Page 21 of Spark

“Ha!”

“Ruby, you know what I’m talking about.”

“I assure you, I don’t.”

Kai glares at me, like he thinks I’m lying, but I shrug, letting him know whatever he’s thinking about is a mystery to me.

His eyes narrowed, Kai says, “You’ve forced my hand, Ruby. I’ve never told this story to anyone, because, contrary to what you think, I’ve never wanted to embarrass you. But now that you’ve opened Pandora’s Box?—”

“Oh,I’mthe one who did that?”

“I feel like I’ve got to tell it to defend myself. Unless, of course, you’d like to do the honors.”

“I already know you lied to Kendrick about all that prior stuff, too, Kai. Kendrick told me. So, let’s get everything out in the open.”

“I didn’t tell Kendrick a single lie about that part. The only lie I told was about your birthday party.”

“Not true. You told Kendrick I professed my desperate, undying love for you.”

“Because you did.”

“What? Are you delusional?”

Kai’s expression is smug and immovable. “Wow, look who’s lying now.”

I gasp. “I was never in love with you. Let alone desperately.”

“Yes, you were.”

“I had a teeny-tiny crush on you—an older guy who seemed mysterious and knowledgeable about music—for a nano-second, back when I was a sixteen-year-old virgin with zero experience with boys. And you knew that, so you lured me to admit my crush on you?—”

“Lured you?”

“Yes, because you loved the ego boost of it all. I assure you, though, once I got to know you the tiniest bit, I quickly realized my so-called crush on you was stupid and not even about you as a person. That I’d sooner kiss a maggot-covered pile of shit than kiss you!”

Everyone chuckles. Everyone except, Kai, who’s looking damned furious at this point.

“You’re so full of shit,” Kai grits out, and everyone in the room shifts their gaze to him, like we’re watching a ping pong match. “We both know after I turned you down in that stairwell?—”

“You didn’t turn me down.”

“—you never stopped giving me puppy-dog eyes from across every room.”

“What? After our conversation in the stairwell, I was so embarrassed I’d said anything to you, I could barely look at you, let alone give you ‘puppy-dog eyes.’ And you didn’t turn me down, Kai. Quite the opposite. You intentionally kept me hanging, because you wanted to keep me as an option for a later time. Like, maybe, I don’t know, my twentieth birthday, perhaps?”

Kai adamantly denies it, and I insist I’m right, with both of us shouting until, finally, Titus intervenes and screams, even more loudly, for both of us to shut the fuck up. When a charged silence ensues, Titus looks between both of us, his chest heaving.

“Ruby, you have the floor first,” Titus commands. “Tell us what happened in that stairwell, from your point of view. And, Kai, keep your mouth shut.”

I take a deep breath. “Thank you, T. Okay, so this was maybe a month after we’d joined the band. After practice one night, Kai went out into the stairwell to smoke, while the rest of you party animals stayed behind to drink beer. I followed Kai into the stairwell, because, yes, I had a little crush on him, and I was hoping to flirt with him a little bit and see if maybe he’d show any signs of interest.” I roll my eyes at my embarrassing admission. “Well, we got to chatting out there, and, suddenly, with nobody else around, Kai started being super flirty with me. Like, it was reallyobvious, you guys.”

“Bullshit,” Kai murmurs.

“Let her speak,” Kendrick says, his large palm raised. “You’ll get your chance.”

“She wassixteen,” Kai insists. “I knew better than to flirt with her.”

“No, you didn’t,” Titus pipes in. “You always looked at her like a hungry lion. Right from the start.”

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