Chapter 6: Reunited (The Girls)
Cyborg pushed open the doors to Sal's. Raven followed behind him with a disgusted look on her face. The smell of Pizza and garlic washed over Cyborg giving him an immediate lift. The ride over with Raven had been a nightmare. If there was one thing you shouldn't do it was play classical music in the T-car when Cyborg's driving on an empty stomach.
"See I told you they were here," Raven said coldly.
"Yea, well they shouldn't be," Cyborg said in mild irritation.
Beast Boy sat alone in one of the booths along the back wall. The place was surprisingly empty. Beast Boy was perusing the jukebox's CD collection while his other hand was sliding up a large stack of quarters. He quickly dumped a quarter in the machine filling the place immediately with music.
Cyborg and Raven walked over to Beast Boy's booth. He continued to play with his stack of quarters unaware of their presence until they were almost next to him.
Beast Boy looked up in mild surprise. "What are you two doing here?"
"The other place's kitchen sucked," Cyborg blurted out.
Raven sighed in disgust. "Sorry, I didn't know the cook was fired."
"It's probably a good thing," Cyborg quickly replied. "I probably would have gotten food poisoning or something."
Raven folded her arms across her chest and shot Cyborg an icy stare. "Where are the girls?" She needed an immediate refuge from her annoyed partner.
"They're in the bathroom cleaning up," Beat Boy said. "Man what a night, you should have seen it…"
"I'll talk to you in a bit," Raven curtly excused herself and made her way to the rest room. Terra and Starfire would be a welcome change of company. It would also allow Cyborg to blow off some steam; let Beast Boy deal with his temper tantrum.
Raven wondered why the couples were here instead of at Blue. Several possibilities drifted through her mind as she made her way to the girl's room. Most of them involved Beast Boy performing some type of faux pas. She smiled at the thought as she pushed open the door.
A blast of warm air hit Raven as the door swung closed behind her. Terra and Starfire were huddled with their backs to her in front of the hand dryer. Strands of their long hair billowed towards the ceiling. Both girls' shoulders heaved slightly. Terra reached over and pulled Starfire towards her as their heads fell lightly against each other. Raven sighed thinking the two girls were consoling each other after their disastrous date.
The hand dryer cut off and the room was instantly filled with laughter. Raven's eyes narrowed in disbelief as Terra and Starfire turned to exit the room. Both girl's faces were dark red; their eyes brimming with tears. Terra screeched in surprise upon seeing their friend standing before them.
"Raven!" Terra blurted out in between gasping laughter. "What are you doing here?" Terra stepped forward and wrapped her arms around her startled friend. Starfire quickly followed as the three friends huddled together. Raven retracted slightly as both girls were quickly consumed in another round of violent giggling.
"Um, can one of you please tell me what's going on?" Raven said in exasperation.
Terra and Starfire withdrew slightly, their eyes beaming with laughter. By the look of things both girls had hit it off quite well. Raven had up to this point been the translator between the two, now it seemed that Terra and Starfire had found a common wavelength to work on. The feeling of being on the outside looking in began to creep over her.
"Oh my god, you should have been there!" Terra quickly blurted out. "Beast Boy ran over the valet's foot when we got there."
"Then Terra and I gave Kitten a swirly in the establishment's bathroom," Starfire quickly added.
"Don't forget Rancid plastering the boys with those pies," Terra added.
"And Robin splitting his pants," Starfire continued.
"The smiley faces were the best!"
Both Starfire and Terra quickly erupted into another round of laughter leaving Raven dumbfounded as she tried to quickly absorb their rapid-fire explanation of the night's events.
"Ok," Raven said calmly as she tried to get her friends settled down. "Let me get this straight. Beast Boy ran over the parking attendant's foot, Kitten was in the bathroom, Johnny Rancid was serving dessert and Robin ate so much he split his pants. It sounds like the night's been a disaster."
Terra and Starfire glanced at each other then broke out into a fresh round of laughter. Raven felt even more removed from the situation.
"Oh Raven, this has been the most wonderful night I've had on this planet!" Starfire countered as her face radiated with happiness.
"I haven't laughed so much in my friggin' life!" Terra added.
"Well, good," Raven dryly added. "I thought for a minute things had gone terribly wrong."
"No way!" Terra replied. "We wiped out two villains and managed to see Robin's underwear in one night!"
"Well it wasn't all good," Starfire mildly corrected her friend. "I did not particularly like being nearly drown by Kitten."
"Yea, but we set that bitch straight!" Terra held up her fist and Starfire quickly rapped it with hers acknowledging their teamwork. "It worked out for the better anyway. Didn't you see Robin checking you out while you were cleaning him up?"
"He did?" Starfire asked hopefully. Terra nodded affirmative. "Yes, finally he has noticed me!"
Raven listened as her friends fawned over their successful night together. Even in this small group she was an outsider.
"How about you, Raven. How's your night going?" Terra asked her friend trying to draw her back into the conversation. After all, this night had been her idea. "Stopping by for a quick bite? I hope you and Cyborg haven't been too busy while we were out."
"Nothing we couldn't handle," Raven countered not wanting to steal any thunder from her friend's exploits. "We ran into Punk Rocket over at D'Angelo's."
"What happened to him?" Starfire asked in sudden concern.
"Oh he's tied up with open mic," Raven coolly explained. "I don't think we'll be hearing from him for awhile."
"Cool," Terra replied. "Let's get out of here. I'm starving; Rancid ruined our dinner before we got to eat it."
Terra and Starfire turned and headed for the door back to the main dining room. Raven sighed to herself then fell in behind her two joyous friends.