Edited on July 17, 2010
"Everything's not always sunshine and flowers, you should know that by now!" He snapped, his voice cold and full of venom.
She stepped back as if she had felt his blow physically, but that's exactly what it felt like. His words had hit her with the force of a thousand flying daggers. Her mind hadn't caught up with what he was saying but her body seemed to comprehend everything because there were already tears in her eyes, harsh tears that were unwelcome and betraying and they slipped through her barriers.
"We're done. I just can't do this anymore." His voice had gotten somewhat softer but not by much. It was still as cold as it had started out to be, still so uncaring. She took a few seconds to drift away and wonder where it had all gone wrong, when she had become too oblivious to the fact that he was getting colder and colder. And now his cold stare was directed at her.
It was over. After all this time and all these trials it was over.
"Well, that's alright." She surprised herself. She hadn't even been thinking of speaking but somehow the words escaped her. She could feel her bottom lip quiver as she tried to make herself smile. "I'm moving anyway."
It had been her original news. She had gone there, all the way to his apartment to tell him, face to face, that she was moving...all the way across the country.
She had been surprised at the cold stare that greeted her and had asked him what was wrong. That had started it all, the whole downfall. Now she could finally get her news out, now that it didn't matter.
"I'll see you," were her final words before she walked numbly through the door and down the hall. She made it half way down the first flight of stairs before she collapsed and cried her eyes out.
Two years. It had been two years since she had seen the building of Spencer and she surprisingly hadn't missed it at all. But, she had been away from Cali for a total of 12 hours and she was already pinning for its beautiful weather and its tanned people.
She found it amazing that one event could change a person's outlook on their hometown. She also found it amazing that you could never really get over the pain of said event if it did in fact make you hate your hometown, the very place she was born and raised.
The fact of the matter was, though, that her opinion didn't matter. She could remember her father's words clearly.
'You need to be in a set school. You skip left and right and I can't keep track of you. You're living with your aunt and that's final'.
She snorted to herself. Like he even cared what she was doing and when she was doing it. His exact words hadn't meant squat when it came down to it. She had left without his permission. He was dying anyway…
Please.
"Robyn Adams," the secretary called as she stepped out of her no doubt cramped office.
Robby slowly but surely pushed herself to a standing position and took her time following the lady into her office. It was cramped and small. Full of papers and it looked like it used to be a closet.
"Here's your schedule and you already know your room number. Here's the swim team practice schedule. That's all."
Well that was pointless, Robby thought as she took the papers from the older lady and walked back out again. She looked down and scanned her list of classes before sighing with distaste. She remembered every single one of these teachers and she hated them too.
She lugged her back-pack further up on her shoulder and headed towards the first one on her list. She knew for a fact that she was going to be interrupting and she also knew that Professor Dantley was going to try his hardest to embarrass her.
Little geeky Robby who had a nick name that belonged to a boy.
Robby rolled her eyes on instinct and reached for the door handle. The little bursts of chatter and whispering in the room ceased as she walked in, trying to be as care free as possible.
"Ah!" Professor Dantley's annoying voice popped up. "I was wondering when you were going to interrupt my class Ms. Simms." He was smirking at her, actually smirking.
"I'm sure you all remember Robby here." He put special emphasis on her name and she had to clench her jaw to keep from saying anything. "We made room for you next to your favorite person." He went on, pointing to about the seventh row up. Robby's eyes zeroed in on it and she made her way up, not paying attention to the stares. No doubt the people were contemplating on what had happened to little geeky Robby Simms.
She slowly made her way over and around peoples' legs and towards her seat before plunking down and turning her stare back to the professor. He was smirking at her again and she wished she could just wipe that smirk right off of his face.
"Two years." It was whispered so the professor couldn't hear it and obviously he didn't since he turned back to his black board and started writing again.
"What?" She snapped as she turned to glare at the person on her left side. The threat she was about to issue stopped in her throat and she found herself gagging for air.
"Like you care," a voice from her right snapped at the person on her left. She turned her head the other way to find another person she was very familiar with.
"Aaron," she said, her voice void of interest as she leaned forward to stare at the girl on Aaron's right. She was hanging all over him, running her fingers through his hair, and Robby found it quite amusing.
"Not a geek anymore I see," Robby added as she leaned back again, a smirk on her face.
"Nope," was Aaron's cool reply.
Robby was pointedly ignoring the person on her left and she had no intention of acknowledging him until he latched his hand on to hers.
"Two years," he said again, his voice a harsh whisper.
