a helping hand | ronance

THREE

ROBIN WAS PICKED up by steve for lunch that day, just as he had promised. she was relieved to exit the school building, hopping into his car. she was suprised when she was hit by the smell of food from her favorite restaurant.

"hey," steve greeted, handing her the bag of food and driving off from the front of the school. "how was the first half of your day?"

"awful," she mumbled, popping a french fry into her mouth.

"what? why!" he asked, a concerned look spreading across his face.

"because i threw up during my first hour," she informed him, "and then nancy fucking wheeler showed up in the bathroom to see if i was okay!"

"nance did?" steve questioned.

steve had dated nancy wheeler in her sophomore year, which was his junior year. once they broke up, she moved on to jonathan and never looked back. it took a while, but steve finally got over nancy.

"yeah, she sits next to me in english," robin explained.

"oh," steve said, connecting the dots in his head. "i mean, she's a good person. she makes sure everyone's alright. she's nice to everyone, but i haven't really seen her go out of her way to make sure someone was okay much"

"so what, i'm like....special or something?" robin laughed at that thought of nancy wheeler ever genuinely caring about her.

-

after school, steve picked her up again, making his third trip to the school that day. he rarely ever came for lunch, and occasionally picked her up from school. she'd usually tell him not to worry about it, and that she'd walk home.

however, with her pregnancy, steve didn't want to take the chance of the long walk. he was worried it would be too much exercise, but he also knew nothing about pregnancies.

"do you want to go home or go to work? if you want to go home i'll tell keith we both need to take the day off- but don't worry, i won't tell him why"

"you can take me home and you go to work. i've done way too much social interaction for the day. and besides, you don't to miss work because of me"

"too bad. i'm not leaving your side"

he drove to her house, a comfortable silence filling the air. she kept the music volume at thirteen, three volume levels higher than normal. steve had noted how she always liked it at a ten if she wanted to talk normally. above ten meant no talking at all, and below ten meant she wanted to talk about something serious.

when they got to robin's, robin quickly got out of the car. when steve tried to open his door to go inside too, robin came to his side and closed it.

"steve, i love you. and i appreciate you trying to help. but please let me be alone for a bit. if you want to, come over after work. but please go into work," robin pleaded, trying to get a few hours of peace and quiet.

"okay, okay," steve put his hands up in surrender. "but seriously, call me-"

"if i need anything. i know," robin finished with a smile. "thanks"

"love you rob," steve shouted out the window as he backed out of the driveway, driving down the street.

robin went into her house, notcing the lack of her mom's car in the driveway. she went straight to the kitchen to grab snacks and a drink before heading back into her room.

she let the silence consume her, taking it in like a breath of fresh air as she sat on her bed, watching the ceiling.

-

steve had came back like he promised, staying the night in her bed again. her mom never returned, and robin assumed she was out with some guy again like she always was.

the next morning, steve awoke to robin slapping him in the arm. "dingus, it's time to go. i tried waking you up the whole time i was getting ready and you kept falling back asleep"

"sorry rob," he replied, instantly jumping up and grabbing his keys. he slipped his feet into his shoes as he raced out the door, robin following behind him.

the car ride was silent due to robin putting the volume level to a fourteen as she stared out the window. steve felt bad for this morning, but he had been so tired after staying up late. he tried helping her out by cleaning her room up a bit, and lost track of time while he began focusing on making it spotless.

robin was sure to have noticed, and she might have said something while he was in his sleep-drunken state. if she did, he couldn't remember a single word of that conversation.

he pulled up at school, looking over at robin. she got out of the car, and steve opened his mouth.

"i know the speech, harrington," she laughed.

"alrighr, alright," he laughed too, "go on in. you got this!"

"shut up," she rolled her eyes playfully, flipping him off as she walked away. and that was the most in-character thing steve had seen robin do since the incident happened.

robin, on the other hand, trudged into the school building, her head hanging low. she stopped outside of her classroom, taking a deep breath before sliding into her seat.

nancy was already there, of course. there wasn't a single day in the whole school year that robin had beaten nancy to class. robin ran a hand through her hair, trying to kill the feeling of her stomach tossing and turning.

as the teacher ran through his lesson, robin was pulled away from class by her thoughts. she took in a deep breath halfway through class, trying to supress the feeling of nausea.

she was lost in her thoughts when she felt nancy tap her, sliding a small piece of paper across the desk to her. robin looked down at the small piece of paper, seeing nancy's neat handwriting on the page.

how do you feel today?

-

a/n: soph yelled at me to write this chapter. my bad it's out late.