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April 4th, 1988 — Cambridge, MA 8:21 PM, EST
At the beginning of the school year, Shelby had dreaded going to her first college party. Now, as she played beer pong with Robbo against Donna and Lisa, she could hardly believe that she only had a month left of college. A month left of parties, a month left of living with her best friends, a month left of Boston.
Rob was incredibly gifted at throwing ping pong balls into plastic red cups, so naturally, they won.
Tony offered them both a congratulatory shot of vodka, which they both accepted. The two housemates had finally reconciled and everyone was happy as graduation approached.
As Donna and Lisa prepared to play another game with Tony and one of his other roommates (who Shelby finally knew as Rhodey), she took Robbo's hand and then they escaped the party to go up to his bedroom.
"Hey," Rob said with a grin as he pulled her onto the bed. "I've got some great news."
"Yeah?" Shelby asked as she propped her head up on her hands.
He grinned and pulled something off his desk. It was an envelope with his name on it. "I didn't tell anyone, because I didn't want to jinx myself, but I sent off a bunch of resumes a few weeks ago, and I finally heard back."
Shelby smiled and took the envelope from him and pulled out the letter that was inside.
"'Dear Mr. Everett," she began reading, "We would like to thank you for submitting your resume to us. We were very impressed with your accomplishments and found that you may be a perfect fit for Boeing.' Boeing? Oh my gosh, Robbo, that's fantastic! 'We would like to offer you a full-time position at our Seattle location in our mechanical engineering department immediately following your graduation from college.'" Shelby beamed at Robbo before leaning over and wrapping her arms around him. "I'm so proud of you!"
Rob grinned and kissed the top of her head. Shelby pulled away to look at him. She was so happy that he had put himself out there and gotten a job with a good company. Her smile faltered as she realized they would be heading in very different directions after graduation. They'd be on completely different sides of the country.
"I was worried that after college I wouldn't have a job. I mean, I know I'm smart, but I'm not like you and Tony, you know?" He told her with a sheepish smile.
"Have you told your parents yet?" Shelby asked.
He shook his head. "No, I just got it tonight. I wanted to wait until tomorrow to drop the big news."
"I'm really proud of you, Robbo." She said, resting her head on his arm.
He smiled and squeezed her hand. "I'm the one that should be proud of you."
She leaned over and kissed him, a worried feeling about their future as a couple nagging her. She pulled away and rested her head against his shoulder. Deep inside, she knew what she had to do. She didn't want to, but she knew she had to. "Robbo..." She turned to look at him in the eyes, and saw that her own sadness was reflected in his brown eyes.
He smiled sadly and reached for her hand. "I know what you're going to say, Shelbs. I was hoping you weren't going to say it, but ... well, I see now that you will."
Shelby sighed and looked down at their hands. "It's just ... we'll be so far apart from each other. It wouldn't make sense."
"It wouldn't." He repeated.
Tears threatened to spill from Shelby's eyes as she looked over at him. When she had first met Robbo, he was the drunken best friend of her new friend. They'd come so far, and this wasn't how she had expected things to end.
"As cliche as it sounds," She began, wrapping her arms around his waist as she laid down, resting her teary face on his pillow. "I really want to still be friends."
He placed a gentle kiss on top of her red curls and replied, "Me too."
She moved in closer to him, closing her eyes to prevent him from seeing her cry. She felt his warm hand gently brush away one of her tears.
She was sad to see their blossoming relationship come to an end, but it did set some peace in her. She'd always been filled with this feeling that the two of them were never going to be infinite, and now that it was over, those prior thoughts brought her some comfort.
April 4th, 1988 — Cambridge, MA 8:34 PM, EST
Shelby and Robbo had snuck upstairs together, but Tony had told himself that he didn't mind.
The two were his best friends, and he'd be damned if he was going to stand in the way of their happiness.
Robbo had been right — Tony needed to grow up. He could have admitted his feelings about Shelby, but he didn't, and now it was much too late.
He had just gotten done with his third beer pong game of the night when Shelby and Robbo came downstairs once again. He waved to them as Shelby walked over to him and Robbo headed towards the keg. As Shelby approached, he could tell plain as day that something was deeply wrong, despite the fact that he was rather tipsy.
"Shelbster!" He wrapped an arm around her shoulders as she walked over, a sullen look on her face. "What's going on?" He asked loudly.
Shelby frowned and rubbed her eyes, and he noticed that they were a bit red. "We've ... um, we've broken up." She said in a quiet voice.
It felt as though Tony's stomach had dropped out from under him. That had certainly not been what he had expected to hear after the two had returned. "W-what do you mean?"
She shook her head. "You heard about Boeing, right?"
"Boeing? Yeah, what's that got to do with --" He froze as he understand what Shelby meant. "Oh."
Shelby wiped at her eyes once more and then cleared her throat. "I'm, um, going to head out early, okay? Tell Donna and Lisa I went home, would you?" She said before turning away.
"Hey, Shelby." Tony reached around, grabbing onto her hand. "Are you okay? Do you ... do you want someone to go with you?"
She shook her head and squeezed his hand gently, then let go. "Thanks, Stark, but I think I just want to be alone tonight." She said quietly before walking away.
He watched as she passed Robbo, who was coming back with a cup of beer and headed back towards his bedroom. The two locked eyes, shared a sad smile, and then headed their separate ways. Rob escaped back up to his room, alone with his thoughts and beer, while Shelby slipped on her coat and walked outside.
He'd been waiting for their breakup to happen since Robbo had first asked Shelby out on a date, and now that the moment was here, he felt guilty. Rob was his best friend, but something had always tugged him towards Shelby. He felt as though their demise as a couple was his fault, but that it was meant to happen. As Tony watched her walk through the door, he knew that he'd never stop loving Shelby Colewell. He had a feeling that his soul would be linked to hers forever.
