Robin x Nancy // maybe we aren't that different

Chapter 38: truly a build up

Clearly she had gone crazy. Somehow she had slipped right past drunk and fallen straight into the hallucination portion of the evening because there was no way Robin was here now, when the clock had barley passed eight.

"Hey"

Nancy tilts her head, swaying in place as she did so.

Once it became abruptly clear that Nancy wasn't going to warrant the conversation Robin cleared her throat.

"Um, can I come in?"

Nancy looks at herself, crumpled clothes, tangled hair, smudged makeup, she looks like a wreck and a half.

Now she was praying it was a dream.

"Robin?"

"Why do you sound so surprised Wheeler?" Robin says, her tone shifting in an instant, the amused grin spreading on her face.

"you can't blame me for not expecting a surprise visit"

"Yeah I guess I can't"

She makes a gesture with her head and Nancy steps aside to let her in.
"How was it?"
Not that Nancy can handle knowing, honestly she can barely look Robin in the eye.
She should put this off until tomorrow, when she will be in a more sensible headspace for this, when her worst concern is the headache one is bound to get after that much alcohol.

"Honestly? It was fine"

Robin deserves more than that, more than fine.

"So," she says, her thoughts a tad foggier than she would like right now but, simultaneously exactly what she needs to feel a bit more at ease, " I guess my question is, why are you here, now?" Her words come out slightly slurred, her eyes dimly lit and lidded.

"Look," Robin is saying, "I tried, I gave it a go" she's coming closer now.
"I went on a date,"

she's looking at her with those big blue eyes, and Nancy thinks this was all done for at the start.

"And she was amazing, talkative and funny,"

Nancy's hands are gripping the stair railing hard enough to hurt.
She can practically feel her heart drop.

"And I think she is the perfect person for someone" Robin says almost aloft.

"Oh." Is the best and only thing Nancy can convince her mouth to say.
She's feeling very drunk at this point and the conversation is not at all helping with the concern that she is feeling incredibly unsteady on her feet.

"All I'm saying is that I think we need to talk" Robin is continuing.

Nancy is clearly not picking up what Robin is putting down and has decided on staring at the strip of wall just above Robin's shoulder until everything stops moving.

"Nance?"

"Mmh?"

"Correct me if I'm wrong but, are you... are you drunk?"

Nancy nods, loses her balance and almost falls over. Robin Looks as though she will laugh but suppresses it, "if you don't mind me asking... how?"

"How do you think?" She says, her words slurring.

*****

She's drunk.

Very drunk. And mind you, probably not going to remember much of this in the morning.

She had it all planned out, the long walk home had given her that much. They would talk, Nancy would be surprised, Nancy would be shocked, Nancy could be anything really, anything except drunk.

"You, should be in bed" Robin says pointedly.

"You should be on a date." Nancy replies.

Fair.

She can't do this now though, it wouldn't be right. Not with Nancy's fragile wobbly state and glassy eyes. As much as she wants to get it out of the way it's stuck here until the morning when Nancy's mind clears.

"We can still talk" Nancy says, her voice not in nearly the same octave as before.

But she can't now.
Tomorrow.

"Tomorrow" Robin says. Whatever she needs to say will be said, it can all wait, she needs to have patience.
Maybe it's not at all a bad idea, having to wait, gives her more time to prepare, mentally of course.

"Cant— can't drive you home like this"

"I'll walk, it's not far"

she looks guilty, Robin is thinking, guilty and bewildered.

"We can talk tomorrow, for now let's just get you to bed."

Nancy gives a conceding look and glances down, she looks so petulant, like a little kid refusing to eat their vegetables. It reminds her of the few times else Nancy was drunk in her presence, at the party, with Robin dragging her away from the lights and noise. How Nancy had looked at her, how everything had unraveled.

She didn't want to leave yet, she needed the company, even if it was only for a little bit.

She nudged Nancy up the stairs and persuaded her to brush her teeth, then after practically pushing Nancy in bed Robin went down stairs to grab a glass of water.

It was strange being the responsible one, one would think that Robin would be more of the rebel but contrary to popular belief, she  found herself more and more taking on the duty.

Nancy is tucked in under the covers when she returns, hair spilling out in a mosaic of browns and curls over the pillow, hands,— one hanging loosely off the bed and the other tucked in, cradling her face.

Her head is muffled into the pillow as she's saying, "talk away, I'm not too sleepy yet"

Robin laughs, "tomorrow"

Somthing about the expression on Nancy's face yanks at her heart. It was so complicated, a emotion she could only categorise as longing.

Reluctantly, she leaves. She slips on her shoes, grabs her burgundy bag, tucks the frazzled strands of hair behind her ears in the mirror and starts the journey home.

She knows that this could very well be the last day of her normal relationship with Nancy but then again was it ever?

She can't say it was love at first sight with them, pretty much the opposite actually. Robin despised Nancy back in middle school, she was too popular, too proud, too pretty, and too much like everything Robin wanted to be.
She had tried hard to avoid everyone, to become completely invisible and just merge into the background.
Of course she wanted to be popular, to be desirable, she was a fifteen year old girl for heavens sake who wouldn't? She wasn't that type though, not the type to have things work out for her, not the type to charm her way through life. So she decided to hate what she didn't have or rather couldn't have.

What bothered her the most is the fact that Nancy didn't even know her name, they had been in the same class since year seven, same school since year three and same neighbourhood since before they were born.

It was weird how fate worked out like that.

Sorry this is so shit guys, ik I took ages to release it as well, I promise the next will be better 🤞😓