Ruby found the next issue of her mother's self-help magazine lining the bottom of Jamie's rabbit, Bounce's, cage. Bounce had been rather disgruntled when he was awoken, two days after Ruby's last piano lesson with Mina, to the teenage rummaging around underneath his feet and then stealing half of his bedding.
Ruby had realised that there were side effects to her 'Luke Substitute' plan. For example waking up in a cold sweat after having a... not exactly PG-13 dream about a certain blind vampire. She was pretty sure they were just Luke withdrawal symptoms. Every addict got them right? Maybe she shouldn't have been quite so hasty in completely ignoring Luke and instead slowly weaned herself off of him.
Bounce however didn't seem to sympathise with her crisis. And the latest issue said nothing about side-effects, complications, lesbian fantasies or withdrawal symptoms; it was too concerned with herbal rash remedies and organic wheat scarves.
Ruby decided to take her own advice.
When Luke questioned her later about the tiny, angry red marks across her hands and wrist, Ruby just smiled and failed to mention her run in with her brother's ill-tempered, exceedingly dangerous and sharp toothed rabbit.
---
"So what has been wrong with you recently?" Luke asked, eyeing up the waitress behind the popcorn dispenser from his position leaning against the sweet counter. Ruby had forced him into seeing the latest Harry Potter film, despite him complaints about having way too much magic in his life, without experiencing more on a horrifcally large screen.
"Hmm?" Ruby decided evasion would most defiantly be the best tactic to avoid any embarrassing or awkward confrontations.
"You've been acting weird." Luke sent her a wounded look, "you've been avoiding me."
"Me? Avoid you? Nope." Ruby switched to innocence.
Her friend turned to stare quizzically at her. "You've been spending loads of time with Mina."
Ruby shrugged and attempted to look nonchalant, distracting herself with the incredibly important decision of gummy bears or strawberry laces. Heavens knows pick 'n' mix was a crucial part of the cinema experience. "Hardly. We've had two lessons together; we're not quite swapping friendship bracelets just yet. Anyway, what's it to you?"
Now it was Luke's turn to shrug. "It's just weird. You don't like each other, remember?"
Ruby smiled, "well it turns out that Mina's…" amazing? "…Okay. Why, are you jealous?" She grinned wickedly at him. And then frowned, wondering why she didn't feel quite as victorious as she should.
"No." Luke said slightly too quickly. Finally losing his patience with her indecision, he snatched her sweet scope out her hand and shoved gummy bears into the striped candy bag. "Just not crazy about the idea of being made redundant as a friend," he said, nudging her towards the scales.
Ruby wrinkled her nose. "Aw, snockums. If I was going to replace you, I would have done it a long time ago…."
She snickered, and Luke reached out a hand to ruffle her hair affectionately. "Bitch," he murmured good-humouredly.