𝐭𝐨 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐚 𝐛𝐨𝐲 | robin buckley

(20) getting hit in the face repeatedly

Sam stared at the two unconscious Russian guards before she stepped out of the room with a swipe of the card and found herself in an empty corridor. Sam looked around to see places that reflected what she'd already seen. Everything in this goddamn hell looked the same. Sam started walking in a random direction, pressing her ears to doors in hope to hear Robin's voice somewhere in the chaos.

However she heard nothing, Sam wondered whether the Russian's had all decided to have a structured coffee break or an organised strike. It was starting to unnerve her, the fact she hadn't seen anyone. Of course Sam was perfectly content with this, she had no desire to use the gun sticking into her side. She looked around every two seconds as though expecting eyes to be patterned on every wall. Sam could feel her own pulse in her wrists and her neck, sweat collecting on her palms as she held onto the keycard.

She'd almost made it to the end of the corridor when she heard the voices. Her heart leapt immediately as she walked towards the metal door and waited there for a moment.

"Do you remember Mrs Click's sophomore history class?" Robin was asking.

Sam presumed that no one in their right mind would be asking this to a Russian guard which meant one thing, Steve and Robin were together. Sam wasn't sure where she missed out on the memo of reunion but she felt the usual pang of jealously.

"What?" Steve's voice joined Robin's

"Mrs Clickity-Clackity" Robin continued, "That's what us band dweebs called her"

Sam was about to raise the keycard to the door when curiosity spread through her. Her hand seemed to shake with the card clutched to it as she began to fixate on Robin's words, on her tone.

"It was first period, Tuesdays and Thursdays which meant you were always late and you always had the same breakfast. Bacon, egg and cheese on a sesame bagel. I sat behind you two days a week for a year. Mister funny, mister cool. The king of Hawkins High himself. Do you even remember me from that class?"

Sam's hand lowered instinctively as her jaw gaped slightly. The detail, the memory. It sounded like the way she would talk about Robin, the way she wished the girl would talk about her. But Sam's name was nowhere near her tongue, it was Harrington that had bested her. Steve the fucking hair Harrington.

"Of course you don't" Robin spoke after a moment of silence, "You were a real asshole, you know that?"

"Yeah, I know" Steve sounded dejected.

"But it didn't even matter" Robin sighed, "It didn't matter that you were an ass, I was still... obsessed with you"

Sam didn't want to know what her expression looked like in that moment. For some reason she imagined it would be similar to the time her parents had refused her in the house, kicked her out because of something she couldn't change. Tears pricked in her eyes, of course she'd assumed everything but hearing it made everything all the more sickening. It made her forget where she was, who she was. Stupidity rushed over her. Sam pressed her forehead on the cold metal of the door, she had to go inside but somehow she couldn't bring herself to see Robin and she especially could not bring herself to see Steve.

"Even though all of us losers pretend to be above it all, we still just wanna be popular, accepted, normal" Robin went on.

"If it makes you feel any better, having those things isn't all that great, seriously" Steve spoke tiredly, "It just baffles me, everything that people tell you is important, everything that people say you should care about, it's all just... bullshit"

Steve laughed under his breath" But I guess you gotta mess up to figure things out, right?"

"I hope so" Robin was laughing too, the sound had once been angelic but now it was just another perfectly aimed dart to her her punctured heart, "I feel like my whole life has been one big error"