Starlight

VII: Funny Girl

That's me
I just keep them in stitches
Doubled in half
And though I may be all wrong for a guy
I'm good for a laugh

- 'Funny Girl', Funny Girl

______

Weeks passed, and the last few remnants of Summer in Hatchetfield faded away. Fall was in full swing. The nights were drawing in earlier, the air began to carry the scent of fallen leaves and smoke; change was everywhere to be seen.

Robbie spent most of these early evenings completing the readings for her course and working on her next set. Well, not just the evenings - she loved the very early hours of the morning, when everyone else in the world seemed asleep; it was then that she would feel a boost of energy and do her best work.

Her desk, much like the rest of her tiny studio apartment, was extremely cluttered with papers, books, trash. However, on the whitewashed wall above it, directly at eye-level, she had stuck a post-it note with the best advice she had received in a while.

"Comedy = Tragedy + Time".

The funniest stories could be taken from the most upsetting, if you left enough time to get over it. Hidgens had said it as a throwaway comment, but it had struck such a chord with her. She could take her trauma and turn it into something positive; reclaim it and use it to her own advantage. After all, her first set at the showcase had been all about her dating woes, and the professor had said he liked it, right?

Something told her he wouldn't lie about something like that, and his napkin-based note (which she felt oddly obliged to keep, safely tucked away in a drawer) felt like further encouragement.

She realized that had to let herself be vulnerable in order to become strong enough to laugh at herself. As those nights became colder, and as she ignored the stream of passive-aggressive (and sometimes downright plain aggressive) texts from Scott, she worked on doing just that.

____

Finn squinted at his phone with bleary eyes, the ringtone's trill as loud as a jackhammer against the silence of his room. 2:23am. Robbie.

"...Hello?" He mumbled, trying to keep his eyes open and his voice low.

"Finn!" Robbie sounded out of breath at the other end of the line.

"What's the matter? Is everything okay?" He woke up a little more, beginning to sit.

"Yes yes yes totally fine," he recognised her tone as one of excitement, "I just wanted to ask you if you're free Saturday!"

Finn groaned. "You woke me up for that? Seriously? You're a little insomniac demon, I swear. Go to bed."

Across town, in her own flat, Robbie sipped her sixth coffee since 6pm. "Not insomnia this time, I was just on an absolute roll. Besides, you didn't answer my question!"

Finn rubbed his eyes. "Yeah. I'm free."

Robbie did a manic little happy dance in her desk chair. "Well then, I guess I'll see you in Beanie's for their open mic night, because I'm performing!"

Despite his grouchiness at being woken up, he couldn't help but smile. Ever since that one crazy night at the Starlight theatre - since Scott had left - he had seen his friend slowly claw back some of her confidence. "Yep, I'll see you there. But for now, I've got to sleep!"