Survival Of The Fittest

Nothing but net. Two of the girls were baited quite easily, one of the girls managed to snap back with her own witty little comment, while the last girl had decided to leave. Three quarters of the intended reaction right there, except Ruby was way too smart to fall for some baiting.

"Ha. Ha. That's...that's funny. You can tell by the fact I'm laughing, can't you?" Jasper responded, nary a smirk across his face. The smile on her face was infuriating. Ruby could stand there and not fall to the level of her fellow nerds? Stuck-up, know-it-all bitch. Either way, the little brat who started this whole thing was now rambling on about trying this "Beeork", while Jasper openly rolled his eyes at how thick most of these people were. There was being clueless, and then there was this.

Of course, once the other one decided the best thing to do was run, he found it only best to give him a parting gift. As he passed by the aisle, the little boy had more than likely neglected to notice the large foot that was laying dormant in his path, and how it managed to move up into the motions of walking to disrupt that ocean of motion. Either way, he felt a trip, and heard a yell.

"Ooh, tough break. You should watch where you're walking, Jimbo, you almost scuffed up my shoe there. That's not a nice thing to do now, these were expensive shoes."

Randall was half-expecting Jasper to start verbally abusing him for caring about something he didn't care about, but Ruby came to his rescue with a not-so-subtle dig at his intelligence. Randall wished he could do that. When he hit it big, or at least got some buzz, he wanted to be one of those people who gave amazingly weird interviews. He'd claim his band was named after a quote from an ancient Mayan text, write a song about his cat and tell people the local Little League baseball team was using it as walk-on music, later deny the existence of said cat, and generally weird people out. That was assuming he could come up with punchlines on the fly, though. He was much better at writing poetic nonsense.

Then Randall saw Rachel making the same mistake he did. She was taking his comments seriously and actually trying to get him to listen to her music sometimes. Couldn't she see he wasn't listen- hey, she listens to music half-asleep too?

Randall did that a lot. It was a sublime experience to wake up at 3 in the morning - well maybe not just the waking up at 3 in the morning - but, while still only half-awake,  to put on some soundscapes, something excellently produced and out there, and let your still-dreaming brain do the heavy lifting. He had discovered this trick on his own while trying to get back to sleep with the use of some ambient music after a random 3 a.m. wakeup, and he had never bothered to tell anybody. The fact that she did that - and was a Björk fan - meant he really needed to talk to her.

Oh yeah, and she managed to tell him exactly why Björk wasn't boring. If Jasper would have cared about music, and if Randall wasn't scared at the moment, he would have thought, "Oooh, buuuurn."

But Jasper didn't care about music, nor did he care for Jimmy, who Randall only really noticed once his face was headed for the floor. First he comes in here and starts insulting everyone with his mere presence, now he starts tripping people. Back away slowly. And that Randall did, hopefully being able to ask Rachel about her listening habits and maybe recommending her that Cocteau Twins EP she was standing next to in the process.

That was, if he didn't want to just get it himself.

(( Permission to skip granted by Fiori. Fiori's post will be next. ))

He was trying to avoid even looking at the other guy that was dicking around in the store, knowing far too well that he'd be pushed over and asked "Whut you look'n at?". This, unfortunately, led to him missing the shoe, and leg it was attached to that interjected between his quickened stride, and caused him to catch his first foot on the guys leg, and then slam his foot into his shoe, in a desperate attempt to balance himself. He flicked forwards, his eyes wide as the sudden realisation of the imminent pain hit, moments before the ground did.

In those few moments, his body was completely on autopilot, putting his arms out in front of him to soften the impact.

There was a dull crunch as he hit the floor, like the sound of something coming out of place and cracking irrecoverably. Blood dripped from his right hand, the one he'd landed on first.

There was a moment where he was silent, his body unable to do anything but try and figure out what was going on, like his body was rebooting after having it's power suddenly disconnected. But then, feeling and mobillity returned to his body suddenly, and he groaned, expelling a pained breath he hadn't actually known he'd been holding. There was a pause before he rolled over slightly, something cracking beneath him as he blinked rapidly, not quite able to process what was happening. The wall of meat said something about his shoes being expensive. Ass.... inine fool.

