Chapter Text
Chapter 1:
Nancy sighed, irritation boiling under her skin as her research was once again interrupted. The tap, tap, tap of nails on a desk, no matter how rhythmic and catchy, was making her eye twitch. She swept her eyes across the page again. God, she must have read the same line eight times now.
Tap, ta-tap, tap! She gritted her teeth and glanced up. She should have known who would be there. Only one person could get on her nerves like this. And sure enough, there she was… Robin, bobbing her head and tapping out a beat with her fingers as she studied.
Nancy narrowed her eyes. Of fucking course it would be Robin. As if she wasn’t subjected to her company enough. She rolled her eyes. Why Barb and Steve decided that they needed another friend, no, why it had to be Robin, was beyond her.
Robin was… eccentric, Nancy decided on. She was loud. She rambled about things that Nancy just didn’t care to listen to. She was messy. When Nancy had dropped by Steve’s place that he shares with Robin, she had noticed many of Robin’s things lying around the house.
Nancy had felt overwhelmed just from the two minutes she had spent in the house.
She watched as Robin tapped out a quick beat and glared at the other girl. As if sensing her gaze, Robin looked up, grinning as her blue-gray eyes met Nancy’s own hazel. She reached up and plucked an ear bud from her ear and Nancy couldn’t help but notice a new tattoo on the inside of Robin’s wrist. It looked like some sort of connect the dot heart shape with a sword behind it.
“Hey, Nance.” Robin’s husky voice floated through the space between them. “Like my drum solo?”
Nancy pursed her lips. “Not particularly.”
Robin grinned at her, running a hand through her shaggy dirty blonde hair. With the amount of rings on her fingers, Nancy was surprised that they didn’t get snagged on her hair. “Well, jazz isn’t for everyone.” She shrugged.
“It’s distracting.” Nancy retorted, that irritation rising again. “Some of us are trying to study.”
“Well, duh.” Robin said, fiddling with the silver ring on her thumb. “This is the library. That’s what I’m doing.” She held up the book she was reading, a copy of The Count of Monte Cristo. “Studying.”
Nancy grit her teeth. “Well, try to do it more quietly, please.”
Robin opened her mouth to say more, but before she could, a familiar head of hair appeared around the corner.
Steve was the kind of effortless cool that most people wished they could be. He was tall, still had an athletes figure even though he hadn’t played basketball since high school, and the hair. What Nancy wouldn’t give to have that kind of volume.
He had an easy grin on his face as he took them in. “Hey. There are my girls.” He draped his arms around Robin from behind, hugging her to him.
Robin’s grin widened as she looked up at him. It was odd. Nancy knew that Robin was gay. Everyone did. She didn’t try to hide it. But there was an intimacy to Steve and Robin’s relationship that sometimes felt like she was intruding on a special moment.
“Time for a study break.” Steve announced. “Barb and Eddie are meeting us at McRoy’s.”
“Steve,” Nancy sighed. “I have so much work to do still.”
She heard the scraping of a chair against the floor and looked up to see that Robin was already packing her things in her canvas bag.
Good. Perhaps now, she could actually get some research done.
“Come on, Nance.” Steve said. “We haven’t seen you in a couple of days. Let’s go eat and then I promise, we’ll let you come back here and bury your nose in your research.”
“Yeah.” Robin piped up. “Why so serious?” She dropped her voice as she said it. If anyone else had done the impression, it probably would have made her laugh, but Nancy just stared at Robin, an eyebrow lifted, unimpressed. “Geez. Tough crowd. Okay, well, I know for a fact that you haven’t eaten anything since you got here,” she checked the time on her phone, “five hours ago. And I bet you were in such a rush to get here, you didn’t eat breakfast either.”
Nancy stared at Robin. How did she know that?
“I’ve been here the whole time.” Robin said, as if it were completely obvious.
Nancy furrowed her brows. She had arrived to the library at eight in the morning. She didn’t remember seeing Robin there when she had entered. And the tapping had only started in the last thirty minutes or so.
She was about to protest again when her stomach made a small gurgling noise. Sighing, she put away her things and followed Steve and Robin, the latter already chattering a mile a minute.
Nancy would never admit it out loud, but she was glad that Steve had made her take a break. It turned out that she was incredibly hungry, and McRoy’s had the best burger in all of Boston.
They had discovered McRoy’s accidentally the first week they had been in the city. Steve had insisted they needed to explore the city, which ultimately led them to getting lost. Nancy had almost cried when they spotted the sign, an old glass, neon Coca-Cola sign, out front.
