Thank you all for reading :) And yep, that's the same Robin. She has decided to make another appearance. Hope you enjoy!


Picture this:

Somewhere along in our lives, we were all taught to say what we feel. Well, I find this be quite difficult sometimes.

"Spencer." I hear my mother say my name from the kitchen. It is said in that serious tone, like Spencer, get your ass in here right now. She would say that usually. But I'm guessing since Ashley is still here, about to leave, she's just saying the first word of that lovely statement.

"Yes?" I answer her as I walk into the kitchen. I tilt my head and put my hands on my hips.

She looks at me, her eyes peering over a piece of paper in her delicate hands. "Why does this say that you're failing your English class?"

"I'm not sure what you're saying, Paula." I say slowly, sitting down on a stool.

She gives me a hard look and pushes the paper towards me. "I'm saying stop failing."

I roll my eyes and hop down from the stool. Ashley and Harley are in the living room. She is trying to get her stuff ready to go home but Harley keeps bombarding her with questions.

"Favorite color?" He inquires. He has a small notepad and is writing everything down in messy handwriting in a green Crayola marker.

"Blue." Ashley says absentmindedly while she puts her phone in her purse.

"Favorite dinosaur?" He asks, his eyes shining happily.

"Um, that flying one." She says, giving him a smile.

Harley nods, and for a fleeting moment he looks like some kind of psychiatrist, writing down all her answers. "Good choice."

"Hey." She says, turning to me when all her things are gathered. "Um, if you need some help with school stuff, I can help you. I'm kind of a nerd."

I momentarily feel embarrassed that she heard about my downward spiral in school work. But she's giving me a sweet smile and her words are sincere. So that feel quickly dissipates. "Yeah, sure." I nod my head. Harley has disappeared and now Ashley and I are alone in the dim living room. "Thanks."

Ashley shrugs. "No problem. I mean, I'm at your house anyway, so."

I nod and we stand in silence for a short second. "What are you doing tomorrow night?" I ask her, because I want to invite her to come to the movies with me, Fora, and Noel. Ashley has been hanging out with us a lot recently and I like her company. Every time is better than the last.

"Oh." Ashley says quietly. Her eyes go to her sneakers and I give her a curious expression. "I'm actually, um, you remember that Robin girl from the-"

"Ice cream place in the mall." I say, cutting her off.

Ashley nods, her curls bouncing around her face. "Yeah her. She asked me to hang out, and I didn't have any other plans. So, I think we might." He eyes come back to meet mine and there is something in them. I'm not sure what it is though. And she's looking into my own blue ones like there's something in them she can't figure out either.

I blink and try to conjure up a name for this weird feeling I am experiencing. It's not really jealousy, I know what jealousy feels like. It kind of feels like somebody just tightened my chest with their hands. Wrung me out like a wet towel. My eyebrows furrow unconsciously. "Oh, okay." I say, trying for the words to be even. I am half successful.

Ashley's chocolate eyes are still watching me. "Unless, I shouldn't?" The question mark on the end of her statement catches me off guard. Should she? Is there any reason she shouldn't go out with her? Is there? The girl seems to like Ashley, think she's cute. Which she is, I hate to admit, right about. I look at the curly-haired brunette watching me. Her brown eyes are looking like they're daring me to say something. And not just anything. Something important. Something pivotal, monumental even. I want to, but the words are stuck like glue in my mouth. And they're hardening.

"No, go ahead." I choke out. I try to give her a reassuring smile, and this smile seems to be the hardest one to form yet.

Ashley nods and says she'll see me later. Then she's gone and all I am left with is a pang of regret. And I am too tired to explore exactly why that is what I'm feeling. I don't think I have the energy for that just yet.

------

"I don't know." I say flatly.

Noel looks at from across the table we are sitting at in the library. "Do you know any of them?"

"No." I tell him.

We're studying vocabulary for a quiz we have next period and my mind is on everything but the words flotsam and gregarious.

"Shit from a ship that's like, floating around in the water and washing up on shore." Fora says, her face buried inside of a book.

