Chapter 16

“Time is totally a social construct created by dumb men”

September 11th

Sofia wakes up still feeling sick. It’s the second day that she wakes up with a sore throat, a stomachache, a headache, a runny nose and feeling dizzy. The first day she got a fever, but it stopped quickly.

She moves her arm to the phone and calls Robin. “Good morning sunshine” Robin says over the phone, with her usual happy tone.

“Hi” Sofia says, with a raspier voice than usual.

“How are you feeling?” Robin asks, now with a worried tone.

“Like I’m dying. I hate this” Sofia says, sitting down in bed, feeling a bit dizzy.

“You sure you don’t wanna go to a doctor?” Robin asks.

“Yeah, I’m sure. Give it two more days and it’ll pass” Sofia says.

“If you say so” Robin says. “After my job interview, I’m going to your house, okay?”

“No, I don’t want you getting sick” Sofia says.

“I won’t. I never get sick, I have like super genes” Robin jokes.

“Totally. Oh, look, I think I’m hearing the X-Men calling you already!” Sofia jokes back.

After Dustin made lunch for him and Sofia- and with lunch, I mean order a pizza- he walked over to his sister’s room and gave her one of the boxes.

“No soup?” Sofia asks him.

“Do I look like mom to you?” Dustin asks, sarcastically. “I made you tea though” he says, walking to the kitchen.

“You did!? What flavor?” Sofia shouts, so Dustin can hear her.

“I don’t know, the one in the box” Dustin shouts from the kitchen.

“Aw, that’s my favorite!” Sofia says, sarcastically, as Dustin walks in the room and hands her the tea.

“I’m going to Will’s now” he says, starting to walk out of the door.

“Wait!” Sofia shouts. She gets up from bed, feeling dizzy, and picks up three packages. “Give this to Will, El, and Jonathan, okay? They have their names written on it, so you can’t possibly get them mixed”

“Got it. Bye” he says, getting out of the room.

Steve and Robin pull up at Family Video, in hopes of getting a new job.

“You put your mom down as a reference?” Robin asks, reading Steve’s resume.

“Yeah. Why not? She’s, like, super well-respected” Steve responds.

“You’re such a dingus” she says, walking in the store.

“Uh, just to be clear, we weren’t fired, you know. The mall burned down and, like, killed a bunch of people” Robin explains to Keith.

“Thanks for sharing. Didn’t know” Keith says, sarcastically. “Three favorite movies. Go”

“Uh… The Apartment, Hidden Fortress, Children of Paradise” Robin responds.

“You, go” Keith says, pointing at Steve.

“Favorite movies?” Steve asks.

“Did I stutter?” Keith asks.

“Uh… Animal House, for sure. Um…” Steve stutters, trying to think of other movies.

“Eyes on me, Harrington” Keith snaps.

“Yeah. Uh… Star Wars” Steve says.

“A New Hope?” Keith asks.

“A new what-now?” Steve asks back, confused.

“Which Star Wars?” Keith asks, very annoyed. 

“The one with the teddy bears. Duh. No? Uh… Oh, the one that just came out. The movie that just came out. The one with the DeLorean and Alex P. Keaton, and he’s trying to bang his mom. The time… Yeah, those are my top three. Classics” Steve says.

“You start Monday” Keith says, pointing at Robin. “You start never” he says, pointing at Steve.

“Will you just, um… Will you give us a minute?” Robin asks Steve.

“Why?” Steve asks back.

“Steve…” Robin whispers. When he walks away, Robin starts talking to Keith.

“All right, you have to understand, Keith, I know his taste is a bit pedestrian, but the dingus has other qualities” Robin explains.

“He’s a douchebag of the highest order, Robin” Keith says.

“He was a bit of a prick to us in high school, I’ll grant you that, but he remains… a total chick magnet” Robin tells him.

“Yeah, okay, and this is relevant to me how?” Keith asks.

“Uh, Earth to Keith. The ladies will come in just to see him. They’ll come in in droves. Droves, Keith. We sold so much ice cream, they had to get a second shipment in from Michigan. Goddamn Michigan, Keith. And these ladies… These ladies are hot. They’re so very hot. And there are too many of them for little Steve. He needs assistance. He needs your assistance, Keith” Robin tells him.

“What’s in it for you? You got a thing for him or something?” Keith asks. 

Robin looks back at Steve, who just went against a Fast Times cardboard. “We’re just, um… We’re just friends”

“Oh! Fast Times. Fast Times. Ever heard of it? Top three for me, Keith” Steve says, looking at the cardboard, making Robin smile.

