Page 65 of Gatsby's Starlet
Mystic’s mouth tipped slightly. “Figured it was time I stopped by, see if anything’s changed.”
Zeynep smiled, softer, easier. “Lucy never stops talking about this place.”
“Only the good stuff, I hope,” Chain called. “You never know with Lucy.”
I stepped in beside Gatsby, forcing my expression into something normal, something steady, even as my pulse started to climb for a completely different reason.
What if this wasn’t random?
What if Mystic knew something?
And Ruby—God—she was walking straight into it, and I saw her before I heard her, moving toward us with the tray balanced in her hand, her posture straight, her face set into something that might’ve passed for calm if you didn’t know her, but I did, I knew exactly what I was looking at, and it had my chest tightening before she even got close.
“Ruby,” I said low, just enough for her to hear as she approached.
Her eyes flicked to mine, and I didn’t even try to hide it, didn’t soften it, just pushed the warning straight at her,don’t, don’t do this, don’t draw attention, and for a second, just one, I thought she understood, thought she might keep moving, passby like nothing was wrong, like this was just another night and none of it meant anything more.
Then her gaze shifted.
Not to me.
To Zeynep.
And everything in her went tight.
“Sorry—coming through—” she said, her voice perfectly pitched, just loud enough to carry without pulling focus, but there was something underneath it now, something strained, something stretched too thin.
Her hand moved with the tray, but it wasn’t steady, not anymore, it was just slightly off, just enough that the balance shifted, the tray tipping in a way that wouldn’t be obvious unless you were watching for it, unless you were looking for the moment it went wrong.
The glasses slid.
And then everything unraveled at once.
Liquid spilled forward, cold and fast, soaking straight through the front of Zeynep’s top as the glasses clattered, the loud sound cutting clean through the noise around us, turning heads without anyone fully understanding what had just happened.
“Oh my God, I am so sorry—” Ruby rushed out immediately, too quick, too smooth, already reaching for napkins like she’d practiced it, like she’d known exactly how this would play out.
Zeynep startled, stepping back more in surprise than anything, her hands coming up instinctively as she looked down. “It’s okay—really—”
But Mystic didn’t move.
Didn’t speak.
He just watched, his attention shifting first to Zeynep, quick and assessing, making sure she was fine, and then to Ruby, where it settled and stayed a second too long, not like someonebrushing it off, not like someone who thought it was an accident, but like someone who had just gotten exactly what he’d been waiting for.
My stomach dropped.
And Ruby… Ruby had just handed him exactly what he needed.
I felt Gatsby shift beside me, his hand tightening at my back as his attention moved between Ruby and Mystic, something in him already picking up on it, already reading that something wasn’t right.
And that,thatwas worse than anything.
Because if Gatsby started to see it too… there was no stopping where that would lead.
***
“LET’S GO OUTSIDEfor a minute,” Gatsby said, leading me down the hallway and out the back door, and my thoughts were already racing ahead of me, because I couldn’t stop wondering if this was it, if this was the moment he confronted me, if he’d picked up on what Mystic had just done and was about to push for answers I wasn’t ready to give.
