Sorry 'bout the wait.

He smirked. "No. But now I know how you really feel about this," he said, snapping the phone shut.

Fake phone call. "You tricked me," I concluded, closing my eyes.

"You tricked yourself," he replied smoothly, leaning against the wall.

"And what's that supposed to mean?" I questioned. Or more like interrogated.

"You said you wanted to leave. You don't," he said, pushing himself off the wall. I could feel his presence drawing nearer to me as I scrambled through my spaghetti-brained mind for a response.

I knew what I wanted to say. It was embarrassing, however. Which was stupid of me. I had no reason to be embarrassed in front of Robbie. He knew everything about me. More than Matt or Lisa probably ever would. And they have my medical records. I guess it's just a natural insecurity of mine. To just… not say it for fear of being judged.

I wrapped my arms around his torso, my head fitting into the crook of his neck. "I don't wanna go," I whispered.

"Glad to see you faced the truth."

I jumped five miles in the air. That was not Robbie's voice. That was a very certain voice. But not Robbie's.

It was Beck's. My dad's.

Robbie sighed and smacked his palm against his face. "First of all, I wish you people would stop randomly appearing in my house. And secondly, I don't care what you know or if you really are Beck, or how you found out – "

"Robbie," I interrupted.

"Yeah?"

"Breathe," I said, handing him a water bottle from the counter.

He sipped from it slowly, narrowing his eyes at my dad. Like he was prepared to attack. He handed me the bottle back, still managing not to break eye contact with him. I felt a headache coming on as I took a swig from the bottle myself, wishing the drink was something much stronger.

"Look. Cat," my dad said, taking a step closer.

Robbie took a step in front of me, blocking his path.

"Rob, come on," my dad said, pleading him to let up.

"Beck, come on," Robbie said in a mimicking tone.

I giggled. It probably wasn't the appropriate time to giggle, but I giggled. I straightened up, pushing a strand of hair behind my ear. "Robbie," I pardoned.

"What?" he asked harshly, his expression going softer when he faced me.

"Take a knee," I said, patting him on the shoulder.

With a final confused grunt at my dad, he backed away, standing just ten feet behind me. As my eyes met my dad's for the first time, I could see that he was actually scared. Like he was scared of what he knew. Join the club.

"Do you, um…" I started, trailing off. Do you know?, I added mentally, hoping he would pick up.

He hung his head. He knew.

I hadn't realized that I had been gravitating towards him until I felt his arms forming a cocoon around me, like he had the day of the earthquake.

"Tori told you, didn't she?" I concluded.

He didn't respond, opting to simply tighten his clench around my torso. I didn't mind.

"Does Jade…?"

"No," he interrupted.

I don't know why his response hit home. But it did. I could feel my stomach churning as I abruptly pulled away from his embrace. "I think I'm gonna be sick."

I heard Robbie walking closer, once again stepping in front of me. "What did you say to her?" he interrogated my dad again.

"Nothing! I-I didn't…"

I cut him off. "Beck, stop. Robbie…" I looked around the room, my eyes landing on the water bottle again.

I popped the cap off and poured some in my hand, splashing it in Robbie's face. He needed to cool off, literally. His face was redder than usual, and there was practically steam coming out of his ears. I saw my dad chuckle lightly, biting down on his fist.

I waved my hand at him, hushing him silently. I took Robbie's damp cheeks in my hands. "You cool?" I asked, taking the wet glasses off his face and setting them on the counter.

"Yep, I'm cool," he said, his voice back to the good old Robbie.

"Good," I replied, taking my hands down and wiping the wet palms on the pajama pants I hadn't bothered to get out of. "It's just… Surreal, okay? All of this," I paused, turning towards my dad, "is surreal. The fact that I've been here for a total of eight years and I've totally grown up in the wrong universe… And that you're just finding out… That's surreal to me." My dad hung his head again, not knowing how to respond to that. I didn't expect him to. I turned to Robbie. "And you need to stop freaking out. It's not helping anything."

"I'm just trying to-"

"Trying to what," I quizzed. "Trying to turn back time? 'Cause it's not working."

He hung his head, as well. Great.

I broke the silence with a question one of them had to answer. "What time is it?"

"Like three," my dad said, running a hand through his hair. "I ditched my last class."

"Isn't that the class you have with Jade?" I asked.

"Look, Tori told me, and I didn't believe her, and then she showed me some picture of some little girl-"

"Skyla," Robbie and I both said. Skyla. What a dramatic role she played in my many lives.

"Yeah, Skyla…" he continued. "And she said something about some alternate universe and I didn't believe her, and then she started talking about how I didn't believe her about 'Ponnie' and I still didn't believe her and then she slapped me…" He paused, looking down at his oh-so-fascinating shoes. "And here I am."

I saw Robbie glancing at me out of the corner of my eye. My peripheral vision was doing a lot of work lately. I sighed and rolled my eyes at both of them, reaching for my sweater. "Whatever. My only words are advice are if you have any negative thoughts, keep 'em to yourself. We've got enough," I said, walking towards the door.

"Where are you going?"

"What are you doing?" my dad asked simultaneously, much more casually than Robbie had.

I gave a curt nod in their direction. "I'm going to speak to a certain half-Latina friend of mine."