He grimaced and pulled himself into a slightly more upright position, noting the sharp pain in one of his hands. He looked down, for a moment fearing that he'd broken his wrist or something, but instead, he saw a shard of see-through plastic embedded into his palm. He winced and felt a little weasy at the sight, but then he realised where that had come from.

He bushed his other hand beneath himself, using the side of his injured hand to support himself precariously. And then he pulled something out from underneath him, a shard of shiny plastic, with two jagged edges, and one slightly curving one.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

He counted to ten rapidly in his head. He didn't know why he actually did that. He remembered something vague about it helping with anger though.

It actually did completely fuck all.

He looked up at the man with disgust. "Man, fuck your shoes, this probably cost that your entire fucking wardrobe!" he spat, throwing the shard at him weakly, determined to get some sort of petty vengeance.

Well, so far, things were going better than Ruby had expected them to.

Admittedly, she was somewhat baffled by Rachael's reply. Was she just being sarcastic, or did she genuinely not realise that Jasper was mocking her taste of music? It wasn't as if the dumb bastard was being particularly subtle about it or anything. He may as well have just flat out said "I find Bjork boring and I'm making fun of you for liking it." Although, in Jasper's case, that would probably come out as "derp, i fink bork iz stuuupid, an ur dum fer likin it. lolz." Regardless, considering the fact that the local Nelson-wannabe was currently in her Dad's store, the situation as it seemed was going relatively well.

But then Jasper had to go an trip Jimmy up as he tried to leave the store.

Deep down, Ruby could tell what was going to happen long before it actually did. It just seemed like too good an opportunity to screw someone over for a guy like Jasper to pass up. Heck, the only reason why Ruby didn't do something about it beforehand was because she didn't think the dick would stoop to such a low and immature method of picking on people.

And to make matters worse, Ruby saw a droplet of blood fall from Jimmy's hand as he tried to get up.

"...Oh shit."

Ruby quickly left her place behind the counter to run to Jimmy's side, helping the poor kid up as she looked over the damage. Her eyes widened in shock as she noticed the shard of what looked like glass that was sticking out of his hand, only for it to turn out to be see-through plastic upon closer inspection. Not only that, but as she looked down at the floor she realised that the source of the plastic had been none other than the very same album she had sold him just moments ago, which was now nothing more than a shattered mess.

To say that Ruby was not happy about what had just happened would have been a grievous understatement.

She wasn't sure what made her more furious. The fact that Jasper had hurt someone inside HER shop, or the fact that he had damaged one of her products in the process of doing so. Either way, right now Ruby was feeling righteously pissed off. Whilst there were a lot of things in the world that always brought a frown to Ruby's face, there were too in particular that never failed to rile her up: Seeing her friends getting themselves hurt for no reason, and people decimating perfectly good CDs. And Jasper had just done both at the exact same time.

As much as she wanted to remain calm and rational, there was no way in hell she was letting Jasper get away with this.

First things first though, she needed to stop Jimmy from getting himself hurt some more.

"Heyhey, calm down Jimmy. Rachael, could you go grab the first aid box? Its right behind the counter on the lower right-hand side..."

After helping Jimmy up onto his feet, Ruby turned to give Jasper one of the most hate-fuelled glares she had ever given another human being.

"Well, I hope you're feeling pleased with yourself Jasper. You've successfully convinced everyone in this room just how much of an immature turd you really are..."

Immediately after finishing off her initial statement, Ruby right up to Jasper until she was face to face with the much taller boy, her fiery eyes still boring into his. The thought briefly crossed her mind that he could easily just swat her aside like a fly, but she quick shook them away. If he was to so much as poke her, she wouldn't rest until he was behind bars for committing assault. Besides, if he was really expecting her to just sit around and allow him to continue intimidating her friends, the bastard was in for a big shock.

"Insulting my customers is one thing. Physically abusing them and damaging my wares on the other hand is where I'm drawing the line. I don't know who the hell pissed into your cereal this morning, but if you feel the need to continue harassing my customers, then I highly suggest that you take your childish attitude somewhere else before I start pressing charges."

