Chapter Text
November 6, 1983
The group of teenagers was a little drunk. Nancy’s parents were out of the house, and she thought inviting everyone over was a great idea. So Steve brought the beers, Jonathan brought the games, and Robin and Eddie just showed up ready to have fun.
They were having a great time. It was always like that with them. They’d been friends since they were four, so at this point, they weren’t just friends, they were basically family.
“Soooo… are you gonna tell him?” a tipsy Robin asked Nancy.
Nancy had a massive crush on Jonathan. And from Robin’s point of view, it was totally mutual. She’d told Nancy she should make the first move and just tell him how she felt. You’ve been friends forever, you’ll be fine, Robin had said before the guys arrived.
Nancy still wasn’t sure. Not because of Jonathan, but because of herself. She knew all the boys’ stories. Steve, who seemed to have a new girlfriend every month. Jonathan, who’d had a girlfriend the year before. Nancy knew that whole thing had been more Steve’s idea than Jonathan’s, but still. It counted as experience.
“No.”
Nancy was drunk, not stupid. So she decided she wasn’t doing anything that night.
“I hate your stupid game,” Steve complained, standing up. “It’s like—ugh! It’s not fair. You always win.”
He was glaring straight at Eddie.
“It’s not my fault you suck at UNO,” Eddie shot back. “I mean, it’s a fucking kids’ game.”
Jonathan was drunk enough to laugh at literally everything. He just sat there with his cards, grinning.
“You cheat!” Steve accused.
“No! Of course I don’t.”
Robin was laughing in the back with Nancy.
“You’re sleeping here, right?” Nancy asked.
“Yeah, I guess. I mean, I’m not that drunk,” Robin said, getting up and heading toward Nancy’s room. “Can I steal a shirt?”
Nancy smiled and stood up too.
“What’s mine is yours.”
They went upstairs together.
Nancy wasn’t thinking clearly. All she could think about was how embarrassing it would be if Jonathan said yes and she had absolutely no idea what to do next. At that moment, she seriously cursed herself for never caring much about boys or dating.
Like… how the fuck do girls even learn how to kiss?
Oh.
“Robin… can I kiss you?”
“Excuse me?” Robin said, caught completely off guard, by the question and the situation as a whole.
Nancy stepped closer and gently cupped Robin’s face in her hands. Her touch was soft, her expression almost childlike. Robin could tell the question hadn’t been asked with bad intentions, just curiosity.
“Please… just one.”
“Nance, this is… I don’t—” Robin started, stumbling over her words. “Why?”
“I’ll tell you after,” Nancy said, still not realizing how strange this all was. With Robin, everything always felt normal. Like, they could do literally anything and it would be fine, because it was Robin. Add alcohol to that, plus her natural curiosity, and suddenly…
Kissing Robin became the goal.
“Well, I’ll—”
That tiny yes was all Nancy needed. She leaned in, her hands already on Robin’s face, pulling her closer. The kiss was brief, just long enough for Nancy to confidently brush both of Robin’s lips. Long enough for Robin to feel like her heart was about to explode.
Robin didn’t even move her hands. She just leaned back against the bed, frozen, unsure how long it was supposed to last.
Nancy pulled away and met Robin’s blue eyes. They were so confused it made her feel like something bad was about to happen. And yet… she felt something else too. She didn’t know what it was, but she knew it wasn’t regret.
Her hands stayed on Robin’s face, slowly tracing her jaw, her neck.
“I just wanted to know how to kiss properly,” Nancy said quietly. “So I can kiss Jonathan.”
Robin had never thought of herself as suicidal. But right then, all she wanted was to disappear. She didn’t even know why. Was it because she’d liked the kiss? Because that was weird? Because it was a girl? Because it was her best friend? Or because the whole thing was just painfully stupid?
She stood up too fast, rushed downstairs, grabbed her jacket, and went straight for her bike.
“Robin?” Steve shouted.
But he was way too drunk to follow her.
The other two were already passed out on the couch.
Nancy stayed in her room, confused and completely lost.
She ran downstairs and out to the patio, but there was nothing there.
Robin was gone.
Robin pedaled like going faster might help her outrun every thought crashing through her head.
What the fuck had just happened?
The lights on her bike started to flicker.
She ignored it completely.
Once home, she grabbed a glass of water and tried to calm down. She was still wearing her jacket and "shit". She had Nancy’s T-shirt on. And then she remembered the feeling of her hands on her face and...
The radio in her bedroom suddenly turned on.
“Mom? Are you in my room?” she called out, a little annoyed. She’d told her mom not to go into her room.
“Mom?”
Robin walked down the short hallway, once again ignoring the flickering lights overhead. Her heart dropped when she realized what was wrong.
Her mom wasn’t home.
There was no one in the house.
The glass slipped from her hand and shattered against the floor.
Robin spun around and ran for the phone. Her fingers were shaking, but she still managed to dial, only to be met with silence.
“Shit,” she muttered.
That’s when she saw it.
A creature that looked like it was crawling straight out of the walls. Long hands and an oversized head pushing through the wallpaper of her living room.
Robin was never the kind of girl who screamed, but that image forced the sound out of her with everything she had. She ran to the shed to grab her shotgun, though deep down she knew it wouldn’t help.
The light bulb began to flicker. The wooden walls trembled.
A presence formed behind her.
And then, Robin was gone.