vegas | robin buckley

4. stupid russians

***

Jackie finds herself in a similar situation as the one she was in this time yesterday as Robin stands inches away from her, messing with her hair a bit.

"I'm telling you, I go through 8 hour shifts with this trick," Robin announces as she takes the last bobby-pin from between her lips to pin Jackie's hair to her hat. "There," she announces once she's done. "Won't move an inch, I swear by it."

"Woah," Dustin stares as him and Steve burst through the door before Jackie can have a chance to thank Robin. "I thought you were pranking me yesterday!" He refers to when Jackie told him and their mom last night at the dinner table how she'd gotten a new job.

"What happened to working class only?" Jackie dismisses her little brother to turn accusingly to Steve, quoting the words he said yesterday that made Jackie get this stupid job anyway.

"This is a matter of life or death, Jackie," Steve starts pushing her and Robin out the door.

"What?"

"Hey!"

Both girls try protesting as Steve just ignores them. "Take care of those costumers," is the last thing he says before slamming the door closed after the girls.

"Asshole."

"Douchebag."

They walk up to the cash register, a few costumers in line.

"You remember how the register works?" Robin asks Jackie, setting up the machine.

Jackie thinks back to their training session the day before and nods her yes, as she moves to greet her new costumer.

The girls go through the first half of the day alternating shifts, Jackie starting at the register while Robin makes the ice creams, then switching every hour whenever the other's leg starts to fall asleep.

"One mint chocolate chip cone with extra chocolate chips, please," Jackie looks up from giving Erica a sample of peppermint stick at a grating voice coming from the register.

"G-got it," Robin messes with the register some as she tries giving Tammy her change. "It'll be ri-" but before Robin can finish, Tammy's already made herself comfortable in the booth Jackie always sits at- or used to to sit at before she started working.

"She doesn't even like mint chocolate chip," Jackie starts preparing the cone as she leaves Robin to tend to Erica's requests.

"Yeah, it's kinda strange how often she comes in here," Robin nods along, gazing at Jackie's head as she leans into the ice cream cooler. "Sometimes she doesn't even order anything."

"Right!" Jackie stays oblivious to the way Robin was looking pointedly at her as she moves to get more chocolate chips. "I don't understand her at all."

"It's kinda like. . . like she's coming in here. . . for you. . ." The two girls finally make eye contact as Jackie finishes Tammy's order. "I-don't-know-though," Robin then rushes out. "I-don't-really-understand-her-either."

"Right," Jackie just shakes her head. "Her and I are over- uh- in the sense that, like, um, we're not friends anymore, y'know?" Jackie tries recovering from her slip up. "So, um, yeah. I don't know either."

The oldest Henderson sibling then goes around the counter to drop off Tammy's ice cream as a way to not give Robin the opportunity to read into her sentence too much, but also rushes away from Tammy's table as soon as she's done so she doesn't have to engage in conversation with the blonde girl either.

Finally, their official lunch break time rolls around, and they both burst through the back door annoyed, glaring at Steve and Dustin who have a radio and weird dictionary thing at the center of the table.