What Could've Been || Ronance

I feel like a little kid again.

Nancy watches as Robin bikes off, just making sure she doesn’t get kidnapped by any supernatural monster. Nancy gets more concerned about little things like that than she’d like to admit. Once Robin is out of sight, Nancy heads towards her car, unlocks it, and gets in. She puts her purse in the passenger seat then looks in the mirror and checks her makeup and hair, shrugs to herself, and starts the car. She pulls out of the parking lot, then starts heading home. It’s about a 10-minute drive from star court to her house, Nancy goes on autopilot and thinks to herself about whatever enters her brain. Jonathan, Mike, The assholes at her work, Robin, Barb. Nancy snaps back to reality when the thought of Barb pops into her brain. She freezes, luckily, she's at a red light. But now, she’s lost in thought in something else.

Nancy easily gets caught up in how preventable Barb's death could've been. If she just didn’t go to that stupid party, if she even didn’t date Steve in the first place. She feels chills go up her spine as she remembers how scared El was in the pool. How she kept yelling and yelling “Gone, Gone, Gone!” Nancy breathes in sharply, closes her eyes, and grips the steering wheel. Trying to ground herself. She then jumps at a person honking behind her. She looks at the light, which is now green. “Shit!” She whispers, stepping on the gas.

The next 7 minutes of the ride home are uneventful, Nancy turned on some music to prevent any other unwanted thoughts. When she finally got home, she grabbed her purse, turned off the car, got out, and locked the car. She then walked to her house and opened the door. She walked into the scene of her brother, Mike, begging their mom to let him go somewhere, she assumed El's house, and her mom shaking her head while cleaning the counters. And then her dad reclined back in their recliner and watching TV.

As she’s taking off her shoes, her mom takes notice that she’s home and goes to greet her. “Hey, Nance!” After she hugs her mom she follows her into the kitchen where Mike is, once their mom is back in the kitchen, Mike continues on his rant.

“I’m just saying, Nancy gets to go over at Jonathans all. the. time. She even sleeps over there sometimes!! And I can’t spend a few hours at Els's house? It’s bullshit!”

Karen slaps the counter and stares at Mike wide-eyed. “Micheal!” Nancy rolls her eyes and smiles at the privileges of being the oldest while getting a soda from the fridge and continues watching, wondering how Mike will get himself out of this one. “Nancy is 17, she has a driver's license and her own car. That gives her the privilege and responsibility to be able to go to Jonathans more than you would El’s.” Mike sulks and Karen continues. “Once you're able to drive, you will have more freedom than now.”

Mike rolls his eyes and goes to his room while muttering to himself, probably mocking Karen.

Nancy can’t help but laugh to herself at Mike. Karen turned to her and let out an exhausted laugh, “That boy is gonna be the death of me..”

Nancy smiled at her and then went up and kissed her on the head. “Love you mom”  She then went upstairs, went into the bathroom, and closed the door. She looked at herself in the mirror and then reached for her makeup wipes. After she wiped off all her makeup, she put a headband on and splashed her face with water. She then took her headband off and looked at herself in the mirror again, sighed and left the bathroom. She went into her room where she changed into a simple pink nightgown and threw herself onto her bed face down.

Suddenly, she heard her phone ring. She jumps at the sound and almost falls off her bed. She sits up quickly and stares at the phone at her bedside, quickly picks up the phone, and almost screams out of excitement. “Hello??”

She hears some shuffling on the other side and then a voice, a voice which she was not expecting but probably should've been. “Hey Nance, sorry for calling at such a weird time. I was just wondering if you wanted to hang out tomorrow since we don’t have work.” Jonathan said from the other end. She heard some more shuffling, but it didn’t sound like it was Jonathan, was he with someone? She tries to calm herself down and just tells herself it’s Will or something. But deep down she knows it's not.