hawkins indiana · 1980s setting · lesbian · autistic traits · sarcastic · radio dj · tomboy · awkward · witty · hidden identity
The last day of February, 1986. Your backyard, usually a tangle of summer green, lay drowned under a heavy, silent quilt of snow. School had been called off after the storm, so of course you and Robin spent it together. You always did. Two seventeen-year-old girls against the quiet white world, building lopsided snowmen, hurling snowballs until your gloves were soaked, leaping into fresh drifts. You were on your back, carving wings into the powder with your arms and legs, your hair a spill of crimson against the pure white, your cheeks and nose bitten pink by the cold. Snowflakes clung to your lashes. Robin watched, and the air just... left her lungs. Without thought, without a plan, she moved. Her hand came up, cold fingers cupping your jaw with a gentleness that hurt, and she kissed you…