Chapter Text
May
“Jeez, Nance, think you can make it any more obvious that you're staring?”
“What?” Nancy shook her head, that frumpy little perm following the motion. “I’m not—”
“Ah tut tut tut!” Robin made some sort of childish noise, then pinched her fingers closed in front of Nancy’s mouth. The other girl’s brow tilted up then down as she examined Robin’s hand. “You don't have to hide it from me. I know you’ve got the hots for him.”
Steve was on the Wheeler’s beat-up old loveseat across the room, lecturing Dustin about something-or-other. Robin threw her other arm in their general direction. “You know, as much as he claims he’s sick of babysitting your brother’s tiny tots pit crew, those kids always seem to conveniently show up when we’re trying to hang out.”
“Robin.”
“What? I know they’re in high school, but freshman don’t-“
Nancy grabbed for Robin’s wrist (her hand was still hovering in front of her mouth) and dragged her arm down to chest level. “I don’t like Steve.”
Robin rolled her eyes as she finally turned back to face Nancy. “Yeah, okay. Okay, you don’t like him. That’s why you’re constantly trailing after him like a lost puppy, staring at him with those giant eyes you have, sharing pensive, steamy looks when you think I’m not looking—I’m dense but I’m not blind, Nance—organizing hang-outs where I’m the obligatory third wheel…” She was counting on her fingers. “Shall I continue?”
“Oh my god, I have a boyfriend! ” Nancy looked almost disgusted. Robin shot a glance at Steve to gauge how much of this he was hearing.
“No, dumbass! I told you! It’s 88 miles per hour! 88! I’ve seen the movie twice!”
“It’s 188! Regular cars can go 88 miles per hour, why—“
“Dustin, have you ever been in a car going 88 miles an hour?!”
Nope, he was hearing exactly none of this. She pivoted back to Nancy. “Yeah, I know you have a boyfriend. But you’ve brought up Jonathan… what, maybe three times since he went back to California?” She itched at some point on her head and then returned her elbow to the armrest of her chair. “The second he’s out of your sight, that man is like chopped liver to you! And, forgive me for the generalization here, but you seem like the type of girl who needs something she can see.”
Nancy gritted her teeth; the veins on her neck were standing out. It seemed she was barely containing some beast… but Robin was pretty damn good at dealing with those by now. “You… are not very nice sometimes.”
“I know. I told you that when we first met, remember? No filter.” She leaned back. “But, I mean, why Steve? I get that you guys were an item in the past, but the dude is like…” Her eyes wandered over to their topic of conversation.
“Nope, I don’t care. I don’t care, we’re going up to Family Video right now, I’m going to prove to you it’s 88.” Steve stood, dragging Dustin up by the arm. “Get in the car.”
His attention finally turned back to Nancy and Robin; both girls were staring straight at him unblinkingly.
“Ah, I gotta go prove Dustin wrong. It’ll be quick, you guys won’t even miss me.” He spun his keys around on one finger and headed for the stairs.
Lucas and Mike perked up from the corner where they’d tucked themselves to plan out something they called “co-DMing,” whatever that meant. Mike’s mouth was the one that opened: “Hey, what about us?”
“Yeah, yeah, you can come too. Whatever. It’s not gonna matter when I rub my victory in his face.” He stuck his finger in the aforementioned face.
“Yeah, well… well…” Dustin’s voice trailed off as he tried to conjure a comeback on his trip up the stairs. The basement vacated before Nancy or Robin could get so much as a word in.
“...like that,” Robin finally finished.
Nancy rolled her eyes but had nothing to say. Her lipsticked mouth was screwed up tight.
Robin, on the other hand, never knew when to stop saying things. “So, now that Mr. Life-of-the-Party is gone, what do you want to do?”
The other girl’s face was forced into a tight smile, and she finally found her words. “I want to spend time with my friends. I want to enjoy my time with them, and relax, and talk about literally anything else besides my relationship status.” She pressed a cupped hand over Robin’s mouth and looked her dead in the eye. “So nothing else about Steve, okay?”
Something… happened. Robin’s cheeks flared against her will; her wide eyes trained on Nancy’s determined, narrower gaze. Her stomach danced at the look, the touch, and she had to focus on her shoes instead. Nancy’s hand left and she could finally breathe again.
“Yeah…” She managed to sputter out. “N-no more about Steve…”
Well that was… unexpected.
The rest of their time alone was almost deadly in its lifeless conversation. The quips didn’t seem to come as easily this time around. When Steve and pit crew returned (Steve had been right), the energy reset…
To almost normal.