Of course, this was partially a bluff. She wasn't entirely sure whether you really could legally throw someone out of your store, or if what Jasper was doing technically illegal at all. That said, you could hardly tell from the sternness of her voice that she wasn't 100% sure that her threats were valid. And regardless of whether or not that was the case, she still wouldn't just sit by and let Jasper get away with doing whatever the hell he wanted.

"Now, with all due respect... Kindly get the fuck out of my store."

Rachael had hoped that her explanation of Bjork's music would allow Jasper the chance to explain himself. She had figured his earlier response was based on certain listening habits and physical issues, but from the way he rolled his eyes when she was talking, she began to realize that he didn't care at all.

Oh no, did I play into his trap? He must be mocking me. God, why do I have to be such a sissy? Why do I allow people like him to make a-

Rachael was then distracted by Jasper's movement. He was hurrying over to where Jimmy was. Suddenly, Jasper darted his leg out, causing Jimmy to trip and fall to the ground. Rachael let out a quick cry when she saw him fall. Her hands were clasped over her mouth as she simply froze in place.

"Ooh, tough break. You should watch where you're walking, Jimbo, you almost scuffed up my shoe there. That's not a nice thing to do now, these were expensive shoes."

Why did he do that? Jimmy wasn't even involved in the discussion.

Ruby had run out from behind the counter to go see how Jimmy was. Suddenly, she heard Jimmy shout at Jasper.

"Man, fuck your shoes, this probably cost your entire fucking wardrobe!

She saw Jimmy throw something at Jasper. It looked like a small plastic shard, but there was something about it OH NO.

"Heyhey, calm down Jimmy. Rachael, could you go grab the first aid box? Its right behind the counter on the lower right-hand side..."

Ruby was on the floor comforting Jimmy when she turned back and asked Rachael to find the first aid kit. Rachael was still in shock, but now she realized what was going on. Jimmy was hurt. Jasper had hurt him. Tears began to well up in Rachael's eyes.

"Y-y-yeah, sure, just a second," Rachael said as she hurried behind the counter.

Rachael began looking around the shelves. She didn't know much about first aid kits, but she knew they were usually in white plastic containers.

First aid kit, right hand side. First aid kit, right hand side. Oh god, this is a nightmare. Ah! There it is!

Rachael grabbed the box and hurried out. She ran down the aisles and made it over to Ruby and Jimmy, right as Ruby was done cursing at Jasper.

"Hey, here's the kit," Rachael frantically said as she opened the box. "I don't know what to do, so what-"

Rachael then saw the injury. Jimmy's hand was red, with blood pouring out of a hole on his hand. The color faded from Rachael's face as she felt a stirring in her stomach.

"Oh my god," whispered Rachael. "Uh, Ruby, help me please."

Rachael covered her mouth with her left hand as tears began to fall down her cheek.

Nerds like little Jimmy here needed to know how to fall properly. I mean come on, they've been pushed around before, anyone with half a brain should know you don't fall on top of a CD. Even Jimmy should have known using his CD to protect himself was only going to end badly for poor little him.

And now his hand was bleeding. Great, just what Jasper needed. Liability.

The little shard of plastic bounced harmlessly off Jasper's arm as he stood there, watching chaos ensue. This was what Jasper lived for. Watching people like little Jimmy and feisty little Ruby and even those pathetic weaklings who didn't even have the balls to stand up to him or the brains to figure out when they were being picked on. Come on guys, there's a reason he picks on you.

Ruby was trying her best to verbally tear him apart. Telling him what's what, one could say.  Of course, Jasper knew half of what she was saying was bullshit. She was like some kind of verbal manure machine, and he was pastured land. Blah blah blah, me me me, I'm a self-righteous bitch, I stick up for idiots who can't watch where they're going and trip over gigantic shoes sitting right there.

So that's where Jasper crossed the line. Memories of arguments with his father came back to the light, and every trace of any smiling or sarcasm from Jasper's face was gone.