"Get over it!" She snapped at him.
"I can't believe you!" He bit out, turning to glare at her pointedly.
"Listen, twin," she started to snap but stopped herself as she suddenly realized that the professor had gone quite. She took a small peak around, her heart racing as she realized her and her twin were currently the center of attention.
"Problem?" The professor questioned, smirking again.
"No!" They both bit out at the same time.
"Then shut up!" The professor snapped back.
"You never called and you never wrote! Did you know how worried I was?" He bit out once the professor wasn't paying attention anymore.
"Does mom feel the same?" She bit back harshly, tempted to just shove him out of his chair.
Needless to say, that got him to shut up until she was storming out of the room thirty minutes later when class was over.
But he wasn't alone.
The rest of them had come along for the ride, too.
"I can't believe you!" Tyler continued when he finally caught up to her, stepping in front of her in the middle of the front campus of Spencer. "You just come back without a word and I don't even find out till today?" He was shaking his head in obvious disgust but she couldn't find it in her heart to care.
"Well, I guess we're even. You're the one that let mom ship me off with dad in the first place because you didn't want to come with me. No, you couldn't leave this precious place behind!" She snapped, throwing her bag to the floor as she stepped up to his face. Naturally she was a bit shorter than him but she made up for it in anger.
"Oh, so everything's my fault?" He questioned, barely keeping his rage in check.
"Well, I didn't get any phone calls from you either. Or any letters! It's not like everything is one sided!" She told him, finally pushing him away. He staggered back a few steps but regained his footing and walked back to his previous position, right in front of her.
Her cold eyes flashed dangerously at him as she thought about how much she hated looking into her own eyes. She knew her twin brother's held the same anger her own held. It was like looking into a mirror and she hated it. She hated looking like him, like her mother. She hated being reminded of her mother in anyway. It just made the pain all that worse.
"Calm down, Baby Boy," a voice said. One of them was finally coming to their friend's defense and Robby couldn't help but wonder what took them so long. "I'm sure she's got a good enough reason..." the voice trailed off as if waiting for Robby to fill in the blank but she never got the chance.
"No, she doesn't have a good reason. She never does."
"Oh, I'm the irresponsible brat now, huh? I'm the one that had to move across the country into a shaggy apartment and go to a crappy school. You're the one who got to live here with all the money and the friends and the fun."
"Oh, don't give me that bullshit!" He shot back, disgust written on his face. She growled in anger and thought about hitting him upside the head or something, anything to knock some sense into him.
"What are you doing back in Ipswich?" Another new voice asked. Robby turned, her glare setting on the person she hated most of all.
"What does it matter?" She growled out finally, her lip curling on it's on and her face contorting into a look of pure tiredness.
"It does matter!" Tyler yelled, flinging his arm out as if to hit her. Reid blocked the blow, surprisingly enough, but Robby found herself wishing he would have done it anyway...
She was just itching for a reason to hit him but she didn't want to look like the bad guy. Everyone always looked at Tyler as the innocent little boy that never said anything and just did what he was told, but she knew better.
"Where are you staying?" Reid asked suddenly. Through her death glare at Tyler, Robby barely realized that Reid was trying to get her off track, to get her to calm down, and she was determined for it not to work.
"The dorms," she said. "Where else?"
"I'll walk you there. You need to calm down," he told her, his eyes were a cross between narrowed and wide and Robby couldn't quiet place the expression on his face but she hated it anyway.
"I'll walk her," he put in and Robby scowled in his direction.
"I'll walk her," Caleb put in, his first words through the whole thing.
Robby always knew he would grow up to be one of those keeping the peace type of guys.
"None of you will walk me, you dicks. I can walk to the doors by myself, damn it." She made a grunt of anger and disgust before turning back towards Tyler. He was still fuming in front of her and she wanted nothing more than to reach out and smack the scowl off of his face, but her conscious wouldn't allow it.
She was supposed to be being the bigger person through all this but for some reason it wasn't working out for her (not like anything did anyway).
She started on her way, absentmindedly walking in the direction of the dorms without even meaning to. She was too mad to think about anything else and she really didn't care where she ended up. As long as wherever she was didn't contain one of the 'boys', she didn't care.
"She said she didn't want you to walk her!" A yell sounded and she knew in the back of her mind that one of them was following her and she knew it wouldn't be Tyler.
"What's your problem?" His voice was strong and cut through her thoughts with a sharp jab. She whipped around, her dark hair flying in her face.
