2025-01-14 - Caught Beneath the Landslide

[TXT to Ruby] Brandon: Morning Surfer Girl 😀

[TXT to Brandon] Ruby: Morning rock star

[TXT to Brandon] Ruby: Sleep well?

[TXT to Ruby] Brandon: Yeah. Until Derek woke me up

[TXT to Brandon] Ruby: Who is Derek?

[TXT to Brandon] Ruby: Is that your cat?

[TXT to Ruby] Brandon: Derek is band management

[TXT to Ruby] Brandon: Cats > Derek

[TXT to Brandon] Ruby: Well I'd pick cats over most people

[TXT to Brandon] Ruby: But not a fun text?

[TXT to Ruby] Brandon: but he used to buy us beer. i'm more of a dog person. anyway

[TXT to Ruby] Brandon: Well depends on how one defines 'fun'

[TXT to Brandon] Ruby: Is he pulling you out of hiding to entertain the masses?

[TXT to Ruby] Brandon: ummm. so about that

[TXT to Ruby] Brandon: you been on IG yet today?

[TXT to Brandon] Ruby: No?

[TXT to Ruby] Brandon: well I'm private so I didn't get tagged

[TXT to Ruby] Brandon: directly

[TXT to Ruby] Brandon: but

[TXT to Ruby] Brandon: some girl from nebraska posted a pic of us in the Delve

[TXT to Brandon] Ruby: Oh.

[TXT to Ruby] Brandon: And I am sorry. so sorry.

[TXT to Ruby] Brandon: b/c you didn't ask for this

[TXT to Brandon] Ruby: I'm kind of afraid to look

[TXT to Ruby] Brandon: and you deserve better

[TXT to Brandon] Ruby: You didn't do anything

[TXT to Brandon] Ruby: Calm down

[TXT to Ruby] Brandon: actually you look great

[TXT to Brandon] Ruby: Lol I see the post now... and the TMZ article.... and yeah

[TXT to Ruby] Brandon: sorry. I just got off all my feeds b/c of this shit

[TXT to Brandon] Ruby: I have 732 messages....

[TXT to Ruby] Brandon: 732?!

[TXT to Brandon] Ruby: It's going up...

[TXT to Ruby] Brandon: so yeah. we both got recognized

[TXT to Brandon] Ruby: TMZ wants to talk to me

[TXT to Ruby] Brandon: no fucking way. serious?

[TXT to Brandon] Ruby: Yeah

[TXT to Brandon] Ruby: And People

[TXT to Brandon] Ruby: And your official fan club

[TXT to Ruby] Brandon: it's not like i'm justin effing timberlake

[TXT to Brandon] Ruby: Well it's the first time anyones seen you out in a while

[TXT to Ruby] Brandon: fair point.

[TXT to Ruby] Brandon: you don't sound mad

[TXT to Brandon] Ruby: Why would I be mad?

[TXT to Brandon] Ruby: You didn't ask for this or take the picture or give it to TMZ

[TXT to Brandon] Ruby: But some of these messages are personal! They are referencing my videos from when i was sixteen!

[TXT to Brandon] Ruby: Oh my god

[TXT to Ruby] Brandon: lets stop texting.

[TXT to Ruby] Brandon: I want to see you

[TXT to Brandon] Ruby: I just woke up. You don't want to see me.

[TXT to Ruby] Brandon: we face this together rubes, we win

[TXT to Brandon] Ruby: Like trust me

[TXT to Brandon] Ruby: Alright Kamala

[TXT to Ruby] Brandon: oh thats a low blow

[TXT to Brandon] Ruby: It was too easy i'm sorry

[TXT to Brandon] Ruby: Can i have 10/15? I can put a pot of coffee on if you want to come here?

[TXT to Ruby] Brandon: oh thats perfect

[TXT to Ruby] Brandon: I promise not to fix my hat hair if it keeps things even

True to form, Brandon opts to find a way to look at least a little cleaned up before running-- literally-- over to Ruby's building. He can't do much about the five o'clock shadow or the fact that his hair is, indeed, a total wreck, so he doesn't. He just pulls on a different beanie, identical to the black one in all but its navy blue coloring, and his favorite grey hoodie over tapered black running sweats. His Nikes, his phone, and his slim wallet are all he needs before he heads out the door.

[TXT to Ruby] Brandon: Heading over now, probly 10 mins

Ruby manages to wash her face, brush her hair, and brush her teeth before Brandon arrives. She's wearing her pajamas still, just an oversized Silvertones t-shirt and a pair of shorts that is barely visible under the hem of the band t. She isn't sure if Wallace is home. If he is, he's probably still sleeping.

"Hey," she says when she answers the door. Rubes leans up on her toes to place a kiss on his cheek.

