A Flower in War

Chapter Twenty-One: New Hire

Robby stood in front of the mirror tugging on his LaRusso Auto Shop tee. He found some khakis in the back of his closet the other night, and boy did he look the part of the prep school jock. His smirk falls when he hears consistent knocking at his door, rolling his eyes because he knows exactly who was waiting behind it.

"Quit it." Robby stated, opening the door with a huff allowing his two friends inside. They laughed playfully smacking his chest, "What's up Keene?"
"Suh, dude?" Cruz laughs, slurring his speech.
Robby closed the door tiredly turning to see them grabbing the cereal from his shelf.
"Come on. Don't eat all the cereal again."
"You keep buying it, we gonna keep eating it, man. We gotta fuel up!"
"We gonna hit an Amazon truck."
"Yeah," the boys stick their hands into the now open box of Captain Crunch, "we gonna get our hands on some big old packages. You know, like Trey's favorite past time." Trey elbows Cruz with a glare, "Shut up. Come on, man. Grab your purse. Let's go."

"I have work." Robby explains with a small smirk.
"What, like a job?" Trey asks incredulously.
"Oh shit! Look at his pants!" Cruz points to Robby's pants making the duo erupt in giggles.
"What are those?!"
"It's just temporary, all right? I got a gig over at LaRusso Auto."
"You mean like the ninja guy? Why?"
"My dad hates his guts. When he finds out I'm working for him, he's gonna lose his shit." Robby explains gleefully, leaving out the part that Cal also works there and since she won't return his texts, it all kinda works out.

"Wait... doesn't that honey work over there?"
"Oh shit! Yeah! Flower!" They erupt into giggles again, gleefully chewing on his cereal.
"She still not returning your calls?" Cruz sarcastically pouts.
"Not important."
"Damn man! You must be pussy whipped to go this far for a broad!" Trey cackles.
"I'm not doing this for her. I'm doing it to piss off my dad, nothing else! She just so happens to be there!"
"Sure man, keep telling yourself that. Well if she does want to see you again you better bring her around so we can have a turn." Trey smacks his chest taking the cereal with him.
"Peace Mr. Job!"

Robby shakes his head. He had a lot of time to look at the friendship he shared with them, a lot of time to mull over what that actually consisted of. He found it consisted of stealing, skateboarding, smoking, and all his food being eaten. Cal took him out the right way. They paid for their food, they didn't harass anyone or force them into a scheme. They talked about their interests and their wants in life. She tried his hobbies and he tried hers. There was reciprocation on both sides.

Yeah, she had more money than him, but she didn't flaunt it. She wore normal clothes you could get at Target, most designer thing she had was a little backpack and some jewelry. The backpack was well loved, apparently a gift from her father. So she didn't even buy her nice shit, it was gifted to her.

She was a real friend, someone who cared about him, who wasn't afraid to call him out, who joked with him and made him feel safe and happy. He hadn't felt that in a long, long time. But his ego got the best of him and he fucked up. He wanted her to call him and then he called her crossfaded. He couldn't even remember what they had spoken about. It wasn't a terribly long call so it likely didn't go well.

He tried to text her the next day, ask what happened, but none of his messages would go through. He had half a mind to show up at the house but decided against it, knowing that if it went poorly he couldn't execute his plan. And boy was he excited for that to come to fruition.

-

"Hey Aunt Amanda!" Cal smiles, laying her bag in one of the chairs by Amanda's desk.
"Hey sweetheart, how was school?"
"Better than Friday!" She decides, intentionally not mentioning that Sam is the running joke at school, though Cal sticks up for her whenever she hears anything with "Sam" and "blow" in the same sentence.