Besties

By William Easley

(June 23, 2014)

On the Monday afternoon following Summerween, and much to Wendy's surprise, Robbie Valentino wandered into the gift shop close to closing time. He still wore his broken-heart hoodie, though it was getting kind of ratty. "Hi," he said uncertainly, his grin flickering nervously, like a neon sign on the verge of burning out. "Uh. You busy?"

Wendy rolled her eyes. The two of them had the gift shop completely to themselves. "Not now. You should've been here at two o'clock. Then I was busy! 'Sup, Robbie?"

"Uh. Wanted to talk? It's kinda about me. Uh. Me an', uh, you know, Tambry."

Wendy felt a little chill of apprehension. Tambry and Robbie had been an item for two years–since Woodstick of 2012, in fact. Wendy immediately thought, She broke up with him and he's wantin' us to get back together!

But she said, "Well, OK. But not here." She looked at the time. "Let me see if Soos minds if I clock out fifteen minutes early."

However, she hurried upstairs instead. She tapped on Dipper's door, and he opened it, smiling. She could see he had his laptop open and fired up on the table he used as a desk. "Hey, Dip," she said. "Just wanted to thank you for the dances an' all at the party. You busy, dude?"

He shrugged. "Yeah, kinda. I'm researching something new. But if you want to–"

"No, no, I gotta get home, you know, promised Dad that I'd be on time for at least two weeks." She sighed and kissed him. With her forehead resting against his, she said, "Dude, remember this: at the party, I told you I was in love with you. That's something I never ever told any other boy, OK?"

"Yeah," he said with a sigh.

"But we know we got a long time to wait, right? We clear on that?"

"Yeah," he said with a much heavier sigh.

She patted his cheek. "'Kay. See you tomorrow for our run, seven-fifteen. Don't be late!"

"I won't be!" he promised. He never was.

Downstairs, Wendy found Soos and said, "Hey, dude, it's kinda dead now, so I'm checkin' out if that's OK."

Soos, who was trying to feed his son some peas and carrots that Little Soos obviously thought were finger paints, said, "Sure thing, dawg. Uh, just flip the OPEN sign to CLOSED, all right?"

"You got it. See you tomorrow!"

She grabbed her workout bag and purse from her locker, and then she turned the sign as Robbie followed her out. "OK, dude," she said. "I got like thirty minutes, tops. Let's stop at the diner for a soda or something and then we can talk."

"OK," Robbie said. He was looking more and more squirmy, and Wendy was glad he'd agreed to talk in a public place. She hated scenes, especially the kinds guys made. She got into her Dodge Dart and he climbed into the car his parents had bought for him—a used but flashy red GT-R—and he followed her to town.

In five minutes they were in Greasy's, and they sat in a booth, where Lazy Susan brought them a couple of sodas—a Ka-Pow! Energy Cola for Robbie, a caffeine-free lemon-lime for Wendy. "OK," Wendy said, popping a straw into the cup. "So what about Tambry?"

Robbie smiled in a weird way. "I think she and I were sittin' in this very booth when we first realized we liked each other," he said. "It just hit, like, all of a sudden. Boom! Like that. And that was when we started to, you know, get to be a couple."

"Very romantic," Wendy said. She and Tambry had been best friends since grade school–until that little thing had hit Tambry, boom, too. Wendy had at first been furious with her for taking up with her ex, at least until she saw how happy they made each other. She and Tambry were still friends, but not as close as they had been. Well, they couldn't be when Tambry was, like, glued to Robbie all the time.

"Well, uh," Robbie said, not helpfully. Then he tried again: "Wendy, uh, Tambry wanted to, you know, talk to you about this before I did, but I said no, let me do it first."

Oh, my God, he's got her pregnant! Wendy thought. Just like Robbie!

"What is it?" she asked, her voice level and tense.

"Well—I know this is gonna be hard on you," Robbie said. "But, but, but—I want another soda."

"Dude! Spit it out!" Wendy said. "Where is Tambry?"

"Huh? I dunno. She's at her house, I guess."

Wendy balled her hands into fists on the table top. "Just tell me!"

"But I don't know where—oh. You mean about that."

"Yes, that!" Wendy said. "Come on, Robbie! What's buggin' you?"

He blurted something out, speaking so fast that she couldn't even follow him. Then his crazy smile flickered again. "So—you're mad. I see you're mad. I knew you'd be mad. I told her, I said she'll be mad—"

"I'm not mad!" she said in a voice so loud that the other diners jerked their heads around to see what was going on. "I'm. Not. Mad," she said in a lower tone, through clenched teeth. "I just couldn't understand what you said. Hit me with it again, but slower this time!"

"OK," he said. He leaned across the table and all but whispered, "I, uh, you know. 'Cause we're gonna be seniors. I mean, well, you're not yet because, you know, you had classes to make up, and it'll be another, you know, like year for you? But her and me, we're gonna be, like seniors this year, an' we want to go to the same college, so we thought, you know. 'Cause if you're gonna do it, there are—"

Wendy unfolded a napkin and took out a fork and gripped it like a weapon. "Robbie, I swear I am gonna pin your hand to the table if you don't just tell me!"

