Chapter Text
Robin looks nervous, she's sitting on a bench outside the cafeteria with Max at her side, but neither spoke. They never did, preferring to be in comfortable silence, the quiet sounds from Max's Walkman filling the space between them. Nancy found it sweet how Robin would share her food with the younger girl, who was clearly going through some hard times at home.
Nancy knew this because she could read people very well, it's how she knew Johnathan wanted to break up with her a month before they broke up, that Mike had feelings for his best friend, and Max may have had a crush on El, before the mall, before she understandably receded into herself.
This is also how she knew Robin felt uncomfortable, nervous even, and some part of her wanted to be involved, to maybe even help her ex's new girlfriend. So, she sits opposite them. Max barely glances up from the homework she's doing while eating Robin's packet of crisps. Robin is chewing her own thumb, not really noticing Nancy until she cleared her throat.
"Oh! Nancy, hi. Sorry, didn't… see you there."
There may or may not have been a grin on Max's face, but it's long gone by the time Nancy looks.
"Is everything okay?" She finds herself asking, gesturing to Robin's chewed up nail.
"Yeah, I think so?"
"No trouble in paradise?"
She almost chokes on spit, but miraculously doesn't.
"Gonna have to run that by me again, Wheeler."
Why is she making me spell it out?
"Paradise… you and Steve?"
This time Max looks at her, grin cracking into an amused smile.
"Wow, you're missing some steps there, Iron Sight."
Robin smacks her arm gently and she goes back to doing her work.
"Yeah, I'm not with Steve. Or… anyone. Actually, I hear the bell for class!"
Max frowns at her unfinished homework.
"There's still another twenty-"
"C'mon!"
She quickly and erratically scoops up Max's books and bag, stepping over the bench and rushing into the building, leaving Nancy, Max and the crisps. Max sighs heavily and twists, her feet landing on the other side of the bench.
"She's worried about kissing."
It's like a crack in the ice, revealing too much at a dangerous speed.
"What do you mean?"
Max shrugged a shoulder and stood.
"Robin's never kissed anyone before, and she wants to be good at it, I guess. Overachiever and all."
Overachiever?
Max is walking away before Nancy can form a sentence, leaving her brain whirring.
… Kissing?
It was hard to find Robin after that. Max still showed up with her food from her, but Robin was nowhere in sight. One day the quiet girl had finally broken her vow of silence, pointing vaguely behind her at the building.
"Try the roof."
So now Nancy had to figure out how to get up there. It was harder than you'd think, there were stairs she didn't even know about, up past an office she assumed belonged to the janitor. Mr Peterson was a short man, slightly taller than Nancy, with dark balding hair and a ginger mustache. Glasses sat gently on the end of his nose, which he cleaned more than wear.
"Can I help you?" He asked after she'd tried the handle to the roof a few more hundred times. She turned with a smile, gesturing to the door behind her.
"I was looking for my friend, apparently she hangs out up here?"
He crossed his arms, cigar in his teeth.
"What friend?"
"Robin, Robin Buckley?"
He scratches his chin, shuffling his feet.
"She's a good kid, only seen her up here with that freshman with the tapes. You aren't a bully, are you?"
She shook her head, denying on her tongue before he interrupted again.
"Cuz I wouldn't take too kindly to that, if you were a bully. She's a good kid, can't help her circumstances."
Oh, he likes her.
Nancy nodded, putting on her best please I swear I'm a good kid voice she saved for asking for gas money or more desert.
"I am her friend, really. We got close over the summer when she worked at Scoops-"
"Ahoy, yeah I know."
He dawdled up to her, keys hanging on his fingers, stepping past and opening the door.
"When I gave her that spare key, I didn't think this would be such an attraction…" he grumbled to himself, and while Nancy did wonder why he'd give roof keys to a student, she was currently grateful for it.
"Come up together next time, okay?"
He walked back to his office, Nancy stood at the door with a bemused smile before pushing through the gap.
Robin was sitting on the edge of the building, feet dangling off while lying on her back, one arm covering her face. She doesn't hear Nancy coming, the quiet sound of Fleetwood Mac's newest tape playing from the headphones around her neck, and Nancy realises she was quietly singing along.
"Well, you know that it does and.. Lightning strikes maybe once, maybe twice…"
Nancy stood for a moment too long maybe, watching Robin's short hair drift over her face like it was planned. Clearly she left it too long, as whatever senses Robin's body had sparked, and she opened an eye, nearly falling off the building at the shock of Nancy being there.
"Christ, Nancy!"
She shrugged.
"Sorry, I was distracted. Is that the new one?"
Robin calms her racing heart, pointing at the Walkman on her hip.
"Yeah, kinda, it's Mirage. You like them?"
Nancy moves to her side and gently sits down, very aware of how high up they are.
"I have ears, don't I? I've only heard of their other one though, what was it… Rumours?"
Robin nods her head.
