Page 232 of Something Rad

Page List

Font Size:

I missed you.

Robbie threads his fingers into my hair, nuzzling against me further.

“I missed you too, Cooper.”

forty-eight

ROBBIE

My knuckle taps against the locked doors of Groovy Movie.

I lean my face against the glass door, placing my hand over my forehead and trying to peer inside. It’s only a couple of seconds before I see a swish of red and a grin comes to my face. I pull away from the glass, stepping back so that Cooper can unlock the door.

She swings it open, looking me up and down as she leans against the doorway, still wearing her burnt orange Groovy Movie vest over the cream blouse and plaid skirt she wore to school today. Her arms fold and her ankles cross over one another, forcing my eyes to follow the dark pantyhose running up her long legs. My throat bobs, fantasies running wild in my mind and other parts of my body waking up in my brain’s dream-like state.

“You’re late,” she says, snapping my gaze back to her face.

I lift the hand that is holding the heavy grocery bag up towards my face, reading my watch on my wrist. “Cooper, it’s 9:01.”

“And I agreed to 9:00,” she retorts. I look up at her, finding her eyes narrowed on me but a smirk on her face. She pretends to yawn. “I’m not sure that I’m up for an outing anymore.”

An outing.

That’s what she keeps insisting on calling our first date.

It’s what she referred to our date as every day this week when I’d remind her during lunch of our plans this Friday, just hoping to see her eyes turn on me and her cheeks flush pink. It’s what she weakly threatened to cancel whenever I refused to tell her what we’d be doing, claiming she hates surprises. It’s what I caught written in her open planner during Ms. Cage’s class, which she promptly slammed close, blowing out a frustrated breath that reminded me far too much of other breathy sounds she has previously made for us to be sitting in history class together, me unable to pull her into my lap in my desk right there and make her make them again.

An outing.

Not a date.

Because calling it a date would mean she was making this easy for me. And there’s no chance of that.

Because she’s a stubborn little shit.

But, if I’m being honest, I can’t even pretend that I mind.

I got to be around her this week. I got to look in her direction and not have to force my eyes away the moment she’d look back. I got to walk with her to Ms. Cage’s class without either one of us deliberately speeding up or slowing down to avoid the other one. I got to watch her furrow her brow and chew on her bottom lip between sips of Jolt as she studied at lunch like her algebra notes contained the cure to cancer. I got to listen to my JourneyFrontierstape all the way through for the first time in months and think of her without it feeling like there was a hole in my chest. I got to play my first basketball game of the season last night knowing that her attention being on me wasn’tentirelydue to the photos she was taking.

When there was something I wanted to tell her, I was able to, because we were speaking again. When I wanted to scan the halls and find her, I could, because she wasn’t hiding from me anymore. And when I felt like I may die if I didn’t touch her, I was able to brush my fingers against her skin with only a half-hearted glare in response. And that was enough.

Things between us aren’t perfect yet, but, for now, I’ll take the things exactly as they are. As long as there’s things to have at all. As long as Sara Cooper is slowly sliding her way back into my life– as long as it keeps feeling like the sun is finally rising for the first time in a long time– I’m content. I’mhappy.

Cooper gives me another dramatic yawn, patting the palm of her hand against her mouth. “Perhaps we’ll just have to save our outing for another day.”

“Sounds great,” I remark.

Cooper straightens in the doorway. “Um, really?”

“Sure, Cooper.” I take a step closer to her. “I’d love to go on an outing with you another weekend.”

“Well, okay then,” she says, and, even though she’s putting on her best show to hide it, I can see the slight shadow of disappointment flickering across her face.

She was looking forward to this.

A grin spreads across my face. “Great,” I say, then push past her in the doorway.

Cooper spins around as I pass by her. “Um, what are you doing? I thought you just said we’d go out another weekend.”