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When Steve tells her he’s throwing the usual my-parents- are-out-of- town party, Robin is inclined to just stay home. “Parties are not really my scene,” she tries to explain to him. He shakes his head, “You have to come, I can’t score a date without my wing woman!”
So there she is, sitting on his living room couch with a plastic red cup filled with something fruity that tastes like rubbing alcohol. She’s been drinking to try and relax but after the third refill, she feels like she’s lost control.
“Can I?”
Robin looks up from her cup: Nancy Wheeler is standing in front of her, a bottle of red wine in her left hand, finger pointing to the empty spot right next to her. She doesn’t really know Nancy. They have a couple of classes together this year and politely smile at each other in the hallways, but that’s about it. Still, Robin can’t help but notice how pretty she looks when she twirls her fingers around her locks during English class, or the way her pale legs look during P.E. It’s not like she has a crush or anything, Nancy’s just…interesting.
She moves a little, “Yeah.”
Since she’s clearly drunk too, their talk is almost effortless. The bottle gets passed back and forth until it’s finally done and Nancy’s face lights up. “I have an idea, follow me.” Robin doesn’t even have the time to ask any questions when she gets lifted up and dragged upstairs.
They find their way into Steve's messy room, Nancy pulling Robin by the hand. "C'mon, I want to show you something."
She opens up his window and carefully steps out. Robin feels like this isn't such a good idea since they're both pretty much wasted.
"Where are we going?" She asks still following Nancy's lead, fingers steadily linked together.
They reach a flatter part of the roof and Nancy points toward it making jazz hands, "Ta da!" she says sitting down, "This is where Steve and I would come to make out sometimes."
The hair on Robin's neck rise at the mention of making out. She looks up at the sky as if she could talk to some God and sighs. The torture of being in a making out spot with Nancy Wheeler and not be able to actually make out with her.
"It's cool," she comments sliding down next to Nancy. The chilly November wind sweeps through her hair. Her cheeks are slightly flushed from the wine they’ve been drinking. Robin thinks she's never looked more beautiful.
Nancy breaks the silence first, looking at the now empty Harrington pool. "You know, the last time I was here for a party my best friend got trapped in a parallel dimension." She says it so casually it almost frightens Robin. She'd heard about Barbara Holland's disappearance, the rumors around it. When Steve had told her what had really happened, she'd almost choked on the waffle she was eating.
Robin's not sure on what to say to that. Luckily, drunk Nancy is really chatty, so she starts talking after just a few seconds, leaving her no time to reply.
“Sometimes I feel like the reason it didn't work between Steve and I is that I felt so guilty about that night, I could sometimes barely look him in the eyes."
Robin remembers calling Nancy Wheeler a priss, a heartbreaker, someone to forget. But looking at her face in the moonlight, with her heart open and her armor finally down, she feels like she's never been more wrong about anything.
Her hand shifts on Nancy's, careful and light. She offers her a smile, "You're really strong, you know that?"
She gets a small laugh back, "Thank you."
Silence falls over them and Robin's hand seems to burn more each second that passes. Then Nancy turns to her with those big blue eyes Steve's warned her about.
"Can I ask you something?"
Robin hesitates for a second, too caught up in the buzz of the alcohol (or of Nancy).
(She's not too sure)
“Shoot."
"At the beginning of the year, when you told me Steve wasn't your type," she leaves the sentence hanging, making Robin's heart beat faster in her chest.
They were sitting in English class when Nancy had casually mentioned Steve.
“So, how are things between you and him?”
Robin’s body had stiffened right away, “Things?”
Nancy had smiled, playing with her pencil. “Aren’t you guys dating?”
“Dingus and I? No, no way,” she had tried so hard to make her understand, “He’s not my type.”
Nancy takes a deep breath, "Did you mean that men aren't your type?"
Her first instinct is to lie. That's what she's been doing for the past seventeen years of her life: lie, lie, lie. To her parents, her friends, even herself. Because wouldn't life be so much easier if she liked boys?
And maybe it's because she's a bit drunk, or maybe it's because she's tired of hiding from the truth, but she swallows the knot in her throat and nods.
"Yeah."
No matter how many times you do it, it always feels like jumping off a cliff and not knowing if you're going to drown. It never gets less scary.
Nancy blinks a couple of times then holds Robin's hand a little bit tighter, "That's really cool. Men are idiots, you're lucky you don't like them.”
They both erupt in a loud laugh, and all the crashing weight on Robin's chest flies away with it. It never stops feeling good when you don't drown.
While wiping away the tears she hadn't realized had formed in her eyes, Robin notices Nancy looks like she has something on her mind.
"Can I ask you something else?"
She prepares for the usual have you ever kissed a girl? or the classic when did you know you were gay? or even the insufferable who turned you?
But what comes out of Nancy's little perfect lips makes her almost fall off the roof.
“What would you do right now if I kissed you?"
Robin's whole brain just shuts down. She wants Steve to pinch her and tell her she's dreaming. Or maybe she's drunk and didn't hear Nancy clearly. Yet somehow, she knows this is really happening
Her voice comes out so shaky, she thinks she might actually die, "I'd kiss you back.
Nancy smiles bringing a hand up to her cheek, "Good."
The moment their lips touch, Robin feels a million fireworks explode all over her body. Is this really what kissing a girl feels like? God she never wants this to end.
Kissing Nancy is like breathing for the first time, like seeing the light after living in the dark for so long.
She hums against Robin's lips and slightly pulls back. Her little smile is worth more than a hundred words and Robin is already leaning in again when they hear a noise of roof tiles moving.
The source of the sound is a very drunk Steve, making his way to the two girls.
"Hey," he yells sitting down in between them, "How are my two favorite ladies doing?" Nancy and Robin just break into an incontrollable giggle, really confusing Steve.
He puts his arms around both, "What's so funny, do I have something on my shirt?" He looks down, causing even more laughing from the girls.
"How much did you drink, dingus?"
Steve pretends to count on his fingers before giving up, "Way too much like," he turns to Robin with wide eyes, "Like I made out with a guy way too much." She feels her mouth open a bit as he keeps talking, "And to my surprise, I'm kind of digging this gay thing Rob, I mean maybe I'm a bit like you– oh shit."
Steve slowly turns to Nancy, then back to Robin. "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to– I'm drunk, don't listen to me–"
"It's okay," Nancy reassures him, "I know."
He stops in his tracks perplexed, "You know?"
She nods, "I'm kind of like that too."
Now it's Robin's turn to look surprised. Well, not as surprised as Steve though.
"You– you like girls?" He asks with his eyebrows furrowed. Nancy nods a little, "Yeah."
He blinks several times, still probably connecting dots in his mind. "So you never liked me?"
"No!" She says immediately, "I really liked you. I think," she takes a second look at Robin, "I think I like both."
Steve seems pretty content with her answer. "Both. Both sounds good to me too."
Robin's lips stretch into a wide smile as she watches the sky on Steve Harrington's roof, her mouth still burning from Nancy Wheeler's kiss.
Who would have thought being tortured by Russians would have led her to this?