Smash!

•T H I R T Y T H R E E•

Jamie's POV

"If you need anything, you know where to reach us." The three of us- Riley, Robin and I- shiver at an icy bus stop to see Josie off for the first bus (the 5Am) out of town.

"Here, for emergencies." Riley stuffs a wad of money into Josie's pockets.

"This is if you get hungry. Road stop food isn't very filling or good for you." I hand off a stack of tubberware into Josie's cold hands.

"Call me if you need anything." Robin gives her a burner phone. We're all quiet as we watch Josie climb onto the bus. The silence is heavy as the bus drives off with a huge puff of exhaust on the express right out of town.

"She'll be okay." Riley is the first to speak up.

"Of course she will. She's a fighter." Robin shoots a weak smirk at the bus. Robin lights a cigarette, and starts to head off in the opposite direction of my apartment.

"Where are you going?" Riley inquires, the worry obvious in his voice.

"To home base." I have no clue what that means, but Riley does. Judging by the look on his face, home base wasn't on a baseball diamond.

"Call me if you need hel-"

"Knuckles," Robin calls his nickname so endearing that Riley ceases mid sentence. "Freckles." She grins.

"Lets do this again." And with that, and a smirk, Robin took off.

--------

In the wake of Robin's absence, everything has been bland. For days, the apartment has been too empty. Quiet has felt more like deafening silence. Days have been feeling too long. Everything just seems boring, and lifeless lately.

I've started to understand why Riley loves Robin so much.

She's an explosion. And after the bam, everything is just too still after.

Riley has been down right miserable since Robin moved on. He's always sulking about, constantly checking his phone with a desperation. I always find him looking at pictures of Robin when he thinks I'm not looking.

"Hey." I drop by his feet at the edge of the sofa.

"Hey." Riley murmurs, while his brown eyes glued to his phone.

"I have tonight off." I state.

"Ok." He grumbles. God, it's like he's on withdraw, and Robin is the drug.

"Wanna do something tonight?" I offer. Nothing but silence.

"Lets do something crazy..." I start, "perhaps like stealing a TV from Best Buy." I try at a joke.

Nothing.

"Or if you want to get really crazy, I'll let you watch me eat a hot dog." I attempt, but we both know I'm never getting off my vegetarian diet anytime soon. For a spilt second, I think I see the corner of his mouth twitch up into the faintest of grins, but he rolls over, so his back is to me.

"Or I'll take my top off." I try Riley's sense of humor in a flat tone. It felt sharp at the tip of my tongue and foreign in my mouth. With a nasty sounding smack, Riley's iPhone falls from his hands and lands hard on this face.