It was such a quick jaunt from Fox Run to Silver Brook that Brandon didn't even bother with his airpods, so when she opens the door and lets him in, the kiss on the cheek lands unimpeded and completely welcomed on an awestruck Brandon O'Donnell.

He can't help staring at Ruby for a long moment, and it takes him just as long to get out a single simple word: "Wow."

A pause, and then he chuckles, saying, "You look amazing." He obviously means it, which is the crazy thing. He steps inside the apartment and closes the door behind him.

Ruby is still a little sleepy-eyed making the image of Brandon in her doorway all the more dreamy. "Oh, stop," Ruby says bashfully. She crosses her arms over her chest to hide the logo on her shirt. Some things are maybe too embarrassing, even for Ruby. Wearing his face on her shirt when he's right, there is one of them. She should have changed.

"Come in," she says, and closes the door behind him. Ruby's apartment is neat and tidy, with only a handful of personal items left in the common area she shares with Wallace. Left out on the coffee table is the Princess Bride DVD from a couple of days ago, her text books, a laptop, and a squishmellow of a pink dolphin.

"Do you like a light roast?" She asks, wanting caffeine before diving into what it's like to date a celebrity. "You look... less frantic then I expected."

Slipping past Ruby, Brandon leans in to plant a light kiss on the top of her blonde head-- her hair still smells of vanilla shampoo-- before stepping aside to get out of her way. "I'll take anything as long as it's caffeinated," he says kindly, trying not to stare and failing so badly that he forces himself to check out the coffee table instead. It wasn't The Silvertones that caught his attention.

"Honestly, I knew it would happen eventually," he admits. "I just don't want any of it hurting you." Idly, he picks up the DVD, smiling to himself as he turns it over and reads the capsule on the back.

Ruby closes her eyes, smiling softly as he kisses her head, then moves into the kitchen. She's too sleepy to notice him noticing her, which is for the best, because she'd think it was the shirt anyway. It doesn't take long for Ruby to get a pot going. She then moves to grab the eggs and bread from the fridge. "How do you like your eggs?" She asks, hell bent on prolonging the normal as long as possible before celebri-brandon comes out to play.

She glances up at him from the other side of the kitchen island. On the coffee table is Ruby's phone. She's turned off the buzzer, but the notification previews haven't stopped from Instagram, X, and TikTok. Maybe that's why she left it across the room. It's overwhelming.

"Scambled?" She asks, not acknowledging anything that he just said.

Taken slightly aback and incredibly flattered that Ruby's just launched into making breakfast for the two of them, Brandon stands there for another long, thoughtful pause. It's little moments of wonder like this that add up. She's busy; she won't see the adoring look in his eyes. It's alright. If she did, she might drop something.

The constant notification-lighting of her phone is mildly annoying, and it catches Brandon's attention but he only gives it a glance. What it does do is jar him back to some semblance of alertness. When she asks about scrambled eggs, he glances at the DVD in his hands, then says in his best Cary Elwes impression-- which at this hour isn't exactly perfect, "As you wish."

Ruby looks up at him and smiles, eyes flicking to the DVD case in her hand. "Clever," she shakes her head and cracks some eggs into a bowl. She's quiet. It's still morning. There was no rush to solve the world's problems before food and fuel.

Eggs on the stove, toast in the toaster, coffee poured into two mugs. Rubes pulls out the sugar and half and half. "Come fix your coffee," she tells him, not waiting for him to start fixing her own.

After her first sip, she's willing to talk about the elephant in the room. "So, I guess this is how things will be?" She doesn't sound mad, just... this is his world. Her YouTube channel made it easy to find her, but she didn't know what it was like to be a teen heartthrob or, worse, the girl with the heartthrob.

"Yeah," Brandon says, replacing the DVD on the coffee table and moving around to the kitchen to take up his coffee. Black, this morning; it hits harder that way, and he needs it. Leaning against a counter, he looks her in those big green eyes and nods. Twice. Slowly.

"It is. It should get better. I've been a ghost for a year and a half, but now I'm back maybe they'll...." He trails off. Looks down at his feet. Looks back up at her with confidence.

"Look. They don't get to cost us... mornings like this."

Ruby looks at him like he has three heads. "Black?" She looks almost offended. Meanwhile, she loads hers up with so much sugar and cream that it barely resembles coffee anymore.

She watches him as he nods and shifts her weight from one foot to the other. What is happening is only starting to sink in as she sips her coffee, and watches the guy she's been on one date with try to explain something that wasn't normal. Her eyes flicked to her phone, watching as it just lit up endlessly. She sipped her coffee, thinking about how much she missed the boat right about now. But when she looks back, he's there looking all confident, and it seems to put the blonde at ease, for the moment at least.