"So here's where I stand. First of all, I go to your school. You own this store as much as I own the Bank of Seattle. You own nothing here. Your father, who I happen to know, by the way, and bought albums from, by the way, every weekend, by the way, owns this place. I do not remember your father losing his dick and turning into a bulldyke overnight, so it's fair to say you don't own this store."

He crossed his arms.

"And I would really, really like you to show me some proof of me physically assaulting little Jimbo here. From what I recall, I was standing right here, my foot happened to be out just a bit because that's what I do when I look at albums, and being the little idiot that he was, concerned with his little CD, happened to miss it. He tripped and fell, it happens, boo-fucking-hoo. Show me a court in Seattle that would convict me for him not watching where he was going. Go on, show me."

He learned forward and downward. The air between their faces was blocked from the light.

"And speaking of CD's, I really suggest that you don't turn away a paying customer. I've spent more money in this place than on every holiday in the past eighteen years. I would like to see you explain to your father why one of his best young customers doesn't come here anymore. And speaking of..."

Jasper grabbed the small pile of CDs behind him, and held it up.

"I have a family birthday coming up, and would like to purchase these albums. Then you should probably help Jimbo, he just had a rather nasty accident that I would rather not you accuse me of being involved in when it was his fault in the first place. But first, these albums."

Ball's in your court, Forrester.

As Randall moved over to where Rachel was, more arguing continued over where Jimmy had just fallen. Words were getting harsher, and Randall's attention was fixed on what was going on, despite himself. He knew it wasn't a good idea to stare at fights, or they had a nasty habit of enveloping people who stared too long if things went a certain way, but he wasn't really on his game in that regard like he had been in Texas.

He started to step into the aisle that Rachel was in, only to be nearly run over as she turned around in order to go behind the counter. He thought he heard something about first aid.

He looked down and saw why.

Oh god, that's not good. Can you help? Naw, Rachel's helping. Your job is to stay out of this until it all passes over, and... He heard her start crying a little from the shock. ...and maybe help her recover once she's done. Oh lord...

He backed up against the record stack, keeping one hand on the edge of the bin and one on Sunburst and Snowblind, wishing none of this had happened.

(( Bleh, short post is short, just trying to do my best not to hold up the posting order here ))

Jimmy took a deep breath. The verbal push back from Ruby made him feel a little better. Having people on his side made him feel a little better.

He looked up a little and smiled at Rach', who had nabbed a first aid kit for him. He smiled and took it from her, before noticing that she looked really sickly all of a sudden. Oh, god, was she like, one of those people that fainted at the very sight of blood? Crud, that could be really bad. He placed the kit on the ground for a second, not really knowing anything about first aid except "Put plaster over wound" and "Walk over in video games to heal bullet wounds".

"Uh, just, uh, sit down, Rach', it aint that bad, really" He said, trying his best to sound reassuring.

Ruby hardly even flinched as Jasper answered back, her arms crossed and her face fixed in a bitter scowl as she listened to every word he had to say.

As much as she loathed to admit it, there was a certain level of truth in what Jasper was saying. Admittedly, she wasn't sure whether or not his claim as a regular customer was valid or not, but the fact that he knew that the store really belonged to her father strongly suggested that being the case. And as much she knew that his claim to 'accidentally' trip Jimmy up was total bullshit, deep down she knew there wasn't really any way to prove that wasn't the case. Sure, she had security footage on the store cameras, but that was hardly enough to prove it done deliberately.

Besides, the more she thought about it, the more she was beginning to realise how pointless this entire endeavour was. Now that she was beginning to calm down, the more rational side of her personality began to notice that had just broken one of the golden rules when dealing with assholes, both in real life and the internet: never lose your cool and start going off on a huge rant. That's exactly what they WANT you to do. Trolls like Jasper loved nothing more than to invoke reactions from other people, regardless of whether or not its respect, fear or blind fury. And all Ruby had achieved by letting herself get carried away was give Jasper another excuse to be a complete tool.

