Chapter Text
If it were up to Steve, he never would have gone to college. In fact, he had a perfect life set up back home in Hawkins, if he could say so himself. Babysitting the twerps he somehow became the responsible-adult-slash-older-brother-slash-best-friend-to was a great side gig. Sure, he wasn’t exactly comfortable, but he wasn’t destitute. Besides, he had been planning to talk to his coach at Hawkins High about how to go about getting a position as an assistant coach for the Basketball team. Between those two gigs, he’d surely be able to save up enough to rent out an apartment above Melvald’s.
Steve had it all figured out. He had a plan that would have led to a fulfilling life, at least for the next few years. It wasn’t like he would’ve been a babysitter and assistant coach forever. He probably would’ve started taking night classes and would’ve gotten his certification in teaching. That could have led to him teaching physical education, or taking over the lead coach role, or even working as a school counselor, for fuck’s sake. He would have been happy.
Unfortunately, Steven Richard Harrington rarely had the final say when it came to aspects of his life. More specifically, aspects of his life that determined how successful his parents were in raising a proper young man- at least, as far as his parent’s social circle was concerned. His parents didn’t care that their ‘final say’ came at the cost of Steve’s happiness and comfort. They only cared about the scripted bragging that they’d be able to engage in at the company holiday party this year.
Steve could practically imagine his mother’s canned response to questions about his life. “Why yes, our little Steven? He’s all grown up now, off at college. He’s an economics major, and he’s already getting the attention of the professors at the business school. In five short years, we’ll have another associate at the firm, that’s for certain. In ten years? Well let’s just say that Richard’s chomping at the bit to rename the firm to Harrington and Harrington.”
His parents didn’t care that he didn’t get admitted to Indiana University when he applied. They just called the Dean, made a sizable donation to the university, and Steve’s letter indicating that his admission was ‘denied’ was swiftly replaced by a letter apologizing for the mistake and welcoming him to IU in the fall.
So, now he’s here. In Bloomington, Indiana, a headache pounding behind his eyes as he sits crosslegged on his plaid bedding- the same he had in his bedroom growing up- trying to make sense of the swimming words on the pages of his economics textbook. His parents had dropped him off about four days ago. It was the earliest he was allowed to arrive, and they essentially walked with him to check in, helped him bring his bags to his room, admonished him to keep up on his studies, then left.
It had only taken him an hour to set up his side of the dorm. He didn’t bring much- just his bedding, some pictures from the kids he babysat, his toiletries, and a suitcase full of clothes. His roommate hadn’t arrived yet either, which allowed him his choice of the two beds. He chose the bed that wasn’t under the window, knowing that excess sunlight could sometimes cause him headaches. Without his car, Steve couldn’t go out to buy curtains, so being furthest from the window was his best bet.
The car thing was another painful aspect of this entire hellish experience. His parents insisted it would be too big of a distraction during the semester, so it was parked in his parent’s driveway back home. Apparently, Steve could do whatever he wanted while he was in high school, but now that he was in college? Forget it.
They had promised Steve that they would talk about him bringing it to campus for spring semester during his trip home for winter break, depending on his grades. Knowing his parents, he had a feeling that the conversation would never happen, and he’d be stranded on campus indefinitely- or at least, until summer break.
With nothing else to do and nowhere to go, Steve resigned himself to the fate that his parents had carefully curated for him. The first step of that process apparently involved defaulting to studying for his classes before they even started out of boredom alone. He didn’t even have a fucking syllabus yet. At this point, his ‘studying’ was trying to read the first chapter of all of his textbooks and attempt to understand the numbers and letters that appeared, at least to him, to be senseless.
He didn’t know the first thing about economics and business, and with the way his ‘studying’ was going, he was starting to believe that he would never understand a single fucking thing.
Steve’s self-depricating thoughts were interrupted rather suddenly by the door to his dorm room banging open. A person stood on the other side of the door- or, at least, what Steve thought was a person. It was hard to tell, because whoever it was was carrying a tub with a box stacked on top of it, with some random clothes and blankets strewn over the top of that. Steve could only barely make out a pair of mismatched Converse and patterned trousers under all of the stuff in the person’s arms.
The moving materials seemed to indicate that this person was his roommate. Based on the various colors and patterns that Steve could see in said moving materials, it also seemed that this guy was a bit… eccentric, to say the least. Steve supposed that made sense- afterall, the welcome packet that he had picked up from registration when he arrived said that his roommate’s name was Robin, and that was a pretty eccentric name for a dude- at least according to Steve’s father.
Regardless, Robin was a welcome distraction from Steve’s spiraling thoughts of self-doubt and shame. His dad’s voice screamed inside of him to make a good impression- that his roommate could help him make some good connections on campus. Selfishly, the thought of this roommate also potentially having a car that could get him away from the stifling environment of campus life was far more tempting.
