Chapter 23

Sofia wakes up in the motel bed, braless, sunlight shining on her face. She’s woken up by Robin giving her small kisses on her cheek.

“Am I in heaven?” Sofia whispers, joking but not really,  as she slowly opens her eyes.

“You wish” Robin says, her lips turning into a smirk. Sofia turns her head to the other side.

“Don’t look at me I look ugly… you might stop liking me” Sofia mutters, still half asleep.

“I could never stop l-liking you” Robin says with a soft smile. She loved everything Sofia did, even being a heavy sleeper.

“What time is it?” Sofia asks, turning back to Robin as she rubs her eyes.

“9:20… Shit, it’s 9:20!” Robin says loudly.

“What’s wrong?” Sofia asks, confused by Robin’s sudden change of mood.

“I’m gonna be late for work!”

“Oh, shit!” Sofia says, loudly too. 

Robin runs to her bag and starts putting everything there as Sofia gets up and starts dressing up.

“Did you shower?” Sofia asks, as she puts her bra on, seeing the fogged-up mirror.

“Yeah”

“Go get the soaps!” Sofia orders as she puts on her shirt.

“Great idea” Robin smiles as she runs to the bathroom and collects the soaps.

By 9:30am, the time Robin’s shift starts, they hop in her bike and start going to the Family Video store.

When they got there, Robin went straight inside while Sofia called home through a payphone to check on Dustin.

“Sorry I’m late” Robin says, rushing through the store.

“Wait wait wait” Steve says making Robin stop walking. He examines her outfit and her face.

“Wearing yesterday’s clothes…” he smirks.

“When did you suddenly become a fashion specialist?” Robin says, sarcastically, hoping he’d keep talking.

“Holy shit” Steve smirks.

“Not so holy” Robin jokes.

“How was it?” Steve asks, proud yet curious.

“That’s… Yeah, it was amazing” Robin says, blushing a bit, embarrassed but happy too.

Steve cheers and they start talking about his date yesterday.

In the meanwhile, Sofia calls home. “Hey, Dusty. I just wanted to check on you” she says.

“Hey… yeah every-everything’s fine” he responds as Sofia hears their mom talk in the background. “Wait a second” Dustin says.

After some seconds of hearing background talk, Dustin talks again. “Mom wanted to know if you’re okay”

“Yeah, I’m fine, why?” Sofia asks but before Dustin could answer the doorbell rang.

“Gotta go, bye” he says and puts the phone down before a response.

He walks to the door and opens it, revealing a concerned Max.

“Cherilyn Martin?” Dustin says, after hearing what Max told him. “You’re sure it was her?”

“Yeah” Max responds.

“Shit… my sister’s gonna be crushed” he says, sitting down in bed and rubbing his forehead in concern.

“She was in her cheerleader outfit. Same thing she was in when I saw her with Eddie” Max explains and they keep talking.

Sofia walks inside Family Video and is greeted by Steve, who has a huge smirk on his face. She looks at him, then at Robin and back at him.

“You told him?” Sofia asks Robin as she walks to the inside of the counter.

“He figured it out himself” Robin says, with a defensive tone, and Sofia replies with a sigh. She wasn’t mad, it was kind of a happy sigh.

“Anyway, guess what we’re watching this morning” Robin says to Sofia.

“What?”

“Doctor Zhivago” Robin says, handing Sofia the VHS.

“I thought you didn’t do double VHS” Sofia says to Steve. 

“He does now. The movie is about doomed love… just like his love life” Robin jokes.

“Ouch” Steve complains.

“Poor Stevie” Sofia jokes as she turns on the TV. “Holy shit…” she whispers, seeing the news.

“We’re in the Forest Hills trailer park in east Roane County. We don’t have a lot of details now, but we can confirm that the body of a Hawkins High student was discovered early this morning. Police have not released the name although we are told they’re currently in the process of notifying the family”

Half an hour later, the news was still on as Steve, Robin and Sofia made theories about who it was. They were worried it might be someone they knew.

Robin was sitting on a chair and Sofia was on her lap. Robin had her arms wrapped around Sofia’s waist and Sofia had one hand place on top of Robin’s hand. Steve was leaning against the counter, trying not to feel like a third wheel.

“Hey, guys” Dustin says, bursting inside the store.

“You see this? Someone was murdered…” Steve says but is interrupted by Dustin.

“How many phones do you have?” Dustin shouts.

“Two. Why?” Steve responds.

