Bridgeport Academy » COMPLETE

33

As Robyn rounded the corner to Waverly, she saw Chris blocking the front doorway. Her first instinct was to turn in the other direction and go back to the playing fields. 

But Chris saw her. "Wait." He started down the concrete steps. "Come back."

Robyn reluctantly turned around. She flashed back to blurry images of the party last night: a mess of tequila bottles, Dave's ugly tattoos, Chris peeking out from the door beads, Dave's juvenile follow-up e-mail. Ever since the beginning of the year, everyone had been making fun of how Dave ponied all the girls. And sure, she'd been drunk, angry with Alex, and even angrier at Chris, but why had she let Dave pony her, too?

"Hey," she answered gruffly.

"So. You have fun last night?" he asked, his eyebrows raised.

"I'm sorry." She flapped her hands against her plaid hockey kilt. "About the...you know. The thing. It was stupid. A drinking game."

"It definitely caught me off guard." Chris shuffled his foot against a pebble on the walkway. Seeing Chris awkward like this made Robyn melt.

"That was a weird party." She looked down but Chris didn't answer. "They weren't like that last year," Robyn went on. "They were just fun." She sat down on the steps and pressed her knees together, fighting back an overwhelming urge to squeeze her eyes shut. "I just want things with us to be like last year, too. We had so much fun."

"Yeah," Chris said softly.

"What's happened with us?"

"I don't know."

"Maybe we could get it back." Robyn raised her head hopefully. "Maybe if we just, I don't know. Go somewhere off campus and talk. Somewhere where nobody else is. Anywhere you want. I'll even go riding with you," she added impulsively. Chris used to always try to get her to ride with him and she never had.

"You would?"

"If they don't boot me out of here, yeah." She shifted on the step. "I still don't know what Kae's going to do. I mean, I don't think she wants to tell on me, but she doesn't want to get in trouble."

Chris stared at his sneakers. "I don't think Kae should get in trouble."

"Yeah, you've mentioned that." Robyn heard the edge in her own voice.

"I think you should take the blame. Kae has nothing to do with this."

"If I take the blame, I'll be expelled. You want that?"

Chris shook his head. "No. I...I don't know. If only there was a way for neither of you to get in trouble..."

"I don't get it." Robyn stared at him. "Why do you care so much whether or not she gets in trouble? You guys didn't even know each other until I..." Suddenly, it was as if a lightbulb had gone off over her head. What Aubrey had told her after the pre-Black Saturday party. The writing on Kae's arm. Dave's gossipy e-mail: two people looking lovingly into each other's eyes. They were both so open to flirting with each other when Robyn asked them to.

Chris liked Kae. Not because she had told him to like her, either. Because he really did. Robyn shoved her thumb into her mouth and turned away so that he couldn't see the expression on her face. 

Chris watched her as she turned, wondering what she was thinking. How could he save both Kae and Robyn? The only thing he could think of might put his own place at Bridgeport in jeopardy. Was he man enough to do that?

Robyn turned around again. "I guess whatever happens happens."

"Who knows. They still might kick me out."

She was quiet for a second. "I wish I could just, like, turn back time."

Chris laid his hand over Robyn's. "I know," he responded, thinking. This...whatever it was...with Kae, it felt too big for him to understand. And maybe too scary. Looking at Robyn, sitting on the steps in her field hockey kilt and after-practice flip-flops, her hair pulled back in a messy ponytail and without a stitch of makeup, she looked like a kid. Not a worldly, full-of-emotion adult. She was sweet and safe and something he understood. He hated to think of leaving her, whether that meant leaving her for Kae or leaving Bridgeport completely. 

"Maybe I can make that happen," he said, squeezing his fingers around hers.