Starlight

VI: You Never Know

And odds are I would do what most men do
And hurt you too, 'cause men are men and odds are odds
Although, you never know

- You Never Know, 'If/Then'

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"Let me propose a toast," Finn stood, pulling his napkin from his collar and tapping his knife on the side of his plastic tumbler. "To our opening night being a roaring success!"

Everyone else who had been eating in the pizza place at the time turned to look at the table of boisterous theatre kids, throwing their arms and cups into the air and cheering at a near-deafening volume.

Robbie was used to hanging out with one or two theatre students at a time, but wasn't quite accustomed to the incredibly enthusiastic pack mentality that actors, singers, dancers and other creatives break into following a successful show.

Nonetheless, she joined in with the toast. Their attitude was more than a little infectious, after all. "Well done everybody," she yelled, although she expected that her congratulations had gone unheard - her voice simply joined the cacophony of others.

"Ready to order, folks?" The waiter hovered impatiently to the side, clearly anxious to get the loud group their food as soon as possible. Being the only two that hadn't just performed a show, Robbie and Professor Hidgens had opted to sit opposite each other, at the far end of the table.

"Yes thank you, could I get the..." Robbie squinted at the menu, pretending that she didn't order the exact same thing every time. "Cheese pizza, please."

The waiter scribbled it down on his notepad. "Awesome, anything else?"

"Extra cheese, thanks."

"Sure. And for you, sir?"

Hidgens lowered his menu. "I'll have the same."

The waiter moved down the table, and Hidgens smirked. "A plain cheese pizza with extra cheese?"

"What can I say? Cheese is the ultimate comfort food." She took a sip of her drink. "Besides, why are you teasing me? You ordered the same."

"True. I panicked."

"I do that all the time when ordering food, but when it comes to pizza, I don't fuck around." Robbie glanced down the table. Zoey hadn't arrived yet; what would happen when she did?

Would she cause a massive scene, embarrassing the professor? She had, after all, told the entire cast that he'd been stalking her. None of them seemed to know that he was the man Zoey had accused of being a creep - they had all been pleasant with him, discussing his thoughts on the show and on theatre in general.

It might have been that she wanted to fixate on anything other than Scott, but Robbie found herself growing more and more fond of the Professor as the evening progressed. She identified with his nervous fidgeting and laughter; whilst he was clearly out of his comfort zone, she worried about the bombardment of texts she'd be sure to receive as soon as she turned her phone back on.

At one moment, in-between slices of her extraordinarily cheesy meal, Robbie picked her phone up, thumb hovering over the power button, and--

"So Robin," Hidgens' eyes flickered towards the phone and then focused on her own. "How did you meet Finn?"

She gingerly set the phone down onto the table. "We went to high school together. When I was a freshman I tried auditioning for one of the musicals, but uhh..." She took a long sip of her soda. "That didn't work out. Finn was always around the drama department, so I guess we must've just started talking. It's so long ago; we've been friends for over ten years now. Honestly, I only chose to go to community college in Hatchetfield because I knew Finn was doing his actor training here."