Afternoon study session with Ruby

There’s an hour before your afternoon psych class, so you hit up Ruby to see if she’s down to study.

That’s how you end up on the quad, laying belly-down on the grass, enjoying one of autumn’s last genuinely warm days.

“Gosh, you know, I forgot that Vignesh isn’t in our class anymore,” Ruby says. {if Vignesh > 0} “I was going to invite him to study with us, and then I remembered that he’s gone…” {endif}

{if FuckRuby False} “Last week was quite something, huh?” you smile. {elseif RubyOutcome == 1} “The two of us made a good team, huh?” you smile. {else} “What, I wasn’t enough for you?” you smile. {endif}

“Was that supposed to be innuendo?” Ruby smiles back, shaking her head. {if Vignesh > 50} “He was cute, that’s all. {else} “He was kinda weird, that’s all. {endif}

“Well, he’s in a better place now,” you say, solemnly putting your hand over your heart.

“Alex! Don’t joke about that,” Ruby admonishes, but she can’t help but chuckle a bit at your comment.

“You’re right,” you agree sadly. “Grad analysis is definitely not a better place. It’s a living hell if I’ve ever seen one. Rest in peace, Vignesh, and try not to drown in your work.”

“I could never do that class,” she says. “But we’ve got our own problems too.”

She shakes her head and pulls out another tall stack of problems that you’ve been assigned. You glance at it, staring at all of the abstract notation, you’re doing something related to trigonometry and calculus now… Professor Luck seems like a nice person, but you swear that she’s trying to bury you in work sometimes. Actually, all the time. Mountains and mountains of work. It never ends. And actually, it’s not just Luck. It’s all of your professors. It’s like they want to drown you in your studies! How are you going to get a bunch of As to fuck all the girls that you want on Burn Night? Damn…

“Hey, Earth to Alex?” Ruby says, waving a hand to you. “Any help with this problem? Or have the post-lunch sleepies gotten to you?”

“Quite the opposite,” you say, scrambling for an excuse. “My stomach’s grumbling. I could use a snack right now.”

“Snacks are an important part of any diet,” she agrees. “But only so long as it’s healthy and nutritious! That’s how you maintain a body like mine.”

Ruby’s last comment is meant in jest, but you take the excuse to check her out anyways. She’s wearing a simple tee and pants, her red hair tied back into a ponytail today. The stack of books across her lap and the guys playing frisbee in the background complete the college-brochure look. Of course, the actual thoughts in your head are somewhat dirtier. {if FuckRuby True} You’d like to fuck her again, you dirty scoundrel, or why else are you here? {else} You’d like to get in her pants, you dirty scoundrel, or why else are you here? {endif}

“It’s something to be proud of,” you wink. “But I really am hungry. Give me one second, I’ll be right back.”

“Wait, we haven’t looked at a single problem yet!” Ruby calls out, but you, after glancing at the page, are already gone, making a beeline for the dining hall.

You’re in and out in five minutes, rushing back to the quad.

“I’ve got the solution to the problem!” you {if Fitness > 2}say{else}pant{endif} as you return. “You just have to think of the problem geometrically. Think of it like partitioning up the unit circle…”

“Oh, it makes total sense now,” Ruby says, nodding as she scribbles down a diagram that reflects what you just said. She looks up at you and smiles. “See, you told you that a healthy snack is good. Brain juice. What did you get?”

“I haven’t had it yet,” you say, pulling the container out of your bag. “I thought we could share. A big fruit salad.”

It’s a berry mix with slices of orange, apple, banana, kiwi, and honeydew thrown in, topped with some kind of vinaigrette that was available at the salad bar. The fruit glistens. You hand over a plastic fork to Ruby, who eagerly digs in. The two of you munch for a minute.

“Much better,” you say, rubbing your belly.

“This is good,” Ruby laughs, “and now I owe you a snack.”

“You’ll just have to pay me back next week,” you say, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

“Yes, a good snack makes the studying go easier,” Ruby smiles.

The rest of the study session goes by without a hitch, and then you head over to psychology, which too flies by. You decide to catch up on your homework and then slide into soccer practice with barely a minute to spare (Daphne throws you a sharp look—she really doesn’t like people being late), and you get so caught up in training that you don’t get the chance to chat with Mars or Val until you’re coming back out the locker room, freshly spruced up.

Mars is wearing her usual, a cute dark top that exposes a bit of midriff, while Valentine seems to have gone all out. She’s changed into a deep V-cut sleeveless dress studded with white rhinestones—the kind of thing that you’d expect to see at a club, not casualwear to change into after soccer practice. The plunging neckline exposes a sharp amount of cleavage that’s plenty distracting as you approach the girls.

“You’re insane,” Mars says to Valentine. “Today’s a Monday! How could you possibly think that going into New York’s a good idea?”

“It’s a phenomenal idea,” Val laughs, causing her bust to jiggle against her dress. She winks and flashes you a knowing smile. “New York, concrete streets where dreams are made of…”

“Wait, going to New York was the secret plan that Val was talking about yesterday?” you exclaim, staring at her in confusion. “What are you going to do there?”

“What does it look like I’m going to do?” she says.

“Um… visit the UN?” you say, trying to figure out why she’s all dressed up like this.

“She’s going clubbing, Alex,” Mars says with a roll of her eyes.

Oh. That makes much more sense.

“I knew that,” you say with a confident nod of your head, which makes both the girls snort.

“You want to join me, Alex?” Val says, extending a hand towards you. “Train leaves in half an hour. We could have a wild, wild night together…”

“And I am not joining her, because I am not insane,” Mars interjects. “It’s one thing to try to use a fake on campus, but do you even know where you’re going tonight? If I want to get drunk, I’m going to go to the Theta fundraiser tonight, and there’s no chance I’ll be denied entrance. I’ve heard rumors about this fundraiser. They say it’s going to be a wild one too.”

You look back and forth between the girls, pondering the options that they’ve presented.

“Yeah, but New York is New York,” Val laughs, waving a hand. Then, she extends it back towards you again. “So, you coming or not?”

Ruby +15