ROBIN GOT HER and James an Uber, gave her girlfriend a little kiss on the cheek and James just hugged Steve, giving the top of his head before they part ways from the others who were headed to the mall nearby. "I have a question for you. A quick Q." James whispers after they got into the Uber.
"Yeah, Jamie?" Robin glanced up at him and he sighs. "It's weird to ask, but are you and Nance having sex?" He whispers and she furrows her brows. "Yeah, we are. Are you secretly a perv? Do you get off on lesb--" "No! Jesus!" He exclaims then glanced at the Uber driver who peered at them through the rearview mirror curiously so he just smiled apologetically before looking back at Robin.
"Oh, my God, Rob, it's not like that." He whispers and she just sighs. "Then what is it like?" She asked and he glanced away. "How do you get to that point? Like... getting over it? And getting under someone?" He asked and she raised a finger. "I think you and I both know very well we're both tops." She says and he glanced at her, rolling his eyes.
"Fine, yeah... but how do you do that? Like, letting go of what happened?" He asked and she sighs. "You don't, but you find a way to cope, and realize not everyone is like the person who did it to you." She says and he nods, glancing away. Not everyone is like the person, people in his case, who did it to you. Steve isn't like that. "Plus, it took me like longer, maybe a year or so, nearly two..." She tells him.
"But I want to!" He looks at her, and she nods. "Uh-huh..." She says, raising her brows and James sighed. "Uh, like, I want Steve, obviously, I really do... But, sometimes, I tend to freak out." He whispers and she raises a hand to his shoulder. "Then this place will really help you out." She smiles widely.
The car stops and they hop out. A rage room. "Oh..." James said and she pats his arm. "Yeah, come on." She leads the way inside and in there, Robin tells the woman their names who shows them papers to sign, then leads them to another room with protective gear. "Then go through that door and you'll find stuff to wreck, go crazy!" She smiles then Robin smiled widely. "Come on, James!"
In the rage room, James watched Robin break so many vases and fake walls put up, as she screams out very tame stuff, like, angry at failing a mid-term three months ago, forgetting her favourite pair of Vans back home, each hit was followed by silly little stuff, until she said something about how stupid she was for spilling soda on Nancy's paintball outfit, where she stopped and cried while laughing. "Woah, hey, hey, why are you crying?" James said and Robin turns to face her friend.
"It's just... stupid. Why did I say sorry so many times as if Nancy was gonna yell at me the way my mom use to?" She's sobbing again while laughing and James frowns. "It helps, James. Try it." She held up the sledgehammer and he gently took it into his own hands. He stepped up to the fake wall and she just stood to the side, wiping away at her tears under the protective goggles she put back on.
James took a moment, staring at the wall, then he started swinging at it ferociously, he didn't yell out stuff like Robin did. But he thought of it. Fuck you, Billy. Fuck you, Tommy. Fuck you, Carol. And fuck me, for being such a shitty boyfriend. A shitty son. A shitty brother. Why am I so shitty? Why is life so shitty? The thoughts were endless but Robin was right, it helped get rid of the anger and sadness through breaking shit. He's broken vases, walls, even glass, and a bunch of old tv's.
Robin just stood there, watching him let all of his rage out until he stopped. She waited for the crying to start, ready to go to his side when he does, but he didn't, just dropped the sledgehammer handle and sat down, sighing quietly. "You okay?" She walks over, kneeling down beside him and he just stared at the floor. "Yeah." He nods softly.
"It's okay to cry... it's okay to not be okay." She whispers so quietly James almost couldn't hear her, then the tears came. First slowly, they well at his eyes and he turned his face away, but the moment Robin slowly moved up and wrapped her arms around him, he sobbed into her embrace. "Is this okay?" She asked, brushing her fingers through his hair gently and he nods softly, crying in her arms.
"Yeah, Buck, of course it is." He chuckled and she just smiled, hugging her best friend tighter as he hugs her waist tightly, crying in her arms until he was all better. Then they went to grab some ice cream at a nearby parlor. "You'd think we'd get sick of ice cream after working at an ice cream shop." She says suddenly, enjoying her ice cream sundae. "No one can ever get sick of ice cream, never, Buck." He says as he scoops up more into his own spoon and she giggles, glancing down at her bowl.
"I'm not saying you're, like, cured now or whatever, but you feel better now, right?" She asked and he just nods softly. "Where'd you get the idea of a rage room?" He asked and Robin glanced up. "Clarissa. She said it helped her breaking shit when it happened to her... So I asked my mom to bring me here. Broke down in front of her afterwards, but she told me it was okay... hugged me for a bit then took me to get milkshakes and burgers after." She says and he just smiles faintly at her.
"Thanks for the date, Rob."
