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Truthfully, Robin was supposed to be paying attention for the math test that was happening tomorrow, but the girl in front of her was more important.
The Nancy Wheeler, sitting across from her. The princess of Hawkins High, the girl that every guy wishes he could date. Their heads were close together, and Robin swore she was about to faint. Her heart was beating like a drum.
In retrospect, liking her was a bad idea. It’s the 1980s, and if you’re caught kissing a girl as a girl, your life is ruined. If she ever let it slip that she liked girls, Nancy would probably hate her forever. She’s like the definition of a perfect straight girl. Tom Cruise poster, skirts and blouses for days, pink wallpaper, and hell, Robin would believe it if someone even told her that she read the Bible every night before she slept!
“So then when you get…” The brunette looked up, only to see the other girl staring at her. Well, not exactly staring. She was dazed, looking through her with a conflicted expression. “Robin? Are you paying attention?” She smiles weakly, a breath escaping her, almost like a laugh.
Said girl jumps, yelping. “Oh my God. I’m sorry. What were you saying?”
She’d forgotten she was being taught something (she couldn’t remember what, currently) and that she needed to pay attention. Her existential crisis of liking the girl that was looking at her curiously--and admittedly, she felt her palms becoming sweaty--could wait until she went home.
“It’s alright! If anything, I think this calls for a break. We’ve been at this for around.. three hours? It’s fine if you can’t pay attention anymore,” Nancy says. She grabs the outrageously thick and heavy math book and stack of flashcards, moving it to the side of the bed. “We can.. watch a movie, snack on something, go outside, maybe?”
Robin beams. Making plans was one of her relatively strong points. “We could call over Steve and the others or something! And then hang out, maybe even study with everyone else. I can call him, and maybe run to-” Her words are interrupted by a loud thump, thump, thump. She glances to the window, white curtains laid open to a scene that crumbled the wonderful plan she was forming.
There was rain, and it was pouring down like bullets. It was only 6 o’ clock at night, but the weather made it look like it was1 in the morning. Welcome to Hawkins..
A grumble and complaints run from her mouth. “Ugh. Nevermind. Steve would never come out in this weather. Give me a moment. I’ll figure something out…”
Gears turn, and turn, and turn relentlessly.
Suddenly, they stop. She has the perfect idea.
Nancy’s eyes wander over to observe the expression on Robin, but instead of a disappointed face, it’s… a mischievous one?
Before she can ask any questions, the girl grabs her wrist and drags her out the safe, warm room and down into the foyer.
“Grab a coat, Nance, quick!” She has this childlike grin on her face, and she’s almost jumping in place. Nancy grabs two raincoats, handing one to Robin, an inquiring face about to drill, well, inquiries to the other. She slides the rubbery yellow jacket on, and Robin, in her yellow on yellow galore (surprisingly, it looks good), doesn’t waste time. She grabs the girl again, this time by her hand, and opens the door to temperatures that Nancy swears would’ve killed her if not for the warm feeling spreading throughout her.
“Girls! Close the door! It’s deathly cold out there!” Karen’s voice says from the kitchen.
“Sorry, Mrs. Wheeler!” Robin responds, giggling. She’s holding Nancy’s hand tightly. She runs out into the wide, grassy front yard. She grabs Nancy’s other hand, staring earnestly into her eyes.
“What’s your favorite song?”
What?
“How is that relevant? We’re outside in pouring rain, Robin..”
“Just answer! It’s very relevant and important to me.” She says, mock exasperation laced in her voice. She tugs onto her hand, encouraging her to answer the apparently ‘very important’ question.
““More Than A Woman” by Bee Gees,” she mutters. “God, it’s kind of embarrassing but-”
Robin snorts. “Stop right there. Nance, you’re talking to the clumsiest, dumbest girl ever. I suck at everything and you’re like, the definition of a perfect girl.” She sounds so genuine, it’s like she’s never told a lie in her life. The recipient of Robin’s compliments blushes intensely, and she ducks her head down momentarily. She has this stupid grin on her face and she can’t wipe it away.
She wouldn’t mind staying like this with her forever, though.
“You’re not dumb! If you were dumb, I would've given up teaching you math hours ago!’
