Chapter Text
December, 1983
Nancy Wheeler was lying down on the railroad tracks.
That was weird for a lot of reasons, besides the obvious one. It was weird for Robin to see anybody out here at all. It was weird to see Nancy Wheeler anywhere but school. She was born for school, Robin thought. Their school didn't have a uniform but Nancy practically wore one anyway, every day a different pastel cardigan and a skirt landing appropriately below her un-skinned knees. White socks and mary janes. She was wearing jeans and a red corduroy jacket now, though. Sneakers. Her hair was pulled back off her face and she was lying down on the train tracks with her eyes closed.
It was weird.
"What are you doing here?" Nancy asked her. Robin hadn't even noticed her opening her eyes, she'd been so baffled by the situation she'd still been in the process of trying to determine if this was real life or if maybe she'd dozed off on the familiar walk and her feet were still moving somewhere while her mind was stuck in whatever absurd dream this was.
"What?" Robin asked back. She had to raise her voice a little bit, she felt like, from up here where she was standing on the embankment, to make sure Nancy could hear her down on the tracks.
"What are you doing here?" Nancy repeated herself. She sounded exhausted. "There's nothing here. There's no reason for you to be here."
"What are you doing here?" Robin countered. It felt like an honest question, given the circumstances. Maybe it was weird to hang out in the woods by the train tracks but it was a hell of a lot less weird than taking a nap on the tracks themselves.
Nancy closed her eyes again and sighed. "Nothing," she mumbled. Her voice carried, even when she spoke softly.
"You know if you're trying to get run over or whatever you're gonna be waiting a long time," Robin told her. "Nothing really runs on these tracks anymore almost ever. The American railroad system is largely abandoned, which is actually really gross if you think about it. About what cars are doing to the environment I mean. Scientists are talking about, like, all the chemicals, from the cars and everything? And like aerosol cans too and all kinds of things, like basically everything we do is bad for the environment it turns out. I hate littering, by the way. But they're talking about how it could maybe, like, rip a hole in the atmosphere? Which. What would that even look like, right? That's terrifying. It's super fucked up."
Robin stopped talking when she realized how long she'd been talking, and she realized that Nancy was staring at her now with one eye open, the other blocked by her hand against the glare of the winter sun. She was looking at Robin like she was an alien, which maybe she was, or maybe she wished she was. Maybe that would explain some things.
This was how it always went.
"That is super fucked up," Nancy finally agreed with her.
Robin had never heard Nancy Wheeler say a swear before. It was hilarious. She couldn't help the barking laugh she let out at the sound of it.
Nancy just closed her eyes again.
"No but like, why are you here, though?" Robin asked her again. "I come out here all the time and I never see anybody. There's nothing to do out here."
"Then why do you come here? All the time," Nancy asked her.
Robin shrugged. "I like trains."
"But the trains don't run anymore, you said," Nancy said it like an accusation, and Robin wasn't really sure what she was guilty of but it sure felt like she was guilty of something.
"Well yeah," Robin conceded. She sat herself down on the little concrete half-wall at the edge of the track bed and looked around at the barren tracks. They were still in decent shape, was the thing. Trains could run on them. They just didn't. "But, like. A lot of trains have run on them. In the past, I mean. Not even like the distant past, but that too. It is pretty cool from a historical perspective. But like even a couple years ago. My dad used to take me out here to watch the trains when I was a kid, and he would quiz me on the different engines, and like- Have you ever built a model railroad? It's really cool. I mean. It's not cool, probably, actually. It's dorky, I guess. I don't know. I can't even really tell if you're listening to me right now, honestly?"
"I'm listening," Nancy said.
"Okay," Robin guessed. "Are you just never going to answer my question, then? Because I don't want to be annoying and my mom says asking the same question over and over again is, like, really annoying, but you're lying on the train tracks looking- No offense or anything, okay? But you look pretty upset. And I'm trying to figure out if I need to like, call your mom or something. Not that I have your phone number, obviously. And not that there's a phone anywhere around here, really, but if I had to I could run home and look it up in the phone book and-"
Nancy Wheeler sat up, and brushed herself off a little bit.
"I'm fine, okay? Everything is fine. You don't need to call anybody, you don't need to-" She shrugged. "It's just, me, okay. I'm just... I just needed to…” She shook her head and looked away for a second before looking back at Robin and shrugging again. “The trains aren't even running, right? You have nothing to worry about, okay. You can go."
"Well," Robin chewed her lip and looked away. "I like it here, so. I mean I was coming here anyway."
"Right," Nancy laughed, not really in a way that sounded like anything was actually funny. "Because you like trains."
"And train tracks," Robin shrugged. "And because I have nothing else to do. So."
