Grab N' Go [Robin Arellano]

40: Always and Forever, Finney Blake

For the past 3 days, Valentina has been actively participating in the search for Finney Blake.

Her mother has allowed her to miss school, assuming she would stay home to grieve her friend. However, she has been working nonstop to do whatever she possibly could to help the boy.

She didn't bother with missing flyers, knowing exactly who had the boy and that he wouldn't give him up no matter what reward is offered. Instead, she focused her efforts on revisiting her old notebook and returning to marking off addresses with Robin. However, they still haven't come up with any leads.

If Robin is honest, he admires her persistence, but the idea of actually finding that place again terrifies him. Yes, he wants to find Finney, but that doesn't stop the unshakable terror of revisiting the place that he spent the worst moments of his life in. When he simply imagines the house, he remembers in great detail what happened to him there as well as what happened after- how is life fell apart in so many different ways. He lost his childhood there, and he lost his mom right after. If all that happened just from thinking of the house, he can't even imagine what will happen if they actually find it.

Still, he puts up a tough front and follows Valentina to check whichever house or neighborhood she wants, as if it doesn't bother him at all. Even though it causes anxiety to stir every time she named a new, unfamiliar address for them to visit, he would still go along with her. He would have her back this time, no matter what.

Plus, he didn't wanna let Finney down. He wanted to stay strong for him too. He refuses to lose him. And he would never let him go out like this. Every time he imagines Finn going through something remotely close to what he did, he physically becomes ill and has to excuse himself to throw up in secrecy.

Again, he admires Valentina's commitment, but over the past few days, she's become more and more obsessive over the whole thing. Like, unhealthily obsessive. She will spend hours awake crossing out addresses and scanning her map to write out new ones. He has to physically pull her away sometimes, usually after hours of begging her to rest. His argument is often that she needs rest to search the next day. Yesterday, he was so worn out from all the searching and anxiety, he fell asleep while she was working on stuff at her desk. When he awoke again at 3am because of her lack of body heat, he was concerned and surprised to see her asleep at her desk, still clutching her pen. It didn't take much effort to pick her up and move her, but still it made him worried that she's working herself too hard. Sometimes, she doesn't even eat for hours because she forgets to or feels too upset to.

He isn't the best cook, but most of the time he'll do his best to scrounge something together just to force her to eat. Often times using the excuse that if she doesn't eat it he'll feel sad or hurt about it. He always cleans up after too, not wanting to burden her with anymore tasks than she's already piling onto herself.

The only times she isn't working on finding Finney, she's talking to Gwen- about finding him. The two girls have grown far closer than before, clinging to each other at every given opportunity.

Gwen is still going to school, which is strange to Robin. Why wouldn't her dad allow her to stay home during a time like this? If he had work, why not at least let her stay with Valentina? Whatever the case, she's with Valentina every moment she gets the chance outside of that. Though, most of the time she's off doing her own searching. The time they do spend together, they cling to each other as if their lives depend on it- holding hands, hugging, cuddling and reassuring each other.

He's glad they can find solace in each other, and he somewhat does as well. Gwen and him have their own way of showing each other they care. This mainly consists of him giving her a nod of reassurance, and her returning it. Or messing her hair about while she groans in complaint. Or sharing an awkward hug before she pulls away cracking some joke she thought of at the top of her head to kill the embarrassing atmosphere.