bitchin'

Chapter 45

"Then there's Heidi tomorrow night, but the problem with Heidi is that she's going out of state for college," Steve explains to Robin in the front seat. Max sits in the back with Lindsay, who's graduated from full-leg cast to leg brace and full-arm cast to no cast at all, "Do I wanna start another relationship that has no point other than sex? I mean, I don't know. Does that make sense to you?"

Robin looks in the mirror as she puts on eyeliner. Steve huffs at her.

"Robin, are you listening?"

"Uh, yes."

"What did I just say?" he asks.

"Something about sex with Linda," she answers.

"No, I'm talking about Heidi!" he exclaims.

"Cut me some slack, please!" she sighs, not really caring about Steve's love life, "your love life is one of labyrinthine complexity. It is 7:00 in the morning, we have the stupid pep rally, and I woke up looking like a corpse."

"You don't look like a corpse," Lindsay chimes in from the back.

"You're worried about a pep rally? Expect me to believe that?" Steve says

"Yeah? So?"

"So we both know what this is about," he says, "Not buying that. This is about Vickie."

Lindsay and Max both look at each other with confused faces.

"Absolutely not," Robin shuts down.

"Who's Vickie?" Lindsay asks.

"Robin's lady-crush," Steve answers.

"She is ——"

"Oh, she so is!" he exclaims, "she gets so nervous around her. You just gotta be yourself."

"You're literally quoting me.. to me. You do realize that?" Robin sighs.

"Maybe you need to listen to yourself," Max butts in.

"Yeah, you ever think about that?" he adds, "I listened. Look at me. Boom. Back in business."

"Well, I don't know if I would say that..." Lindsay whispers to Max, both of them laughing to themselves in the back of the car.

"It's not the same thing, okay?" Robin continues her conversation with him.

"Well..."

"You ask out a girl and she says no," the older girl explains, "Big deal. Nothing happens. Maybe your ego's a little bruised."

"More than a little," his sister mutters, once again earning chuckles from her girlfriend.

"I ask out the wrong girl, and bam, I'm a town pariah," Robin continues.

"I'd buy that, except Vickie is definitely not the wrong girl," Steve insists.

"We just don't know that, do we?"

"She returned Fast Times paused at fifty-three minutes, five seconds. Know who pauses Fast Times at fifty-three minutes, five seconds?" the Harrington boy asks, "People who like boobies, Robin!"

Max, who was taking a drink from a bottle of orange juice, spits it out on Steve's back seat at the word 'boobies'. Lindsay bursts out in laughter next to her. Robin shakes her head.

"Aw, great," he mutters.

"Don't say boobies," Robin says annoyed.