Chapter Text
Thunder shakes the sky at work the next morning as soft rain drums on the roof. Robin is working the desk as I stock shelves. In a desperate attempt to find out if robin is ok i casually attempt to start a conversation.
“Hey uh robin so i saw you checking out night of the living dead yesterday…would you maybe wanna rent it and watch it tonight? We could-”
“I'm busy tonight. Sorry.” she says softly placing a stack of movies on the cart for me to put back. She still avoids eye contact.
“Ok… is there maybe another night or-”
“Im busy.”
“...oh”
I finish filtering through the movies in my hands and move to the aisle for comedy movies that I need to put away. I glance over and catch a glimpse of Robin stretching up. Her sleeves fall down slightly and I see what look like fresh cuts that seem to go up her arms. Before I can even think robin pulls down her sleeves, thankfully without seeing me look. Robin never told me much about the times she had struggles with things like this. Right before we began working together at scoops she had gone through a long depression but wasn't open about it. She was acting weird and now the cuts?
“Steve?” I realized I was staring at my shoes and I heard Robin's voice.
“Yeah?” I replied. This is the first time all week she's willingly participated in conversation with me.
“Remeber when you told me you liked that song I had on cassette. Well I think you could have it. I-if you want”
Why would she do this? I think to myself
“You mean Dancing Queen? You can keep it Robin's fine, you love that song.” I say placing a movie on the shelf “You're always singing it all th-”
“I dont need it anymore its fine please take it steve”
I could tell she was getting frustrated and I didn't want her to ignore me more than she already is.
“Ok. ok fine…thanks”
“Yeah. no problem”
The next 3 hours of our shift fly by in a haze of silence. I'm leaning my back against the counter just thinking with my arms crossed over my chest. Robin is packing up her bag and putting on her headphones.
“Need a ride? It's still raining I wouldn't want you to get wet” i ask her
“Um im fine its fine”
“Robin, are you ok? You've been so distant lately I'm not sure what's going on but im here to talk to and-”
“I'm fine, Steve. Ok? Just leave me alone stop being so weird” she says walking out and closing the door.
“Stop being so weird”
Those words echo through my head. It wasn't in her normal jokey manner, it was sharp. Like it was meant to hurt me into letting her leave. I'm not sure what to do. The only person I could ask about something like this was…
I watch her walk into the rain and place my head into my hands. Wondering if that was the final straw and she will never want to be my friend again I sigh then grab my keys and walk out to my car. I sat in my car for what couldn't have been longer than 2 minutes before I decided I needed to talk to someone. Someone who's been through something like this, someone who struggles with the same things as robin. There was only one person I could talk to…
Eddie.