Bridgeport Academy 2

27

Robyn wandered around the empty Waverly common room in a daze, still not quite believing what had just happened. She'd always known party games were dangerous—that's what made them fun—but usually dangerous meant she tended to do stupid things, like get drunk and make out with Dave. This time, it was sort of worse. She felt really, really bad. And for once, not for herself. For Kae. It was kind of strange to suddenly feel sorry for the girl she'd been resenting for so long, but Kae was nice. Kae hadn't mentioned the fact that all of her bobby pins had mysteriously disappeared, even though she must have noticed. Or the fact that Chris's sweet little drawing had also vanished. If their situations had been reversed, Robyn would have certainly bitched about it. But Kae was too nice to do anything.

She was still sort of a kid and so clearly in love with Chris. Who, right now, was the only other person in the room, collapsed on the couch, nursing the beer he had just poured half a bottle of Jack Daniels into.

Robyn stopped and surveyed the room. It definitely looked like there had just been a party here. And it smelled like it too. Bridgeport mugs and abandoned plastic cups partly filled with beer were scattered around the room. Great. All Mrs. Davis had to do was walk in early, she'd shit a brick, and the Waverly girls would probably be locked down for another month. Where had everyone gone? Just because Jasmine had to ruin the party didn't mean they didn't have to clean up after themselves. She wrinkled her nose and picked up a plastic cup. "The least you can do, you know, is help me out?"

Chris could barely lift his eyes in her direction. "Huh?"

"Would you stop thinking about yourself for, like, five minutes?" Robyn disappeared down the hall into the kitchenette, which consisted of a refrigerator, crammed with leftover Chinese takeout cartons and moldy pizza, a sink, and a microwave that always burned everyone's popcorn. She poured the beer down the sink and rinsed out the cup before tossing it in the recycling bin. When she came back into the living room, Chris hadn't moved, which made her furious.

"What?" he said, noticing her glare. "What do you want me to do?"

She picked up two mugs off the coffee table and shoved Chris's feet onto the floor. "You can stop feeling sorry for yourself and start thinking about the other people involved."

"Maybe I already am."

"Maybe," Robyn countered, stacking the mugs on top of each other and staring down at Chris, still loafing. "But you really should have been thinking about them before, when it mattered. It was really insensitive, what you did."

Chris groaned and rubbed his eyes with his fists, his drink teetering on his knee. "I know. I feel like a total asshole about it..."

Robyn could tell it was true that Chris felt horrible, but what about her? And what about Kae? Chris was the one holding all the cards. It was him they both wanted, and he had abused that. "Well, good. 'Cause you've been a total asshole about it."

Chris didn't say anything, like he knew she was right. And Robyn knew she was too. Suddenly it felt good to stand up to him. He couldn't just sit there and wallow in his own half-drunken stupor, feeling sorry for himself and wishing he were living in Paris already and didn't have to deal with all these crazy chicks. No, Chris needed to accept responsibility for the mess he had made.

Robyn made another trip to the kitchen sink and dropped off the mugs, then picked up a crushed pizza box on her way back into the living room. A few half-eaten crusts rolled around inside. "Look, Chris. I don't mean to sound harsh, but it's unfair of you to think you can have things both ways. If you have feelings for Kae, you can't have feelings for me anymore."

Which would be kind of sad... But still. Robyn meant it. She didn't want to be one of Chris's girlfriends—she was either The One or nothing at all. No matter how great it had been to kiss him again—and it had been pretty fucking great—no guy was worth making a fool of herself over.

Chris stood up. "But it's not working that way."

"Well, it kind of has to. You need to figure out what you want." Robyn stuffed some crinkled-up greay napkins into the pizza box and stood up, feeling somehow proud of herself. "And until you do, I kind of doubt either of us will want anything to do with you."

2:33 AM

JermaineCole: You hear what happened in the living room? 

ZendayaColeman: What, that Jas and Alex are virgins? That Yara threw beer in Dave's face? That Chris is fucking around on Kae with Robyn?

JermaineCole: Uh, yeah ... how'd you know all that already? 

ZendayaColeman: Baby, news travels fast when we've been locked up all day. 

JermaineCole: Feeling antsy? Wanna run around naked in the tunnels? 

ZendayaColeman: Not a chance. Haven't you realized that secrets don't stay secrets here? 

JermaineCole: What about in your room? Do secrets stay secret there??? ;) 

ZendayaColeman: A responsible Owl never invites boys to her room ... (but she doesn't turn them away, either!)