Page 248 of Something Rad
I tilt my head at him. “What?”
“I’m a senior. My basketball career is officially over. I’m washed up. I don’t need to practice anymore. So let’s skip seventh period.” Robbie starts walking, pulling my hand behind him, but I don’t move, making his feet come to a stop.
“What?” he asks.
“I have algebra seventh period.”
“Yeah,” Robbie says. “And you hate algebra. So that makes this an even more perfect plan.”
My lips part. “What would we do?”
Robbie pushes my hair out of my face, cupping my cheek. “That’s the thing, Cooper. We can do whatever we want. And,” he adds, leaning down to whisper in my ear, “since it’s Monday and you don’t have work tonight, we can do whatever we wantallnight.”
He pulls back, waggling his eyebrows at me, and I have to bite my lower lip to stifle a laugh. When I don’t respond right away, Robbie’s expression turns slightly more serious. “Or, you know, until midnight. Or ten. Whatever Sherri prefers
“Sherri doesn’t really have many rules for me,” I chuckle.
Because I’ve never given her a reason to.
“I knew I liked her,” Robbie grins. “So, what do you say?”
I look up at him, my eyes searching his face.
There’s a voice in the back of my mind telling me that this is a bad idea. Telling me that the reason I hate algebra is because it’s my worst subject. That I’m already stressed for our final exam in a few weeks and missing a class would only set me behind further. That I haven’t checked in on my grade point average in the last month or so and that I wouldn’t want to let myself get too lazy with so little time left to go. It’s suggesting to me that…maybe Alice might have had somewhat of a point…
But then, a stronger voice comes through. And it’s real. It’s Robbie, right in front of me, breathing against my ear, “C’mon, Cooper. It’s just one class. One time.”
And I can’t help the way the smile that it brings to my face, pushing every other voice to the very back of my mind.
I pull back from Robbie, finding his gaze. “Fine, I’m in,” I tell him. “But you better make it worth my while.”
Robbie leans down, pressing a kiss to my lips before turning and pulling me along behind him, all the way out of the school and to his Camaro.
“I won’t let you down, Cooper,” he says as he starts the engine.
And he doesn’t.
The afternoon honestly feels like a blur. One happy, blissful, euphoria-filled afternoon.
We get chocolate milkshakes. We stop and eat them in a park that I used to play at as a little kid. We talk about movies, about the ones that have made us laugh the most, the ones that have made us cry, and everything in between. I tell Robbie about the books that have been most popular at the school library recently, and about the ones I’ve been reading lately.
At some point, San Francisco is brought up and, when I say that I haven’t been since I was a little kid, Robbie declares that we are driving there right this second. We make the forty-five minute drive, listening toFrontiersfrom top to bottom. And then, when we reach the city, we drive around for hours, stopping to park a few times for one reason or another, our final stop being a lookout point for the Golden Gate Bridge.
When we get there, Robbie switches out one Journey tape for another, starting upInfinity. And whenLightsstarts playing, which is evidently a love song to San Francisco, I feel my stomach knot and the backs of my eyes burn. Because, as I sit here on the hood of Robbie’s Camaro with his arm around me, like the most perfect movie scene you could ever imagine, watching the lights go down in the city and the sun shining on the bay, I really do feel like I want to be here, in my city, and I wonder why exactly it is that I have been so intent on getting out of it.
We stay there, my head on Robbie’s shoulder until the sun dips completely below the bay. And then even for a little while after. Eventually, the temperature drops due to the lack of sun and the breeze off the water below, and we decide to get back in the car. We make our way back towards Bay View, stopping for pizza along the way at a local mom and pop shop. And when we finally cross the city line of our small town around half past nine, theWelcome to Bay View!sign coming into view, I’m not at all ready for the night to end.
And luckily, Robbie doesn’t seem to be ready either.
“You down for one more stop, Cooper?” he asks.
“What do you have in mind?”
He leans over, kissing my temple. “How about we let it be a surprise?”
Even though I usually hate surprises, I decide to just go with it. If the surprise of Robbie storming his way into my life worked out this well, I think it’s best I allow them more often.
It’s about ten minutes later when we’re pulling up to a dark strip center in our main town square.