That said, Ruby didn't feel any less furious with the boy who stood before her. Hell, if anything, she was even madder. The fact that he was now asking if he could purchase a handful of CDs just made it all the more infuriating. She grabbed the albums and looked them over, inwardly praying that he had accidentally slipped in something embarrassing by mistake. Sadly though, they all actually seemed like pretty decent albums. As much of a jerkass he was, at least Jasper had a decent taste in music.

"Hey, Ruby! The fuck is going on up there?"

Oh christ. I almost completely forgot he was still here...

Ruby briefly turned her attention to the stairway as her coworker Vincent made his way upstairs. For the most part, the young college student was fairly average looking. Pale complexion, nerdy classes, gaunt face and a lanky body. But his most notable feature by far was the fact that he styled his blonde hair into a series of dreadlocks, which for some inane reason he assumed made him look cool.

"I thought I heard something crash earlier. You better not be messing around with the..." he said, stopping mid-sentence as he looked over the situation, his eyes darting too and throw between Ruby and Jasper.

Well, there was definitely no way Ruby was outright berating Jasper now. The last thing she needed right now was Vincent telling her father that she was harassing her customers. Besides, despite the fact that she had a dozen ideas on her mind for what to do with the albums she held in her hand, they all seemed too petty an childish to put into practice. Right now, all Ruby wanted was for Jasper to get out of her store as soon as possible. Making a big fuss would only exacerbate things further, and Ruby had already become very tired of this situation.

"Relax Vincent, I'm just dealing with a customer..." she said, making her way back to the till where she calculated the total cost of the CDs before turning her attention back to Jasper.

"That'll be $20, please. Hope you have a pleasant day."

Also, whilst you're at it, kindly go fuck yourself. Thank you.

Rachael stood frozen in place. It looked like Ruby was distracted by Jasper, so she realized that she was probably the only person who had the time to help Jimmy.

She felt the tears fall down her face as she stared at the contents of the first aid kit. There were a few standard things in it; a few bandages, some alcohol, and a few assorted items like cotton balls. Despite the minimal supplies, Rachael felt baffled. Ruby and Jasper were still arguing, with Jasper trying to claim that Ruby had no proof that the tripping was malicious. Jimmy was still on the ground, holding his bleeding hand. Rachael couldn't stop trembling. She was trying her hardest to not make any noises, causing her throat to tighten up.

"Uh, just, uh, sit down, Rach', it aint that bad, really"

Rachael quickly turned to Jimmy. He was looking at her. Despite the fact that he had a gash in his hand and was caught in a crossfire, he seemed pretty calm.

"O-okay. Sure."

Rachael quickly got on the ground, positioning herself so she was leaning against one of the stands.

"Um, yeah, here's some of the, uh, supplies," Rachael stammered.

She quickly rubbed her eyes and sniffled. Jasper just handed Ruby a stack of CD's, but Rachael was focused more on the kit and the injured boy in front of her.

"So, uh, yeah, y-y-you okay?"

"Hey, Ruby! The fuck is going on up there?"

Rachael flinched. She had no idea where that shout came from, or who said it.

"I thought I heard something crash earlier. You better not be messing around with the..."

"Relax Vincent, I'm just dealing with a customer..."

Who's Vincent? Is he Ruby's brother? Does she have a brother? Wait, she does, just not Vincent. WAIT! JIMMY! FOCUS!

"Okay, I'm sorry for getting emotional. Too much is happening too quickly," Rachael said, wiping her face again.

Rachael shuffled through the kit.

"Um, okay, I think you start by disinfecting with the alcohol. I think I put some on the cotton ball."

Rachael looked at Jimmy. She then turned around and reached into her bag. After a bit of shuffling, she pulled out what she was looking for: a fruit punch Capri-Sun.

"Here, I brought two. Just sip on this, and I will try to stop the bleeding."

Rachael put the straw in the pouch and set it near Jimmy. She opened the alcohol and placed a cotton ball on the lip, tilting it to coat it in alcohol.

"Okay, if this stings, please don't shout loudly," Rachael said. "Please give me your hand. I have very little idea on what I am doing, so please give me some leniency. Alright?"

"That'll be $20, please. Hope you have a pleasant day."

