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January 19th, 1988 — Cambridge, MA 9:00 AM, EST
"Shelbster!"
Shelby had not heard that voice for almost a month.
She hadn't called him or anything over break, even when she went back to Boston after her visit in Salem with Robbo.
He hadn't tried calling her though, either.
"Hey, Shelby. Do you want to sit by me, or not?" Tony's voice interrupted her thoughts once again and caused her to stop in her tracks, turning to look in the classroom to see him seated at a table with an empty spot, conveniently being saved for her by his backpack and coat.
Oh, right. Having both still been in need of three elective credits during the final semester of their senior year, she and Tony had signed up for a creative writing class together. It wasn't something Shelby herself was interested in, or Tony, for that matter, but it had coincidentally fit into both of their schedules and offered up those three credits they needed to graduate.
Despite her efforts to cleanse herself of the "Tony, I thought about kissing you when I was kissing Robbo" feelings for the past four weeks, Shelby found her stomach a flutter of butterflies as she turned to face the Stark boy. Hearing his voice made her smile. Beyond anything else she might have been feeling, he was her best friend, and she was just happy to finally see him again.
And besides, things with Robbo were going great. He'd even asked her to be his girlfriend on New Year's Eve, and she said yes.
It didn't matter that she'd thought about kissing Tony that one time. Or maybe two times, because it had happened again the past week, but ... that didn't matter.
"Hey, Stark." She flashed a smile at him as she scooted past him, taking the seat next to him.
"How was your break?" He asked, turning in his chair to face her.
"It was okay." Shelby admitted, taking out her notebook and pencil.
"How was Salem?" He asked, turning to look at her.
"Good." She said with a nod. "The Everetts are really nice."
"They are." Tony nodded in agreement. He cleared his throat before smirking and saying, "Robbo told me you punched another misogynistic asshole."
Shelby giggled, covering her mouth with her hand. "I did."
Tony grinned and patted her on the arm. "Good for you."
"What about you?" The redhead asked. "How was your break?"
Tony glanced away, breaking eye contact between the two of them. This caused Shelby to frown, because she could tell something was up and he didn't want to discuss it.
"Oh, just fine." Tony replied as he stared into his blank notebook page. "So, are you excited for creative writing?" He asked, abruptly changing the topic.
