He hadn't wanted to come, not really. Alder wasn't here and with Holly only just getting better, he'd wanted to spend a few hours with his sister just colouring in and staring out of the upstairs window into the little garden around the tree.
Instead, he was at a party where he only really knew PJ and while Robbie didn't mind the boy, knowing just one person didn't really make it a party worth attending. Honestly, he'd only really bumped into the birthday girl once or twice and he still had earache from both of those encounters.
In the end, though, Robbie had relented - socialising (as Miss Flora at the Home called it) was important and it would be nice to sleep in a grand old house for a night. Besides, he'd known there would be cake and if he played his cards right, perhaps he'd get to take some back with him, to Alder and Holly. Parents really liked him, Robbie had realised and Vesper looked at him differently than she did at the other kids, even PJ.
Robbie was still in his corner, mulling over all of this, when the blonde girl with the cupcakes wandered over. Closer, she came, and closer and then a little too close, but he didn't mind it, exactly, because the blue of her eyes reminded him just a little bit of the June skies at home.
"Dore," he repeated to himself even as she talked, turning it over on his tongue. It was a strange name, though he thought it suited her a lot better than Dorothy did, much in the way his Robbie sounded better than the very long Rowan Bartholomew he'd been saddled with at birth.
The frosting on the cupcake had gone soft in her hand, but Robbie didn't mind. It stuck to his fingers as he withdrew his hand, brown eyes noticing when Dore wiped her hands on her dress. She should've just licked her fingers, he thought as he did exactly that, thinking that it had been months since he'd tasted something this sticky and sweet.
"It's good," he said after two big mouthfuls, not bothering to cover his mouth with his hand as he chewed. "Better than the birthday cake, I'd bet."
He looked at her then, half shrugging as he swallowed most of the sugary treat down.
"I was at the store when Vesper picked her cake. She didn't like it, so it can't be very good."
It had taken Miss Harriet the entire afternoon to clean the cake the girl had thrown out of his shirt.