Noel rolls his eyes. "Yeah, but please don't put shit on her quiz."

"I wasn't going to." Fora spits out. "Is Ashley coming with us to the movies tonight?"

I drum my fingers on the wooden table. They move over the surface to find some words carved in them. The initials MS and KB are inscribed inside of a sloppy, sideways heart. I look at them and wonder who MS and KB are. I wonder if they are still together or if maybe this was just someone's fantasy. Carved into the wood while listening to a boring lecture or while doing research for a paper.

"She has plans." I tell Fora and Noel. Noel is scribbling furiously inside his notebook.

"Oh my gosh, with that girl that hit on her?"

"Yeah, Ribon on something." I tell Fora.

She meets my eyes and tilts her head. "You mean Robin?"

I shrug. "Sure."

"What do you guys wanna see?" Noel asks as he lifts his head up, looking from me to Fora and back again. "And no chick flick." He adds quickly right as Fora had opened her mouth.

I snort. "Don't pretend you don't like them."

Fora laughs and nods. "Yeah, didn't you like cry when we watched 10 Things I Hate About You."

Noel just rolls his eyes. "That's just a good movie, okay?" He says defensively, tapping his pencil on the table. "I'm kind of in the mood to see something scary."

"Alright. As long as Fora doesn't run out of the theater screaming like when we went to go see Saw III." I say seriously.

"I'll be fine." Fora says, and then adds "douchebags" quietly afterwards.

Noel stands up and packs his messenger bag. "I gotta go to my locker before the quiz. See you guys later." He gives a small wave and walks out of the library.

I continue to trace the heart and initials in the table for a few moments before Fora coughs and starts to talk to me.

"What's with you?" She asks seriously. Her book is closed and she's biting on her Hello Kitty pencil.

"What? Nothing."

"You've been weird today." She thinks for a second, her eyes going up to the ceiling, like the ceiling is going to tell her that I don't like that Ashley is going out with that stupid ice cream girl instead of hanging out with us. "Is it because of Ashley?" Apparently, the ceiling did tell her that.

"What about her? She can do what she wants." I tell her honestly. Because she can. I have no right to have control over what she does.

"Yeah." Fora drawls out. "But you're pissed she's hanging out with that girl and not with us. Am I correct?"

I let out a breath and remember to give Fora more credit in the future. She is in no way dim. She's just kind of strange, I guess. Very strange. She is wearing a beret and I want to tell her that we're not in France but I stop myself.

"Perhaps."

"Fine, I'm going to pry things out of you Spencer." She tells me in her fake angry and serious voice.

"There's nothing to pry." A Lie.

"Uh huh. I'll just wait for you to tell me that you've got some weird thing for Ashley."

"I do not have a thing." I say quickly and defensively. "You're a fool. And I'll tell you that when you tell me you've got a thing for Noel." I say, putting a smirk on my face.

Fora stares at me and rolls her eyes. "Noel? Please. Don't be an idiot…no offense." She adds.

"None taken."

------

"Who do you think would in a fight between ketchup and mustard?"

"What?" I say as I turn my head towards Noel, who has a very pensive look on his face.

"Mustard." Fora answers. She is chewing on a long piece of red licorice. "Definitely."

"Why?" I ask, actually curious as to her reasoning to Noel's question.

"Because mustard doesn't really smell very good. Or, well it has a more pungent smell than, say, ketchup, therefore it would win."

"Nah." Noel says. "I think that because ketchup is just plain better, it would win. It's more popular."

The three of us are sitting inside the movie theater on a couch. We are insanely early because Noel gets paranoid about being late to movies. So we are resorted to talking about things like ketchup and mustard in a fight. A lot of the time, being in a movie theater is similar to sitting in an airport. There are always many people to watch. There are mothers and daughters out for an evening of bonding. Sisters out for the same experience. And I've counted, oh, about five hundred thousand couples so far. Buff guys with small, fragile girlfriends. Two people on a first date. Those are always easy to pick out. They're usually weary and trying to hold the others hand but not sure how to go about it. Then there's those who look like they're together but you can just tell that they're not. Maybe they're in a loose relationship. Not wanting to be tied down.

