Another restless night, James tossed and turned until he felt his head wanna explode. He leaned into his pillows as he sighed deeply, he could hear the sound of birds outside his window when he sat up. He grumbled to himself in annoyance as he ran his hands over his face. He knew Ruby would be over soon and he'd have to face another day of school.

Part of him was tempted to sink back into his bed and rot away from the world. It's not like anyone would miss his company anyways, the loudness of a knock on his front door made him climb out of bed. He rubbed at his eyes as he pulled the door open, Ruby smiled at him as she walked inside.

"So you'll never believe it, apparently riding a bike isn't even that bad. I thought for sure I'd fall off on the way here to get you. Why on earth aren't you ready yet? Did you turn your alarm off again?". James looked down at his pajama pants and his bright yellow socks and shrugged. "I'll just go like this, I doubt they'll even care what I wear, I'll just fetch a shirt from the laundry room and call it good".

"You are at least putting on proper pants, I'll make you coffee" James blinked slightly "fine I'll put on pants, I'll just grab them from the laundry room". He walked off and Ruby sighed slightly at the state of the kitchen, for the most part it was spotless and clean.

The only issue was, so many coffee cups lingered on the counter and inside the sink. She walked towards his sink grabbing his medication that rested on the window seal. She turned when James walked back into the kitchen as he put his backpack over his shoulder. "You've dumped them all out, these things cost a fortune to even get refills for".

"They were making my head hurt, so I handled it by just getting rid of them. I'm sure a few are still hanging around inside the garbage disposal". He opened the cupboard reaching for a mug when Ruby looked at him "you need to take these if you want to feel better, the doctor said it's important".

James set the mug down onto the counter almost immediately "I'll be fine without them, I don't know why he even gave me them in the first place". He reached for the coffee pot but Ruby grabbed it first "no coffee until you promise you'll take your medication, after we try to get more for you".

"Ruby I don't want to take them, why can't you just let it go, besides I'll just see the doctor if anything happens". Ruby sighed "he'd only tell you the same thing, you need your medication. I can't have you getting sick or hurt because you're stubborn".

"So what, I'll get a little cold and maybe just be in bed for a few days. It happens and it'll pass, I mean I've been sick before and it went away after a few days". He reached for the coffee pot again but Ruby moved it back "not fair at all, you're threatening my morning coffee, I need that to function today".

"You need your medication more, you can always have coffee later. I'm sure if we're fast enough we can get a refill before we head off to school".

"You want me to ride my bike into town for a refill? I haven't ridden my bike since last form, and I nearly ran into a tree because my chain broke". Ruby chuckled slightly "well this time it won't break, and if it does then you can just use mine and I'll walk".

"Like I'd let you walk for miles in those high heels, if my bike breaks I'll be the one walking. But I better get coffee out of it, then we'll have a deal".

—

"Why is everyone always so happy looking in this place, it's extremely depressing to watch" James pushed his bike beside Ruby's as he pulled his helmet off. "You could be happy if you gave this place a chance, did you at least finish setting up your tablet last night? It'll help you not get lost".

He shrugged as he pushed his hair back "I can just walk around and hope I'm heading in the right direction. It'll be a piece of cake". Ruby glared at him and he huffed as he handed her his tablet "by all means feel free to fix the issue at hand".

"You're lucky I'm so smart, can't have you getting lost in this place" James sighed slightly "I walked into a literal room full of people sleeping and accidentally tripped over literal air. Gosh talk about utter embarrassment".

"I'm sure they didn't mind being woken up from their slumber, besides at least you didn't hurt yourself". He grabbed the tablet from her grasp as he chuckled "well better than having my penis flashed to half the school. Otis deserved it though, he's an idiot for not sending them properly".

Ruby's gaze was locked on the couple beside them who were fighting, James wasn't exactly sure what the girl was thinking but it was clearly something important. Her hand had grasped his almost protectively as if she feared that becoming them one day. The feeling was mutual for once, that feeling was buried deep inside his chest from all the times Ruby Matthews had broken his heart.

He braced every moment of every day in case it happened again. The impact wouldn't hurt but it sure would burn and he was far more afraid of what he'd do if it ever happened again. He blinked slightly, he felt sluggish as Ruby dragged him inside quickly.

"Do you know what this means? Come on we've got to talk with Otis" James stopped walking and that look inside his eyes Ruby couldn't quite understand. She could see the way his eyebrow twitched, his lip denting downward as he bit on his lips.

He blinked, the expression fading almost as quickly as it appeared. Such a beautiful and scared expression, one only Ruby had the chance of seeing. He held that same look when he caught her and Otis together in the boys bedroom. The same one when he saw her around the school grounds as he'd walked past.

The same expression almost parallel to the one she held hidden beneath her smile. "I'm going to class" the boy had shut down, his gaze no longer soft as he looked at Ruby. Second picked, always? He sighed to himself as he turned and walked off.

He could feel her looking at him as he made his way along the corridor and turned towards the stairs. Everyone was walking around and James could feel the exhaustion creeping up on him as he walked inside a classroom. He didn't even know what the class was aside from the place being empty.

He sat down on the desk pushing his bag by his feet, he looked at the clock and then he blinked slightly. He must've fallen asleep, when his eyes opened again his head was resting on the desk. He could hear the chatter in the hallway get louder as he weakly stood up and walked out of the room.

"James there you are, I've been searching for you. I didn't see you in class" he rubbed his eyes as Ruby quickly walked towards him. "You missed lunch, did you fall asleep again?" he stopped walking "is it already the end of the day? Have I slept for that long".

Everything was mixing together into an endless pile of confusion, his sense of time was fading away and he couldn't even remember falling asleep. "If it makes you feel better, you didn't miss anything important. I was thinking since I owe you coffee, we can just drop our bikes off at your house and then head into town".

"What did you talk with Otis about?" he could see the way she was hesitant, almost as if the wrong word would set him off. It likely would but James was always going to act a certain way whenever Otis was mentioned or even around. Sure they had an awkward conversation while he was healing from his overdose that ended with an even more awkward hug.

Of course things took a turn for the worse when James learned Otis was seeing Maeve, everything clicked together after that. The endless red lines that connected all the way into Maeve's heart, and somehow they were tangled with Ruby's heart. James personally cut the lines and two parallel lines forged through his heart connecting him and Ruby once more. But that little spark of Otis always remained, he knew Ruby secretly still cared about the boy.

She did spend a decent amount of time with Otis even if half of the time it was behind closed doors. Then it all ended and somehow she was with James all over again. His self destruction would likely end the relationship but he had hoped it would last.

"I had a way to help him with his issue at hand, it was a fair trade, he puts in a good word for me and I'll help him win against O". James shrugged slightly "why is it so important you become friends with the people here, they ignore us all the time. They also probably hate me since I smoked on campus. But if that's what you want, then I'll help you".

—
authors notes:
sorry for the wait! I had work! Luckily I have the rest of the week off so I'm making it my mission to finish this book. I struggled a little bit with it but overall I managed to make it somewhat decent. Writers block is slowly hitting me for this book but I'm forcing myself to write so I can complete it, I genuinely like the idea of me just focusing on one book at a time and just finishing it all together before I move onto another one. I'm gonna sleep now, I'm tired. Anyways enjoy this chapter it's mainly a filler one since nothing much happens in this episode at least relevant to James. The next one will be better. Anyways bye!!!!