Page 228 of Something Rad
Robbie’s voice is firm from behind me. I swivel to look at him, and find his eyes trained on me, a serious look within them. One that tells me he’s not taking no for an answer and to not even bother trying to fight him on it.
“Great,” Alice says. “I guess you guys should get going then? Unless you were wanting to go back to the party, Sara?” She glances down at my shirt, her lips quirking. “You know, dressed in that–”
“No,” I shake my head. “I’d like to go home.”
I feel warm fingers slowly wrap around mine.
“Then let’s go home.”
I turn my head to find Robbie holding my hand, much closer than he just was, his head cocked as he looks down at me. When I tilt my head back to look up at him, a strand of hair falls in my eyes. Robbie quickly reaches out, pushing it behind my ear, creating a buzz under my skin where his fingers brush along the side of my face, eventually settling on my jaw. My lips part, eyes blinking as I watch his face soften, his lips pulling into a smirk.
“Well, you guys have fun with that,” Alice says, bringing me back to reality, causing me to flinch away from Robbie’s touch and turn to look at her. “Sara, you’ll call me tomorrow?” As she says it, her eyes widen and head tilts in a way that tells me that I don’t have a choice. That, whether I call her or not, wewillbe speaking tomorrow. Even if that means she has to show up at my front door and drag every last detail out of me.
“Sounds good,” I tell her.
“Great,” she replies, tapping the doorframe with her knuckle. “You kids be careful.” She leaves us with one last grin and waggle of her eyebrows before she turns away, disappearing down the hallway.
My shoulders relax as soon as Alice is out of sight, but the moment I turn back to Robbie, they stiffen again. He’s staring at me so intensely, and I have no idea how to read him. He’s saying a million things within his gaze, but nothing to me aloud. His eyes are soft, but his jaw is hard set. He’s wearing the faintest ghost of a smile, yet his brows are pinched together. His body is fully angled towards me, mirroring every shift of my feet, but his arms are crossed, like he's closed off somehow. Unsure, maybe. Hesitant.
“What?” I finally ask him, not able to attempt to psychoanalyze him for another minute without feeling like my brain is going to explode.
Robbie stares at me for a few moments, his eyes flicking between my own. I swallow down the rocks in my throat, waiting for him to speak. To make some grand declaration or maybe just run out of the door. But he doesn’t. I just see his lips barely twitch before he uncrosses his arms, saying, “Nothing.” I think about questioning him further, but he breaks my eye contact, ducking down to sweep his duffle bag off the floor. “Ready to go?” he asks once he’s standing back up.
I lick my dry lips. “Yeah,” I nod. “Sure.” I walk past him to pick up my dress from where it’s still rumpled in a pile on the ground. When I have it, I take the extra step I need to reach the sink, wringing as much water as I can out of it.
I’m reminded at this moment that this is, in fact, my mother’s dress. And that makes me want to laugh as much as it makes me want to be sick. I wonder if she just wouldn’t notice if it happened to go missing. I haven’t seen her wear it since I was a kid, but I don’t think I could chance having to control my reaction if I saw her in it again. A highlight reel of everything this dress just went through flashes through my head at warp speed, and my stomach does a flip flop.
Yeah, no. This dress will never see my mother’s closet again.
I turn back towards Robbie and watch as he glances down at the now somewhat dry and wrinkled dress in my hands and can’t help but wonder if he’s thinking the same things I was just thinking. The way that his throat bobs and eyes darken just slightly tells me that he very well might be, and that sends a flutter low through my belly.
He eventually blinks a few times and clears his throat, seeming to snap out of wherever his mind was taking him, looking up to my face now.
“You sure you don’t want to make a couple of laps around the party in that ensemble?” he asks, pointing to the clothes I’m wearing.
I let out a dry laugh. “I don’t even want to show my face in this for the distance it takes to get out of the front door of the house.”
Robbie blows out a breath, rolling his eyes. Then he tilts his head at me before looking down at his duffle bag, unzipping it and rifling through it. “Turn around.”
“What?” I rear back. “Why?”
“I have a jacket you can wear,” he says. “And it’s still cold out anyways.”
“Oh,” I breathe, my shoulders falling. “That’d be great actually. Thank you.”
I turn around, holding out my arms so he can slip his jacket on me, a warm feeling swirling through my chest at his consideration. I make out the sound of something being pulled from his bag before I feel the material sliding onto my arms and across my back. I straighten my arms out in front of me, pulling the jacket closer around myself and settling into its warmth. I start to turn around, but my eyes catch on the bright blue and yellow colors in the mirror in front of me, and that’s when I realize.
I drop my head, letting out a chuckle before I spin around, looking over my shoulder in the mirror to readSummersclear as day across the back of the jacket. Because it’s Robbie’s letterman jacket. With his name and everything about him plastered all over it in embroidery and patches.
I look back at Robbie, finding one hand on his hip and the other halfway covering his upturned mouth. “I’m not sure how much of an improvement this is,” I tell him.
He drops his hand from his mouth, revealing his full grin. “I don’t think you’ve ever looked better.”
I can’t help but laugh, meeting his eyes as my chuckles fade out in a sigh. I raise my arms in the air, giving him a bow of sorts.
Robbie shakes his head, his tongue pushed into the side of his cheek. “Come on. Let’s go.”
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