuggled up next to her on the couch. 

“Baby? That’s a new one.” Otis raised his eyebrows as he thought he had gained a new nickname.

“No Otis I’m talking to the fucking dog, all though you can act like one a lot of the time.” 

“What a baby or a dog?” 

“Both” Ruby grinned like giddy child as she rolled her eyes back at just how much of a dork he was. “Look I better leave you then, don’t want to start drafting that funeral speech” Ruby took one big sigh before whispering. “I love you, idiot.” 

“Love youuuuu moreeeeeeeeee.” Otis tone couldn’t have been more contrasting to that of his girlfriends.

“I doubt it.” 

The Saturday of the ball came around pretty quickly and as ever Ruby was making sure she was looking a million dollars, to make sure these strangers knew of his presence and power but it was mostly for her darling Otis. 

Speaking of whom, Otis again barged through his bedroom door when she was placing in her gold hoop earrings, she thinks this keeps happening because Otis now knew the exact time it takes for her beauty routine to be completed give or take a few minutes. 

“Are you ready to go?” 

“I think you are supposed to exclaim how beautiful I look first nerd,” Ruby said as she rose up from his chair to give him the best view of her purple dress while she walked towards him.

“I think you already know the answer to that.” 

“I think it’s still nice to hear it from my boyfriend though.” Ruby placed her hands on his waist and he placed his hands on her ribs as they shared a soft kiss. 

“You are ridiculously beautiful Ruby.” Otis breathed once they separated. 

Ruby’s chest was flooded with butterflies at his compliment but she had some business to take care of. “Otis-” Ruby began as she ran her hands down his brown suit. “You know how you don’t mind me giving you suggestions.” 

Otis nervously hummed in response.

“Well I like your brown suit, I really do, but don’t you think going to buy a new suit wouldn’t be a terrible idea. Because I’m running out of Instagram filters to make it seem like you aren’t always wearing the same thing and also change really isn’t always a bad thing darling, you know just to shake it up every now and then.”

“Well if you feel so strongly about it, I could put it on my Christmas list.” 

Ruby scoffed “Christmas? We are still in October nerd.” 

Otis let out a small fit of laughter “Don’t pretend you won’t be going all Mariah Carey in the shower next week when November 1st comes around.” Ruby blushed at her boyfriend’s observation. “So I could be a lucky boy then and my amazing girlfriend might get me one for Christmas?” 

“You’ll be lucky if we aren’t late idiot, now come on.” Ruby grabbed her coat followed by his hand to lead him down his stairs. 

“Aw, don’t you two look nice,” Jean said from the couch as Otis and Ruby made their way to the door.

“Thanks mum.” Otis let off a tiny smile as Jean began to rise up from the couch. 

“Here let me get a photo.” 

Otis silently whispered into Ruby's ear about how his mum was going to gush about how great they looked to all of the other Facebook mums while Jean tried to find where the 'camera app' was on her phone.

“Right, oh it’s gone all blurry,” Jean said squinting through her glasses. 

“Just need to let it focus mum.” An impatient Otis said through gritted teeth and Ruby squeezed his hand as he just needed to relax. 

“There we go.” Jean smiled as she placed her phone back down. “Now do you need some condoms? I notice you have been running low.” 

Ola nearly choked on her tea from across the room, Ruby blushed heavily as Otis just yelled “Mum!” 

“Otis i’m just-.”

“Right we’ve got to go.” It was now Otis’ turn to lead Ruby by the hand as they raced out of the door.” 

“Did I say something wrong?” Jean asked looking around the room for some support as her son and his girlfriend left.

“I don’t think going through your son’s drawers, is part of the personal space we all agreed to give one another,” Jakob replied as Jean joined him and the sleepy Joy on the couch.

“I’m just taking extra precautions, we don’t need another one of these running around do we?” Jean lightly rubbed her daughter’s nose.

“I don’t think you remember after Otis’ party, expressing how much you thought Ruby would be a great mother for your grandchildren.” 

For the second time, Ola nearly choked on her food, this time dropping her cutlery at her father’s revelation.

“Did I really say that?” Jean thought back to that night, she had a little bit to drink but not a lot.

Jakob slowly nodded with a slight smirk forming on his face.

“Oh.” Jean slowly took a sip of her tea, maybe it wasn’t such a terrible thought after all. 

Outside Otis and Ruby were holding hands whilst making their way up the steps and towards Ruby’s car. 

“She is right, we are running a little low.” 

“God she’s so embarrassing!” Otis complained as he shook his head.

“She’s just looking out for you. I know one word will have to change but does your offer of dropping out of school and getting a job to provide for us both still stand?” Ruby asked as they both opened the car doors. 

“Of course.” Otis smiled before they both leant over to share a quick kiss, Otis thinks about cracking a joke to see if Ruby had changed her mind on having his ‘pale unusually long children’ but he feels that could cross the line even if it was only intended as a joke, instead he just elects to kiss her again.

Otis Milburn: A couple of minutes away. 

“Couple of minutes and you guys will be paying me up.” Sean said as he read Otis text, Sean was the only person on their little booth who was backing the existence of Otis Milburn girlfriend, maybe she wasn’t the supermodel he was making her out to be at the pub the other night, but he was 99% sure he was about to become fifty pounds richer. 

“No, we’re all about to gain an extra tenner,” Sam replied spreading his arm to all those who had bet against Sean. 

“Yeah, he’s going to be like Jay of the Inbetweeners, claiming that she’s had to go to a supermodel shoot in Paris or some shit,” Matt added and most of the table laughed back at him. 

The one’s who weren’t laughing was Sean naturally, but also his twin brother. Max had initially wanted to believe Otis, considering they had a few nice conversations about Smash Bro’s but his actions when his girlfriend was brought into the conversations were strange to say the least. However, he had just spotted something across to where the entrance was that was about to lose him 10 Great British pounds. “I’d stop laughing If I were you,” Max said nodding in the direction of Otis who was hand in hand with a short brunette. 

“Woah.” 

“Fucking hell.” 

Otis could already tell that by the look on all of their faces bar Sean, that his plan had his desired effect. 

“Got what you wanted?” Ruby asked him as they made their way across towards the table.

“Oh yes.” 

Otis gracefully lifted Ruby’s hand as they settled into the spare spaces onto the table with his flatmates plus Max. “Hi guys, this is Ruby, Ruby this is Max, Sean, Sam, Matt, Bethany and Leah.” Otis one by one pointed them out, many of them with still startled faces. 

“Hi-.” A few shaky replies came back, except for one booming “Hey Ruby, nice to meet you” That came from Sean. 

“Erm- would you like a drink?” Otis asked Ruby who nodded. “Vodka coke?” 

“Yeah.” Ruby breathed back at him. 

Otis placed a kiss on her cheek before disappearing off to the bar, leaving Ruby alone with six total strangers, thankfully thanks to Otis ‘masterplan’ five of the six seemed to be equally freaked out by the whole thing. 

“So are you some kind of actress he paid then, rock up pretend to be his girlfriend for a couple of hours?” Matt was the one to finally break the silence, directing his words across the table to Ruby. 

“I wish, then I’d be rich and far away from his lame arse.” Ruby used her sense of humour to try and make this somewhat bearable before Otis got back. 

Some weren’t sure whether to laugh, but then the girl on her left who Otis had identified as ‘Leah’ did. “I like you.” The redhead exclaimed. “You’re very pretty, exactly how Otis described you actually,” She said as she looked Ruby up and down.

Ruby blushed as Otis told her what he said at the pub a couple of days ago. “Thanks.” Ruby didn’t know why she was so nervous, acting all quiet and speaking softly.

“Anyway, speaking of getting paid, you all owe me a tenner each,” Sean said with a grin stretching across his face.

There were a few groans as the others went to fetch their wallets and purses. 

“What’s going on?” Ruby asked as she knew all about Otis’ ‘masterplan’ but wasn’t aware of any bets taking place. 

“Well these lot didn’t believe that you actually existed, I however never had any doubts.” Sean smugly took in all of the cash. The final part of Sean’s sentence wasn’t true, he definitely had his doubts especially after Otis description of her the other night at the pub but as Leah had said, she was exactly as Otis had described her, making him one hell of a lucky boy. 

“How could you be so sure?” Ruby asked as Otis would constantly tell her how he was finding Sean a tough nut to crack with his constant optimism. 

“Ah, I shouldn’t say.” Sean smiled as he sat deeper into his chair.

“No, go on.” Sam encouraged him. 

“Well, you guys are forgetting I have the room next to Otis…..” 

“Huh?” A confused Bethany asked. 

“I hear them on the phone all the time.” Sean smugness reached an all-time high as the reality set in for the rest of them. 

“Oh, you bastard!” 

“You knew all along!” 

Ruby however was oblivious to what was going on around as yet again she found herself getting a little red-faced wondering exactly what Sean could hear from between the walls as she and Otis had tried a few Private things on the phone together while they were apart. 

“What’s going on?” Otis asked as he appeared again taking the seat next to Ruby with their two drinks and resting his hand on her leg for a moment, which sent a sensation right through her body with his cold hand on her warm skin. 

“Oh, Sean was just telling us that he knew that Ruby was real all along as he could hear you on the phone through the wall.” 

“Oh-.” Otis went similarly red-faced as he knew what Sean may or may not have heard through the walls. 

“Something wrong?” Leah asked picking up on their similarly embarrassed faces. 

“Nothing!” They both expressed frantically in unison.

Ruby doesn’t think the thing was all terrible but she definitely knows why she is acting so strange now when each of them are being all pretentious whilst going on about their classes. This was the real world right in front of her and all these people were going to go on and have long and successful careers in their respective industries and Ruby was struggling to get a job out of high school with not particularly great academic grades, it’s one of those very few times she feels so small, so out of her depth as she listens to them groan on. 

Thankfully Otis is there for her, he may not know exactly what was going on but he could tell she wasn’t at all comfortable, so he would gently squeeze her hand that little bit tighter whilst making patterns across her knuckles to relax her.

But there are a couple of times she does manage to let out a few laughs, especially when Sean and his brother engage in some banter, they clearly had a very special sibling relationship and it makes Ruby wonder what kind of relationship Otis and Joy were going to have when she grew older. 

The next time Otis leaves to get them drinks, she makes sure to follow him to the bar this time not wanting him to leave her side for another second while she was here. 

“Are you okay?” Otis asks once they settle by the bar. 

“Yes of course, why wouldn’t I be?” 

“You’re just being unusually quiet.” 

Ruby scoffed at him “You’re all just a little nerdy for me Milburn.” Ruby then quotes some of the bullshit Bethany was going on about in her literature course which makes Otis laugh. 

“So what do you think of them then?” Otis asks as he looks back over towards the table. 

“They’re nice, yeah…” Ruby says with not much conviction. 

“What even Matt and Sam?” Otis chuckled back at her. 

“Okay maybe not them, twats can’t stop staring at my tits.” 

“I don’t blame them.” Otis averted his gaze down to her cleavage. 

“Er, eyes front Milburn.” Ruby lightly slapped him, forcing his jaw back up. 

“So not, Matt or Sam, you hate Bethany’s literature ramblings, you sure you like any of them?” Otis asked once he was looking back into Ruby’s eyes. 

“Max and Sean are nice.” 

“Yeah, I agree.”

They both turn around and watch Max and Sean in conversation and as Sean lightly adjusted his long sleeve shirt it finally hit Ruby. 

“I know him.”

Well, she didn’t know him, that was a lie, she had seen him once before in a hospital and he was in a very different state that day.

“What?” Otis asked picking up on her little mumble.

Shit, Ruby didn’t even realise she had spoken aloud. “Nothing was just talking to myself.” 

“You know if you’re not having a good time, we can head back to the accommodation, but like I said, my bed back there is even smaller than the one at my house.”

“I don’t think there is a smaller bed in the world than the one at your house and anyway I want to take you dancefloor and snog you so you look cool in front of your new friends.” 

“How about one now?” Otis cheekily asked and Ruby smirked as she began wrapping her arms around the back of his neck initiating the kiss ignoring the barmaid who was finally ready to serve them. 

Across the opposite side of the room, Otis and Ruby’s passionate kiss had caught the attention of Bethany and Leah. 

“They’re an odd-looking couple aren’t they,” Bethany said after taking a sip of her drink.

“Yeah, they are, aren’t they.”

Chapter Text

“Hmmmmm, come to bed.” This time around it was Otis who was attacking Ruby’s neck with little kisses while Ruby was using his laptop to continue her job hunt. 

“Get off it, nerd.” Ruby waved him away, but he only pulled up the spare chair so he could observe her. 

“Do, do, doopey do.” Otis rearranged two of his fingers into a sort of walking stickman ( Is that what Ruby imagined him as?) he moved his creation towards Ruby’s left hand which was resting on the side of his laptop whilst she scrolled with her right. Otis continued to make the stupid noise, raising the volume as he got closer before jumping on Ruby’s hand “doope!”

“Otis Please!” Ruby punched down on his hand quite hard, so hard that Otis genuinely winced, not one of his fake one’s he would pull out along with his puppy dog eyes to make Ruby feel sorry for him. 

Otis instantly knew he had done wrong, he was just bored and wanted to hold her and kiss her in bed, considering they had just spent another four days apart, he should have known by now how much Ruby’s job hunt was stressing her out. 

“I’m sorry,” Ruby said softly as she stroked her hand across the two fingers she had clearly just hurt. “I shouldn’t have reacted like that, it’s just really stressing me out.” Ruby turned her attention back to the laptop screen, rubbing her hands across her face whilst groaning. 

“No I’m sorry, I should have just let you be,” Otis said back and Ruby let off a faint smile in return. 

“God maybe it’s my fucking CV.” Ruby changed tabs on the browser and back to her CV that she had been using to apply with, she went down to her ‘hobbies, personalities and interests’ section which Otis had mostly helped her out with, because of Otis it had described Ruby as a happy, lovely and joyful character, which is probably why in the few interviews she had managed to secure the interviewer would be so surprised when she was so cold and heartless. Ruby highlighted the whole section and deleted it, replacing it with the words ‘I’m a bitch’

“Rubes you’re not-.”Otis tried to lean over towards her before she cut him off. 

“I am Otis don’t even try and deny it!” 

Otis knew he had to choose his next words extremely carefully, obviously, he couldn’t agree with her that would be an outright terrible thing to say, but if he disagreed she would slate him for being a liar and to stop pretending she’s a perfect princess. “You’re not to me.” 

“I just hit you Otis! I just punched my own boyfriend!” 

“You didn’t really punch me, it was more a smack on my fingers and besides I deserved it.” 

“No, you didn’t,” Ruby said softly as Otis deserved nothing less than the whole world. “Not everyone’s you Otis..” 

“Well you know what they say, there’s only one Otis Milburn.” Otis hoped by being playful he could help his girlfriend get out of her bad mood. 

Ruby sharply narrowed her eyes at him “I don’t think anyone has ever said that.” 

“Imagine if there was though, lot’s of Otis Milburn’s running around.”

“Ugh, my worst nightmare.” Ruby groaned. 

“Mine too, I’d finally have some competition.”

Ruby couldn’t even respond to his final remark, just leaving her smiling like an idiot at him again as her hand rested on her temple. Damn him and his stupid charm. Ruby thought as he was right, she was interested in no one but him. 

“How about you close that down for the night and I can have word with my Uncle, he will be able to sort you out with something,” Otis said as he nodded towards his laptop. 

“He owns a construction firm Otis, I’m not wearing a fucking hi-viz and hardhat, whilst getting my nails all dirty.”

Otis smiled a little to himself before he replied, imagining the image Ruby had just described “No but he also owns a football team amongst other things and these things need social media teams and your good at Instagram and other stuff.” Otis wasn’t sure if you could be ‘good’ at Instagram, but if you could Ruby was definitely excellent at it. 

“Just because I know how much cleavage to show to get horny randomers to like my posts Otis, doesn’t mean they are going to offer me a job.”

“But there is no harm in trying right?” 

“Okay.” Ruby softly responded as she shut his laptop down for the night. 

“I’ll speak to him in the morning,” Otis said as he hopped onto his bed whilst Ruby got changed into her nightwear at the end of his bed. 

This process allows for Otis to marvel in his girlfriend’s naked body for a few seconds, again questioning for the millionth time how he had gotten so lucky, it also allows for a rather funny thought to pass through his brain. 

“What you gawping at Milburn?” Ruby asked as she felt his eyes pressed to her. 

“Was just thinking if that thing with my uncle doesn’t work out, you could always just shoot a sex tape, like your idol Kim-K and Ray J.” 

Ruby narrowed her eyes at him “You haven’t seen that have you?” She asks rather concerned.

“I mean only a couple of times, but not for a long time, obviously,” Otis reassured her. “Have you?” 

Ruby cringed hard at his line of questioning “Oh god no! Porn is vulgar and vile and besides, why would I need to watch that shit when I’ve got my stickman and his mum’s weird pleasure books.” Ruby smiled as she finally joined him in bed, slowly running her hand through his hair when she got there. “I’m sorry for hitting your fingers,” Ruby said as she looked down at his hands. 

“Well, I was wondering if you could kiss them better.” Otis raised the fingers she had lightly hit in the air.

“My pleasure.”

The next day, Otis and Ruby were both out pushing Joy in her pram. Ruby would drive deeper into Moordale town and then they would erect the pram as it was evident that Joy was deeply uncomfortable travelling across the gravelly roads that surrounded the Milburn/Nyman residence. 

But today, their timing and location of choice couldn’t have been more off as they were passing by Moordale’s junior and nursery schools at 3 o’clock on a  Friday afternoon. 

“Fucking annoying kids,” Ruby muttered as they all came rushing out in front of them. 

“Erm language Ruby Matthews, there is a child present.” Otis looked down towards Joy in the pram and Ruby tutted at him whilst rolling her eyes as they navigated their way through the screaming school kids. “Besides this was us once.” 

“Excuse me Milburn, I did not come running out screaming, I made my way out gracefully.”

“What even at like four years old?” 

“When have I not been graceful darling?”

It was true, Ruby Matthews even managed to snore loudly and it was still graceful.

After Otis smiled at this thought, someone they had both not seen for a long long time appeared from out of the school gates in the mist of all the parents and children. Miss Rogerson, Otis and Ruby’s teacher in year 1 was walking towards them on her phone, Otis and Ruby stopped dead in their tracks in a state of surprise at seeing her face again, Miss Rogerson had a very similar reaction when she lifted her head up from her phone. 

“Ruby! And O….Otis.” Miss Rogerson had to think for a moment, making sure she was putting the right faces with the right names. 

“Miss Rogerson.” Otis smiled back and Ruby narrowed her eyes at him for still using the term ‘Miss’ when those days were long gone. Otis and Ruby had ranked and reviewed all of the teachers they had shared throughout the years, Otis had placed Miss Rogerson nearer to the top, she was the youngest teacher they had ever had and Otis described her a ‘fun and engaging’ while Ruby didn’t take Otis’ idea all too seriously stating “All teachers were annoying and an inconvenience” But she reassured him she is still happy to listen to her boyfriend rank middle-age men and women based on their teaching styles. 

“Wow haven’t you two grown.” Their former teacher gasped as she took in their appearances once more. Otis thinks about cracking a joke about Ruby’s height but decides to back down fearing her wrath. “And who do we have here?” Miss Rogerson knelt down towards Joy, smiling as she scanned her face. “Wow, you look just like your dad don’t you?” 

“Oh no she’s not ours!” The flushed pair of Otis and Ruby frantically tried to confirm as it very much looked like something it wasn’t with both Otis and Ruby holding onto the pram with this small child inside who shared some similar facial features to Otis. “She’s my little sister.” Otis makes sure to add.

“Oh-sorry my mistake, what’s her name?” Miss Rogerson asked as she looked back up at the pair.

“Joy,” Otis confirmed.

“That’s a nice name.” Miss Rogerson smiled at Joy before rising back up to her normal size. “Well, it’s been nice to see you both again.” Miss Rogerson smiled before heading off to her car. 

“What did that nasty woman say about you Joy? Did she say you look like your big brother? You are much prettier than that aren’t you.” Ruby leaned down to her boyfriend’s younger sister once Miss Rogerson was out of sight. 

Otis just smiled at Ruby trying to interact with Joy, using her baby voice with a hint of tease in there as she was using her to try and throw playful insults at himself. 

“Do you not think it’s weird she didn’t comment on the fact that we're a couple now?” Ruby asked as they began to push the pram again. 

Otis let off a light chuckle before responding. “We were in year 1 Rubes!” 

“I mean I don’t remember much about year 1 OT, but I can imagine I was infinitely more fabulous than you even then.” 

Otis smiles as, despite the fact Ruby’s comments were intended to be a joke, it was absolutely true, with her sparkly shoes and her golden coat, even then Ruby Matthews ensured that she was the stand out girl. “Maybe it’s all the squabbling we did at the coat hangers like an old married couple.” Otis can smile back on the flashes of those memories he has somehow stored in his brain now, he and Ruby being next to eachother in the alphabet meant their coat hangers were next to eachother and Ruby would constantly cry out that Otis’ ‘smelly coat’ was touching her’s.

“How do you remember stuff like that?” Ruby had long removed those memories from her brain as Otis Milburn was unimportant and irrelevant, little did she know that the skinny boy with the smelly coat would become the most important and most relevant person in her life outside of her parents. 

As Otis and Ruby pushed Joy past the junior’s entrance they edged closer to the nursery and reception entrance, meaning they bumped into someone else they had not seen for a while, not quite 12 years, but still a fair amount of time. 

“Elsie, don’t drag your bag on the floor,” Maeve told her sister as they exited the gates and that’s when she was presented with Otis, Ruby and a child that must have been Joy. Most of the town, Maeve included had begun to accept Otis and Ruby, but it was still little moments like this that took Maeve by surprise, these domestic and clearly precious moments. 

“Maeve- How- how nice to see you.” Despite it only being four months, it still startled Otis more seeing Maeve Wiley than seeing someone after 12 years. 

Maeve didn’t really know how to respond, Ruby’s glare was aimed directly at her and she had protectively entwined her’s and Otis’ hands the moment Maeve had stopped dead in front of them. Thankfully for Maeve, it was her sister who broke the unbearable tension. 

“Hello,” Elsie said softly as she approached the pram. 

“Whose that Els?” Maeve asked as Elsie stared at Joy who was lightly twitching her hands in the air. “Is that Joy?” 

“Joy” Elsie repeated with a smile on her face, but Joy only began to cry. 

“Otis her water bottle.” Ruby instincts kicked in and she knew exactly what Joy would need. 

“Oh-.” Otis quickly scanned Joy’s bag but he was taking it far too long trying to open it, so Ruby ripped it from his hands and grabbed Joy’s water bottle herself.  Ruby walked around to the other side of the pram and knelt down to help Joy with her water bottle “There you go Joy, yeah that’s better isn’t it.” Joy’s face began to light up as she got the water she desired. “Yeah, yeah,” Ruby whispered softly again smiling back at the young Nyman.

Otis nervously looked up towards Maeve to see how she would react to Ruby being so….. Un Ruby. There were no surprises then when Maeve had a raised eyebrow and a slight smirk on her face to go with. 

“Look I best leave you guys to it,” Maeve announced as Ruby rose back up from the pram once Joy was settled again and Ruby again immediately took Otis’ hand. 

“Yeah, but we should catch up sometime!” Otis nearly adds ‘just me and you’ on the end of his sentence so Maeve would know there would be no Ruby around as the tension with the two of them together made it impossible for them to have a conversation, but Maeve was clever enough hopefully she realised what he meant. 

“Yeah-.” Maeve begins but she is stopped in her tracks by Ruby’s voice rising over her own. 

“Oh don’t mind me, I need to call my dad anyway,” Ruby grabbed her phone from her jacket pocket and took a few steps away from Otis and Maeve. Ruby didn’t really need to call her dad, of course she could say that in front of Maeve as she knew about her secret as a result of Ruby’s insecurities last year when Otis and Maeve disappeared from school one day. She doesn’t think Otis buys her claims either, but she just thought she could let Otis and Maeve talk with her watching from a distance, which will help her with her anxiety a lot more than if they went off to the mall together again.

“So how’s work?” 

“So how’s university?” 

Both Otis and Maeve asked in unison, chuckling awkwardly as they both realised they had talked over one another and Maeve signalled for him to go first. 

“It’s good, lot’s of back and forth as you can see.” 

“And how’s princess peach coping with long-distance?” Maeve nodded over towards  Ruby whilst she had he back turned. 

Otis feels like he could go into a deep analysis on why Ruby is nothing like Princess Peach, but he just decides to let it slide. “Yeah it’s going well, it’s nice to have a break sometimes.” 

“I bet.” 

Otis knows that Maeve didn’t say “I bet.” in terms of how time apart can benefit a relationship like how Otis had meant it, she’s referencing how it must be nice to get away from Ruby’s ‘toxic’ personality. Otis thinks about challenging her on it but he knows that Maeve will be able to flip the whole situation on its head and bring up the numerous things that Ruby had said about Maeve throughout the years and she would be well within her rights to do so. 

“So w-work?” Otis attempts to move the situation on as smooth as he possibly can.

“Yeah, it’s really fun.” 

“Fun?” Otis put on a fake gasp as the concept of Maeve Wiley having fun was a foreign concept. 

“Well as much fun as you can have helping little shits with their poetry.” Maeve cracks out a little smile back at him.

“And the money is good?” 

“It’s not always about the money Otis…..” 

Otis ducks his head as he knows he probably shouldn’t have asked that. They are legal adults now, adults talk about boring stuff like money right?

“Maeve..” Elsie groaned as she clung onto Maeve’s arm. 

“Okay, I really must be getting this one back home, it was nice to see you.” 

“You too.” 

“Wish this one a happy birthday for me in a couple of weeks will you.” Maeve smiled as she looked down at Joy. 

“I will do.” Of course, Maeve would know when Joy’s first birthday was coming up as it would have been a year since Maeve headed out to the States. 

Maeve smiled at Otis one last time before she took Elsie’s hand and headed off, her smile quickly turned into a glare though as she and Ruby caught eyes as Ruby wrapped up with her “Phone call”. 

“How is your dad?” Otis asked as Ruby joined his side again at the pram. 

“I didn’t really call him Otis, I was just supervising.” Ruby decides not to lie about her actions is the best strategy. 

“Supervising?” Otis said as he chuckled to himself a little bit “You are really protective of me aren’t you?” Otis’ boyish smile appeared as he turned towards Ruby. While it was a little frustrating that he and Maeve couldn’t have a conversation without Ruby worrying, but jealous Ruby could be really fun sometimes.

“What? Can’t leave you alone with cock biter, she-.” 

“Erm language again Ruby!” Otis shouted over her as he looked down towards Joy. 

“Otis, you have about seventeen dicks plastered on your walls, I guarantee that girl’s first word will be cock.” 

“Well, my first word was dildo.” 

“What? Shit, really?” Ruby eyes heavily widened. 

“No Rubes, no.”

The rest of Saturday and Sunday would fly by and before Otis knew it he was back in Manchester and leaving the lecture room discussing today’s session with Leah. 

Otis would much prefer to talk to nobody about the lectures, but if it has to be someone he guesses it might as well be the person he shares a living space with for four nights a week. 

The conversation doesn’t last very long as they are intercepted by Max who must have been waiting for them. 

“Sorry Otis, can I borrow you for a moment?” Max asked as he appeared from behind a pillar, taking Otis and Leah by surprise. 

“Y-yeah.” 

“Excellent, come on.” Max let off a weak smile before leading the way for Otis to follow. Otis in turn let off a weak smile to Leah as they parted. 

Max led Otis to a table for two outside the small coffee stand inside the main university building, as soon as they sit down Max gets straight to the point. “Your girlfriend is beautiful.” 

“Oh-.” Of course, Otis was receiving information he was very much aware of but was just surprised by the abruptness of it all.

“Don’t worry I’m as gay as they come.” Max raised his painted nails as if to signify his point further to Otis. “Now I need someone to shoot for my first project and I was thinking she would be perfect.” Max did photography so he wasn’t planning to assassinate his girlfriend. 

“But, doesn’t the university give you access to aspiring models?” Otis says in reference to a conversation he overheard Max and Bethany had a couple of weeks ago.

“Yeah well, your girlfriends better.” 

Otis didn’t know what ‘better’ meant, he knew his girlfriend was more beautiful than any human Otis had ever laid eyes on before, but surely there was more to it than that.

“I’ve been scrolling through her Instagram feed and she definitely knows how to work her way around a camera.” Max added “One hell of a poser too, she’ll be a good fit, besides it would just make the whole process a lot less awkward for me, so you don’t mind asking for me?” 

Otis does ask Ruby and she immediately demands to know what is in it her as she isn’t getting paid, Otis begins to explain that she would be doing someone a favour but at that point Otis might as well be speaking in a foreign language. What does get Ruby to finally accept is that she would be able to take him up there on a Sunday night and they could spend an extra night together. 

So Otis walks Ruby in through the university doors on the Monday morning, Ruby repeatedly complains about the stupid guest lanyard she has to wear and Otis laughs at her photo printed out on it. 

“So here we are,” Otis says as they stop outside the photography studio Max had rented out for that morning. 

“Well, I can see that idiot.” Ruby eyes up the big sign on the door ‘Photography Studio #1

“Be nice.”

“I’ll try.” 

Otis gives Ruby a kiss on the cheek as he leaves to head off to his own lecture. Ruby smiles and leans against the doorway as she watches him almost skipping away, What a fucking dork.

Cuddling with Otis last night was good fun and definitely worth the journey but now for the actual reason, she was supposed to be here. 

Ruby crept through the door and was immediately taken aback by the brightness of the lights that had been set up, she is squinting her eyes but she is pretty sure Max is hanging upside down off the end of a chair. 

“Ah, Ruby!” He propped himself the right way up and rearranged his long hair. 

“Where do you want me?” 

It’s nothing like the movies, where there is some kind of fashion montage and there is an over-enthusiastic cameraman shouting “You go girl!” every ten seconds, she thinks she prefers Max’s calm domina as he asks her to move around the room. It does make her question if she’s doing it right, but around twenty minutes in when Ruby changes her expression without him telling her as she feels like she has figured out his routine. 

“You’re really good at this,” Max says as he peers away from the lens for a few moments to look her directly in the eye.

“I know.” 

This really relaxes Ruby as from the time she had spent with Max today, at the party and from Otis’ descriptions he doesn’t seem like to hand out compliments all to often. 

Ruby really begins to enjoy herself from this moment onwards, Otis did tell her that this was all about Max and his project and capturing a subject in isolation, but Ruby can’t help bring a different combination of clothes to offer different colour constraints and she offers other different angles for him to try ( only her best one’s) and Max nodds and lets her creativity flow. She enjoys it.

“These are really good, I’ll make sure to send you the photos.” Max said as he went through the photos on the camera once they had finished with Max getting everything he wanted and more. 

“Make sure it’s only the good one’s,” Ruby replied from across the room as she grabbed her bag and coat. 

“I think that might be all of them.” Max continued to go through the photos and Ruby now with her coat on appeared over his shoulder to have a little peak, even Ruby herself raised an eyebrow whilst thinking ‘ Damn I do look quite hot’. “ Have you ever thought about doing this before?” 

“Doing what?” 

“Modelling?”

Ruby narrowed her eyes and looked to the walls as if they would have the answers.  

“I’ve done some portfolio work with this modelling agency, I’ll send over these photos to them and I’ll give them your number if your interested?” 

It’s like a million light bulbs switch on in Ruby’s brain, how had she never thought of this before? “Yeah.” she breathes softly. Ruby thinks how this was going to be a solution to all of her problems, but then all the light bulbs begin to switch off and Max’s word’s about how “she was going to definitely get in because….” trailed off as she noticed a cut on Max’s arm, it was only a small cut that could have been gained from any minor inconvenience, but her mind immediately flashes back to the last time she saw cuts on a Mackintosh.

February 2018

The first time a doctor diagnosed Roland Matthews with MS it came as such a sudden shock, Claire and Ruby just refused to believe it, Claire more than most as she can’t accept as someone who works in the medical industry she could have missed the signs. So Claire wants a 2nd opinion and when that comes back with the same result, she wants a 3rd and then a 4th. 

Ruby herself doesn’t know how many times they had been to see a different doctor, she didn’t even know what part of the country they were in, it had all just been a blur for Ruby, like she was waiting to wake up from a bad dream. 

She wants to reach down into her jacket pocket and grab her phone to scroll through her Instagram feed to look at the lavish lives of all the hot and relevant people she exclusively followed as some form of escapism, but like every other hospital waiting room chair she had sat in over the past couple of weeks, Ruby feels glued to it unable to move. 

She has to move though at the screech that came from the hospital's main entrance. Everyone in the waiting up rises up, including all of the Matthews until Claire pats her husband back down. 

In comes a boy a similar age to Ruby, the tall blonde Ruby would later know as Sean Mackintosh. He is holding onto one of his arms which was clearly broken, his other legs are betraying him and he’s slowly falling to the ground, there are deep cuts and bruises all over his exposed arms and legs but his face is freighting, like some sort of Halloween costume, someone had just beat seven shades of shit out of this poor boy. 

When he finally fell so many doctors and nurses were already on the scene to catch him and usher him onto a stretcher.