She wondered if her eyes were still angry and dark and hoped to God they were. She wanted to look threatening and mean in front of him, maybe he would get the point.
"Everything's not always sunshine and flowers, you should know that by now," she threw at him, hoping it would cut deeper than it had cut her all those years ago. Somehow, though, she thought that impossible.
He winced visibly and Robby had to bite her lip to keep from crying out with joy. She had hurt him. For once she was doing the hurting and he was the one on the receiving end.
"Robby…" He started. His voice almost sounded threatening but she knew better. He couldn't threaten her, not of all the people he knew. She was the last person he would even think about threatening.
"Just go away, Pogue. I told you I didn't want you to walk me and I mean it. I. Don't. Want. You. Here," she said the last part slowly for him, hoping he would get the drift. His face contorted in anger for a few seconds before vanishing and slipping under his cool mask of indifference.
She almost sighed in disappointment. She remembered when they were kids, how many years it had taken her to get him to open up to her, and now they were back to the beginning again.
It doesn't matter, she tried to convince herself.
"Don't be like that," he told her, his voice strong.
"I'll be however I want."
She let go, let it flow through her until she was completely sunken. She could feel it coursing through her veins and she let it build up before her eyes turned black and then she exploded. A strong wave hit him and sent him a few feet back so he was doubled over and looking like a howling dog in pain.
She smiled in satisfaction, her eyes still pure black as the power swept over her.
The taste of revenge was sweet and she wasn't about to let it go.
She grunted in pain just a few seconds later as she herself was swept back a few feet. She somehow managed to land on the meaty part of her ass, which hurt just as bad as landing anywhere else.
She groaned in pain and her eyes returned to normal before she closed them.
The process of crawling to her feet began and she grumbled and whispered curses as pain shot through her arse and up and down her legs.
"You just wait," she said under her breath as she dusted off her back side and turned away from him. She had to fight off the urge to rub her aching ass and instead took to walking with dignity, no matter how much it hurt her to do so. She could feel his eyes on her back and part of her wished he would run after her, would yell at her to stop so he could apologize.
But it never came and she was foolish to even think the thought in the first place.
It wasn't until about fifteen feet later that she stopped and took a minute to gather herself. She was tired from Using and her head was aching from unshed tears, but she refused to admit that any of them had made her cry. The mere thought of the look on Tyler's face made new tears spring to her eyes and she knew if she stood there any longer she would cry and crying just wasn't her style anymore.
It was a long walk to Nicky's, a long walk that she needed. She had forgotten how much she had liked the place two years ago and how much fun it had been to dance around and play pool.
She remembered Aaron always hanging out in the corner with her, just the two of them. The two nerds were always together and they never liked it any other way.
She couldn't believe how much it had changed already and her head swam with the thoughts of it all. By the time she got to the place it was already dark outside and the park lot was full of cars. Teenagers were ready to wind down and let loose and so was Robby.
A smile spread across her face when she saw Aaron making his way over and she realized it was her first real smile in a long time. It felt weird and misplaced on her lips but it felt good at the same time.
At least I remember how, she thought vaguely as she met Aaron in the middle and embraced him.
"So now we can finally catch up," she told him with a nod. His smile wasn't very wide and it didn't look very true. In fact, it kind of looked forced.
"What's wrong?" She asked him as she took a step closer to him, her right hand placed on the inside of his elbow.
"You should probably know…." He trailed off and his eyes drifted to a place behind Robby. She turned to follow his gaze and realized the 'Boys' were just behind them at a table and they were all staring at her. The thought crossed her mind to flip them the bird but then she remembered that Aaron had something to tell her.
"What?" She urged as she turned back, her hand tightening on his arm.
"You're brother," she flinched at the word before he continued, "and his friends and me, we're not exactly friends. Actually, we piss each other off…a lot."
"Well, that really doesn't matter," Robby said with a sort of angry smile. "I'm not on speaking terms with any of them anyway."
He raised an eyebrow at her but she shook her head, her sign that she didn't want to talk about it. His only response was a nod before she turned around and headed towards their table, a determined look on her face.
Tyler's eyes were filled with fire as she came closer but she shrugged it off and forced her gaze to Pogue. Her eyes flickered black and before he knew it his drink was spilling into his lap and she was already walking past them.
She had to bit her lip to keep her snicker in as he jumped up and moved away from the table, brushing at his semi-tight pants as he did so. He glared at her as she passed. He obviously knew that she had been the one to do it and she took pride in that fact.
It's only the beginning, she thought as she made a bee line for the juke-box.
