Page 56 of Something Rad
“Okay, Sara!” Mom’s voice comes again from afar. “I’m really leaving now! Your friend is here to see you!”
My pencil immediately drops from my hand, a smile coming to my face.
“I’ll let you two lock the door behind me!”
“Alice,” I mutter to myself, my grin spreading.
I hear the front door close and suddenly become aware of the absurd amount of eraser shavings covering my homework paper and entire desk. I quickly gather them all into a pile and have just finished gently brushing them off of the side of my desk and into my trash can when I hear the creak of my bedroom door.
“About time you showed up, you little skank,” I say to Alice.
Which would have been hilarious. Except, when I spin around to face the door, it’s not Alice standing there.
“Well damn, Cooper. If you’d wanted me to come to your bedroom that badly, you could’ve just asked.”
I feel all the blood drain from my face as I scramble to my feet. Then, once I take a second to really take in the fact that Robbie Summers is standing in the doorway of my bedroom right now, the blood rushes back to my head all at once.
I storm forward to him, my mouth agape but no words coming out. Once I reach the doorway, my head continues to swivel back and forth between him and the direction of the front door that my mother just left out of.
My mother.
Robbie Summers just interacted with my mother.
What alien planet did I wake up on today? Please, someone inform me.
I keep trying to speak, but only sputtering sounds manage to come out. “Huh–Wha–Why–I–”
“English might be helpful, Cooper.”
“Explain yourself!” I demand, throwing my hands in the air. “How are you here right now?”
“Sherri let me in,” Robbie replies nonchalantly, sliding past me and into my room. He does a full 360 degree turn, taking it all in before facing the doorway again. His head shifts slightly to the side, something catching his eye. “Top Gun?” he asks, a brow raising in my direction as he points to the back of my door.
I push my hair away from my face, pausing to rub my temples.
“Is that your favorite movie or something?” Robbie continues.
“No,” I say steadily.
“Then why do you have a huge poster–”
“No,” I say, holding a hand out and cutting him off. “Notnoas inthat’s not my favorite movie–”
“So it is?” Robbie asks.
I blow a breath out of my nose in frustration. “Yes, it’s my favorite movie.No, as in: No,you cannot just show up at my house and be standing in my bedroom and call my mother by her first name.”
Robbie just lets out a chuckle, turning away from me as he continues to stare and snoop at the contents of my room.
“How did you get here?Beforemy mom–”
“Sherri,” Robbie interjects.
“Robbie,” I grit. “Before my mom let you in,howdid you get here?”
“Well, I drove, Cooper,” he says. “I told you I was pretty sure I remembered where your house was.” He glances over his shoulder at me. “Stop acting like Bay View is so big.”
“It’s getting smaller by the second. That’s for sure,” I say.