“What happened to him?” Ruby asked once she had finished telling her recollections from that day. “If you don’t want to say, that’s okay.” Ruby had always been the master of holding her cards close to her chest, so she’s in total understanding if Max doesn’t want to spill the info especially after Ruby had pounced on him with this information.

“Erm-, wow, erm, we had another brother, well I say had, we still do, I just don’t really view him in that way anymore,” Max said once he had finally settled himself. “Terry was a couple of years older than me and Sean, but if someone had looked from the outside, you would think Sean and Terry were the twins, both tall fuckers, sport obsessed, strong, typical jocks as the American’s would say. Terry and me didn’t really get on, mostly because he had gotten some outdated views on sexuality from our uncle, you know he was giving me the whole ‘Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve’ bullshit’ just constantly, I didn’t let it get to me, he’s a twat and life’s full of them I just was counting down the days until I could get out of there.” 

Max stopped and took in a big breath before continuing onto the stage of his story. “I liked someone, nice guy, maybe a little too bubbly for my liking, but I really liked him. He came over to my place and he had this laugh, very distinctive, I didn’t even think I was that funny but if I was making an impression I was happy. I would have told him to be quieter but I didn’t want to disturb the fun we were having while we were messing around with makeup, but that’s when he charged through the door. He was livid, “Keep it down fag, fag this, fag that.” I just would normally sit there and take it all in, but this time I had company, so I made a little snarky comment and that’s when it happened. He just rushed forward and grabbed me by the neck, threw me against the wall.

Max moved his neck to an angle so Ruby could still see marks that were still visible on his neck. “I was screaming, kicking, everything, I genuinely thought he had finally gone off the edge and this could be it for me. But that’s when Sean came in, oh noble Sean. He just stood in between us that was all, he didn’t say anything, just got between us and all of the anger he had for me, he took it out on him. He went insane and destroyed the phone line so we couldn’t call the police and an ambulance, so we had to try and drag Sean into the car and drag him to the hospital, Sean got lucky very lucky.”

“What happened to him, your other brother?” 

“He’s in prison, fucking evil bitch, but he’ll be out, one day.” 

Ruby sighed as she wishes Otis was here right now, he would know exactly what to say next. Having a heart to heart conversation with her boyfriend was hard enough for Ruby, never mind a relative stranger. “I’m really sorry that happened to you,” Ruby says and Max lets off a weak smile while nodding at the floor, Ruby immediately thinks Max’s deserves some kind of follow up as he had just told her one of the most traumatic things she had ever heard and that’s the best she could do in terms of a response. “I’m sorry I’m not really good with-.”

“It’s okay, I’m not very good with words either.” Max looks her in the eye this time whilst smiling and Ruby gives one in return, a genuine smile and genuine Ruby Matthews smile.

Ruby want’s to tell Otis all about the photoshoot, but she has to shoot straight off and head back to Moordale. Of course, they call every night and Ruby mentions to him that it went well, but she wants to save the finer details from when they are together, especially what Max was going to do for her. 

When Thursday comes around, she can’t pick him up from the train station as her mum’s been taking extra shifts again, so she stays at home with her dad but after her first call with the modelling agency today about the interview, she hopes this is something her mum won’t have to do this anymore. 

- I love you ❤️I can’t wait to see you tomorrow xxx

Ruby texts him as Baby snuggles up next to her, it’s the first time since this routine began for them that she spends a Thursday, Friday or Saturday without him but she supposes they are even because she got to spend Monday with him this week, but she definitely sleeps better knowing he is only less than a twenty-minute drive away.

So it’s Friday when they first see eachother since the photoshoot, they watch a film with the rest of Otis’ makeshift family on a Friday night, Ruby as always doesn’t particularly care what’s happening on the screen, she’s happy just to rest her head on her boyfriend’s shoulder while he plays with her hair. 

Jakob as ever disappears first, he uses Joy as his scapegoat before just sneaking off to bed anyway. Jean stays through to the end of the credits before wishing them good night. 

“Good night mum.” 

“Good night Jean.” Otis turns to Ruby to give her an adoring smile, he just loves how the words easily roll of her tongue these days. “Are you going to smile at me like a idiot all night or are you going to run me through the cast list.” Otis normally would give a brief rundown of each actor and actress and where she might have seen them before, it would usually take place during the film but his mother allowed minimal talking when they are all sat down together. 

“No, I’d much rather you finally show me those photos you promised.” Otis had been constantly begging on the phone all week for her to at least send over a couple. 

Ruby grinned as she collect her phone from below her and opened up the full batch of photos Max had sent over to her. She held the phone up in between them as Otis slowly swiped across each photo, he’s grinning but he isn’t saying anything which slightly worries Ruby, Does he think they are silly? But just as the doubts begin to set in...

“You are so beautiful, Ruby.” Otis whispers to her as he continues to scroll and her heart does that little flip it does when she receives a compliment that from anyone else would mean nothing, but from him, it means everything. “But oh so serious, but oh so hot,” Otis whispered again as he moved in closer to her, biting down on her earlobe. 

“Oh my god, you guys are gross!” Ruby and Otis jumped apart as they had both completely forgotten about Ola on the other couch as she had mostly just been on her I pad throughout the movie, barely looking up at the screen. 

Ruby and Otis smirked at one another before moving into a joint fit of laughter once Ola had stormed back up the stairs. When their laughter settled down, their lips met one another in the middle of the couch, each of them groaning as the kiss deepened, but as much as Ruby was enjoying her boyfriend’s masterful skills with his mouth, there was something else she thought he would enjoy.

“Otis, there is something else I need to tell you,” Ruby said after she broke off the kiss, with their foreheads still resting against one another. 

“You’re not pregnant are you?” 

God this idiot and ruining the moment come hand in hand. “No.” Otis breathed a quick sigh of relief as they moved apart, with Ruby settling back into the couch, smiling up at the ceiling thinking about the news she was about to tell him. “So after the photoshoot, Max sent the photos over to this modelling agency.” 

“Hmmm, hmmm” Otis hummed along, prompting Ruby to continue. 

“And-.” Ruby could barely get through her words because she was grinning so much. “And they want me to for an interview on Monday. They like me Otis, they really like me.” 

“Ruby- that’s- that’s.” It was now Otis’ turn to struggle to get his words out due to the sheer joy and happiness he was feeling for Ruby right now.

“Amazing, wonderful brilliant? I get that a lot.” 

“All of the above.” Otis smile increased as he almost jumped on top of his girlfriend and began to kiss her again.

Before Ruby knows it she’s sat outside the modelling agency in her car, looking into her mirror making sure she had everything just right, she had spent hours in the mirror this morning, perfecting her look, she needed to be more professional, more serious, more adult. 

This was so so important to her, she could finally bring money through the door to her home, there would be no set amount of hours so looking after her dad would be so much easier and she would be doing something she loved, posing for the camera, feeling all hot and fabulous. 

She read through the messages of good luck she got from Olivia, Anwar, BC, CC, her internet friends, her dad, Jean and Otis one last time before she would walk out of the door, there wasn’t one for her mum as she was too busy in work right now to text but had wished her good luck yesterday after she dropped Otis back off at the train station. 

Speaking of Otis, his bumbling words of encouragement had meant the most to her as she read through it one last time, constantly going on about how proud of her he was and how she was going to ace it in one long paragraph. Maybe just maybe she could sneak in a quick phone call with him before she went in. She just wants to hear his voice, hoping will soothe her and remind her that everything was going to be okay.

It wasn’t just her timing that was tight, it was his. Like in school, Ruby had now rehearsed Otis’ timetable, mostly so she could send him photos that would leave him feeling frustrated during class. His next lecture was in five minutes and this would be fine if it was a normal person she was calling, but god damn nerds wanting to get to class early, sounds unbearable if you asked her. 

He does pick up though, as the sounds of the noisy university students passing through in the background taking up most of the noise coming through her phone and she manages to hear a very gentle “Hey.” 

“Hey.” 

“I thought you were supposed to be going in a minute,” Otis said as he looked up at the huge clock in front of him. 

“You have a class in five minutes.” 

“Yeah I’m just about to go in now,” Otis replied whilst leaning on the wall just next to the room he was about to head into before Ruby’s call.

“How about a few last words of his encouragement for your girlfriend then Otis?” Ruby asked as she settled back into the driver’s seat again. 

“I thought you got my text, I spent a good hour composing-.” 

“Otis.” Ruby breathed his name slowly to cut him off. 

“Right, right.” Otis composed himself for a moment as he thought about what to try and say. “Rubes, you are the most beautiful girl in the world and I’m not just saying that because you are my girlfriend, I genuinely, seriously mean it.” 

“It’s not just about the looks though Otis.”

“Ruby you are really passionate about this, you are kind-.”

“Otis-.” Ruby cuts him off again ready to call him out on his bullshit.

“No Ruby you are, you really are. You choose your moments I grant you that, but when you want to be with me, your parents, my mum, Joy, you really are Rubes.” This time Ruby doesn’t interrupt and just lets off a small smile to herself. “You are going to smash this okay? Now go and get em, tiger.” 

“Ew Otis don’t say that.” Again Otis puts a slight dent in the moment, but she is still smiling.

“Sorry.” 

You don’t have anything to be sorry for.

“And if all else fails, I still love you.”

And that’s the most important part, walk out of there today feeling like a queen or a fool, she would still have her Otis.

“I know. I love you too.” 

Their smiles are both in sync as they say goodbye to one another and Ruby climbs out and locks her car door, heading straight towards the doors of the modelling agency.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Leah asked from the seat next to Otis. 

Otis had been bouncing his leg up and down repeatedly for the past ten minutes straight now constantly checking his phone and the clock on the wall as if one clock would go faster than the other or something. He had no idea what the lecturer was saying as, despite all of his calm words of encouragement on the phone, Otis imagines that he is just as nervous as Ruby for this job interview, the passion and the excitement she spoke about with it made it seem like it was her destiny. Otis really didn’t believe in all that bullshit, he made that quite clear with his whole “moon and the stars” speech back at prom amongst other moments, he just really wanted this to go well for her and for her not to be left heartbroken. 

“Ruby’s got a job interview with this modelling agency, I just really hope she gets it,” Otis whispered across to Leah when the lecturer was looking in the opposite direction. 

“Lucky for some.” 

The amount of time passes for when Otis is certain that the interview must have been completed, he awkwardly raises his hand and asks the lecturer if he can go to the toilet. He couldn’t wait until the completion of the lecture, the tension was unbearable for him. 

As soon as he is out of his door, he digs out his phone from the pocket of his jeans, heading straight to Contacts->Favourites->'Rubes❤️'

She picks up almost immediately. 

“Hey, hey how did it go?” Otis giddily asks. 

“Calm down nerd, aren’t you still supposed to be in a lecture?” There is a hint of smugness in her voice, which makes his heart beat even faster but he doesn’t want to jump to any conclusions just yet.

“Never mind that, how did it go tell me?” Otis asked almost desperately. 

“It went well Milburn, It went well Milburn,” Ruby says with the same hint of smugness in her voice as Otis can hear her car door shut from behind her. 

“Really? How well?” 

Ruby bites her lip before beginning. “Well, it was well enough that they offered me a contract at the end.” 

“OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD!” Otis is jumping up and down in the middle of the university halls, almost like they are back at the Moordale Lanes when he scored a strike on the double date. 

Ruby is giggling from the other end of the phone as it’s almost like she has the moment she found out herself recreated all over again, but it’s mostly the excitement in her boyfriend’s voice for her, that is making her feel all warm inside. “You want to stop bouncing Milburn or you are going to fall through the floor,” Ruby says as she can hear his shoes constantly slamming back onto the floor. 

“Sorry, sorry, sorry,” Otis says as he catches his breath back. “Wow oh my god Ruby, you did it, you did it!” 

“You’re damn right I did.” Ruby isn’t as calm as she lets off, she feels like she can scream with excitement whilst jumping up and down like Otis did, but one she is in her car and she would only be bouncing her head off the car’s roof, secondly, the car park is full and she doesn’t want to make herself look like a complete fool. 

“Oh my god, I’m so proud of you, I’m so proud of you, can I tell all my friends and family I date a model now?” Otis sentence races off at 100mph

“You can tell them whatever you like Milburn, but just a warning I’m not like Cara Delevigne idiot probably going to modelling clothes from whatever dump you get those stripy shirts from to start out with.” 

“Not yet your not….” 

Ruby bites her lip again and blushes as this nerdy boy can make her feel like she can do anything. 

They both don’t say anything for a few moments, just the sound of each others breath coming through the other end as they both take in what had just happened. 

It’s Otis who eventually decides to break the pattern “Well thank god for Max then, I knew you two would get along, considering you are both quite prickly.” 

“Did you just call me a prick Milburn?” Ruby fires back with some venom. 

“No no!” Otis sets off into a miny panic “Prickly, PRICK-LY!” Otis almost spells it out for her to avoid confusion. “Like a hedgehog..”

“A hedgehog?” 

“Yeah like really sweet and nice, but there is all these little sharp stuff on the outside that can appear quite scary.” 

Ruby is now heavily narrowing her eyes through the phone. “So let me get this straight, your girlfriend has just got a job as a model and you are comparing her to a hedgehog?” 

“Yeah, I guess I am……”

Chapter Text

The best part of Ruby’s job is that she is really fucking good at it. There are so many people who want a piece of her (which of course she is very much used to) so the beauty of that is that Ruby gets her work to fit around her schedule, rather than make her schedule fit around her work. She knows that she could make serious strides within this industry if she wanted to if she pushed for more and accepted more Opportunities. She’s happy with her routine of cramming as much as she can in her free hours of the first four days of the week, as she still has to be looking after her dad as much as possible and hates relying on others and of course she still wants to treasure as much of the weekend as possible with Otis. She does bring him to shoots a couple of times and it’s hilarious to see him gawping at her from the side as she poses for the camera. After that, he does that thing where he questions how someone like her ends up with someone as plain and as boring as him. Of course, Ruby will initially play along and will shoot something back like “Plain and boring? You’re giving yourself a compliment there Milburn.” But when they get back to the bedroom later she will show him what she really thinks of ‘Mr Plain and Boring’

The best shoots are the one’s where she doesn’t even have to leave her house (Well she means Otis’ house as she still doesn’t dare share anything from her family home), she just has to post a short video or sometimes just a picture on her Instagram of her pretending to enjoy some grossly overpriced product, She gets paid for this shit? 

That’s another thing Ruby adores about this job. She’s always been money-obsessed there is no two ways about it, the most expensive clothes, most expensive jewellery so and so on. But it had all come out of her parents pocket or her government grant for being a carer for her dad, stuff she would slate the other students of Moordale for, further cementing her place as her hypocrite. But now Ruby Matthews can really stand on her own two feet, she squeals when her payments come through on her online banking, of course, she can’t wait to blast it out on new pantsuits, leggings, tops, earrings and all that glam, but the thing she is excited to do the most is sending the money over to her parents to help pay for the bills, they have done so much for her and treat her with so much love when she has questioned if she really deserved it, it’s the very least she can do. 

Today Ruby had completed a shoot and had just walked through the front door to her house after the long drive back. 

“Hey Mum, hey Dad,” Ruby called from the front door as she hung her coat up and put her keys away. 

“Hiya Rubes.” 

“Hey darlin” 

Each of them called over before Ruby greeted them into the living room, a kiss on her dad’s forehead and a kiss on her mum’s cheek before settling her feet on the table in front of her once she is planted on the couch. 

“Feet off the table Ruby! I don’t care how long of a drive you have had.” Her mother was much more strict about one of her favourite habits than her father was.

“Well considering I help the bills now, I thought the least I could do is put my feet on the table.” Ruby did mean it as a joke, her mother however did not. 

“Watch that attitude young lady.” Claire spat back and Ruby removed her feet from the table.

The sound of Ruby’s voice had certainly gotten Baby’s attention and she hopped onto the space on the couch next to her, 3 of the 4 most important people in her life now gathered in close proximity to her. 

“So tell us how-.” Roland began to ask her daughter how her day went but the sound of Ruby’s phone began to buzz at the side of her. 

Speaking of the other most important person in her life. 

Otis❤️ flashed up on the phone. 

“Does that boy ever leave you alone?” Claire asked as Ruby grabbed the phone.

“Yeah, it’s almost like he knows the exact time you are going to walk through the front door” Roland teased and Ruby groaned back at him as she finally answered. 

“Hey.” 

“Hey, I just got through the door, just sat talking to my mum and dad.” Ruby makes sure she makes her final point very clear as Otis’ voice can be very loud on the phone sometimes and she doesn’t want him to make any mention of the phone sex they may or may not have scheduled for later. 

“Oh, oh okay. Do you want me to call you back later?” Otis softly asked back. 

“I’ll call you okay,” Ruby affirmed. 

“Okay.” He breathes again ever so softly but his voice still rings around the Matthews’ front room.

“I love you.” Ruby smiles as she sinks back into the couch. 

“I love you too, bye.” 

The phone call ends and Ruby could instantly feel her mother's eyes on her. “What?” Ruby asked as she could already feel her cheeks begging to flush. 

“Nothing.” Claire took a quick sip of her tea before further quizzing her daughter. “Do you say that every time you hang up the phone?” 

“What? Yes!” Ruby rushed out as her cheeks got redder by the second. There was no official agreement between Otis and Ruby, but they both knew how much they adored their affirmation of love to one another at the end of the phone call no matter how short. “Is there something wrong with that?” We are in love, I like telling my boyfriend how much I love him.

“No.” Claire took yet another sip of her tea with a small smirk forming on her face. 

“Ugh, you are being so weird, come on Baby!” Ruby groaned whilst she rose up from her couch. 

“Oh come on Ruby darling, I’m just teasing you,” Claire called as Ruby walked towards the backdoors of their house. 

“And I’m just taking the dog out for a piss alright?” Ruby fired back as she received a text notification. 

Otis: Oh can you ask your mum and dad if they want to come to Joy’s party please x 

“Otis wants to know if you want to go to Joy’s birthday party on Saturday?” Ruby asked as she rested a hand on the back door.

“That sounds-” Roland begins to confirm their attendance, it had been a while since he had last gotten out of the house, that being a dinner with himself, Claire, Jean and Jakob. 

“Oh, I don’t think we can darling, I think I’m going to be in work on Saturday night.” 

“Are you?” Both Roland and Ruby said in unison, there had been a lot of shift changes for Ruby’s mother as of late.

“Yes I’ll get Pete to come over, so don’t worry you can still go to your future sister in law’s party.” 

“Mum!” Again Ruby’s cheeks flushed due to the embarrassment her mother had caused her yet again, she groaned one last time before heading outside with Baby. 

“What was all that about?” Roland eyes up his wife suspiciously as soon as Ruby shuts the door behind her. 

“She’s our daughter Roland, I’m allowed to tease her.”

“I know but don’t pretend that me and you weren’t like that, late nights on the phone because your dad hated me.”

“I know honey, I know….”

It's Friday night and the day before Joy’s birthday and Otis is trying to drag a blanket down the stairs. 

“Otis, will Ruby staying over tonight?” Joy called as she played with Joy on the sofa. 

“Yes mum!” Otis replied as he continued to struggle. “Do we have Ruby’s wine in?” Otis always makes sure to buy some when they run out, but he knows his mother is very impressed by Ruby’s wine of preference and would often be seen stealing it. 

“Yes, why- Otis what are you doing?” Jean asked as she spun around to see her son’s face completely engulfed by a blanket.

“Well-ugh.” Otis quickly removed it from his head and managed to clutch it into his chest. “I thought me and Ruby could have a little picnic outside tonight.”

“Picnic? Otis, it’s a November night!” Jean scoffed at the idea. 

“We’re going to wrap up warm.” Otis insists before he heads out onto the grass to lay the blanket out. 

He then shoots back inside to grab a second blanket that he hopes they can both wrap themselves in later when the air gets even cooler, later on, he gets the food from the picnic basket and then the candles. As he slowly lights them he notices Jakob watching on from the backdoor. 

“You are very romantic Otis,” Jakob commented as Otis passed back up through the steps to collect his own drinks. 

“Oh-.” Otis stopped dead in front of Jakob. “Thank….. you?” Thank you? 

Jakob chuckles at Otis’ uncertain response. “It’s just clear you put a lot of effort in.”

Otis turns back to the bottom of the garden and the miny setup he had created. “It’s just a really nice view.” Ruby would constantly banter Otis claiming that she was only dating him for the levels of Instgramabilty the Milburn household offered. 

“Yeah, it is….” Jakob seemed to ponder something himself as he and Otis continued to look into the middle distance, but their trance was broken by a soft voice appearing from around the corner.

“Otis?” Ruby called out, Otis hadn’t told her to knock on and just walk around the back but she was completely lost in the darkness. 

“You better get going,” Jakob said back on the balcony and Otis raced back down to the garden. 

“Hey,” Otis says as he bounces in front of her, startling his girlfriend a touch. 

“Hi.” She whispered back with a hint of a smirk appearing before Otis placed his hands on the side of the hoodie Ruby was wearing, ever so casual but still ever so hot. They make out for a few moments obviously because of their excellent kissing skills but also to create that little bit of extra warmth while they held each other close as they were going to need it. 

“Would you like to see what I set up for us?” Otis asked when their lips finally broke apart with Ruby letting off a gentle groan. 

“Looks like some ouija board type shit Milburn,” Ruby observed as she arrowed her head around his body to see what he had created behind him. 

“No we’re not doing that again,” Otis responds nervously thinking back to a couple of weeks ago when Ruby scared the shit out of Otis and Eric by pretending she had been possessed by a demon, Ruby only stopped when Otis began to cry, How embarrassing but how sweet Ruby thought as she held a shaking Otis who had totally fell for her pathetic act. 

This was a very different atmosphere from Halloween a few weeks ago though. Otis and Ruby sharing food from the picnic basket he had assembled together, of course with how picky Ruby could be with her food sometimes it wasn’t as jam-packed as Otis would have liked but she still found a way to complain about the items he selected. Ruby also complains about how many crumbs Otis drops onto the blanket and Ruby is forced to sweep up. But barring those mishaps they have a lovely time going through their usual gossip while the cold November wind hummed in the background. 

“So what did you get Joy then?” Otis asked while Ruby continued to sip on her wine. 

Ruby grabbed her phone from by her side and loaded up her amazon delivered to show Otis. “I got her a couple of these adorable ugg boots, I say a couple because I couldn’t decide between these two so I just got both” 

“Ruby! She’s only one!” Otis scoffed back at her. 

“Exactly her fashion journey needs to start early, Like I said I’m going to do my best she doesn’t turn out like her tragic big brother. What did you get her? Some kind of nerd shit I imagine?” 

“Yeah, I got her some marvel action figures to play with,” Otis said super defensively as there was no way a one year old child was going to prefer some fancy boots to exciting transformable action figures. 

“That explains all the difference between me and you OT. One day she is going to grow out of dolls and shit, but her fashion sense is going to stay with her forever.” Ruby replied as she patted his arm. 

“They aren’t dolls they are action figures.” Otis passionately corrected her. “And me and Eric sometimes still play with them.” 

Ruby had seen it with her own eyes before, she would shake her head as she watched them thinking ‘ God these two really are legal adults’ as they recreated scenes from those god awful films she had started watching with them. The figures didn’t even look like any of the hotties like Chris Hemsworth or Evans, who were the only reasons she had given into his demands to watch this long and stupid film franchise with them. “Like I said Milburn, tragic,” Ruby smirked as she took another sip from her glass. “You really should have a drink darling.” 

Ah great. Ruby had noticed that Otis hadn’t had anything to drink, this was only because she had arrived when he was heading back into the house when he was collecting his pop and well after that he didn’t want to leave her side for a single moment as she was being particularly relaxed and comfortable tonight and despite being a year into their relationship there were moments he could tell Ruby’s walls were fighting back at her and looked like she wanted out of whatever social situation they were in. 

“Here why don’t you try some of mine?” Ruby offered over her wine glass to him with a smirk on her face as she knew how Otis felt about wine. 

Otis took it from her before looking down on it like it was some kind of alien artefact. 

“It’s not poison Otis, don't be such a wuss!”

Otis took one last look of discontent at his girlfriend before cautiously bringing the glass closer to his mouth. He took one tiny sip and his face scrunched itself together as the wine entered his system. Ruby initially began to laugh at his disgust for her favourite wine but that soon faded away when Otis gargled and spat the wine back into the glass whilst making sickly noises. 

“Ew, Otis! That’s disgusting!” She cringed.

“No!” Otis repeatedly coughed as he continued to remove any taste of the wine.”That- that is disgusting!” He said as he passed the wine glass back over to Ruby. 

“Otis I can’t drink that now!” Ruby said as she herself scrunched up her face up when gripping the glass again. 

“Why are you acting like we have shared worse fluids before?” Otis attempted to be seductive. 

“Otis don’t be vile!” Ruby spat back, cringing even further. 

“Last week you were saying something different when I ate you-.” 

“Otis!” She cut him off before he could get any further as she was already far too red-faced for her liking. “Now come here, time for some selfies.” 

Otis manoeuvred himself closer to her as it was time for a flurry of selfies that Ruby could potentially put on her Instagram. Of course, the lighting was horrendous (Ruby had learnt even more about that side of photography from her newfound career) and it would be ridiculously out of place across the rest of her page, but it had Otis in it and any post with Otis in it was ten times quality in her eyes no matter what the camera and lighting. She loved showing him off to her vast array of followers especially all of the new connections she had made in the modelling industry leaving them to either direct message or approach her directly with something like “He doesn’t seem like your type.” Which then gave her an excuse at just how brilliant he was. Ruby makes sure they go through all different types of angels and poses, him kissing her on her cheek, followed by her kissing him on his cheek, goofy poses, cute and smiley poses, just everything. Ruby smiles once they are finished and she goes through them on her phone, Yup definitely Instagram worthy, she would upload them in the morning though for the optimum amount of likes.

Once the selfies are done Otis clears up all of the food and other mess so it was just Otis and Ruby left on the blanket. They were flat out on their backs, holding hands whilst looking up at the night sky. This was what Otis imagined when he was organising this little date for them, Ruby lightly stroking his hand not saying a word as they gaze at the beauty of the night sky, it was so beautiful, so romantic, so-

“Do you prefer my tits or my arse?”

Of course Ruby, of course…….

Ruby’s ice breaker had rather killed the ‘vibe’ Otis was feeling. 

“I mean I know you love them both very much, I mean who doesn’t? I know you love kissing my tits a lot during foreplay, but your appreciation of my arse seems to be more shy. I know you conveniently have to ‘tie your shoelaces’ when we are out walking and you tell me to just carry on so you can have a good look, especially when I’m wearing those leggings….. For your info, you should be able to look any time you want Milburn. It’s just a little debate I’ve been having in my head for some time right now and don’t give me the ‘they are just as beautiful as eachother bullshit’, every guy has a preference.” Ruby seemed weirdly passionate about the subject as they both continued to look up at the sky. “So which one is it Milburn? Milburn!” She nudged him as he didn’t respond initially. 

“Elbows,” Otis said softly. 

Ruby broke of her staring match with the stars and rotated her neck to look at Otis. “What?” 

Otis chuckled to himself before responding. “It’s just something Adam told me.” 

Ruby sharply narrowed her eyebrows at him “Since when did you and Adam get so friendly? He’s my friend, not yours!” Ruby said as if they were in primary school all over again. 

“Ohhhh, Friend!” Otis also turned over to face her now as he quoted the Inbetweeners which caused Ruby to chuckle as she playfully whacked his chest and they both engaged in a sweet kiss.

Probably due to the fact that she was the only one to have a drink last night, leaving her a little tipsy, Ruby was having a little bit of a lie in. 

Otis, however, had been up for some time to wish his sister happy birthday, he had showered and full dressed but he still found himself lying on his bed staring at his sleeping girlfriend, taking note of her messy bun she loved to sleep in and every breath she took. Another thing he picked up on most times he would watch her sleep, is how she would whisper his name ever so softly. It was adorable and extremely heartwarming but Otis was missing an open goal if he did get his phone out and film it for potential embarrassing blackmail. 

“ Otis….”

She’s doing it yet again and every time Otis is convinced she is going catch him staring. She always catches him staring, sometimes he is convinced she really does have eyes in the back in the back of her head, yesterday she figured out his shoelace routine, blast. 

She’s starting to wake up for real now, so Otis moves himself back as her eyes flutter open to make it look like he’s just swooped down onto his bed to greet her good morning. 

“Good morning beautiful,” Otis whispered pressing a kiss to her lips and the smile that was already present in her sleep got even wider. Then after he moves back a few millimetres Otis does something he wouldn’t dare do if she was awake fully as she would slap him silly. He lightly rubs their noses together and he swears she ever so slightly rubs back, Yup she is definitely still high on whatever dream she just had about the pair of them. 

“Hmmmmmmm.” 

Otis will take that as a good morning back. “I thought you would want the lie in, so I’ll go get the shopping and I’ll get Baby on the way back,” Otis said as he rose back up from the bed.

“Hmm, thank you.” Ruby closes her eyes and sinks back into her pillow. 

“I’ll see you later.” Otis bent back down to press a kiss to her left cheek. 

“See you.” She whispered as Otis headed towards his bedroom door. “Hey, Otis,” Ruby said with her eyes still closed and her back turned to him. “I love you.” Ruby clutched onto his bedsheets that little bit tighter. 

“I love you too.” Otis smiled at her as he waited by his door. Damn it must have been one good dream.

So Otis completes the shop for all the party food that would be needed for later as fast as he possibly can as his mum, Jakob, Ola and Joy were going pick up Belle and her boyfriend from the train station by the time he got back so maybe he and Ruby could fit in a quickie, preferably in the shower if she still hadn’t gotten dressed yet, he assumes she would be up for it considering the good mood she woke up in this morning. 

He’s in such a rush he nearly forgets to make the turn towards Ruby’s house to pick up Baby. Pete, Ruby’s elderly next-door neighbour would be staying in with her dad tonight and his old legs couldn’t keep up with Baby and the chaos she could sometimes cause. 

Otis leaps out of the car and walks through Ruby's porch and knocks on the front door

“Oh- Otis!” Claire is startled by his presence and the same happens for Otis in reverse as she was clearly preparing to leave herself. 

“Oh hi-.” Things had gotten a little better since Otis stopped spying on her through bushes outside the hospital making sure she went from her taxi and straight to the hospital front doors, but things were still pretty awkward between them considering what Otis knew about her and they would actively try and avoid each other. “Ruby’s still asleep so I’ve come to get Baby,” Otis says somewhat confidently 

“Baby! Come here girl!” Claire calls and there is movement from deep inside the Matthews household. Claire turned back towards Otis and the awkwardness began to sink in again. “Oh, present.” Claire bent down and swooped up the present from the floor and passed it over to Otis. “It’s from most of us but mostly from Roland, you’ll see why when you open it.” 

Otis smiled as he accepted what was clearly some kind of top from what he could feel in between the wrapping paper. Then Baby appeared from around the corner. “Hello, Baby,” Otis said as Baby reached his feet before he swooped her up with his spare hand. “Okay, I’m going to get going, I’m sure Joy and my mum and Jakob will appreciate your present.” Otis waved the present in the air. 

“Send them our best.” 

Otis walked out and back towards the car, placing Baby in the back once he got there. Otis and Baby’s relationship was a difficult one in the beginning of his relationship with Ruby, he was constantly stealing her mummy back to his house and when Ruby was staying at home she was snuggled up with him and Baby was relegated to the end of the bed. But eventually, the growling and constant attacks stop as Otis likes to think that even in her small dog brain Baby can see that he makes her mum happy. It makes Otis think for a second If Ruby is Baby’s mum does that make Otis baby’s dad? Strange thoughts indeed.

“Ruby! Oh, Ruby!” Otis calls once he’s got Baby settled with a bowl of water, she had been around her enough, he doesn’t think his mother is the biggest fan of having Baby roaming around but nothing can be worse than Aimee’s shitting goat. 

He walks up the stairs doing that whistle he would often do when Ruby would wait for him in the abandoned toilets late in their first year of sixth form and the first day of their second year. 

 “Oh, Ruby!” He called out one more time before kicking his door down hoping his face was seductive enough for her when he was revealed behind the door. But as the door swung open he was greeted by something he wasn’t expecting. 

“I’ve missed something haven’t I?” Otis commented as he observed the scene in front of him. 

“Hiya new kid!” Adam called as he and Ruby were sat in front of his mirror with Ruby working on Adam’s makeup. 

These appearances from Adam were becoming more and more frequent, with Ruby still keeping anyone but Otis as far away from her home as possible, when Adam wanted to hang out with Ruby sometimes he would just shoot his shot and just rock up to Otis’ house unannounced, which could become incredibly frustrating depending on what they were in the middle off.

“You didn’t forget Baby did you?” 

“No, she’s downstairs.” Otis turned and looked back out of the other side of his door. “Erm, Adam are you coming back later for the party?” Otis asked, he fully well knew that Adam and his mum were coming to the party, he was just trying to make conversation as he often struggled in that department when the three of them were together. 

“No, I’m here for the party now,” Adam affirmed. 

Otis glanced at his watch “But your five hours early.” 

“I had nothing else to do.” 

Ruby smiled at him over Adam’s shoulder which Otis read as ‘Yes he’s being a little weird but let him be will you’. “Otis be a love will you and put on the Kardashian’s for me and Adam, we are far too busy here,” Ruby said as she grabbed a makeup brush from her bag as she added to and readjusted his face. 

