Chapter 17

A/N: To the "guest" reviewers. I'd love to personally answer your reviews because you've all been so sweet and so supportive. I can't because...site policy or something so I just want to say thank you so much for all your kind words and I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Robin POV

I drive up to the tree house and look it over, a breeze comes up right of the bay, rustling the leaves and sending memories my way.

"Dick?" I turn to Donna and I swear she's eight years old again, skinned knees and bubbly laughter. I blink and before me is Donna is seventeen with scars in her life and a soft tired chuckle.

"Wow, it's still in pretty good shape" I marvel, gesturing toward the tree house.

"Of course it is, Garth comes by now and then and fixes it up"

"He does?"

"Well, yeah..."

"Is he still dating—"

"Yeah. He is." Donna replies curtly before making to climb up the tree.

I smell smoke and alcohol as I enter the tree and am not surprised to find Roy is already here. It's clear he's done some redecorating of his own. An air mattress for clearly unsavoury use occupied most of the house. He was lying on it, limbs spread taking up a lot of space. His hand was up, using a piece of cardboard to fan his face despite the autumn chill in the air, a pathetic attempt to drive away the evidence he had been smoking.

"Get this garbage out of here" Donna says coldly referring to the six pack of beer Roy was hugging to his chest.

"Oh, C'mon Donny..."

Donna reaches for it and tosses the whole pack of beer out the tree house window. I heard it crash to the ground and some of the cans opening to spray their contents.
"Why'd you go and do that for?" Roy demands standing up to salvage some of the beer. I step in his path and put a firm hand on his chest stopping him.

"Let it go, man. Nobody wants that here"

"Pfft, speak for yourself, boy scout" Roy smirks

"We're here to help Wally, Roy! Can you get over your own personal drama just for today to do that?" Donna demands.

"He got dumped, alcohol is perfect for this situation"

I froze...Wally got dumped by Raven?

"What?" I ask shaking my head trying to absorb what I'd heard.

"Yeah, it's Wally's crisis" Donna sighed

"And he called us for this?" I asked surprised, Wally was the kind to shut himself off post break-ups

"Well, not exactly...but I thought this would be healthier for him to cry to us than in bus stops..."

"He's got a car now, Donny. He's probably not crying in bus stops" Roy laughs

"Roy" Donna said admonishing him.

Roy scoffed and slumped back on the mattress.

"Wait. Raven dumped Wally?" I ask again bringing us back on topic

"Broke up with him, yes" Donna affirms

"Why?" I ask at risk of sounding like a gossip

"Yeah, I mean where does she get off dumping a senior and a star athlete?" Roy puts in, "Never saw why Wally went after her anyway."

"What does that mean?" I come to Raven's defence

"I mean, I like mine long and leggy. Petite little ice queen doesn't even bother wearing heels"

"Yes, because men pick their mates based on height" Donna sarcastically comments

"Well, not just that but she's flat as a pancake and dresses like she's on her way to the funeral. Seriously, what's so great about her?"

"Her eyes are the color purple and you can read what she's thinking in them. She never shows when she's scared coz she doesn't like people to worry. She loves romance, not the cheesy commercial kind but the kind with long hand written letters and baroque music. She massages your head when you have a headache and visits you when you're sick. She's probably one of the smartest people at school but she never makes you feel bad that you don't know as much. And she believes in telling the truth even if the truth is she's not in love with you" we all turn to find Wally in the tree house. He's eyes are slightly red and puffy. It's easy to see he had been crying.

Behind him comes Garth eyeing Donna warily before entering.

"Hey, Wally...you okay?" I ask him but he doesn't look at me.

"Garth said there was a crisis. I thought coming to help one of you guys would help me forget my troubles. Turns out this was all some trap"

"No, not a trap" Donna implores hugging Wally to her.

"You've never been the best at coping with this kind of thing..." Donna began awkwardly

"And you are? Donna you've always been the dumper never the dumpee" Wally states removing himself from her hug.

"True, but those I've dated broke my heart which was why I had to dump them" Donna points out.

We all try not to look at Roy when she says this.

"So, who brought the food?" Donna asks

We all look to each other.

Donna sighs, "Who's doing the food run?"

"Why don't you go, Donny?" Roy suggests

"Why coz I'm the girl?" She snaps glaring at Roy

"No, because you have good taste" Roy smirks

"Not always" Donna growls

Garth coughs awkwardly and I shuffle my feet. I wish their break up had not become so bitter.

"Anyway, I'm the only one who didn't bring my car. So someone else has to do the run"

"Take mine" Garth offers handing her his keys

"I've got some money" I say holding out some cash to Donna

She eyes us suspiciously but takes the money from me to go do the food run.

Garth's the closest to the edge of the tree house so after we hear the car's engine start up we wait for Garth to tell us Donna is out of sight (she's been known to double back and see what we're up to) before we relax.

"Listen man, sorry for the ex bashing..." Roy starts

"Don't worry about it, just don't do it again" Wally shrugs.

"You don't really want to talk about it, do you?" Garth asks

We all dread the answer that Donna was right and that Wally wants to have an emotional binge fest.

"Ha, I'm half tempted to start bawling in front of you guys just to scare the crap out of you...but I'm too tired to even make jokes" Wally slides down against the wall into a sitting position.

We all sit next to him. I remember the last time we were doing this. I look at Roy through the corner of my eye. He remembers the last time we were all sitting like this too. He catches my eye, guesses what I'm thinking and bolts to his feet. He scrambles in his backpack and his laptop emerges.

"Die Hard Marathon" he simply says and even Wally can't help but smile.