Wheels of Steel, Book 2 (30 page)

Jason’s face screwed in displeasure. “No…more like Batman and a very sexy Catwoman.”

“Oh.” She didn’t want to wear a catsuit; no way was that happening. “Or Bonnie and Clyde?” He stopped wheeling to give her a long look.

“One of us would be the wrong color for that.” He continued wheeling when she rolled her eyes. “Look, this is a very important decision in our relationship. Let’s think on it…” Jason’s words trailed off because as the two rounded the corner they saw Belinda leaning against the wall near the stairwell, talking to a guy. Her posture and the closeness of the guy indicated that there was more to what was going on than just talking.

Robin’s brow went up in surprise and she and Jason exchanged looks. The guy was very nice looking; a black guy with midnight dark skin, fairly thin yet toned like a dancer. He was tall, towering over her; he had to have been close to seven feet tall. He had a neatly trimmed short haircut that showed only the barest fuzz of hair. Robin had to admit that he was pretty damn sexy. She averted her eyes in disapproval. It wasn’t cool what she was doing. Peter would have no choice but to see her.

Robin and Jason moved into the cafeteria and after they got their meal and sat down, it was plane that Peter had already seen Belinda and her new friend. His normally handsome face was pulled down into a sour scowl.

Amberly caught her eye. She was sitting next to Peter and she seemed to be trying to relay a message about their friend’s mood. Robin nodded slightly to let her know that she had seen. Amberly shook her head imperceptibly and Robin had to agree with the silent communication.

“Hi Peter.” Robin said pleasantly.

“Hi, Sweetheart. You and the ogre made up I see.”

Robin turned to Jason quickly. “Ooo! Beauty and the Beast?!”

He made a face. “Nooooooo.”

“Hater.” She turned back to Peter.

“Are you going to dress up?”

“Yeah.” Peter announced. His expression didn’t appear as evil as it had a few moments before; she was happy that she had done something to take his mind off of Belinda and that guy. “I wanted to go as the boy in the wheelchair from that show GLEE,” he continued, “but my wheelchair ruined the effect. I even had the argyle vest and everything.” Robin laughed, knowing that his mood had definitely improved. His face even brightened suddenly.

“I have an idea, Robin. Maybe we can all go as the cast of Twilight! Amberly can be Alice, you can be Bella, Jason will have to be Edward, I’ll be the Dad…what’s his name? Carlisle! And Belinda can be the hairy fucking werewolf...and she won’t even need a costume!”

Robin looked down uncomfortably.

“Fuck you, blondie,” came a voice from behind her. Oh so he had seen her coming and had said it for her benefit. Belinda sat down across from him, next to Robin. She was wearing a tight stretch shirt with buttons that only halfway closed. Beneath the form fitting shirt was a thin nylon t-shirt that accentuated her already large breasts. Her jeans were tight against her ass and thighs and then flared out at the knees, making her seem very curvaceous. The outfit was a great compliment to her.

Peter lifted his brow. “Fuck me? That’s funny.”

Amberly turned to Peter, she was fiddling with an MP3 player and blushing furiously. “I’m going as Cruella Daville. Maybe we can go as a team. Like the evil Disney-”

“What do you mean; ‘that’s funny?’” Belinda’s voice cut in through Amberly’s attempts to defuse the situation.

Jason rubbed the stubble on his face and he and Robin exchanged glances. What to do? Neither knew.

Peter stared at her with a sadistic glint in his eye. “Funny choice of words, is all.”

“Hmph.” Belinda said while popping a grape into her mouth. Her lunch consisted of a fruit bowl and bottled water.

“So what are you dressing as?” Peter asked, and Jason wished that he would let it go. This could not lead to anything but disaster…

“It’s a secret.” Belinda said, voice emotionless.

“Hey, Dude,” Jason said to Peter, hoping to stop the impending tragedy. “Maybe we can get a few hours of rehearsal in after school?”

“Too bad you already wore that corset.” Peter continued, eyes never moving from Belinda’s. “It would have been a great costume if you want to dress up like a medieval slut.”

Belinda snorted. “And if you haven’t thought of a costume yet, maybe you can go as a guy whose junk actually works.”

There were some oohs and ahhs from the table of acquaintances, but not from the people that considered themselves real friends.

Peter had a chilly look on his face. The two stared each other down. Peter’s eyes moved to the pretty blond girl that had been watching quietly from her seat next to him.

“Does my junk work okay to you?”

The girl batted her eyes happily at being addressed by him. “It did last night AND this morning.” She said while watching Belinda coolly. Belinda’s eyes met the girl’s and held until the smaller girl turned to look at Link.

“Does this mean that I can stop pretending that we aren’t together so that your friend’s feelings won’t be hurt?”

Peter leaned in to kiss her. “That’s exactly what it means.”

“Nice...” Belinda muttered sarcastically. She plopped a strawberry portion into her mouth and chewed slowly.

Peter gave her a distasteful look. “What do you care? You got your little boytoy. That was so obvious, flirting with him right in front of the cafeteria. I thought you had better class then that.”

Belinda chewed on another strawberry. Her eyes were still emotionless, her expression neutral. “Damon? He’s working on my costume for the party. He’s the best costume designer in the drama department. I don’t even freaking know him, just that he makes damn good money making costumes at Halloween, so yeah…my boytoy.” Everything got quiet. No one at the table spoke, not even the casual acquaintances or fly-by-night friends.

Peter watched Belinda as she placed a small wedge of watermelon into her mouth and chewed it thoughtfully. The pretty girl next to him was now leaned up against him, twirling her hands into his hair. After a few moments the others ignored them since Belinda didn’t seem interested in fighting. Robin felt sick to her stomach.