Otis groaned as he picked up the TV remote and headed to the ‘recordings section’ which is full of ‘Keeping Up With The Kardashians’ from Adam and Ruby’s time together here on their 3rd or 4th rewatch?  he wasn’t too sure. 

“Just play from the last recording,” Ruby told him and Otis did as he was told before flopping back onto his bed as he was about to become invisible for the next couple of hours so. 

And Otis did become invisible well to everyone but Baby who came upstairs and Otis played with her on his bed, he did catch Ruby sneaking a couple of soft smiles in their direction as she and Adam messed around with one another’s faces. He did pop downstairs to greet Belle and her boyfriend as they arrived, but had to take Baby back upstairs when she wouldn’t stop barking at Aaron.

All of Otis’ silent treatment stopped though when Adam announced in the most Adam way possible. “I’m going for a shit!” He slapped his knees and headed out of the room. 

“Is he going to be alright today, if it’s Joy’s birthday you know what today is don’t you?” Otis asked as he leaned across his bed.

“Yes.” 

One year since Eric and Adam broke up.

“And he knows that Eric’s going to be coming doesn’t he?” 

“Yes.” 

“And what should we do with them?” 

“Well I’ll babysit Adam, you can babysit Eric.” Ruby delivered her instructions slowly and with precision. 

“Don’t you think we should let them talk?” Otis says as he would very much to clear the uncomfortable air between them. Not just for their own sakes but it would sort out little squabbles they had between himself and Ruby as whenever the topic came up Otis would passionately take Eric’s side and Ruby taking Adam’s. 

“It’s your sister’s 1st birthday party, not couples counselling Otis,” Ruby says in her usual deadpan tone. 

“Ex couples, by 1 year” Otis makes sure to correct her.

“Don’t worry Otis I don’t think they are going to be getting back together anytime soon, besides I think Adam’s got himself a crush,” Ruby whispers the last part of her sentence across to her boyfriend. 

“Who?” A bemused Otis asked as he looked around the room as if Adam’s secret crush was hiding behind his drawers.

Ruby rolled her eyes “God you can be so blind sometimes Otis, Rahim!” Ruby whispered again. 

“Ohhhhhhh.” An intrigued Otis responded with upon hearing this revelation. Otis had never really cared for high school gossip but since becoming Ruby Matthews’ boyfriend he had access to every little dirty secret from their time at primary right up until the present day, They would spend hours up at night with Ruby filling him in on all the secret romances, fights and other scandals he had missed due to his lower position in the social hierarchy. Otis had fun upon learning such information while Ruby was fascinated by his reactions and it mostly allowed her to relive such drama. But this information was some of the juiciest, most surprising yes. “Ohhhhhh, ohhhhhh, that’s pretty awkward for you.”

Ruby slowly nodded in response and it wasn’t pretty awkward, it was very fucking awkward with her friendship with Adam and Anwar who was still in a pretty fragile relationship with Rahim. 

Otis was still processing the information, That’s one hell of a love triangle, no it’s not even a love triangle, you had Eric who fancied Anwar, who then dated Rahim and then dated Adam, and now Rahim dated Anwar, with Adam fancying Rahim, It was more like a love…… Rhombus? No more like just a Bus, one big bus of love.

"How do you know all of this?" 

"I know everything Milburn."

After Adam completely stunk out the toilet, they all fled downstairs and waited for the guests to arrive, Maureen arrived, followed by Eric and this split Otis and Ruby apart as one went over to Eric and the other over to Adam. Then it was the turn of Lily and her parents, Baby as ever was interested in the arrival of new humans and went to inspect. 

“Ahhh hello Lily, Sophie, Eddie.” Jean greeted them through the door, Lily’s parents responded back but Lily was more interested by what was down below her. 

“Well hello there, what planet do you originate from?” Lily asked Baby who was growling up at her. 

Across the room, Ruby took a quick break from Adam’s story about how he was thinking about attempting a Guinness world record for the furthest distance to throw a cabbage to glare at Lily from across the room. 

Don’t you fucking dare touch my dog.

Otis and Eric were sitting together lightly sipping on a glass of pop each. Despite how much he was trying to hide it, Eric was constantly sneaking little glances over towards Adam who was in conversation with his mum and Ruby. 

It had been a year and Eric had some little hookups with other guys since but Adam had been by far and away his longest ever relationship at around 7 months and this had been the closest they had been since they broke up.

“Are you okay?” Otis asked his best friend. 

“What me? I’m fine always fine.” Again Eric couldn’t help himself but glance in Adam’s direction when the words left his mouth. 

“I’d just hate to think you couldn’t relax, we are supposed to be having a nice time.” 

“Relax? I’m relaxed as hell, you know me Mr R-E-L-A-X-A-T-I-O-N” Eric does a little dance with a bright smile on his face but Otis doesn’t buy his act one bit. “Right fine!” Eric groaned heavily. “Just we haven’t spoken in a year and here we are at your sisters birthday party, it’s a little awkward man.” He whispered across to Otis. 

“Still at least you don’t have to live with your ex and she now has to be your sister….”

“Otis! You aren’t helping me here man! But you are right that is infinitely more fucked up.”

“See! Imagine if you and Adam had to share the same toilet seat.” 

“Oh my god….” Eric trailed off at the horror of the thought. 

“You should have seen the shit he did before.” Otis leaned into his best friends ear to whisper. 

“Oh was that was that smell was!” Eric replied with his signature laugh filling up the room. Now Eric was relaxed 

Everyone was nowhere, well all except for Jakob who had been called to fix something at a client’s house. Of course, Jakob didn’t want to be taking any calls on his daughters first birthday but the client was a friend of Jakob’s and was only going to be a small fix so he thought he would quickly shoot off while the guests were arriving. 

So everyone was sort of waiting around and Joy was clearly not a fan of this either as she wobbled over towards her mother whilst making several disapproving groans. 

“Awww, I know Joy, daddy’s going to be here soon and you madame are going to have some birthday cake, yeah?” Jean swooped her daughter up so could join herself and Maureen’s heights. 

Joy smiled as she bounced up and down in Jean’s arms, God she was already getting a little too big for this. 

“ Dada” 

The whole room seemed to freeze at the sound of the soft voice that appeared from Jean’s arms, Joy Nyman’s first full world. “Dada”. While it was smiles and coos around the rest of the room, it was mostly relief from Jean as she had read about some of the side effects of such an elderly pregnancy being speaking difficulties for the child and Joy like Otis was not blessed with a lot of baby talk, but here she was on her first birthday saying her first word.

“Right I’m backkkkk.” The Swede’s bellowing voice filled the front room as he opened the door and as he walked through to the living room he was greeted with the strange sight of everyone stood completely still and in absolute silence all directing their eyes at him. “Did I miss something…..” Jakob said as he scanned everyone’s eye’s before eventually landing on his partners.

“Do it again, what was it you said ‘Da-.” 

“Dada!” Joy said in her father’s direction grinning heavily as a little finger also hovered towards him. 

Jakob’s heart had completely melted at that point, the sight of his baby daughter speaking for the very first time whilst all wrapped up in Jean’s arms, with one of Jean’s smile of adoration making a rare appearance also in his direction. 

“Oh.” Jakob finally spoke as Jean slowly made her way over to him and passed over Joy to him. “Who am I?” Jakob asked softly and pressed a finger to his chest. 

“ Dada!” The child giggled and both Jean and Jakob joined in with her. This moment right here further reaffirmed that what he was going to do later was a perfect time to do so.

“Do I really have to wear this?” Ruby whispered across to Otis as everyone began to tuck into the party food at the dinner table. 

“Oh yes absolutely” 

Ruby was rather frustrated at the pointy party hat Otis had forced her to wear. 

“Everyone else is wearing one, even Baby.” Otis nodded down to Ruby’s dog on the floor. 

“Yeah, and you hate it don’t you baby!” It was true, Baby did look not at all comfortable and Ruby bent down to wriggle the hat of her tiny head. 

“You can take it off if you want I just thought it would be nice…”

“Otis it’s fine I’m only kidding.” Ruby leaned over to pat him on the arm. “Look I’ll wear two if you like.” Ruby still had Baby’s hat in her hand and she lifted it up, placing the string at the bottom of her chin and then plonking the hat on top of the one that was already on her head like she was building a tower of party hats.

Otis and Ruby both chuckled at one another at her ridiculous new look. Here was Ruby Matthews goofing around with children’s party hats, with hideous children’s party plates and with his family and friends watching on, He knows he does this all the time but it just strikes him again about how far they have come. 

“What did you think of Joy’s first word?” Otis asked her once their giggling hand come to an end. 

“Well I was kind of disappointed it wasn’t Ruby, but hopefully I’ll take second place,” Ruby sarcastically replied as she tucked into more of her party food.

“I don’t think the name of her half brother’s girlfriend was going to be her first-word Rubes.” Otis laughed to himself a little. 

“Yeah well, she knows, who gives her the best cuddles don’t you Joy?” Ruby asked the child from across the table and Joy seemed to giggle in response. “See.” Ruby smugly turned back to Otis. 

It was true, Ruby was amazing with Joy, well why should he be surprised? She was amazing with everything…

“What was that for?” Ruby asked after Otis took her by surprise and swooped in to kiss her, their respective party hats poking one another.

“No reason.”

They all continued with their party food until Jean and Jakob disappeared to collect the cake which had been given to them by Aimee after one of her most recent sessions with Jean. The lights were dimmed and a chorus of happy birthday began to ring out. 

Ruby clearly was only mouthing along to the words but Otis gave her hand a light supportive squeeze and she began to lightly, very lightly join in with everyone else.

“Make a wish!” Jean called out but obviously, Joy wasn’t capable of blowing out a candle so Jean nudged her son to do it for his little sister. 

The cake was enjoyable, Maeve did tell Otis that Aimee had come a long way on her baking journey and well this was very very good. Well Ruby seemed to disagree stating it was ‘too sweet’ she does eat it all though, so Otis imagines she only said that for her dislike for Aimee.

Everyone then gathered on the couches to watch Joy with the assistance of her mum and dad open her presents. Much to Ruby’s amusement Joy believes her new fashionable boots are toys that would have annoyed Ruby as she threw them around, but she already seemed more interested in them than Otis’ action figures so she is able to throw him a smug look. The present from Ruby’s parents or more accurately from Ruby’s dad was a little Republic of Ireland football kit which will Joy can add to the collection along with the Sweden one from her dad. 

The way everyone had flooded from the dinner table after cake to watch Joy open her presents had left Eric and Adam sat next to one another next  Otis and Ruby after all the spaces on the other couches taken up. Obviously, everyone was watching in adoration as Joy opened her presents but Eric felt like he couldn’t enjoy the moment as much as he should of with his ex-boyfriend breathing heavily to his left. He decides to try and break the tension. 

“What do you think-?” 

“Happy anniversary,” Adam says with a lot of pent up anger, not twisting his head to face him, instead just continuing to watch Joy. 

“Wh-what?” Eric asks back a little taken aback by Adam’s tone.

“Shhhhhhhhhh.” Ruby turns around from the other end of the couch to shut them up. 

They fall into silence again after Ruby turns back around but this time it’s Adam who breaks the ice. “Ruby said you spent some of the summer in Nigeria.”

“Yeah.” Eric narrowed his eyes as that was some three months ago now. 

“Kiss anyone?” Adam asked still sunk into the couch. 

“Adam, I can’t believe you are being like this.” Eric leaned in closer to him, gritting his teeth. 

“I can’t believe-.” 

“Right you two! Outside now!” It was Ruby who was now whispering through gritted teeth as she nodded towards the balcony. 

Like students who had been sent of class by the teacher, Eric and Adam followed Ruby’s instructions and awkwardly rose up from the couch to head for the balcony with Ruby and Otis following them close behind. 

Ruby ordered them to sit down on a chair each and explain what happened with Ruby stood over Adam’s shoulder and Otis over Eric’s. 

Otis doesn’t know where Adam’s sudden aggression comes from, probably from spending so much time with Ruby, but as the story of their little squabble come to an end it was clear to Otis who was at fault. “Adam don’t you think you should apologize to Eric.” 

“Adam? Why Adam?” Ruby narrowed her eyes at Otis. 

“Well Eric was just trying to make a normal conversation and Adam brought up irrelevant stuff that happened a year ago!” Great how had he and Ruby started arguing over this again. 

Ruby scoffed at him. “Irrelevant? He broke his heart by going to kiss someone else in a different country.” 

Eric and Adam’s sat there in silence with their eyes continuously flicking back and forth at Otis and Ruby had decided to fight their own battles on their behalf. 

“There was a lot more to it than that Rubes!” 

“Well, Otis” Ruby makes sure to copy her boyfriend’s tone from when he said her nickname previously. “He was left heartbroken he has the right to be a little bit annoyed.” 

“It was a year ago now! Why’s he still so annoyed?” 

Ruby scoffs again and that’s it, he crossed the line there and then. Ruby glared at him as she offered her hand out to Adam. “Come on Adam, let’s leave the kids alone.” She continues her glare as she drags Adam back into the house. 

“Oh shit,” Otis muttered as soon as Ruby and Adam disappeared from his view. 

“Well, that was a bit of a shit show,” Eric said still firmly glued to his chair still processing what had just had happened. 

“Why does she feel the need to defend everything he does? Just because they watch that stupid tv show together!” Otis vented as he paced up and down on his decking. 

“I think you were both being too defensive….” 

Otis stopped his pacing to face Eric “What? Me?” He pointed towards his own chest. 

“Yes you Oatcake, now sit down, calm down and think about some of the things you just said.” 

Otis follows Eric’s instruction and they run through the argument together and agrees with Eric’s point about how if Eric wasn’t his best friend he probably would have took Adam’s side of the squabble. Then he begins to process some of the things he said about Adam and had instant regrets about how Adam should have gotten over his heartbreak already. Although the circumstances were different, Otis thinks he has had his heart broken twice, firstly when Jackson and Maeve kissed in the middle of the school canteen and the second time when it became clear that Maeve had ‘ingored’ his voicemail which was a lot, lot worse to take than the first one.

He knows he needs to apologize to Adam and Ruby so he and Eric head back inside to the party as the sun began to set behind them. His path is blocked firstly by Lily’s parents who are very interested in how Otis and Eric were getting on in university. 

Once they manage to wiggle themselves out of that one as quickly as possible, Otis heads over towards Adam who is sitting on the bottom step of the stairs. “Hey Adam, I just wanted to say I’m sorry for what I said back there, I was-.” 

“It’s fine new kid.” 

Otis narrowed his eyes at Adam’s abrupt and seemingly accepting response. “What?” 

“I said it’s fine new kid, you were just sticking up for someone you care for, seems pretty normal to me.”

Otis can forget sometimes how honest Adam can be, if he was going to forgive you, he was going to forgive you, if he wanted to lock you in a dungeon and starve you to death he was probably going to go through with it.

“I know, Ruby seems to really care about you,” Otis said softly across to Adam. 

“Yeah.” Adam breathed “It’s weird isn’t it? Having Ruby Matthews care about you.” 

Otis turned back around towards Ruby who was smiling as she stroked Baby “Yeah it is isn’t it.” He and Adam stared for a moment before they came back face to face. “So are we okay?” Otis offered his hand out to Adam for him to shake as he feels like that’s what men do when they resolve a disagreement. 

Adam stood up and accepted his handshake. 

“Do you think you and Eric could talk and maybe not end up like me and Ruby,” Otis said sporting a weak smile.

“I’ll try new kid.”

Even for a short period of time, it was very difficult for Ruby to stay mad at Otis, especially when he was being so fucking cute playing with Joy across the other side of the room. 

He seemed to have apologised to Adam which is what she wanted him to do and furthermore looked to have instigated him and Eric having a civil conversation towards the stairs. She wasn’t going to give in though and would wait for him to come over to apologize to her, then she would also apologize in return and then move over to apologize to Eric

This left her alone on the couch gently patting a sleepy baby, she observed Jean and Jakob’s smiles, she was glad Adam and Eric’s, then her’s and Otis’ little squabble hadn’t ruined Joy’s birthday as that was the reason she pulled Adam and Eric outside in the first place so their argument wouldn’t disturb from Joy opening her presents and- Oh fuck Otis was finally approaching her. 

He had his hands in his pockets and had his eyes hovering towards the floor as he got up close to the couch, not sitting down, just standing over her. “Erm, I’m sorry for arguing with you before about Adam, I was just sticking up for Eric, I feel like you can be a little hard on him when it comes to what happened with Adam.” Otis winces at the final part of his sentence, hoping it wouldn’t instigate another argument between the two. 

But Ruby knew it to be true also, she liked Eric she really did but Adam was her friend and her heart aced for him as she knew he really cared about Eric and was struggling to adapt in their relationship, what if Otis hadn’t given her time to adapt and become more comfortable with him? So when she and Otis had these arguments, she could go on the attack about Eric’s actions in their breakup, just they had never had these arguments in front of Eric himself and Otis was probably trying to protect the relationship between her and his best friend by deflecting the blame back towards Adam. “I’m sorry too, that was stupid.” 

That’s how most of their arguments were resolved, they would both fuck up and come together in a mutual apology. 

“I’ll apologise to Eric later, I shouldn’t have brought up what happened in Nigeria.” 

Otis slowly entwined their hands together after he had joined her on the couch and they observed the rest of the room as Jean and Jakob passing them to head outside. “At least they are talking now.” Ruby nodded towards Adam and Eric. 

“Yeah and after all that it was us who ended up arguing like children.”

“Yeah,” Ruby said with a smile on her face as she squeezed their intertwined hands a little bit tighter. “What did you wish by the way? When you blew Joy’s candle out.” 

“I wished that she would have a better fashion sense than her older brother when she grows up of course.” 

This made Ruby giggle as she looked deep into Otis' eyes. “I don’t think that would be a bad thing after all,” Ruby said whilst lightly stroking his hair.

“No?” 

“No Milburn.” She leaned in and they shared a slow and soft kiss on the couch. “But I will try my best to steer her on the right path though.” 

“Will you still be around then?” 

Fuck, Otis knew talking about a deep future together when they were only a year into their relationship was weird, life was going to have a lot to throw at them and they were both still only 19 and 18 respectively, he hopes Ruby isn’t weirded out by his comment. 

Ruby checked the date on her phone. “Well when Olivia said I had to date you for a dare it had to be for 2 years, so you are running out of time Milburn.” 

Thank god for Ruby and her charm. “2 years from when though? Our “I don’t want your pale, usually long children” anniversary, “No more cars or toilets anniversary” or “Do you want to be my boyfriend” anniversary?” 

“Oh definitely the first one, I’m looking to get rid of you as soon as possible Milburn.”

“You wouldn’t dare.” 

“I know.” She whispered as Otis placed his hands on her waist and Ruby draped her hands around the back of his neck and they engaged in another kiss. 

This time their kiss was interrupted before it reached its natural conclusion by Joy crawling over towards them. “Dada, dada!” 

Ruby rested her hands on Otis’ shoulders before Joy got closer and she swooped her up. “No, what have I said  Joy. It’s Ruby, R-U-B-Y.” Ruby spelt it out while Joy continued to look uncomfortable. “Right I’ll take you to your dad then shall I, he’s just gone outside.” 

Ruby lifted Joy up further, with most of her body resting against Ruby’s chest and her neck resting on Ruby’s shoulder. Otis followed them outside and when they got to the door they were greeted by something that made them stop dead in their tracks. 

Jakob with a ring in hand on one knee in front of Jean…….

Moments earlier….

Everything was going so well, that’s in comparison to Otis’ first birthday party for Jean, it was cold and eerie as her family and Remi’s awkwardly interacted despite their already known hatred of one another. Joy’s party couldn’t be further from that as everything was so warm and full of life, even the things that had gone wrong seemed to have corrected itself, with Adam and Eric engaged in a friendly conversation near the stairs and Otis and Ruby were holding hands again on the couch. 

She knows Jakob’s staring at her also, a small smile appearing on his face as he noticed the adoration on her’s. “Would you like to come outside, I want to show you something,” Jakob said whilst resting a hand on her shoulder. 

“Okay…..” Jean narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously as she began to follow him out. 

They stopped outside where they could get a good view of the trees in the middle distance, the exact same spot where Jakob and Otis were stood last night. “You and Otis like those romantic movies don’t you.”

“Yes…..” She hoped after a year of living together he would have noticed that they would watch one nearly every Friday night. 

“Well, I hate them.” 

Jean chuckled at his deadpan tone, she thinks half an hour during ‘When Harry Met Sally ‘was his all-time record before going to sleep.

“They are always so over the top and so what I am going to do right now is going to be nothing like that.” 

Jean narrowed her eyes at him again. “Do what?” 

“I didn’t really go to fix the dent in Tommy’s pipe before, I went to get this.” From his pocket, Jakob revealed a small black box and from when he popped it open a silver engagement ring was revealed and Jakob began to get down on one knee. “We make a pretty good team Jean and I think you noticed back there that we have a pretty amazing family, so I was thinking we could make us a tighter team and you could marry me, Jean Milburn.” 

“Oh, Jakob.” She offered softly in return. 

Jakob was right, it wasn’t over the top and very romantic. When Remi proposed to her it was at the end of a weekend away in Paris in front of the Eiffel Tower but this one felt so much more right but also so much more wrong. 

She had been hiding a secret from Jakob for exactly a year now, he was not Joy’s biological father. She knew she should have told him straight away, the sooner she did it the easier it would have been for him to process it. But she had just come off the back of an extremely traumatic birth and felt like she wasn’t in the right place to tell him. But then he just continued to care for her as they moved back home and more importantly the way he cared for Joy the delight at becoming a father again, even when they had to get up in the middle of the night to attend to her tears, his eyes were so full of love and the longer it went on the harder it became to break his heart. 

Maybe all she needed was a push, like when she told him she kissed Remi, That stupid banging, and maybe this was it now. She couldn’t get engaged and marry a man she would be lying to every single day, she could feel the words on the tip of her tongue. “Jakob you aren’t Joy’s father.” She was going to get them out, but then a few footsteps appeared from around the corner, Otis, Ruby and Joy.

Otis and Ruby as a couple had been one of the many happy surprises in Jean’s life in the past year or so but who Ruby was holding, that was the greatest happiest surprise Jean could ever have wished for. 

Jakob was wrong, they weren’t a good team, they were an outstanding team. Jakob adored Joy like no man ever could and he adored her also like no man ever could. Jean realised she was too happy and wasn’t willing to let go. 

“Yes.” She said for real this time. 

“I presume that’s a yes that you will marry me?” Jakob laughed.

“Yes.”

An emotional Jakob rose from the floor to bring her into a tight embrace. He didn’t seem at all worried about the little wobble she had after she initially asked probably because he thought she was just as nervous as he was. But if he could see her now he would know something was wrong. 

Buried in his chest her face was one of pain and worry. She really didn’t know if she had just done the right thing.

Chapter Text

Claire Moore first became aware of Roland Matthews when they were both 14. There was lots of talk about the skinny Irishman and his elder sister who had recently come over to Greater London with their mother. 

Roland was a quiet one but his elder sister Siobhan was constantly getting into fights with other girls in her year and rumors quickly began to spread about there absentee father, he was a member of the IRA or he had fled to Colombia with ambitions to work with Pablo Escobar, were just two of the many odd theories that were thrown around. 

Claire couldn’t care less about high school gossip, she was just awkwardly stuck in the middle, not cool enough to be a popular girl, not weird enough to be one of the freaks. She just got on with her school work and enjoyed the company of her small group of friends. 

Her and Roland were first thrust together for her baking project, D&T was the only class they ever shared and they were both terrible bakers but oh boy did they have fun in their disastrous attempt. The fun mostly came from Roland as he had a brilliant sense of humor, from his snarky comments under his breath about their teacher, to his long-winded stories of back home in Ireland, he made her laugh constantly, sometimes she laughs things he did that weren’t even funny, it’s probably because she knew that she was falling for the funny Irishman. 

But then the summer came and there was no time to act on her burgeoning feelings for Roland Matthews. 

She found out through a friend of a friend where he lived and most days of the week she would take a walk past the Matthews household hoping to catch a glimpse of him through the window or watering the plants outside, but no there was nothing. She would later learn that he spent most of the holidays back home in Dublin so the whole exercise was a waste of time. 

But an extra bit of information Claire took in from the location of Roland’s house, is that if she were to walk home from school instead of taking the bus their routes home would be pretty similar. 

So that’s what Claire did, much to her friend's confusion she stopped taking the bus and began walking home from Roland Matthews. They entered a comfortable routine of talking about their respective school days, their shared interests and of course there was banter lot’s and lot’s of banter. 

It goes on for a few months before Claire plucked up the courage to ask Roland out. 

“So, plans for this weekend?” Claire asked as they stopped outside his house. 

“Play football on the Saturday morning, then watch the football on a Saturday afternoon, then spend Saturday night and the rest of Sunday thinking about the football.” 

Ah yes, football-mad Roland insisted that he would have made it at a professional academy by now if it wasn’t for his family history of dodgy knees. 

“Well if United get beat again-.”

“ Which they won’t.” He made sure to correct her 

“Then maybe you might want to do something to take your mind off the football.” 

Roland narrowed his eyes at her. “Like what?” 

“Do you like Christmassy things?” 

“Of course!” Roland fired back as if it was the most obvious thing in the world “They say your dead inside if you don’t like Christmas.” 

“Well there is an Ice rink opening up at the mall this weekend, we could go if you fancy it?”

“Together?” 

“Yes.”

“Like a date?”

“Yes.” 

Claire is surprised by how calm she is with her words and the fact that she doesn’t stumble one considering she was finally asking out the boy she had been obsessing over for months. She does have a little panic inside when he doesn’t respond straight away and begins to narrow his eyebrows again. 

“Doesn’t sound terrible.” 

“Okay.” She breathes softly and she doesn’t care if his words weren’t very convincing, she was going on a date with Roland Matthews. 

United do win that weekend but he still turns up anyway and probably explains his extra chipper mood when he arrives a few minutes late. 

Their smiles don’t leave them from their whole time on the ice rink as they hold onto one another’s hands as they move across the rink at a frighteningly slow pace. They are both horrific, constantly stumbling and crashing into the boards that surround the rink. 

The smiles didn’t stop and neither did the hand-holding as they walked home from the Ice Rink. 

They stopped outside her house, Roland had made sure he would head the long way so he could walk her to her door on this cold November night whilst wrapped up in his jacket. 

“So did you have a nice time?” She nervously asked as they stopped at the edge of her driveway. 

“Yeah, I did.” He replied as his smile twitched a little.

“Nice enough, for a second time?” 

“Yeah.” He was normally so fun and bubbly so hearing him speak so softly and with a hint of nerves in his voice was strange. 

“Good, because I was going to steal your jacket and force you to come and get it from me if you didn’t.” 

“You really like that jacket” He nodded towards the black leather that was almost engulfing her whole. 

“Yeah, I might need to you to come and take it off me anyway.” 

“Okay,” Roland whispered as he slowly approached her placing his hands onto her shoulders and gave he a slow and soft kiss as he wriggled the jacket from her.

“Good night Claire.” 

“Good night Roland.”

So they were dating, Claire Moore and Roland Matthews were dating. They get a few glares when they first walk into school on the Monday as they hold hands through the main entrance. Just a few whispers. 

“Oh.” 

“Interesting couple.” 

“Bit weird.” 

“That’s cute.” 

“Good for them.”

That was all really, they were nobodies. 

But throughout the final year at high school and the two years at sixth form, Claire very quickly becomes a nobody. Her legs got longer, he breasts got bigger, Claire Moore became desirable. She was one of the most attractive girls at school and would have constant offers from other men to take her away from Roland, but this didn’t affect Claire in the slightest, she only had eyes for Her Irishman.

Irishman 

Roland’s nationality quickly became a problem in their relationship. Her father had very outdated views on Irishmen and in the pub that he owned he was very late to remove his ‘No Irish’ sign, with only the police keeping him from putting it back up. Whenever an IRA bombing would take place, her dad would lay into her for even going anywhere near ‘such scum and villainy and once he got hold of the rumours about Roland’s absentee father, Claire had no choice but to pretend that they had broken up. 

The fun and sneaking around initially gave her quite a thrill, elevating their sex life as they would spend limited time together. There were late-night phone calls also. 

She would crawl into the corner of her room, to put as much distance between her and her father as possible. She would clutch the phone so tightly and whisper “I love you.” 

And it sent a shiver down her spine every time those words came back. “I love you too.” 

But eventually, the sneaking around wore off and she wanted to be with him, hold him every day, Her Irishman. 

Roland had his own family problems, a secret kept from him for the first 19 years of his life that tore him and his sister and his mother apart, so they made a rash decision. Taking what little money they had a running with it. 

Claire dropped out of University and they found themselves in the small little town of Moordale. 

Shutting themselves off from their friends and family, the first few years became about keeping afloat, running multiple jobs at a time to keep the money coming in, but it was all going to be okay as they had each other.

Things began to settle down though, Claire became good friends with their next-door neighbour’s daughter Tracey, who was only a few years younger than herself and was hoping to become a student nurse. The more Claire and Tracey talked about it, the more attractive the opportunity sounded to her. Then just like that Claire was back in education. 

Roland found a job he loved at the ‘Moordale Zoo’, Roland adored animals and was excellent with them, though Claire broke his heart with her strict ‘no animals’ policy in the house as the only memories she had with animals wasn’t a good one with her dad’s bulldog. 

Speaking of families, Roland had reopened up a dialogue with his mother and sister again however they had moved back to Ireland. Claire meanwhile was always keeping in touch with her mother but swore that she never wanted to see her dad ever again. 

So they are happy settled finally when Claire graduates and begins her work as a nurse full time and Roland capitalises on this on the 15 year anniversary of their first date. They follow the same steps they did on that night 15 years ago, the same ice rink that was set up at the mall, the same walk home to the same house where Claire use to live. The family who lived there now were a little confused as Roland got down on one knee in front of their home. 

“Claire Marilyn Moore, will you do me the honour of becoming Claire Marilyn Matthews?” 

“Yes! Yes! Of course, I will!” Claire is crying as she leaps into his arms. After they hold onto one another and share a kiss, they turn towards the young couple in the window and their two children who are clapping and cheering for them, they would get an invite to the wedding itself. 

The wedding is a small gathering with the aforementioned family, Roland’s mum and sister, Claire’s lone mother and a few friends from Moordale and back from their school days in attendance in a small church in Moordale. 

It’s the perfect night, short, sweet and simple for Claire and Roland Matthews. 

The best thing to happen though is when Claire sits down with her mother at the afterparty and talks to her about this is the best they had both looked in years far away from the physical and emotional abuse her dad given them throughout the years. 

A few months later her mum finally divorced her father and moved to Moordale to be close to her. 

It’s her mother she runs to when she thinks she might be pregnant and the two lines appear on the pregnancy test. She’s going to be a mother. 

Roland naturally is over the moon and they hold each other close for a good hour when she tells him the news. 

They decide the keep the gender a secret and they also decide Oliver for a boy and Ruby for a girl. 

Oliver/Ruby is really stubborn and really doesn’t want to come out. She spends nearly a week routed to a hospital bed, but she doesn’t panic, Roland’s calm and soothing words convince her that all is going to be okay and they are going to have a happy and healthy baby. 

Ruby Niamh Matthews is born on Saturday the 1st of September 2001 at 4:23 PM. Initially Ruby is taken away from them to be checked over by a specialist after what is presumed to be a traumatic birth but when she is given the all-clear and in Claire’s arms for the very first time she softly whispered. “Ruby.” as this small creation of theirs croaked in front of them. She turned to Roland to give him a kiss through the tears. 

Ruby is their pride and joy, they know immediately that they are going to spoil her rotten probably because she deserves all of the love and attention they couldn’t properly receive from their own parents. Claire even agrees to abandon her ‘no animals’ rule if Ruby would request one when she grew up. 

Claire would be lying if she wasn’t slightly jealous at the closer bond that Roland and Ruby grow to develop. He gets to spend a lot more time with her as his hours at the zoo were less strict than hers at the hospital, but when they all came together, from picnics every Sunday after church to endless hours on the beach together, they were a hell of a team and they had raised a kind and adoring little girl. 

This is why it was such a surprise when in her first couple of months of Ruby starting high school they were both called in by Headmaster Groff to discuss their daughters behaviour. 

“Mr and Mrs Matthews please do sit down.” Mr Groff said with a warm smile as they walked through into his office. 

Ruby was already seated in one of the three chairs facing the headmaster, she was slouched with her arms folded and a scowl on her face that she nor Roland had ever seen before. 

“Now, over the past couple of weeks I and several other teachers have received messages from students and their parents about acquisitions of bullying by Ruby.” 

Claire pretty much gasped as she and Roland turned their heads towards Ruby who still hadn’t moved a muscle. 

“I have a few statements of the sort of language your daughter has been using on school campus.” Mr Groff let off a small cough before looking down a piece of paper in front of him. 

“Your Mascara looks like shit you fat slag.”

“I heard your fanny looks like that blue bitch from Finding Nemo.” 

“You skinny freak, don’t look at me or I’ll put your head in your fake bag.” 