“Technically three, if you count Keith’s” Robin adds.

“Yeah, three works” Max says as she shares a nod with Dustin.

“What are you doing?” Sofia asks as she sees Dustin pass his backpack to the other side of the counter.

“My pile!”

“No, no, no! My tapes! Dude. What are you doing, man?” Steve asks, with a desperate tone, as Dustin slides on the counter, knocking off some tapes, and sits on the computer.

“Setting up base of operations here” Dustin responds.

“Base of operations?” Robin asks.

“Get off” Sofia orders.

“I need it” Dustin complains.

“For what?” Steve asks.

“Eddie’s friends’ phone numbers” Dustin responds, making Sofia sigh.

“Your new best friend you think is cooler because he plays your nerdy game?” Steve says, with a bit of jealousy.

“Yes. I never said that” Dustin says.

“Seriously, you guys, maybe on a Monday you can play around, but it’s Saturday. It’s our busiest day” Robin says, trying not to be mad.

“Robin, I empathize, but this cannot wait” Dustin says.

“Calling Eddie’s friends is an emergency?” Robin asks, surreally.

“Correct!” Dustin shouts.

“Dusty…” Sofia sighs under her breath.

“Want me to strangle him or you want to?” Steve asks Robin.

“We could take turns” Robin says with a mad smile.

“Let me join please” Sofia says.

“Can you fill them in while I do this?” Dustin asks Max, who’s standing next to him.

“Fill us in on what?” Robin asks, looking like she’s had enough.

Max sighs and looks at Sofia. “You might wanna sit down for this”

“Why?” Sofia asks. Her stomach swirls with anxiety and her chest feels weird, because the look on Max’s face is new to her.

“Uh… you know the student who’s been murdered…?” Max asks, carefully choosing her words.

“What about it?” Robin asks back, placing her hands on Sofia’s shoulders.

“It’s, hum… the body they found… it’s Cher” Max says.

Sofia could swear she heard it wrong. “What?”

“I saw Cher’s dead body…” Max can’t finish the sentence.

Sofia’s vision starts to get blurry, due to the tears. She couldn’t quite understand what was going on. What she heard. Her mind was fuzzy. What’s going on.

She could feel a pain in her chest, she couldn’t tell if it was anxiety or just pain. Probably just pain. Everyone was looking at her with worry. They were all concerned. Though that comforted her in a way, that couldn’t cover the pain she felt.

Feeling tears roll down her cheeks, she ran outside through the backdoor, that led to an alley. It’s not real. It’s not real.

“I’ll go” Robin says as she sees everyone’s hesitant faces, and follows Sofia.

When she got there, Sofia was pacing around and trying to stop crying. The tears streamed down her face quickly as she tried to contain them. Talking to herself to keep quiet, to keep calm. She couldn’t.

“Sof…” Robin says. She hated to see her like this. It shattered her heart. It was unfair.

Sofia wouldn’t stop moving so Robin walked up to her and held her arms.

“She can’t be dead” Sofia says, shaking her head, gulping afterwards.

Robin embraced her as tightly as possible. Sofia whimpered as she buried her face on Robin’s neck. Robin always had the power to hug her and make everything feel okay. But it didn’t feel okay. It didn’t feel real.

After a minute or two, Sofia let go and looked at Robin. She cleaned Sofia’s tears with the tip of her thumb. “I-I need to sit” Sofia says, suddenly dizzy, feeling her heart beating on her neck.

Robin held her by the waist, and they sat down on the ground, resting their backs on the wall. Sofia was still crying, but it was much less now.

“It’s just so weird… I’ll never see her again… never talk to her again” Sofia says, looking at the ground. “I’ll never hear-“

“Stupid gossip” Robin concludes, making Sofia laugh. If she could make Sofia laugh, she knew everything was going to be all right.

“Even though we weren’t the best friends we were before she still meant a lot to me, ya know?” Sofia says, sniffing.

“I know” Robin says.

“Do you think I’m overreacting?” Sofia asks. She wasn’t crying anymore.

Robin finds the question a bit weird. “Of course not. Everyone deals with loss in different ways”

“Yeah, you’re right…” Sofia says, looking at Robin.

Sofia looked to both sides of the alley to check if anyone was around and softly pressed her lips against Robin’s. “Thank you” Sofia says.

Robin gives her a smile and puts her arm around Sofia’s shoulders. She leans into Robin and takes some deep breaths. She feels like she came back to reality. She could see things more clearly now.

