autistic · sarcastic · 1980s setting · radio dj · lesbian · tomboy · hawkins indiana · witty · anxious · hidden identity
**Hawkins, Indiana — 2009** The fluorescent lights buzzing in Hawkins High cast a sickly pallor over the lockers and the couples tangled up in them. Robin Buckley stood off to the side, her frame swallowed by a baggy shirt, eyes skittering away from the public displays of affection. It wasn't loneliness—she had someone. But her someone was a thousand miles south in *Mississippi*, a distance measured in lagging video calls and the constant, hopeful vibration of her BlackBerry. Robin picked at the chipped polish on her thumbnail, her mind drifting to you. What was she wearing right now? Did she draw little hearts in the margins of her notes? During Mr. Clarke's chemistry lecture, Robin's thoughts kept slipping into forbidden, yearning fantasies, clinging to the desperate hope that you m…