Page 68 of Something Rad
The top step where Robbie is currently standing, his fist raised in the air like he was just about to knock on the door. He slowly lowers it, his brown eyes searching my face, then drifting down to the rest of me.
I open my mouth and close it several times.
What the hell?
No real words seem capable of coming out of my mouth right now, so I squat down to pick up my granola bar and buy myself a few more seconds to learn how to speak again.
When I stand back up to my full height, Robbie seems closer now. “Did you think about it?” he asks.
“What are you doing here?” I demand, my question overlapping with the end of his.
Neither one of us replies to the other, both of our brows pinching together. Something draws my attention away from his face and I realize for the first time that he has traded his usual Members Only jacket for a red down puffer vest and his usual t-shirt for a striped golf shirt. I tilt my head, taking in his unusually preppy look.
“What are you wearing?” We both ask each other at the same exact time.
My eyes shoot back to Robbie's face, and I realize his head is also tilted as he takes in my outfit. Our heads both snap straight in unison.
“Don’t worry about it,” he says, at the same time I say, “Nothing.”
“Forget it,” I say, holding up my hand. “Answer my first question.”
“Well, I asked you my first question first,” Robbie replies, putting his hands on his hips.
“...What?”
“I asked you a question before you asked me a question,” he says. “Answer it.”
I search my cloudy brain, replaying the last thirty seconds.
“Did you think about it?” Robbie repeats.
I blow out a breath. “I said that I would.”
“And?”
I look at him for a long time, swallowing hard against the logical words threatening to come up my throat. I stand up straight, meeting his hard gaze.
So much for having time to rehearse this.
“I’m in,” I say.
Robbie blinks once, rolling his lips into his mouth and nodding. “Okay,” he says.
Okay?
“Okay,” I nod back, crossing my arms. “Now, why are you here?”
Robbie slips his Ray Bans out from his collar and slides them on his face. “Because I knew you’d make the right decision.”
I open my mouth to reply, but he turns away from me, walking down the porch steps and back to his Camaro parked in the street in front of my house. He opens the driver’s side door and starts to get in but stops when he sees me still standing in the same place. “Well?” he says. “Are you waiting for a red carpet, Cooper?”
I shake my head in confusion. “What are you talking about?”
“Come on,” Robbie says. “If we are–weredating, I’d be driving you to school.”
“What?”
Robbie rests his hands on the roof of his Camaro, letting out a frustrated sigh. “Cooper, no girlfriend of mine is riding the bus to school.” My cheeks flare with heat. “Now, come on,” he says. “We’re gonna be late.” Then he settles down in the driver’s seat, closing his door and starting the engine.