With his mind made up, Steve shoved the textbook off of his lap, jumped to his feet, and crossed the room to his new roommate. “Here, let me take those for you.”
Steve grabbed the top box and the fabrics balanced on top of it, leaving his roommate to carry only the bin. The box wasn’t too heavy, just bulky. He turned on his heel and marched to his roommate’s bed, setting the items on the bare mattress with a plop.
“I hope you don’t mind, I got here a few days ago and took the bed that was furthest from the window. I’m Steve by the way. Econ major. The welcome packet I picked up said that you’re Robin, right? Nice to meet you, man.” Steve spoke as he set the items on the bed, then turned around to properly meet the guy that he was going to be living with for the next nine months.
Only… it wasn’t a guy.
A girl in a plaid button down and suspenders stared back at him, her blue eyes wide and her mouth partway open in surprise. Her hair was cut into a sharp bob, and she wore big, chunky chain necklaces that were complemented by her black eyeliner and the various bracelets around her wrists.
“Um… hi. Yep. I’m Robin. Buckley. I’m studying art history with an emphasis in the renaissance period.” She paused for a beat to look Steve up and down, her eyes squinting in thought. “Am I in the wrong room? The packet that I picked up said 118, and I was counting the doors as I walked by, but it was kind of hard because of how much stuff I was carrying and I wouldn’t be surprised if I messed that up, the day’s kind of been a bit hectic already, and-”
“-No! No, sorry, not to, like, cut you off- but, yeah. This is 118. Like I said, my welcome packet said my roommate would be a guy named Robin.” Steve cut her off, his hand traveling to the back of his neck awkwardly. “Maybe the school got mixed up or something and accidentally paired us up? It’s a co-ed dorm, so it probably wouldn’t be the weirdest thing to ever happen. We can just talk to the RA and get it sorted.”
Robin crossed the room to set the bin she was carrying on the bare mattress next to the box that Steve had sat down earlier. She riffled through the box until she pulled out a manilla envelope, then quickly scanned its contents. “Oh. Huh. Yeah, it says here that my roommate is named Steve. When I was picking the packet up, I barely got a chance to look at the name- my parents were in a bit of a rush to get the car parked because they didn’t want to pay for parking across campus if they were going to have to pay for parking by the dorms.”
Steve… doesn’t really know what to do with that, so he just shrugs. “Yeah, that makes sense I guess.” He pauses, eyes flitting awkwardly to the front door of their dorm room. Robin’s parents were still here, then. Hopefully they wouldn’t freak out too much by the mistake. Actually, it’d probably be best to start getting things sorted out now so that they could avoid whatever sort of reaction Robin’s parents might have- if Robin was anything to go off of, it would certainly be a sight.
“Uh, anyways-”
“The thing is-”
The two spoke at the same time, voices clashing against each other in the small room. The pair quieted immediately, clearly waiting for the other to finish their thought. Steve was the first to break the silence.
“I was just going to say, I can go get the RA? Her name is Tammy, she’s an upperclassman in the music department. She’s… alright, I guess.” In truth, Steve’s only interaction with her was walking past the communal girl’s restroom and hearing her off-key singing at six in the morning.
Steve shook off the memory and plastered on a smile. “I’m sure she’d be able to help us out. It’s her job, right?”
“Right- yes, yeah, it’s her job. The thing is, though- did you see this note on the registration paperwork?” Robin points to a line on the dorm assignment paperwork from her welcome packet.
“See? Right here: Due to overwhelming enrollment and applications for on-campus housing, IU is unable to accommodate ANY requests for changes in housing assignments. Students that would like to change their housing arrangements must do so through off-campus resources. So, while I’m sure Tammy is good at her job, it sounds like she’s unable to help with this.” Robin’s voice had taken on a mocking tone while reading the note. When she was done, she cast the paperwork to the side, then slumped onto her bare mattress with a huff.
“So… what? The school can’t do anything? That doesn’t sound right- especially given the circumstances.” Steve ran a frustrated hand through his hair, then crossed his arms, staring at Robin with furrowed brows.
Robin sighed, then sat up on her elbows to meet Steve’s gaze. “I don’t know, Steve. Maybe they can do something in situations like this- or maybe they’re going to shrug their shoulders, say ‘sorry, you’re out of luck’, then decide that our rooming arrangement is against school policy and kick one of us out to try and find off-campus housing. Oh, and because you got here first, that person that would be kicked out? That’d probably be me! And- look, I don’t know you, I don’t know your financial situation, but to be totally candid- I cannot afford that. I’m here on scholarship, otherwise I wouldn’t be here at all. So unless you magically have a couple thousand dollars to pay for off campus housing for yourself…” Robin trailed off, her eyebrows lifting as she tilted her head towards Steve, clearly expecting a response.
