Nancy wants to see Robin.
They haven’t really talked since being in the Upside Down together. They were friends, though. Official friends. Nancy chews her bottom lip in thought.
Friends can call each other, she decides.
She opens her door slowly, trying to avoid making too much noise, and tip-toes over to the dial-up phone in the hallway. She picks up the handset and rotates the dial, entering Robin’s phone number. She’s never called Robin before, but she memorized her number from the phone book “just in case” when they started working together to defeat what they now know as Vecna.
She chews her bottom lip, waiting for Robin to answer.
“Steve…?” Robin calls out sleepily from the other line.
Nancy smiles.
“Try again.”
“....Nance? What’s wrong?” Robin asks, slightly more alert, worry in her tone.
“Oh, everything’s fine…” Nancy begins to wonder if maybe being “official friends” doesn’t mean you get to call eachother at 3 am.
“I just was wondering…if you wanted to hang out?” Nancy asks quietly, regretting her decision to call Robin in the first place.
“Nancy? It’s three in the morning.” Robin yawns sleepily.
Nancy squints, embarrassed. “Oh…I’m sorry.”
Nancy hears shifting on the other line.
“S’okay. It’s nine am in Sweden.”
Nancy furrows her brows. “...What?”
“I don’t typically operate by Central European Time, but I’ll make an exception for you.” Robin states, nonchalantly.
Nancy laughs, confused. “Uh?”
“Open your window, I’ll be there in ten.” Robin says quickly, hanging up before Nancy can respond.
Nancy shakes her head and raises her eyebrows, chuckling lightly.
She tiptoes back to her bedroom, shutting the door quietly behind her.
Nancy opens the window to her bedroom, then steps over to her bedroom mirror, fixing her hair. She reaches for her lipgloss, before pulling her hand away.
It’s just Robin.
She chews her bottom lip as she waits for Robin, heart drumming in her chest.
It’s official friend Robin. It’s normal to be nervous. Right?
Nancy breathes out a puff of air, before jumping at the sound of a rock hitting her window.
She rushes over to it, seeing Robin waving at her.
“Do you have a ladder?” Robin calls out.
“Not one long enough. Robin, use the door, I can sneak you up here.” Nancy calls out, trying to be as quiet as possible.
Robin looks around, before pointing to the neighbor’s tree.
“Don’t want to get you in trouble. I can climb that tree?”
Nancy scoffs.
“And then jump forty feet from the tree to my window?”
Robin chuckles, embarrassed.
“Maybe being in the Upside Down gave me super-powers?” She says awkwardly.
Nancy facepalms.
“That doesn’t happen. Robin, use the damn door.”
Silence.
“....maybe I’m the first? Maybe I’m special.” Robin jokes.
“Special, yes. Coordinated, less than a starfish. Door.”
Robin hangs her head back, sighing.
“Oookayyy….” Robin disappears from sight and Nancy tiptoes out of her bedroom and down the stairs.
Nancy quickly but quietly opens the door for Robin, who’s standing there, smiling.
“Hi…” Robin whispers with a soft smile.
Nancy smiles back, taking Robin’s hand to lead her upstairs, quietly. Emphasis on QUIETLY.
Robin hums to herself as Nancy leads her upstairs. Briefly, Nancy thinks of stopping her to avoid being caught by her parents, but she finds it cute. Or endearing, or something.
Shaking the thought from her head, Nancy opens the door to her bedroom, leads Robin inside, and shuts the door behind them.
“Hey.” Nancy whispers, turning to face Robin, and dropping her hand.
“Hi.” Robin whispers back, absentmindedly looking around Nancy’s room. She notices a lack of Tom Cruise, replaced by a poster of Debby Harry.
“No more Tom?” Robin laughs.
Nancy rolls her eyes.
“No. It was old.”
Robin scoffs.
“Right.” She teases.
“No, seriously. It was old. Don’t even like him anymore.” Nancy states, matter of factly.
Robin wanders over to Nancy’s bed, sitting on it. “Yeah. Debby’s better, anyway.” Robin says, sighing contentedly.
Nancy strolls over to her bed, sitting next to Robin. Neither of them speak for a while, Robin becoming increasingly uncomfortable with the silence. Nancy’s looking anywhere but Robin.
“You kinda look like her.” Nancy says quietly.
“Huh?” Robin asks, confused.
“Like Debby, you kind of look like Debby.” says Nancy, uncharacteristically shy.
Robin smiles widely. “High praise, Wheeler.”
Nancy rolls her eyes, smiling. “Whatever….So what do you want to do?” Nancy asks, looking at Robin.
“What do YOU want to do? When you called I thought something was terribly wrong or something.”
“Sorry.” Nancy looks down.
Robin puts a hand on her knee.
“S’okay. I’m teasing. I don’t really know, honestly. What do people do when they hang out at 3 am?” Robin asks, laughing but genuinely.
Nancy blushes, embarrassed.
“I don’t know. Just wanted to see you. We haven’t really talked without the implication of monster-killing hanging over us.”
“Okay! What did you wanna talk about, exactly?” Robin asks, smiling.
Nancy looks down at her lap.