"Yeah, that's a good one. What's your favourite track?"
Nancy doesn't know names, she barely knows bands, just what songs she can sing along to. So, she does that, thinking of the one that looped in her head over and over all summer.
"Sweet wonderful you, you make me happy with the things you do. Oh, can it be so? This feeling follows me wherever I go…"
She feels a bit silly, Robin is staring at her with this expression she can't place, and Nancy worries she'll be laughed at, when she begins nodding her head.
"I never did believe in miracles, but I've a feeling it's time to try! Ah, I love that one! I played it to Steve so much this summer, it must've driven him mad. "
Robin's got a faraway look in her eye, probably thinking about driving and singing with Steve all summer. Why did it make her stomach ache?
Because she's dating your ex. A voice whispered in her head, and Nancy decided that must be it.
"You Make Loving Fun."
She snapped her gaze from the sky.
"Excuse me?"
Robin doesn't seem very phased, leaning back on her hands and swaying her feet back and forth.
"The song that you just sang..?"
Nancy felt a traitorous prickle of red touching her cheeks.
"Right, of course. Sorry."
They don't say anything for a few moments, Nancy trying to figure out what to say, and Robin content to watch two pigeons fly in loops above them.
"So, what brings you to my hideaway?"
"What makes it yours exactly?"
She's teasing, but the way Robin looks down makes her feel like it was ill timed.
"Mr Peterson let me up here when the bullying got really bad."
That… was news to Nancy.
"Bullying?"
Robin shakes her head, and now she knows to stop asking questions.
"Nevermind, what's up?"
Taking the hint she looked over the skyline. Robin takes a juice box from beside her and has a huge sip.
"Max told me you're nervous about kissing?"
Robin chokes, spitting the juice off the edge of the building. Someone shouted from down below, sounding suspiciously like her brother, but she decided it wasn't her problem.
"That little shit…" Robin mumbles, tapping her chest a few times.
"Why are you nervous about it? Have you not kissed Steve yet?"
How quickly can a person almost choke twice? Robin almost finds out, but manages to suppress a second choking fit. She gives Nancy a side eye that becomes a full stare, as though Nancy had said the funniest thing in the world but hadn't registered it yet.
"What?" She asked, and Robin started laughing, "What?!"
Robin wipes a nonexistent tear away.
"Sorry, just- no, I've not kissed Steve. Never will."
Why? Steve was a nice guy, and Robin got on with him so well!
"Why not?"
Robin seemed to mull over the question a few moments, settling on a sigh and a vague hand gesture.
"We're just friends, always will be. Platonic with a capital P."
Nancy nodded, maybe understanding her point. She knew girls who liked Johnny Depp, and some who hated him. People just had different tastes.
"Okay, sure. So why are you nervous to kiss?"
Robin fiddled with her hands.
"I've just… let's say I really like someone, and it leads to kissing, but they get grossed out by my total lack of kissing ability?"
Nancy shakes her head, understanding the nerves when she hadn't kissed Steve yet, but it did sound silly now.
"That's… yeah, I understand where your brain is coming from but… you don't need to worry about all that. It comes naturally, and if you're with the right person they won't mind some learning."
Robin tucks her knees into her chest, sighing and looping her arms around them.
"Well, you don't have to try as hard to get someone to date you as I do."
Nancy doesn't respond right away, instead she studies Robin. She's never really thought about it before, but the other girl was quite pretty. She has soft hair, a dusting of freckles, bright, knowing eyes and a voice she knows is husky in a way Nancy hadn't thought possible.
In a sentence, she was really quite beautiful.
"No one should be convinced to date you, Robin. You're worth more than that."
Robin fiddled with her fingers in her lap.
"Thanks, Nance. But I don't think I'll be able to move past this concern, you know?"
Nancy gave a light laugh, shaking her head. Not teasing, just a little shocked that no one had offered or asked to kiss Robin Buckley yet.
Well, until now.
"I could help with that?"
She looks over, staring at her through her fiery hair.
"How'd you mean? Find me someone?"
"No, I could teach you how to kiss, if you want?"
Robin looked as though someone told her she'd forgotten a test, or that she'd shown up naked or something. Basically she was shocked, and Nancy found it… sweet?
Huh, weird feeling.
Robin still hadn't spoken, staring with a fantastic impression of a goldfish. Nancy tapped her fingers against her knee twice, three times, until finally realising wait, what if this isn't something she wants? What if she's insulted?
"You'd do that for me?"
She lets out a breath she didn't know she was holding.
"If you want to? Kiss, that is. For lessons, so you can do it without being worried."
Robin looks away, as though she were in a trance, and Nancy wonders if she'll speak again.
"Can I think it over? Meet you here tomorrow at lunch?"
Nancy nodded and stood, brushing the dust from her skirt.
"Of course, I'll see you then."
Nancy left the roof, unaware how much she'd rock the boat for both of them.