The thing was, Steve could pay for off-campus housing. Or, rather, Steve’s parents could pay for off-campus housing. But they wouldn’t. They were determined to make him have the most distraction-free learning environment as possible, and apparently that could only happen on campus. It was incredibly frustrating to know that an answer was right there, but he couldn’t act on it because of his parent’s stubbornness. Then again, that stubbornness is what put him in this position in the first place, so in a fucked up way, it made a lot of sense that they were shit out of luck.
“... No. I, uh- my parents are making me live on campus this year. They said it’s part of the whole ‘experience’.” Steve’s hands formed air-quotes around the word, his face scrunching in disdain. So far, that experience had been abysmal, and things weren’t exactly looking up.
Robin groaned, flopping back onto the bed and bringing her hands to cover her face. “Awesome. We’re fucked, my parents are probably minutes from walking in with the rest of my stuff, and one of us is probably going to get forcibly kicked to the streets in the next few hours.”
“Or not?” Steve could practically hear the gears turning in his brain as he came up with the next words to come out of his mouth. It was a stupid plan, honestly. Something that probably wouldn’t work. They’d get caught the second that someone spared more than a glance their way. But, well… it was a big campus, and as long as they had a good enough story, they could probably get people to buy it.
“Look, Robin, I know it’s… unconventional, but it sounds like we both got stuck in a shitty situation without a way out. So, what if we just lie? We can tell people that I’m your roommate’s boyfriend, or that you’re my roommate’s girlfriend, whatever. That would explain why we’d be here a lot. We can just keep a low profile, keep our story straight, and get through the year. It’s a big campus with a ton of students, so it might work.”
Robin sat back up to look at him, but this time her gaze was dripping with judgment. “Are you serious? Do you really think that’ll work? Oh, and by the way- even if it does work for the first few months, what about when our RA does room checks? What about the fact that your side of the room clearly belongs to a man and my side will definitely not?”
Steve opened his mouth, about to reply, when the door swung open again. This time, an older gentleman walked in, carrying two boxes stacked on one another. A woman followed behind him, rolling a suitcase. “Robbie! Your dad and I got just about everything else from the car.” She rolled the suitcase into the room, then paused, her eyes glancing from Steve, then to Robin. “Oh- hello. Can we help you?”
Well, looks like they were stuck with Steve’s plan. “Oh! No ma’am. I’m just here studying. My name is Steve. My girlfriend lives here.” Steve flashed the most convincing smile he could muster to Robin’s parents, then to Robin, who looked back at him with an unimpressed expression.
Robin’s mom smiled slightly, clearly unconvinced. “That’s nice. But, well… where is your girlfriend, and why are you studying here without her?”
Steve’s mind raced to come up with a convincing story. Maybe it was because all good lies were built on half-truths, maybe it was because he was put on the spot, but the only lie he could come up with was based on his situation just a year prior, before things hit the fan with his relationship. “Nancy! That’s my girlfriend. She’s uh- she’s super studious. Very busy. Already active on campus. She’s actually at an interview for the school paper right now. She got called away a bit last minute and she wanted someone here just in case her roommate showed up, so she asked me to stick around.”
Steve forced his smile to grow even wider, mustering the most convincing expression he could. His years of attending business banquets with his parents had apparently prepared him well, because the tension that was hanging around both of Robin’s parents seemed to melt away when Steve’s story registered.
“Oh! That’s so sweet of her. Wow, Robbie- seems like you really lucked out with a great roommate.” Robin’s mom grinned, taking a box from Robin’s father as she spoke. “Well, it’s lovely to meet you- Steve, was it?”
“Yes, ma’am.” Steve nodded once, then gathered his textbook into his arms and sat back down on his bed, attempting to really sell the story. Apparently, this worked, because Robin’s parents immediately turned their attention to Robin and began to get her side of the room set up.
Out of the corner of his eye, while he stared down helplessly at his economics textbook to the tune of Robin’s parents struggling to set up a shoe organizer for her closet, Robin caught his gaze and nodded towards him in appreciation.
It seemed like this semester wasn’t going to be exactly what Steve had anticipated, but he was stuck with it now. Steve’s eyes traveled over to Robin, where she was currently attempting to put her fitted sheet over her bed. No- not just him. They were stuck with this now, because Robin was just as much an unwilling participant in this fiasco as Steve was. That being said, Robin seemed pretty cool, even if she was a bit long-winded and a little erratic.
Steve was startled out of his thoughts by a loud ‘whoop!’ from the other side of the room. Robin’s fitted sheet was now successfully on, with the help of her dad, and the two high-fived in celebration before moving on to the rest of Robin’s bedding. Steve smiled to himself at the interaction, forcing his attention to turn back to his book. Yeah, Robin was cool. With any luck, hopefully Steve’s on-the-spot lie would be the first step in their friendship.