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Nancy sighed, falling onto Robin’s bed dramatically. Robin watched her, trying not to stare, but it was virtually impossible when the prettiest girl in the whole town was in her room.
Of course this wasn’t new for them. They’d been having sleepovers for a while now. Ever since the whole Vecna thing they’d been hanging out a lot. Robin liked it, she didn’t really have a lot of female friends. Mostly because most of them ran when they found out Robin liked girls. But that wasn’t the case with Nancy. Nancy didn’t care who Robin liked. It was one of the things Robin liked about her.
“I just want Jonathan off my back,” Nancy said, shaking her head. “All he’s been doing lately is calling me and begging for me back.”
“Yeah, men suck,” Robin said, flopping down beside her. “That’s why I like girls.”
Nancy sighed, “I wish I did.”
That struck an idea in Robin’s head. “What if you did?”
“What?” Nancy asked, sitting up.
“What if you did like girls?” Robin said, a wild grin on her face. “Then you wouldn’t have to deal with Jonathan.”
“But I don’t,” Nancy said, crossing her arms.
Robin threw her hands in the air, “Nancy Wheeler for someone so smart you can be kind of dumb at times.”
Nancy squinted at Robin one more time before it seemed to click. “So you want me to lie?”
“Okay, not for too long,” Robin said, leaning forward, her planning mode coming through. “At least until you get to that out of state college you want to go to. Then you’ll know no one there, so then you can be straight again. Back to normal.”
Nancy seemed to consider that for a moment before putting her head in her hands, “I can’t just walk up to Jonathan and tell him I’m a lesbian.”
“Then don’t,” Robin said, a wild look in her eyes. “We fake a relationship.”
“What?”
“Oh, com’on. Everyone knows I’ve been dying to come out ever since the whole Vicky thing. If I come out now, maybe there’ll be another girl in town who’ll like me,” Robin said, shrugging. The plan was far fetched, but Steve had managed to find Eddie in this small town, so maybe Robin had a chance.
Nancy paused, biting her lip.
“Okay, but here are a few ground rules.”
Robin’s face broke into a grin.
The first week actually went pretty well. They came out to Mike’s friends first, and Will told Jonathan, so the calls stopped.
They didn’t have to do much that they weren’t already doing. Maybe hang out in public more, but that was all.
The hardest part about the charade was Nancy’s rules. She couldn’t tell anyone it was fake, not even Steve. Robin hated lying to him, but she figured after their fake break up she could tell him. That was only five more weeks from now.
The second week was a bit harder. Robin started noticing how much of a straight girl Nancy looked. She had long nails, and that just wouldn’t do if they were going to convince people they were in a fake relationship.
Nancy had whined the whole time they cut her nails, but she let Robin do it, after Robin had made her incredibly uncomfortable with the mechanics of lesbian sex.
The third week was when something shifted. Robin had started getting used to her routine. She would get to work, call Nancy during their five minute break, then bring her lunch. After work they would meet at the park or somewhere else public and spend the rest of the time together.
“I haven’t had a female friend in a long time,” Nancy said, one day when they were walking in town. They were holding hands, fingers interlocked.
“Why not?”
Nancy looked up at the sky. Robin followed her gaze, but didn’t see anything, she then realized it was because Nancy was trying to hide her tears.
“You remember Barb?”
Robin thought for a moment then the name clicked. “That girl who got sucked into the upside down.”
“Yeah,” Nancy said, grimacing. “She was my best friend.” Nancy paused for a moment before going on, “She shouldn’t have even been there that night. We had lied to our parents about studying or something stupid and then went to a party at Steve’s.”
Robin nodded, knowing the rest. Robin squeezed Nancy’s hand. “I’m so sorry.”
Nancy nodded, and kept walking, moving at a brisker pace than before.
During week four Nancy experienced her first bit of homophobia. It was nothing big, just an elderly woman scowling at her while Robin gave her a kiss on the cheek after dropping off her lunch.
Robin half expected Nancy to want to end this early, but Nancy seemed more enraged by the whole experience than anything.
Nancy was half convinced to write an article about the homophobia of the town, but Robin stopped her. She knew how the paper would take that. Nancy would lose her job if she did that.
“It’s unfair Robin,” Nancy said, shaking her head.
“I know,” Robin said, she took one of Nancy’s hands in hers. “But there are people in town, who don’t want to be out there like that. Will, Mr. Clark if they saw an article like that in the paper, it’s just going to dissuade them from coming out. If you post something like that, the hateful people will be even worse. Best thing to do is ignore them.”
Nancy sighed, but did as Robin said.
Weeks passed by in a flash. And Robin began to dread the end of summer. When Nancy would stage the break up and they would go their separate ways.
But one night before the inevitable break up, Robin heard a knock at her window. She peered out and saw Nancy had climbed up the tree and onto her roof. That girl was honestly crazy.
“Hey stranger,” Robin said, opening her window. “So how do you want to do this break up thing? Want me to show up at your work, and you make a whole scene in front of your journalists?”
Nancy bit her lip looking at her hands.
“I was just going to talk to you about that actually?”
“Do you want me to do it?” Robin asked, looking up at Nancy. “I can, but it’ll be awkward if I’m going to your job to do it.”
“No, I don’t want to break up.”
Robin paused. “What?”
“I said I don’t want to break up.”
“What about the whole being free for college? What about the hot college boys?”
“I don’t think I like boys anymore.”
Robin froze.
“Robin, you okay?”
Robin blinked, then moved closer to Nancy. “What made you think that?”
“Because I like you.”
Then Nancy broke the distance and kissed her.
This was different than any of the other kisses they had shared earlier. They had only done quick pecks or kisses on the cheek, but this was passionate. Nancy opened her mouth and licked Robin’s lips. Robin opened her mouth and let Nancy inside.
Robin had her hands on Nancy’s waist, feeling the curves of her body against hers. Nancy’s hands her in her hair, and too soon Nancy pulled away. “Was that okay?”
“It was perfect.”