Page 128 of Spark

“Nope. Not at all. Sorry.”

The PA rolls her eyes. “Follow me, please.”

“It was all Ruby’s idea,” Kendrick jokes, making me swat his arm and giggle, and the PA turns around and hushes us.

“Sorry,” we whisper at the same time. But when our eyes meet, we crack up again, which only pisses off the PA even more. I can’t say I blame the woman. From what the director told us in rehearsal earlier today, these live tapings are a stressful juggling act for the crew, since they’re shot precisely as the show will air, with no opportunity for edits or re-dos. Which means, in theory, everyone needs to follow instructions to a T—and at least stay put in greenrooms, when told to do that. But oh well. I don’t regret what Kendrick and I did for second. It would have been a crying shame for us to miss out. Fuck the show.

We return to our holding cell, where we’re surprised to discover Titus and Kai aren’t alone in the room any longer, as before. Now, they’ve been joined in waiting by none other than Cooper and his two bandmates from Alexa Play Music. Indeed, Titus and Kai seem to be in the midst of a calmconversation with all of them—the kind they used to have when APM opened for us a few years ago.

“They made us wait in here,” Cooper blurts at his first sight of Kendrick striding into the room. “Don’t come at me, bro.”

Cooper’s bandmates get up and greet us warmly, while Cooper hangs back in his seat.

Suddenly, Kendrick’s words from a while back pop into my head:You gaslit the poor guy!And, suddenly, I can’t shake them. I didn’t mean to do that to Cooper. But I did. Just like Kendrick said.

I release Kendrick’s hand and head over to Cooper.

“Can we talk for a minute? Maybe over there?”

I gesture toward a large snack table in the corner, and Cooper looks wary.

“They’re gonna come get my band any minute now for our performance.”

“This will only take a minute, Coop.”

This time, Cooper looks at Kendrick, like he’s trying to gauge if saying yes will get him punched.

“Don’t worry about him,” I say. “He’s the one who said the thing that made me want to apologize to you.”

That gets Cooper’s undivided attention. “Apologize?” He blinks rapidly, like he can’t fully process my words. “To me? For what?”

“Come talk to me in private and find out.”

“Is this a trick?”

Rolling my eyes, I call over to Kendrick. “I’m gonna talk to Cooper in the corner over there. Will that elicit any kind of reaction from you, babe?”

“None whatsoever.” With that, Kendrick blandly returns to his conversation with Cooper’s bass player, Scottie.

“Okay,” Cooper mutters. With an exhale, he gets up andfollows me into the corner I’ve gestured to, and when we get to our destination, I get right to the point.

“Kendrick made me realize,” I take a deep breath, “I gaslit you, Cooper. It wasn’t intentional, and I certainly didn’t realize that’s what I was doing at the time. But looking back, Kendrick is right: that’s what I did, and I’m sorry about that.”

Cooper looks stunned. “You gaslit me about what?”

I explain what I mean, wrapping up with, “So, you weren’t as paranoid and delusional as I kept insisting. Yes, you were paranoid about me cheating. I didn’t do that, I swear. But looking back, I had feelings for Kendrick that I wasn’t even consciously aware of while I was dating you. I gave you plenty of reasons to feel insecure and jealous about my friendship with Kendrick, even though I kept telling you that was crazy talk. That he was like a brother to me. I’m sorry you went through that, thanks to my cluelessness about my own feelings. I didn’t mean to do it to you, but, obviously, I did, and I’m sorry.”

“I . . . Wow.” Cooper scratches his arm, looking dazed and surprised. “Thank you for saying all that, Ruby.”

“You deserve to know the truth. You’re the villain in this story, to be clear.” I smile. “But maybe you’re not quite as big a villain as I made you out to be in my head.”

He chuckles. “Thanks. That means a lot. Back at you.” He presses his lips together. “So, does that mean we’re now letting bygones be bygones?”

I shrug. “Sure. You’re an artist. You should be allowed to express yourself honestly in your art.” I narrow my eyes. “Would I have preferred you didn’t use my actual name in your lyrics, you little prick? Yes. But such is life. Such is art.”

Cooper laughs. “Yeah, well, I would have preferred my girlfriend didn’t moan another guy’s name while sleeping next to me in bed, so . . .”

“I’ve apologized, Cooper. Let’s not beat a dead horse here, or I might feel compelled to retract everything I’ve said.”

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