Page 78 of Something Rad
“But–”
“I’ll get exactly what I want,” Robbie cuts me off.
“I suppose you always do,” I automatically mutter.
That seems to catch Robbie off guard. We’re quiet for a few moments before he clears his throat. “Rules?” he asks.
“Rules, right,” I nod.
“I already know your first one,” he says. “I can touch you with anything but my lips.”
“I don’t think that’s exactly what I said–”
“And you know mine,” Robbie continues.
“Right. I’m not to lay a finger on the glorious locks.” I roll my eyes.
“Yep. That’s exactly what I said.” Robbie looks straight forward out the windshield. “What’s next?” he asks.
There are several possible rules bouncing around in my head, but somehow they all decide to congeal into this one statement. “Robbie?” I breathe. He turns his head to look at me. “Just…don’t make me look stupid, okay?”
Robbie’s brows pull together. At the angle he’s looking at me, one of the lamp posts in the parking lot is shining directly in one of his eyes. The comparison between that eye and his other right now reminds me of milk chocolate and dark chocolate. I don’t like dark chocolate. It’s bitter and always seems to taste the same. It never surprises me, just always disappoints me. But milk chocolate, on the other hand… I love milk chocolate. It’s sweet. And bright. I never know what exactly to expect from it. I could try a different bar of milk chocolate every day and none of them would taste exactly the same. They’d always surprise me. But it would always be a good thing. Milk chocolate always finds a way to make me happy. I cantrustmilk chocolate, even if it’s unpredictable. But dark chocolate is always just predictably, consistently bad.
I try not to think about how other things in my life can relate to chocolate. Or people.
Robbie still hasn’t said anything, so I continue. “Just… If you don’t want to do this anymore, just tell me.”
“Cooper, I–”
I hold up a hand. “Just be honest with me. If you’re suddenly happy with the way you’re perceived by people next week or if Denise Davis comes up to you tomorrow and begs for you back, please just tell me you’re done with this. Let us have a clean and simple fake break up to our fake relationship.” I shift my eyes from Robbie’s face to my lap. “Me agreeing to this was in an effort to better my reputation. I just ask that you don’t do anything purposely to make it any worse. Okay?”
Robbie is quiet. I count to ten in my head before I risk a look at him. His facial expression is unreadable when I do. He’s just staring at me. Slowly, he starts to nod. “Yeah. Okay, Cooper. I promise.”
I look at him, noticing the light is now shining in both of his eyes.
Double milk chocolate.
I look away. “Okay. Well, I think that’s all I have. You?”
I hear Robbie sigh, and am forced to look back at him. He has a tinge of a smile pulling at his lips. “I think this is the part where I’m supposed to drop the cheesy line of saying you’re not allowed to fall in love with me.”
The air freezes painfully in my lungs, my brows shooting up to my forehead.What?
“But I think we both know there’s no point in adding that rule,” Robbie finishes.
My lungs and eyebrows return to their usual forms, everything normal in the world once again. “Yeah, glad we’re on the same page about that–”
“Because we both know you’re already too far gone for me anyways.”
I punch his arm.
I don’t know why, but my automatic response was to punch Robbie Summers right in his bicep. I also involuntarily accompanied the punch with a groan of disgust.
“Did you justpunchme?” Robbie questions, gripping his upper arm.
“Are you gonna cry about it?” I ask.
We’ve clearly resorted to playground bully level as our form of defense.
