Ruby Unscripted by Cindy Martinusen Coloma Read Free Book Online Page A

happened?”
    â€œI might have erased your messages.”
    â€œWhat?!”
    â€œI didn’t mean to.”
    â€œRuby,” Aunt Jenna calls again.
    â€œOkay, forget it. Just leave my phone alone.”
    â€œSorry.”
    â€œMac”—I want to yell a slew of things at him right now—“now you owe me for this one.”
    â€œYeah. I owe you dearly.”

chapter six
    Kate, it's so cool, I wish you were here.
    This is what I want to type, if I had my phone with me.
    I miss Kate terribly, wish I had her beside me, helping customers and whispering comments about the people who’ve come for Premiere Night.
    The air simply buzzes with excitement like static electricity in your clothing.
    â€œRuby, take over the cash register—I need to make another batch of popcorn,” Aunt Jenna says. I see the tiredness in her eyes, but we have several hours yet to go.
    Premiere Night brings out a different crowd from the daytime customers. Or maybe it’s some of the same people, but the night and event have transformed them into cool creatures of the art and film world. Artists wear their baggy jeans and expensive but faded T-shirts, a few visible tattoos, piercings, gauges in their ears, while other artist-types express wealth in their clothes, watches, and jewelry. Several of the girls look like runway models, and a few others could’ve been extras at the sorority house in Legally Blonde . My dirty black apron, Gap jeans, brown shoes, and Underground polo shirt don’t mix with any of the types here. And I can only guess what my hair and makeup look like, since I’ve been here since eleven in the morning.
    I see Frankie. He waves and winks at me from a circle of people who talk and move like a flock of birds through the coffeehouse and down the stairs.
    Kate would love this, and all the very hot guys. We’re always complaining about the lack of good-looking males at home, though I think that’s because we’ve known most of the guys at school since they were eating paste and pulling our ponytails. But if she were here, we could take up my aunt and mom’s hobby of creating stories for the most interesting characters. We might say that the guy with the Mohawk works at a tattoo parlor but has a secret love for poodles. The twin girls near the corner who look shy and unpretentious are daughters of a senator and plot to take the most-famous-twins throne from the Olsen sisters.
    I miss Kate. I miss her with a strange gut-ache feeling. Or maybe it’s a mixture of loneliness and missing.
    A dark-haired guy weaves through the groupings of people. His eyes—dark brown and serious—catch mine for a moment, then he walks toward the cinema stairs. Maybe it’s his intensity or a way about his casual style that reminds me of a young Johnny Depp. There’s also a young Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise and surely Chad Michael Murray’s younger brother.
    The upstairs crowd soon disappears into the cinemas downstairs. I carry a few more empty mugs to the kitchen, where Aunt Jenna comes out of the walk-in cooler carrying an armload of containers. “Oh, Ruby, you should go see some of the films.”
    But there are dirty tables to wipe, and popcorn litters the floor, and Aunt Jenna looks increasingly tired, which makes me worry. She’s had health issues for a number of years, which is also why she hasn’t had a baby.
    Uncle Jimmy arrived some time ago and is doing dishes, though ever so slowly compared to Rayna. He keeps having trouble with the industrial dishwasher. He’s still in his jeans and T-shirt from being on a building site where he’s the foreman of a construction company.
    â€œNext time,” I say and return to the dining area.
    From the stairwell I hear shouts and applause rising from the theater below. I overhear snippets of conversation as people come up and down for coffee, popcorn, and sweets. The monthly special of popcorn runs