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Robin hadn’t planned on returning to Hawkins after her freshman year. Or, y’know. Ever. Other than to see Steve, there was nothing for her in Hawkins other than danger and watching her young mentee’s heart break every single day because his Tammy wasn’t actually his Tammy but they were both too stupid to do anything about it.
She’d expected to see Steve at the airport. He’d promised to pick her up. She had not expected him to have someone with him, and if he did bring someone, she’d have expected it to be Jonathan or Nancy because they beat her back to town. Gathering for the graduation of their younger friends. Maybe he’d have brought Dustin, since they were besties now and Dustin didn’t have anything else to do.
Seeing Vickie there was a stab to her heart. Vickie had made it quite clear that Robin was just too high-drama. It’s what had given Robin the final push to go away to college, even. From what Robin had understood, she and Vickie were completely done. Out of each other’s lives. What was she doing here?
Only one way to find out, and it was going to happen. Robin shifted the bag on her shoulder as she ran to Steve and Vickie. “Hi! Oh, I am so glad to be done with that flight, it was the worst, sitting between these two assholes who had a conversation over my head about how horrible their wives were.”
“Ew.” Steve pulled Robin into a hug. “I promise: no discussion of how horrible my wife is.”
“Same,” Vickie said, reaching out. She checked herself partway through and just put her hands on Robin’s arms, nervously looking around the airport. “I’m glad you’re back.”
“Why?” Robin reached up and patted Vickie’s arms, but she wasn’t going to make this easy. “Thought you’d be enjoying your quiet life at community college and minimal drama.”
Vickie flushed and looked away, letting her hands drop back to her sides. “I’m sorry. I was wrong. But can we have the rest of this conversation after we’re in the car?”
Right. This wasn’t Massachusetts anymore. Smith was one of the safest places to be, while Indianapolis wasn’t. From the way Steve wasn’t arguing and instead started rambling about how Dipshit Derek was turning out to be a pretty damn good catcher, he had to know what Vickie meant.
Since she wasn’t staying long, she didn’t have much with her. They could go straight to the car. Vickie headed for the back seat, and after a quick exchange of glances with Steve, Robin joined her there. Off Vickie’s look, she explained, “I really don’t think this conversation’s going to go badly enough that one of us is gonna try to hurt the other, might go well. I assume Steve’s cool?”
Vickie nodded. “He was the one who convinced me to come to the airport. I…” She reached into her bag, pulling out a letter. “I wrote you this and asked him to send it to you. He said no, that he’d finally convinced you to come back for graduation and I could tell you in person.” She held out the letter, and Robin took it without opening it. “Ever since you left, I’ve been rerunning everything that happened. And I realized… the drama was never about you. You were caught up in things because you’re a good person who’s loyal to her friends, and for the same reason, you tried to keep me out. It meant things got dramatic, but the drama wasn’t you.”
Robin shrugged, laughing it off. “Well… some of it was. I mean. I could have tried to at least tell you what was going on, why I would occasionally have to disappear, before the demos were about to invade your workplace and have you running for your life. When you could listen and absorb it rationally because you weren’t freaking out about me being a drug addict who used you for access to the hospital to steal benzos.” She grinned as a thought occurred to her. “Did I ever tell you what I did with them?”
“No, but I have a pretty good guess that it has something to do with why the Turnbow family was acting so weird about everything that happened around then?” Vickie said. “There was a good reason, I assume?”
“Yeah, Derek Turnbow was a target for Vecna and it was all we could come up with to get Derek and his family and keep them safe. It didn’t work out.” Robin glared as Steve muttered something under his breath. “Shut up, Harrington, you were trapped in the Upside Down at the time. Maybe if you hadn’t been you could have come up with a better idea.”
“Yeah, that was a terrible plan.” Steve glanced over his shoulder with a smirk. “Like breaking up with someone only to realize they were never the cause of your life being too exciting for a year or so.”
“Seriously, Robin, if it weren’t for you, I would probably be dead now. Those creatures would have killed me to get to Max,” Vickie said. “Blaming you for it was never fair, and I see that now. And…” Vickie looked at the letter in Robin’s hand and took it back, ripping it open to open it to show a copy of an acceptance letter. To Smith. “I don’t know if you can forgive me and give me a second chance, and if you can’t, I promise not to make things weird for you. I don’t know what your major is, but I’m going to be studying biochemistry and working toward medical school, so hopefully we won’t have to see each other if we don’t want to.”
Robin took the letter. “You never even considered going to Smith. I remember you talking about going to Indiana, or if you really let yourself dream, Northwestern. Why Smith?”
“Well, I looked into it when I heard you’d gone there, and I found out about their scholarship program,” Robin admitted. “I… finally came out to my parents, and. Well. Financial need is not going to be a problem to demonstrate.”
“Oh, Vickie.” Robin pulled her into a hug. “Tell them to put you in my house. Everyone in there is like one or the other of us, and they’re all so supportive of whatever journey someone’s on. There’ll be some jokes about us being roommates, and it doesn’t have to mean anything you’re not ready for it to mean, but it can mean anything we want it to.” She pulled back. “Full disclosure, I’ve dated a couple of girls there, but nothing serious and never really caught feelings. Just figured I should put myself out there, you know?”
“Of course. That’s why I wrote the letter instead of surprising you with it when I showed up there next fall,” Vickie said. “So that you could tell me if you’d moved on and didn’t even want to see me.”
Robin quickly looked over the letter. “For what it’s worth, I’d have told you which house to apply to to be with me there. Still, I like this way better. I get to kiss you again much sooner.”
“Yes.” Vickie leaned over and kissed Robin, keeping it short with a nervous glance up at Steve. “And this time, the worst has happened. I’m not going to ask you to hide anything you don’t want to. Even interdimensional monsters that want to rip the world apart.”
“No more hiding, from ourselves, from our friends, or from the monsters.” Robin snuggled up against Vickie. “I assume your parents aren’t letting you stay with them anymore?”
“Nope, I’m eighteen and a full-fledged adult, and a disappointment who disgusts them,” Vickie said with a grimace. “For now… oh, you’ll love this, Steve tells me. I’ve been staying with Tammy Thompson.”
Robin couldn’t help it as she broke down laughing. Steve was right. She loved it. Perfect ending. “I had such a crush on her. It’s how I figured out who I am.”
“You… and Steve knew?” Vickie glanced up front. “Should I…”
“Don’t worry, it was never about Tammy, and I got over it when she got with fucking Steve,” Robin reassured her. “At this point Tammy’s just a nice little memory of figuring myself out. Does she know…?”
“She knows. After all, what was I going to tell her about why I needed a place to live?” Vickie said. “Still straight, but she’s a good friend. What about you? Steve’s parents okay with you?”
“Parents yes, girlfriend no.” Robin shrugged. “So I’m staying with Nancy. Might try one last time to knock some sense into Mike while I’m there, might not.”
"Good luck," Steve scoffed.
Vickie snuggled in against her. "Don't know how much help I can be, but you've got backup. Whatever you want."