Now that, Ruby, is how you talk to a customer. Jasper took out his wallet and slid a 20-dollar bill across the counter towards one of the many, many people who he had successfully pissed off today.

"I'll be sure to mention to your dad how much of a great help you were today when I see him next."

He nodded his head towards her co-worker Vincent, before turning towards the door, giving a passing glance towards the three others.

"Ladies."

Almost chuckling at his own chuckle-worthy joke, Jasper strode through rows of albums and left the nerds to their own devices.

[[Jasper Rourke continues elsewhere]]

((Sorry for the short post, but I'd rather not hold up the thread over the weekend))

Randall wanted to take his eyes off what was happening on the ground, but he couldn't. It was somehow disrespectful, in a way, even though he could think of no way he could possibly help.

He noticed Jasper paying for his CDs and leaving. That was enough of a normal action to give him permission to continue browsing, but he still couldn't do it. There was an injured person on the floor, and he should be helping Rachel take care of him! He had no idea how, though.

Never learn if you don't ask.

"Uh... do you need any help?" His southern accent came out in a bit more force when he was nervous, and this time, it made his request sound more like "dja need'ny hep?" He wasn't self-conscious about it, though; it was really just the way he talked, or had talked, so he didn't see the big deal.

He craned his neck to get a better view of what was going on. The cut looked pretty bad, at least by his standards. People like Jasper probably saw things like this on the field every week or so, but music never gave anybody an injury worse than carpal tunnel or a headbanging concussion. Well, there was that one trumpet player who played so hard he popped a blood vessel in his brain, but that you couldn't see. This you could. And Randall, frozen to the spot, simply cringed.

((Regan Flagg, le continued from J'en Ai Marre))

Now that she was free of any scholarly obligations, the whole day was her oyster. Well, maybe not oyster, since she had a loose idea of how she would occupy her time. What sea creature worked for that analogy? Was it the sea cucumber? The world was her sea cucumber. First on her agenda-well, second, since French class was before-was to recover Ruby. After all, what kind of fun day could she have without Ruby? A crappy one, probably. At that point if probably wouldn't classify as a 'fun day' anymore, but whatever. And Ruby, being the dutiful daughter she was, would be found at her fathers shop. Unless her parents finished up with whatever it was that they were doing that required to hold down the shop. Sure, she could text Ruby and ask, but where was the fun in that? Ruby needed more fun surprises in her life probably. Regan finishing (getting kicked out of) class could be her surprise of the day. And besides, if she wasn't at the shop, then it would be like a journey to find her. Perhaps even a quest. Maybe it would even qualify as an adventure, but only if pirates were involved, which was unlikely. Maybe if she downgraded what qualified as an adventure. That settled it. She would consult with Ruby and decide what should constitute an adventure.

Which put her back to square one. Or, maybe not back, since she hadn't made any progress anyway. Well, she had made progress, but not, you know, metaphorically. Considering she didn't have a car and was afraid of bicycles after reading Calvin and Hobbes, she ended up walking from the school to the record store. Which, at her journey's onset, was an intimidating obstacle. Because, seriously, walking was for the birds. Not to put too fine a point on it. She hated all exercise. It was just, you know, a lot of work. That action could pass her by, possibly while on the way to the birds. But, and she considered herself a little heroic for thinking so, she would walking for Ruby. Through thunderstorms and pouring rain, she would persevere. If anyone could survive the perilous walk across town, by God, it would be her. She might bitch and moan, but she would persevere.

Despite her grumbling, she made good time. In spite of her predictions of Armageddon, the walk wasn't really that bad. OK, sure, there were points where, like a guy in a crashing hot-air balloon, she'd considered throwing away her messenger bag to lighten the load. But there was only the one time when she'd had to beseech the Lord for strength to carry on. Aside from that, a-ok. Maybe she was exaggerating, just a little.