Stepping through the door had been like stepping through a time machine. The interior was like a malt shop from the 50’s, one of the ones her grandparents would have gone to in high school. And the food, the food was amazing. It took exactly one bite for Nancy to fall in love.
She ate as Eddie regaled them with the latest tale of how he had tortured his poor D&D group, his grin wide as he explained different monsters he’d had them fight and plot points he’d like to hit in future sessions. Nancy had never been into Dungeons and Dragons, though she knew far too much about it since her little brother Mike had been playing since Middle School.
Robin nodded along with the story, her hand reaching over and grabbing a fry from Nancy’s plate. Nancy narrowed her eyes as Robin brought it absentmindedly to her lips and ate it, as if she hadn’t just stolen it from Nancy’s plate… right in front of Nancy.
“And then Robin totally whiffed the roll. I’m talking a nat one.”
“Yeah, Darrel totally screwed me over on that one.” Robin said even as an easy grin made its way to her full lips. She met Nancy’s eyes, apparently seeing the question in them. “Darrel is my D20.”
“You named your dice?” Nancy asked dubiously.
“Only Darrel. He’s kind of shitty. He either rolls really well or, like, really terribly.”
“Your dice is a he?”
“Yeah. You know, cause men are super shitty.” She joked and knocked her shoulder against Steve’s as if to soften the blow.
“Oh. Okay. I’ll remember that the next time you need a ride, Buckley.”
“Nooo.” Robin looked up at him with a pout, blue eyes going wide in an expression that gave Nancy the impression of a puppy. “What will I do without my chauffeur?”
Steve put his hand to his chest, expression aghast even as a smile threatened to take over his face. “Is that all I am to you? And here I thought we had something truly special.” He wiped an imaginary tear from his eyes.
Robin threw her head back, laughing loud and long.
“Speaking of something special,” Eddie smirked at Robin. “How’d things go with that girl? Vickie, right?”
Nancy startled. She hadn’t known that Robin was seeing anyone. Surely Robin would have said something. The girl never seemed to stop talking.
“Oh. We’re not going to see each other anymore.” Robin smiled a little self deprecatingly. “She’s still hung on her ex. She talked about him throughout the whole evening. I barely got a word in. It’s just not a good fit.”
Nancy stared at Robin for a moment. Robin fiddled with one of the rings on her finger as she stared at the tabletop.
“Well, that’s just ridiculous.” She heard herself saying. “And really rude.”
“Yeah.” Barb spoke up. “Who even does that? Like, she agreed to go on a date with you and then just talks about some guy the whole time. You’re way better off.”
Robin looked up and their eyes met, a soft look in her eyes as she smiled slowly. “Thanks, guys.” She turned her head to meet Barb’s gaze. Her posture loosened little by little as the conversation shifted, Barb taking over with a funny story about one of the students she tutored.
Nancy felt eyes on her and looked up to see Robin watching her softly. She mouthed a quick ‘Thank you,’ before her gaze shifted back to Barb, fully immersing herself in the conversation again.
Nancy stared at Robin a moment longer. She hadn’t done anything special, just spoke the truth. It was rude to go on a date with someone and spend the entire night talking about an ex. And, if Nancy were being honest. She didn’t quite understand. Because, sure, sometimes Nancy found Robin infuriatingly annoying, but she could admit that Robin was pretty, and funny when she wanted to be, and she knew that she was a good friend to Barb and Steve. So, it wasn’t like other people wouldn’t find her appealing.
“So, is everyone coming Friday?” Steve asked, interrupting her train of thought.
“Hell yeah!” Eddie said.
“Duh, dingus. I live there.”
“Yep.” Barb said simply.
“Nancy?” Steve turned to her. “You coming?”
Damn it. She had forgotten that Steve was throwing a party. “I don’t know, Steve. I have so much studying to do. And I still have to write that piece for the paper. It’s due Monday.”
“Come on, Nance. That’s what Saturday and Sunday are for.” Eddie said, leaning forward. “Live a little.”
“You need a break. And I need you to come to my party.” Steve grinned at her; all charm and enthusiasm.
“Yeah. You can think of it as an assignment. Going undercover. Getting the scoop. And writing the best article ever. The Secret Lives of the American College Students by Nancy Wheeler, future Pulitzer winner. You can take notes on frat guys and how stupid they act when they think they’re going to get laid.” Robin jumped in.
Nancy twisted her mouth to the side, trying not to smile. Because that was actually kind of funny, and a little sweet.
She sighed, “Fine.” Everyone except Barb whooped in excitement. “But don’t get mad if I leave super early.”
“Yesssss!!” Steve let out. “It’s going to be great! I’ve invited so many people.”
Nancy rubbed at her temples. She was already starting to regret this.