0.1 | No Exit from Deception ✓

0.18 | Rule Number Two : A General Guideline To Fashion

During those tranquil ten minutes car ride, Ruby started picking up lint on the sleeve of her apple green shirt.

Joseph's presence in the car didn't really make any big difference. His face was impassive and was busy drawing shapes on his phone as he sat across the driver's seat which was taken by Sarah. Talking a mile a minute, Sarah took pauses in between for Joseph or Ruby to say something. But, that was only possible if Joseph detached his mental concentration from his phone, and Ruby allowed her conscience to fall back inside the car.

"Anshuman wanted to tag along with us so badly. But, he couldn't call away from the meeting at this time. A sit-on-your-ass job for endless hours. That sucks!" Sarah disgusted, gripping the steering wheel tightly.

The timing was odd; it was a quarter past three in the afternoon. The sunlight was simmering through the thin wool of clouds and the air blew the green lush outside to ease the humid tolerance of people. Nobody in their right mind would agree to shop at this hour of the day. Even compulsive shopaholics would give primary preference to their beauty sleep over buying clothes and beating the heat around. But Sarah had some different plans, to which Ruby had to oblige.

"Maybe we could come again together, the Big Four of us." Sarah chuckled and nervously glanced at Ruby through the rearview mirror and then at Joseph. Nobody entertained any conversation; it was all dry just like the mundane scenery dissolving behind.

A while later, Sarah parked the car in the parking lot which was surprisingly not that busy. But scattered people drifting away in ones and twos could be seen, making entry and exit out of the mall at mismatched paces.

Joseph clambered out, followed by Ruby and thereafter Sarah whose excitement hiked up to the sky. "Let's strut our stuff gal!"

Breathing the warm air, as they stayed out for a minute Sarah excused them and left to attend to a call on her phone.

Ruby hummed, and a feeling of uncertainty crossed her face. She shook her head slightly and pushed a lock behind her ear. Suddenly, Joseph loomed against the same ear to whisper, "Just a humble reminder: Shop freely. I'll be paying."

Jumping up, Ruby turned around sharply. "What was that? Your way of giving me a heart attack right? yeah, great going! If I die, then you should know one thing, nobody would step up in my place by any means."

"Absolutely not. I'll undertake to insure your life against any risk arising in between. Until then you don't have to worry about your dear life. Your breathing is really important." Joseph smirked, clasping his hands behind his back.

"And then?"

Shading her eyes with one hand as the midday sun was smiling at her. She looked at Joseph who stood there like an eclipse- his silhouette formed on Ruby's body partly, leaving her face sun-kissed. Her supernova eyes diluted the melding hues of whiskey-brown and stunning.

"And what after that . . . after I loot Mrs Warner's wealth and give the world to your feet?" A question that was born out in an instant in the heat of an indescribable war of emotional distress.

That look, when he neither stared nor blinked was the instance that made her feel awkward just like atheism in a priest. She sprawled out, placing her foot a block to the right, just sufficient for her body to stand under his brawny figure's shade.

"I go on my way as you go on your own," Joseph said hoarsely with his eyes watching her deeply.

As if it touched the pit of her stomach. She blinked and chanted the same sentence under her breath 'I go on my way as you go on your own.

She turned around slowly and a car at high speed swerved from side to side, narrowly missing Ruby's stance, and skidded away.

Ruby squealed, shutting her ears and eyes. A bead of sweat trickled down the side of her neck and her heart leaped inside her chest. Joseph pulled her back and placed a reassuring hand on her back as he yelled at the crazy driver, attaining the highest octave, "HEY! GET BACK HERE! YOU BLOODY BAS-"