CHAPTER 94

The next morning, Robby walked into the Larusso Auto dealership, looking for his girlfriend. After his conversation with Miguel the night before, Robby had finally put to bed any last doubts in his mind that this was what he wanted to do next year. He would be joining the Army. He was now 100% certain about that. So the next thing he needed to do was tell the people he loved, starting with the girl who as of recently, was working here at the dealership.

It didn't take him long to find her, standing beside one of the many cars in the lot, discussing the car with one of the customers. She was being supervised by Amanda and despite her lack of experience, she was doing a really good job. Robby watched from a distance as Tory proceeded to spend 10 minutes selling the car, by the end of which the man shook her hand and officially confirmed the deal. A large smile spread across her face as she heard the man agree to buy the car - the third car Tory had sold that month (not bad for a newbie!) - and Amanda immediately congratulated her.

"Wow. At this rate, you'll be putting Louie out of a job soon." Amanda remarked. "Take the rest of the day off. You've earned it. Besides… I think someone's here to see you."

Amanda gestured over Tory's shoulder, and Tory turned to see Robby watching her from the corner of the dealership. After thanking Amanda, Tory walked over to him, a large smile still etched across her face from her most recent car sale. It had taken a few days of hard work, but the man had eventually agreed to buy the vehicle, a testament to all of the work Tory had put in training to make sales.

"Wow. That was impressive." Robby remarked, shocked at how easily and seamlessly Tory had managed to make the sale. Tory shrugged, trying to keep the overjoyed pride off her face as she kissed him.

"What can I say? When you wear a low-cut top and lean forward a lot, it's pretty easy." Tory jokingly replied. Robby grimaced and rolled his eyes.

"That's something I definitely wanted to hear." He murmured back. "Look, do you know when your shift ends? I kinda wanted to talk to you about something when you're done."

"Well I'm done now, so if you want, maybe we could go for a walk or something and talk then?" Tory suggested, curiosity rising slightly as she saw the almost apprehensive look on Robby's face as he nodded.

The couple headed out of the dealership together, walking out into the breezy January afternoon air. As they strolled leisurely down the many streets of Los Angeles, they made a little bit of small talk, but they eventually trailed off into silence as Tory noticed just how nervous Robby seemed about whatever he had to say. This caused her to be filled with even more curiosity and even a bit of anxiousness herself. Whatever he had to say, Tory made the reasonable assumption that it wasn't a good thing.

After around 15 minutes of walking, Tory and Robby finally drew to a halt. They were in a park on the outskirts of the city, far from the regular buzz and hum of L.A, as there wasn't a single person at the park that afternoon but them. They made their way over to a bench, where they sat down and faced one another, Tory preparing to hear whatever Robby had to say, and Robby preparing to say it.

"Look, there's no easy way to tell you this, so I'm just going to say it." He began. Tory raised an eyebrow, starting to get a little more nervous about what he was going to say.

"Tell me… how angry should I be getting when I hear this, just so I know in advance? Is it another brawl-level anger? More of just a breakup-level anger?" She joked, but hoping to hear some kind of reassurance from Robby that whatever he had to say, wasn't deep enough to be either of those things. She didn't get that though, Robby's face not even cracking a smile.

"I'm enlisting." Robby blurted out.

Immediately, Tory fell completely silent, her facial expressions and body language yelling everything in that moment that her words weren't. Robby paused for a moment and watched her go through various stages of emotion: starting with a shock that caused her face to pale snow-white; then came a flash of anger that ripped across her face; following this was a deep sadness. Finally, she settled on completely perplexed confusion as she looked up at Robby.

"I know it's a lot to process at once so please take your time." Robby said. "I just felt like you deserved to know. I'm enlisting in the Army for after graduation. That's my plan for next year and beyond. I'm leaving in August-September sometime."

Tory was still shocked into silence, something extremely unusual for her. She rarely ever was lost for words, whether the words be hate-filled or love-filled, so the fact that Robby could hear nothing but the sound of the faint wind was nerve-wracking for him.

"Um… Tory? Are you okay?" Robby asked, concerned about his girlfriend's lack of response. Right now, he honestly would've preferred her to stand up and scream at him, curse him out and leave. It would've at least shown him where her head was right now. But the fact that he had no idea what she was thinking right now was much scarier.

After what felt like an eternity, she finally spoke up.

"Why are you doing this?" Tory asked, in a quiet, almost timid tone very much unlike her own. "Is it because of me? Do you want to get away from me or something? Is it about your dad? About Miguel? About the baby coming? What are you running away from?"

"I'm not running away from anyone." Robby replied. "I'm running towards something."

"What? A bullet?" Tory snapped harshly. Robby remained calm and shook his head.

"No. Doing this will allow me to finally make something of myself. It will help me manage to make it out of the Valley once and for all and start a proper life. A proper future. I won't be wasting away doing something I hate for the next 50 years until retirement."

There was a lot Tory wanted to say, a lot she wanted to scream at him. Part of her couldn't fathom the ridiculousness of what Robby was saying. She wanted to yell at him about the severe risk he'd be putting himself under on a daily basis. About how little pay he would be getting for one of the most time and energy consuming jobs out there. About the risks to not only his physical health, but mental health too. About how this wasn't exactly the type of job you could grow old in. She refrained from saying all of this though. She could tell from the confidence with which Robby looked and spoke about his decision that all of these things had already crossed his mind, and despite all of them, he still wanted to go through with it.

Truth be told, Tory was terrified. Every time she looked into the far future, which had been quite often with everything going on over the past few months, everything looked so uncertain. It was like staring into a murky, opaque body of water. She couldn't see anything, couldn't determine that 25 years from now, there would be a part of her life that she knew from now she wanted to have. Except him. Robby was the one constant she saw in every version of how her life and her future could possibly go. She assumed the fact that no matter where they were in the world, their relationship would go for much longer than just high school. But now, with this most recent development, she found that fact more and more uncertain, and that thought scared the crap out of her.

She didn't show it though. She knew that she should be supportive, she needed to be supportive. And to be fair, she was mostly happy for Robby. She was glad that he had found something that gave him a spark in his eye as he spoke about it. Fear about the decision was only a small portion of Tory's entire thought process, as most of her supported the decision. After all, not much else to do, right? As Robby had seemingly made up his mind completely.

"I'm happy for you." Tory slowly told him. Instant relief rushed through Robby's system as he heard this. Telling Tory was probably the person he feared telling most. Unlike parents and friends who were his past and present, Tory was his future.

"You… you are?" Robby stammered. Tory nodded.

"Is it going to suck living so far away from you for so long? Yes. But that would be no different if you were going to college out of state. Sure the Army is much longer than a college term, but it's also something I can tell you really want to do. You want to make a difference, fight just like you're fighting here, like you have been for years now. That's more important than however much the stress and worry is."

"Are you sure?" Robby asked. Tory nodded, gently kissing him before sitting back and staring him in the eye once more.

"100%. Go do what you aspire to do. Whatever happens, I'll be here in the Valley waiting." Tory responded.

Robby couldn't express just how relieved he was that his girlfriend had taken the news so well. It was like a massive weight had been lifted from his shoulders, a burden that he had been forced to carry since the first day he had met with a recruiter a month ago.

"Have you told your dad yet?" Tory asked, curiously. Robby shook his head.

"No. Only you and Miguel know right now. And please, I'd like to keep it that way for a while. You know how the adults would react if they found out. I kind of want to leave it for later before I tell them."

"How much later?" Tory asked, furrowing her eyebrows in confusion. Robby shook his head.

"I'm not sure."