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A burst of loud laughter had invaded every corner of the cafe, as you had told a joke to Robin. You always had so much fun with each other that you rarely acknowledged that there were other people around who might look at you in a bad way for laughing so hard - but on the other hand, you probably wouldn’t have cared about it even if you were acknowledging it. Now when you couldn’t be in Scoops Ahoy anymore, you had invaded into all the cafes in Hawkins and making people angry with making noise. Even if you weren’t usually noisy, with Robin you just couldn’t keep the voice down. You always had so much fun with her.
You sighed at the memory. Robin had been ghosting on you for weeks, not opening her door and if you caught her peeking behind the curtains, your eyes had to meet for a second before she was off again. It wasn't typical for Robin to behave like that, she was outgoing and would tell you if there was something wrong... wouldn't she?
But this time you had decided to stand behind her door until she would come down and open it, ring her doorbell until she can't take it anymore. You had to know the reason why she wasn't answering you, why she was acting so... weird. Had you done something which hurt her? And if you had, was there a chance you could talk about it?
Ringing the doorbell and sitting on her porch for almost an hour straight finally paid off, as you heard her coming down and opening the door. Robin peeked from the crack - she didn't look like herself. She looked like she had slept badly, her hair looked like a bird's nest and she didn't even look at you in the eye.
"What's the matter?" you asked, carefully taking a hold of the door so Robin couldn't just slam it into your face if she changed her mind and didn't want to talk. She didn't answer at first, but her eyes flickered to your face. You sighed. "Robin... you can tell me anything. If you want me to go away, please tell me. You're not being yourself and I can't take the ghosting anymore. Have I done anything which hurt you?"
She shook her head and sighed. Then she spoke, and her voice sounded like she hadn't used it at all for days. "No, but I'm fearing you will hurt me. But it would be because of me, not you."
And after a moment of you staring at her in confusion, she sighed and opened the door a bit more, silently telling you to come in.
Sitting at the kitchen table and Robin handing you a glass of water was weird. Neither of you had smiled, nor laughed - and the atmosphere of the situation was awkward. Robin still didn't look at you in the eye, as she sat across from you and held her glass of water in between her hands, staring down at it.
You couldn't stand the silence and groaned. "How would I hurt you?"
Robin flinched at the sudden noise - another thing which she didn't do. It seemed like she had been all alone for weeks so now all the noises she didn't make were something she had to get used to again. But after a moment of her registering your question, she shook her head.
"If you will, remember that you haven't done it on purpose."
"What it is then?"
Silence again. Robin squeezed her eyes shut before she opened them with determination. "I really like you!"
Your eyes widened at her confession - you definitely hadn't expected this. Robin buried her face to her hands with a groan. "Uh... I didn't mean to blurt it out like that. Sorry."
You bit your lip, struggling to prevent your growing blush. "Is this the reason why you've been avoiding me?"
"Well yeah... obviously, you can't like me back. We're just... friends. I thought that if I just let my crush die away and not see you for a while, I wouldn't-"
You interrupted her with a wave and a grin, which got Robin to have a puzzled emotion on her face. "Who says I can't like you back?"
Robin shook her head, being too tired to take the hint. "Because how could someone like you like someone like me in that way?"
Your smile only widened, as you took a hold of Robin's hand which was still cupped around the glass. "Well... I might have had a little crush on you for about a year so... yeah."
Silence ensued again, and you two just stared at each other with red faces. A faint ticking of the clock was the only sound to break the silence, before Robin threw her head back.
"Dang it, dingus was right." she groaned, and your confused expression made Robin roll her eyes and explain. "He said it right when I confessed my crush on you to him - he said that you clearly like me back and we had a small fight about it. Now I have to tell him he was right for once."
You chuckled. "Well, about the time he was right."
Robin nodded and squeezed her eyes shut. "I should have listened to him on this, damn I hate being wrong with him. He's going to remind me about running away from my crush for months - or years."
And you laughed, and Robin joined into it - and it was like there had been no time in between at all.