"I agree with you." I give my words in Noel's direction.

Fora is about to argue but a husky voice interrupts her, and I look to my side to see Ashley with a light smile on her face. That red head right next to her, looking like she just won the lottery. The lottery in the form of Ashley Davies.

"Hey." She says.

"Hey Ashley!" Fora for says excitedly and stands up to give the brunette a hug. Noel gives her a smile.

I open my mouth and lock my eyes on Ashley's. "Hey, fancy seeing you here." And then I frown because I don't think I have ever uttered that phrase in all my twenty years. Alright, seventeen years.

I look at Robin and she is basically hopping up on down on the heels of her Adidas sneakers, her hands swinging back and forth. She looks at Ashley, as to say introduce me to your friends!

"Guys, this is Robin." Ashley says, motioning her hands outwards. "Robin, this is, um, Fora, Noel, and Spencer."

"Nice to meet you." She smiles warmly. I search the girl with the abundance of freckles for any meanness or snide comments that might be hiding behind the surface. To my dismay, I find none. Then I look over to Ashley and she looks happy. Her hands are in her pockets, but when her chocolate eyes meet my blue ones, she blinks.

"What are you guys seeing?" Robin asks us all, trying to make nice conversation.

Noel tells her the scary one and she says they're seeing a different one. Someone says something and then someone says something else. Then Ashley says they're going to be late and says goodbye. As they are walking away, they're still close enough so I catch Ashley handing Robin her ticket from the back pocket of her pants.

I point my finger at their backs and, unfortunately, not in a subtle matter. And I open my mouth wide and look back and forth between Noel and Fora.

"What's up with you, mimey?" Noel says, angling his dark eyebrows in confusion.

"Date." I speak one word. "Did you see that? Ashley gave her a ticket." That's a date right there. A date. Not just hanging out. Ashley must have bought Robin her ticket. That's no normal just hanging out.

"You sure?" Noel asks, looking back towards Ashley and the red head still walking away down the hall. "They weren't standing very close to each other."

I want to point out to him the way Robin looked like a giddy child during a Fourth of July parade. And the way Ashley looked nervous with her hands in her pocket. But I don't.

"Yeah I think they were." Fora says, squinting her eyes and brushing her long, dark hair over her shoulder. She thinks she is subtle when she glances at me to gauge my reaction but it's about as subtle as a brick in my back.

The movie we eventually go to watch is not scary. The blood and the gore does not scare me. The people running around screaming their faces off do not scare me. I think I even yawn at one point. Fora, apparently, does not feel similar. Because by the end of the movie, she has accidentally ripped Noel's shirt because she got so scared during one scene.

"Damn it Fora." Noel mumbles as we walk out of the theater. But he gives her an adoring kind of glare, which is new to me.

"I said I was sorry. Gosh, I'll buy you a new shirt." She says loudly. "I have to go to the bathroom."

"Me too. I'll be right out." Noel says as they go into their respective doors and I wait outside with my arms crossed. My foot tapping on the ugly carpeted ground. I step on a piece of popcorn that is close to me and hear it crunch. And then Ashley is next to me, talking.

"How was your movie?" She asks quietly.

I shrug. "Not as scary as I thought it would be. How was yours?" I ask and look at her for the first time during the exchange. I peer my eyes to the sides of her and see no Robin in sight. I'm going to guess she's probably in the bathroom.

"It was alright."

"How is Robin?" I almost want to ask how is your date, but I refrain from doing so.

"She's really nice." Ashley says with a smile. But she says nothing else.

I just nod in response. And then, right at that moment, a reel of imaginary future events starts to play quickly in my mind before I can stop it. Ashley telling me about Robin, Ashley and Robin starting to go out, Robin hanging out with us, being all couple-y with each other. Harley hanging out with Robin and Ashley and liking just another person better than me. Me, alone, stealing glances at them like a car crash, wanting to look away but not being able to.

It makes my stomach feel queasy.

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