“There is quite a lot more, but I think you get the theme.” Mr Groff cringed as he awkwardly navigated his way through Ruby’s words and pushed the piece of paper to one side. Ruby has changed her expression this time with a slight smirk appearing on her face as if she found these insults funny.

“Now Ruby has not been alone in these actions, Olivia Hanan, Anwar Bakshi Bianca and Camilia Cseszneky along with Ruby from the group commonly know by members of their year group as ‘The Untouchables’. Now individually they all seem to be well-behaved students who perform well in their classes, however, when you mix them together there seems to be a recipe for disaster….” 

Mr Groff drones on for another ten minutes about a system to try and keep the group apart and the detentions Ruby had been scheduled to which would include her writing out apology letters to each person she has insulted. Claire isn’t really following along though, she’s just full of fury and rage that her own daughter, someone she raised could behave like this. 

“Ruby! Ruby!” Claire said through gritted teeth as they exited the school building, whilst Ruby stormed off in front. 

“You don’t really believe that bullshit do you?” Ruby smirked as she span around the face her parents charging towards her. 

“Oh so your teacher just made the whole thing up then, cause we will go right back inside now young lady if that’s what you’re insinuating!”

“No! But it’s missing… what’s that word English teachers always use? Context! We’re just bantering each other it's only because just because they snitched!” 

“I don’t care what the context is Ruby, There is no excuse to use such language!” Claire took a step closer to her daughter. 

“Claire, Claire, I think you should settle down.” Roland held her back by the arm which she immediately shook off. 

“Er Roland! You can’t seriously be defending her right now?” Claire scoffed as she turned back towards her husband. 

“No not defending her, just I think there might be a better way of communicating it rather than just shouting darling.” Roland whispers across to her as students who stayed behind at the library begin to flood out.. “Let’s do this at home shall we.”

So Roland drives them home in complete silence with Claire constantly glaring at her daughter through the mirror. 

When they climb out of the car, Ruby is still completely unmoved by the situation, taking selfies before scrolling through her Instagram timeline. 

“Right the first thing you can do is give me that phone madame,” Claire says as soon as they step through the front door. 

Ruby narrows her eyes as she looks her mum up and down. “No! Why?” 

“Look give me that, here!” Claire reaches over to grab the phone from her daughter but Ruby only covers herself up defensively. 

“No!” 

There then begins a squabble for the control of Ruby’s phone, Claire can hear her husbands voice in the background but she can’t quite make it out over Ruby’s screams “No! No!” Ruby wacks at her mother’s arms to pat her away and Claire has no idea what takes over but she clenches her fist and arrows it towards her daughter’s face. 

“CLAIRE!” 

Roland just about manages to catch the swing with his hand. Ruby is in tears as she covers herself up against the wall and it’s the sound of her daughter’s heavy breathing that finally wakes Claire back up. 

“Oh my god, oh my god…” She repeats softly as she realises what she was about to do. Her whole body begins to shake as Roland continues to hold onto her hand which she immediately straightened back out. 

Everything that she had despised in her own father, everything that traumatised her as a child and still now as a married mother she was about to become herself. 

“Ruby oh my god I’m so sorry…….” 

Her daughter is too good for her and immediately accepts her embrace, Ruby knows from her nanna what her grandad who she never met did to his wife and daughter, so they hold to eachother close with Claire continuously whispering apologies into her daughter's ear.

“It’s okay mum, it’s okay…..” Ruby is still very much shaking herself as her dad wraps his arms around them both, their little team. 

They don’t know how long they hold onto eachother for but somehow they transition onto the couch and all apologise for their actions repeatedly. 

It’s the next week when Claire is screaming at Mr Groff down the phone for how lies and manipulation can have a serious ripple effect. 

Manipulation

Another thing Claire wasn’t aware she had passed down to her from a father and wasn’t aware she had passed on to her own daughter. 

Ruby had manipulated those who had made those statements into withdrawing them so detentions were off the card and more importantly her parents were back to thinking she was miss good two shoes all the time and the whole one big misunderstanding and was devoid of one of her new favourite words, Context. 

As Claire is screaming about how she won’t be coming into school again unless it is to discuss her education Ruby is smirking around the corner, knowing full well she had gotten away with one. 

So they were far from the perfect family that they all might think they are but that family is expanding with Ruby’s dog baby and then came Charlotte.

Firstly it’s the holiday, which little did they all know was the last foreign trip they would all take as a family. 

Claire tries to go through every single reason she can think of that would explain her throwing up on what was supposed to be a happy occasion for them, from the flight over to the food at the hotel. 

It’s not until her mother calls them from back home that the first mention of pregnancy arrives. It had been nearly 13 years since she had Ruby and she was in her mid 40’s now, of course, it wasn’t going to cross her mind. 

She makes sure her mum remains on the phone as she waits for the results to come through so it would be the same as when she had her first child. First being the keyword there as two lines showed up on the test, she was going to be a mother again.

They do things a little differently this time, they want to know the gender this time around, well when they mean ‘they’, it’s Ruby who is desperate to find out if she has a brother or a sister on the way as she wants an integral role in designing their room for them, wallpaper and all. 

They find out they are going to be having a little girl and of course they are going to name her Charlotte because how could they not? More importantly, it’s exactly what Ruby wanted and Claire thinks she is more excited to see Ruby become a big sister for her to become a mother.  

But of course, that experience was short-lived.

Charlotte Matthews lived for exactly 20 minutes.

20 minutes from the highest high to the lowest low. 

Claire feels horrific, her body feels horrific, she feels responsible. Every doctor and every support group she attends will tell her otherwise but there is nothing that can help her escape the fact there was a child growing inside her for nine months under her protection and then she watched her struggle for breaths in her arms before she met her end. 

Roland is there for her of course he is, he is always there for her, even when she says she doesn’t want to be touched he lies there with her saying just the right amount of words to help comfort her. 

Eventually, she lets him in, allows his arms to go back around her waist, there were a few triggers along the way as the last time his arms were there, Charlotte was there. But he’s just so understanding as he follows her lead and agrees to work at her pace. 

Ruby is hard to reconnect to initially, she was only 13. Nobody should have to witness that never mind a teenager who had to witness the death of her own sister. 

As ever it hurts her slightly that it’s Roland who wraps her arms around her and comforts her to try and get her back on track. 

They were all trying to get back on track but it’s very evident Charlotte leaves a dark cloud over them and little did they know there was a storm on its way.

January 2018

“Is the TV in HD darlin?” 

“Yes, dad!” Ruby groans as she hits the select button on the remote to prove that the channel is definitely in HD. 

“Just my eyes,” Roland replied whilst lightly rubbing his eyes. 

“Maybe it’s your eyes telling you should be going to sleep honey, big day tomorrow,” Claire said as she stroked her husband’s hands. 

Tomorrow Roland was taking part in a 10k run for cancer research UK, a few months of training and Roland was hoping to complete the run in under an hour. It had recently gained a level of extra importance as Claire’s mum had recently been diagnosed. 

“Perhaps your right.” Roland slapped his knees as he rose up, kissing his wife on her forehead before heading over to her daughter. “Let me know if she makes it halfway through the movie,” Roland whispered and Ruby let off a giggle she would only be comfortable sharing at home. “Good night darlin.” Roland kissed her daughter’s forehead before heading towards the bedroom, his legs had a momentary spasm and Roland just about managed to catch his balance.  

“Woah, watch it there,” Ruby smirked at her dad as he smiled in return before pealing off to his and Claire’s bedroom. 

There were no extra problems as they arrived at the park for the run the next day. Ruby makes sure she can spot nobody from her school before she and her mother cheer loudly as the run begins and Roland crosses the start/finish line. 

So they wait around for the run to be completed, Claire thinks Roland is being optimistic and will just be shy of the hour mark, while Ruby has faith in her father and expects him to hit around the 58-minute mark. 

But the 58-minute mark doesn’t come, not even Claire’s 62-minute prediction. After an hour and ten minutes past they start to get a little worried even when Roland first started practising he was able to complete 10k in and around that time. 

They get extra concerned when Terry crosses the finish line, Terry worked at the zoo with Roland and was a lot further away from peak athletic condition then he was and even declared he would be walking most of the route. 

After Terry hugged his wife and his two kids, Claire began to shout him over. 

“Terry! Terry! Have you seen Roland?” Claire asked as calmly as she could in her current state. 

“No, I thought he would have finished by now,” Terry said as he narrowed his eyes at her. 

Shit

It was at this point Claire received a tap on the shoulder from a young volunteer from behind her. 

“Hi, sorry are you the family of 2106?” 

Claire quickly grabbed her phone to check the picture she had taken of Roland before he set off to make sure of the number he had been assigned. 

“Yes!” Ruby had beaten her to it. 

Roland had fallen on the run and hit his head on the floor, they were rushed to the nearby hospital fearing the worst. 

Thankfully when they rushed through the doors they were told that Roland had received no damage to his brain from the fall that he had. 

“However we believe we can explain the reasons for your husbands fall and we are going to refer him to a neurologist.” 

Claire whose expression rapidly changed from relief to confusion breathed “What? What for?” 

“We believe your husband may be living with Multiple Sclerosis.” 

“Mum….what does that mean?” To Ruby, it was a big word with many freighting possibilities and she would proved right. 

“Look come on Rubes.” Claire grabbed her daughter by the arm and led her to the room which Roland was in. 

“Oh, Roland.” 

“Dad!” 

Ruby wriggled free of her mother's hand and threw herself at her dad as she reached his bed. 

“Ugh, it’s okay Rubes, it’s okay….. I’m gonna be okay” Roland initially groaned in his weak state at Ruby’s wild embrace, but he couldn’t be the one who was weak here he thought to himself as he stroked her daughters hair. 

And he was okay for now. 

They go to the neurologist and they confirm Roland’s condition. 

Not only does he has Multiple Sclerosis but he is in the primary progressive category. Meaning brain and nerve function to worsen without notable periods of remission and relapse and in some cases death. 

Claire refuses to believe it, they had been dealt so many bad hands in life, runaway fathers, abusive fathers, a dead child, this just can’t be possible. 

So they see as many neurologists, doctors, specialists as possible and all comeback with the same results and slowly but surely they all have to accept that Roland Matthews is living with MS. 

So they have to learn to live with it, but Roland’s condition immediately began to worsen and his symptoms become more apparent. With his loss of balance and pain in his back enough for him to quit his job, but maybe it’s the mood swings which are the worse as he will break down and cry, which means Ruby will break down and cry, then Claire will break down and cry. They were a mess.

“I’m going to take more shifts at work,” Claire said whilst they both lay in bed staring up at the ceiling.

“What? You know we have got money spare from-.” 

“Yeah, well we said we would only use that money for Ruby” Claire sharply cut him off and he went quiet as he knew the agreement they made before they got married. “You shouldn’t have to worry darling, I don’t want you to worry.” She whispered before peppering kisses to his neck and he groaned. No matter how many years went by and how much she secretly hated his beard, she would always find him the most attractive man in any room. 

As she continued to kiss softly into his neck, Claire trailed her hand down his shirt and towards his jeans and she would grab- nothing, she would grab nothing. Claire rose away from his neck with narrowed eyes. “Do you not want to do this right now?” 

“No- yes- it’s just I can’t do this right now- or ever.” Roland stuttered his was through his sentence whilst looking up at his wife. 

“What do you mean?” 

Roland took in a deep breath. “I went to see the specialist.”

“What when?” It had been a few months now since they went to see the specialist and they had all always been together, as this was something they had to manage together as a team

“On my own, last week-” 

“Roland, you know shouldn’t have done that it could have been really dang-.” After Claire cut him off, the roles had now been reversed.

“It was private alright Claire!” Roland raised his voice, he was never a man to raise his voice but this was becoming more common, especially when Claire and Ruby were being so protective of him when he was trying to be independent, but they both knew just to ignore it. “I can’t- get hard…” Roland said softly with a hint of shame in his tone.  

“Like ever?” 

“Yeah..” 

Claire had done all of her additional research on MS and fully well knew this was a possibility but she just wish he hadn’t kept it from her. 

She settled back onto the bed, resting her head gently on his chest. “It’s okay honey, it’s okay.”

It’s another small sacrifice she would have to make, they were never going to be able to touch one another in that way again, she loved him though and she’d go through anything to be with him. Right?

Three months had passed since the diagnosis and Claire’s mother was now seriously unwell in hospital. Claire knows It could be a matter of weeks, days or even hours before her mother passes, as she, Roland and Ruby are all gathered around her in her hospital bed. 

It had been a nightmare getting Roland into the hospital, but he was now snoring loudly along with Ruby in their chairs. 

Claire smiled at them as that was one thing Ruby had picked up from her father, she hopes one day she will find a man that will tolerate her snoring as much as she did with her father. 

“I’m jealous of you, you know.” Claire’s mother crocked and Claire spun back around to face her. “Knowing you will have someone that loves you to the end.” Sandra Moore nodded towards her sleeping son in law. 

“Mum don’t say that.” Claire leaned over and stroked her mother’s hand. It was true though, her father was a real piece of shit and had now been in prison for the past three years for a racially motivated assault. “You were the one good thing me and your father ever had.” Sandra had fell pregnant with Tommy Moore at a very young age and they only really married out of convenience, Sandra would never know how trapped she would become. “I’m so glad, you and Roland share so much more.” 

Claire can feel a weak squeeze from her mother’s hand as she turns back towards her husband. “I know mum, I know.” 

She passes away a few days later and Ruby definitely wasn’t herself and was looking for some care and attention, unfortunately, Claire herself is heartbroken and Roland well, Roland is just broken. 

His condition worsens throughout the rest of 2018 and the early months of 2019, Ruby is making more and more sacrifices in terms of her attendance at sixth form social events and bless him, next-door neighbour Pete is trying his way to help in any way he can. 

But it’s not until the summer that Claire’s selfish thoughts begin to appear…

Ruby keeps popping out for a short period of time and she keeps returning so happy, strangely happy, a look of awe in her eyes that as Roland pointed out, hadn’t seen since Charlotte. 

And it’s Roland who manages to finally get it out of her. 

“God his name is Otis alright! And it’s not like that, he’s just a friend!” A flushed Ruby shouts, averting her eyes from her parents. 

“And does he have a last name?” 

“Absolutely not! You know far too much already, ugh I hate you!” Ruby rises from the couch and disappears off to her room. 

Claire, herself already knows more than that. 

She knew her daughter had been sexually active for a while now and she would never mention it directly to Ruby, but always made her aware about consenting partners  and so on and so on. She also knew where she kept a secret stash of condoms, just under the passenger seat of her car and she was racing through these packets this summer like Claire had never seen before.

So whoever this Otis person was he was more than a ‘friend’ to her daughter but at the same time, he could have been less than that. She knew that her Ruby didn’t like to get attached and very rarely talked about boys and even if she did it would be with her dad, so she can imagine Ruby being in a casual relationship with this ‘Otis’ fella, getting what she needs to take her mind off the stresses of home and it was certainty improving her mood.

It’s then the thought that passes through her mind, Claire needs her own ‘Otis’.

It’s a horrible thought she knows. But as much as she told herself it would be fine, never being touched again, her body told her otherwise. She missed the feeling of being touched or having Roland inside of her, it made her feel electric, it made her feel alive. Roland could still make her feel loved in some ways but in that way, it was now physically impossible to do so. 

She thinks about talking to that sex therapist, what was her name? Something Milburn? The ex-wife of that Remi fella whose books about masculinity Roland sometimes reads. But Claire is so ashamed of her thoughts of betrayal, it all feels too close to home for her, so she goes to somewhere she can remain anonymous, the internet. 

It doesn’t take her long to find exactly the type of website she is looking for. A site that brings two people together whose partners who can no longer satisfy them, not out of a lack of love, but because of physical difficulties. 

It sounds perfect (well as close to perfect in this terrible situation Claire has found herself in) a mutual understanding of what they are both getting into, two people who aren’t trying to destroy their marriage, but two people who are trying to keep their marriage alive. 

Claire chats to several people on there before she comes across Sandro. 

He’s ten years younger than her, he’s Brazilian and he lives around 30 minutes away from Moordale. But what maybe draws her to his profile, his wife’s disability is listed as ‘progressive MS.’ She hopes there will be an understanding between the two, even though the sex was reversed what it was like. 

So despite her reluctantly they arrange a date for in mid-August to meet at a hotel in the town in the middle of their respective homes. 

“Right I’ve got to shoot off,” Claire announces fully dressed for work. 

“What?” Ruby appeared from her bedroom half-dressed. “Ugh, mum I had plans!” Ruby groans as she noticed her uniform. 

“I’m sorry dear, I’ll be back later okay.” Claire approached her daughter and pressed a kiss to her cheek. “You have been wearing that yellow bra a lot lately,” Claire noted with a smirk as she turned away and headed towards the door

She gets a taxi to the hotel and immediately shoots up to the room she had booked to get changed out of her work clothes and into a black dress she pictured herself getting undressed in. 

Once that’s done, she heads down to the hotel restaurant, she feels like she should at least get to know him a little bit more before she sleeps with him. Sure they had chatted a little online but that wasn’t real, anyone can build up a facade. Ugh, how ironic. 

When it approaches 15 minutes since he said he would be here, Claire is cursing her decision. Has she been played, has she been made a fool of, was she going to end up on one of those ‘exposing videos’ that go viral on Facebook? God, she should have seen the signs, How does a Brazilian man end up in the small English countryside?

She begins to stand up and leave so she can return home to her family, her nice and warm family. 

But it’s as she begins to rise, a face she had seen a lot of the past few weeks appeared at the restaurant entrance. This time it wasn’t just a static image on his profile but it was alive and moving, looking extremely stressed. 

Another reason Claire had chosen this man, is that he was obviously handsome and he was even better in the flesh, in his tuxedo and with his awkward smile as he spotted her. 

“Ah, Claire, nice to finally meet you,” Sandro said as he wobbled over towards her and offered his hand out to her.

A handshake really?

“You too.” Claire shyly responded as they shook hands and she was relieved she wasn’t the only one with nerves inside of her as his hand was shaking as they connected. 

They both awkwardly manoeuvred their way down to their chairs without breaking eye contact. “So er, my apologies I needed to settle my wife.” His accent is a funny one, he had clearly been in England for a long time but his voice would break upon reaching certain words.

“That’s okay.” 

Fuck this is awkward. 

“Your husband is okay?” 

God while we are both engaging in an affair, you’d think we would speak about anything other than our respective partners. 

“Yeah, my daughter is looking after her.” 

“What is her name?” 

“Ruby, she’s wonderful with him.” Claire knew he had two children, all of this information was available on his profile, but she had no idea about their names or age. “You have two children no?” 

“Yes, Marta she is a 10 and Pele he is 8.” 

Claire narrows her eyes as she feels like she has heard those names somewhere before. “Are they name after…. Rugby players?” She hazards a guess at. 

“Rugby players! You have just insulted 212 million people! Marta and Pele, two of the greatest female and male footballers in the history of the game! How can you not know?” He is laughing but he seems genuinely mythed at her lack of knowledge. 

“Sports? They have just never interested me?” Claire smirks as she takes a sip of her drink at his baffled face. 

“Seriously come on! I guess the website did a good job at putting people together with no hobbies and interests.” 

Claire smirked again at his comments as the algorithm of the website claimed to pair people up with as little in common in interests as possible, the reverse of most dating websites, with one of the website key tag lines ‘No Emotions’ 

There may be no emotions, but it can’t stop them from having a fun time together over a couple of drinks, he is very funny and his struggles with English sometimes, assist in his comedic timing. He seems to be kind also as he is insistent on paying for her taxi fee and paying more for the hotel room than he initially agreed, she is glad she is not doing this with some arsehole. 

But they both know why they are here, to relieve themselves of built-up sexual frustrations and then return home to their respective families. 

So they head up to the room and Sandro is awkwardly hovering over her as she puts the key card in. The door finally opens up and Claire places her purse on the side next to her bag that has her work clothes in it before she slowly turns around to Sandro taking in his appearance. 

“Okay…” She softly breathed as he took a few steps towards after shutting the door behind him. 

“Okay.” He repeated her words before he connected their lips. 

Not only was Roland the person to take her virginity, but he was also her first kiss, she remembers how nervous was when they shared their first kiss outside her house constantly worrying if she had gotten it right. So the taste of someone else on her lips is foreign to her at first, but she shuts her eyes and tries to focus on the pleasure that is slowly beginning to build at her core. His lips then move down to her neck which she rotates to give him more access “Is this okay?” He nervously asked. 

“Yes.” She breathes back.  

They make their way to the bed and he constantly reaffirms how beautiful she is as he presses kisses to her chest while he undresses her, exactly how she had imagined it. 

“Are you okay?” He asks again, this time as they are fully naked as she is towering over him, ready to take him inside of her. She makes sure to ask if he is okay also as she needs to remember that this is a double act and probably just as difficult for him as it is for her. He gives a light nod and she shuts her eyes before slowly sinking down onto him. 

There is no more asking if ‘you are okay’ from that point onwards, they both seem to have gotten the drill to why they are both here, orgasms. And my god does Claire orgasm, it had been so long since she had last had one, she has nearly forgotten what it feels like. Her whole body feels alive again as she and Sandro move as one, she feels electric. Well when Claire says ‘Sandro’ it could have been anyone beneath her as she keeps her eyes closed for virtually the entire time again just focusing on the pleasure she is getting out of this nothing more, nothing less. 

“Thank you for that,” Claire says as she climbs out of the bed as their panting for air comes to a close. 

“Are you going right now?” Sandro asks whilst throwing his head back onto the pillow. 

“If they are still up, they’ll be expecting me soon,” Claire says as she begins to put her work pants back on. “You can stay here until the morning obviously,” Claire notes how comfortable he looks. 

“Yeah, I think I might.” He says as he hugs one of the pillows like a big child and Claire narrows her eyes at him.

“Won’t your wife get suspicious?” 

Sandro takes in a deep breath before responding “Me and my wife our relationship can be-complicated.” Again Claire notes his struggles with the final word in the sentence and it brings a smile to her face as he really seemed to really concrete when approaching difficult words. 

“But you love her right?” 

There was no verbal response but a sincere nod instead and Claire believes him. 

“Right…..” Claire realises at this point the actual sex was fine, it was the hello’s and goodbyes that was the awkward part. “Thanks again, I’ll message you soon.” 

“I was good enough for second time?” He asks rather cheekily. 

“Yes Sandro, it was good.”

When Claire’s taxi pulls up outside her home she was reflecting on what had just happened. At 47 years old, Claire Matthews had just had sex with just the second different man in her life. She doesn’t feel as terrible as she thought she might, probably because it was satisfactory, just what she needed. Not terrible to the point where she isn’t satisfied but nowhere near as amazing as making love with Roland used to be. 

She feels like this routine can work as for once she is walking through the door with a smile on her face, not stressed and depressed at the situation she and her family have found herself in, for once there is cause for optimism. 

After making her way through the porch she spots her first obstacle, Baby is asleep outside Ruby’s room. She’s fast asleep and locked out of her room which could only mean one thing. 

Another secret Ruby thinks she has kept hidden from her mum is the ownership and location of a vibrator. 

Again Claire wasn’t going to pull her up on it to embarrass her, self pleasure is perfectly natural and people should feel free to express themselves in whatever way they want, it wasn’t really Claire’s cup of tea but if Ruby wanted to use one, Ruby wanted to use one. 

Right now though she is just focused on not waking Baby as she tiptoes across the hall. But as the sound of the vibrator gets louder the closer Claire got to Ruby’s door there was something different in her daughter’s moans from when she would usually enter the house late from work, there was a name constantly leaving her lips. 

“ Oh Otis.” Her voice was so incredibly soft. 

‘ Emotions’ Claire thinks to herself as she finally managed to get to her own room carefully shutting the door behind her slowly drowning out Ruby’s moans. By the tone of her daughter’s voice, she suspects emotions may have entered in what she suspected was just a casual hookup, something she couldn’t let enter into her own as her emotions were reserved for one man and one man only. 

“Hello, Darling,” Claire whispered as she joined him on the bed and a smile appeared on his as his eyes fluttered open ever so slightly. “I love you.” 

“I love you too.” 

The words are still as fresh and as meaningful as when they would whisper it down the phone to eachother back when they were teenagers. 

So they followed the routine they had created for the first time, Claire would get dressed her work clothes and get the taxi to the hotel, get changed, they would have a couple of drinks before heading upstairs, have sex and Claire would immediately leave. Expect the sex was getting better and better each time as they learned how their bodies reacted to one another and discovered the sweet spots. Claire’s favourite thing quickly becomes the sound of his Brazilian accent in her ear, especially when he would randomly switch to Portuguese, she had no idea what he was saying but it was hot as hell. The sex now was just as good- No She can't think that!

Gradually as they move through the months some things begin to change in their routines though. 

Like the goodbye kiss. 

“Right I better go, Ruby’s probably paying no attention to her father whatsoever.” 

“Why?” Sandro asked as Claire began to get dressed in front of her. 

“Oh she’s got a boyfriend and she’s all loved up at the minute.” 

“Ah, the young love.” 

“Yeah, he’s definitely not what I thought her type would be, he’s just so…….” There are several words floating around her head to describe Otis Milburn from the brief interactions they have had so far but one just doesn’t seem to stick.

“You know that phrase they say, sometimes it’s the people you never expect who turn out to be the one.” 

“Do they?” Claire narrows her eyes at him as she leans over to grab her phone and he nods his head. “Right, goodbye Sandro.” 

“Goodbye, Claire.” He repeats her tone before leaning in to press a soft kiss to her lips. 

As she pulls away from the kiss, she can’t describe why it was awkward, they kiss all of the time during sex and before it as a little precursor.

“Oh, I’m sorry? Should I have not-.” 

It’s probably because their conversation was so intimate and casual they were being and when they normally kiss it’s in a complete frenzy while they try and tare off each other's clothes. Everything about it should be wrong, it violated their agreement but Claire can’t deny that she had enjoyed the feeling. “No, it’s fine.” 

“Okay.” A small nervous appears on his face as this was the beginning of the ‘goodbye kiss’ every time they parted there would be a soft peck on the lips. 

Other violations of their agreement that were being made is that Claire would sometimes stay over the night at the hotel, she would tell herself that it was just because she was tired and she would tell Roland and Ruby she would be staying the night at Tracy’s but she knew deep down she enjoyed his company. That’s why they start having dinner before they head up to the hotel room and they would meet outside of their agreed hours for a coffee or a bite of lunch because he was kind and funny, she likes to think that had all of this not happened they would have become friends anyway. 

It’s a couple of weeks before Christmas and she’s found herself waiting around before the start of her shift so she agrees to meet Sandro for some coffee at the mall. 

Her favourite activity besides the sex with Sandro is him teaching her Portuguese, he was a very good teacher but Claire was a terrible student and could never quite get the pronunciations right that he would try and drill into her head but she would fail almost every single time which caused him to laugh at her. 

“Right, that’s enough for today professor.” She announced and she grabbed her bag and they shared a quick kiss. 

“You know we actually haven’t said goodbye yet, as I am going that way and you are going that way.” Sando followed her out of the Starbucks and pointed in each direction they would be heading. 

“What are you saying?” 

“That you should be giving me another kiss.” 

Claire smiled as she cupped his cheeks to share another kiss. She had gotten to the point where she had no anxieties about kissing Sandro in public, firstly because of how small her social circle was and secondly he was just a damn good kisser and she couldn’t resist. 

It’s as this thought passes through her head she notices something in the corner of his eye. A coat, a very distinctive coat that she would often see hung up as she entered the front door, her daughter’s boyfriend’s coat, Otis Milburn. She decides not to panic and she slowly closes off the kiss. “Goodbye.” She whispers 

“Goodbye.” He smiled and they walked in opposite directions, she is able to get a clear view and confirm that it was definitely him. 

Fuck

She doesn’t sleep at all that night as she tries to tell herself that he might have not seen her. But she was a tall fashionable woman kissing an attractive Brazilian man in public of course people are going to at least stare. 

“Are you okay honey, you’ve barely touched your breakie,” Roland says the next morning at the table. She’s waiting for Ruby to appear from her bedroom, it was unusual for her not to appear at least once at this time in the morning. Claire just imagines that she’s processing what Otis has almost certainly told her. 

“I-.” Claire begins to respond but stops herself at the sound of Ruby’s door opening and she can’t even bear herself to look up at her daughter. 

“Mum dad…” Well here we go, nearly 35 years of being together and it’s about to end right here. Claire finally decides to lift her head up and Ruby is stood in front of them all dressed up like she is about to go out. “I’m going to take Otis to see Charlotte.” 

“That’s great darlin, that really is.” And Roland would be right, it had been a long time since Ruby had visited the cemetery but right now Claire was smiling for a very different reason, she had got away with one.

Then when Ruby comes back from the cemetery and there is still no mention of her affair from her daughter, she knows there are two possibilities in play here. Firstly he just didn’t see her and Sandro, putting her in the clear or secondly he is struggling with what he saw and can’t bring himself to tell Ruby. 

She gets confirmation that it is the second of the two possibilities the next day when Otis turns up at her work asking for her, she definitely doesn’t see this as a problem as it was time for one of her special tricks, manipulation. 

There are some truths in their conversation about how her marriage to Roland had never been better but she is definitely taking advantage of this young boy in front of her by placing doubt in his mind about what could happen to Roland and his precious Ruby if she was to leave them on their own. She fluffs the money situation a little bit but she doesn’t think he notices but she definitely walks away from their little confrontation with the upper hand. 

It then surprises her that Otis has the balls to send her what he does for Christmas. 

‘Why you should always tell the truth’ 

What a smartarse. A children’s book honestly? 

She thinks that he could have been a little bit creative by sending her a dramatic novel about an affair that backfires on the person starting the affair. But a few hours later when Claire retires early for the night she opens the stupid little children’s book and begins to read and it quickly becomes apparent that Otis had been very creative in his choice of book. 

It’s a children’s book for the ages 1-3 to help them learn the most basic of words as well as giving them a little life lesson. So most of these children have spent their entire lives so far at home, so the book focuses on family dynamics within the household and the book features a mummy and daddy were dark hair and a young girl with dark hair, Fuck. Why Daddy lying is bad, why the kid lying is bad and most importantly why Mummy lying is bad. It all of a sudden starts getting to her, not just the contents within the book, but the feeling of holding a children’s book once again, she has memories flushing back to her from when she and Roland were huddled together with Ruby in front of the fire teaching her the most basic of words from books, was she really going to risk throwing away everything she had worked and built up just for the sake of being satisfied sexually. 

It then when it hits her that she wasn’t just doing it for the sex anymore, she was doing it because she was beginning to harbour feelings for Sandro. 

That makes her feel sick and that’s what makes the betrayal feel real to her now, she has to end it now right now. Her feelings had been reserved for one person and one person only nearly her whole life and that person was sharing a belly laugh with her daughter in the next room. 

Oh fuck what had she done?

Two days later she tells Sandro to meet her at the hotel for a talk. 

She waits at their usual table in the restaurant and she is so focused on what she wants to say and how she wants to end this after rehearsing it over and over again in her head beforehand. 

She doesn’t even fall for his charming smile as he approaches her table and remains emotionless as he plants a kiss on her cheek. 

“Right I’m just going to straight to the point Sandro I’ve had a lovely time with you, almost too lovely and that’s why this has to end. I love my husband more than anything in the world and I’m sure you love your wife more than anything also, so this has to stop. Look at us running around like little kids behind our partner’s backs while they are going through the most stressful thing imaginable don’t you just think we are being so selfish!” Despite all of her thoughts in the build-up, Claire does lose her head in the moment and gets lost in the emotion of what she wants to say but she still feels like she roughly got her point across. 

“I don’t love her more than anything.” Sandro manages to croak out with his head planted towards the floor. 

“What?” 

Sandro lifted his head back up to face Claire, taking in her shocked expression before speaking. “Before the diagnosis, she had an affair, we were going to have a divorce but I couldn’t leave the mother of my children like that.” 

In her preparation for this, she had gone through every single response he might have to her initial statement and this was definitely wasn’t one of them. “So what this wasn’t what you said it was when we started, it’s some kind of revenge plan?” 

Sandro was avoiding her eyes again as he prepared to reply. “Maybe, but it’s something different now and I know you feel the same.” 

Claire grabbed her bag and rose from her seat. “We’re done.” 

As she walked past him he grabbed her hand. “Claire, I love you.” 

She shook her head at him before she finally walked away. 

Upon reflection on how it ended, Claire knows she is equally to blame for what happened so she decides to compose a more calm response by text message which was more along the lines of what she wanted to say originally wanted to say and this is the text she shows to Otis at his new year’s party to show her relationship with Sandro was over. 

She accepts that Otis has absolutely no trust in her after what happened with Sandro but he needs to do what he needs to do to be sure that the relationship was over, that’s why she doesn’t pull him up on his obvious stalking of her firstly in the bushes and then in his car in the corner of the hospital car park. 

Eventually, after two months, Otis’ stalking begins to stop which is coincidentally around the time that she had finally moved on from Sandro. 

The electricity, the fire she felt when she was around leaves a big hole in her life but she keeps telling herself imagine the hole in your life if Ruby and Roland were no longer there, would it really be worth it all? 

He’s always in the back of her mind though, no matter how much she hates it she thinks about what would she say to him if she saw him around the next corner when she is out for a walk and she thinks about unblocking his phone number and discovering what he still thought of her. 