“Well, fine. Since it’s you, Miss Perfect, saying that, I’ll believe you.” She giggles, cheeks flushing. From the rain or from the way Nancy’s looking at her, she can’t tell.
Nancy is swiftly pulled into a dance, and Robin’s singing “More Than A Woman” to her as if the song were made for her, and her only, and nothing else matters but them.
Nancy is spun under Robin’s hands, and both of them trip on each other’s feet. Robin pulls Nancy down with her. Usually, she would complain and whine about how her skirt is getting dirty, but she doesn’t care. Her cheeks hurt from smiling, and she doesn’t think she’s smiled this long in years.
They’re laughing together, choking out lyrics while trying to get up without falling again.
It’s the oddest sight. Two teen girls slipping, dancing, and singing so loudly even the most metal of metalheads couldn’t compare.
“I haven’t played in the rain since I was, like, nine, you know?”
“You’re kidding, Nance! It’s so fun playing in the rain. And sometimes, you get sick, so you don’t have to go to school the next day! Perfect for the math test tomorrow, I think.”
“I am the worst sick person ever. When I get sick, I stay in bed for at least a week..”
“Yeesh.. weak immune system much?”
As if on cue, Mrs. Wheeler opens the door to yell. “Ladies! Come back inside! You’re going to get sick!”
The two stand there, hands intertwined, staring. They laugh once more, and Karen wonders what’s so humorous about getting sick.
“Coming, Mom!”
Robin walks a little slower than Nancy, watching her. She’s still grinning, and she feels so warm it’s like she’s standing in a sunny field filled with sunflowers.
Yup. She’s definitely so fucked.
---
Karen made a delicious soup for them, and handed them some sandwich bread to eat with it.
“I would’ve made something better, but this’ll have to do for now. Feel free to stay over, Robin dear. Just keep quiet so my husband doesn’t get cranky..”
They all laugh softly, as if they’ve told a funny inside joke.
“Thank you, Mrs. Wheeler. This soup is better than anything I could make on my own, honestly..”
“Please, call me Karen! I’m glad you enjoy it.”
Robin and Nancy eat for a little more, and announce to Mrs. Wheeler that they’re going to tuck in for the night.
Nancy rummages through her closet to find some pajamas for the other girl, and finally digs out some old navy blue sweatpants and sweatshirt.
“Are you okay with this? I can find something else.”
“No, no it’s fine! Um.. do you want to go first or-”
“Go, go, shower!” She makes a shooing motion towards Robin. “I need to clean up here.”
Robin nods awkwardly, and shuffles to the bathroom, turning on the hot shower. She slowly takes her rings off, placing them neatly on the sink. Oh my God. Am I going to sleep with Nancy? She stares at herself in the mirror, hair tangled and ruffled. There are mud smudges all over her. Ew.
She makes it her goal to not look like shit when she comes out.
After scrubbing her hair so harshly that her scalp feels like it’ll fall off and double checking that she has no leftover mud on her body, she walks out, peeking into Nancy’s room. Nancy’s pacing around, chewing on her thumbnail, her free arm tucked beneath her elbow.
“Nance? I’m done.”
She jerks to a stop, eyes slowly taking in Robin. She’s in my clothes. And.. she looks so pretty. Oh God.
“Oh, uh. Yeah! I’ll be back.” She rushes out, hands grasping her pajamas stiffly.
Robin wonders if she’s done something wrong. She mimics Nancy slightly, foot tapping the floor as she sits on the bed. When she goes to fidget with her rings, she realizes that she left them in the bathroom. Shit!
She jumps up and knocks on the bathroom door.
“Hey, Nance? I left my rings in there, so when you’re done could yo-”
The door swings open, and Nancy’s wrapped in only a towel. Her hair’s matted around her heart-shaped face, and it takes everything in Robin to not reach for her now and kiss her until she stops breathing.
“Here.” Her voice is quiet. She holds out her hand, filled with the assorted silver rings. They clink against each other softly.
Robin picks them all out from her hand carefully, sliding them onto the respective fingers.
“Sorry for… interrupting your shower.” She nervously laughs, and it sounds like a snort. She’s embarrassing herself. Badly. “I’ll just… go back. To your room. Yeah.”
She swings around and rigidly walks into her bedroom, throwing herself down onto the pink and blue quilt. It smells like Nancy, flowers and vanilla and all the good things in the world. She scoots to the right side of the bed, holding her knees to her chest.
