Carver Pike - Scalp

It took a little while – as it always did with teenagers – for everyone to settle down, take their seats, and be quiet.

“Good morning,” the young man continued. “We should be getting underway here shortly. It looks like we’re missing quite a few students. Can someone please go check the cafeteria to see if we have any students lingering about? Mrs. Price would like to get started soon.”

Robbie’s body reacted before his mind could wrap around the question. He stood up and raised a hand.

“Excellent,” the young man said. “Please do a quick search of the cafeteria, and if nobody is in there, go through the dormitory hallways quickly to see if you hear anyone in any of the rooms. Maybe shout out that we’re getting started. There’s always a straggler or two and we wouldn’t want them to miss the meeting.”

“Sure,” Robbie said.

He glanced over at Nitsy and saw her staring back at him. She stood and said, “I’ll go with him. It’ll be faster with two people.”

Robbie smiled. He was pretty sure she liked him too. If he played his cards right, maybe he’d leave here with a girlfriend. Of course, Daphne and Angelica, who were the two girls he talked to most on social media, wouldn’t be too happy about it. But they were only friends. Flirtatious friends, but still only friends. With Nitsy, he could see something different.

When they met at the door, Robbie said, “Are you sure you want to go with me? You said earlier you were pretty excited about this.”

“Nervous,” she admitted, and once again, her smile melted him.

“You can hang out somewhere and practice your speech if you want,” he suggested. “I promise I won’t tell anyone.”

“No, I’ve practiced as much as I can. If I practice more, I’ll stress myself out to the point of not delivering my speech at all. What made you volunteer to do this?”

“My roommates are still missing,” Robbie informed her. He paused for a second, trying to decide how honest he wanted to be. This was one of those moments in life where a white lie might serve him well, but he hated lying at all. Some of the kids at school might think he was a smug asshole, but they couldn’t say he was untruthful.

“Do you know where they went?” Nitsy asked, making it even worse.

To answer with anything but the truth would now make him a liar. He couldn’t just withhold information.

“Yeah,” he said, looking down at his feet.

He didn’t mean to do it, but it was kind of his natural reaction when feeling ashamed. Nitsy was one of those perfect girls. She would have never snuck out of her room. So, the fact that he did was bad enough. But to see Bianca?

“We snuck out last night,” he finally managed.

“Are you crazy?” she whispered, then laughed. “You are crazy, but I guess that’s kinda cool too—” She stopped talking and her whole demeanor changed. “Wait, why did you sneak out? To see her ?”

The way she said it reminded Robbie of one of those stupid soap operas his mom always watched. Like he’d been caught cheating in the past, and they’d swept it under the rug only for him to get busted a second time. Her . The emphasis had been on that word. Even though Robbie and Nitsy had never really discussed having a relationship together, nor had they spoken about having one with someone else, he knew exactly who Nitsy was talking about, and he hated that she was absolutely right.

“Bianca,” he admitted.

Nitsy backed up a step. “You risked this whole conference on that girl?”

“That’s kind of hypocritical, don’t you think? A second ago, you thought it was kind of cool.”

“Yeah, before I knew it was for her.”

When she pouted, her bottom lip stuck out a little past the top, and Robbie thought it was the cutest damn thing in the world. Nitsy walked away from him, headed toward the cafeteria, and he hurried to catch up with her. As she put her hand on the cafeteria door handle, he wrapped his arms around her and whispered into her ear. “I left though. I went with them to her room. My roommates wanted to hook up with hers.”

“Right,” Nitsy said. “You left. Look, you don’t owe me an explanation. You really don’t.”

She refused to look at him, so he had to lower his face and speak into her neck to reach her ear. She placed her forehead against the door, and even though he couldn’t see her face, he knew she was opening up to him.

“I did see Bianca last night,” he said. “I thought I wanted to talk to her.”

“You’re not helping matters. Just leave me alone.”

“I left though.”

“Sure.”

“I left because I realized it was you on my mind.”

Nitsy didn’t move. She kept her forehead against the door and only breathed, sighing as she exhaled.

“You don’t have to do this—” she said but was interrupted when he turned her around to face him.

He put his forehead against hers and said, “I know I’m not your usual type…”

The sentence lingered there, giving her time to reassure him, and Robbie was disappointed when she didn’t. What should he say now? That was the prime opportunity for her to make it known that she liked him too. This was embarrassing. He should just forget it and—

Nitsy pressed her lips against his, and Robbie nearly fell into her.

“I know I’m not your usual type…”

Robbie left it at that, and Nitsy had to think about it. He was right. Surely, he was, but what was her type? Did she even have one? She’d never even had a boyfriend before. Words escaped her, and his face was so close to hers. Not only had she never been on a real date, but she’d never been kissed. So, she went for it.

Her lips mashed against Robbie’s, a little too hard at first, but then it was perfect. She’d seen enough movies to know how this was supposed to happen, and he didn’t disappoint. First, their lips met. It was soft but kind of awkward. Then she felt his tongue at her lip barricade, and she forced herself to relax, open up to him, and meet him tongue dash for tongue dash.

She crashed against the door and reached up to his face, holding his cheeks as he reached for her shoulders. It was wonderful. His body pressed against hers, and for a moment, she lost herself. She forgot where she was. If this had happened at the end of a long date, back home, she would have never wanted it to end. But this was outside the cafeteria door at Stonewall Forge. This could get them in serious trouble.

Nitsy pulled away from Robbie and nearly fell over. She’d never actually swooned before, but her knees were definitely wobbly now.

“Whoa,” she whispered.

“I know,” he replied.

“That was nice.”

“It was.”

“Too bad it won’t last past this trip.”

“What do you mean?”

“Robbie, you know what I mean. When we get home, and you’re around all your popular buddies, and you have all your hot, beach-bodied, selfie-taking model type girls crowding around you… where will that leave me?”

He paused and it took him too long to respond.

“Exactly,” she added.

She turned and opened the cafeteria door. The lights were off. All was silent. She stepped in and made her way to the main seating area. Light shone through the windows, so the space wasn’t completely dark. She could see the room was empty.

“Nobody’s here,” she said.

She’d figured as much. Nobody would hang around after everyone else left. In this kind of place, people followed the crowd. Nobody would want to be that kid who walked in late. Maybe a few seconds or so, but at this point, the meeting was supposed to start nearly fifteen minutes ago.