But apart from those minor niggles she is back into a more normal routine of her and Ruby assisting Roland in whatever way they can, it really is a joy to see Ruby so happy because of Otis and despite her early reservations and his understandable coldness towards her, she really does like him and she really enjoys spending time with his mother and her partner Jakob. 

Tonight she, Roland, Jean and Jakob are going for a meal together out of town while Otis and Ruby babysit Joy. 

It makes Claire shiver slightly when Jean chooses a restaurant in the town where Sandro lives as Jean has lived in Moordale all of her life and must have been in each restaurant a million and one times, Claire had been here since she was nineteen and had a similar feeling. 

“Well I for one am very happy that our kids are getting along so well,” Jean says once they are all finally settled at the table, finally because as ever it was a nightmare getting Roland out of his cab and then he and his walking stick were not a combination of speed. 

“Our?” Jakob says a little surprised. 

“Oh, you know what I mean, Otis likes you a lot more than he lets off you know,” Jean says turning directly towards him.  

“I wouldn’t say getting along, more like can’t keep their hands off eachother!” Roland said without a care in the world. 

“Roland!” Claire slapped him lightly with a napkin. 

“What? It’s true!” Roland replied and Jakob joined him in a small fit of laughter. 

They have a good night, mostly discussing the thing that brought them together, the relationship between ‘their’ two kids and how wedding plans can’t be that far away and then to more the real situation of the upcoming exam results and what the no too distant future held for them with Otis heading off to University. It isn’t all Otis and Ruby talk though, with Roland and Jakob reminiscing over Ireland and Sweden’s 1-1 draw at the 2016 European Championships, while Jean and Claire rolled their eyes at the partners whilst discussing how well Joy was developing. 

When their meals are done, Claire heads outside to make sure the mini cab they would be climbing into had its ramp down as it would be impossible for Roland to take the step up without any kind of serious pain being inflicted on him. 

“Yes, that’s it thank you,” Claire tells the driver before taking a step back and checking the time on her phone. 

“Hello, Claire.” 

Claire instantly feels her whole body shake to its core at the soft sound of a Brazilian accent that she had not heard for nearly eight months come from over her shoulder. 

“S-Sandro.” She is completely startled by his presence her mind instantly being taken back to everything they did together from August to December of last year. 

“How are you?” He’s surprisingly calm about the situation considering how she dealt with his rather sudden declaration of love when they broke it off the day after Boxing day. 

“I’m well, just out for a meal.” Claire nervously nods back towards the restaurant. 

“With Roland?” 

“Y-yes and erm- Ruby’s boyfriend’s parents, well one of them is his Swedish kind of father in law but still-.” Claire doesn’t think she’s ever been this nervous in her life, not even when she upset her father, not even her wedding day, not even from when she gave birth. She’s nearly 50 for christ sake and she’s almost shaking in the presence of this man thinking of all the intimate and special things they did together. 

“How is he, Roland?” It sounded odd hearing his name roll off his tongue it had always been ‘your husband’ when they were together. 

“Fine, how’s Rosie?” She decides to name his wife by name for the first time. 

“She died.” 

It’s how sudden and casual he is in his delivery that makes it all the more difficult for her to find the right words to respond with. It had always been her that the tragedy struck upon in her life and she had never been in this situation before. “Oh my, Sandro I’m so sorry.”

Sandro nodded along to her words as he shoved his hands into his pockets whilst looking at the concrete floor. “Six months ago, It got her, it got her.” 

“How are the kids?” Poor poor things. 

“What do you think?” 

Of course Claire, stupid, stupid question. “I’m so sorry Sandro.” 

Sandro nodded back at her before a grunting Irish man was heard to their left as Jean held the restaurant door open for him and Jakob who was guiding him as well as his walking stick. 

“I’ll see you, Claire.” Sandro smiled before walking away to wherever he was originally heading. 

All the way on the car journey home her head is ringing of just one name ‘Sandro, Sandro, Sandro’ A similar situation from the final month of their affair when she was unaware to herself that she was starting to gain more personal feelings towards him. 

Even when she and Roland get settled into bed her mind is back into the bedroom of the hotel they always stayed in. 

“Argh what a night, you do think Rubes is going to be alright when he goes off to university don’t you? Claire?” Roland has to say his wife's name as she doesn’t respond initially. 

“Yeah.” Claire breathes as she stares up at the ceiling. 

“Oh, are you tired are you? Imagine how I feel with that blooming cane!” Again there is no response from his wife. “Alright, goodnight darlin.” 

“Good night.” 

Claire wakes until Roland’s snore fills up the room before grabbing her phone and finally unblocking Sandro’s number. 

-I really am sorry Sandro and I hope you and the kids are okay x 

Sandro: Come and meet me tomorrow x 

So she does, not at the hotel, not at a coffee shop but at his home. 

She feels like she’s 14 again when she was knocking on Roland’s door for the first time, a bag of nerves with her heart racing at 100mph. 

The door is opened by someone who must have only been a few years away from 14 herself. “Dad???” The young girl called out as she stared her up and down. 

Claire clutched tightly to her bag as she stared back. Then Sandro appeared placing his hands onto his daughter’s shoulder and a smile full of relief creeping onto his face. “Claire?” 

“Hi.” 

For a few moments, they both took in each other’s appearance still not quite believing that each of them was really where they were. 

“Come in, come in.” Sandro ushered her inside and led her through to his kitchen. “Marta, Pele, meet my- friend Claire, Claire this is my children, Marta and Pele.” 

Marta smiled weakly at her while Pele let off one big “HELLO!” His energy was similar to his fathers, bumbling and full of life hello. “We are doing some colouring would you like to join in?” 

“Yeah, yeah I would.” 

Sandro smiled as he watched Claire place her bag on the side and join his children on the table. 

And that’s what their day consists of various social activities with the kids, starting off with colouring into taking their dog on a walk, to playing football in the back garden which allows Sandro to laugh at her as she in her heels stands in goal getting the ball blasted at her by the kids with her pathetic cries for help.

“More kids, more!” 

The kids themselves are an absolute joy, as she mentioned Pele has bundles and bundles of energy and Claire wonders just how Sandro manages to get him to sleep at night unless he had some kind of ‘off’ switch. The older of the two Marta is much more colder and reserved, her mum had died six months ago and she was probably confused as to why her dad was inviting strange women around to the house but Claire feels like she gets a smile out of her when they are playing football. 

Eventually, Claire has to stop getting the ball blasted at her and sits down with Sandro on the decking as they both watch the kids continuing to play. “Have fun there?” Sandro smirked as she joined him. 

“Absolutely not! What are they like future premier league footballers?” 

“Yeah, something like that.” Sandro took a sip of his drink and smiled as he watched his kids continue to run around in the distance. 

“They are lovely Sandro, I had a lovely time” Claire turns to him as the sincere words leave her mouth.

“You have to go? You cannon’t stay for tea?” 

Claire sighs before responding “No, they will be expecting me back soon.” 

Sandro nodded back at her before a smirk appears on his face “But it was good enough for second time?” He tries his best to remember the words from their first night together. 

“Yeah, it was.” Claire smiled back at him and their eyes locked on to one another with an understanding about what was about to happen next. Sandro lightly cupped her jaw and brought her in for a slow kiss. 

When she pulled her lips away, she rested her forehead onto his and whispered. “I have to go now.” 

“Okay.” Sandro nodded and led her out to the door. They shared another kiss at the door and as soon as she disappeared out of it and Sandro shut it behind her his kids were standing there waiting for him. 

“Is she your girlfriend dad?” Marta asked with the ball still gripped by her arms. 

“What? What? No! No!” Sandro pretty much jumped out of his skin as his kids ambushed him. 

“Dad, we just want you to be happy.” His kids had calmed one of his biggest fears about how would they feel about him trying to move on from their mother so soon.

“No, she isn’t my girlfriend.” 

“But you want her to be your girlfriend?”

“Yes… yes I do.” 

So just as one routine started in August of 2019, another starts in August of 2020. Most weekends and some nights during the week Claire will try and head up to Sandro’s house to spend time with him and the kids and when they go back to school, sex is brought back into the routine and it’s just as stunning from when they left off and she doesn't even kid herself this time, it was ten times more spectacular than anything she and Roland did together.

The difference is this time is that Claire knows she is doing wrong but the feeling is too good to let go of. It’s a total escape from the stresses of back home, not having to worry about Roland every five minutes or Ruby’s job frustration. She’s happy and feels fulfilled again. 

Ruby does find herself a job in modelling and it’s when she comes back from a shoot one day asking her and Roland if they wanted to come to Joy’s birthday party, she shuts it down immediately as she knows that she and Sandro are taking the kids to the cinema at the weekend. 

Then Roland gets all soppy about their past together. 

“I know but don’t pretend that me and you weren’t like that, late nights on the phone because your dad hated me.”

“I know honey, I know….”

Claire knows she’s in trouble now because she doesn’t feel anything when Roland brings up what was supposed to be a very sensitive and precious memory between them, her mind goes elsewhere.  

She tries to get this across to Sandro when they lie in bed together but she cannot be prepared for the proposition he offers her. 

“I shouldn’t be here.” Is how she begins once they both get their breath back.

“Then why are you here?” Sandro leans over and presses kisses to her neck and she groans softly at his touch. “But I agree with you.” 

“What?” Claire rolls over to face him as she is shaken by his words. 

“I don’t want to be here either.” 

“What do you mean?” Claire asks as she further narrows her eyes at him. 

Sandro jumps up from the pillow, repositioning himself so he is sat up straight. “I’m going to take the kids back to Brazil next month.” 

“Oh for Christmas, I bet they will love to see their grandma again.” Claire smiled at him as her face remained resting against the pillow, she had heard several funny stories about Sandro’s mother. 

“No, for good.” 

Oh….

Sandro began to lean over to his bedside drawers to retrieve a brown envelope, inside there was tickets, plane tickets. “I have done you the courtesy of booking you on our flight, if you want to come with us, Claire Matthews?” 

“Oh.” She says aloud this time, with a stutter and a shake in her voice.

“I don’t expect you to answer now, but just think about it please.” He says softly as he places the tickets onto her chest.

She does think about it, virtually every second of every day up until the day of the flight. She was happy with the way things were, she could live her double life picking up the satisfactions she received from each on a daily basis. Now she had to choose between them both, knowing that she could never go back to the one she would leave behind, the comfort and familiarity of home with Roland and Ruby or the excitement and thrill of Rio De Jeranrio with Sandro and his kids. 

She does his best to try and convince him to stay but she knows it’s a lost cause as that’s where all of his family are, who haven’t seen him and the kids in a long time and he desperately wants to introduce her to them. 

Even though she doesn’t decide yet what she want’s to do, she definitely prepares for it, from her work resignation, a letter she is going to leave behind for Roland and Ruby explaining everything that had happened and her thought process. She also packs her stuff and leaves it in the spare room, in any normal house this would be a terrible hiding spot, but this wasn’t a normal house and they weren’t a normal family. Roland would have been unable to make it through the door unaided and Ruby still wouldn’t dare go in as it was still ‘Charlotte’s room’ to her. 

When the early hours on the Thursday morning of the day of the flight and Claire’s two sides of her brain were still in conflict with one another as she stood in the hallway with the door to her’s and Roland’s bedroom wide open, thinking about the 35 years of love and comfort she was about to leave behind.

For Ruby sleeping on a Wednesday night was one of the best feelings in the world as she knew that Otis would be back in her arms by tomorrow. 

She clutches onto her bed sheets as she has a dream about her and Otis skipping through a field hand in hand and for some reason Baby has mastered the art of cartwheeling over the top of their joined hands, it’s weird but that’s okay, she likes weird. 

A problem with sleeping on a Wednesday night though is that Ruby constantly wakes up due to the excitement of the Thursday ahead. It’s annoying this time as she had to get up at six to drive to a shoot, so she needed all the rest she could get and she was quite enjoying her strange dream. 

When she wakes, she grabs her phone to check the time ‘3:37 AM’ Ugh still hours away. She knows she is awake now and she knows she is extremely thirsty. So Ruby reaches for her water bottle that rested next to a picture of Otis on her bedside table. And yeah of course it’s empty. 

Ruby lies there for a few more minutes before she plucks up enough strength to rise her from her bed, she shushes Baby on her way out whilst squinting her eyes. When she crept open her door she is greeted by her mother fully dressed in the hallway like she was heading out somewhere, she also jumped out of her skin in the same way Ruby would when her mother would catch her sneak stealing chocolate out of the fridge in the middle of the night when she was younger. 

“Mum….?” Ruby’s sleepy voice managed to croak out. 

“Jesus Ruby! You scared me.” 

“What the hell are you doing up?” Ruby squinted her eyes as she was struggling to make out some of the details on her mother’s face in the dark. 

“Oh, your Aunt Tracy has had a row with Lesley again, I’m going to go up and see her.” 

“Oh okay, is she going to be alright?” Ruby asked as she attempted to navigate her way through the darkness and into the kitchen to get a little sip of water.

“Yeah, she’s going to be fine darling.” Claire paused for a brief moment before speaking again. “What are you doing up? Excited to see Otis again today?” 

“Yeah…” Ruby said back softly whilst smiling to herself as the tap began to run. 

“Honey what would you do if you never got to see Otis again?” 

“I’d be heartbroken naturally, it’s nearly 4 in the morning mum what is it with all the deep fucking questions? Are you planning on murdering him or something?” Despite her lack of sleep and the inability to open her eyes fully Ruby was still her snarky self. “I understand he’s quite annoying almost all of the time, but please do refrain from killing him please.” 

“I'll try not to, good night darling.” Claire says as Ruby goes back past her and straight for her door. 

“Good night mum.” 

“I-.” Ruby can hear her mum begin to say something but she’s just so fucking tired and after her little refresher she just wants to dive back on the sheets again so she shuts the door behind her. 

So Ruby goes back to sleep and her alarm wakes just over two hours later. While she was terribly excited to see Otis again he would be very much be relegated to the bench this week as Olivia had got some time away from University this weekend so the Untouchables had organised several activities to take advantage of this rare occasion. Besides, she would have Otis all to herself at the upcoming Christmas break for two whole weeks but even then she imagines it would be taken up with lots of wedding planning. 

That god damn wedding really had swept the whole town up and had even ended up in the Moordale Gazette. 

‘Sex Therpiast To Marry Again!” 

It really did show how sad and pathetic this town was that a nearly 50-year-old woman getting married was somehow headline news. It did give Ruby an opportunity to laugh at Otis as he was referred to in the paper as ‘Oshis Milburn’

All of the wedding talk had made Ruby think about how one day she’d like to marry Otis. She knows that they were just 19 and 18 respectively and only just over a year together but she couldn’t help let the thoughts creep into her head. She’d even had a dream about it overlooking the Italian Riviera and her dad had now problems walking her down the aisle, she looked immaculate as did he as it looked like he had finally gotten a new suit. Eric and Olivia were best man and maid of honour respectively, it was the perfect day. She tells herself it was stupid though, her mum and dad had waited 15 years of being together to get married, she’d heard all about the Ice rink date about a million times over and she thinks she would like to take Otis there this Christmas for a little date. 

Ruby was always looking for a reason to compare her and Otis relationship, to her mum and dad’s one but the fact is they were nothing alike. Ruby was always the hot and popular girl, while her mother became that slowly overtime when she and Roland had already been an item for a while. Otis was an outsider because of his lack of social skills and geeky interests, while her dad was an outcast due to his nationality and family rumours. The way they had gotten together was different, her mum and dad was a long drawn out courting process, while she and Otis were in an alcoholic rage of fire and fury as she dragged him upstairs to his bedroom, followed by 3 months of none stop shagging in her car. 

Again Ruby gets sidetracked by the whole marriage thing as she thinks back to last week when Otis was dancing around the kitchen like an idiot whilst singing ‘Every little thing she does is magic’ by the police and how he would hum over the lyrics ’ And ask her if she'll marry me in Some old-fashioned way’ As she thought it was a very stupid line of thinking from her they were still only teenagers. 

The memory of her boyfriend dancing like a dork does bring a smile to her face though as she climbs out of bed and heads to the door, that smile is quickly replaced though when she spots a letter on the table where he mother was stood in the early hours of this morning. 

To My Roland and My Ruby

-Out of lecture heading to the station x 

-On train. See you soon xx ❤️

Otis sends over his usual texts as he hops back on the train back home to Moordale for the weekend. He does think it a little odd that he had received no texts from Ruby all-day, he knew that she had a shoot for most of the day and there is always the possibility it could have been quite hectic which means they were probably going to be going straight to sleep when they got home, which Otis really doesn’t mind as he might get to be big spoon for once. 

But as soon as his train pulls up he does receive a text from his girlfriend. 

Rubes❤️: Your mum is picking you up. Come and see me early tomorrow

Otis smirks at her message which is devoid of any of the usual kisses or love heart emojis, he wonders what sort of game she is playing with him. 

But the next morning after a giddy sleep and ‘quick’ drive over to Ruby’s and he sees a police car outside, he knows Ruby isn’t messing around. 

Otis doesn’t even lock his car door as he sprints over to the Matthews’ porch and then almost breaks the door down, he comes through with so much speed. 

“Ruby! Ruby!” He’s panting as he enters, he spots Roland right through to the living room who is talking to one officer while the other, who was the same officer back at Maeve’s house when her sister went missing is writing down some notes. 

“Who is that?” 

“That’s the boyfriend.” 

The officer’s whispers to each other but Otis is just concerned about one thing. “Where is Ruby?” He asks desperately but the officers just continue their discussion. 

“Should we talk to him also?” 

Thankfully for Otis’ heart rate, Ruby’s bedroom door slowly creeps open and she timidly appears from the other side, Otis breathes a sigh of relief but moves straight back to worrying again as he can tell that she’s been crying. 

“I’ll do the questioning first, officer,” Ruby says before turning towards her boyfriend “You in here, now.” She glares at him before she directs her head towards her bedroom. 

For Otis, it does feel a little bit like a police integration as she orders him to sit at the end of the bed while she positions herself at the top, grabbing her first piece of evidence. A children’s book, a yellow children’s book titled ‘Why you should always tell the truth’ Oh shit…

“How much did you know?” An emotional Ruby waved the book in the air leaving Otis dumbstruck. “And don’t bullshit me Otis! She left a fucking letter.” 

“R-uby I don’t understand what’s happened?” 

Ruby almost laughed through the tears.”Oh, you don’t know do you? Well my mum- s-she’s left us, the police are telling us she’s landed in Rio fucking De Janerio, so don’t fucking bullshit me Otis, what did you fucking know?”

Otis had to take a few seconds to compose himself as they had little squabbles before but never had he hurt her. He wanted to do nothing more to reach over to hug her and tell her it was going to be okay but it was quite clear that a lot of her anger was rightfully being directed towards him. “I- I knew your mum was having an affair with this man, I didn’t know his name I saw them together once, but she told me it was over and-.”

“Well, it obviously fucking wasn’t was it genius!” Ruby flicked her eyes over to the door where her dad and the police were. “Why didn’t you tell me?” Ruby asked a lot more softly as she turned her eyes back towards him. 

“I-, she, she blackmailed me, trying to tell me what would happen to you and your dad and we had only been dating for a few months and I didn’t-.” 

“Oh, so you were thinking of yourself!” Again Ruby laughed through the tear. 

“No-.” 

“You need to go.” She cut him off again as she sniffled. 

“Do you mean go now or go for good?”

Ruby just shook her head at him. “Just fucking go Otis.” 

“Ruby-.” Otis tried to lean over to touch her hands but he was stopped by the sound of her voice cutting him off again. 

“Just fucking go Otis!” 

Otis was now fighting back his own tears as he looked Ruby in the eyes one last time before grabbing his coat and leaving, he took one last glimpse at her and as he did, he took notice of the book on the side. 

‘Why You Should Always Tell The Truth’ 

A book that he had bought for her cheating mother to read, but perhaps all along it was meant for him.

Chapter Text

So her sister was dead, her dad had a neurological disease, her mum had flown off to a totally different country with a random man and she had just told her boyfriend to scatter. 

Ruby had felt low before, but nothing compared to the feeling she felt right now. She needed Otis' warmth and comfort now more than ever but he was part of the problem. 

He was a lying little dickhead. 

Someone she had been so open and honest with, in a way she never thought she was capable of doing with anyone, period. 

But he couldn’t tell her something as important that, something that would change her life forever. 

So she takes a brave step the night she sends Otis away, she texts Olivia and Anwar her address and they come over to her house. 

They had been planning this weekend when they would all be back at Moordale for about two months now and she doesn’t think this is exactly what they had in mind when they came as they checked out her scabby walls as they entered. But once they see the tears on Ruby’s face, they know how serious this was, except when they had been drunk over the toilet a couple of times they had never seen Ruby cry before. 

Ruby tells them everything, all the way from her Dad’s MS to finding the letter yesterday morning. It feels good to get it all out, she knows Otis had been quietly pushing her in the direction of opening up to her best friends, what she didn’t know is that it would take her cheating mother to throw her off the edge to do so.

Olivia and Anwar do what they do best and that’s insult, constantly throwing out comments about her mother, this random Brazilian guy and Otis. She tries to get them to refrain from insulting Otis as he is the only one she has a little bit ofself-respect left for but she knows her best friends have always had a dislike for Otis, so if this was an opportunity to beat him with a stick they were going to take it. 

They aren’t the best at comfort talk but she knows they are trying their best so she appreciates it as she knows she would be equally shit at this if not worse if she had to comfort them. 

She doesn’t know how long they are there for, it could have been ten minutes or just over an hour as she loses track of time over the next couple of days.  

Ruby finds the ability to sleep when she should be doing, impossible as she is either crying into her pillow or staring into the abyss with her head angled up towards the ceiling. So her sleeping pattern is all over the place as she will only drift off when it is physically impossible for her eyes to stay open as her head is spinning with thoughts about what had happened 24/7.

The only time she does keep track of time is when Otis tries to reconnect with her. 

It’s the day after she sent him away and he knocks at her window. 

“Ruby, I know you hate me and I don’t expect to be forgiven but I just want to make sure you are okay.” 

She doesn’t hate him, it would be so much easier if she did. 

“Look I don’t want to be one of those people who bangs on the door twenty times, so I’m going to count to two minutes and then I’ll leave.” He says from the other side of the window, the curtains are firmly shut so he can’t see her as she rests her head against the wardrobe while she is sitting on the floor.

Ruby looks up at the clock and waits for the two minutes to pass and as if he knew exactly by the millisecond he spoke again when the two minutes were up. “Okay, I understand. I’m going to go now but I’m always here if you need me- well not hanging outside your window that would be creepy, just call me- if you want to, of course, I- love you, Ruby.”

Her heart completely melts at his final remark especially with his little stutter coming into play. Part of her wants to drag him inside and tell him to hold her and never let go, the other part never wants to look him in the eye ever again. 

She sobs more as she hears his footsteps head away and back out of her garden. 

Her dad doesn’t really move, just stays rooted to her chair and just keeps the news channel on and then switches it over when the football is on. He doesn’t even cheer when United score, just sits there in his trance like state. This breaks Ruby’s heart even more as even with his MS he could still cheer on his favourite team in the exact same way he did before. 

Sometimes he’ll even sleep in the chair unless he asks Ruby to help him to bed which is the only communication they ever really have. Even when she makes his meals, she’ll know what he wants and she’ll put it in front of him. 

She understands or at least she tries to understand as whatever pain Ruby felt right now, it must have been a million times worse for her father. 

After a week of doing literally nothing, Ruby starts back working and looking for shoots. She needs to find the right balance of being there for her dad and bringing money into the house as she was now the sole income provider for the house by the government grants that she and her dad both received. It ends up being around the same amount of work she was doing anyway just spread out over a full week as she wasn’t going to be spending time with Otis anymore. 

By her own calculations she had enough to pay for the food and bills, she just wouldn’t be getting herself a new pair of heels for a while and would have to relax on the Christmas presents, not like she would be getting her moth-, No selfish bitch, she was being referred to as selfish bitch from now on, not like she would be getting the selfish bitch a present. 

That makes her think as she stares up at the ceiling again, all those times the selfish bitch said she was taking extra shifts to help the family out she was actually riding on some fucking Brazilian guys dick, all those ‘late nights’, all those stay over at Tracy’s, Tracy. 

Was she in on this shit too? What was one of the last things she said to her that morning she left?

“Oh, your Aunt Tracy has had a row with Lesley again, I’m going to go up and see her.” 

Or also known as “need to catch my ten o’clock flight to Rio De Jenario.” 

“I’m going out!” Ruby grabs one of her many coats and heads for the door. It’s the first time she’s been out of the house that hasn’t been for work or walking Baby. She doesn’t get into her car, she wants to walk despite the distance to Tracey’s house, she wants to feel the cold December wind attacking her exposed legs, she just wants to feel something. 

Because of her odd sleeping pattern and the fact that is a cold December night, it could range between 4 o’clock or midnight, but as she walks through the night sky Ruby couldn’t care less about what fucking time it was, all she was focused on was how hard she was going to hit this bitches door. 

And she does hit it hard, probably too hard, hard enough to the point that Tracey may think a robbery is about taking place. Tracy takes the tiniest peak out of her window but her expression softness when she realises it’s Ruby. 

Ruby sighs as she waits for her to answer, At least I don’t have to call her Aunt Tracey anymore, She wasn’t even her fucking aunt, she was just the selfish bitches friend and Ruby was about to find out how much of a friend she was.

“Ohhh, Ruby.” Tracey cooed at her as this was the first time she had seen her since it had all happened. 

But there was no cooing or soppy shit from Ruby as stomped through the front door and grabbed Tracey by her jacket. 

“What- Ruby!” Tracey squealed in reaction to Ruby gripping her. 

In all her years of anger, aggression and insults, Ruby had never been one for physical violence despite her constant threats of it, but now maybe still wasn’t the time, she was just going to give her a little freight. 

“What did you know! Don’t bullshit me, Tracey, she was all ‘oh I’m staying at Tracey’s tonight’ were you in on it? Huh?” Ruby was using her voice to full effect, so much so spit was flying onto Tracey’s face. 

“I-I didn’t know anything Ruby I’m just as shocked as you are I swear-” The shaky and panicky voice of Tracey was replaced with a large bellow behind them.  

“RUBY! RUBY!” 

Ruby knew exactly whose voice it was, she was still gripping Tracey by her jacket and this sound of the voice made her let go, not because she was afraid of what the person might do to her but she was afraid of what the person might think of her. 

“Ruby, what’s going on?” Adam Groff in a dark tracksuit and with a  big red bag strapped over his shoulder came running over towards her. Ruby knew Tracey’s and Adam’s house were separated by only a five-minute walk so he must have been on his way home from wherever he had been. 

“I-I-.” Ruby for once found herself speechless, this must-have looked terrible, her banging on this women's door and then pinning her up against the walls of her own home. 

“It’s fine, it’s fine really,” Tracey said softly, forgiving Ruby as she could only imagine the hurt she was going through right now. “I had no idea Ruby, I’m so sorry.” 

Ruby just slowly nodded in response before walking back down the driveway.

Adam awkwardly looked back and forth between Ruby and this random woman who looked like she was about to meet her certain death at the hands of Ruby. After this weird exchange, Adam jogged after Ruby down the driveway. “What the hell, was that all about?” 

“It was nothing Adam.” Ruby groaned as Adam joined her side. 

“Didn’t look like nothing,” Adam replied as his eyes flicked back towards the house he and Ruby had just left. 

Ruby sighed as she stopped in her tracks, so she and Adam were looking at one another face to face. “Okay. My dad has this disease, called MS, it means he struggles to walk or even move really, he has bowel problems and about a million other things that have totally fucked him over. My mum, or the selfish bitch as I’m now calling her, decided that this would be the perfect time to have an affair. And Otis knew about it and for some reason, he couldn’t bring himself to tell me, now my mum has fucked off to Brazil with this rando and I’m a mess Adam, I’m a mess.” 

Ruby is really surprised about how easy the words leave her mouth. When she was forced to tell Otis about her dad’s MS, she was very articulate and careful with what words she used. When she told Olivia and Anwar nearly two weeks ago now, she was bubbling through every single word. This time with Adam she just gets it all out in one go, probably because she is angry and still living off the adrenaline of what she nearly did to Tracey. 

“That’s a lot of information for me to take in.” 

Ruby nodded back towards Adam who still had his eyebrows narrowed as he continued to process what he had just heard. “Adam you don’t have to say any-” 

Ruby was cut off by Adam swooping down to hug her. They had hugged several times before, awkwardly when she sat on his couch as he cried whilst struggling to move on from Eric, then again in the middle of the school when Adam failed his exams, again it was really awkward. This one also fell into this category, but mostly by how sudden it was and of course this time for the first it was Adam who was comforting Ruby. Adam’s version of comfort was odd, he seemed to squeeze Ruby as hard as humanly possible to the point to where it was hurting Ruby, she winced and Adam took note of this and he moved his hands back to the point to where he wasn’t really hugging her at all, with his arms awkwardly loitering over her back and his head still buried on top of his shoulder. 

Again Ruby lost track of time and didn’t realise how long they were like this but eventually, they awkwardly pulled out of the hug and it was Adam who spoke first. “I mean that’s terrible but you didn’t tell me why you were about to kill that nice lady.” 

“Oh, well that was my mu- the selfish bitches best friend, it’s where she claimed she was sometimes, while she was doing what she did. I was making sure she wasn’t involved, at least one person was telling me the truth it seems…..” Ruby trailed off. 

“So you’re pretty pissed off?” 

“Very.” 

“We’ll do you want to-.” Adam began before Ruby cut him off. 

“Let me guess, you are going to ask me to smash some shit?” 

“No-wait-” Adam stopped himself as he further narrowed his eyes at his friend. “How did you know about that?”

“Well obviously you showed Ola, then she showed Liv, Aimee and a few others and they smashed shit up in this feminist induced rage or some shit like that, then Liv told me obviously.” 

Despite the information being spelt out for him, Adam’s narrowed eyes remained. “Feminism, huh. Would you say I inspired a social movement?” 

Now Ruby was heavily narrowing her eyes back towards Adam. “What?” Adam was just so…… Adam at times.

“It was a question in a job interview for the carphone warehouse, I didn’t really understand that part, to be honest….” 

For the first time in a while, a smile appeared on Ruby’s face “You can say what you want Adam.” And after Ruby’s comment, a proud smile crept onto Adam’s face. “Now, are we going to smash some shit? Because I could really do with that right now.” 

“Not quite.” 

“Huh?” 

“I was wondering, do you wanna go and punch some shit?”

So Adam walks Ruby through the dark sky to a gym, a boxing gym. 

Adam held the door open for her and they stepped inside. There was a young blonde woman at the desk and judging by the look on her face Ruby can only imagine that girls in skirts in December don’t often come through the door. However, her expression seemed to soften when Adam walked in behind her. 

“Did you forget something in your locker again?” 

“Probably but I’m here to take this one on the bag.” 

This one? 

“Fair enough.” The girl raised her eyebrows before pressing a buzzer that gave them access to a door on her right. 

Again Adam held the door open for her to reveal a room full of men and women sweating their arses off as they ley into punching bags, pads and even eachother in a couple of boxing rings at the back. 

“Alright, Adam!” 

“Oh, you’re back mate!” 

There was plenty of warm smiles and calls over to Adam as they walked through the gym followed by a couple of narrowed eyes as they noticed Ruby. 

“How long have you been coming here?” 

“The day after the exam results. Oh here we go!” Adam spotted a free punching bag and he directed Ruby over towards it. “Right let me go and get you some gloves, don’t think mine will fit you.” 

Ruby loitered over the heavy bag as she watched Adam disappear to go and fetch her some gloves. As he walked over, he shared handshakes, warm smiles and embraces with at least six or seven people. It confused the hell out of Ruby as it was all just so…… Normal. 

She loved hanging out with Adam she really did, but just as she was, she could tell he wasn’t always entirely in his comfort zone and in any other social situation Adam would always look hideously lost. But here Adam seemed, warm, happy and at home. 

“Right here we go.” Adam reproached and he offered out a pair of gloves to Ruby “Oh wrong way round.” Adam said as he switched the gloves around. “Are you right or left-handed?” 

“Right.” 

“Okay so put your left foot in front of your right one and then extend your left hand out, that’s the jab, you use that one to set up the power punch with your right.” Adam shadowed the instructions with his feet and hands next to her for Ruby to follow. “So start with the jab, the left hand. Just hit that straight at the bag a couple of times.” 

So Ruby followed his instructions and threw a couple of straight jabs at the bag which was barely moving. She felt so weak and pathetic but Adam kept encouraging her. 

“That’s good, Ruby.” 

“Couple more.” 

“Now throw the right!” 

So Ruby did, throwing all the force she had into one big right hand and the bag wabbled a little. “God I feel like an idiot.” She said her thoughts aloud this time around. 

“No Ruby that was good! Let’s just do it a couple more times.” 

So she did. Jab. Jab. Jab. Punch. Jab. Jab. Jab. Punch. Jab. Jab. Jab. Punch.

All of this with Adam teaching her proper boxing and all but she wasn’t getting what she wanted out of this. “Can’t I just fucking whack it?” 

Adam smirked back at her. “Yeah, I don’t see why not.” 

So Ruby began to build up all that was spinning around her head. 

