"Yeah, but it's been like three days Steve!" Robin practically shouted frantically waving her hands around in the air. "She hasn't picked up any of my calls and her dad has no clue where she is!" She continued pacing around Steve's front yard. "What if Vecna came back for her? Or, or worse! What if she's trapped in the Upside Do-"
"Robin, Robin!" Steve shouted stepping away from the doorway and taking her by the shoulders forcing her to look up at him. He truly was just as worried about Nancy as Robin, but if he didn't stop her from pacing the pathway she had worn into the lawn would be irreparable and how do you explain that to his father? "Nancy is fine, she is too smart to just accidentally stumble into the Upside Down." He reassured her.
This was true Robin realized calming down just a little at Steve's words. This is Nancy-Absolute-Freaking-Badass-Wheeler they were talking about after all. Nancy whom when faced with Vecna's curse came back and practically immediately began strategizing against him of all things. Robin couldn't even imagine being strong enough to face Vecna, let alone beat him and break free as Nancy or Max had. Let alone do exactly that, cry it off, and then promptly start planning to go directly back at him. It was blasphemy to her.
Just the idea of going into the Upside Down had had Robin shaking on the edge of a panic attack. One in which Nancy had comforted and eased her through, telling her about how they had already been down to the mystical dimension. And how she would never let anything happen to Robin with so much ferocity that she had blindly accepted it as truth. This was Nancy who had gripped Robin's clammy, terrified hand in reassurance, in confidence when entering Vecna's literal evil freaking lair. Robin couldn't help, but remember the moment she felt the delicate traces of Nancy's thumb across the back of her hand. How her breath and thoughts had halted to a complete stop as she stared at their hands. The traces entranced her mind, forcing her attention upwards into the softest onlooking pair. Robin's heart raced even now just at the memory of how much tenderness those intoxicating blue orbs had held. Her pounding heart longed to feel Nancy's fingers against hers again. To know that she was okay by her side.
"Listen, why don't we just head over to the Wheeler's?" Steve questioned breaking Robin from the trance-like memory.
"I-" She started stopping just short of panic when the realization of just how awful she looked hit. In worry, she had managed to give herself an identical Dr. Emmett "Doc" hairstyle and it most definitely was not as flattering to her as it was for him. Her shirt was all too wrinkled and truthfully she did not think stripes were for her. Why had she even worn this shirt? Nancy could not see her like this.
"Nope. I don't want to hear it." Steve concluded as if hearing her thoughts. Putting his hands up to halt her from arguing, he added. "You're practically having a heart attack, Robs. Let's just go see her and then this will all be fixed." He finished, fishing his keys from his jeans pocket, flinching at his word choice of 'fixed'. He remembered a lot of things about Nancy from back when they had been together as a couple. And currently, he specifically remembered how she handled being mad at someone. He just hoped to god it wasn't at him.
Robin just stood there mouth agape opening and closing like a fish as Steve dragged her by the hand towards the car. She wracked her brain for absolutely anything she could use as an excuse but came up short as he started out of the driveway. Her thoughts and breath quickened the closer they got to the Wheeler residence as she worried her hands through her hair attempting and failing at fixing it. What would she even say?!
Like, hey Nance! I know you're probably just busy, but I got so in my head that I convinced myself you were more or less dead. Hahaha! Anywho, how's your day been?
Then that'd be it, the end. Nancy would think she was crazy or worse, annoying. Robin's heart clenched at her thoughts, she knew that people thought she was annoying. Gosh, she even thought so herself. But she couldn't help it. No matter how much she tried, she just couldn't seem to ever help herself. Once the nervousness hit it acted as a powder keg for her brain and once her mind got her mouth going there was no stopping. Rambling was just what she did, it was just a part of who she was. And no matter how many times people told her that it was annoying or that she talked way too much it would never go away. No matter how much she wished it would.
Sadly, the drive to the Wheeler's was impossibly short as Steve pulled the car to a stop in front of the pristine house. Glancing towards the all-too white front door Robin felt nauseous as her mind screamed in desire to be anywhere else. She couldn't bare the thought of Nancy finding her annoying. But what if she already did? What if she was avoiding her? What if Nancy was keeping her distance because she already found Robin annoying and wanted to be done with her? Or worse. What if she had found out what she was. The persistent thoughts threw Robin into near hysteria as she failed to realize Steve had already gotten out of the car and was striding towards the door. The only thing between themselves and the petite brunette. With a quick puff of frustration, she swiftly unbuckled and threw open the passenger's door for her to hop out of, just in time to watch the door open to reveal a dolled-up Mrs. Wheeler.
Observing the way Steve swooned over the older woman distracted her as she couldn't help, but see where Nancy had gotten her looks from. Mrs. Wheeler's puffy hair and sharp bone structure painfully reminded Robin of Nancy's nearly identical face glancing her way in the woods while tentatively questioning their friendship status. But where Mrs. Wheeler's eyes had held pools of honey, Nancy's held the intoxicating waves of the ocean, a force of their own. Where Mrs. Wheeler was proper and feminine, Nancy was secure and indestructible, something she knew the mother would be proud of. Too caught up in her own turmoil she deadpanned as Steve turned her way and Mrs. Wheeler's brown eyes locked with her own. Something stormed within them, an emotion Robin couldn't quite place as she stared her way. Their intensity eventually making Robin look down anxiously in thought, did Nancy find out about Robin and tell her mother? She questioned internally, struck in fear until Steve's Nike's broke the grassy plain pulling her attention upwards to his face.
"Nancy isn't home, but Karen will have her give us a call," Steve informed her as Robin's eyebrows nearly shot into her hairline.
"Karen, huh?" She questioned wiggling her eyebrows his way at the growing blush creeping into his cheeks. Of course, Steve would have a thing for Mrs. Wheeler.
"Oh hush up, Buckley. You can't tell me you didn't notice where Nancy's good genes come from." He said exaggeratedly. "The Wheeler girls are babes." He finished with a shrug striding towards his car nonchalantly.
"What an understatement." She muttered defeatedly as she trudge behind him.
Now time to wallow in fear until, no, if, if Nancy calls, she thought worrying at her lip while ducking into the car. Would Nancy even call?
"No pouting, Buckley, we have an important party to attend and I don't need your sadness crutching our game."
"Uhhh I am not pouting!" She reared smacking him lightly on the shoulder as he pulled a U-turn away from the Wheeler residence.
"Uh-huh, of course not." He said giving her a completely aspirated huff before adding. "On the bright side, Wheeler will most definitely not be there."
Robin easily accepted his words with more factuality knowing just how little Nancy partied. Robin had partied more than the Wheeler girl and that was saying a lot because she even rarely went to them. Besides she knew the "party" they were going to and just who was throwing it. She was just a little surprised Steve was attending. Maybe this was what she needed, she contemplated as they turned onto Steve's street. A stiff drink could always help she decided, knowing either way that she had to go for Steve's sake. She owed it to him.