𝘿𝙤𝙪𝙗𝙡𝙚 𝘿𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙨- 𝙍𝙤𝙗𝙞𝙣 𝘽𝙪𝙘𝙠𝙡𝙚𝙮 𝙭 𝙍𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙚𝙧

𝙋𝙖𝙧𝙩 𝙨𝙞𝙭- 𝙈𝙚𝙡𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙈𝙞𝙡𝙩𝙤𝙣

Robin said her goodbyes to y/n at the end of the school day and mounted her bike. Milton had invited her over for their weekly catch-up (even though the 'weekly' had turned into most days) so she started her journey to his house.

The summer air was bitter on her skin, like a lemon- aka,  the start was nice, but it soon became overwhelming. As she continued to peddle, a car pulled up at the side of the road.
Tensing herself, Robin slowed, readying her middle finger for the threat to come.

There were many creeps in the small town of Hawkins, who'll disguised themselves as friendly, trusting citizens... until they're caught alone with a teenage girl. Just another trait of the Hawkins monster, she guessed.
Robin turned her head to see who had pulled over, and was relieved when she was met with the friendly eyes of her best friend, Milton.

"Get in then, I'll give you a ride!" He rolled down his window and gestured to the trunk of the car. Robin smiled, dismounted her mom's old bike, and wheeled it towards the back of the car. She was thankful that he had turned up, as the heat was just about becoming unbearable.

She opened the trunk and lifted in her bike, marvelling at how the boot of someones car could always be so spotless.
"The cleanliness of your car always amazes me."

"I know it does. And you always ruin it with your bike." He called back, hand resting on the steering wheel.
"Yeah, I know." She replied smugly, smirking as she slammed the trunk.

"You okay?" Milton asked as Robin climbed into the passenger seat, dangly legs cramped slightly against the dashboard.
"Yeah, just happy to be out of school."

She didn't exactly understand why she said it in that tone of voice. Perhaps it was apart of her disguise. Perhaps it felt illegal to tell anyone that she'd actually had quite a good day at school, even if it was a one time thing.

"Same here" he replied as he started the engine and pulled back onto the road.

-

"Come on then, Buckley." Milton grinned as he opened the car door and headed out. "Leave your bike in here, I'll give you a lift home later."

"Alrighty then" Robin replied as she followed him to the front door and watched him turn the keys.
She spent most days at Milton's, to the point where she was pretty much family. His mom was probably more motherly to her than her own mother ever was or ever will be. Not that she was complaining about her situation, of course, as she'd always enjoyed being a 'free range' kid. With parents being such flower children back in the day, adventure was in their nature, and they despised all rules and things that could make you miserable. When Robin was little she didn't even have a bedtime, much to the surprise of other kids. It was pretty cool looking back on it.

"Mom we're home!" Milton called as he kicked off his shoes and discarded his bag. Robin did the same.
"Hey sweetie! And hi Robin!"

Robin chuckled. Her friend doesn't normally tell his mom when friends are coming over, and Buckley assumed that his family must just expect it at this point.

"Hello!" Robin called back though the closed door before following Milton up the carpeted stairs into his bedroom.

The floor was littered with aux cords of all kinds, vinyls imprinted with classical and up-to-date music, and there was a stray instrument propped up against every wall. Robin betted that he could make thousands of songs with these supplies alone.
"You got a new piano?" Robin asked as she sat down on his bed, eyeing up a suspiciously large cardboard box.
"Ohh yeah, a new keyboard. I've been saving up. Got it the other week and still haven't used it."

"Didn't you mention you were saving up like... months ago? How expensive are these things?"

"A stupidly high amount, actually. Around 150 I paid for this sucker." He replied, patting the box.

Robin couldn't even imagine spending that amount on something other than a plane ticket to France. Oh god, that reminded her. She still needed to find someone to take with her on the journey.

Milton wandered over to his desk and glued his vision onto a scrap piece of paper. Robin scrunched her eyebrows. "What's that?"

Not even a second later, the paper was snatched off of the table and screwed up. Tossing it into the bin, he let out a nervous giggle.
"Heh...it's nothing."

"Well it definitely doesn't look like nothing, Milton. Tell me."

"Ohhh, fine." He gave in under Robin's intense death-stare. It always did the trick.
"I was actually writing a song... for a girl."

Robin blinked.

"And I was gonna sing it to her at some point but then I realised that was totally stupid and even though she's in band she would probably find it dumb."

Her stomach sunk. People had been 'shipping' Milton and her together all semester, even though they were only friends and nothing more. They had both denied any feelings other than friendship on numerous occasions, but they just wouldn't shut up about it.

He had denied it then, but what if he'd changed his mind?...

"Robin, I have to tell you something." He sat down on the bed next to her, nerves rushing through his veins. "I think I have a crush on-"

Oh god oh god oh god oh god

"Wendy."

"Wendy, from school? From band?" Robin asked immediately, extremely thankful that he didn't say what she thought he was going to say.

"Yeah, I like Wendy from band."

"Wow"

The conversation carried on as you would expect it to, except from the part where Robin was practically gagging in her mouth to any talk of relationships, especially talks with her best friend. Normally, high schoolers would be absolutely thrilled to get to gossip about teen love and week lasting crushes, but not Miss Buckley. It grossed her out, and she didn't really understand why- So out of pure politeness, she kept the ever so threatening vomit down in her stomach to be released another day.

"God, I'm melting in here, can we open a window?" Robin asked as the conversation died down, fanning herself.

"Yeah same, I'll open one."

"-Except from the fact that you're melting in more ways than one."

"What?"

Robin so wanted to make a comment on how he was melting over Wendy's hotness, and not just from the heat outside- but decided on her signature insult instead.

"You're such a dingus." She chuckled as he stuck his tongue out at her from the other side of the room.

Melting Milton. Ha, she found that quite entertaining actually.