Blue is at Monmouth, because she was supposed to see Noah today, when Ronan walks in the door. He looks at her sitting on the couch, then looks around, probably expecting to see someone else.
"Why are you sitting here all by yourself, weirdo?"
"Noah was supposed to be here. I was hoping he'd show up."
Ronan shrugs and walks to the fridge, grabbing a bottle of water. He is just about to disappear into his room when he turns back.
"Are you fucking with him?"
She scrunches her eyebrows. "Who? Noah?"
He scowls. "Not Noah. Gansey. Obviously."
"What do you mean am I fucking with Gansey?" The word is relatively foreign in her mouth.
"I don't know what the hell is going on with you two and your weird yearning looks and shit, but he doesn't deserve to be strung along."
"Did you just say yearning completely seriously?"
"Sargent."
Despite the fact that she is being accused of leading on the boy she is almost definitely in love with, Blue isn't mad; seeing Ronan's concern for Gansey is heartwarming, a word she never before thought would ever be associated with Ronan Lynch.
He has all these people who would die for him, she thinks. And we're going to lose him anyway.
"I'm not stringing him along." Truth be told she is surprised Ronan noticed. She wonders if this means Adam had noticed. Crap. "It's just, you know. My curse."
It doesn't hit her until just then that maybe Ronan doesn't know. She hadn't told him, and why would anyone else? When would that ever have come up? His blank look confirms this.
"Oh. You don't know."
"Of course not, because why would I be fucking told anything?"
"It's just – every single psychic I've ever met told me that if I kiss my true love, he'll die."
To Ronan's credit, he takes her seriously. "And I'm assuming everyone except me was informed of this."
She blushes. "Well, I told Gansey because I couldn't kiss Adam, and then I told Adam because he wanted to kiss me, and then I told Noah because I, well – I kissed him. I guess I was just never concerned about kissing you."
"Lucky me. Hang on – you kissed Noah?"
"I just – we – that's not really any of your business!"
Ronan lets out a singular laugh – ha! – and goes back to the fridge. "Dead boy's still got it." Blue grabs an empty coke can and chucks it at his head. Ronan stands up and shuts the fridge. He has a Tupperware container filled with some kind of leftovers and a yogurt. He chucks the yogurt at her, a spoon following shortly after.
"Thanks," she says, oddly touched. "Why did you start buying yogurt?"
He rolls his eyes. "Why do you think?"
She smiles.
Ronan collapses onto the couch beside her and takes a few bites of cold pasta before speaking again. "So. What's this curse thing again?"
She sighs. "If I kiss my true love, he'll die."
"That's kind of true for everyone, though, isn't it?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, if I kiss my… 'true love,'" his lip curls. Blue has never heard something so inherently romantic turned into something so… not. "They'll die. It might be sixty years after the fact but – it's like those obnoxious assholes who say 100% of people who drink water die. I fucking hate those people."
"Somehow I doubt that's what the psychics meant."
He shrugs, and with a jolt Blue realizes that he's trying to comfort her. She tries to think about what to say to this. She settles with handing him her yogurt, with all the fruit at the bottom. He takes it, before eyeing the spoon warily. "This isn't gonna be some kiss by proxy, is it?"
This makes her laugh. "Something tells me you're not my true love."
"I'm offended," he says, finishing off her yogurt. "So… it's Gansey, then?"
She pokes at a rip in the couch. "I don't know. I think – I don't know. There's really only one way to find out, and I'm not eager to test that."
"How did Parrish take it?"
Something in his voice makes her look up. He is scraping at the yogurt container as if looking for more. She remembers what he had said about true love, remembering the careful way he had avoided using any kind of gendered pronoun. Then she thinks about that asshole Kavinsky.
"Are you… do you…"
"Spit it out, maggot."
"Boys," is her totally eloquent way that she puts it. Ronan raises an eyebrow.
"You're going to have to expand on that."
She takes a breath. She really wishes she had never started this conversation. "Do you and… do you – do you have a thing for Adam?"
His face remains blank, but he turns back to the empty yogurt. "What makes you think that?"
Adam had once told her that Ronan never technically lied – Adam had called it lying by omission. He won't outright lie, but he'll avoid the truth.
"Well, among other things, you made him a mixtape and beat the shit out of his father."
The corner of his mouth curls up in half a smile. "Is that how people express love in your family?"
"Not answering is an answer too, you know."
"You're not as smart as you think you are, Sargent."
"It doesn't matter. You've got to know that."
She doesn't know what she expects. What she gets is, "More yogurt?"
"Um. Sure." He gets up and pats her head in a way that seems almost fond, and she knows something's shifted between them. She thinks about how he immediately grabbed her in the cave when Gansey fell, and then she thinks about how he gave her the only source of light when they were stuck underground.
"You're not as much of an asshole as you pretend to be," she says, an echo of her words in the cave.
He throws the yogurt at her head.
After a minute or two she says, "So both of us are in pretty shitty situations, huh?"
"You're not going to ask me to paint your nails and talk about boys, now, are you?"
"Well, not anymore," she says, with mock petulance. Ronan rolls his eyes and yanks the yogurt out of her hands.
At that moment the door opens and everyone else walks in. Noah smiles at her as warmly as a boy who is perpetually cold can, while Adam looks at her and Ronan cozy on the couch together with slight confusion. Gansey looks at the yogurt in Ronan's hand.
"That's supposed to be Jane's yogurt," he says.
"It was Jane's yogurt," Ronan says, showing Gansey the fruit at the bottom, and Blue almost laughs at the look of betrayal on his face.
"Noah, we were supposed to hang out today."
"Sorry, Blue. I got distracted."
"Was the Underworld showing reruns of Full House again?" Ronan asks with a smirk. Gansey still seems preoccupied by the yogurt cup Ronan is holding.
"I hope you were civilized to Jane," he says.
"You know me. Perfect gentlemen. By the way, Noah – good job man."
Blue buries her head in her hands.
"What does that mean?" Adam asks. Ronan winks. Sensing disaster, Blue stands up.
"Jesus Christ," she mutters, grabbing Noah's arm.
"Did you kiss him too?" Ronan says. Noah laughs, while Adam and Gansey look between the two of them in confusion and horror, respectively.
"You told him?"
"Told him what?" Gansey's voice is forcefully calm, while Ronan cackles. Blue picks up a pen lying around and throws it at Ronan, who deflects it easily and then throws the empty yogurt at her.
"What the hell is happening?" Adam asks Gansey.
"I don't know. But I don't think I like it. Hey!" He exclaims suddenly. "You got yogurt all over me."
"Did we get it on your shoes?" Blue asks, and Gansey shakes his head.
"Damn. I'll try harder next time."
"Blue!" Ronan laughs harder and Blue laughs along with him, and not even Adam can resist smiling at the look on Gansey's face.