Chapter Text
Robin was eating in the band room. She always does. She doesn’t exactly have friends besides Steve and they both agreed that it would be weird for him to constantly hang out at his old highschool to talk with some annoying senior. He still picks her up for lunch sometimes or makes her food to bring to school, but for the most part, she’s alone in the band room.
The door opens when she has a mouthful of pb&j. Vickie enters with her case hanging from her fingertips. They share a smile and she happily walks over to sit beside her.
Robin often sits alone, but there are a lot of times Vickie comes in to practice and eats with her. Even more so after the gates opened and they started hanging out regularly.
“Hey Robbie!” She calls her Robbie, which is the cutest thing ever. She says since she’s Vickie, Robin should have a matching nickname like that.
“Hey Vickie.” Robin also found out her name is actually Victoria, Vickie for short.
Steve makes his jokes. All sorts of jokes. Most of them are about how they should be careful hooking up in the band room. Robin always hits him and calls him a pig. Honestly— while her crush has doubled tenfold since actually becoming friends with her— Robin didn’t plan on going for it with Vickie. She had only just broken up with her boyfriend. Not to mention she’s had a boyfriend, but Robin doesn’t think too hard on that. She knows it’s not all gay and straight and that some people can like multiple genders and she’s totally okay with that! She also knows that it takes longer for some lesbians to figure it out then others. There’s a million reasons she shouldn’t give up hope on Vickie’s questionable sexuality!
God she sounds like Steve. She knows he means well, but he goes by so many stereotypes when it comes to queer people. She’s getting close to fixing him, however.
“Why are you always cooped up in here?” Vickie asks, tucking a curl behind her ear. She really had the most gorgeous red hair. She looked beautiful with it short like a pixie. Robin remembers it being long last summer, and it was still just as beautiful, but she thinks this is her favorite look. And the red always complimented the cool tones she used for her eyeshadow. Her lids were a pretty lime color today. It complimented her eyes too. Eyes that were staring into Robin’s right now. “Robbie?”
“What?” She said dumbly, feeling breathless.
“I asked why you’re always eating in here?”
“Oh,” Robin mumbles. Then she jolts and looks back down at her food. There were firm indents in her soggy sandwich now from the way she was gripping it. “Oh! Yeah, well— I can’t always eat out with Steve since it’s weird for him to be hanging around here so much. Plus, I don’t really have anyone to sit with. I’m kind of mean and talk too much to sit with the band kids. And the AP kids. Maybe I can fit in at the freaks’ table, but they’re meaner than me.”
Vickie snorts— she snorts when she laughs, God, she’s so perfect— and starts rifling through her bag. “Yeah, I wouldn’t sit with them. They’re so… intense. And you don’t want to sit with the band kids either. It is constant drama. I’m telling you Robbie, those geeks are so incesteous. Everyone has dated everyone twice over.”
“Well, not everyone,” Robin says and she thinks it’s funny. Like an inside joke with herself. “I’ve never dated any of those horn-dogs, and hopefully I never will.”
Except you, she thinks. I would date you in a second if you asked. You’re not a horn-dog.
“Neither have I,” Vickie agrees and she’s right too. She never has and probably never will. “None of those boys are my type anyways.”
Robin’s heart starts pounding. “What is your type?”
Short blonde hair maybe? Or someone with boobs and a vagina?
“Okay,” she starts to laugh a little, a sweet, pink blush brightening her face. She hides her big smile in the knees of her skirt. Robin swells up inside at the sight. “Okay, you can’t laugh at me, alright?”
“We’ll see.” Robin teases. Vickie shoves her playfully and she bites her lip as her own blush starts to grow.
“Stop!” She whines, drawing it out. Vickie then straightens, still all flustered and cute, and takes a deep breath in. “Okay… I… kinda like the artsy types.”
Robin raises her eyebrows high. “Artsy? And your last boyfriend was…?”
“Oh, God no! No, Dan wasn’t an artsy kid. He was just… y’know,” she shrugs her hands up from where they were dangling on her knees by her elbows. “I’ve known him for a long time, we were friends first and then he asked me out, and I said yes! I liked him, y’know, but I didn’t… really think it was going anywhere. He was just a relationship in the moment. A good highschool memory.”
Robin nodded and tried her darndest not to get her hopes up, but they were close to flying right now. That sounds just like her thought process to saying “yes” to every snot-nosed weirdo in elementary school that asked her to be his girlfriend.
“But there’s those guys…” Vickie sighs dreamily and falls back against the bench they’re sitting on. That tiny bit of hope starts to die. “The ones that read ahead in class and take polaroid pictures of nature and like to paint with oil. The ones in turtlenecks and little itty bitty John Lennon glasses. And they always have the prettiest long hair. All tied back in a bun or fanned out on their shoulders. You know what I’m talking about?”
She turns to gaze up at Robin and she swallows. This is always the hardest part. Robin can lie, she has to be good at lying or else she could actually die, but she has never been good at lying to crushes. She practically blacks out and barely knows what the hell she’s saying whenever she talks to her crushes, it’s impossible to actually lie straight to their faces.
“Yeah,” Robin finally gets out. She swallows again and looks down at her abandoned food. She brings it up to her mouth and takes a bite to try and make an excuse for her short answer. “Yeah, I get the appeal.”
“What’s your type?”
Robin chokes.
Vickie laughs good naturedly and sits up to pat her back comfortingly. Robin’s face is on fire as she coughs into her sleeve. How the fuck is she supposed to do this? She can’t just ignore it, they’re the only ones in the room and it would be awfully incriminating if she refused to answer. And Robin is so bad at lying to her crushes.
