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A tense, cold silence lingered between Nancy and Barbara as they travelled home, aside from the gentle volume of Fleetwood Mac’s Rhiannon on the radio. Nancy’s cheek was pressed against the bottom of the frosty glass window, and she watched a few thin raindrops trail. She bit her bottom lip gently, a gentle sigh emerging from both her and her friend.
“I’m sorry, Barb,” Nancy said quietly, shaking her head as it lifted from the glass and she looked at Barbara. The red-haired girl just looked straight ahead with gently lidded eyes, her shoulders rising and falling once. She didn’t want an apology right now. All she wanted was to get home, get some rest, and pretend none of this happened, and that she wasn’t losing her best friend to Steve.
“It’s fine, Nance. Don’t worry about it,” she muttered with barely open lips, but a gentle sting still coursed through her hand. She willed herself to forget about it, only glancing at her hand and whitened knuckles once before focussing on the dim road ahead again. Rain was pouring, tinkering lightly on the roof of the car, and it made it kind of hard to see the slick, dark road. The only light guiding them back from Steve’s was from the moon, headlights, and a few stray and rare streetlights. The road was pretty desolate at this time of night; the council hardly bothered to utilise the lights. Since Will’s disappearance, very few citizens left the house at night anyway, unless to look for the boy.
Nancy wasn’t going to accept that answer any time soon. She shook her head as that usual, stubborn expression formed on her face. Nancy was never one to back down so easily.
“It’s not fine,” Nancy butted in. She turned in her seat slightly, to face her friend a little better. Barbara finally glanced at her, if only for a few moments, from the corner of her eye. Reluctantly pulling to the side of the road, she turned to face Nancy a little in return.
“You’re right, it’s not,” she announced, a sarcastic drawl dripping from her tone. Nancy quirked an eyebrow, unsure whether to take this newfound tone seriously or not. She kept her expression on edge, ready to react either way, depending on what Barbara would say next. “And you’re also not my best friend. And I’ll never forgive you for anything bad you’ve ever done. Oh, and also, I have plenty of other friends. I don’t need you at all, I’m not scared of losing you, o-or anything.”
By now, a gentle giggle had emerged from Nancy, and a soft smirk was on Barbara’s lips.
“You’re an idiot,” Nancy mumbled fondly, glancing at her lap as she tucked her knees up, and then looked up at Barbara, who had a mocking shocked expression.
“Oh, I’m the idiot?” Barbara scoffed, a wide smile lighting up her face, an infectious one at that. “Says the one who wouldn’t open a can of beer like a normal person just because she wanted to look cool in front of Steve Harring-douche.”
Nancy laughed a little louder, her nose scrunching up adorably as her eyes closed gently. Barbara laughed softly in return, but didn’t close her eyes, in fear of missing a single moment of her friend’s warm, bright, and just plain adorable expression. Time felt as if it was passing in slow motion, and Barbara could do nothing but get lost in the gentle glow of her friend’s features under the single streetlight that kept them from being in total darkness. And it wasn’t until Nancy’s laughter had turned into waving her hand in front of Barb’s face, that Barb realised she was staring.
“Barb? You with me? They didn’t drug you, right?” Nancy said in a gentle, laughing tone, eyebrow quirked in that signature arch.
And as soon as Barb had snapped out of this daze, she found herself edging closer and closer to Nancy, and as soon as she was close enough, their lips met. And, despite Barb’s initial thought of ohshitohshitshe’sgonnafreakoutbarbwhatareyoudoing , Nancy’s lips parted softly, allowing Barb to do the same, their lips moving together in perfect harmony. Every kiss that Nancy shared with Steve felt… wrong. There was always something just a bit off; one slight movement, one gesture, one touch, always a little clunky. She could never pinpoint exactly what was off, but there was always something , and on more than one occasion Nancy had racked her brain for an answer as to what the hell she could have been doing wrong.
But this, no, this was different. This felt perfect and right and Nancy was mentally kicking herself for not realising this sooner, before the situation with Steve, before her and Barb began to drift.
Barb’s heart had began to slow down from it’s previous speedy pace, and her unharmed hand reached out to cup Nancy’s cheek, just as Nancy reached out to gently hold Barb’s bandaged one, to which Barb hesitantly broke the kiss. Nancy’s soft blue eyes pulled away from her friend’s face, and she swallowed, looking down at the bandage.
Barb was sure of very little in her life. She was sure that she herself was lesbian. That was a fact, a given, and she’d come to accept that a long time ago. And she was sure that Nancy was her best friend, actually, no, pretty much her only friend. And as with Barb’s sexuality, that was also a given. The two were practically inseparable, throughout everything. Even now, when their limits and bonds of their friendship were being tested, they still fought to stay close.
But Nancy was straight, wasn’t she? Experimenting at best, and now Barb was left here wondering how to react, what to say. But when Nancy’s gentle lips pressed to the bandage on her hand, and her eyes fluttered closed, and Nancy’s thumb was tracing gentle patterns into the fabric, Barb knew she now had one more thing to be sure about; that no matter what happened in the outside world, with whatever was happening with Will, they’d be okay. This would be okay. Just being here now, in each other’s company, Nancy’s forehead now resting on Barb’s shoulder, that was enough. That was all they needed.
They would be okay.