He swallowed and put both hands in his lap, and then immediately took them off again and put them on the seat instead. "OK. Here it comes." He breathed out. "OK. I'm gonna say it now. OK. Uh." He took a deep breath. "I asked Tambry to marry me after we graduate next June she said yes we asked our parents they're all OK with because they say otherwise we're headin' for trouble and it she wants you to be her maid of honor she's gonna talk to you oh boy." He picked up the napkin and patted sweat on his forehead. Then he bit his lip. "So you're mad at me, right? I know you still have a thing for me. You're mad. I know you must be mad."

Wendy sat back and laughed. Then she patted his hand, making him flinch, although she'd put the fork down first. "I'll fight to get over my raging jealousy, dude!" she said with the sarcasm thick in her voice.

He totally did not pick up on it. "I told her you'd be jealous," Robbie said. "I know you just run around with Dipper to try an' make me jealous and all that crap. Oh, man. She wanted to break the news to you herself, but I said, no, a man's gotta face up to his past—"

"It's OK," Wendy told him, more sincerely this time. "Really. You guys love each other. I like you both, and I want both of you to be happy. OK, Robbie, I hereby set you free as of right this minute."

Robbie grinned weakly. "So, uh. I guess you can stop pretendin' to have a thing goin' with Dipper, huh? That must've been embarrassing. But you don't need to now. 'Cause lots of guys our age would like to date y—"

"Robbie Valentino," Wendy said in a rom-com kind of voice, "if I can't have you, I never want any other guy my age." Then she said with no pretense whatever, "I mean it, Robbie. Seriously. And I happen to be real fond of Dipper! Me an' Dip have lots of fun together, man! And he's way more mature than you think he is. Fact, he's the best boyfriend I ever had, present company included."

Robbie looked both surprised and a little upset at that. "He's not—you and him don't really–you know—do it?" Robbie asked, his voice dropping to an anxious whisper and his face turning white. Well, whiter.

Wendy snapped, "None of your business, man! How about you an' Tambry? You doin' it? Huh?"

Robbie was squirming again. "Don't ask me stuff like that!"

Wendy smiled in a ferocious way. "Then you don't get to ask me. But for the record, and just this one time, I'll tell you: no, we don't. Not yet."

"Oh, man. You mean you really do like Di—I don't mean to make you mad—but I thought that you were just, you know, spitin' me—"

"Don't worry about Dip an' me," Wendy said. "And yes, you can think of him as my steady boyfriend! Oh, gosh, I gotta run! Dad's expectin' me any minute. Robbie, tell Tambry to call me! She still knows how to use a phone, right?"

"Oh, God, yes," Robbie said. "Since we been sittin' here I got like ten texts from her. I can feel my phone vibratin'."

"'Kay, tell her we gotta get together, just her an' me. I wanna hear all about it—from Tambry! Hey, good luck, you two." She left a five-dollar bill on the table. "This one's on me, I got paid Friday."

"Uh. Thanks."

As she fired up her forest-green Dodge Dart, Wendy thought, Now I remember why I broke up with Robbie! Everything has to be about HIM! Huh! He actually believed that I still had a crush on him and that I couldn't possibly love anybody else!

Wendy drove a little too fast from Greasy's to her home and got there just a couple of minutes before Manly Dan turned his truck into the driveway. He climbed out and lumbered toward the house, where she stood on the porch. "Hey, baby girl," he said. "What's up? You're lookin' happy."

Wendy put her phone back in her pocket and smiled. "Pret-ty dang happy," she said. "Just talked to Tambry, and she had some good news."

Dan frowned. "You know I don't like you runnin' around with that buncha lazy musicians!"

"How about with a respectable engaged lady?" she asked.

He did a double-take. "Huh?"

Wendy took his arm and opened the front door. From inside the cabin came the furious voices of her two brothers, deep in an auto-theft video game. Wendy spoke over the uproar: "C'mon, Dad. I'll tell you all about it over dinner. I'm gonna make your favorite tonight."

"Pork chops!" Dan exclaimed as they walked past the boys, who sat in front of the TV, transfixed and oblivious to them, their game blaring. Wendy and her dad stepped around them and into the dining room, his smile at the thought of pork chops breaking through his beard like a brilliant moon through clouds.

"An' all the trimmings," she said. "Oh, and Tambry's comin' over about nine, OK? She and I have so many things to talk about."

"Weddin' plans?" Dan groaned, slumping down into a straight chair, which creaked and crackled under his weight.

"Yep. She and Robbie, next summer. Their folks have OK'ed it an' all. Y'know, they're young, but I think marryin' her will actually be good for Robbie, give him a sense of responsibility he's never had. Least I hope it will. Anyhow, I'm gonna be maid of honor."

Dan frowned. "Aw, baby girl–I know I made you promise to stay home for a couple weeks, but–how's about you an' Tambry go meet somewheres else? I know you two will be cacklin' and laughin', and that drives me crazy. Is that OK?"

She stood behind him and kissed the back of his neck. "Whatever you say, Dad," she told him. "Maybe I can drive over to her house or somethin'. I'll call her as soon as dinner's ready." She went straight to the kitchen and put on an apron. She heard Dan clomp off to the bathroom to wash up. As she got the pans and pots out and onto the stove, Wendy started humming a little tune.

Robbie and Tambry tying the knot next summer, just two weeks after graduation. Well, well, well. Then off to college for them!

And maybe a year or two after that, she thought, it would be time for her and—but she cut the notion off short. Too soon, girl, she told herself.

Plenty of time yet to think about that.

Yeah, plenty of time.

The End