She stood out front of the store for a second, thumbing through her pockets for any loss bills. Considering the generous allowance she and Hawke received, she had to have something. The only reason that this suddenly seemed important was because she just as suddenly remembered the Joan Jett cd she'd spotted last time she was here. Yeah, she could have asked Ruby to cover her, but that just seemed...she didn't know, improper. Finally, with an 'a-ha!' of success, she removed a crumpled $20 from her pocket. While she was smoothing out the bill, Jasper Rourke sauntered out the front door, wearing an expression that could be only be attributed to smug victory. And, considering the relationship he had with Ruby, was probably not good. He passed by without a word, perhaps satisfied enough with whatever happened inside to bother with her.

Feeling a twinge of apprehension, Regan pushed open the door and stepped inside. The first thing she was half the store's occupants gathered in a small group. Her first thought was Twister?, but alas, no. Upon further inspection, she saw blood. Which, to be fair, didn't rule out Twister. Ruby was behind the counter, looking a bit more pissed off than was usual, and Vincent was standing next to her. Regan sidestepped the group on the floor and made her way over to Ruby. Similar to every other time she saw her, the first instinct was to give her a kiss. But, obviously, that wouldn't go over so well right that moment. So, instead, she leaned against the counter and flashed her a smile. "Hey partner." She nodded at Rachel and Jimmy. "Jasper do that? Want I should chase him down and introduce him to Jack Johnson and Tom O'Leary?" As she said the last part, she raised her fists in what could almost pass for a boxing ready stance if you were feeling charitable. "I could probably catch him, assuming that he's standing around outside waiting for me to catch up with him. Otherwise, you might need to drive me. I can lean out the window and maybe tag him in the back of the head as we pass. We'd have to have some damn motivational music on for me to try that, though. Eye of the Tiger, I think. Or Live to Win." She realized she was doing the same thing she always did when she opened her mouth and promptly closed it.

So, she told herself the same thing she always did when her mouth was running and she knew that it probably shouldn't be. Dial it back, Reg. Of course that didn't happen in French, but, in her defense, she didn't care about French. Ruby gave her, shall we say, focus. "Anything I can do to help?"

Jimmy watched, slack jawed, as the guy rebutted literally every biting show of force Ruby had put forwards, walking up to the counter and buying a CD or something. He then left, with what literally had to be the most smug expression in the world. It was like the cat had gotten the entire darn cream factory, and won an election into the cat oval office, and made off with one of his cat buddies girlfriends. Seriously, his smile made the Grinch's look practically composed.

The moment the door clunked behind him, he exhaled in a mixture between a sigh of relief and a vent of anger, and spoke up. "What an absolute dick-head".

He looked over to Rach' and smiled as she offered him a little fruit drink pouch thing, as she started to fumble with the cotton ball and alcohol. He took it and put the straw in and placed it between his pursed lips. "Hey, don't worry about being emotional, it's fairly understandable" He said, then wincing as the damp wad scraped the top of the wound. He inhaled a small quantity of juice and quelled a cough. His voice came out strained as he continued "And, uh, thanks for the OJ".

Then, Randall asked, his southern boy roots showing in his accent as he made sure he was okay. He smiled at that to, it felt good to know that people would look after him. Especially with jerks like Jasper around. "Uh, yeah, I'm cool, but, ah, thanks for asking."

As glad as Ruby was to see Jasper finally get out of her dad's store, she couldn't help but feel as though she was letting him off too easily. It just didn't seem right to let Jasper get away with being such a dick, pushing her friends around and damaging her dad's wares.

Of course, the more rational side of her personality knew that this was for the best. As tempting as it was to go off on huge hate-filled rant, the fact that the one she did earlier had been about as effective as politely asking him to leave put her off that idea. Petty insults and snarky comments would have only given the abrasive jock a reason to stay there longer than he needed to, and the last thing she needed right now was to give Jasper an excuse to stick around. As much as she wanted to get her own back at Jasper, right now all that really mattered was that he took his over-inflated ego and childish personality somewhere else. And in the end, that's exactly what she had managed to achieve.

Not that it made the more prideful side of her personality feel any better...

However, just as Jasper left, fate as it seemed decided to throw her a bone when none other than Regan Flagg entered through the door. As angry as she was with Jasper, Regan's presence alone was enough to bring the faintest hint of a smile to her face. It was almost as if karma had decided to balance out the shittiness of Jasper's trolling by having one of her closest companions make an unexpected appearance. After all, who better to cheer her up right now than her own girlfriend?

