Black Sheep | Robin Buckley

jealousy

The week is long. The silver cat feeds when blue meets yellow in the west. That was it. That's the code.

"What does it mean?" Steve gapes at the fully translated sequence written on the whiteboard.

"No clue" I mutter. Sounds like a bunch of nonsense to me.

"It's obviously a code" Robin sighs.

"A code?" Dustin repeats quizzically.

"Yeah, it's too specific to be random, it obviously means something"

I think it over for a minute before adding "I guess if I was an evil Russian I wouldn't want to just tell my enemies we're firing the missiles at dawn"

"That's a stretch" my brother huffs.

"Is it?" Robin taunts.

Dustin seems to begin agreeing "I guess that makes sense but how do be figure out what it means?"

"Well it's closing time so it's going to have to wait" Steve argues ushering us out the store so he can close the shutter.

Why is he so grumpy today?

"It's probably about a weapon" Robin mumbles after some silence.

"Or a meeting place" Dustin spitballs.

"Where's Steve?" I stop in my tracks noticing his disappearance.

We all turn to see him crouched at a small children's ride.

"I need a quarter" he says blandly not even giving us a look back.

"You sure you're tall enough?" Robin taunts jogging over.

I reluctantly throw my backpack down and rummage through to find my purse. "Here dipshit this better be worth it"

Without even a thank you he inserts the coin and watches the toy horse rock back and forth. "Need help getting up little Stevie?" The blonde mocks him again.

"Shut up and listen"

"Holy shit" Dustin breathes and drops his backpack to the ground joining mine. "The music"

He plays the tape and the same rhythmic tune plays out. "Maybe they have horses like this in Russia?" Robin suggests.

"The Indiana flyer? No"

"So this code...came from here?" I gawk letting my jaw hang. We have Russians here, in Hawkins.

***

With this discovery, Dustin supposed it would be a good idea to come back to the mall tomorrow to 'spy' for Russians. This honestly sounded like the worst plan I could even think of, does he think they walk around in trench coats holding the Russian flag up or something?

If I'm being honest though I didn't hate spending time with him, he was after all one of my only true friends despite our age gap. Plus if I could use spy missions as an excuse to see Robins heart throbbing smile that was more then a compensation.

Unfortunately for me, someone had to run the store which obviously wasn't going to be my dumbass brother. To be fair, that was our one common denominator- stupidity. We were kind of the himbo/bimbo sibling duo. At least I had some form of street smarts though, Steve well lets just say the hair is weighing down on his brain...

So Robin was not coming along to spy with us to my disappointment. I couldn't let is show though, I didn't. "Dude you are the worst spy ever" Dustin groans snatching the binoculars back.

"What?" He huffs defensively. He'd been gawking at some girl he probably used to date who was now with some guy he claims to be a meathead but let's be honest here- who's more of a meathead then my big brother?

"I don't even get why your looking at girls you have the perfect one right infront of you"

Who is he talking about?

"Robin" No, no, no.

"Dude don't say that" Steve mutters reaching for the binoculars once more.

Dodging his grab attempt Dustin spits out a string of taunting "Robin, Robin, Robin, Robin, Robin"

My stomach hurt. I love my brother I do but... I hated how he could get any girl he wanted like it was nothing. His type and my type weren't exactly aligned so I've never been jealous of anyone in particular but I just hate how he takes his love life so for granted.

"She's not even my type" he hisses.

"What's your type? Not awesome?" Dustin jests.

"No he's into girls who use him for his money and status" I mumble feeling passive aggressive. I have no right to be mad right now but I really couldn't handle it if he dated Robin. Like he said, she's not even his type anyway so it'd only be more of a sting. He'd take away someone who I had to fawn over in secrecy while he could get them into a relationship with a single sweep of his stupid hair.

Steve gives me a look, knitted eyebrows and a slight wrinkle in his nose. I instantly felt bad. "Oh yeah and what? You suddenly know everything about dating when you've had exactly zero public relationships? Sounds super healthy to me" Nevermind I don't feel bad anymore.

"Well at least I don't need to show off with a girl on my arm for popularity points, you self centered dick" I spit the words like venom.

Dustin has an expression of pure shock. I don't think me and Steve have ever argued infront of him and honestly I don't think we'd even argued since he stopped hanging around his stupid bad boy squad.

Steve is clearly feeling hurt and overwhelmed by the outburst, he comes back with something even harder "yeah? well at least I have the balls to get out there, all you do is mope around the house like a pathetic loser, you would have been nobody if it wasn't for me"

The words feel like glass shards in my chest. I bite back the stinging tears forming in my eyes and stand up suddenly. Without saying anything I turn and stomp away. It hurt because he was right. The only reason anyone even knew who I was is because he made the Harrington reputation. I shouldn't care about popularity or that shit but it's so difficult not to when your older sibling is the king of Hawkins high. Try living in that shadow for years and see how it feels.