“I…don’t know? Anything?” Nancy shrugs.
“Okay. Interrogate me.” Robin remembers saying that to Steve. She laughs, embarrassed.
“I mean, ask me something.” Robin says, trying to restate what she said.
Nancy looks at Robin, searching for something to ask.
“Um. What’s your favorite color?”
“Bullshit, Nance. Ask me something better.”
Nancy looks at her ceiling.
Robin notices Nancy’s unusually awkward demenor.
“Fine. I’ll ask you something.”
Nancy looks at Robin, waiting.
“...Do you still like Steve?” Robin asks, timidly.
Nancy looks down.
“...No.”
Robin fidgets with her hands. “Right. I just…I was wondering, cuz you were looking at him in the Upside Down like you liked him, or something. I just…you can tell me, if you do like him. I don’t care.”
“I don’t like Steve.” Nancy answers, matter of factly.
Robin looks away, she doesn’t believe Nancy.
“Right.” Robins mumbles, blankly.
Nancy looks up from her hands to observe Robin.
“Do you?” she asks.
Robin sighs, bringing her hands to her head.
“I’ve told you that I don’t, Nancy.” Robin says, seriously.
“I don’t believe you.” Nancy whispers, hurt in her voice.
“I don’t believe you either!” Robin shoots back, frustrated.
Nancy glances at Robin, taken aback and hurt by the anger in her voice. She shudders, and clears her throat, trying not to cry. Normally, something like this wouldn't even bother Nancy, but coming from Robin, it’s just unexpected.
Robin immediately softens her gaze and brings her hand to Nancy’s, squeezing it softly. She chokes up a little, angry that Nancy doesn't believe her, but mostly angry with herself for hurting Nancy's feelings.
Robin chokes up as she speaks. “Nance…I didn’t mean to yell at you. I’m sorry…I just…I want you to believe me when I say I don’t like Steve in that way, and I never will.”
Nancy glances at their interlocked fingers.
“Steve said he’d date you.”
“I know. I was there.”
Nancy nods softly, looking away. Her mind was plagued with thoughts of Robin. Who does Robin like? Why does she even care so much?
Nancy’s lost in thought, so Robin nudges her gently.
“Penny for your thoughts?”
What was Nancy thinking about, though? Robin’s incessant denial of dating Steve? Who Robin does like? Mostly, though, it was “Why does she care so much about Robin’s love life?” Why does it feel like Robin’s not telling her something? She tells Robin stuff, at least, she thinks she does. Did she do something wrong, to make Robin not want to be honest with her? She decides it’s just her journalistic instincts. She wants to figure things out, figure people out. Figure Robin out.
“It’s nothing, Robin.” Nancy lies.
It is something, Robin. Nancy wants to know what it is, but she knows it’s something.
Robin looks down at her lap.
Nancy chokes on her words as she speaks, “Am I a bad friend, Robin?”
Robin’s eyes shoot up to Nancy’s.
“No.”
Robin sighs. Would she really have to tell Nancy? Now?
Nancy looks at Robin softly, waiting for her to continue.
Robin looks around the room, uncomfortably.
“You aren’t a bad friend, there’s just things that you shouldn’t know. Things you don’t want to know.” Robin sighs, deflated.
Something she didn’t want to know?
November 12th, 1983
“What are you talking about?” Nancy looks at Barb, eyebrows furrowed and arms crossed in confusion.
Barb paces around Nancy’s room, fists balled.
“There’s just things that are better left unsaid. About people. About me.”
Nancy puts a hand on Barb’s shoulder, trying to get her to calm down.
“I don’t understand.”
“Yeah, Nance. You don’t.” Barb replies, defensively.
Nancy squeezes Barb’s shoulder.
“But I want to.”
Barb sighs.
“No, you don’t. I promise you don’t. Nancy, you wouldn’t want to be my friend anymore.”
“Barbara!” Nancy sighs, exasperated.
Barb raises her hands in defense.
“You wouldn’t!”
Nancy crosses her arms, determined to get Barb to explain to her what was going on.
“Try me.”
Barb sighs, hanging her head.
“If I tell you, even if you’re disgusted by me, even if you want to run away and never talk to me again, you can’t tell anyone else. Nobody, okay? Do you promise?”
Nancy raises her eyebrows.
“I’m not going to be disgusted. Did you commit a crime or something?”
Barb sighs, and sits down on Nancy’s floor, picking at the carpet.
“Might as well be considered a social crime.” Barb mutters.
Nancy shrugs.
“Okay, tell me.”
“You didn’t promise.” Barb says, flatly.
Nancy looks at Barb, sits across from her, and sticks out her pinky finger.
“I promise.”
Barb brings a shaky hand up to Nancy, interlocking their pinky fingers.
“I like girls.” Barb whispers, staring at the floor.
Nancy looks at Barb, confused.
“How do you mean?”
Barb sighs deeply.
“I mean- like, I like like them. I want to kiss girls and not boys.”
Nancy looks at Barb, the same confused expression on her face.
“Are you thinking about your newfound inherent disgust for me?” Barb deadpans.
Nancy furrows her brows and takes Barb’s hands in her own.
