Chapter 11

Their plan to get out didn’t go well at all. They’d been caught by the Russians. Steve was taken away from the girls, and, when they were all reunited in a small room, Steve was bloody and bruised.

Robin struggled, but Claudia just let it happen. She accepted the fact that she might die the second the elevator started to drop, and her terrible gut feeling had only grew over the draining hours they’d spent trapped in the base.

The two were threw on the floor, next to an unconscious Steve. “Hey, Steve?” Robin said, getting up to look at him. Claudia got up, too, but didn’t say anything. Her throat was too sore from screaming. “Steve? Steve? Steve? What did you do to him? What did you do?!” Robin asked the officer. She was met with a harsh hit in the face.

“Robin!” Claudia yelled. She instantly regretted saying anything, as she was met with a kick to her shoulder. The shoulder that had already been bruised by Daniel not long ago.

The man spoke in Russian to the guards, and the three were soon lifted and tied onto chairs. Robin and Steve were put back to back, and Claudia was put into another chair, facing Robin. Why? She had no idea.

“Steve, wake up,” Robin said, “Steve? What did you do?!” The officer lifted Steve by his hair. “Don’t touch him. Steve? Steve, can you hear me?”

“I think your friend need a doctor,” the officer said in his thick Russian accent, “Good thing… we have the very best.” He laughed, then Robin spat in his face. “You’re going to regret that.”

The door buzzer sounded, and the three men walked out of the room. “Bastards. Let us outta here! Bastards, let us out! Let us out.”

“It’s not use, Robin,” Claudia said, “We’re dead.”

“We’ll get out of here.”

“No, we’re so so fucking dead. We’ve been dead since we stepped in the goddamn elevator. I wish I never took this stupid fucking job. I should have just took that cleaning job at the dentist. Who cares if it was gross? At least I wouldn’t have Russians beating my ass.”

“Claudia, stop. I’m gonna do everything I can to get you out of here, even if that means I don’t make it out alive.”

“I want my mom.”

——————————

Robin continued to yell for help, Claudia didn’t. She didn’t even start. She just sat there, crying, waiting for Steve to wake up and somehow come up with a genius solution, despite him being the dumbest one there. 

“Hey, would you stop yelling?” Steve finally said.

“Steve! Oh, my God!” Robin said, “Steve… are, are you okay?”

“My ears are ringing, and I can’t really breathe, my eye feels like it’s about to pop out of my skull, but, you know, apart from that, I’m doing pretty good.”

“Well, the good news is that they’re calling you a doctor,” Robin chuckled.

“Is this his place of work? I love the vibe. Charming.”

“Yeah, tell me about it. So, okay, do you see that table over there to your right?” Steve looked to his left. “No, you’re other right. Yeah, okay. And you see those scissors?@

“Uh huh.”

“Yeah, well, I think that if the three of us move at the same time, we could get over there and then maybe I could kick the table and knock them into your lap.”

“And I could cut the binds, then we can get Claudia out.”

Claudia stayed silent. She didn’t think their plan would work. None of their plans had worked so far.

“Yeah, and we could get out of here.”

“Got you. Okay, yeah, we can do that.”

“Yeah.”

“Those morons, they left scissors in here?”

“Yeah, morons.”

“Total morons.”

“On the count of three we’re gonna hop.”

“Alright, hop on three, I got you.”

“One, two three.” The two hopped, successfully moving themselves closer to the table. “Okay, that worked. All right. Uh, let’s try again. One, two three. Holy shit! This is gonna work! Okay, one, two three.”

The two fell onto the floor. Their plan hadn’t worked. Claudia rolled her eyes at their stupidity. Now when the Russian’s came back, they’d know the two had tried to escape.

Robin began to laugh. “It’s okay, it’s okay. Don’t cry, Robin,” Steve said, “Are you laughing?”

“Yeah.”

“Jesus!”

“I’m sorry! I’m so sorry. It’s just. I can’t believe I’m gonna die in a secret Russian base with Steve ‘The Hair’ Harrington. It’s just too trippy, man.”

“We’re not gonna die. We’re gonna get out of here, okay? Just- you gotta let me just think for a second.”

“Keep telling yourself that, Harrington,” Claudia said, “We’re dead.”

“Do you remember, um, Mrs Click’s sophomore history class? The three of us were in it.”

“What?” Steve and Claudia asked in sync.

“Mrs Clickity-Clackity. That’s what us band dweebs called her. It was first period, Tuesdays and Thursdays, so you were both always late. Together. And, Steve, you always had the same breakfast, bacon, egg, and cheese on a sesame bagel. I sat behind you both, you sat next to each other. Two days a week for a year. Mister Funny. Mister Cool. The King of Hawkins High himself. And you, Claudia. You weren’t that big of a deal, but your ego was high enough for you to not notice anyone but yourself and Steve in that class. Do you even remember me from that class? Either of you?” The two stayed silent, and Robin laughed. “Of course you don’t. You were a real asshole, Steve, you know that?”

“Yeah, I know,” Steve said.

“But it didn’t even matter. It didn’t matter that you were an ass. I was still obsessed with you,” Robin admitted. Claudia felt a pang in her heart again. She was confused. Why did it matter that Robin was obsessed with Steve? That didn’t mean Steve was obsessed with Robin. Did she even like Steve?

“Even though all of us losers pretend to be above it all, we still just wanna be popular… accepted, normal.”

“If it makes you feel any better, having those things isn’t all that great,” Steve said, “Seriously. It just baffles me. Everything that people tell you is important, everything that people say you should care about, it’s all just…”

“Bullshit,” Claudia said.

“But I guess you gotta mess up to figure things out, right?”

Robin understood that. She’d messed up when she stopped talking to Claudia. But she had figured things out. She’d figured her feelings out.

“I hope so,” Robin said, “I feel like my whole life has been… one big error. At least it can’t get any more messed up than this.”

“You know, I wish I’d known you in Click’s class.”

“Yeah?”

“Really, I do. Maybe you could’ve helped me pass the class. Maybe instead of being here, I’d be on my way to college right now.”

“And me and Claudia would have no idea that there were evil Russians beneath our feet, and we would be happily slinging ice cream with some other shmuck.”

“Gotta say, though, I liked being your guys’ shmuck. It was fun while it lasted

“It was,” Claudia and Robin said in sync.

Robin looked up at Claudia, who was the only one seated properly. Claudia realised in that moment, as much as she’d tried to deny it for the past years, she’d never been interested in Daniel.

In Mrs Click’s class, she’d always focused more on Steve, even though Daniel was there. But that wasn’t because she liked Steve. She never liked Steve. Even now that she was closer with him than any other guy, she didn’t like him.

She didn’t like any boys. She never had. And she never will. Because it was girls. It had always been girls.