Page 85 of Something Rad
Robbie’s eyes are on fire when he opens them, a deep crease set between his brows. I feel how flushed my cheeks are as I blink back at him, trying to rationalize if it's anger or something much more heated passing between us right now.
Robbie steps back abruptly as the song ends, looking me up and down. He seems to realize his action and quickly tries to recover by running a hand over the top of my hair in what I think was supposed to be a show of affection. I reach for his hand, trying my best to feign my own display. Robbie’s fingers are rigid against my own, both of us squeezing each other’s hands too tightly.
We both glance around the room at the same moment and are met with a whole lot of raised eyebrows, every person snapping back to reality and turning away to mind their own business the second we catch them watching us.
“Can we go now?” I mutter, not meeting Robbie’s eyes, still feeling confused and, for some reason, slightly embarrassed.
“Yeah,” Robbie nods. “I think that’s enough torture for tonight.”
eighteen
ROBBIE
Cooper and I don’t say a word to each other over the short ride back to her house. The tension is so thick that you could cut it with a knife. I swear it raises the temperature inside my damn Camaro.
We haven’t even looked at each other since we walked out of the gym. Since…whatever just happened. I can only deal with the stiff quiet for a minute or so before I have to turn the radio on,Waiting For a Girl Like Youby Foreigner now the only thing slicing through the silence.
I love this song. I love the entire album it comes from actually. But something about it is just rubbing me the wrong way right now. It’s sort of making me itch, like I want to crawl out of my skin, the words feeling like a needle poking at my already scrambled brain. I reach for the dial to change the radio station.
“No.”
I halt, hearing Cooper’s voice for the first time in the last fifteen minutes. I glance over at her and see her looking out her passenger side window, her hands folded in her lap.
“Leave it,” she says, not turning to look at me.
I swallow, leaning back in my chair.
“You like this song?” I ask her after a few moments.
She shrugs, still not looking at me. “It’s better than anything else you’d probably play instead.”
I scoff out a dry laugh.
As if this girl hasn’t tested me enough tonight, she’s really going to sit in my own car and question my music taste. I shake my head, running a hand through my hair.
The song comes to an end just as I pull up in front of Cooper’s house. I shut the radio off altogether, blowing a breath out of my nose. I dip my head down, looking at her driveway and finding it empty. I guess Sherri is still at work. I consider asking the question out loud, knowing it would piss Cooper off to hear me call her mom by her first name again, but I hold off. Instead I let my mind wander, questioning if Cooper’s usually home alone this late. I wonder for a moment what her Dad does. I’ve only been to her house twice and have managed to miss him both times. He must travel for work or something.
I don’t realize I’ve zoned out until I hear a car door open and see Cooper start to slide out of her seat. She pauses for just a moment once she gets her feet on the ground, her back to me. “Goodnight,” she says.
I clear my throat, nodding even though she can’t see me through the back of her head. “Night, Cooper.”
I see her shoulders rise and fall with a light sigh and the slightest shake of her head. I don’t get a chance to question her on it though before she hops out of my car, slamming the door just a little harder than necessary and making a beeline for her front door. I watch to make sure she gets in okay, and she doesn’t look back once as she unlocks her front door, steps inside the house, and turns on her front porch light, letting the door fall closed behind her.
“Jesus Christ, Cooper,” I mutter under my breath.
I pull away from her house, turning the radio back on. There’s nothing but commercials playing on the handful of stations I scan through, but I somehow prefer that to the alternative right now. I stop on a random station, letting an ad for New Coke play for a few seconds before I give up, shutting the radio off again.
I glance at the clock on my dashboard, seeing it’s barely 9:30. I haven’t been home this early on a Friday night in,well, ever. I know everyone will be leaving the dance soon and heading to Dusty’s, the old drive-in movie spot in town that we pay to get into most Fridays and Saturdays and basically never watch the movies. It’s just become the meeting spot to grab snacks and hang around until we decide where to go next.
I should go. It would be weird for menotto go.Unheard of, honestly. But where would I say Cooper is? I know it’s the first thing everyone will ask. And I don’t have the energy to act for anyone any further tonight. With how Cooper and I left the dance, further plans for the night hadn’t even crossed my mind. I didn’t even think about taking her to Dusty’s. Not that she would have agreed anyways. It was nearly impossible enough to just get her to the dance.
But once she was there…
I never thought I’d see something like that out of her. The way she handled my friends, the way sheownedthat entire gym… You never would have known I had to practically wrestle her into my car an hour before. Or that the entire thing was just a show.
I’d even say thatImight have forgotten for a minute there.
But, God, it was fantastic.Wewere fantastic. It was all goingsoperfectly.
