Chapter 1
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“Steve, I need you to slow down,” Robin cuts off the incoherent ramblings as she struggles for a moment to get out of her tangled bedsheets. The frantic voice on the other line gets louder– her best friend is trying to speak between hysterical sobs and it’s doing nothing to calm her rattled nerves. “Steve, please, tell me where you are.” She interrupts when she’s finally out of bed and has pulled the shorts she discarded on the floor a few hours back.
“Robin, I don’t know what to do– I don’t fucking know anymore!” Steve sounds drunk, and a drunk Steve always calls for disaster.
And Robin is afraid because Steve rarely drinks– had given up alcohol cold turkey the day they found out about Dustin. “Where are you?” her heart is in her throat and she’s starting to feel scared, “Tell me where you are, and I’ll come pick up.”
“Please,” Steve sniffs, “I don’t know what to do– I didn’t mean it, you have to believe me.” Robin feels her heart drop.
“Robin?” She looks up and stares at his girlfriend eyeing her from the door, “What’s going on?” Nancy demands sharply and she sounds alarmed– Robin holds her finger up to silence her.
“Steve,” she says and watches her girlfriend narrow her eyes at that. “Buddy, I need your address– I’m coming, but I need to know where I’m going,” she says calmly and then asks carefully. “Where is Eddie?”
The sound she hears from Steve has Robin’s eyes welling up with tears herself. He closes his eyes. “Steve, is Eddie alright?”
“He’s home– left him home with our Dustin,” He sniffles, “Oh, god, Rob – we had a fight and I – I can’t stand it when we fight and I had to leave because I said some things that I – I, fuck,” He cuts himself off.
There’s so much she wants to ask, but she stops himself and instead asks for the address again. She has Steve repeat the address for her before asking him to stay on the phone – Steve immediately hangs up on her and Robin lets out a frustrated sigh before proceeding to type the address on her phone.
Nancy comes closer and stares at her screen. The destination is a little over an hour away and it’s 1 a.m. on a Monday. “It’s late,” Nancy mumbles and Robin fights the urge to roll her eyes. She chooses not to comment on it because they have work in a few hours and should be in bed.
“I can take you there,” Her girlfriend offers then, and Robin wants to accept– but Nancy has little to no patience for drunk people and Steve sounds drunk out of his mind– the last thing she needs is them butting heads and maybe fists.
She shakes his head, “I’ll be fine,”
Nancy kisses her temple, “Keep me updated,” She mumbles against her, “There’s always something with him– wonder how Eddie puts up with –,” Robin groans and gently grabs Nancy’s lips between her slender fingers.
She gives her a flat look, “And this is why you’re not invited.” She then grabs the keys from Nancy’s hand and releases her lips. “They had a fight – I’m going to pick up Stevie.” It has happened before– Steve and Eddie got into a heated fight and Steve had walked out, he had called Robin because he was too embarrassed about whatever they fought about, and he didn’t want to admit to Eddie that he was wrong.
Robin hopes it’s as unserious as that time.
Nancy shrugs, “Okay,” She holds Robin’s wrist and brings it to her soft lips, “Get him back to his husband and come back to your girlfriend, deal?” She says softly and Robin nods with a smile.
Robin is ten minutes away from the address when Eddie calls, “Hey,” He says softly as though he’ll spook her if he speaks too loudly, “How are you holding up?” She asks instead and its sort of a stupid question to ask and for a moment all she can hear is a baby’s cooing from his end.
“Is our little Prince awake?” She chooses to say when Eddie remains silent.
“Is he with you?” Eddie finally asks, “Please, tell me he’s with you. He’s not answering any of my calls.”
“I’m on my way to pick up him now and I’ll bring him back to you.” Robin promises.
She struggles to find the right address and when she tries to call Steve, he doesn’t pick up and Robin huffs in annoyance before calling the number linked to the address and following the directions from the chirpy receptionist on the other line.
Robin sprints to and through the doors and stops short in the hotel’s lobby at the sight of Steve crawled on the hotel’s lounge sofa with his thin jacket serving as a blanket. She approaches him carefully and he looks unharmed. Robin nods at the two receptionists behind the desk eyeing them warily.
“Steve,” She places her hand on her friend’s shoulder and startles back at the violent jerk. Steve looks around wildly before looking straight at her and his face immediately crumbles into something ugly.
Robin sits on the couch and has Steve in her arms, holding him tightly and trying to shush him. She soon helps him off the couch and Robin notices he’s got only one hotel slipper on and only a sock on the other foot. “Where are your shoes?”
“Can I spend the night at yours?” He says stiffly as they make their way out of the lobby and Robin nods.
“I need an explanation though,” she says as opens the door and leads Steve into the car before circling and entering the driver’s seat. She starts the engine and looks over at his friend and he looks terrible with bloodshot eyes and heavy teabags under his eyes. His hair is flat on his head and lacking its usual fluffy volume– never a good sign.
They are at the red light when Steve for the first time in a long time catches her off guard and Robin stays frozen behind the wheel. Unable to think of anything and she can feel her heart pumping in her ears.
She glances over at Steve in shock, and she’s so confused because she swears, she must’ve heard him wrong. She glances over at him and watches him fondling with his golden ring that she had helped him pick out two years ago.
“What do you mean you were with Billy Hargrove?” Her stomach drops to the car’s floor at the dejected look on Steve’s face. The light turns green, and Robin can’t trust herself to drive anymore. She checks the mirrors with a quickness before pulling in front of a bus stop and putting the car in park.
“Steve,” She starts as she leans back into her seat. “Billy Hargrove?” She whispers, almost fearfully because nothing good ever comes after hearing that name. Billy Hargrove– the man Steve had been with before Eddie, the one who had beat Steve so badly he ended up in the hospital for weeks– the only one that makes her blood boil just at the thought of him.
“It’s complicated.” Steve whispers and Robin’s eyes widened because surely, she’s hearing him wrong.
“It’s complicated?” She shouts in anger, “That son of a bitch– he broke your fucking ribs the last time we ever saw him!” She bites out bitterly. “There’s no reason for you to be alone with Billy–” She cuts herself off and her eyes widen in disbelief as she looks at her best friend.
“No,” She snaps, “No, you’ve got to be– don’t tell me you were with him in that hotel!”
Billy was fascinating the first time Robin had met him, all sweet words and charming smiles. She’d been happy for Steve, that he found someone to love and be loved by. That was until she’d caught a glimpse of bruises painted on Steve’s body, that Steve had tried to brush off, but Robin had trusted her gut.
And for far too long, she’d been too powerless to get Steve out of that dreadful relationship.
“I’m sorry,” Steve whispers, and Robin can’t stop the wail that escapes her– something inside her breaks at the sight of him. Sitting there in the passenger’s seat and looking small and breakable– she reaches out and hurts how he flinches away from her.
“Why?” She asks quietly and he doesn’t answer her. “Does Eddie know–” She stops herself because Eddie doesn’t even know the worst of it. That the aged markings around Steve’s neck that are still visible when his skin tans aren’t self-inflicted.
Robin looks at him through her blurry vision– she fails to recognize the man sitting next to her.