love songs | robin buckley

5. floating

FLOATING
sunday, october 24th

The sky was dark, the night had fallen quickly. And it wasn't even eight o'clock.

The streets of Hawkins were just as dark, kind of spooky even. But was Beth really there, biking against the wind, shivering and glancing around, watching for scary monsters?

Nope. Instead, she was floating on cloud nine. Amy always told her about the feeling after a first date with a guy- like nothing could go wrong, ever. Like love is actually real. Like you're just meant to be.

Beth never thought that she could experience that on her own behalf.

But here she was. The corner's of her mouth were glued to her cheeks: she couldn't stop smiling.
Well, she already knew that Robin had that effect on her. She replayed the last three hours on her mind, going back to every moment with Robin. She was such fun company. And she made Beth funnier aswell. Their conversations were fast, bubbly, witty, they joked around and shared their thoughts very easily.

They had shared little comments and thoughts about the movie while watching it, leaning closer to eachother, whispering funny things. Thinking about that woke up the little butterflies living on Beth's stomach again.

Robin was really smart. She had mentioned about her love of foreign languages, and how she already spoke french and italian. Her brain worked so fast, the way she connected things to eachother -even with a simple movie- made Beth amazed.

Beth had also noticed little things about Robin, now that she had gotten closer to her physically. Like the fact that she had freckles. And damn, were they adorable.

Her eyes, her beautiful, blue eyes. Honestly, Beth could've talked about those eyes for decades, she could've stared into them for hours, she could even make the school play entirely about Robin's eyes.

She was so stunning. In every way. And Beth felt like Robin didn't realise it herself. She wanted to tell Robin -tell her how gorgeus she is.

Tell her how she makes her feel.

Once Beth had gotten back home, she took the movie ticket from her pocket, and rushed to her drawer. After looking for a while, she found a tape and cut a little piece out of it. She taped the movie ticket to her closet's door, which was already filled with pictures and notes.

Now she actually had a memory of Robin. Beth laid down on her bed, staring at the ceiling, only one face in her mind.

—

monday, 25th october

Monday came, and Beth was still living in her little happy bubble, she couldn't forget yesterday.

"Ugh, this is gross." Amy whined, sticking a fork to her food.

"Agreed." Beth said, staring at the plate in front of her. School lunches weren't the greatest. Especially not today: this cabbage casserole looked more like vomit.

Beth sneaked a quick glance to a table across the cafeteria -the table where Robin usually sits with her friends. She regocnised Kate, but didn't see Robin anywhere near.

Maybe she's sick?

Beth turned her head back to her disgusting lunch, and decided to go buy something to eat on her free period.

All of a sudden Amy dropped her fork and gasped: "Oh my god! I almost forgot to tell you."

She squaled out of excitement. "Tina is hosting a huge Halloween party! Literally all of Hawkins is going, you have to come too!"

Beth's mouth dropped open. "Uh.. I don't know."

Does all of Hawkins mean just the popular kids? Or actually all of Hawkins? It's a small town. Could be like that. Does it mean Robin?

"Pleaaase. We could do a trio-costume. I was supposed to do a couples' costume with Jake, but, you know. So, pleaaase?" Amy pleaded.

Cassie joined their conversation, and grabbed Beth's other hand.
"Bettie, you have to come." She smiled.

"How many times have I told you not to call me that?" Beth laughed. It was hard resist her friends' pleading faces.

She sighed. "Fine. I'll think about it, okay?"

"Yes!" Cassie said, and high-fived with Amy.

"You know that I'm not a party person, but.. it could be okay." Beth got back to the casserole.

"Oh, we know." Amy said, chuckling.

"And, that's exactly why we need to turn you into one!" Cassie said. "Who knows, you could meet a cute guy in there."

"I'm with Cass. You never talk to anyone, maybe in this party you could finally shoot your shot." Amy spoke in.

"My.. shot?"

"Yeah. Hit on a cute guy. You're really pretty, that's not a problem at all!" Her friends encouraged her.

"Well, I don't know..."

Definitely not doing that.

"Bettie, you're so antisocial, you just hang in your room everyday. Isn't it time to get out there?"

"I-I don't hang in my room everyday." Beth mumbled. This party thing felt like it was already crushing her confidence. Or maybe it was just the way her friends presented it.

"I don't know." Beth repeated out loud. "But I'll think about it." She promised.

"Good."

This was slowly getting to the point, where she would just have to come out to her friends. If they started pairing her up with some guy.. god no. Beth had usually been great at dodging the crush-talks and pairings.

"What day is the party?" Beth asked.

"Sunday." Amy said. "The next monday, i swear, half of this school will have a nasty hangover."

Cassie laughed, Beth just smiled. The party didn't excite her at all. She truly was not a party person. Drinking, sloppy makeout-sessions, throwing up, mindless dancing, all that jazz. No thank you.

But.. if all of Hawkins was going, maybe she should join in.

—

Beth biked home with her headphones on, listening to her Bowie mixtape.
And she cursed herself for not asking Robin's home number. Now she could've called her, and asked her why she wasn't at school.

Maybe it would've been a bit stalker-ish to call her, but since she didn't have the number: problem solved. She can't call Robin.

Maybe she was just pissed how her plans to talk to Robin today -to check, what stage they were on -to check if they're actual friends -had died.

She would just need to be patient.