I have been trying to write this for days, but I could only stare at the blank Word Document as "I thought you two were off playing spin the bottle with Soos." replayed in my head over and over again and I knew I could never top a joke that great. Then I decided to completely abandon that idea and, boom, this one came.
Wendy hadn't really noticed anything dubious about Robbie. Of course, she knew facts that should've made her dubious, but the suspicion just wasn't present in her mind. Like how he never picked up when she called his home phone, and how a couple hours after she did, she would receive a text message from his cellphone cussing her out, giving her the "last" warning to never use that number again. Like when it came time to gather the crew in Thompson's van, he was always picked up from different locations around town, no one ever knew where he lived. There were plenty of odd things Wendy had noticed over the years, but she had ignored jumping to any conclusions or even rising suspicion against him because he was her friend and she trusted him.
"Wendy?"
"Hmm?" she bobbed her head up from checking yet another angry text message, just to take in the sight of two green-faced twelve-year-old's and a brave, unaffected Soos.
"I chose you, dude." Soos explained, "Truth or dare?"
"Oh, um. Truth?"
"Who ya texting?" he wiggled his eyebrows in a way that would've look suggestive on anyone else, but only succeeded in eliciting a light laugh from Dipper and Mabel. Wendy giggled a bit to hide her blush.
"Well, I haven't been doing much of the texting. See, I called Robbie's house and now I've got an inbox full of —" she stopped herself from using other words when she remembered the twins, "um, an inbox full of not-so-nice messages."
"Why?"
"Uh-uh, Soos. That was one truth. Now it's my turn. Dipper." She sat up in her chair and crossed her legs, setting the phone onto the counter, "Truth or Dare?" she wiggled her eyebrows in a way that was efficiently suggestive.
"Dare."
"Can you do that thing, uh, what was it called, the lamby—"
"Truth!" he shrieked, trying to spring to his feet in enthusiasm, but instead his foot snagged on the peg of his stool and he went down with it. Pushing the stool off of himself, he added, "I pick truth."
She smiled smugly, "Alright, just keep your pants on while I think of a good one." She scratched her chin contemplatively, "Got any bright ideas, Mabel?"
"Oooh! Ooooh! Ask him about that time in 5th grade when—"
"Hey, is that Grunkle Stan's car?" Dipper interrupted, pointing wildly out the window.
"What?"
"Where?"
The trio rushed to the window and pulled up the blinds, eying the nighttime woodland scenery with slow realization. The rocky, weed-littered driveway was completely void of any cars.
"Grunkle Stan's not out there, is he?"
"Nope. There, I answered with truth. That counts."
"What, that's lame."
"No, no," Soos patted Wendy's back as they made their way back to the seats, "He got us."
"Tch. Whatever. Just pick your poison and get it over with already."
"Why, do you — do you have any other plans for the, uh, the night that we're keeping your from?"
"If I did, do you think I'd still be here?" she deadpanned, "It's almost eleven, the Mystery Shack closed three hours ago, where is that cheapskate?"
"Who knows, probably avoiding —"
Right on cue, the answering machine piped up again, "Hey, Stan, it's Lazy Susan. From the diner? Wink. Wink. Just calling to say hey again. You're not around your phone a lot, are you? That shack of yours must be busier than I —" Wendy sat up with a huff and yanked the answering machine from its plug. Dipper and Mabel gave her varying glances of appreciation, and Soos whistled.
"It was driving me insane." She elaborated as an attempt at justification, as if everyone there wasn't eternally grateful to have Lazy Susan's voice out of their heads.
"Alright. I choose Wendy again. Truth or dare?"
"Truth. I don't want to get stuck with another put-the-age-old-thing-behind-the-radiator-in-your-mouth dare again." She elucidated, eyes never leaving Soos's foolishly proud face.
"What's with you and this Robbie guy?" Dipper asked, hoping to sound casually inquisitive, like his curiosity only happened to be piqued because of Soos's question, and definitely not because it's what he stayed awake wondering for half the night. But he was never sure if he had succeeded or failed in doing so.
"Wow, that's kind of a vague question. We've known each other since birth, practically. Small town, dork, that's how it works. I don't know what else to tell you. He's pretty into music, so sometimes he'll take us to concerts and stuff and he has written a couple songs for me. He's got a bit of a temper, but you get used to it. There was that one time when my date came down with a serious cold the night before the Homecoming dance, and Robbie offered to take me instead. It was a pretty fun night. So, my turn. Mabel, I pick you. Truth or dare?"
Mabel chimed in a discordantly saccharine tone her choice, but Dipper never really heard any coherent words. It seemed like his ears were filled with white, hot noise. He crossed his arms and squinted as his sister took something from behind the radiator and held it out for her tongue to taste.
There were plenty of odd things Wendy had noticed about Robbie over the years, but she had ignored jumping to any conclusions or even rising suspicion against him because he was her friend and she trusted him.
But Robbie was in no way Dipper's friend, so there was nothing holding him back from digging as deep as the secrets and lies went.