Page 48 of Waiting for Ru
“Yes.”
“Draw me?”
“I’ll try.” Ru picked up his pad.
It didn’t take him long to sketch an image of Poppy lying in the sun, her large sunglasses perched on her head, and he showed it to her.
“Wow, you’re really good.”
“Thank you.”
“Can I have it?”
“If you want.”
“Give it to me later when we’re back?”
“Okay.” Now he’d started to draw, Ru began to sketch some of the others, then the house.
The guys began to fool around in the water and Poppy jumped in.
“Oh it’s so warm,” she called. “Come on in the shallow end, Ru!”
“I’m fine.” Ru drew everyone apart from Mike. He thought he’d be too tempted to give him horns, warts and fangs.
Water sprayed over his legs and Ru jumped. It might have been an accident but then again… He tucked his sketchpad and pencils under his towel and lay back to soak up the rays. The others were playing a game with a ball. Everyone but him was in the water.
“Don’t you want to get your hair wet?” Mike called.
Ru didn’t react.
“Worried the chlorine will turn it pink?” Mike continued to taunt him.
Funnily enough, Ru quite fancied pink hair. Ink’s hair was bluey purple and Ru liked it.
“Cluuuuck…cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck.”
Ru wasn’t certain who started the noise. But others joined in. He’d never heard anyone do it before but he could guess what it meant. They thought he was chicken, too scared to go in the water. Well, he was. He probably couldn’t swim, and he had no idea how deep this pool was. Plus, he was lying near the deep end and he’d look a dick if he walked down to the shallow end to get in.
The ribbing continued and Ru switched off his ears as he’d done when his aunt kept on at him, and just let himself drift to another world. He’d win people over eventually. He was a hard worker and he’d not reported Mike when he could have. Maybe if he made a meal for everyone one night, or bought a couple of bottles of wine…
When he felt the sun lounger being lifted into the air, his eyes flashed open and he had a moment to panic before he was tipped into the water along with the lounger. As he flailed, his head collided with something and he went down with the sun lounger on top of him.
Jasim was in his office, standing at the open French doors, watching the activity around the pool. Or rather watching Ru. When he saw Mike, Seb and Ben pick up Ru’s lounger and toss him and it into the water, and heard the gleeful cackling, he didn’t even wait to see if Ru was all right. Those fuckers. If Ru was hurt… He bounded down the steps and raced over there. Even from a distance, he saw a cloudy swirl of blood in the water, and kicking off his shoes, he dived in and powered down to grab Ru off the bottom.
He was lying part under the lounger and not moving. Jasim wrapped his arms around him and kicked for the surface. Suddenly, there were plenty of hands to help get Ru onto the side, and once he was clear of the water, Jasim heaved himself out and knelt by him. Ru was bleeding from his head and unconscious.
“Call for an ambulance,” he snapped.
To Jasim’s relief, Ru was still breathing, and a moment later, his eyes flickered open and he coughed and struggled.
“Can’t swim!” Ru gasped.
“Don’t move.” Jasim’s heart pounded.
He watched as the confusion faded from Ru’s eyes and he registered he was out of the water.
“I’m grand,” Ru murmured.