Her dead sister 

Her dad’s illness 

Her lying boyfriend 

And that selfish fucking bitch!

Ruby just began throwing left and right hands into the heavy bag, there was no skill or aim, she just wanted to hit this bag with everything she had. Ruby roared as she threw each punch until she had nothing left. 

Adam managed to catch the bag in his hands as it was swinging around wildly from how hard Ruby was hitting it. “Did you enjoy that?” 

Ruby had only hit the bag for around 15-20 seconds but she was shattered by the effort and was struggling to get her breath back. As her breath was returning back she looked up to Adam and smiled “Yeah.” 

They both began to laugh at one another. Laughing. Ruby Matthews was laughing for the first time in nearly two weeks. 

“What have we got here then, the comedy club?” A  rather large man with a strong cockney accent appeared over them. 

Adam’s laughter returned into a more relaxed smile. “You okay Ray?” 

“Yeah.” The pair engaged in a handshake. 

“Erm, Ruby this is Raymond Franklin, gym owner, Raymond this is Ruby.” Adam did the introducing and Ruby and Raymond shared a fistbump with Ruby still wearing the gloves Adam had given to her. 

“Alright, Love, whose got you wound up?” Ray asked as he nodded towards the punching bag. 

I ain’t your fucking love. Ruby thinks but she decides not to cause a scene as she didn’t want to get Adam into any trouble. “Some lying bitch and my boyfriend.” Rubys replies truthfully as she is still steadying her breathing. 

“What’s our Adam done wrong?” 

“Oh god no!” 

“No, we are not, she’s just my friend.”

Ruby and Adam frantically tried to stress to Ray. 

“Is that what they say these days ey?” Ray says as he chuckles to himself. 

Great what was it about people in Adams life thinking they were a couple, hopefully, this saga is as drawn out as it was with his mum. 

“Okay, definitely not Adam’s girlfriend Ruby, that was some impressive power you showed there, let’s get you in the ring.” 

What…...

It wasn’t a joke either, Ruby Matthews was sat down having her hands wrapped by this Raymond guy before stepping into the ring in her green dress and black crop top for what had been described as a ‘light spar’. 

“So which girl am I fighting?” Ruby asked as she looked around at the other girls in the room.

“Oh you aren’t fighting any of girls we are getting you in with one of the softer lot, you’re getting in with Clarky.” Raymond nodded over to where Adam and two others were sharing a joke. “Clarky’s the big bastard.” He added on. ‘Big Bastard’ was quite an understatement, ‘Clarky’ made Adam look a dwarf and was probably the biggest person she had ever seen. “Decorated national Amauter, hoping to make the England squad for the 2022 Commonwealth Games, don’t worry if he probably touches you, he’ll have me to answer to.” Ray offered a reassuring smile. 

While this whole thing was just a little bit of a mess around, Ruby was anything but reassured as she was certain if this guy accidentally stepped on her toe she is pretty sure her entire foot would split in half. 

So once her hands are done, Adam supplies Ruby with a gumshield and puts a head guard on her. “Remember what I said-.”

“Jab. Jab. Jab. Punch. Yeah, I know.” Ruby grits through the gumshield

“And remember use your size to your advantage, run around like a little hobbit.” 

Ruby understood that reference as Lord of The Rings was one of the very first nerd things Otis introduced her to in the first week of their relationship. “Don’t call me a fucking hobbit.” 

Before Adam could respond, he had to spin her around as the bell had rung for their 1 round spar.

Oh god, what was she doing? 

She had accepted because Ruby always thought of herself as fearless, but right now she was shitting herself even as he charged towards her just faking throwing any actual punches. 

“Come on Clakry!” There was a little bit of a crowd that had formed around the ring with only the voices of Adam and Ray cheering her on. 

Ruby pathetically throws a punch towards his direction and it doesn’t land anywhere near her and ‘Clarky’ laughs as he just continues to hold his guard and stalk her around the ring.

Over some of the giggles, Ruby can hear Adam shout from her corner. “Ruby! Remember!” 

So Ruby steps in, closing the distance between them so she can throw three jabs into his chest and then she jumps up (Which she is 99% no 96.5% certain is illegal in boxing) and puts everything into her right-hand punch. She manages to find the gap in between his guard, he isn’t wearing any protective headgear, so she still doesn’t think it will do any damage, especially with her pathetic punching style. But Ruby get’s the fright of her life when the 6ft 5+? Giant begins to fall in front of her and it’s the floor, hard. 

Adam, Ray and everyone else who was watching rushed in the ring to kneel over Clarky. 

“He’s knocked out!” Someone says who waved her hands over his eyes

Oh my god.

“He’s not breathing!” Someone says who checked his pulse.

Oh my fucking god.

“I think she’s killed him!”

Her sister was dead, her dad had a neurological disease, her m- the selfish bitch had flown off to a totally different country with a random man, she had told her boyfriend to scatter and now she had just killed a man.

“Quick call an ambulance!”

“I don’t have a phone!”

Ruby remains rooted to the spot as she watches this crime scene unfold in front of her. 

Adam rushed to grab his phone. “I’ve got one, who am I calling?” 

“AN AMBULANCE!” 

“Right, what’s the number?” 

It’s Adam’s remark that finally makes them break, everyone in front of her bursts into laughter and Clarkly rises back up like nothing had happened to join in on the laughter as they all began to point at her. 

She had been had. 

Firstly she is relieved, secondly, she is annoyed and finally, she is left in appreciation for the prank it was a hell of an effort. 

“Oh, you bastard! You bastard!” She lightly punches Adam on the arm as he continued to giggle. 

“Your face!” 

It really must have been priceless.

After the laughter had calmed down, Ruby heads back to the stool to get her hands unwrapped by Ray. 

“We really got you there Ruby!” The 50+year-old chuckled lightly again as he grabbed some scissors. 

“Yeah… you did.” Ruby looked over towards Adam who was sharing a joke with some of the other boxers, probably still about the look on her face. “Is he any good Adam? At boxing?” 

“Oh Adam? Adam is one of the most naturally talented boxers I’ve had walk through this gym in a long time, surprising it took him this long to find it, we had GB scouts in here a couple of weeks ago to take a look at him, needs to work on his movement a bit more, but kids got a future.” 

Well…. Well…. It’s probably an even revelation from when she first found out about Adam’s love for the Kardashians. “How did he find it?” Ruby asked.

Ray rotated his head around and nodded his head to a younger kid laying into one of the heavy bags. “Young lad over their, lightning-fast hands French, been coming in here for just over a year, his older brother asked Adam to come down, something like that.” 

Rahim….

“So you really aren’t his girlfriend then?” 

Ray’s question brought Ruby out of her little trance. “No.” She chuckled softly “He’s just a really good friend.” 

“Yeah makes sense to be honest, he definitely would have been punching above his weight there.”

Another soft chuckle escaped Ruby’s lips. “Wait till you see my actual boyfriend, then you will see punching.” 

“Aw, I’m sure you don’t mean that.” 

Ruby paused for a second as her problems with Otis and back home had escaped her for the past hour or so. “No, but right now he deserves that comment.” 

Ray removed the final bit of wrapping on her hands. “Well Ruby you're a good kid, I hope you can sort things out.” 

So Ruby and Adam exit the gym and for the first time ever Ruby agrees to let Adam walk her home. 

“Do you want my jacket?” 

Ruby can’t be bothered with the whole “I’m a strong independent woman, I don’t need your fucking jacket” bullshit right now, she was really fucking cold and it probably was close to midnight by now, judging by the lack of movement on the streets at this time. She nodded her head at him and he removes his jacket to give her an extra layer already onto of her coat. “You are very unique Adam.” 

“Unique?” Adam repeated as Ruby threaded her arm through his so she could cling on to him. 

“Yeah, you are probably the only person in the world who loves the Kardashian’s. Enjoys makeup sessions with his ex-boyfriend’s, best friends, girlfriend and is an extremely talented boxer.” 

A blush begins to appear on Adam’s face. “I wouldn’t say extremely talented.” 

“Well, that’s what Ray was saying back there. What does your mum think?” 

“I haven’t told her,” Adam muttered back. 

“Adam! Why not?” Ruby lightly patted the arm she was clinging onto with her free one.

“I don’t know what she’ll think…….” 

“Yeah and remember what happened last time with Madame, she was really proud of you and she will be even more pleased this time.” 

“You think so?” He asked shyly. 

“Yes, you fucking idiot!” 

Adam smiled back at her as only Ruby Matthews could compliment you like that while calling you a ‘fucking idiot’ 

They walk mostly in silence for the next couple of minutes as Ruby guides the way. As they do so, Ruby thinks back to what Ray said to her in the gym. 

“Ray told me that was Rahim’s little brother in there?” Well, he never explicitly said it, but Moordale hardly had a huge influx of French families and Adam only knew of one of them.

“Oh, Patrice he’s a little shit, to be honest to you, constantly winds Rahim up the wall.” Adam’s mouth does a nervous twitch before settling into a more comfortable smile before the end of his sentence.

Ruby decided now was the time to get something off her chest that she had been holding from Adam for months now. “Look Adam, I know how you feel about Rahim.” 

“What? I’m what? No, you must be getting confused.” Adam rushes out his not very convincing as he keeps his eyes as far away from Ruby as possible. 

“Adamm, you are very bad at hiding it with the way you leave those poems around and you always do this little mouth twitch whenever I mention his name.” Ruby leaned onto him further and Adam just blushed harder the more Ruby’s sentence went on.

“Do I?” Adam’s voice reached the highest pitch Ruby had ever heard it go. 

“Yes.” Ruby grinned heavily up at him. “It’s very cute, don’t worry.” 

Adam went quiet for a few moments as he knew there was no getting out of this one. “Yeah well, Rahim doesn’t think I’m that word.” He said with his head planted firmly towards the road they were walking on. 

Ruby sighed and looked away herself for a few moments. “Adam as much I would love to be your wingman, I can’t-.” Ruby began before Adam cut her off.

“Because he’s with An-war.” Adam produced a strange and slow breakdown of one of Ruby’s best friends name. 

“Yeah, I’m sorry,” Ruby whispered back softly. 

“It’s okay, sometimes in life, we get dealt a bad hand.” 

“Tell me about it…..” 

Adam had probably expected they would be walking a little further as they weren’t in the glamorous of neighbourhoods, but Ruby put the breaks on as they had arrived at her home. 

Ruby knows Adam deserves this. It did hurt her a little bit that she had shown Olivia and Anwar her home before him, they were her best friends of course but unlike Olivia and Anwar, in their friendship, Adam had never once judged her or said anything that wasn’t kind in any way despite how terriblyshe treated him when he was Aimee’s boyfriend as Ruby would look to manage the Untouchables relationships. 

“This is me,” Ruby said as they stopped and Adam narrowed her eyes at her home and it has her worrying for a second. “What?” Ruby asked with her voice breaking up slightly. 

“No, I just always presumed that you lived in a Moordale version of Buckingham Palace, did you know it has 775 rooms, you know for all the servants and shit I’d hate that if it was my house, I’d be afraid I’d walk in on someone having a wank or shagging.”

Ruby lets of a small laugh as she smiles up at him, He never fails to surprise her, he’s just so brilliantly Adam. “Thank you for tonight Adam it means a lot.” She said sincerely “Apart from the part when you tried to convince me I had killed someone, that wasn’t cool.” 

“Hey in my defence, the way you started the night you thought you were going to kill that Tracey woman anyway…” 

Again she laughs at him before she leans in to hug him. This time he gets it right not too hard and with the right amount of contact. After holding onto him for some time she pulls away and does something she had never done with him before but after tonight she felt comfortable enough in their friendship. She stands on the very edge of her tiptoes and plants a kiss on his cheek. “Goodnight Adam, thanks again.” 

Adam produces a shy smile in response before he walks away. 

As Ruby walks down towards her porch she turns back towards him and gives him an awkward little wave. It was always the most simple thing she was so shit at. 

Ruby opened up the door to her house and Baby came running up towards her. “Hello! Hello!” Ruby knelt down to stroke her dog. 

“I was getting worried about you Rubes.” Her father calls from the living room, he’s as ever just got the news on, but he had transitioned onto the main couch probably so he could stroke Baby while she waited up for her.

“Looks like this one was also,” Ruby said as she lifted her dog up and walked towards the living room. 

The initial comment from her dad was probably the longest sentence he had said to her since the selfish bitch left, so Ruby hopes this means they are ready to have a conversation as she places herself down next to him on the couch. 

“Was that your new boyfriend outside, I could see through the window.” He begins with. 

“Oh my god dad no! That’s Adam, you know Eric’s Ex.” Ruby hopes her dad can remember the gossip she always fills him in with, but there was a lot to remember as she was Ruby so she knew all the gossip.

“Ohhhh yeah…. He isn’t what I expected that’s all.” 

“Dad! Don’t be so old fashioned!” Ruby scolds him 

“No I didn’t mean it like that darlin, I just didn’t expect you to allow people that tall to be friends with you as it makes you look like even more of a short arse!” 

“Heyyy!” Ruby is annoyed at him for his remark and she expresses that feeling by lightly patting him on the shoulder but it almost moves her to tears seeing her dad being his usual snarky self after the way he had been for the past week and a bit. “And what do you mean new boyfriend? I’m with Otis you know that dad!” Ruby tells him as she wipes her eyes before said tears can come flooding out. 

“Then where is he darlin?” Roland asks he looks around the room. “I know you shut him out.” 

“He really hurt me dad, he lied to me for nearly a year.”

“I know darlin, but even in the letter your mum said he was just trying to do right by you and protect you, your teenagers Rubes, you are going to make mistakes.” 

“It wasn't just any old mistake was it though? He could have stopped it dad, if he told me the selfish bitch could have been still here.” Ruby’s voice was cracking up as she could feel herself beginning to get emotional all over again.

“Firstly it’s your mother, not matter what she did, she’s your mother, she raised you for nineteen years Rubes and for that she at least deserves to be called by her name.” Her dad ramped up the aggression in his voice. “Secondly, what happened was always going to happen as your mum clearly didn’t love me enough to stick with me through this”

“Dad don’t say that,” Ruby said as she placed her hand on top of his as he also began to join her in tears bubbling within his eyes. 

“It’s true Rubes, that’s why you can’t shut that boy out for too long, you don’t know how lucky you are to have someone that loves you that much darlin.”

Ruby shut her eyes as she felt the first of the tears roll down her cheek. 

“Just promise me you won’t shut him out forever for me will you.” 

Ruby slowly nodded her head back at him. “I promise.” 

“I love you Rubes.” 

“I love you too dad.” Ruby carefully shuffled her head onto her father’s chest, she knew just how much pressure she could apply before it became too painful for him as she also wrapped her arms around him, this was them now, this was their team. 

They held onto eachother for a few minutes before Ruby broke the silence. 

“Can we turn the news over though dad, because it’s making this even more depressing.”

Roland chuckled at her daughter. “Yeah, your right there darlin.”

Chapter Text

“Just fucking go Otis!” 

There is probably only 1 in 100 times where Ruby Matthews gives Otis Milburn and he doesn’t follow it. This is definitely not one of those times as Ruby is in a hell of a state. Otis had seen her cry before, like when they spoke about Charlotte for the first time or when Ruby had a bad dream. But this wasn’t the thought of a memory or a bad dream, it was real and happening before her. Claire Matthews had abandoned her husband and daughter. 

So Otis follows Ruby’s words and he walks out of her room and takes one last look at Roland who almost looked like a ghost, routed to his chair.

He has no idea how he doesn’t crash his car on his way home or more accurately, someone doesn’t crash into him as he is driving even slower than normal, processing what had just happened. 

He thought it was all okay. He had made sure that she wasn’t continuing the affair, he was certain it had stopped. Did she know that I was always following her? When she was certain I stopped following her did she just carry on as normal? Otis thought of himself as such a damn fool, he wanted to believe her so bad so Ruby could have close to a stable home life as possible. But maybe that’s one of the worst parts about himself, he always wants to believe the best in people. 

A few times drivers aggressively spam their horns at him and an old woman knocks on his window when he doesn’t move when the lights go green. 

“Are you alright love?” 

I’m fine but someone I love definitely isn’t. 

Otis really isn’t fine but he needs to put it into perspective on how Ruby and of course Roland must be feeling right now. 

When he does get home, he ignores his mothers questions about why he is back so early and heads straight into his room, slamming the door shut. 

He flops back into bed and he quickly realises he wants to do one thing and one thing only, that’s jump back into his car and drive exactly the same way he came to console Ruby and try and resolve his actions, but Ruby made it pretty clear where she wants him. 

So he gives it 24 hours. 

“Ruby, I know you hate me and I don’t expect to be forgiven but I just want to make sure you are okay.” 

But he gets no response 

“Okay, I understand. I’m going to go now but I’m always here if you need me- well not hanging outside your window that would be creepy, just call me- if you want to, of course, I- love you, Ruby.”

Otis ends up staring at his phone for the rest of the weekend, either waiting for a phone call to come through or thinking about composing a text to Ruby, but she clearly doesn’t want to hear from him anymore. 

Does this mean they are broken up? 

Otis had experienced a break-up once before of course with Ola and he tries to think back to what happened in the aftermath of their breakup. 

One of the most obvious things he can remember is Ola coming over to his house to pick up her things, this was of course orchestrated by himself so he could show her how “Chill” he was which only resulted in him embarrassing himself in front of her and the girl he loved while also somehow impressing the girl he would go on to love. 

Ola only ended picking up a top and that hideous mug, but Ruby, Ruby was everywhere in Otis’ room. To call it Otis’ room was probably an incorrect statement as to an outsider it more looked like Ruby’s second room. 

His wardrobes were full of her clothes and marked quite a contrast as her designer tops rubbed shoulders with his stripy monstrosities. 

Otis had always had a spare drawer with nothing in it, he would normally just shove packets of crisps in there when he couldn’t be arsed moving towards the bin whilst he was on his game. But since Ruby came into his life she had claimed it as her “Mix Draw” inside it where she placed her underwear, skirts, shorts and legging, makeup bags, a spare hairdryer (which definitely didn’t get on Otis’ nerves as she always seemed to use it when he was playing online with his friends) and most recently there was all of her school stuff she would never be needing again.

Across his bedroom was Ruby’s various perfumes which again made a hilarious contrast when stacked next to Otis’ lynx Africa set which he would try and live off from Christmas to his birthday and then back to Christmas again. You could find two of her bags in front of the bigger mirror she had recently bought for his room.

Of course, there are countless photo’s spread across his walls of them together, including a framed photo of just Ruby on her own smiling like an idiot into the camera, which she always made him overturn if Eric or anyone else came round. 

Then there is the bathroom, Ruby has a toothbrush in the bowl with the rest of them, although Ruby always buys a new one every two weeks to remain as hygienic as possible. She has her own designer towel (which baffled Otis that such things existed) and then there are all her hair products which Jean had to buy a new rack for after Ola kicked up a fuss that nobody could get to their own stuff as Ruby’s products got in the way. 

Downstairs Ruby’s presence could be seen in the kitchen via her nut milk and various plant-based foods in the cupboards and fridge where there was a selfie of Otis and Ruby on a magnet on the front.

So for the rest of the weekend, Otis makes sure to double-check that all of Ruby’s items were still where they were and she had not snuck in during the middle of the night to steal everything. Otis also goes through Ruby’s school work just so he can hear her words in his head and her funny way of thinking when it came to education, something that warmed Otis' heart was that when Ruby was bored during class she would scribble ‘Otis❤️‘ or just spell his full name out surrounded by love hearts. 

When the next weekend comes around Otis still makes sure to include all of Ruby’s items on the shopping list for his mum which she calls him out for. 

“Otis?” Jean called over from the couch as she scans the list through her glasses. 

“Hmmm.” Otis mumbled as he and Ola ate their tea. 

“Do we still need to get Ruby’s wine and other stuff, dear?” 

Otis stopped eating his food to glare at his mother from across the room “Why not?”

“Well Otis, I may be getting a little older but I have noticed that not once has Ruby come round since last week or not once have you gone to visit her in the last week.” 

“Mum I know what you are Insinuating but me and Ruby have not broken up!” Otis snaps at his mother from across the room. “She just doesn’t want to see me at the moment.” 

“Understandably so” Ola muttered from the chair to his left.

After Otis had come out to his room on that Friday morning and come clean on everything he knew and what had just happened back at Ruby’s house, he was expecting one hell of a scolding from his mother about not being open and honest with his partner and how truth was the cornerstone of all healthy relationships. But no his mother mostly remained quiet during his revelations, Otis thinks it’s because Claire had become somewhat of a friend over the past year and she was probably in a state of shock, as was Jakob. But Otis’ scolding would later come from Ola, who gave him his dressing down later on about how much an idiot he had been. Otis suspects it’s because Ola would do anything to have her mother still around and there was the possibility that his decision to stay quiet had influenced where Ruby’s mother was right now. 

Ola Nyman and Ruby Matthews were two girls who didn’t have a lot in common, they both had mothers they could longer see but now were they both ex-girlfriends of Otis Milburn?  

That plays on Otis’ mind going Into the middle of next week leaving Otis being all mopey on the couch in his shared University Accommodation, ‘I’m a Celebrity’ is playing in the background, a rare bit of TV Otis and Ruby both enjoyed and had watched every episode together up until their, Breakup? Temporary separation? Otis still wasn’t too sure, what he was sure of though was the fact he was the missing Ruby running her hands through his hair as he lay his head on a pillow placed on her lap as they watched, with Otis telling her she wouldn’t last a day in there with the lack of a proper bed and creepy crawlies everywhere, Ruby would fire back by telling him that she had spent the best part of the past year and a bit in his bedroom, so this would be child’s play in comparison. 

“Oh my god, I just saw Ruby’s latest insta post, Otis, she truly is divine,” Bethany said from across the couch as she scrolled through her phone. 

It was another day and another shoot for Ruby, with her follower count continuing to rise along with adoration in the comments, mostly from creeps hoping to shoot their shot, but could they now? Otis even found himself conflicted on whether just to like Ruby’s post, he always liked her post, but she didn’t want to see him anymore Did that extend to social media also? 

“Trouble in paradise Milburn?” Leah picked up on his silence from within the kitchen. 

But Otis remained silent as he had a brainwave. 

Social media. 

That’s another thing Ola did once they had broken up, she deleted all photos of them on her Instagram page. Otis lack of interest in the platform was evident in the fact that it had taken him this long to think of this. “Erm, give me a minute.” Otis rose up from the couch and headed towards his room and begin to devour Ruby’s Instagram page. 

Considering Ruby would self combust if she didn’t upload at least four or five times a week it would take a while to get through it all but it became pretty apparent that Otis was very much present on her page from January of this year. 

“Yes!” Otis said aloud whilst raising his clenched fist in the air as a form of celebration. 

But then Otis had yet another thought as he scrolled to the bottom of Ruby’s page to find the only photo Ruby had on there of her parents. Ruby had threatened to delete it when Otis said she and her bright red cheeks looked adorable in the photo of the three of them on holiday in Spain back when Ruby was 12. 

There was no threat this time though, the photo had gone. 

Otis knows he’s being selfish, the fact that Ruby had to feel the need to delete the photo was terrible but in terms of their relationship, he could only see this as a positive as Ruby had been deleting photos in relation to what had happened and none of them was of him. He knows his line of thinking was terrible but his broken heart yearned for her so bad. 

That was evident by his next actions as he scrolled through her Instagram clicking on each photo, right from the very bottom to the very top. 

Through to the times where she probably wasn’t even moved by his existence. 

Ruby.Mathewss - The Party was shit. My look was anything but 👑💫

Was the post from Aimee’s party in the first few weeks of sixth form. Otis chuckles to himself as there was no mention of her throwing up on Olivia after Eric’s ‘dick sucking tutorial’.

Then came the posts of when they were together but Ruby was still hiding him away from fear of abuse towards him from BC, CC and other unsavoury friends Ruby had picked up online. 

-Ruby.Matthews - 📸-You ❤️

Otis had taken this photo of Ruby posing on his balcony in the dead of night so you couldn’t quite make out just whose balcony it was. 

-Ruby.Matthews - My Love ❤️

The very first time Ruby had uploaded a photo of them together, was that picture of them taken by a woman who barely spoke a word of English on Westminster Bridge. The comments section was full of people who left Moordale before sixth form, being really shocked and questioning like many was this another Untouchables dare, wth Eric the only person spreading love. 

-Ruby.Matthews - Happy Birthday to my world @OtisMilburn1234 I love you far too much nerd 🌎 ❤️

Ruby uploaded a compilation on the morning of his 18th Birthday, pictures of them over their past 10 months of being together, with dorky selfies he had sent to her with him wearing one of her headbands she sometimes wore to school and photos she had sneakily taken of him whilst he was chatting online with his gaming friends or whilst they were waiting for their food on one of their date nights were all included in her little celebration of him. 

“ You couldn’t have just told me this?” Otis asked her when he first spotted the post as he ate the breakfast she had made for him. 

“Would you prefer it if I just deleted then Milburn?” Ruby fired back from the edge of his bed. 

Otis took one last look at the post “My World?” He mocked.

Ruby began to heavily blush as he read her words aloud. “Ugh, that must have been a typo, I’m definitely deleting it now.” She began to pick her phone back up.

“Ruby, Ruby.” Otis pushed the tray to one side and leant over to put his hands on top of hers. “Thank you.” Otis leant in even further to steal a quick kiss. He never thought a girl would even look in his direction, never mind date a girl like Ruby who was willing to celebrate him like She was doing. “I love you too.” He whispered in between the kisses which were beginning to heat up before he noticed something. “Oh, Ruby, you’ve got- erm egg.” Otis awkwardly pointed out the egg yolk that had passed from his lips to hers. 

“Ew, watch where you put your mouth, Milburn.” Ruby squinted as she wiped the yolk away. 

“Fat chance of that.” Otis confidently swooped back in for yet another kiss. 

Otis smiled as he thought back to that day, but again his heart ached as openly kissing Ruby wasn’t possible anymore. Nevertheless, he continued to scroll. 

-Ruby.Matthews - Thank you for the best week 🇬🇧🎊❤️

One of Otis’ favourites was the compilation of their week in London for Ruby’s birthday, a photo from each day they were there, from Ice cream overlooking the themes to holding onto one another outside Buckingham Palace. But Otis’ absolute favourite was the one he next compilation he clicked on.

-Ruby.Matthews - One Year With You ❤️ 

Their first year together, with photos that Otis can’t even remember Ruby taking dating back to even the early stages of their relationship. Of course, this was an extra special moment for Ruby as it was one of the first times her best friends had shown some kind of appreciation of them as a couple in any form. He knows that if they do get things back on track he will need to work extra hard to get back in their good books as he already received a very angry paragraph from Anwar. 

Otis put that thought to the back of his mind as he continued to scroll right the way through to her most recent upload with him in it. 

-Ruby.Matthews - My Everything 🥰🥰

Ruby had dragged Otis along to one of her shoots and decided to take advantage of the camera quality on offer and pulled him onto the set. He was typically awkward in front of the camera and felt intimated by the bright lights and strangers in the background but he was calmed down by Ruby pressing a kiss to his cheek followed by a whisper in his ear of “ It’s okay.” 

When she got hold of the photos and began to scroll through the first one’s Ruby cooed “ Awww, you look adorable.” She then reached for his hand and squeezed it lightly. He smiled in response, I have the best girlfriend in the world.

Or well he ‘had’ the best girlfriend, he really had no idea. Whatever this was, it was killing him and he knew he was in deep when he scrolled right back down to the bottom of the page to start all over again.

For Ruby, of course, being without Otis was hard, especially at the weekends when he was supposed to be in her bed or she was supposed to be in his. But it was nothing compared to the feeling of knowing the home situation she and her dad had been left with. 

Thankfully Ruby had Adam. Welcoming Adam into her home was one of the best decisions Ruby had made, he was always being so brilliantly himself that just for the few hours he was round at her house he would be able to take her mind off the sack of shit her life had become. Watching the Kardashians in her front room was great fun as her dad would be forced to watch it with them and his playful moaning and groaning again warmed Ruby’s heart as it was nice to see him having a rare little escape since what happened, happened. Speaking of her dad, Adam was great with him, he was able to get him to his bed on his own which gave Ruby’s arms and shoulders a rest. 

“Are you kids alright?” Both Adam and Ruby could just about hear Roland Matthews call from the living room over their laughter. 

The two teenagers were slightly tipsy as they sat with their legs crossed on Ruby’s bedroom floor playing a game of ‘Who am I’. “Yes, daaaaad!” Ruby Meldoramticaly called back as the pair’s laughter cooled. “Right, next round.” Ruby reached for the post-it notes after she updated the scoreboard she had drawn out on a whiteboard Adam 4-8 Ruby

The pair sniggered as they wrote down names on their respective post-it notes as there had been some ‘interesting wild guesses of the last couple of rounds. Then the laughter increased as Adam struggled to place his note on Ruby’s forehead. “God Adam, it can’t be that hard.” Ruby groaned. 

“Sorry, just you have a really small forehead,” Adam said without a care in the world as he tried to concentrate on placing the note on his friend’s forehead. 

“Excuse me Adam Groff! You should never mention the size of a ladies forehead!” Ruby scoffed back as she slapped his arm. 

“Hey if I put my hair back, I look like Megamind.” Adam proceeded to go through with that action and Ruby sniggered at him but that was mostly down to the fact that the yellow post-it note with ‘Jabba The Hut’ on it became all the more visible. 

“Okay, I’ll go first, Am I real?” 

“Yes.” 

Ruby paused to think of her next line of questioning, he had been going with more men recently. “Am I a man?” 

“Just about.” 

It wasn’t even funny but their drunken minds must have tricked them into thinking it was and their laughter shot out before they took another sip of their drinks. 

“Okay, okay. Am I attractive?” Ruby very poorly raised an eyebrow in an attempt to suggest seductiveness. 

“Hmmmmm, tricky one.” Adam scrunched up his face as he thought about Ruby’s question. 

“It’s a yes or no question Adam!” 

“You would find him attractive yes.” 

“But not a lot of other people would?” 

Adam nodded along to Ruby’s latest question. 

“Am I Robert Kardashian?” 

The pair burst into laughter again as Ruby let this revelation slip a couple of days ago when they were rewatching ‘The People Vs Oj Simpson’ 

“No!, Right am I-”

“No, it’s still my turn!” Ruby groaned as she cut him off. 

“But that isn’t how the game works?” 

“Well, it’s how my game works.” The scoreline of 8-4 to Ruby had largely been affected by Ruby’s constant bending of the rules. “Right am I just normal then, so not famous?” Ruby asked as if nothing had happened. 

“Yes, that’s right not famous, but one member of their family recently ended up in the paper.” 

Adam let off more information than he should of and now Ruby was pretty certain of who was stuck on her forehead. A boy who only she would find attractive and recently had a family member in the paper. “Am I Otis?” Ruby’s voice was soft as his name left her lips, gone was the smile and joy from her face as she pealed the post-it note off her forehead to catch a look. 

‘Otis Milburn’ 

Ruby had tried her best to try and keep him off her mind, especially when Adam was round ‘ruling it an Otis free zone. Her dad’s words did have an effect on her and she realised she couldn’t keep him shut out forever, but she just couldn’t quite sort it out. This was evident on the weekends and if she was off out somewhere she made sure to drive the long way around to any location to pass Otis’ house just in case she decided to go and sort this out with him. But every single time, she would find herself having flashbacks to the last time she saw him, the tears pouring down her face and tears just beginning to form on his own and she remembered the feeling of pain and anger she had back then and how he was complicit in that pain and anger. She wasn’t ready for him yet. 

“Oh, I’m sorry, should I not-.” 

“It’s fine Adam, it’s fine really.” Ruby sniffled as she looked down at the piece of paper with his stupid little name written on it which immediately made Ruby think of his stupid little face again. 

They probably would have remained in silence for a good half an hour if Adam’s phone didn’t ping from the pocket of his jeans. “Oh, my mum reminded me if you wanted to go to the Ed Sheeran concert.”

“What?” 

“Oh Hugh, works in hospitality so he gets free tickets and shit.”

“You like Ed Sheeran?” Ruby asked as she wasn’t really following his other words. To be honest, though, did these little revelations surprise Ruby anymore? Probably not 

“Yeah, he’s cool.” A worried Adam then began to narrow his eyes at Ruby. “Why do you not think he’s cool?” 

Because he’s on her mind again, Ruby begins to think of Otis’ opinion on Ed Sheeran. Otis can be a hopeless romantic so she could imagine him being his number 1 fan but then she could imagine him droning on about how cliche he is. 

“Ruby!” 

Adam’s shout brought Ruby back out of her trance. “Yes Adam, I’ll go and see Ed Sheeran with you.”

Ruby also is inclined to the 'cliche' club but she doesn't give a shit, she just wants to spend more time with her friend right now.

So Otis had some positive signs that he and Ruby were still together, from the fact that she hadn’t come to his house demand her things back and he was still present on her precious Instagram page. 

But as he hopped off the train from University for the final time in the year 2020, he was about to get a rather bad signal. 

It should have been a joyous moment as Ruby would have picked him up, ready to spend the longest amount of interrupted time together since the summer. But no he was struggling with his bags, wobbling his way through the train station hoping to get himself a taxi after his mum had cancelled on him as his own train was delayed.