Nancy appears a few moments later, and she stands in the doorway, shoulder resting against it. “Are you okay with us.. sleeping together? It’s like, totally fine if you’re not because I can-”
“Nance. It’s fine. If anything I should be asking you that.” She smiles, her eyes curved like crescent moons, and it’s like all the brightness in the world gathered in this room, on that bed, and on Robin’s face.
The brunette slowly tucks herself into the quilt, her body stretched out uncomfortably.
This is so awkward. The house gets quiet, and all Nancy can hear is the beating of their hearts. Just hers, actually, but she likes to think the girl (the extremely pretty girl that makes her hands shake and her mind swirl) is feeling the same. She feels the blanket shuffle, and the sheets get wrinkled from Robin’s squirming. She wishes she could move too, but she feels paralyzed.
I’m in the same bed as Robin Buckley. Holy shit.
She glances over to see the girl staring at her, biting her lips nervously.
There’s a silence, a pregnant silence, and Robin feels like she is going to die.
“What was it like kissing Steve? Or just, guys in general.”
Nancy laughs. A tinkling, wonderful laugh that makes Robin feel so, so goddamn happy.
“What kind of question is that?”
“Well, I dunno! I mean, isn’t this what girls do at sleepovers? Talk about guys and stuff? Nobody ever invited me to their sleepovers, which kinda sucked but I lived until senior year so I guess they were never really that important. Actually, they never invited me because everyone assumed I was a lesbian and liked girls which isn’t really wrong, and it’s also kind of obvious because I have ‘tiddies’ written on my shoes and there’s boobs on it and-” She pauses, and her eyes slide to look at the girl, who’s expression is a little awed. She mistakes it as terror.
Fuck.
She said it.
She’s a lesbian.
“Shit. I’m sorry. You probably think I’m disgusting and gross and, god, girls aren’t supposed to like girls in fucking 1986 and I am so sorry I’ll leave ri-”
Nancy’s lips are on hers and Robin mutters a small “oh” before she kisses her back. The two are laying in the bed, hands cupping each other’s faces and they melt into each other like one, and their lips are fitting together like puzzle pieces. Their kiss feels like the quick moments in which the sun and the moon meet, and it’s so perfect that it feels unreal. If someone told Robin that this was a dream she’d believe them.
They pull away, chests heaving with the forgetfulness of “I need to breathe but kissing you feels like a whole new oxygen” and they smile like they just got the best Christmas present.
“You know, Nance, I swore you were a little church girl who thought gay people were gross.”
A snort escapes her. She has an incredulous expression on her face. “What? Robin. I just kissed you. On the lips. And I let you stay in my room even though I knew full and well about those “lesbian” rumors. If I were a little church girl, you wouldn’t even be in my house in the first place.” She assures, leaning in to press her forehead against Robin’s. “I think the bigger surprise is me kissing you.”
“That is true,” Robin chuckles, teeth showing in a mischievous grin, “Did anybody tell you you kiss very, very well? Did Steve ‘The Hair’ Harrington teach you?”
Nancy laughs. It comes out a little too loudly, and her palm shoots up to cover her mouth. The two begin to shake with laughter, and if the Wheelers were awake right now they’d think the girls were insane.
“As funny as that may be, we need to stop laughing before my mom comes in.”
…
“I wanna kiss you again.”
“I’m all yours, Nance, no worries.”
They kiss again, and again, until their lips are pink and they’re both drunk on each other.
“As much as I love you, Nance, I’m getting tired.” A yawn draws itself from Robin.
“Sorry, sorry. I’m just so..” She vaguely shakes her hands with a crooked smile adding to the effect.
“You can kiss me in the morning, unless Mike comes in. Actually, I’m pretty sure he’s in love with Byers, so he won’t mind.”
Their legs tangle into each other and Robin’s head is tucked into the crook of Nancy’s shoulder.
"I love you."
"I love you too."
They giggle tiredly, and finally, they fall into a deep sleep.
If Mike walks into Nancy’s room that morning to tell her that “You need to wake up or else you’re gonna be late,” only to see the girl smiling fondly at Robin, petting her hair, he’ll pretend he saw nothing.