Nancy sighed. "Right," she said again. "Me neither, I guess."
"Right," Robin winced when she realized she was stealing Nancy's word. "I mean. I'm sorry. About B-" She stopped herself. "Your friend. I'm sorry about your friend. I hope she comes back."
Nancy laughed again in that humorless way. "Yeah. Me too."
"And the um. I mean it's none of my business but like. I work at the movie theatre, so. And I mean everybody saw it, or heard about it, so- Shit, that's probably a really shitty thing to say. Sorry." Why was she so bad at this? "I just mean that I'm sorry about the breakup. That's gotta be... And the timing, with... your friend. I'm sorry."
"We didn't break up," Nancy said.
"What?" Robin laughed. She didn't mean to, but it was a ridiculous thing to hear.
"No, we- It was a misunderstanding, that's all." Nancy wasn't looking at her, she was watching herself dig a little hole with the toe of her shoe. "He apologized. We both did. It's fine. We're fine."
"Jesus," Robin kicked her heels against the concrete wall. "I don't know you, like, at all, obviously? But he basically called you a slut in front of the whole town. Steve Harrington is an asshole. You can do better, is all I'm saying."
Nancy raised an eyebrow. "Maybe I am a slut. Did you consider that? Maybe I cheated on him. Maybe I deserved it."
Robin felt herself blushing. "Well," she started. It was really hard to picture prissy little Nancy Wheeler doing anything slutty, honestly, but her brain was trying, now. "Well," she tried again. "Well, still. I just don't think I could forgive somebody for that, personally. Trust them, after that, you know? Like every time you- Not that you- Or not that it's any of my business, but like? If you guys were... Aren't you worried he's just gonna do it again? If you have a fight or something?"
Nancy shook her head. "No." She looked Robin in the eye now and Robin wasn't sure what that look was. It didn’t look anything like lying. "He's really not like that. I can't really explain it, but no. I trust him. He's... He's not who you think he is."
"I think he's an obnoxious spoiled jock who always gets whatever he wants," Robin muttered. “And his hair is annoying.”
Nancy laughed. "Okay. Maybe he is who you think he is. But he's not all bad, though, really. And he's cute, you have to admit."
Robin could barely contain a wretch at that. "Cute? He's got like a- His head is just a big square, like an honest to god perfect cube. A geometric marvel. What does he need a head that big for anyway? His brain sure isn't taking up all that space."
"He does have a big square head," Nancy agreed. "But he's still cute."
Nancy was laughing now for real and Robin wasn't sure she'd ever heard that before. It was a little bit cute, actually. It was a little bit magical. She didn't really want it to stop.
"And have you seen him eat? He's like an animal. No table manners. Crumbs everywhere. Ketchup," Robin kept going, addicted to the little smile on Nancy Wheeler's face and her surprisingly loud laugh. "It's revolting. I don't understand what anybody sees in b-" She cleared her throat, swallowed. "In him. In Steve. Harrington. I just don't..." Nancy was looking harder at her now and she felt a little too seen. "I just don't get it," she finished, quietly.
"He's just," Nancy Wheeler sighed and turned her head, looked off into the trees. "I don't know." She shrugged and looked back at Robin. "I'm sorry."
"For what?" Robin asked. She tried to laugh away the look on Nancy's face but she wasn't even blinking.
"I don't know," Nancy said again.
She stood up and brushed herself off some more. There was still grime clinging to the corduroy of her jacket but Robin didn't bother to tell her. She probably knew. She'd probably have to put it in the wash if she really wanted to get everything off. The dirt down by the tracks was oily and ashy and gross. Robin knew from experience.
"I should go," Nancy said.
"Probably, yeah," Robin agreed. "Not that I'm kicking you out or anything. Not that there's anything to get kicked out of, I mean. We are out. Side. We're outside. So. I just meant that probably you shouldn't hang out on the tracks. Because it's not safe."
"I'd hear the train coming in plenty of time, I think," Nancy mused. She kicked a rock down the tracks.
"And you'd move out of the way? If you heard one?" Robin asked.
Nancy laughed at the ground. "Yeah. Yeah, I'd move."
"Okay," Robin swallowed. "Well. Good."
"Yeah," Nancy agreed. She gestured over her shoulder somewhere, somewhere out through the other side of the woods. "So I guess I should- I'm gonna go."
"Hot date with your blockheaded boyfriend?" Robin tried to joke.
"Something like that," Nancy answered. "It's-” She looked away again. She kept looking away. “Anyway."
Nancy Wheeler shrugged and smiled, guilty almost. It did look like lying. She turned and walked away into the woods.
She didn't say goodbye.
Rude, Robin thought.