"No, we're still having slow mornings," she agrees as she returns to the stove to finish the eggs and divides them on a plate with toast. She's already put a pat of butter between the slices so it's nice and melty before she slides plate 1 his way. She'll take the second plate.

"I just feel bad because I'm not your girlfriend," she says. It's just a fact. It didn't mean that she didn't want to be. She just wasn't and now every gossip publication was reporting on their hard launch.

"I wonder if that's why people rush things, sometimes," Brandon answers, accepting the statement with a nod and the steaming plate with gratitude. He takes a forkful of eggs eagerly, trusting they'll be as good as they look-- which they are, to judge by his smile. Nodding, he chews and swallows thoughtfully.

Thoughtfully. Then:

"I mean, I barely know you, but I don't want to see anyone else," is what Brandon finally says out loud. "I want us to have time to find out. I want to watch--" he turns, and jerks a thumb at the coffee table, "That movie. With you. Like normal people."

"They don't get to write that story, Ruby. We do. You know?"

Ruby settles on the barstool next to him. A little fuel can do a world of help in emotionally heightened situations, and she's thankful that he allowed her to take a beat. It'd be a lie if she said that the onslaught of notifications wasn't making her anxious. Even with the phone abandoned across the room, she knew it was going to get better before it got worse and most of those comments were about her. Who was she? Was she good enough for him? Was she as pretty as Wendy? Had they seen her weird ass family YouTube channel? There were some nice comments, but the nice ones didn't hold the same weight.

"If we watch it, we have to invite Wally," she tells him. "But yeah, I don't really want to see anyone else right now either... but I also don't want to rush into anything just because some teenagers took our picture," she says, the moment the picture was taken burned into her brain.

Her smile softens, and she leans to kiss his cheek again. "Promise to make the story a good one? Lots of adventure? Maybe some romance?"

A softly delighted smile forms on Brandon's lips, even while he's chewing. The questions she brings are all good ones, and he answers them all at once. "Promise," he says, leaning his cheek into the kiss because a cheek's the best he's got with a mouthful of breakfast she made for him minutes ago.

He seems to read the anxiety she's keeping at bay, and sets his plate down on the counter to slip an arm around her waist while he turns to face her. Not making a move-- just offering reassurance. "Adventure. Romance. Maybe buckle some swash. And no rushing. Or Russians either." A cheeky waggle of the eyebrows at that. "You in?"

The simple promise seems to do the trick. It's new. She was having fun. But for now all they really could do was keep on keeping on if that was what they both wanted, and it at least seemed that they were on the same page. Sure, she was silently dying over the fact that Brandon O'Donnell wanted to date her, but she was also growing used to what it was like to have him around. She liked it.

The addition of his arms around her waist does wonders for the bubbling anxiety growing within her. She side glances at him and grins. "Oh, I'm so in," she says, and she doesn't care if he is still chewing, so she kisses him anyway. Just a little one.

"So, your... Derek? Do we have to do or say anything about the pictures or do we just ignore it?"

His eyebrows raise again in playful surprise at the little kiss, and Brandon finally swallows the last bite of toast he'd taken in time to smile in its wake. "I'm glad you asked," he says. "You and I don't need to say a thing. Derek's going to let the comments run their course today and then tomorrow, the official band accounts are all posting a request for some privacy... and a promise that new music's on the way."

Brandon gives Ruby a little smirk, a joke that she's on the inside of now. "Of course, I don't have any yet, but that'll put them off the scent." Would she agree? She's a fan, what would she think of the management's plan?

"And I might've started writing something last night."

"Some privacy," Ruby echoes through an amused chuckle. "That makes it sound so dubious." She had to laugh at all of it, because it was surreal. Ruby's eyes light up at the mention of new music, but her expectations are quickly managed when he admits he has nothing, well almost nothing. "I'm almost a little afraid to ask," she admits. "Are you already working on my song?" She grins, "Dang, Brandon. You really know how to lay it on thick for the ladies. And here I thought I'd be the one doing the chasing," she can't help but razz him. "If it's terrible, I'm releasing a statement letting everyone know it's not about me." She has jokes now.

Laughing at her now-relentless onslaught of jokes, Brandon physically squirms a little bit, almost as if he's been tickled, and has to step in closer. "I'll write a whole bunch of songs," he insists around hilarity, shaking his head. "You can still chase me. For the best one."

He doesn't say it'll be weird without Ansel. He doesn't say having a better muse than high-maintenance Wendy might go a ways toward evening that out. Well, maybe he does, but only with a look.

Then Brandon tells Ruby, "You're pretty fucking good for me, Ruby St. James. And not just because of the breakfast of champions, here."