like real people do [ronance ⚢]

2. treehouse

tw: "angst", homophobia!

Nancy Wheeler has known fear.
She has known genuine, frightening fear. The kind of fear that makes one weak in the knees and unable to move as if the blood in one's bloodstream has been frozen.
So yes, Nancy Wheeler has known fear before.

But this is different.

This isn't the fear that had struck her when she'd been running from monsters in the forest or when they had to fight them in a mall at night.
This is a fear that sits much deeper.

Nancy Wheeler is scared of her own monsters, the ones that sit in her head and in her heart.

She is scared because of the people that stand on the street in front of the church, holding signs and yelling 'Sinners'.
She is scared because the men on the radio and on TV say the same.
She is scared because of Robin Buckley.

The girl who has come into her life unexpectedly and from whom she'd only ever known as 'Steve's weird friend' but who turned out to be so much more than that.
The girl with the contagious laugh and the wide smile, the softest of hands.
Robin, who is so much braver than she would ever admit and who had roused something, deep inside of Nancy's heart.

Robin who is sitting next to her, at the edge of the treehouse Nancy's little brother had built when he was little.

Nancy can't quite tell how they ended up in that spot. They had met up at her place to study for a school project together when Robin had spotted the treehouse in their backyard.
The girl's bright eyes had gone wide and she had practically begged for them to continue the studying up there.
She had no idea why she'd ever agree to that. Maybe it was simply Robin, who was to blame for that.

Now, hours later, her head is leaning back as her eyes are focused on the night sky.

This night is clearer than the usual nights of Hawkins. Not a single cloud is visible anywhere above and the shining of the stars and the moon are their only source of light.

While Robin is staring at the sky, Nancy is staring at Robin, secretly wishing for her to turn her head and meet her gaze.

She longs for that, all of her.
She longs for the all-familiar feeling of when Robin looks at her. Not just that it makes her feel seen, and it really does, but Nancy longs for the warmth too.
The warmth of her presence is not enough, she needs the kind her stares give her.

Nancy wonders.
She wonders if this is what those men are talking about everywhere these days.
If softness, warmth, and tenderness are what god intended to be sins.
If that could really be?
What if those people knew how it truly feels? What if they could feel what Nancy is feeling for Robin?
She wishes that it could make a difference.

"Robin" she breathes, without having the slightest idea what to say next.

Still, Robin turns, finally returning her stare.

"Nance?" she raises a brow.

Nancy doesn't know what to say, so she remains silent.

Robin moves her body closer to Nancy's, their shoulders brushing against the others in the dark.

The unexpected touch is sending shivers down her spine.
Again, she wonders. If such a brief brush of skin is capable of such shivers, what would other things do?
What would happen if she would take her hand? Rub her thumb over her knuckles?
What would happen if Robin Buckley would kiss Nancy Wheeler?

This is when it gets her.

Nancy thought about Robin a lot already. But never like this.
She had her suspicions in times when Robin's presence felt more like it used to feel with Jonathan than with other girls.
When her smile began showing up in her dreams at night, instead of the night terrors.
But never like that.