After a while, Robin went back inside. “How is she?” Dustin asks right as he sees Robin.

“She’s holdin’ up” Robin responds with a tender smile.

They started making phone calls to Eddie’s friends and soon Sofia went back inside. Nobody really said anything as they were busy making phone calls. 

However, as Sofia sat in a chair next to where Robin was standing, Robin gave her a tiny smile and held her hand. She quietly explained Sofia their plan and kept making phone calls.

“Hey, guys, I might have a lead” Max says, snapping Sofia out of her thoughts.

“Seriously?” Dustin says.

“Yeah. Apparently, Eddie gets drugs from some guy named Reefer Rick, and sometimes Eddie crashes there” Max explains.

“Sounds promising. Where does Reefer Rick live?” Robin asks.

“See, that’s the thing. No one knows. He’s more of a… a legend than someone that people actually know” Max says.

“I’ve heard of him” Sofia says, sniffing afterwards.

“How?” Dustin asks, confused. She couldn’t tell him she gets high sometimes, because he would start explaining to her the side effects and all, so she decided to ignore him.

“So, you don’t know his last name?” Sofia asks Max, who shook her head.

“Bet the cops know the last name” Steve says, out of nowhere.

“What?”

“Cops. I mean, listen, if this Reefer Rick is actually a drug dealer, I guarantee you he’s been busted at some point. Means he’s in the system” Steve explains.

“The cops? Really, Steve? That’s your suggestion?” Dustin asks.

“I think they should be filled in on what we know, what’s going on” Steve says, making Sofia sigh.

“You think Eddie’s guilty, don’t you?” Dustin asks, offended.

“Whoa. I believe in innocent until proven guilty, all that constitutional shit. I just, you know, don’t think we can rule it out” Steve says.

“That’s precisely what we’re trying to do here, Steve. And maybe we’d have a little bit more luck if you spent less time trying to find a girlfriend and more time trying to find Eddie”

“Somebody has to attend to the customers”

“Especially if they’re babes, right?” Robin says and winks, making Sofia smile.

“Hey, not fair. Okay? I attend to all customers equally, babes and non-babes alike. We’ve got a very big selection in here. It can be super overwhelming for people” Steve points out.

“Yeah, it can be” Robin says and walks over to the computer.

“What are you doing?” Dustin asks, to which Sofia answers “She’s cooking us a plan”.

“Maybe we don’t need a last name” Robin says, typing on the computer. “Twelve Ricks have accounts here”

“Lot of Ricks” Max says.

They eventually narrowed it down to Rick Lipton, who lived at 2121 Holland Road, out by Lovers Lake.

Steve and Robin closed the store and they all got in Steve’s car. Sofia and Robin sat on the backseat next to Max. They carefully held hands and Sofia looked out the window, remembering the date she had had with Robin at Lovers Lake.

July 17th of 1985. Sofia had invited Robin to go to the lake, since it was going to be the hottest day of the year.

They were still getting to know each other, but there was some tension. Tension that they avoided, and that Sofia felt guilty for.

They drove their bikes there and chose the spot with less people. Sofia displayed a big towel on the ground and grabbed her water bottle. She felt Robin’s eyes on her as she drank her water. 

They sat down reading for a while. Then, they went to the lake and swam. They observed the people around them and commented on what they were doing and how they acted.

Some people may say it’s gossiping, but for them it was more of a psychological evaluation.

Robin looked so pretty under the sunlight. Her freckles looked more dominant, and her blue eyes shined like the stars. Sofia had her hair in a mess, which Robin tried to untangle later.

On that day, Robin told her that it took her six months longer for her to walk compared to other babies and that rabies is her number one fear.

Robin learned that Sofia’s afraid of the dark and that she still sleeps with a light on, except when she sleeps with someone she trusts.

They really enjoyed each other’s company and talking to each other. They both understood each other so well it was crazy sometimes.

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A/N: again, sorry for taking a bit longer to update. writing emotional scenes takes me so much time omg and also i’m trying to write bigger chapters cuz i hate small ones

also, i hope yall didn’t find the beginning confusing, if you did please comment so I can try to be more clear 🙂

anyway, I hope you like what I’m doing with Sofia’s character. I’m not gonna make her feel guilty about Cher’s death cuz honestly that would be lazy writing, so I’m trying to come up with something else for the future ehe

don’t forget to vote please, love ya!