Sofia hears the doorbell ring. She groans, and after a few seconds of debating if she should get up or not, she gets up. She opens the door, revealing an incredibly happy Robin.

“Hi” Robin says, with the biggest smile.

“Hi… what’s up?” Sofia asks, finding Robin’s behavior odd.

“I got the job!” Robin shouts, and Sofia immediately hugs her.

“Oh my god, I’m so happy for you!” Sofia says, still hugging Robin. After a couple of seconds, she lets go, remembering she’s sick.

“I know you’re sick and all but… can I come in? I brought ice cream” Robin says, showing Sofia the ice cream. “It’s stracciatella!”

They go to Sofia’s bedroom and sit in the bed, eating the ice cream. Robin explains how the interview went, how her schedule is going to be, and they talked about their plans for this next school year.

“I can’t believe I’m going to be a senior” Sofia says. She and Robin are facing the ceiling, laying down in bed. “We’re gonna be the oldest people in school…”

“I know right? It feels like just yesterday I was a freshman, spending my lunch time in Mr. Hauser’s classroom” Robin says.

“And I can’t believe my brother’s gonna be a freshman… it’s too trippy” Sofia says. 

“How are you feeling now?” Robin asks, shifting a bit closer to Sofia.

Sofia feels Robin’s body move, so she does the same. “Actually, I’m better now”

“The power of the ice cream” Robin says, making Sofia laugh. “So, I was thinking…”

“Wow, you do that?” Sofia asks in a sarcastic tone.

“I know, unbelievable” Robin jokes, making Sofia chuckle. “Your birthday is coming up”

“In like… a month and something, but yeah” Sofia says.

“Do you have anything planned out already?” Robin asks.

“Nah, not really. It’ll probably be a small party, small cake, small group of people… why?”

“Nothing… just wondering” Robin says, flashing a tiny smile.

“Nothing?” Sofia asks, a bit disappointed. But she could swear Robin was making some sort of plan, she could feel it.

“Yup. Just… asking” Robin says.

They jump in their place a little as they hear the front door opening. “Must be Dustin” Sofia says, sitting on the bed, and Robin does so too. They hear his footsteps getting closer to the room, and then the door opens.

When Dustin comes into the room, he stares at the two girls, not knowing what to say.

“Hi… Dustin” Robin says awkwardly.

“You know she’s sick, right!?” he asks Robin.

“Yup, I took the constant sneezing as a clue” Robin responds, with a chuckle.

“Do you know you’re going to be a freshman?” Sofia asks Dustin.

“I… do…” Dustin responds with a confused look. He started to wonder if they were high.

“It doesn’t make sense” Sofia says.

“What doesn’t make sense?” Dustin asks, starting to feel annoyed.

“Time” Sofia responds with a scoff.

“Time is totally a social construct created by dumb men” Robin adds, and Sofia nods in agreement.

“Okay… you two should go touch some grass” Dustin says and gets out of the room, closing the door. Sofia and Robin started laughing, fascinated by Dustin’s reaction.

Later that day, when Robin had already left, Dustin grabbed an envelope and walked towards Sofia’s room.

He opens the door and finds Sofia sitting by her window, reading.

“Hey” Dustin says.

“What’s up?” Sofia asks, closing her book using a doodle from Robin as a bookmark.

“Jonathan asked me to give you this” Dustin says, handing the envelope to his sister.

“Did they like my gifts?” Sofia asks, looking at the envelope to see if there was anything written. «I think you’ll like this. I’ll miss you- J :)»  is written on the inferior left corner of the back of the envelope. Sofia furrows her eyebrows, wondering what it could be.

“They did. They weren’t expecting any gifts, so they looked pretty happy” Dustin explains. “Do you want more tea?”

“No, thanks Dusty” Sofia says and Dustin leaves the room.

Sofia walks to her bed and sits on it, wondering what the inside of the envelope would be.

She carefully opens it and grabs what’s inside. It’s a photo of her and Robin in the grass by the pool when they were napping. She smiles and looks at the photo with precision.

She looks at Robin’s sleeping face, as calm as the ocean. She looks at Robin’s body and sees it is slightly inclined towards her.

She lays down in bed, hugging the photo. She stares at it a couple more times, noticing every detail of it.

She gets up and glues it to the mirror on her wall, hoping that looking at it every day in the morning would bring her happiness. She knew it would.