we could be | ronance

EIGHT

"in the back of my mind
all i hear is your name"

-

ALL I COULD think about was nancy wheeler for the entire weekend. it was as if anything else was erased from my mind like magic. i forgot about school assignments and i almost forgot to go to work on sunday.

part of me was dreading seeing nancy on monday morning. i was nervous that i was going to make a fool of myself.

it's not like i hadn't had crushes before- i certainly did. i had a short-lived crush on tammy thompson, a girl in steve's senior year. she was obsessed with steve the whole year, though, and never paid any attention to me.

i was almost one hundred percent sure she was straight.

then there was vickie, a girl in my band i had liked in junior year. she was nice, but i'm pretty sure she also was straight. i liked her until i liked nancy. my crush on nancy caused my crush on vickie to entirely disappear.

but i've never had crushes i acted on besides nancy. i only acted on my nancy crush on some random confidence boost i had one day.

it was also different now. i knew nancy liked girls, obviously, but i knew she didn't like me. she had liked me once upon a time, but i was dumb and wasted that chance the night we broke up.

now she liked barb- loved barb, even. her feelings would never change. she'd love barb and marry her, and i'd end up being the weird maid of honor who's still in love with one of the brides.

so now, i'm completely and utterly fucked, sitting in an endless loop of unreciprocated love.

-

in my second hour, also know as my english class with nancy, we had to partner up with someone in the class to discuss the book we were reading.

"hey," i heard behind me. i turned around and saw nancy, standing behind me. "partners?"

i debate the idea in my head, tossing it around like a football. i could work with nancy. i'm not really friends with anyone else in the class, and i have no idea as to what's going on in the book.

but on the other hand, i don't want to screw up anything. i know i'd end up rambling on and on, due to how nervous i was around her. i knew i wouldn't be able to focus, and i'd get caught up looking at her pink lips or her perfect face. i didn't want to mess up our friendship due to my feelings for her.

"sure," i replied through gritted teeth, pushing any bad thoughts away. i could do this, or at least that's what i was telling myself.

she smiled at me and took the seat in front of me. goddamn nancy and that gorgeous smile of hers.

i looked down at my book, pretending to read the chapter so nancy couldn't see the pink rising to my cheeks.

"to be honest," i said, dropping my voice to a whisper, "i have no idea what's going on"

she laughed a bit, keeping any noise to a minimum to keep the teacher's attention away from us.

"me either," she whispered back.

i laughed too, another faint hint of pink forming on my cheeks as i noticed nancy watching me. i looked back down at my book as the teacher walked by.

it was silent between us two, though i could feel nancy's stare on the top of my head like a laser beam. i choked down any nerves and looked back up at her.

"you okay?" she asks me, and i only nod.

"yep," i reply simply, the word coming out quicker than i had originally anticipated.

-

after class, i tried putting my stuff away as fast as possible to avoid any run-ins with nancy. as i was exiting the class, i heard my name being called.

"robin! robin!!!" nancy called, trying desperately to get my attention. i stopped dead in my tracks and turned around, despite the tiny voice in the back of my brain telling me to keep walking.

"yeah?" i asked, trying to not let it come out in a harsh tone. i half-sighed the word, making it already sound like i had zero interest.

it looked like her train of thought had crashed. her face went from mouth open, ready to talk to a confused and concerned look displayed on it. "are you sure nothing's wrong?"

"positive," i assured her, lying through gritted teeth. "is that what you needed me for?"

"no, uh...." she stalled.

"look, nance, i really have to get to my third period class-"

"do you want to hang out after school?" she asked, cutting me off to get back to her original question.

"i would, but i have work. i'm sorry. maybe your girlfriend can hang out with you"

i will admit, my last sentence came out harsher than normal. her smile disappeared off her face. before she could reply once again, i turned on my heel and walked towards my third period class, leaving a speechless nancy behind.

-

"so yeah. my last sentence really did come out harsh and i really didn't mean to be rude. i'm sure it hurt her and i do feel bad but why does she want to hang out with me instead of her own girlfriend? it doesn't make sense at all, even though i've been looking at it from every angle i just can't see-"

"robin," steve interrupted, handing a cone to the last customer. "i love you, truly. but i cannot take any more of your rambling right now"

i rolled my eyes, leaning against the wall. "sorry"

"maybe she likes you," steve suggested.

i looked at him, giving him a weird look.

"what! i'm serious," he insisted, as if i wasn't believing a word i was saying.

"nancy wheeler likes me?" i laughed. "yeah, no. she's dating barb"

"doesn't mean she can't like you"

"steve, i love you, but don't give me any false hope"

he put his hands up in surrender, dropping the topic to serve the next customer.

and the whole time, i kept juggling the suggestion.

nancy wheeler? likes me? yeah, no way in hell would that happen again.

-

a/n: next chapter will go to nancy's point of view (suprise!!) because it's necessary