Page 112 of Something Rad
“Because, Cooper,everybodygoes to the game. It’sHomecoming. You go to the game at five o’clock and then to the dance at eight.” I start to look at her like she’s crazy, but then it occurs to me.
Of course she doesn’t know this information. She’s never participated in any of this stuff before. This stuff that just seems like second nature to me now. That fact sends a weird feeling through my chest.
“Well, I can’t go,” she shakes her head, starting to walk down the hall again. “I have work until nine on Saturdays.”
“Work?” I question her. “Can’t you request off?”
“No, actually, I can’t,” she snaps back. “I need to work, Robbie.”
I open my mouth, but no words come out, realization hitting me again of just how different my and Cooper’s high school lives have been. Of course I’d just assume she can take work off. None of my friends really have jobs, and the few that do just have them for fun, to kill time or earn some pocket money to buy cigarettes or beer without having to use their parents’ money. And for the second time in the last minute, I feel like a total prick.
“We are usually pretty slow on Saturday nights,” Cooper says, “so I’ll see if I can get off by 8:30. I can bring a change of clothes for the dance with me to Groovy Movie and you can just pick me up from there. We can befashionably latefor the dance.” She drawls the words, mimicking me. “But, I’m sorry, I can’t make the game. I’m already going to have to take off some time around finals to study, so I just can’t swing that.”
She’s already factoring in and planning for the time she’s going to have to take off nearly three months from now?That pain in my chest intensifies, forcing me to rub my hand over my heart. “Alright, that’s fine, Cooper,” I say. “Don’t worry about it. We’ll get it worked out.”
Her eyes stay on the floor as she nods at me.
I reach the front door of the school first and pull it open, standing to the side for Cooper to walk through it. We both end up pausing in the doorway, however, when a loud crack of thunder goes off and we catch sight of the heavy rain pouring from the sky.
“Oh,” Cooper gasps.
“Well, so much for the sunshine Ms. Rose was talking about,” I say.
We step outside under the protection of the overhang, but before the door closes, Cooper stops it with her hand. “I’m gonna go grab my umbrella from my locker.”
I can see the gears working behind her eyes as she fidgets with her Groovy Movie vest in her other hand. There’s no way she can walk to work in this weather, but something tells me that if I offer to drive her again, she’ll bite my head off.
Thesomethingis having spent nearly every day of the last three weeks with this girl. I know how she operates now, and there’s not a chance in hell she’d ever let me or anyone else think she needs our help.
“Okay,” I nod.
“I’ll see you Monday I guess,” she says, her eyes shifting between me and the dark sky behind me.
“Yeah, alright.” It’s on the tip of my tongue to ask her if she’s like a ride even though I know the answer, but I don’t. Instead, I secretly hope she’ll swallow her pride and ask me herself.
“Okay, bye,” she says, inching back inside the school.
No such luck.
“See ya, Cooper.” I turn away from her and grab my headphones from around my neck. I slide them back onto my head, but I don’t hit the play button on my tape just yet. I take the few stairs down at a ridiculously slow pace, keeping my ears open as I pretend to fiddle with my Walkman. Just as I reach the bottom of the stairs and have accepted that Cooper is determined to rent movies out fully soaked this evening, I hear her voice.
“Um…Robbie?”
Bingo.
I push my headphones off, hiding the smirk that’s come to my face as I look back at her. “Yeah, Cooper?”
“Could you… I mean, do you think… Would you maybe mind–”
“C’mon, Cooper.” I nod in the direction of the parking lot. “I’ll give you a ride to work.”
She doesn’t meet my eyes as she mumbles a red-faced“Thank you.”
We both jog to the short distance to my Camaro, ducking inside and closing the doors to the quickly worsening downpour. We don’t say anything as I pull out of the parking lot, me focusing on the road and Cooper too busy putting on her work vest and sorting out her damp hair. As we approach the first red light, the weather and traffic report playing on the radio comes to an end, and I instantly smile when the following song starts playing, the piano intro all too familiar to me. I start nodding along to the melody, getting ready for the lyrics to begin.
“Highway run–”
My head snaps to the right when the song cuts off suddenly, replaced by the garbled staticky sound of the radio scanning for another station. My response is so reflexive, I don’t even know what’s happening before I’m snapping my middle finger and thumb against Cooper’s hand, making her jolt and pull her hand away from the dial.