As he grunted and groaned he spotted her in the middle of the crowd, her right arm was clinging onto Adam Groff and she had her phone in her left hand showing something she found something to him. His heart instantly grew warmer at the sight of her wide smile that would just be reserved for him, and her parents (Well just her dad now) Now it seems that privilege had been extended to her good friend Adam. 

Otis could feel a smile slowly creep onto his face as he took in her beauty in the flesh for the first time in weeks. But then Otis saw her smile slowly fade away when she recognised him stumbling towards her. Otis felt like they were both moving in slow motion as it seemed to take an age for them to meet one another in the middle.

“R-Ruby.” Otis found himself stuttering as he was still taking her presence in. 

“Otis,” Ruby replied devoid of any emotion. 

“Erm, I’m back for Christmas, obviously.” Otis raised one of his bags in the air while he awkwardly smiled, but there was still no movement in Ruby’s expression, not even one of her signature eye rolls at something she would later describe as ‘dorky’. “Erm, W-where are you going?” 

“Me and Adam are going to go and see Ed Sheeran, aren’t we Adam?” Ruby asked her friend without taking her eyes of Otis, just continuing to glare at him.

“Yup,” Adam responded as he also glared at Otis, again making him feel like he was in a police integration. 

“Cool, that’s cool, he’s cool.” For some reason, it’s this bumbling nonsense that brings a slight smile to Ruby’s face. But then comes a notification on Ruby’s phone about their E-ticket for the train. 

Her lock screen, which had remained the same photo of them together at the bowling alley for a long time now, had gone. That reminded Otis of the final thing Ola did, changing the lock screen.

Stupid and pathetic stuff really, but Otis knew to someone like Ruby it meant a lot. 

In its place was a selfie of her and her dad on the couch. It would have been fine, It would only be natural that Ruby would feel closer to her father in these circumstances even if they were still together, but in this specific photo, Otis was originally in it as the three of them were squashed together on the main couch after Roland's chair was being taken up by Baby one night and she just wouldn’t budge. But on the lock screen, Otis had been cropped out. Is that what was happening now, she was slowly cropping him out of her life?

“We need to go, don’t want to be late,” Ruby added and Otis nodded back. 

“Okay, I’ll see you,” Otis whispered softly back towards her and they locked eyes for a few seconds, exploring one another before Ruby broke it off. 

“Come on Adam.” Ruby dragged him by the arm, past Otis to go and catch their train. 

Otis watched them all the way around the corner before he picked up his bags to struggle towards the taxi, again wondering just where he and Ruby Matthews stood.

While Ruby appeared to remain calm during her first encounter with Otis since she sent him away the day after her mother ran away, her heart was absolutely racing by being in his presence once again, with one of his signature stupid strip shirts and bomber jacket on display once again. It felt like the times during their summer fling when they bumped into eachother outside of her car in the woods. She felt completely breathless around him, but she had to remain as relaxed as possible. Back then it was to hide her secret, right now she didn’t want to show any sign of weakness around him. He had hurt her really badly and was still extremely pissed off at him but he just had this effect on her, the smell of his cheap aftershave and how he sweetly whispered “I’ll see you” made her want to jump him right there and then. 

He couldn’t get away with what he did so lightly, but her dad’s words kept ringing around her head about how he was ‘just a teenager and had just made a mistake. She couldn’t let someone as brilliant as Otis go like that. What if the way she was shutting him out would lead him to move on? He couldn’t right? She was Ruby Matthews. But maybe that was her problem, Otis had always deserved better than Ruby Matthews.

She replays their encounter at the train station over and over again, every day until Christmas. Thinking about how she should have said something different, even something as simple as “See you too.” To let him know that she was still around but wasn’t quite ready yet, so he wouldn’t go running into Cockbiter’s or anyone else’s arms who were more deserving of him than her.

The reason for her replaying that moment over and over again stops on Christmas day is because she is presented with something else to fill her broken heart. 

There are no two ways about it, Christmas 2020 in the Mathews household is tragic. Ruby had put up the minimum amount of decorations to signify that Christmas was in fact happening here and the smallest tree she could find. It’s a terrible shame as Ruby loved to go all out at Christmas and she was planning on this year on being spectacular with all of her own money she was finally bringing in. 

But the Christmas is overshadowed by the empty chair at the table as they eat the Christmas dinner Ruby had prepared. While they sit in silence with their Santa hats on Ruby thinks of three other households on Christmas day. She hopes Adam is having a nice time as his mother and father had reached a compromise to spend Christmas day together while Hugh spends the day with his kids. 

As for her mother, she hopes that she is having the worst Christmas possible, but then again she is probably laughing and joking with her new Brazilian family right now while her and her dad’s Christmas was more akin to a funeral right now and none of them had been cheating little swine’s. 

Then there is Otis’ Christmas. She had ordered one of his Christmas presents before their ‘separation’ as she was now calling it. She had gotten him a nice smart dark suit that he had asked for after she suggested it would be a nice idea to have another one as well as the brown one. There was an option to add on a bowtie as an extra and Ruby squealed inside as she pictured how adorable it would look on him when she selected the optional extra. Then there was the little message she had left on it for him to open. “So you don’t look like a scruff all of the time” - Love from your Rubes xxx

Of course, if she were to write it out now, she would have written something about giving her time but the ‘Your Rubes’ Wouldn’t change, she still wanted to be ‘His Rubes’ and she hoped that would never change. 

As Ruby began to think about how glad she was that she had ordered it to Otis’ house so it wouldn’t give her the dilemma of whether to send it over to him, the sound of the letterbox flipping open filled up the awkward silence in the Matthews’ kitchen.

“Baby, baby sush.” Ruby called to her dog who normally freaked out when the letterbox opened. But even she seemed miserable only giving off two barks before continuing to sulk back into the floor.

“Who could that be from?” Roland asked after Baby stopped barking. 

“One second.” Ruby rose up from the dinner table to go to the front door, they both knew who the letter might be from, considering who the last person was to leave them an unexpected letter. But when Ruby picked it up, she was surprised to find someone else’s recognisable handwriting on a brown envelope addressed just to her. 

“Rubes?” Her dad called from the kitchen. 

“It’s from Otis.” She replied softly as she looked down at the envelope and the word ‘Ruby’ on the front. 

Ruby walked over to her bedroom and sat on her bed and slowly opened the envelope to reveal its contents. 

Dear Rubes

I know letters haven’t exactly been your best friend as of late and to be honest, I don’t have the best track record with them either but that’s what I should have been with you, honest. When I first found out about your mother my first instinct was to run and tell you, but she managed to place doubt into my mind whether I was doing the right thing. I have always sucked in life when it comes to making big and important decisions in my life but one thing I did get right was you, Ruby Matthews. Every single day I count my lucky stars that I get to call you my girlfriend and for dating Moordale’s deadpan Untouchable Queen, the very least I can offer you in return is honesty. I tried to make sure the affair was over because I wanted the best life for you Ruby, with your mum, your dad, the most wonderful dog and for some reason me. I don’t ever expect you to forgive me Ruby and this isn’t a plea for that, I just want you to understand that I was lied to also, but again it gives me no excuse to lie to you. You never deserve to be lied to ever again it’s just I have never done this before, at least not with someone with my heart was truly in it the way it is with you and I was always going to make a mistake at some point, I’m just truly sorry it was a mistake of this magnitude. I can’t undo what I did, but I want to be the person to hold you and comfort you and I’m willing to wait as long as you need to do that. But equally, I completely understand if you never want to see me again. I just want you to know….

That I’m always yours and I’m always here for you.

Love 

Otis xxx

P.s- Sorry if this was really shit and I understand if you screw it up and throw it in your bin. You know I’m not the best with words when it comes to those I care about .

Ruby doesn’t think it is really shit at all and she doesn’t throw it in the bin. Instead, she clutches it as tight as she can to her chest, while not tight enough to scrunch up the letter. 

God damn you Otis. 

Ruby imagines if they had this conversation face to face, his words would have been identical to the ones in the letter. There was none of that bullshit, where you write every letter like you are writing to your boss at work from Otis, he truly spoke from the heart and Ruby absolutely heard his voice in her head as she read and imagined where his adorable little stutters and the breakup of his voice would come into play. 

It truly broke Ruby’s heart that he thought that she might not want to see him ever again, there was no scenario Ruby could envision where she would never want to see him again. 

She needs to fix this as soon as possible, so the very next day Ruby finds herself still clutching onto the letter as she parks her car on the gravel overlooking his house. All of the cars are parked up including one extra, which Ruby can only imagine it belongs to Ola’s sister Belle who stayed over last Christmas also.

Ruby focuses on her breathing, going over the words she had planned to say to him over and over again. However, her pre-Otis prep is shattered by the sound of screeching bike brakes behind her. 

“Ruby!”

It was Ola, who came to a sudden halt on a bike that she doesn’t think she has been seen before. 

“What are you doing?” 

“Oh, I’ve just been to Lills, on my new bike, pretty cool right?” Ola proudly showed off her brand new bike with a warm smile engulfing her face.

“Right…..” You are 19 years old, you have a literal car, that has four wheels and keeps you warm and safe, but you are getting excited over that two-wheeled death trap.

“Anyway, I should be the one asking you, what you are doing here?” 

“Oh- erm.” 

“Are you going to speak to him?” Ola jumps down her throat and she does the same again before Ruby can respond to her question. “He’s at the pub.” 

Oh, of course, his weird boxing day tradition….

“Just him and Eric though, Dad and Jean can’t stop playing with Joy.” Ola chuckled and you could actually hear their voices and giggles at the bottom of the garden. “Hey erm, I’m truly sorry Ruby, for what happened. I know what it’s like not to have a mum around anymore, I know our situations are different-.”

“Ola, it’s fine. Thank you.” Ruby reassured her as her voice seem to trail off into a panic of words. Ruby thinks Ola might not have been as kind if they had shared the full high school journey together, rather than just a year and a half, as she would have seen how much of a bitch she really was.

“Erm, you can still come in, wait around for Otis.” 

“No, I’ll come back another day.” Ruby knows how much of a lightweight he is and she would prefer to have this conversation while he is fully sober. 

“I guess I’ll be seeing you at Olivia’s new year’s party?” 

Ruby narrowed her eyes at Ola from within her car. “I thought you were going to London, for Otis’ uncle's party.”

“Ah, me and Belle are just going to stay here, the others will be going though.” 

“And Otis…..” 

Ruby and Otis had planned to go to Liv’s party together and stay in the house on their own for the full weekend. 

“I think he’s still undecided, but if you are going to Olivia's party I think he might be inclined to stay.” 

Ruby just softly smiled back up at Ola. 

“But if he does go, you could come round here one night, me, you and Bele, girls night in?” Ola narrowed her eyebrows at her own question, probably realising she had just invited Moordale’s Queen Bee Ruby Matthews to a ‘girls night in’. “I-” She begins to correct herself but is cut off by Ruby. 

“It sounds nice Ola, just would have to check, with my dad and all…” Ruby really doesn’t want to go, but she really appreciates how kind Ola is trying to be by offering her some company, so she decides not to be a bitch about it and just leave the door left slightly open. 

“Right of course, of course….. Okay, I best get going now.” Ola nodded along before she began to creep back down the steps, lifting her bike in the air.

“Ola? What’s he been like? Otis…..” Ruby calls to Ola just before she begins to head down the first step. 

“Oh.” Ola begins as she spins back around to face Ruby. “He’s quiet, just keeps himself to himself. He still washes your clothes for no reason and makes sure you have your food and stuff in still.” 

Of course he does. Idiot. 

“He really misses you though, I know that for sure.” 

Yeah, I really miss him too…..

“Oatcake slow down!” Eric gasped when Otis slammed back down his third pint. 

“Why are we even here? In this stupid pub, I hate it, you hate it. What are we doing?” 

“It’s a tradition Otis! And besides, I thought you enjoyed now after your party.” 

Otis had been really surprised that Eric was still up for going to the pub on boxing day with his mum not coming anymore, just the two of them in a pub a proper “blokey bloke” activity he had described as in the past, it really wasn’t their thing. Otis was there out of a slight sentimental value, back when they did this every boxing day with his mum and dad, Eric was probably there to support him through his current ‘relationship crisis’

“Yeah well, Ruby threw that party and I’m trying to get over her.” 

Eric rolled his eyes over his friend’s drunken words. “There is no such thing to get over Oatcake!”

“Well I sent her that letter and she still is ignoring me! It’s quite clear she isn’t interested in me anymore.”

“Otis it’s not even been 24 hours, she’s had her heartbroken, you just need to give her time.” 

“Okay…..” Otis woke up slightly and began to listen to his best friends words instead of continuing his drunken rant. 

“She’ll be at Olivia’s party, you wear that suit that she exquisitely picked out for you by the way and then I’m sure you will talk it out.” 

“Ughhhhhhh, why did this happen.” Otis slammed his head onto the wooden pub table.

“Because Claire Matthews is a cheating piece of shit Otis, it’s important that you remember that, but still you also fucked up really bad Oatcake and you should have told her straight away.” 

“She manipulated me thought Eric! Ugh why did there have to be all these problems!”

“Because it’s your destiny Oatcake…..” Eric said adding a touch of the sarcastic dramatics to his words.

“What do you mean?” Otis groaned as he lifted his head back up towards his best friend.

“Otis how many girls have you been attracted to Otis? Now be honest!” Eric said as he pointed his finger at him. 

Otis paused for a moment before responding with “Three.” 

“Yes, Ola Nyman, Maeve Wiley and Ruby Matthews, now what do all three have in common?” 

Otis narrowed his eyes at his best friend before finding a suitable response. “They all have a vagina?” 

Eric rolled his eyes at him yet again. “No Otis not that one!” 

The squinting Otis took another guess. “Boobs…?” 

“No Otis, you are attracted to problems, let’s face it, it follows you everywhere you go, your own life, your career choice and your relationships.”

“Huh?” 

“Ola’s mum died, her dad got into a  will they won’t they relationship with your mother of all people and have now had a kid together. Maeve’s dad ran away, her mothers a drug addict and her brother also ditched her to navigate high school in a caravan! Ruby’s dad got struck with a terrible neurological disease and her mother decided to pursue an extramarital affair, now come Otis that’s one hell of a coincidence, as I once said you like helping people.”

“Are you suggesting what? I only love Ruby because she has a complex home life? 

“No! Oatcake I-.” 

“Because there is so much to Ruby, she’s beautiful and funny and she’s-.” 

“Otis, Otis! Relax okay, that’s not at all what I meant at all. I know you love Ruby, but I know you hate words like ‘destiny and ‘fate’.” 

“Which I do.” Otis sharply cut in. 

“But you were always going to end up in a situation like this, with whatever girl you ended up with, fucked up shit follows you everywhere you go and then it’s your job to fix it and heal because that’s what you do.” 

Otis shook his head at his best friend. “I really don’t follow.” 

Eric smiled at him and placed his hand on top of his best friend’s ones. “There is a reason I was in charge of bookings and you did the actual talking Otis.” 

“I’m pretty sure you were fired from that job….” 

Eric chuckled back. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure I was.” They then both shared a laugh, Eric’s very distinctive one caught the attention of a couple of people across the bar. “But I’m pretty sure it’s all going to be okay Otis, because she does and I’m still really not sure how but she loves you a lot, you just need to give her time Otis.”

Ruby really does mean to see Otis as soon as possible, but unfortunately, her dad’s condition worsens dramatically over the festive period. 

It begins with drastic mood swings. The festive season was normally her dad’s favourite time of the year and to see him like this is terrible. Ruby is close to tears a couple of times but she has to remain strong for him as she is the only other adult in the house now. The tears do come but only when she lies in bed at night and she is certain he is asleep. 

Eventually, his physical pains become too much and Ruby has to call an ambulance. When she is told he has to spend a night in hospital, Ruby does begin to draft a text message to Otis telling him to meet her at the hospital but a nurse approaches her as she was about to press send, giving her an update on her dad’s condition and that he had improved dramatically from when they last spoke and he could be discharged in the morning. 

Ruby is relieved that her father was stable again, this was all part of the MS rollercoaster, sometimes his symptoms would barely be noticeable then a couple of hours later they would have dark moments like this. She had been through periods like this before but doing this alone makes it feel 10x worse.

One thing it is different this time is that the hospital offer nurses to come round to administer regular checks on her dad. When her dad was first was diagnosed this is exactly what Ruby feared, strangers constantly coming in and out of the door, giving her dad a constant reminder of his condition and no time for an escape. But with the scale of potential problems that could arise if these regular checks weren’t administered, both Ruby and Roland would definitely have to put any personal pride aside for the sake of his health. 

When her dad gets home though he seems to chipper back up but Ruby had taken one hell of a mental beating over the past couple of days and just wanted to relax. 

“You not going to that party tonight anymore darlin?” Roland asks about Olivia’s party, which was triggered by the tv they were watching about people’s spectacular new year’s parties they had planned for tonight. 

“No, I’m just going to stay in tonight dad….” Ruby sighed as she kept her eyes glued to the screen.

“Come on Rubes, it’s your last new year’s party as a teenager and you are going to be staying in with your old man and your next-door neighbour Pete?” Pete had agreed to come over, so with the three of them and Baby, it would make something of a light gathering.

“Well I’d like to stay in with you dad and Pete, he’s okay when he isn’t going on about the ‘good old days’ every 13 seconds.” 

“Yeah well, maybe the ‘good old days’ were better as I seem to remember teenagers wanted to actually go out and have fun in those days, not Instagramming and snapchatting.” 

Roland mocked her and Ruby rolled her eyes at him.

“Is Otis going to be there?” 

Ruby takes her eyes away from her dad and begins to fidget with her fingers at the mention of his name. “I don’t know.” 

“Well, there is only one way to find out darlin.”

“Dad-.”

“You want to cheer your old man up, well nothing would cheer me up to see you and Otis laughing and joking together on that couch.” 

Ruby again avoids her dad’s gaze as she thinks about the laughs they had shared on this couch. After her dad fell asleep on the night of the double date, then Jefferey joined him soon after, Ruby belly laughed for the first time in front of Otis, it just happened so naturally and once she realised what she had done she was blushing just as hard as when her dad told Otis she had been ‘going on and on about him’. Thankfully Otis gave her a slow and soft kiss right after, she missed that feeling, she missed him. 

“Rubes?” He dad prompted her after picking up on her heavy silence. 

“Ugh, fine dad! I can’t promise I’ll come back with Otis’ hand in mine, okay?” Ruby shot up and began to head towards her bedroom to get ready.

“What you think he might have moved on?” 

“No!” Ruby exclaimed as she turned back to look at him before she opened the door. “But if he has, I will be bringing him back. But only in a body bag.” 

Roland sniggered at her daughter’s wit. “Now go on darlin, go and make yourself look like a million dollars.” 

Ruby’s decision to go to Olivia’s party so late in the day meant Ruby couldn’t exactly look like a million dollars as there wasn’t time for a full ‘beauty routine’. She looks like a mess when she checks herself out in her green dress before she leaves, her bun hadn’t turned out as she hoped. But yep she’s still going to be the best-looking person in the room by miles. 

As she arrives at the function room Olivia had hired for the party, everything is in full swing already. She’s looking for one pair of eyes and one pair of eyes only in the crowd. But not even twenty seconds after walking through the door she has a face full of Olivia. 

“Rubes!” Olivia squeals when she spots her and moves as fast as she can in her heels over towards her. Ruby let off a weak smile as she approached. “Awww, I didn’t think you were coming,” Olivia says in the hug and Ruby can already tell that she’s pissed. 

“Well, here I am,” Ruby replies weakly, she would still rather not be here.

“Right come on, let’s get you a drink” Olivia drags her by the hand and over towards the bar. 

“Is-.” She was going to ask if she had seen Otis, but they arrive at the bar much quicker than Ruby could have anticipated. 

“Vodka coke yeah? We are on that table there if you wanna take a seat.” Olivia barely gave Ruby chance to tell her that she didn’t want to drink tonight before directing her to their table. 

Well, I suppose one can’t hurt. Ruby thinks as she makes her way over to the table as one could calm her down before she talks to Otis. If he was here after all. 

So after she says hello to Rahim and Anwar, she scans for him across the other tables and dance floors. 

It doesn’t take her long to find his gangly frame as he’s wearing that suit she bought him for Christmas and…..

Wow oh wow.

Ruby knows she is probably the only person in the world bar his own mother who shares the same thoughts as her but she thinks he’s gorgeous, she truly does. It myths her how she is the only person in the room who is staring at him. She thinks about storming over to him right now and gripping him by that stupid bow tie and throwing him against the wall, before snogging him until he could no longer breathe. 

But right now it’s Ruby who is feeling breathless, she can’t take her eyes off him. His eyes don’t meet hers though as he is sharing a joke with Eric, she is kind of glad as she must look like a complete idiot right now with her eyes of adoration and all. 

Just as she feels like he is about to turn, Olivia comes back over, handing her the drink she had forced upon her. “Thank you.” She whispers and when she looks back up at him, he’s the one now staring at her. “Fuck.” She mutters as looks at the floor, just to make sure she is looking anywhere but at him. 

“What’s wrong?” Olivia asked from the seat next to her. 

“Nothing.” Ruby shyly mutters before taking a quick glance back up at Otis. 

Olivia quickly notices what’s going on and removes herself from her drunk persona for a few minutes to support her friend. “Are you two going to be okay?” 

“I hope so, I hope so.” Ruby’s words are barely audible over the loud music.

Olivia takes one big sigh before the next words leave her mouth. “You know I spent all this time trying to get you two to break up and now it’s actually happened I feel terrible for you.” 

“Liv me and Otis haven’t-.” Ruby stops herself as she processed the words she had just heard from Olivia. 

“What did you just say?”

Chapter Text

France, October 2019

Ruby stopped dead in her tracks facing Otis in front of an unmarked grave. “Olivia and Anwar hate you, Otis.” 

“Hate? That’s a bit of a strong word” 

“Well it’s true” Ruby sharply replied. “For years, I’ve slagged off and insulted every partner Olivia and Anwar have ever had, because ‘they dragged down our reputation’ or ‘Their hair was comparable to the big bush in Atlee park’ and now I finally have someone I really like and now the shoes on the other foot, maybe if I hadn’t been bitch for so long..” 

Ruby’s words that left her mouth in front of the grave were a bit of an understatement. 

Not only would Ruby ‘slag off’ and ‘insult’ her best friends partners of choice but she would also outright manage their relationships. 

September 2018

“Erm, where the fuck have you been?” Ruby asked as Olivia finally joined her, Anwar and Aimee at their table. 

There was no response from Olivia, she just smirked as she looked down at her phone. 

“And what’s got you in such a good fucking mood?” 

Olivia finally tucked her phone back into her jacket pocket before responding to Ruby. “Well, I’ve got a date tonight..” 

“Ohhhhhh, who with?” Aimee quizzed.

“Ryan Smith.” 

“Ohhhhh, I like him.” Aimee smiled back, genuinely seeming pleased for Olivia. 

But Olivia was only interested in one person’s opinion since BC and CC left for London. “Rubes?” 

Ruby hadn’t looked up at Olivia since she told her about who her date was with and was just scrolling through her own phone. “I’m just DM’ing Ryan saying you can’t make tonight or ever really.”

“What? Why?” A hurt Olivia asked back. 

“His dad’s in prison Liv.” Ruby paused as she turned her phone before raising her head back up to face Olivia, “We can’t be associated with criminals.” Ruby scanned the rest of the canteen looking for a very specific pair of eyes. “Don’t want to end up like cockbiter do we.” 

Maeve who was talking to that freak with the sex mum clocked Ruby’s eyes and in unison both Ruby and Maeve raised their middle fingers at one another. 

Ruby turned back to Olivia who was left gobsmacked by her best friends actions. “Okay.” A forced smile appeared on Ruby’s face before she moved on as if nothing had happened. “Aimee tell me you are going to at least clean your front room for the study group tonight” 

June 2018

“Oh my god, Ruby you brilliantly evil.” 

“I second that.” 

Both BC and CC admired Ruby's trickery as Elliot Larson came rushing out of the drama hall crying. 

“What’s going on?” Olivia placed her bag onto her shoulder as she joined Ruby’s and the twin's sides after she had just come out of her final maths exam.

“Ruby’s just convinced Elliot that Anwar’s been dating him to help him pass his Maths exams the whole time.”

The two Hungarian girls and Ruby sniggered as Anwar burst out of the doors. “Elliot! Elliot! It’s not true.” The laughter increased from the twins as Anwar approached the four girls. “What the fuck did you do that for?” 

“Anwar, come on look at him. His voice goes through people and he reeks.” Ruby scoffed at him. 

“All boys wear that shit."

“He’s leaving Moordale anyway next month, you’d be heartbroken and we definitely don’t do heartbroken.” Ruby slowly began to lead ‘her’ pack away from the drama hall and through the corridors. 

“I wouldn’t have been heartbroken, we only started dating a couple of weeks ago, only because he was one of two other gay guys in our year.” Anwar tried to sound as cool as possible in front of Ruby, however inside he was quite upset inside. Elliot was a genuine guy, an annoying laugh but the past couple of weeks had been fun. 

“Yeah well now maybe you can date Eric Eff-iong.” Ruby mocked his last name and the group burst out into laughter at the thought of one of the Untouchables dating someone from such a low position in the social hierarchy. 

Even those who were lucky enough to stick around for a while would feel the full force of Ruby’s bluntness. 

January 2019

“So did you enjoy tonight?” Anwar asked as he began to walk Nick back home. 

It was the first time that Ruby, Olivia and Anwar had been down to London to see BC and CC since the summer. Anwar hadn’t been dating Nick for too long but their relationship was blossoming at a decent pace, so he had plucked up the courage to ask Nick to come along. 

They had all been out for a meal, in a restaurant the twin's father owned and were now making their way back to the hotel. 

“Yeah it’s was fine…” 

Anwar could see the uncertainty in his eyes as the words left his mouth so Anwar tightly gripped his hand and proceed to quiz him. “Hey, what’s wrong?” 

Nick sighed before he began. “Ruby, back then every time my food came over and you know I have to have bigger portions for my metabolism, but I just felt her glare. Judging me with every bite and then if she wasn’t being too obvious she starts going on about her new gym membership, you know how I feel-.” 

“Hey hey.” Anwar held onto both of his hands as they stopped just before the hotel entrance. “It doesn’t matter what Ruby thinks, it’s about what I think.”

“But she’s your friend.”

“Yeah and that’s just Ruby, sometimes she can be…….” Anwar was really hoping Nick would say it for him. 

“A bitch.” 

“Yeah yeah, that’s the one.” They laughed before Anwar cupped his cheeks and kissed him.

“God you two kiss like fucking sloths, can you fucking hurry up!” Ruby shouted as she and Olivia waited for them at the door. 

“See what I mean…..”

February 2019

It’s Valentine’s day and just as the year before, Ruby had been hooking up with two randomers for a few weeks and gave them a little bit of hope there was more to come so she could enjoy two lots of flowers and chocolate as she scrolled through her Instagram timeline seeing everyone else live out the full valentines day experience. 

Dinner dates? Splitting the bill ? Cinemas? Bowling Alleys? 

“Yuk,” Ruby said aloud as she imagined each vile scenario. 

She refreshed the page to see a new post come through from Olivia. 

LivHananx- ❤️

It was Olivia and her newest piece ‘Malek’ at a fancy restaurant, Well the Moordale version of a fancy restaurant.

Ruby cringes at the sight of a love heart, They have barely been going out for a month, was this how this soppy shit worked? 

She began to examine the photo in more detail, Liv as ever looked stunning. Ruby would put her down a lot of the time, that’s only because Ruby knew that sometimes Liv could look just as stunning as she did, sometimes even more. Ruby then studied Malek, god he was just so…… uninspiring. Liv could do so much better. 

So Ruby began to draft a DM, to let her know just that. 

Olivia and Malek lay in her bed holding on to one another. Thankfully, Olivia’s parents had gone out for a dinner themselves, so she didn’t have to hold back her moans, but she still did hide her face as she came. 

It’s when they are just getting their breaths back, Olivia’s phone pinged. 

-Ruby.Matthewss -   Hope you had a good night x 

-Ruby.Matthewss -  But Malek does look like a very small child, you can do sooooo much better babe x 

Olivia rolled her eyes and sighed as she shut her phone. Why did she give so much of a shit to what Ruby thought? 

“Hey what’s wrong?” Malek spoke his first words after they had finished, still quite processing his girlfriend’s strange actions during their shared orgasm. 

“Nothing….” 

There were countless of other scenarios where Ruby would bash or outright prevent her best friends romantic interests. 

But sometimes she would go even further. 

November 2018

After Olivia’s had her pursuit of Ryan Smith had fallen apart, she had begun to pursue another romantic partner in Mitchell Norris from a nearby college. 

To Olivia’s surprise, Ruby had not made any reference to Mitchell’s lack of height when she showed a photo of him to her, instead raising her eyebrows and left a little comment of “Oh, he’s nice.” 

So she was meeting Mitchell in person for the first time at one of his college parties. Olivia was a little nervous walking into a house full of strangers, while Ruby pushed the door wide open, oozing confidence as she strutted into the living room with all the men in the room who began to check her out. 

“Right I’m just going to find a toilet,” Olivia whispered to Ruby and Anwar, who seemed to take no notice as they began to eye up the crowd. 

Olivia eventually found a free bathroom and began readjusting her outfit in a way that would be considered more “appealing” for this boy she had never met in the flesh before. 

When she reappeared Anwar was waiting in the hallway nearby. 

“What’s wrong?” Olivia knew immediately knew Anwar was desperate to tell her something. 

“Looks like you missed your ride.” 

Olivia peered around the corner to see Ruby and Mitchell laughing together on a couch, with Ruby’s hand already placed on his knee. 

She knows Anwar is talking to her but she can’t process his words in her trance like state as she keeps her eyes on the two on the couch shifting that little bit closer together.

This had happened too many damn times. 

Later when she watches them on the makeshift dance floor with Mitchell’s hands gripping Ruby’s arse as they kiss, she won’t admit it later on to Otis and Maeve in Aimee’s house but this was the final straw that led her to leak the photo of Ruby.

France, October 2019

“Otis is so fucking annoying.” Olivia was still rather frustrated from their little squabble, with Otis attempting to put her in her place with how ‘disrespectful she and Anwar were being on a WW1 battlefield. 

She and Anwar were making their own way across Beaumont Hamel after Ruby and Otis had split off from them. 

“It’s taken you this long to realise that?” Anwar shot back. “It’s alright, it will be some kind of big joke.” 

“It’s been over a month now though, that’s definitely a Ruby record and you can either go as far back as my ‘May party’ since they had been sleeping with eachother.” 

Anwar narrowed his eyes as a rather disgusting thought crept into his head. “Ew, does that mean Otis Milburn jizzed on your bed?” 

“Oh my god Anwar, don’t say shit like that.” Olivia cringed before they were presented with something else to cringe at, as Ruby and Otis began to make out in front of one of the graves from across the field. 

“I feel like my eyes are burning,” Anwar said as the passionate make-out session continued in front of them. 

“I think she really does like him,” Olivia noted Ruby gently stroking her hands across his neck and her little smiles that would appear every now and then. “Doesn’t that bother you?” 

“I mean yeah, he’s a freak.” 

“Exactly! Think of all our relationships she has tried to ruin or has ruined because they didn’t fit with her stupid Image! Don’t you think it’s time she got a taste of her own medicine?” 

“What do you mean?” Anwar asked as he turned to look at Olivia. 

“Let’s put an end to them.” Olivia and Anwar turned back to Ruby and Otis who had stopped kissing and were now resting their foreheads against one another. 

“Well, at least that came to an end.” Anwar breathed a sigh of relief 

From across the field, Olivia could see Otis whisper “Woah” to Ruby who then repeated the same word before they began to make out again. 

“Oh god….. Fine what are we going to do?”

It starts off lightly. 

Ruby’s insults and derogatory comments were normally enough for a relationship to come to a close, as either Olivia/Anwar or their partner would call off of the relationship to stop the abuse that was coming their way.

Unfortunately for them, Ruby had already prepared her defences as she and Otis wouldn’t always sit together at school, holding hands as they walked eachother to their classes when their timetables allowed it but when lunch or break came around they would mostly sit apart with their respective friends. 

But maybe Olivia thinks she can maybe get through to just Ruby. 

“Can’t Otis do his fucking tie-up properly Ruby? Didn’t you break up with Glen because he wore the wrong socks?” 

“I heard Otis got flattened by Ryan in PE again, sounded hilarious.” 

“Can you buy Otis a proper hairbrush Rubes, looks like he might have ants crawling around in there.” 

“Where would you rank Otis Anwar in terms of attractiveness, Bottom 20? Bottom 10 in the school?” 

“I really didn’t think Otis’ laugh could be more annoying than Eric’s but there we go.” 

The petty insults similar to the one’s Ruby used to throw at them 24/7, followed by Anwar joining in and ganging up on Otis continue for a while but they don’t seem to faze Ruby. Sometimes she will defend her boyfriend’s honour. 

“Otis has a perfectly normal laugh thank you very much, I actually think It’s quite sweet. Your’s, on the other hand, Olivia, there is something I wouldn’t be proud of….”

Sometimes she would just play along which would confuse Olivia and Anwar deeply. 