“No. I just...why couldn’t you tell me that? Doesn’t everyone want to kiss girls? Everyone says they like boys, but they don’t actually like them…right?”
Barb is now the one to appear confused.
“Uh, no. Normal girls like boys. Like like them.”
Nancy is confused. She knows about how people talk about gay people, how her parents talk about them, but she’s never understood it. Didn’t every girl like girls? Didn’t they just pretend to like boys so that they wouldn’t be bullied?
Barb shifts awkwardly.
“Uh, Nance? Do you…like like girls too?”
“Doesn’t everyone?” Nancy responds timidly.
“No, most girls like boys.”
Nancy ponders this.
“Do you like me?” Nancy asks Barb quietly, eyes wide.
Barb’s taken aback.
“Nance, just because I like girls, doesn’t mean I like every girl. Or you.”
Nancy looks down at her hands, a lump in her throat.
“What if I want you to?” Nancy asks, timidly.
Barb looks up, wide-eyed. She leans in to kiss Nancy, but the doorbell rings right before their lips touch. They startle away from eachother as they hear footsteps treading up the stairs.
Steve barges into Nancy’s room.
“Hey Nance. And…Carla?”
“It’s Barbara.” Nancy says, irritated.
“Oh. Kay. I just wanted to invite you to my party on Saturday. It’s a pool party, bring a swimsuit. Darla can come too, I guess.” Steve says, uncaringly.
Nancy and Barb roll their eyes.
“Its-” Nancy begins to speak, but Barb puts her hand on her knee, and gives her a look. She mouths “It’s fine.” Nancy plasters on a fake smile.
“Sure, we’ll be there.” Nancy replies. Barb looks at her, furrowing her brows.
“Cool. Uh, hey you.” Steve points at Barb.
Barb raises her eyebrows.
“Can you like, go? I wanted to talk to Nance, alone.”
Barb raises an arm in defense, pointing to Nancy.
“But…we were-” Nancy puts her hand on Barb’s.
“Yeah, Steve. She’ll go.” Barb looks at Nancy, hurt evident in her face. She stands up to leave.
Nancy stops her.
“Hey Barb?”
“Yeah?” Barb lights up, hoping Nancy changed her mind about kicking Barb out.
“Can you drive me to Steve’s for the party?” Nancy asks hopefully, oblivious to the hurt in Barb’s eyes.
“...Fine.” Barb says, dejectedly. She leaves.
Nancy avoided talking to Barb about that day. The only time she spoke to her again was at Steve’s party.
Barb died that night.
But Robin was here. Robin was okay, and whatever she was talking about, if she was like Barb, Nancy was determined not to mess it up again.
Robin waves at Nancy, who’s been lost in thought for a while.
“Nance?” Robin calls out, worried.
Nancy looks up at Robin, teary-eyed. She scoots to lean against her headboard.
“You remind me of a friend.” Nancy says, sadly.
Robin scoots over to her, copying her body language.
“How do you mean?” Robin asks, curiosity in her voice.
Nancy looks at Robin, teary-eyed.
“She said that too. That there were things I shouldn’t know. Things I wouldn’t want to know. About her.” Nancy sighs, her voice cracking. She continues, shakily. “She died. That weekend. She died thinking I didn’t care about her, that I didn’t love her. But I did, and I never got to fully be honest with her. But you…are here.” Nancy begins to cry. “You’re here, and so, I need you to know, that whatever it is, it’s okay. We’re always going to be friends. Nothing can change that. Do you understand?” Nancy tries to regain her composure, looking at Robin, pleading that she understands.
Robin looks at Nancy, crying herself. “Promise?” she asks, shakily.
Nancy confidently brings her hand to Robin, locking their pinkies.
“I promise.”
Robin scoffs, smiling at Nancy.
“...I don’t like boys.” It’s barely above a whisper, but Nancy beams at her, hugging her tightly.
“Debby Harry.” Nancy states, still hugging Robin.
“What?”
“Me neither. Don’t like Steve like that. I like Debby Harry”
Nancy can feel Robin’s heartbeat quicken against her. She pulls away to look at Robin, who’s obviously flustered. Nancy nudges her with her arm.
“Surprise.” Nancy smiles.
“You said she looks like me.” Robin smirks.
Nancy shrugs, looking away. “Yeah, I like you too.”
Robin’s eyes go wide, and her face turns red.
“I-” Robin begins to speak, but her throat goes dry.
“Do you like me too?” Nancy asks, boldly.
“Yes.”
“Okay. Can I kiss you, Robs?”
Robin’s heart flutters at the nickname. Her face gets even redder.
“Yes.” She squeaks out.
Nancy scoots closer to Robin, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. She places one hand on her cheek, caressing it, and one on her shoulder to stabilize herself. The doorbell rings, but this time, nobody answers. Nobody answers and Nancy won’t answer either. Robin is too important.
“I’ll get it later.” Nancy says softly, before placing her lips onto Robin’s and pulling her closer into a passionate kiss.
Robin slowly pulls away to look at Nancy in adoration.
Nancy gazes at Robin lovingly. She didn’t mess up this time. She hopes she never would again.