RED THREAD - r. keating

xiii.

the group of 7, plus ruth, were sitting again in the boys dressing room, just after soundcheck. rob, ruth and eli were sitting on the couch, ryan and josh squished into an armchair, with saoirse, phoebe, and iris lying on the floor, faces against the dirty carpet.

"no offence boys, but i cannot wait until this show is over, i am fucking knackered," phoebe mumbles, her voice muffled from the fabric below her. "i don't want the show to ever end, i've loved working with you guys," ruth replies, specifically looking at rob. he keeps his eyes on his drink, not wanting to look at her, as elijah asks, "girls why are ye so tired anyway, we left last night at like 12?" "we stayed up for so long talking in the girls group chat," saoirse groans, trying to lift her body off the floor. "oh weird, we did too," ryan says, simultaneously, the boys exchange knowing glances, their eyes all turning to focus on rob. the unspoken tension in the room becomes palpable.

phoebe, feeling the unspoken weight, redirected her attention to the two girls beside her, "who wants to help me with my hair and makeup, guys?" she said, overly enthusiastic, knowing neither of them were happy with the idea. "wait pheebs do you want to practice 'the perfect pair' first? or we can do it after?" rob says, the first words he's spoken to phoebe since just before the boys went on stage the night before. "do we need to again? we did it at soundcheck, i think we'll be fine," she says, forcing a smile but not meeting his eyes. "oh, yeah. sure." rob replies, with a tone of disappointment.

the three girls sit in the corner, with iris doing phoebe's makeup and saoirse doing her hair. since the room was quite big, they knew the boys couldn't hear them, "rob has barely even looked at ruth tonight, and he looked so sad when you said no pheebs, we definitely had the same conversation in the group chats last night," iris says to the other two.
phoebe glances at rob through her mirror, just staring at the wall, not engaging in any conversation, which seems to be because ruth is sitting in between him and any of the boys.

"rob do you want to go for a walk or something?" ruth asks him, looking up at him. "uh no thanks ruth," he says quickly, but looks up to see the rest of the boys staring at him, ryan mouthing, "you can't ignore her." he lets out a quiet sigh, and says "actually ruth, i could do with some fresh air," he says as they both get up.

phoebe turns around at the sound of the shuffling, and her heart drops. she turns back to the girls and whispers, "what the fuck is he doing now?" iris is shooting daggers at the scene, as saoirse just says "i don't know, but i do know he's such an idiot."

phoebe excuses herself to the bathroom, giving the remaining friends a chance to discuss the situation. "what were ye talking about in your group chat last night?" iris and ryan ask at the same time. "phoebe and rob," saoirse and josh reply, also at the same time. "let us go first," iris says, "phoebe basically confessed the fact she's in love with rob, and she thinks he likes ruth and she's not very happy!" the boys look at each other, before elijah continues, "rob also said he liked her, and said he was only talking to ruth last night to try and make phoebe jealous, he's such an idiot, we know. he was trying to ignore ruth today so he didn't even want to go for a walk with her but he also can't ignore her all night, so we kind of made him. i think he was going to use their perfect pair practice to talk to phoebe and basically say he doesn't like ruth." the girls are cut off from replying when they hear the bathroom door open down the hall, "don't tell either of them what we said," iris says quickly, before the boys pretend to talk about their show, and the girls just looking at their phones, as phoebe walks in.

the walk between rob and ruth is short, since they can only just walk to a small area outside where fans can't see them, and back to the dressing room. "you know, i've been loving doing photography for you guys, i was thinking maybe i could do some more shows?" she says, with a hopeful and flirty tone, trying to break the awkward silence. "no need, we have rosie, and it was just the fact that lewis couldn't do these shows either, otherwise he would've done it." robs response is curt, trying to make his disinterest clear. "oh well, then maybe me and you could still see eachother again?" rob closes his eyes, trying to quickly think of an excuse. "oh yeah sure, but won't you be going back to america for christmas and stuff?" "well yeah, but maybe i could spend new years here?" she asks with a very hopeful tone, lightly touching his arm. he pulls it away, and says "oh yeah sure," while he's just praying him and phoebe are together by then.