“Bottom 10? I think you are being quite generous there, he’s somewhere in the bottom 3-5 area, depending on if he bothers to brush his hair.”

And sometimes she would just outright ignore their heckling and just stare at her boyfriend from across the canteen, looking on in adoration.

Even when Otis did sit with The Untouchables and Olivia and Anwar would insult him to his face, Ruby would just squeeze Otis’ hand a little bit tighter when they were entwined either under or on top of the table.

Olivia loses Anwar in her operation less than a month in. 

It’s Ruby’s first day back at school since Jean gave birth after missing a day to be there for Otis. She’s been rambling on about the whole drama to Olivia and Anwar at lunch and they seem to be taking at least a slight interest. 

When she gets to the end of her story her phone rings and her face lights up when she sees who it is. 

“Hey, how are you?” 

“No nerd, I’m actually enjoying school without your annoying presence.” 

“I’m kidding idiot, I miss you too…..” 

Anwar pretends to nearly throw up at her words from across the table and Ruby sticks her middle finger up at him as she continues to listen to Otis on the other end. 

“You’re speaking far too fast again Otis, just text me a list of things she needs and I’ll bring it up after school.” 

“Okay, I’ll see you later then, dinners nearly over and I need to get my glare just right for Mr Hendricks so he won’t attempt to pull me up and the fact that I have done no work.”

“Okay Otis….. I love you.” 

It was still a very new phrase for the pair of them, but every single time Ruby found herself smiling like a preteen as the words left her mouth and didn’t drop until a few seconds after she heard Otis’ words in return. 

Ruby still finds herself smiling as she puts her phone back into her blazer pocket and it finally stops when she lifts her head back up to see the expressions on Olivia and Anwar’s faces. 

“What?” 

Despite Ruby’s questioning Olivia and Anwar remained in stunned silence. Ruby thought the phrase ‘their jaws dropped to the floor’ was pretty dumb, but what she was looking at right now was a very accurate representation of that phrase. 

“What?” Ruby questions them again with a little more venom in her voice this time around.

It’s Anwar’s who begins to kick into life. “I… It’s er- the last you thing you said.”

“What?” 

“What?” Anwar ends up repeating her and then quickly realised he needed to spell it out for Ruby. “No, the last thing you said on the phone.” 

“Oh….. I love you. What’s wrong with that? That’s what people say don’t they?” Ruby began to narrow her eyes across the table at them.

“I mean really, you’re in love with Otis Milburn? The sex kid?” Olivia wasn’t even trying to tease or belittle Otis this time on purpose, she was just genuinely shocked. 

“Yeah, so what if I am Olivia? Would that be a problem?” 

Olivia catches Anwar’s gaze for a brief second before she nervously responds “No..” 

“Good.” Ruby pulls out a fake smile as she grabbed her bag and left the canteen and her best friends still in a stunned silence. 

“I’m sorry I’m out, I’ll still insult him because he’s a freak and not because I want them to break up.” Anwar breaks the silence when he is certain Ruby is definitely gone. 

“What? Why?” Olivia rotated her neck as she began her interrogation. 

“Did you not just hear what she said? As stupid as she is, she does love him and I’m sorry I can’t be a part of this if that’s the case.”

“And did you not love Nick or any of the other relationships she’s had a hand in fucking up?” 

Anwar shook his head. “It doesn’t matter I’m out.”

It’s quite clear to Olivia that just beating Otis with a stick isn’t going to work and their relationship was much stronger than she initially thought and Ruby wasn’t just going to crumble in an attempt to salvage her social status. 

She needed a new tactic. 

She needs something or more accurately someone to come between them. 

There was already a great place to start, Otis already had an ex-girlfriend who went to the same school as them in Ola Nyman. Unfortunately, they also shared a house and if problems were to arise surely they would have happened already, right? She pretends to be interested in Otis’ home life and questions Ruby on the strange dynamic of sharing a half-sister with an ex-girlfriend but Ruby only tells her that Otis and Ola had developed a rather weird brother-sister relationship for the sake of Joy along with Jean and Jakob and Ola and herself had only had one strange encounter when discussing Otis’ previously poor fingering technique. 

Olivia tells Ruby to shut up when she begins to describe just how much Otis had improved in that area. 

So the ex-girlfriend/kind of sister wasn’t going to be a problem for Rotis (That’s what Olivia heard Mr Hendricks grotesquely describe them as recently), she seemed to loved up with the alien girl anyway.

But thankfully there is an even better option out there for her, an unfulfilled love.  

Maeve Wiley. 

Olivia knew that Otis and Maeve were friends from running the sex clinic together and that Maeve had been dating Jackson Marchetti during that period of time. However, it wasn’t till the day of the detention issued by Miss Sands that Olivia learned of the feelings between the two after her little argument with Ola before they moved on to more serious matters with Aimee’s horrific sexual assault experience. 

That was it really until Ruby and Otis started seeing one another and Ruby somehow mustered up some more aggression when the words ‘cockbiter’ left her mouth and looking back Ruby would go on various unprovoked ‘cockbiter’ rants in the summer. And then of course there was the France trip when Otis and Maeve got left behind and when the coach returned to pick them back up they were standing far too close to one another for just two ‘friends’. Olivia had never seen Ruby more pissed off than she was that night when they got back to the hotel room, so whatever the situation was Maeve Wiley was a threat to their relationship. 

One minor problem though…….

Maeve Wiley had recently pissed off to a different country.

As Olivia tried to work around this issue she found some extra incentive to break off their relationship 

Jealously

It’s the day before Anwar’s 18th birthday and Olivia is face-timing  Ruby to run her through the plan of action for the day once again. 

“Hiya Rubes.” 

“Hey, Liv.”

Ruby was lay flat out on her bed, with her legs dangling up in the air. After all these years, that’s all Olivia knew of Ruby’s room, that very tiny corner, just able to make out some of the photos on the wall.

“Was just thinking-.”

“No Otis stop it!” Ruby giggled as she turned her attention to Otis who was attempting to bond with Baby in the corner of the room while she was on the phone. 

Olivia hears a mumbled response from a man in the corner of the room. “It’s her, not me!” Now Olivia is narrowing her eyes back at the screen. “Is that Otis?” 

“Yeah, I apologise if he’s being an idiot while we are on here. Him and Baby aren’t getting along, OT is going to be heartbroken when I have to dump him over it, aren’t you OT?” 

Because of Ruby’s little ramble, she doesn’t notice that Olivia scoffed loudly back at her.

After all these years of tolerating Ruby’s bullshit, she or Anwar has never once been invited to her house and restricted to just a small corner of her room via video. Otis Milburn had only been in Ruby’s life for a few months now and was already getting privileges it seemed they would never have access to.

There was further evidence of this the next day when at Anwar’s birthday she explains how Otis was back at her house with Baby and her dad, Ruby’s dad being a man they haven’t seen for six years. 

After Ruby abandons Olivia and Anwar to spend time with Adam Groff despite the fact they were out for Anwar’s birthday she tries to get a very pissed off Anwar back onside but he still won’t budge however, he does ask Rahim for Eric Effiong’s phone number as that is who she is going to integrate to discuss the extent of Otis’ past relationship with Maeve Wiley. 

She poses as a concerned best friend, which couldn’t be further from the truth and Otis’ best friend spills everything. 

From how the clinic got started, to a sushi date? Near kisses on a bridge, heartbreak at the dance, reconnecting again and a missing voicemail. 

“What was on this voicemail?” 

“Well apparently Otis poured his heart out to Maeve about how he felt her, he thought she had just ignored it but apparently there was this Issac guy who deleted it or something, I really don’t know, it was only recently Otis told me.” 

Olivia processed what Eric had just told her before he had to quickly clarify something he had been repeating the whole time since they started talking. 

“But like I said this was a long time ago! Otis is happy now and Maeve’s in a completely different country now.” 

“Who did you want Otis to end up with Eric? Just out of curiosity.”

“Err… I just want Oatcake to be happy.” 

“Hmmm, interesting.” 

Eric immediately knew that he had messed up and again wanted to reclarify his statement. “No no, you just have to understand that I always just presumed that they would eventually get their shit together. Then Ruby came along and it was just also quick but I have never seen Oatcake this happy before, she makes him a better person too. Life’s full of little surprises I guess.” 

It’s after Eric’s words that place the first seeds out doubt into Olivia’s mind as to whether what she was doing was the right thing. 

Well it’s not 100% true, she knew she was doing a terrible thing but it was to get back at her best friend who had terrorised plenty of her own romantic pursuits, by the end of this they wouldn’t even be close to even. 

But it was the first time she realised there was another human being she would be affecting in this little petty scheme of hers. 

Otis Milburn was nice, he was definitely odd and she couldn’t for the life of her understand how someone like Ruby ended up with him but he was definitely nice and if she was to succeed she would have to break his heart also. 

But then Olivia thinks back to all the other people Ruby had hurt when they had been attached to herself or Anwar. 

So despite her little success so far Olivia she decided to soldier on with her plan. She was the only member of the Untouchables who kept in touch with Aimee Gibbs so through her she manages to get hold of Maeve Wiley. 

“Right then, what do you want?” Maeve asked as she appeared on the computer screen before Olivia. 

“Erm-I wanted to speak to you about Otis.” 

“Why has Ruby finally murdered him?” 

“No, I wanted to talk to you about a voicemail he left you..” 

Maeve’s aggressive glare that she had been holding from the moment she accepted the call quickly transitioned into one of softness and nerves at the mention of the voicemail. 

Before Maeve could respond a small American girl appeared in the background. “Is that Aimee again… oh your new.” 

“Fuck off Rebecca.” Maeve pushed the girl aside and she sighed as she turned her attention back to the computer screen. “How do you know about that?” 

“Doesn’t matter how I know, it’s just you’re confirming it exists.” 

“Well, it did exist…” 

“Well, what if I told you with my job there was a way to get it bac-” 

“What sort of games are you playing Olivia?” Maeve quickly cut off Olivia, seemingly not interested in the possibility of recovering the voicemail. “Is this vagina-gate 2.0?” 

Olivia averted her eyes again for a brief moment before attempting to get back on track. “Are you not interested in what he says in the voicemail?” 

“I already know what it says.” 

“What?” Well, that’s a spanner in the words. 

“Otis told me what it said, to my face. Now I don’t want to get involved in whatever stupid games you and Ruby are playing again and Otis shouldn’t get caught up in it either.” 

“Maeve-”

Before Olivia could go any further Maeve slammed her laptop down and the call ended. 

“Fuck”

So Olivia’s ace up her sleeve had gone, it seems that Maeve Wiley was a better person than both her and Ruby but then again is she really surprised by that? 

Olivia thinks about all of Ruby’s Ex’s or brief flings to try and stir the pot but Ruby probably wanted them all dead anyway and passed the majority of them in the corridors every day so there was going to be nothing there. 

But when Olivia thinks back there is one more girl who had an interest in her best friends boyfriend. Seriously these four straight girls with all the men in the world have looked at Otis Milburn and thought, ‘Yes he’s the one’. 

Olivia had only met this other girl once. It was nearly three years ago now when Olivia and Otis had been paired together in a group project for their history class. 

March 2017

Otis had done most of the work all by himself which very much suited Olivia but she wanted to at least show her face once so when the input consensus was sumbitted Otis wouldn’t screw her over. 

So Otis suggests she should come over to his house on Saturday afternoon. Who does school work on a Saturday? 

A typo from Otis though means Olivia arrives at his house an hour early. His weird sex mum explains that Otis is at ‘game club’ and she was on her way to pick him up soon. So Olivia recluntacly hops into her car to pick him up from this ‘game club’ 

When they arrive at this ‘game club’, Otis is waiting outside with a rather small girl with glasses standing next to him. 

“Oh Olivia I- almost forgot, erm mum- Ally’s parents can’t pick her up just now, is it okay she waits at our house.” Otis says as his mother’s car pulled up in front of them.

“The more the merrier.” Jean raised her eyebrows as it was probably quite a shock that her son was about to bring two girls back to their home. 

“Right okay, Ally, this is Olivia I was telling you about, were doing a project on WW1 together.” Otis introucedes her to this ‘Ally’ girl after they both climb into the car and Ally joins her in the back. 

“Hello.” Ally softly whispered across to her with a bright and warm smile on her face, which was a stark contrast to Olivia’s response which was a cold….

“Hi.” 

So they head back to Otis’ house and this Ally girl who is from a completely different town ends up putting more work into the presentation than her, which she can happily live with but what she can’t live with is Ally’s horrific attempts to flirt with Otis and then his obliviousness to go along with it.

Olivia doesn’t know the record for the number of eye rolls in a couple of hours but her performance while they ‘work’ on Otis’ dining timetable manages to make this already unbearable scenario even more cringe. 

She swears she must never tell Ruby or the twins about this day or her Untouchables ID card might end up in the bin. 

When Ally’s parents arrive, Ally offers her a lift and they will drop her off on their way out of Moordale. 

“You like him.” Is the first thing Olivia says when the door shuts behind them after Otis’ and Ally’s uncomfortable goodbye. 

“W-what?” Ally nervously tucks a strand of her hair behind her ear and when she nervously peeks a look back up at Olivia she realises that she isn’t buying her ‘play dumb’ act. “Oh my god am I that obvious?” 

“Yes.” Olivia nods at her frantically while smirking.

“Oh my god, do you think he knows?” 

Olivia laughs, she actually laughs after spending three hours with Otis Milburn and Ally Cooper. “No, don’t worry.” 

Ally blushes all the way until her house where she gets out. For some reasons Otis gives her equal input on the consensus sheet despite doing around 5% of all the work and that’s all.

She probably won’t see Ally Cooper ever again and she certainly hopes she never has to go to Otis Milburn’s house ever again. 

But of course, she ends up at Otis’ house again despite her insistence that Thursday’s aren’t the new Friday’s and Ruby ends up sleeping with that idiot that night and then they sleep together all throughout the summer, then she kisses him in front of the whole school at the bike stands and now they were in love with Olivia attempting to pull off this ludicrous plan to give Ruby a taste of her own medicine. 

All this leads her to turning to Ally Cooper once again. 

She reaches out to her on Instagram and begins to tell her that Otis is trapped in this toxic relationship with her best friend and she treats him like a piece of shit. Ally comes back from similar remarks from the interactions she witnesses in the car park as Ruby tells him to him to back by a certain time or he is walking home. 

Olivia begins to exaggerate just how horrible Ruby is to him and she goes even more over the top as she tells Ally how he is crying out ‘to be saved’. Olivia smirks like hell as she types that one out. 

She also goes on about how Otis appreciates Romantic gestures and gifts, which was true as Ruby was already stressing about what to get Otis for Christmas. Olivia hopes she can place uncertainty in their relationship, with Otis receiving gifts from mysterious women and it can all unravel from there. 

Ally tells her it’s too late to get a gift for Christmas but Valentine’s day could be a good next opportunity.

Things get even better for Olivia when over the Christmas period none other than Maeve Wiley pops through the doors of the phone shop where Olivia works part-time. 

“Maeve?” Olivia could swear she was supposed to be in the States until March. 

“I’m back until Christmas alright!" Maeve snapped as she was getting a little sick of telling people "Now, what did you mean you could get back the voicemail?” 

For Maeve, being back in England for a few weeks and the inability to speak to Otis without being on the wrong side of Ruby’s wrath hurt her. She couldn’t even bring herself to call him, meaning she couldn’t hear his voice which she had missed ever since she left for America. Her mind often trailed back to the last time they spoke at the bus station, with Otis finally revealing the contents of the infamous voicemail. Otis’ words were all she had wanted to hear for over a year, but when she finally heard those words they were almost pointless, completely void of any meaning or emotion as Otis had already fallen for someone else. 

But it hit Maeve that she could hear those exact words, full of meaning and emotion and how she was originally supposed to receive it, if what Olivia said was true. 

When she walks through the doors to Olivia’s place of work she maintains she just doesn’t want to get involved with whatever bullshit was going on between Olivia and Ruby again, she wants to listen and leave in an attempt to close this chapter in her life. 

Olivia boots up a computer in the back of the store and connects Maeve’s phone to it via a wire. Olivia attempts to explain all the technical bits and bobs on how voicemail restoration works for her specific carrier but Maeve tells her to shut up and get on with it. 

Maeve is then presented with a list of dates and phone numbers which signified voicemails that were long gone. Of course, Maeve knows Otis’ number and of course, she remembers the date. The day of the quiz finals and of course the day she turned in her own mother. 

Olivia asks her one more time if she’s sure and Maeve nods.

“ Hey, Maeve. I know you can’t answer this right now because I’m watching you on live TV. But I wanted you to know how proud of you I am. And how unbelievably stupid I’ve been. You telling me you had feelings for me was… was all I wanted to hear, and I was so caught up in trying to do the right thing, I lost track of what that actually is. It’s you. It’s always been you. I love you, Maeve. Call me back, I hope it’s not too late.” 

It’s not exactly the words Otis told her back at the bus station, Maeve thinks it’s yet another reflection of how he had moved on. When it comes to an end and Maeve is sniffling she knows she made a mistake, if she wanted to move on, this was definitely not the way to go about it, if anything it’s made her feel worse.

“Can I-I save this somehow?” 

“Yeah of course.” Again Olivia goes through some technical waffle about how she was going to save this as an audio file. Maeve’s not listening out of choice this time, she is just replaying Otis’ words over and over again in her head. “It’s all done.” 

“You need to promise me one thing though,” Maeve says once she gets her senses back. 

“What?” 

“Don’t use this for whatever squabble you and Ruby are having. Otis’ doesn’t deserve this, he gets hurt enough.”

Olivia decides to half keep her promise to Maeve. 

She does feel terrible for her, as she was standing next to her while the voicemail played out from the computer speakers. Olivia just imagines how different Maeve’s, Otis’ and Ruby’s lives would be right now if this voicemail had come through to Maeve eight months ago back in April rather than the back of this rather cold store in December. 

She won’t use the voicemail unless as a last resort as she has Ally’s Valentine’s day card ready to come through in February and there was something else coming up in January. 

BC and CC’s birthday. 

Olivia agrees to Ruby’s demands to not tell them about her relationship with Otis, only because she knows that will be twice as brutal in person. 

BC and CC were just as bad as Ruby, if not worse when her when it came down to cutting down those ‘below’ them and they would absolutely laugh and terrorise Ruby to her face when she walks through the front door of the party hand in hand with Otis Milburn. 

Olivia tries to make an extra little edition to embarrass Ruby down in London, BC and CC will both have their hot boyfriends, Anwar was taking Rahim now Olivia needed her own one to make Otis Milburn look even worse in comparison. 

Finding a ‘hot’ boyfriend in such a short period of time is tricky so she decides to make yet another rash and stupid decision and hire one. A male escort to be more precise, this big idiot called John who was rather confused when she explicitly stated she didn’t want him to sleep with her, just make two of these other teenagers look like idiots.

He’s annoyingly nice, which is why he is so terrible at insulting Otis and Ruby as a couple like she requested. 

It’s when they get to the party Ruby confronts her about John and how they found out who he was via the internet. 

Olivia gives a fake excuse, stating that she didn’t want to be alone this weekend and now it’s Ruby’s turn to be nice, telling her how stunning she is. 

This isn’t the first time this had happened, despite how horrible she was being towards her boyfriend, Ruby’s kindness had increased and lack of insults thrown back in her direction had decreased as of late. This was all aligned with Otis Milburn becoming more and more prominent in Ruby’s life, she could still be unapologetically herself a lot of the time but it was right here in this moment Olivia realised that Ruby Matthews was trying to change. 

Is this what being with Otis did to someone………

After it goes silent between them, Olivia watches Ruby turn her attention back to Otis on the dancefloor, dancing like an idiot with John, normally the sort of thing Ruby would despise but right now she looks breathless as she watches him, her eyes full of adoration and love.

Oh my god, what was she trying to do? 

She was attempting to tare all this down and for what? So she could just get one ‘back on her’. She had been so blinded by her previous experiences to realise this was the best version of Ruby she had ever seen and then she thinks back to Otis’ best friends words in the coffee shop.

“But I have never seen Oatcake this happy before.” 

Two people who were slowly making one another whole and she was ready to destroy all. 

Was this her ‘it’s my vagaina’ moment 2.0

All of the guilt of what she was prepared to do was hitting her whole. With the help of the compliment and the alcohol in her system, Olivia attempts to apologise straight away.

“There was another reason though, I wanted to-.” 

As she begins, something else is beginning on the dancefloor and it spares her blushes.

For the next month, Olivia lives quietly with her secret anxiously hoping nothing occurs on Valentine’s day. 

“Did you and Otis have a nice day on the weekend?” Olivia asks her on the Monday after Valentine’s day when they are seated at their table at lunchtime. 

“Yeah we did, apart from some bitch sent Otis a valentine’s card.” 

Oh shit. 

“Woah! Milburn hasn’t been sneaking around behind your back has he?” Anwar perked up as he seemed fascinated with such a scandal.

“No! He doesn’t even know who it’s from, whoever it was hates me though.” 

“So you’re not pissed off with him?” Olivia asks. After months of hoping that her actions did affect their relationship, here she was hoping her actions hadn’t affected their relationship. 

“No, I believe him and besides I got loads of cards. Here I brought in some of my favourites.” Ruby dug out about 5 or 6 cards from her bag and waved them smugly in the air. 

Of course, a stupid and pathetic little card wasn’t going to get between them, their love was too strong for that, too strong for everything Olivia had thrown at them previously and was prepared to throw at them, including the voicemail which Olivia had saved in her phone after she saved it while Maeve wasn’t looking in the shop back in December.

So Olivia is in the clear for now and largely puts the whole fiasco behind her until Otis Birthday which she and Anwar are dragged to against their will. 

While they wait around for Ruby, Otis and the rest of his family to shout “Suprise!” when he comes through the door (Olivia and Anwar had already agreed between them that they would simply mouth it) Olivia swears she has a mini heart attack when Ally Cooper walks through the door. 

She manages to avoid the small brunette all night until Anwar heads outside to get a better signal to order them a taxi, leaving Olivia alone in front of the exit to the pub. 

“Why did you lie?” 

Ally’s voice takes her by surprise, she doesn’t think Ally Coopers tiny figure makes many people feel intimidated but right now because of her previous actions that’s how Olivia feels. 

“Erm, what?” 

“She’s not terrible, or at least not as terrible as you described her. Anyone would be lucky to have someone like that to give as much effort as she did.” Ally nodded her head back towards the function room where the party that Ruby had organised for Otis had taken place. Of course, Olivia and Anwar thought it was a terrible party and would probably disown Ruby if she had done this for their 18th birthday. However, the smile on Otis’ face didn’t disappear from the moment he walked through the door right up until he began to be sick. 

“Ally I-.” 

The door swings open from behind them to reveal Ruby with her arm wrapped around Otis as she attempts to direct him out of the pub. 

“Oh, I didn’t know you two knew eachother.”

Despite the fact that she was going to get away with this, she feels absolutely terrible which is why she nearly lets it slip at the Prom. 

But finally, she comes undone at her new year’s party. She doesn’t even mean to open up the way she does, she was just saying what she saw.

New Year’s Eve 2020

“You know I spent all this time trying to get you two to break up and now it’s actually happened I feel terrible for you.” 

“Liv me and Otis haven’t-.” Ruby stops herself as she processed the words she had just heard from Olivia. 

“What did you just say?”

It’s an accident a complete accident and Oliva doesn’t think she is quite in the right headspace for all of this now. 

“Erm-.” Olivia’s voice wobbles as she looks deeper into Ruby’s black eyes glaring menacingly back at her.

Olivia picks up her bag and runs, well as much as her heels allow her to as she heads into an empty spare room that wasn’t being used as Olivia might have been a little bit too optimistic on numbers for the party. 

Ruby follows her all the way though and barges through the door a few seconds after her. 

“Are you going to tell me what the fucks going on!” Ruby shouts at her as she towers over her while Olivia places herself down onto a chair. “WELL!” 

Olivia one of her hands over her face to hide herself for a brief moment. “I’ve been so stupid Rubes.” 

Olivia then proceeds to tell Ruby everything, how she or Anwar would feel in the past because of her behaviour then how she brought Anwar in on this plan, their purposeful battering of Otis, how Anwar dropped out, what she arranged with Ally, her plan for London and of course the voicemail. 

When Olivia’s story comes to an end she is in tears, beginning for forgiveness. Ruby remained emotionless throughout just glaring down at her. But as she finished Ruby could feel her own tears beginning to form and sniffled heavily in an attempt to prevent showing any weakness in this situation she found herself in. 

So her sister was dead, her dad had a neurological disease, her mum had flown off to a totally different country with a random man, she had told her boyfriend to scatter and now her best friend was actively trying to sabotage the best thing to ever happen to her. 

The first four incidents Ruby believes are devolved from the fact that she has the worst luck in the world. But this fifth and most recent revelation was all on her. 

This was years of karma building up to try and bite her back in the arse. Ruby knew she hadn’t been the best person over the years but this from Olivia had really put it into perspective just how horrible she was to those closest to her. The fact that she felt she was deserving of the torture that Olivia had attempted to put through her, spoke volumes in her own mind. 

“Rubes I’m so sorry.” 

Olivia continued to weep in front of her as despite how terrible she felt inside Ruby wanted to retain the moral high ground to retrieve one bit of information from Oliva’s story. 

“Send me the voicemail, it’s the least you can do for me.” Ruby continued her firm glare down at her. 

Olivia sobbed before she collected her phone from her bag and after a few seconds of Olivia’s shaky hands navigating their way through her phone, Ruby received a notification. 

LIV💚-Otis voicemail.MP3

“Thank you.” Ruby nodded as she looked down at the message that came through before she put her phone back into her coat pocket and began to walk away. 

“Rubes, say something please!” 

Olivia called back, but Ruby just continued to walk out of this scabby little room and began to look for the back door entrance. 

Ruby quickly found said entrance and once she was once again hit by the cold December wind and cars passing by the main road in front of her she began to dig out her phone. 

Ruby knew Otis had feelings for Maeve Wiley in the past, it was evident for anyone with eyes to see as they waltzed around the school campus operating an underground sex clinic. Even back in their ‘casual’ hookup days they had played on Ruby’s mind, Otis had confirmed to her verbally that such feelings did exist back in a French hotel room some 14 months ago. 

‘Feelings’ in a romantic sense were very new to Ruby and she had managed to develop it into a rather strange structure via her relationship with Otis. She went from enjoying his company, to liking him, to really liking him, to loving him. 

Ruby had always hoped that Otis was somewhere in between the ‘liking her’ to ‘really liking her’, considering they were never officially together or even shared a kiss to her information. She always knew she should have just asked about the specifics on how he felt about her, but she had already been seen to be jealous of someone she nicknamed ‘cockbiter’ far too much, so she had just let it eat her up inside. 

But during Olivia’s story, she had learned that there was a ‘near kiss on a bridge’ just minutes after he was sat next to her on Aimee’s couch which made her feel sick inside having Otis’ precious lips near her’s. But perhaps the biggest revelation was the mention of this voicemail, which Olivia had described as ‘a love confession from Otis’. Ruby felt like she had been stabbed in the heart when she saw Otis and Maeve so close together outside the bus in France, hearing those words made her heart feel like it was being slowly torn open. 

She had to know exactly what was said. 

So she loaded up the file, pressed play and put the phone to her ear. 

“ Hey, Maeve. I know you can’t answer this right now because I’m watching you on live TV. But I wanted you to know how proud of you I am. And how unbelievably stupid I’ve been. You telling me you had feelings for me was… was all I wanted to hear, and I was so caught up in trying to do the right thing, I lost track of what that actually is. It’s you. It’s always been you. I love you, Maeve. Call me back, I hope it’s not too late.”

Ruby knows it was a long time ago and she can only imagine this came after they had just one drunken romp in his bedroom, it still hurt her just as badly. 

Hearing those words from Otis’ mouth, her Otis, special words that she thought had always been reserved for her and her only in that context completely shattered her. 

What Ruby found worse though was the,  “It’s you. It’s always been you.” That hit her really hard putting it into perspective just how obsessed he was with her he was, potentially only planning on having one person in his life, Maeve Wiley. Not Ruby Matthews.

He was always going to be her first love, but she could never be his. 

This final revelation in the worst couple of weeks of her life, led Ruby to just one conclusion. 

She needed to get drunk, Blind drunk.

So Ruby jumped in a taxi, which took her to the most popular club in town. 

It was New Year’s Eve so it was a ticketed event with exorbitant prices but Ruby did what she always did, pushed right to the front of the queue, flashed her tits at the bouncers and the old pervs let her walk right in. 

Ruby does follow through and get’s blind drunk. It’s an attempt to just be free for a few hours of everything that was dragging her down. 

Her Mum, Her Dad, Charlotte, Olivia, Otis………. 

It feels heavenly, only when hitting the pads with Adam has she felt free of all that in the past few weeks but she could only keep that up for a few brief seconds, but this, this feeling could last all night…. Well at least until her body begins to portray her. 

Right now her body is just about maintaining pace with everyone else on the dancefloor, guys she dances near offer to buy her shots all night and she obliges. So she gets drunker and drunker and even drunker. 

She takes the guy’s drinks but ignores their calls to dance closer to them, mostly because her distorted mind isn’t even trying to register them, she just wants to focus on how gone she is. 

There are slight giggles at her drunken dancing in the background she can just about pick up but Ruby thinks it’s an accurate reflection of where she is in her life right now, a laughing stock.

What finally does wake Ruby up from her little trance is when one of the guys who had been catcalling her from behind begins to move closer to her. It’s distracting at first as Ruby glances over her shoulder at him grunting slightly as she just wants to focus on her own dancing. 

But then he takes a step in closer so her back is firmly pressed against him and he tries to move with her. For a split second Ruby reverts back to default and grinds into him slightly but then she is woken up, only one person should be able to touch her like this. 

“Otis.” She breathes aloud and throws herself away from the boy. “What the fuck are you doing?” Ruby drunkenly screeches back at him.

The boy laughs before responding “You were dancing with me too you know.”

“Otis! Only Otis!” Ruby begins to wag a finger at the group of boys who begin to laugh at her. 

“What?” 

“I said Otis Only Otis! Don’t you laugh at his name.” Ruby’s wagging finger had now turned into one that was arrowed sharply towards them. 

“Sorry who?” 

Ruby doesn’t know why but she attempts to throw a slap in their direction but one of the bouncers who had noticed her screeches had come over and caught the slap just in time.

“I think you have had a little too much to drink love.” 

“I Certainly, am NOT!” Ruby incoherently shouts like a little child in the bouncer’s face. 

The bouncer is joined by one of his colleagues who begins to escort Ruby out of the club. Ruby attempts to resist but this only leads to her being led kicking and screaming out of the club again like a child.

Ruby groans as she places herself down on the pavement outside of the club. The music that was distracting her is now only faint in the background, so as the cold air hits her everything else hits her. 

She begins to sob. It’s a new year’s eve and there is a party going on in every corner of Moordale and here is the Untouchable Queen Ruby Matthews sobbing on the pavement of a dimly lit street. 

“10” 

“9”

“8”

Ruby can hear the screams of the countdown to 2021 all around her. This time last year, she was clutching tightly with both her hands onto Otis’ arm as they waited for Jakob’s fireworks to go up into the air. 

She needed him. 

Ruby looked down at her phone, the screen was smashed. She had no idea when or where it happened. 

But even with a cracked screen and in her drunken state, she could do this with her eyes closed.

Swipe to unlock - Phone - Contacts - Favourites - Otis ❤️

It doesn’t take very long for him to pick up and his panicky voice comes straight into her ear. 

“Rubes, Rubes!”

“O-Otis, I n-eed you to come and get me.”

At the party, Otis catches eyes with Ruby’s eyes once, just for the briefest of seconds and then along with Olivia she ends up storming out of the room. 

It’s there that Otis accepts that it’s probably over. 

He had poured his heart out in that letter and she still couldn’t bring herself to look at him for even for a second.

Eric can tell what he’s thinking as he stays rooted in his chair not engaging with any of the fun. He asks him if he wants to go back home several times but Otis insists he is fine. 

But eventually he caves in, he had barely touched his drink so he takes him and Eric home where they join Ola, Lily and Belle back at the house and just watch the new year’s situation. 

Otis feels like he is dragging the mood down so he heads upstairs to his room but promises to come back down for the countdown. 

When he enters the room, his eyes go straight to the photo of Ruby on his bedside table, all that warmth that was revealed just for him when she brought down her walls again just for him and he had portrayed her trust to the point where she couldn’t even look at him properly.

He throws of his suit, a gift from Ruby, probably the last gift she would ever buy him and changes into what she would dub ‘homeless clothes’. 

When he does that, he lies on his bed, thinking about their entire relationship through which started on this very bed with…

“ Tell anyone about this and I will destroy your life.”

It truly was the happiest period of his life. Otis doesn’t want to move on, he can’t move on. He will never do better than that girl right there, in every single way conceivable. 

Their relationship was a long and exhilarating ride so by the time he had come to the end of their story, Eric knocks on his door.

“Oatcake it’s time.” 

“I’m coming.” Otis smiles at Ruby’s photo one last time before heading downstairs.

He puts on a brave face when he comes downstairs as everyone else is looking forward to the passing of yet another year. 

“7”

“6”

“5”

“4”

“3”

“2”