Robin, Boy Virgin: Original Series

Well, after that totally fucked up conversation, I could only conclude that my cool and wonderful Cora had gone completely bat shit crazy.

She returned to the practice room twenty minutes later and sat down at the piano and let loose these beautiful, rippling chords for the rest of the class. If you know anything about music, you know that interrupting someone's intense playing with nervous chatter is like leaning over and burping in someone's face when they're trying to tell you something important. You just don't do it because you know it's completely wrong.

So I sat there, in my pain and confusion, and just looked at how beautiful Cora is and how totally nuts-o she is being. When class was over, Cora leaned over and, like, smacked me with a teasing kiss and blew out of the room. I blinked several times, trying desperately to figure out what the hell had happened.

I didn't even get to tell her about punching Trevor.

Outside the classroom, I heard the Jazz band warming up. I suddenly saw someone throwing me a life preserve in the middle of my drowning confusion: Minnie. Minnie could help me! She was a, a girl and she was Cora's friend! She would have the answers.

I hustled out of the practice room, grabbed the bass guitar, and hurried over to Minnie, who was peacefully tuning her double bass. She looked up at me as I kicked my chair right next to hers and sat down, unusually close.

"Um, hello, Robin," She said with a smile. Aaah, after Amanda's popular girl psycho babble, Harold's wise-ass condescension, and Cora's bat-shit craziness, Minnie was refreshingly kind and her normal self.

"Minnie, I need your help," I said outright. She blinked at me and stopped tuning her instrument to give me her full attention.

"What's up?" She asked with friendly concern.

"Why is Cora being crazy??" I pleaded for an answer. Minnie blinked at me.

"What?" She asked.

"I'm sure she's told you about… whatever's going on with me and her," I barrelled on. Minnie's expression didn't change even slightly, which clued me that she did know about me and Cora.

"And she was just acting completely weird and wouldn't, wouldn't let me talk," Or kiss her. I suddenly felt like crying. Holy hell! Pull it together, Robin. I blinked and inhaled, pulling it together successfully. Minnie nodded slowly.

"… did she mention Amanda?" Minnie asked delicately. What? Oh.

"Oh, uh… yes," I said, frowning. Minnie raised her eyebrows at me. I just stared at her, bewildered and completely confused.

"… so what?" I asked, lost. Minnie rolled her eyes kindly.

"She's jealous, Robin," Minnie said simply. I… what? I actually started laughing.

"Shut up," I chuckled. Cora? Jealous? That's like… that's just… so stupid and unbelievable! Yeah, I could just imagine Cora going like "Oh man, I wish I was as snotty and clueless and not as pretty as I am like Amanda" - the sarcasm in my mind was so heavy it was incoherent.

"I will not," Minnie sniffed playfully to my telling her to shut up. "Seriously," She enforced her earlier statement about Cora's jealousy, staring at me. I stopped laughing and blinked rapidly.

"Why the hell would Cora be jealous of Amanda? I'm in love with Cora," Shit I just told Minnie that I'm in love with Cora. Her expression didn't change- fuck, how did she know?? Maybe Harold told her. "And I can't stand Amanda," I finished. Minnie smiled anciently at boy-stupidity.

"… ok… but Cora's kind of been, you know, wanting to hook up with you and you keep choosing Amanda over her-"

"I have not!! I had to do school work! She doesn't actually think I'd freely choose working on a Geography project with Amanda over getting naked with Cora," Shit! I just said that out loud to Minnie, too! Her expression didn't change though; she just kept smiling kindly at me.

"That's how it feels, though. You have to understand how difficult it is for her," Minnie said.

"Oh, yeah, I can see how hard it's been for her, seeing as I'm the in love virgin," I said, outrageously sarcastic. I looked away from Minnie.

Behind me, I heard this girl, Sandy, twang around on her banjo. Sandy, to be perfectly honest, perplexes and intimidates me. She's one of those people who is just, so comfortable being themselves and doesn't let high school scare her into being homogenously normal. Exhibit A: she plays banjo in a jazz band and does so out of her own free will.

"Well, Cora is very confused about how to be with you, and she hasn't had… intimacies in a long time. Don't you think this is maybe hard on her too?" Minnie asked me carefully. Dude, did she just say intimacies? Hehe-

Oh whoa, I'd never thought of that. Hmmm, I wonder how that feels: once you've had sex and then haven't had sex in a long time and think you might love some new guy and want to have sex with him but he's a virgin so...er... damn. That sounded kind of really complicated. But that didn't mean what I was feeling was any less complicated or become more trivial than what she was feeling. I was equally fraught with frustrating emotions!

"Huh," I finally grunted, looking down at my bass.

"Just try to talk to Cora tomorrow. Give her some time to calm down and sort things out," Minnie advised. Now, ok, that sounds like good advice, but I don't know if giving Cora some space to sort things out means she will sort things out or actually fall deeper into her sexual frustration and ridiculous jealousy. I mean, I know I'd probably just fester in my problems, giving in to a full scale pity party.

"Are you finished hanging out with Amanda, or are you two friends now?" Minnie asked me curiously. I snorted darkly at my bass.

"Mmm. There's some unfinished business I have to deal with. Then I am done with that shit," I said, making Minnie giggle.

Mr. Giraldi called the Jazz band to attention again. I adjusted the bass properly on my lap; ordinarily I would have stood up to play, but I just didn't have the energy today. Plus I liked sitting right next to Minnie. I nudged her shoulder with my shoulder, to acknowledge how close I was sitting to her. It made her giggle as she propped her double bass against her leg. I smiled tiredly and plucked at the deep E string unhappily.

Once again, it was going to be Amanda and not Cora. But I swear on my life, this would be the last time. Then I am done with that shit.