Darling [Steve x Eddie]

Chapter 19

Steve and Eddie looked at each other and smiled.

"I meant Dustin," Steve clarified with a laugh.

"Oh good," Robin sighed in relief, dropping onto the couch. "I was worried that I'd have to figure out which girl was the mother and the list would have been endless."

Pieces of popcorn tumbled out and into her lap as she transferred the bowl onto the coffee table.

Steve pretended to be offended and brought a hand to his chest in a dramatic air.

"What can you possibly mean?" he gasped comedically, which managed to pull a laugh out of Eddie. "There's only Tracy, Dot, Gina, Sally, Fran, Mallory, Lin—."

"Wait, hold on!" Robin cried, springing up with a mischievous glint in her eyes. "You dated someone named Fran?"

She burst out laughing and Eddie joined in after a moment.

"It was Francesca, to be precise," Steve announced grandly, as if it would make the two of them laugh any less.

Eddie thumped a hand on his shoulder and gasped for breath, his stomach hurt so much from laughing.

"Francesca?" he exclaimed at last. "Dear, darling Steve, that is not a name!"

Robin choked down another wild laugh.

"He's right, Steve, why would you ever go out with a Franny?"

Steve spluttered, looking back and forth between the two of them.

"Uh— I— am I being ganged up on?" he cried. "For fucks sake, Robin! You liked Vickie! She could have been named after my grandmother!"

He paused to think for a moment.

"No, no, my great-great-great grandmother!"

That only made Eddie and Robin laugh even harder, until they were doubled over, practically rolling on the carpet.

Pretty soon Steve couldn't help, but to join them too.

"Honestly!" Robin was laughing so much, that tears were springing to her eyes. "You should have warned me off Vickie if it was that bad! God knows she didn't want me anyways. I could have saved Eddie from a week of me crying into his arms!"

"Hah!" Eddie laughed. "It was bound to happen anyways because you would have had a gay panic sooner or later!"

"True!" Robin leaned back into the couch and reached for the popcorn again.

Slowly, they all began to calm back down.

"God, I needed that!" Eddie said, flopping onto the couch at the opposite end.

"Same." Steve slid into the middle spot and kicked his feet up onto the coffee table.

Robin turned to Eddie.

"What weirdly-named people have you dated?" she asked, grabbing a handful of popcorn before passing the bowl across, willfully ignoring Steve's hand.

"Umm... well the truth is, contrary to popular belief, I haven't really gone on any first dates."

Eddie frowned down at his hands and began to pick absently at a stray thread on the couch cushion.

"Really?" Steve asked in poorly hidden disbelief.

"Yeah, I've only ever liked people from afar or hooked up with strangers in random places."

Saying it aloud made it sound much sadder than it actually was.

Or maybe it was sad.

Eddie didn't know anymore.

He caught a pitying glance from Robin.

"What, it's not like you've gone on hundreds of first dates," he remarked hotly. "Not like our casanova here." He nudged Steve with his elbow.

"Yeah... but at least I've gone on one," Robin replied. "And it was a good one, even though things didn't end well."

Eddie and Steve both nodded.

It wasn't like Robin had just admired Vickie from afar, scared and nervous like how Eddie always got.

No, she'd marched straight up to the girl, after the Upside Down stuff, and they went out two days later.

Eddie had been obscenely jealous at the time.

"Have you got any other girls on your mind?" he now asked curiously.

Robin smiled in a funny way and he immediately knew that she did.

"Who is it?" he prompted. "That is, if you want to tell us."

He glanced over at Steve for support, who caught his eye and nodded along.

"Well, there is one girl..." Robin trailed off. "But I don't know what's going to happen. She's been through a lot, like us, and she only recently broke up with her boyfriend. I flirted a bit with her a couple of days ago, but now it's her move, I think."

"That's great, Robin," Steve leaned into her and pulled her into a side hug.

"I doubt you'd say that if you knew who it was," she said mysteriously.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Eddie asked.

She grinned nervously.

"I think I'm in love with Nancy Wheeler."