There Are Worse Things I Could Do

[first_pink_lady]

Back home, Rizzo had to drive on down to the drive-in if she wanted to catch a flick. The options were pretty limited to whatever reel the man in charge had lying around, but she wasn't too big on the things anyhow. Here, though, they had plenty of movies just lying around on the bookshelf, waiting to be thrown up on the screen in the rec room - in

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[since_1997]

It's one of Robin's favourite films. He's seen it hundreds of times. But it's more than that. It's her. It's Betty. And he loves her. And he'd do anything to keep her from harm.

"Betty," he says, gently, walking up behind her. "It's okay."

[first_pink_lady]

She moved towards him before she could think about it, pressing her face to his chest as her breath got stuck in her throat in something suspiciously like a sob. She'd never had somebody like Paul before, that she trusted to protect her, to care for her despite everything - but then her thoughts stuttered to a stop, and she pulled away, looking at him with something like terror. "Have you seen that before?"

[since_1997]

His arms had already started to warp around her by the time she starts to pull away. He doesn't hold onto her though. He lets her go. For a moment, he considers lying to her, but Paul's never been a great liar anyway and there are a few people in the world that he values too much to ever consider deceiving.

He nods his head.

"Yeah," he says, throat suddenly tight. "Yes, I have."

[first_pink_lady]

He was the only one she'd let call her Betty day in and day out since middle school. He knew her - but he'd known her from the beginning, just like everyone else. She'd trusted him - but he'd already known. She stared at him, and felt more tears slip down her cheeks before she brushed at them angrily with the back of her hand and got livid.

"Jesus, Paul!" she said, hot and mad, and feeling more betrayed than even when Kenickie believed without question that she'd been sleeping around on him. She wanted to shout, to accuse - but there was nothing she could say that he didn't already know.

[since_1997]

"Jesus Paul nothing," he says, standing there with his hands shoved into the pockets of his jeans. "It happens, Betty. It happens here. It happens to me and Tom and the girl I was in love with since I was seventeen wasn't even in it."

He tilts his head.

"What was I supposed to say to you? Hey, Betty! You're fictional? Give me a break."

[first_pink_lady]

"Oh gee, Pinky Lee, you think I give a hot damn about being fictional ? Fuckin' Superman gets his kicks around here!" He didn't get it, he didn't understand - didn't understand her. "I ain't getting my panties in a twist about that, not when everyone knows how fucked up and pathetic I am!"

[since_1997]

"For fuck's sake," he says, voice gentle, crease between his eyebrows. "You think you're the only one? Jesus, Betty. Wake up. Half the world's fucked up. The rest of us are just pathetic."

[first_pink_lady]

"Don't," she said, suddenly finding it hard to hold on to her anger with him, because it was Paul. "Don't call me that. You don't get to call me that." There were more warm tears on her face, and her chest was impossibly tight.

[since_1997]

"Listen to what I'm actually saying to you," he says, hands on his hips. "Because no matter how bad you think it is, whatever you think of yourself, everyone's just as busy thinking the same about themselves. Nobody's going to think any less of you, Betty. And, if they do, they're not worth your time."

[first_pink_lady]

The thing was, most people here on the island were as messed up as she was - she knew it, but she'd shut down those parts of herself, hidden them away when she cut her hair and lost her virginity. Because she wasn't like all the girls at Rydell, she'd known for years that she didn't want to get married and have kids and live behind a white picket fence as a housewife. So she took the alternative - she be the rebel, to be a bad girl, to be an outcast. She liked cars and sex and booze, and that made her a whore. She may be just a run of the mill messed up gal around the Island, but it ran deeper than that.

"It was different," she said, quietly, brushing away her tears uselessly, because there was no stopping them now, "where I'm from."

[since_1997]

He steps back in, closing the distance that she made between them and brushes his thumb against her damp cheek, his other arm reaching out to draw her in close to him.

"I know," he says, quietly. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you."

[first_pink_lady]

The last time she had cried, desperate and alone, her mother had placed a hand on her shoulder and distantly told her not to ruin her make up or make a scene. She'd never had somebody who just cared, and despite everything she found herself pressed against his chest again, curling a hand in his shirt and pressing her lips together to keep her sobs silent.

She heard his apology - but she had thought that he had earned her trust, had slowly grown to know her secrets and vulnerabilities in a way no one else did, that she had control over who did and didn't have that knowledge. "You knew from the start." She said, no longer accusing and not negating his apology, just finding it difficult to come to terms with.

[since_1997]

He keeps his arms around her, holds onto her tight. He's not about to let her pull away from him again. He holds on.

"I knew," he says, quietly. "And it doesn't change anything. It never could. I love you. I don't give a fuck where you're from."

[first_pink_lady]

That was what she'd wanted to hear - needed to hear - all along, from her parents, from all the boys she rode in cars with - but she could barely admit it to herself. Couldn't have, a year or two ago, but on the Island, knowing Paul, knowing other gals who pushed the boundaries, fuck if she didn't come to that irritating realization. Didn't change much, except that the big lug was the best friend and parent she'd ever had all rolled into one, and it was terrifying how much she depended on him. "You too, Pauly," she said, a little later, after her tears died down a bit. "Don't tell Tommy Boy, don't want him gettin' jealous."

[since_1997]

"I think he knows I'm safe with you," he says, murmuring it into her hair as he sways them back and forth on the balls of his feet.

"I really do love you, you know. And everything's going to be alright."

[first_pink_lady]

She closed her eyes, leaning into him, mind quieting from all her humiliation and focusing only on him. "Don't know what I'd do without you, honey." She felt safe in his arms, in a way she never had before - even if he had known her from the start. She'd have let him in anyway.