“Well…”
Maybe she can just be vague about it? She just needs to remember not to use the wrong pronouns. She can be honest, but not too honest.
“I like personality more than anything else.”
Vickie tilts her head and smiles softly, wordlessly asking for her to continue. Robin swallows again.
“I like when there is passion in their voice. I like it when they’re just so bold. When they have all these dreams that seem bigger than everything. Like becoming famous or something. I like an underdog with a little bit of a strange fashion sense.”
Robin makes her first mistake. She looks down at Vickie’s farmer chic outfit, with her cardigans and straw hat and long flowy dress.
“I love a babe with a weird streak.”
Vickie laughs to herself and Robin smiles. She’s breathless again. Vickie’s laugh always does that to her. It’s so addicting it seriously sucks all other feelings out of her and she just feels so lightheaded.
“Do you want to go out sometime?”
All at once, Robin crashes back down to Earth.
Did I just say that?
“Oh, um,” Vickie’s smile drops and she sits up again, hands rubbing her knees. “I’m sorry, I’m— I’m not… like that.”
“O-oh…” Oh my god. Oh fuck.
“Not that I have a problem with it,” Vickie keeps going and Robin wants to fucking cry. “I mean, you hear rumors, but I never wanted to assume. You’re really cool, Robin, I don’t want to stop hanging out with you just because you have crushes sometimes.”
Robin has to focus on breathing. If she can keep her breathing steady then she won’t start crying hysterically right in front of her.
She noticed how she didn’t call her Robbie.
Vickie pulls on her cardigan so it’s covering her v-neck dress. She’s worried Robin is ogling her. It takes her everything to stay normal after that.
You’re a fucking predator to her, Buckley.
“Oh, no,” Robin forces out a laugh and she prays it doesn’t sound like a sob to Vickie’s ears as it does to her’s. “No, no, I’m not either.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah.”
“I’m sorry, I thought—”
“No, no, it’s fine!” It’s not fine, it will never be fine. Everything is ruined. You’re a freak, Buckley. “I just wanted to see if you wanted to hang out sometime. You know, outside of school. I— um— have a boyfriend.”
Why?!
“You do?” Vickie seemed surprised by this, thin brows raised high. She moves her cardigan open again. She feels safer now after that. “How did I not know this, Robbie? Who is the guy?”
Robbie’s back.
“Well, he’s just—” Robin swallows thickly. She’s still seconds away from tears, but she thinks she can hold it in until she’s alone. And… did she hear a tiny bit of jealousy? “It’s just that he’s… it’s— um—”
Vickie wanted a name and the first one that came to Robin’s mind is Steve. She couldn’t say Steve, even though she can guarantee he would drop everything to pretend to be her fake boyfriend to keep her safe. He’s the best like that. But the issue is, everyone knows he’s been whoring himself out to every girl in town he’s got a chance with. If Robin said his name, Vickie would definitely tell her she’s seen him out with other girls. She didn’t want to play Steve off as a cheating asshole. That would solve none of her problems.
So… Robin said the second male name that came to her mind.
“Munson.”
Oh God, she’s stupider than Steve
“Munson?” Vickie repeats, leaning back a little in surprise and shit. Did that just make everything worse? “As in Eddie Munson? Former murder suspect Munson?”
“Yeah…” Robin laughs awkwardly at her own stupid idiot brain. She wedges her hands in between her knees and crushes them together. She stares down at them instead of looking at Vickie. “Yeah, there’s a reason why I’m pretty secretive about dating.”
“No shit,” Vickie laughs. “I never in a million years would have guessed you were dating Munson. Is it inappropriate if I asked how you handled the whole… y’know…”
“The ‘Hunt The Freak’ thing?” Robin guessed, unable to keep the bitterness out of her voice. “Yeah. I didn’t believe for a second he killed those people. I didn’t know who it was, but I knew it wasn’t Eddie. He wouldn’t hurt a fly.”
Something somber passes through Vickie’s expression. She won’t look at Robin directly anymore either, instead staring at the far wall. She must feel some shame or embarrassment for believing Eddie was the murderer along with half the town. Robin couldn’t blame her even if she wanted to.
“I’m sorry about that,” Vickie whispers. “That must’ve been why you looked so upset when we were at the Warzone.”
“Yeah.” Definitely not because I’m a big queer that got her hopes up a little too high just because you laughed at my joke.
Vickie shakes the thought away and nudges Robin’s knee with her own. She was smiling when their eyes met. “Let me make it up to you guys, hm? You wanted to go, didn’t you? Let’s go out! It can be you, me, and Eddie. I’ll get to know him better and you two can be as cute and couple-y as you please around me.”
Robin’s heart dropped. “Um…”
What the fuck is she supposed to do?! She can’t say yes because Eddie doesn’t know and she doesn’t want to force him into this stupid fake relationship because she was dumb and practically outted herself without thinking. And she couldn’t say no either because that would make everything so suspicious and then Vickie will know she had lied and that she is a lesbian and has a massive crush on her. No matter what Robin does, she is massively and royally screwed.
“I’ll have to ask.”
Vickie smiles brightly, completely unaware of her dilemma. “That’s okay! I totally understand.”
The bell rings overhead and they move to start packing up. Robin’s lunch is unfinished. She shoves it all into the paper bag while Vickie rambles on how she was hoping to come here to practice, but she got nothing done. Robin throws her lunch out without care as they pass the garbage cans.
Lunch is over, Robin has study hall next. She already made up her mind on skipping it so she can cry her eyes out in the bathroom.
And, a certain metalhead has lunch this period.