Clouds As Witnesses (RUBY DA CHERRY/$UICIDEBOY$)

Chapter 39

Tw: Mentions unwanted sexual touching. Not super explicit, but if that is triggering for you, skip from Ari and Shay's conversation to after the ******* to read about Scott's meeting. You won't miss too much either way, but comment or message me for a recap if needed!

As expected, Scott was an unhinged mess the next morning. He had been awake for approximately fifteen minutes and had already barfed into the toilet twice and managed to trash the hotel room because he apparently had "nothing to wear" (even though Shay had spent the week before their trip helping him choose a proper outfit, one that was now flung onto the plush tan carpet in a perfectly round ball and subsequently tripped on by both Aristos and Scott).

"Scott, please!" Shay finally barked as he stumbled across the carpet once again, this time tripping on the suitcase he had violently shoved onto the floor mere minutes before he emptied its contents everywhere in the search for an appropriate outfit. "Can you please sit still for one sec- ARISTOS, WHAT ARE YOU DOING? GET DOWN FROM THERE."

Ari was giggling from a couple feet above them. Yes, above them, literally standing on top of the dresser that was now wobbling underneath his weight. At this point, if he fell then he fucking fell and Shay wasn't even going to bother helping him. It felt like she was babysitting two toddlers with a master plan to rid her of her sanity this morning, and she was heavily reconsidering her previous request for four children when she could hardly wrangle two grown ass men. 

Her moron of choice was now hanging upside down from said dresser, opening the bottom drawer to reveal Scott's pants that Shay had carefully smoothed out and folded the night before in a failed attempt to make this morning a little easier. "Here ya go, Scott. These look- FUCK!"

Aaaaaand, there he went tumbling.

From her place at the edge of her bed, Shay closed her eyes and exhaled through her nose as she could literally feel her patience running thin. Calmly, she stated: "Scott, please come finish your bagel. Look, Ari finished his."

"'Cause I'm a good boy." Ari asserted from his new location on the ground near the dresser, discreetly nursing his elbow that had audibly cracked against the floor when he fell. 

"Absolutely not." Shay disagreed. With a once-over to make sure nothing was broken or bleeding, Shay decided the best course of action would be to ignore him. As Ari loved to say about their friends back home in New Orleans: play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

"Aww." Ari frowned, clearly disappointed with her assessment of his behavior.

"I can't eat dat. I'll throw up." Scott grumbled, still lying face down on the carpet. "I'm sick an' nauseous and way too nervous to eat. Need some xans."

While Shay shook her head, she definitely wasn't above bribing at this point. "Nope. No xans until you finish your breakfast."

"Says who? You ain't even know where-" Scott shut up when she rattled the pill bottle inside of her cardigan pocket. As if she really hadn't thought about that when she was getting herself ready, fully prepared for his anxiety-induced shenanigans. Scott should be appreciative of her efforts to keep him safe and well-fed, but the furrowed brow and tight scowl when he turned his head toward her dripped of anything but gratitude. "God damnit, Shayna. I hate you."

"You hate me because I'm looking out for you?" Shay leered. "One, you don't need to be barred out at an important meeting. Two, Universal knows who you are, so they already know what to expect from you. They are not expecting some prim and proper corporate douchebag. All you have to do is be yourself and show them all of the amazing things you've been working on. They will love it, and you, just as much as we do."