After lunch ended, Peter and the girl quickly left. Belinda had ignored them completely throughout the remainder of lunch as she talked to Amberly, Jason and Robin and other people at the table. The tension had been thick enough to cut. And as soon as Peter and the girl left Belinda’s body seemed to cave in. She looked at Amberly.

“Get me out of here.”

Amberly stood up wordlessly and the two left. Robin gave Jason a sad look.

“Damn.” He said.

When school was over, Robin announced that she was going to call Belinda. “I’m worried about her.”

“Sweetheart…I’m not sure if we should get involved.”

She turned and gave Jason a stern look. “You saw the look on her face when Peter left with that girl. Ugh, I don’t like that slut.”

Jason chuckled. “Why is she a slut?”

“Because she was pawing all over him and trying to call out Belinda!”

Jason smiled and shrugged. Robin walked outside. This was girl-talk time. She sat on the partition wall that separated Jason’s back patio from his neighbor’s.

“Hello?” Belinda answered.

“Hey, it’s Robin.”

“What’s wrong?” She smiled. This girl was concerned about her after what had just happened?

“I’m good. I’m checking on you.”

“Aww that’s sweet, but I’m okay.” She didn’t sound good. Her voice was low and it was as if she couldn’t manage any energy.

Robin was quiet for a moment. “Do you want to talk about it?”

Belinda voice came out as a sigh through the phone. “What good would that do?”

“Well…I’m not sure, except maybe getting it off your chest with someone that totally has your back might help. I think it was shitty what Peter did. I just want you to know that.”

There was another pause. “I guess it’s over, for real, huh? Robin, did I have the stupidest look on my face ever? Honestly. How did I look?”

“You didn’t look stupid, Peter did. He was just staring like…’oh shit.’ Is Amberly with you?”

“Amberly? No, I told her that I wanted to be alone. Truth is, Amberly doesn’t understand. She’s never been in love…I mean…” Robin’s brow wrinkled in discomfort. “You know what I mean. Her intentions are good but nobody’s…been inside of her body. Nobody’s made her feel heaven. So she thinks she knows but she can’t know what it is to share something with someone...and that sharing changes your life-but not theirs.”

Robin thought about what it would be like if Jason had done something like that to her. And just the idea of it was devastating.

“What are you going to do?”

“Oh, I’m going to pretend. Hell what else can I do? I’m going to be the best fucking actress in Hollywood, honey. He won’t know a thing about how I truly feel. But honestly, Robin; I just wish that I’d never slept with him. I should have never crossed that line with someone like him.”

Robin wanted to tell her that she thought Peter had feelings for her. She had seen the way that he had looked at her when he thought that she was fooling around, and then again when he discovered that he was the only one fooling around. He looked devastated…and not for himself, he looked devastated for what he had done to her. But she didn’t know if this was something she should say…

“Do you want me to come over? Jason is working on his homework-”

“No. I’m good. I do want to be alone right now. But thank you. Besides, you and Top need alone time together without school and bullshit. I’m going to make sure that you two at least have a good relationship, or someone’s neck is going to get broken!”

Robin smiled sadly. She went back into the apartment and opened the freezer for something to start for dinner.

Jason wheeled into the kitchen a moment later.

“Hey babe…”

She turned to look at him. She was making a pot of chili and had just dumped a can of crushed tomatoes into a pot.

“Do you care if Link comes over to rehearse? I know that he’s not high on your favorite persons list right now-”

“Jason, I like Link. He’s my friend, too. I just…I just know that Belinda is hurting right now.”

“How is she doing?”

“Alright, I guess. She wasn’t crying or anything.”

“Good. I’ve never seen Belinda cry.” And he didn’t want to start now. “What’s for dinner? Smells good.”

“Chili. It’ll be ready in about an hour. How are your legs today?”

He shrugged. “Good, as long as I’m not walking on them.” Which was only a half truth. His knees still ached and his hips throbbed. “Take your medicine?” She nodded and he placed his hands around her waist and pulled her to him, hugging her from the side. She leaned down and kissed him lightly.

Peter showed up just before dinner. He was alone. Robin was happy that he wasn’t tasteless enough to bring that girl from lunch.

“Hey, Sweetheart. What’s up?” He said in a rhetorical way as he moved to the studio. “Hey, Top. Ready to do this, man?”

“Hey Peter.” Robin said. “We were getting ready to eat dinner. Want to join us?”

“Sure. I didn’t have dinner.” The three of them moved to the kitchen while Robin took up bowls of steaming hot chili for each of them, Jason got bottled water from the refrigerator.

After a moment of silence Peter finally spoke. “There is a big white elephant sitting in the middle of the room. So if either of you have anything to say about it, just do it and let’s get it over with.”

Robin opened her mouth but Jason spoke first. “Nope, nothing.”

Robin gave Peter a sad look. “Peter, do you want to talk about it?”

After a moment he just shook his head and then picked up his spoon and blew on the chili before putting it into his mouth. They talked about costumes and the party Friday and he seemed in better spirits after.

After dinner was eaten the guys headed for the studio and Robin finished the dishes. She heard Jason speaking. “Robin is going to do the lyrics.”

“Cool, can’t wait to hear her sing.”

Robin dropped a bowl into the sink. Shit. Her heart was already beating a mile a minute. It’s just Peter. She liked Peter. It would be okay…She lingered in the kitchen for a long time and when there was absolutely nothing else for her to do in the room she came out and sat down unobtrusively on the couch.