That said, as much as Ruby wanted to be more public about the true nature of their relationship, on Regan's insistance she had remained silent about it. To the majority of their peers, Ruby and Regan just appeared to be really close friends. Very few people however knew just how close the two of them really were, the main reason being that Regan was far too worried about what her parents would think of her being in a relationship with another girl to ever be public about it. Whilst Ruby was fine with this for the most part, there were many times when she wished she wouldn't have to hide her true feelings whenever they were together in public. At that very moment in particular she was tempted to just wrap her arms around the other girl and plant a big kiss on her lips.

Of course, even if they weren't being secret about their relationship, she knew fine well that right now was hardly the appropriate moment for such things. What with Jimmy hurt and Rachael in tears and all.

"Hey Regan..." she said, shortly before Regan started rambling about getting back at Jasper. As amusing as it always was to listen to Regan go on like this, Ruby couldn't help but glance to her side to find Vincent staring at her with a very confused expression on his face. Not that Ruby could really blame him. Whilst she always personally loved how Regan went off on such bizarre and humorous tangents, she knew for a fact that some of her other classmates found her tendency to do that more annoying than endearing. And admittedly, there were occasionally times where Ruby had to tell Regan to calm down and get her thoughts straight. For the most part though, Regan could tell when it was appropriate to be more coherent, and sure enough she eventually realised what she was doing and asked if there was any way she could help out.

"That's okay Regan. I don't think we have to worry about Jasper anymore..."

As she glanced over at Rachael and Jimmy, she suddenly realised how awkward their situation was. Whilst Jimmy seemed fine for the most part, Rachael from the looks of things had gotten really upset by the situation. Fucking Jasper Rourke...

"...But, uh, I think Rachael could probably do with a hand. Jimmy got a piece of plastic embedded in his palm."

"Yeah, care to explain what the hell happened?"

Oh yeah, thats right. Vincent still hadn't a clue what had been going on upstairs. Sighing to herself, Ruby turned to face her dreadlocked coworker and filled in the blanks.

"Well, if you must know, the asshat who just left tripped my friend over and caused him to fall onto his album. Hence the crash you heard earlier."

There was a slight pause as Vincent thought about Ruby's explanation, almost as if he was trying to ascertain whether or not she was telling the truth.

"Oh... That's it? Huh, for a moment, I thought there was a big fight going on up here or something."

Ruby couldn't help but frown at Vincent's apathetic response. Not that she was expecting him to react any differently, considering how indifferent he was about anything that wasn't some big conspiracy theory, but that never stopped his callous nature from bothering her on occasion.

Ruby sighed again and turned to see how Regan and the others were doing. From the looks of things, Jimmy's injury wasn't quite as serious as she first assumed it was. Not that it didn't need to be treated properly or anything, but compared to how it looked at first it could have been a lot worse. In any case, Ruby wanted to see if there was any way she could help out herself.

"Say Vincent, you mind watching the till?"

"Huh? Oh sure, why not. I sorted out those James Bond videos, like, half an hour ago anyway..."

With Vincent now taking her spot behind the counter, Ruby walked over to where the others were and gathered up all the broken pieces of the album Jimmy brought. Sure enough, much to her dismay the CD inside had been completely shattered. What used to be a selection of songs for people to listen to had now been reduced to nothing more than a handful of worthless plastic shards. What a waste of good music...

"Damnit. Look, I'm sorry about what happened Jimmy. If there's any way I could make it up for y..."

Suddenly, a thought sprang to mind. "Actually, hold on a sec..."

She walked back behind the counter and into the small room behind it, quickly making her way towards the coat rack where her leather jacket was hanging up. Reaching into her jacket's inner pocket, she grabbed her wallet and removed a five dollar bill before placing it back inside her jacket. With her money in hand, she quickly made her way back to Jimmy and handed him the note.

"Here. I'd give you a more official refund, but knowing Vincent he'd probably flip his shit at the very suggestion..."