Meanwhile, with the others were at the mall, Nancy was splitting them up, she asked for Rhys to go with her so she can get his honest opinions on stuff she picks out, she stuck Jonathan with James and then Argyle with Eddie before walking off, dragging the blond with her by his arm as he waves at them, frowning that he couldn't go with Eddie.
At the first store she picked out, Nancy sighed and turned to Rhys. "I lied. This isn't for clothes for me. It's for Robin." She said and Rhys furrows his brows. "Okay?" He says and Nancy leads the way through the Bath and Bodyworks. "Her birthday is coming up." She says and Rhys snorts. "Of course she's a July cancer." He says making Nancy's head whip towards him, squinting her eyes at him.
"I want to commemorate her birthday. And also tell her I love her." She says the second part a bit too fast and Rhys hums as he stares at the clothes on the racks. "So, how did you do it?" She asked as she looks over and he glanced over at her. "Do what?" He asked and she sighs. "Tell Eddie that you love him? Like, how do you just... let it out like that? I'm too scared to tell Robin." She says truthfully and he furrows his brows at the Wheeler.
"You'll know when it feels right..."
Meanwhile, Jonathan was searching through aisles of games when Steve stopped, finding a little figurine of Han Solo, giggling as he picks it up from the shelf. "So, how are you and James?" Jonathan asked as he looks at a couple of board games to find one he and Argyle can both enjoy playing.
"Good. I guess." Steve says quickly and Jonathan hums. "Then what was with that argument at the paintball place?" He asked and the Harrington glanced over. "Did you hear us? How do you know? No way James told you before he and Rob left." He says quickly and Jonathan just chuckled.
"James is my brother. And you're my ex. You have tells. You kept pouting like a little kid and he was avoiding looking at you, hence why he went to sit by Robin and I instead." He says and Steve just rolled his eyes. "Yeah, we argued..." He admitted shamefully. "Lucky for you, as James' brother, I also know how you can fix it." Jonathan said, smiling widely.
All while Argyle and Eddie were in a smoke shop, staring at the countless choices of grinders and pipes. "I'm getting Jonathan something." Argyle merely says and Eddie nods. "Cool." He says before he waited by the entryway and Argyle bought some stuff. A pipe, a black metal grinder and a bong. That "something" meant like three stuff but Eddie didn't mind waiting for him.
Argyle approached him, sighing. "What else can we do?" He looks at Eddie who just smiles faintly at him. "Smoke weed." He says and that's when the two ended up in the back of the mall, the only spot they can hide at, smoking a joint they pass back and forth.
"Hey, how come we don't hang out that often, man? We totally have loads in common!" Argyle said and Eddie tilts his head. "Do we?" He asked and Argyle nods quickly. "We both have long hair," he pointed out and Eddie glanced down, his hair wasn't that long, at least not like Argyle's which reached his hips. "We both like good music," he adds on.
Argyle listens to reggae music, that was nothing like metal music but Eddie says nothing. "We both like weed," Eddie nods, blowing out the smoke he held in for a bit. He can't deny that one bit. "Oh, and we both like shorter dudes who have pretty hair." Argyle grins loopily and Eddie scrunched up his face.
"Yeah." He held out the joint which Argyle now takes from him. "Plus, both of our boyfriends are really good kissers!" Argyle said and laughed which made Eddie giggle uncontrollably too, looking away. "And you're super cool, man." Eddie says, looking back at him again with a small smile on his face.
After everyone met up at the food court, Eddie and Argyle eating some food from Taco Bell when Rhys, Nancy, Jonathan and Steve joined them with multiple bags. "Jesus, are you guys planning to go broke on this trip?" Eddie asked as he takes another bite into his taco. Jonathan sits by Argyle, leaning over to take a big bite from his boyfriend's Crunchwrap. "No, but it's fun to splurge some money." Steve says as he sat down, reaching over to grab a chip from Eddie's tray when his hand is smacked away. "What the hell, man?"
"Can I have a bite, Eds?" Rhys leaned over and Eddie nods, raising his taco which the blond took a bite out of. "Wow." Steve whispers and Eddie looks at him. "Fine, here!" He held out his taco towards the Harrington as Nancy finally sets down her last bag before sitting down next to Jonathan, sighing.
"I'll call James and Robin to come so they can help us with our bags." And when the pair did come by the mall, James and Robin had immediately offered, the woman approaching her girlfriend and leaning in to give her a small kiss on the check as the male looked toward Steve who walked over, smiling.
"I have a little surprise for you." He says and James glanced down at the bag, smirking. "Little lingerie or something? I didn't know you were freaky like that." He nudged the shorter with his elbow and Steve rolls his eyes. "No... you'll see when we're in our hotel room." He says, smiling widely up at his boyfriend.
"Okay... can't wait."
authors note
i really wanna publish my argyle fic now
+ i finished prewriting this so i think i'll publish the argyle fic now 🤭