Corey drove us home in Ian's stupid little car, the scent of old Thai food worse than ever. Nobody said a word, a Chinese rap song playing from a CD Ian had bought as a joke when the entire family paid Auntie Fang a visit in Shanghai a few years ago and now listens to unironically. Corey kept glancing at Robby in the mirrors, shooting him a look whenever he thought the Keene boy was looking.
Robby and I barely even looked at each other. I stared out the window into the California night, a mountain of half-empty Miss Vickie's bags and empty Swiss Chalet containers on the middle seat to separate him from me. My fingers burned, urging me to reach across the seat for Robby's hand, but I couldn't do it.
Nothing could be the same between us now that he'd kissed me.
Corey pulled into the driveway somberly, parking Ian's beat up Honda Civic in the driveway, next to his own bright yellow F150. He killed the ignition, but stayed rooted in the driver's seat, seemingly rooted in thought before Ian pulled out his phone to disarm the house's security.
Ian was the only one allowed to come and go as he pleased, since he was technically supposed to be in college. However, that never happened. After his mother had gone back to Hong Kong with her new girlfriend, Ian had gone to Banff to stay with his dad, and attend University. Finding marijuana, football players and frat parties more attractive prospects, he didn't stay enrolled for long before he began his Frat House Tour Bonanza of the contiguous United States of America.
"Are we gonna go inside or what?" Ian asked, looking around the car. We all felt deflated, the adrenaline long since worn off. Now I was just bummed that there was no treasure in the Karkaroff basement.
Corey sighed. "Yeah, I've gotta meet Ricky and Kyle in the morning, we're gonna go to Malik's and shoot something. Parkour off the roof or whatever, we haven't decided." He grinned. "Probably something that will make mom yell at me." Corey looked in the backseat, avoiding Robby's eyes but finding mine okay. "Hey, Ringo, I'm sorry this didn't work out, that there was no gold in there."
I shook my head. "It's fine. I should have expected it to go this way. Of course the gold's not in the house any more."
Ian turned in his seat to look back at me and Robby, shifting his dubious look between the two of us. "We're gonna give you two some space to talk, right Corey?"
Corey rolled his eyes. "Ten minutes, Keene. And then I come out here with Freddie's baseball bat."
Robby nodded, fear in his hazel eyes. "Understandable."
Once Corey and Ian had left, the air seemed to clear up slightly. The metaphorical storm clouds were gone, but the atmosphere was still overcast. I reached gingerly across the piles of greasy cardboard and plastic and half eaten bags of chips to place my hand on top of Robby's. I turned in his direction, but felt my face go pink when he turned to meet my gaze.
"I don't regret it if you don't." His face was sincere as he spoke, more serious than I think I had ever seen Robert Swayze Keene look in his life.
"I don't, but my God, am I scared." I answered honestly, anxieties and word vomit spilling out of my mouth like a leaky dam. So many feelings I had kept inside for so long, now out through the floodgates. "What if we're rushing into this blindly, Robby? What if something happens between us, what then? Once we go any further than one adrenaline filled kiss, we can never go back to being the people we once were. And I don't want to lose you."
Robby softened, unbuckling his seat belt and leaning across the miniature trash mountain, a half full bag of Cheetos and a few empty chicken nugget containers falling onto the floor. Robby winced, but made no move to reorganize Ian's back seat.
"Ringo, sweetheart." There. Right there is when my heart melted into a puddle at my feet, tears springing to my eyes that Robby rushed to wipe away with his thumb. "Nothing is going to happen to us. And if it does, we can burn that bridge down when we get to it, okay?"
I nodded, not trusting myself to speak.
The truth was, I think I had fallen in love with Robby Keene a long time ago.
When he kissed me then, it was so different from what happened inside the Karkaroff house. It was soft, and gentle. Reminding me that I was loved and cared for. The kiss itself said so much more about how Robby felt about me than he could ever put into words.
It was hardly a perfect moment, in Ian's crappy car and it's smell of old takeout and weed, garbage all over the floors. But that was okay, because the imperfect moments have a way about them, feeling perfect anyways simply because of how not perfect they truly are.
He pulled away gently, looking like he was about to start crying as well. I smiled, interlocking my fingers with his as my phone buzzed on the vinyl seat.
C O R E Y : oi ringo, get ur ass inside before i kick keene's into next week. pls and thx.
I laughed, showing Robby the message.
"The scary thing is, I believe he could. He's your scary older brother and I'm the scrawny guy making moves on his sister."
We both collapsed into laughter again. Composing myself, I undid my seatbelt and popped the car door open. "Come inside, I think there's some Law and Order we can catch up on."
Robby grinned. "How can I say no to that?"
We were asleep in each others comforting embraces, my head buried in his neck, body cocooned in his warm arms before the monologue had finished on the second episode.
Law and Order may have been their stories, but this one was ours, and I had a feeling it was going to cause me less heartache than Benson and Stabler were going to go through during their twelve seasons together, not including their reunion on Law and Order: Organized Crime.
NOTES!
I"M SO SORRY IT TAKES ME SO LONG TO WRITE, SCHOOL HAS BEEN WACK
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