I find Robin standing on a table with a wild look in her eye. When she notices me she instantly seems to sober up from whatever cloud she was just on "y/n are you alright?" She asks jumping down from her vantage point.
"No, my brother is an ass"
My eyes still burned and I'm guessing I had the classic 'trying not to cry' look going on.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Her raspy voice was deeply comforting.
"What were you doing?" I deflect wanting to avoid making myself too vulnerable.
"I uh, think I cracked the code" she says sheepishly rubbing her arm.
"What? Why didn't you say?"
"You looked upset and it can wait"
I give a small smile. It was nice to know she cared, my chest tingled with a fuzzy feeling like a giddy little kid on christmas. "I guess we have to tell Steve and Dustin then" I sigh.
"Maybe we can tell them after you talk to me" she suggests holding out a hand.
I don't quite understand what she's getting at but I take her hand nonetheless. She tugs me towards scoops ahoy and shuts the door turning the sign around to say 'closed'
In the break room she pulls a seat up right infront of me and leans in close "okay fess up what did that idiot say to you?"
"It's stupid" I mutter quietly.
"Hey, it's not stupid I know what that dingus is like" she offers a gentle half smile "he speaks without thinking"
"I kinda started it" I admit.
She smirks "he probably deserved it!"
"It's just petty"
"Well whatever happened I'm on your side, us girls gotta stick together right?" She winks playfully trying to lighten the mood. I can't stop a giggle as she teases me and nod in agreement.
When the boys finally make their way back to us Robin explains how she discovered the code was describing dropoff locations and that there would be one happening at 9'45 tonight.
All through her explanation Steve kept giving me awkward stares. He looked sad but also a little pissed, I still felt bad about what I said but I'm stubborn and refuse to make the first move to apologize.
So the whole steakout thing was bound to be a hell of a lot more uncomfortable then it should be.
***
And it was. Sitting on the soaking roof between Steve and Robin was both a godsend and a nightmare. "What do you see?" I shout to Dustin over the pouring rain.
"Just a shit ton of boxes" he yells back after looking through the binoculars. "And heavily armed guards"
"Let me see" Steve tries to pry the binoculars out of his friends hands which leads to almost a full on tussle.
The equipment they were arguing over falls from their grip right to the floor below. Drawing the armed guards attention.
Instinctively everyone hunkers down below the ledge to avoid being seen. Robin's hand winds up intertwined with mine and I can't help the butterflies that burst into my stomach.
After a tense minute or so we crawl our way back inside. Each one of us was soaked from the rain and we left puddles as we trailed through the mall.
***
The next day we met up again to discuss how to proceed from here. I hadn't been consistently getting out of the house this much since before summer (for school). It was fun, for the first time in awhile I was having fun. Steve and I still had some unspoken tension though so the ride here was pretty weird.
"We have got to find a way into that elevator" Dustin announces to the other three of us.
"How? didn't you see those guys with the guns?" Robin retorts.
"Yeah I did actually so that's why I'll sneak up on him and take him out" Steve scoffs.
"Take who out?" I snort.
"The elevator guard"
"Are you deaf and blind? He has a massive gun"
"That's why I would be sneaking" he growls.
Dustin jumps in and tries to stop the argument and Robin bounds out the door.
"Hey where are you going?" I call out.
"To get us into that elevator!" She yells back as she raids the tip jar.
"Hey, half of that's mine" Steve joins.
"I need money" she defends.
The break room falls silent and awkward. "So" Dustin breaks the tense air.
"Shut up toothless" I snap.
"Okay well she's cranky" he huffs to my brother.
***
Thankfully it's not long before Robin comes back with her big plan. She has blueprints of the entire mall, it shows all the passageways between ventilation systems. The one in our shop connects all the way over to the elevator. Now we need someone small enough to get through.
Dustin is convinced he can fit thanks to his Cleidocranial Dysplasia.
"What's he doing?" Robin questions with a puzzled expression.
"He's got this disease, he can basically bend like gumbo" Steve smiles proudly.
"You mean gumby" I correct.
"Pretty sure it's gumbo"
"Stop arguing and help me" Dustin yells from halfway in the vent.
"Okay okay" Steve mutters grabbing the kids legs and pushing.
"Stop playing with my legs"
"I'm not playing I have terrible footing" he defends.
Robin and I simply watch in astonishment.
"Touch my butt" Dustin demands.
"Huh?"
"Touch my butt I don't care!"
Robin walks away to attend to customers but I just can't pull my eyes away from the scene. Steve is shoving the smaller boy by the ass into a gap that was even smaller.
When she comes back she brings a guest. Erica Sinclair, Lucas' little sister. I look between the pair and give a knowing look. I guess we're resorting to child labour.
YOU ARE READING
Black Sheep | Robin Buckley
FanfictionI, y/n Harrington, am the black sheep in the family. I don't party, don't have many friends and definitely do not talk to boys. My big brother was always there for me though, no matter our differences. We told eachother everything. Except that is my...
