Chapter Text
After a frustrating walk to go pick up dinner for her and her roommate, Nancy Wheeler practically threw herself through the front door of her apartment. She knew she was carrying on more than the situation warranted, but she really cherished her weekly walks down to the sandwich place she and Jonathan ordered from every Thursday. It gave her time to decompress after a week of classes, the weather was perfect this time of year, and she got to say hi to some of her favorite neighbors on the way. Nancy loved a routine, and the most important part of her weekly sandwich runs was the music she listened to while running the errand.
Jonathan came scrambling over to meet Nancy in the entryway of their shared apartment. He took the bag of food from her as she huffed and puffed and took her shoes off, putting them neatly on the rack they had set up next to the front door.
“Is now a bad time to ask if you happened to check the mail on your way back?” Jonathan tried to joke in an attempt to lighten Nancy’s obviously poor mood. He tried to force a smile but he knew it definitely looked more like a pained grimace.
Nancy just fixed him with a glare before giving up and cracking a small smile, “I was a little preoccupied, to be honest with you.”
“Preoccupied with what?” Jonathan said as he turned and headed towards the apartment’s small kitchen area to get plates for dinner. Nancy squeezed her way in between where her friend was standing and the counter in order to get to the cabinet where they kept their cups.
“I couldn’t find anything good to listen to. I normally just put on whatever playlist Spotify curates but it was filled with a lot of the weird music you always listen to.” Nancy grabbed two souvenir cups they kept. One was from an amusement park they had gone to over spring break just a few weeks ago, and the other was from a trip they took to Niagara Falls the summer before. She lifted the cups up and raised her eyebrows in question, “what do you want to drink?”
“I’m cool with just water,” and Nancy nodded in acknowledgment as she squeezed back by Jonathan to fill their drinks while he headed to the living room and set their food on the coffee table that sat in front of what Jonathan’s friend, Argyle, claims is the comfiest couch in the world. They had a small kitchen table they normally ate their meals at, but Thursdays were an exception.
“Do you remember using my account recently?” Nancy asked as she plopped down on the couch next to Jonathan, making sure to not spill the drinks she was carrying.
“The only time I ever use your account is if I’m listening on the TV out here and I don’t think I’ve used that since the last time we hosted the game night. Also, can we circle back to you calling my music weird?”
“Your music tastes are objectively weird, which isn’t synonymous with bad. A lot of it just really bums me out,”
Jonathan scoffs playfully, “Nancy! I’ve seen some of your playlists and they’re absolutely devastating. You have no room to talk about songs bumming you out.
Nancy Wheeler has always been headstrong and stubborn, but she knows when to admit she’s been bested. “Fair enough,” she mumbles as she settles further into the couch with her food as Jonathan sets up the TV for a movie.
Nancy and Jonathan have had countless movie nights together, starting from when they were in elementary school. They worked hard to preserve the tradition throughout their ever-evolving relationship and lives. They had started out as the begrudging older siblings to a pair of best friends, Mike Wheeler and Will Byers. Then after the Wheeler family and Byers family grew closer and hung out as family units more often, Nancy and Jonathan had become good friends.
By the time they reached high school hormones and societal pressure found the pair confusing their platonic feelings towards one another with romantic ones. They dated briefly when they were juniors, they thought it was love, and it was- just the wrong kind. After an amicable break up the two remained best friends and even went off to college together, albeit different ones, once they graduated high school.
As freshmen, they moved straight into a two-bedroom apartment located in a neighborhood right in the middle of their two schools with neither Jonathan nor Nancy having to commute more than 20 minutes for class. Nancy had chosen to study journalism at a traditional four-year university, whereas Jonathan was admitted into a really fancy art school where he focuses on his photography. Now, as seniors in college, the pair works together for a local news publication- Nancy handles writing all of their pieces, and Jonathan handles the photography.
nance: Hey- remember when my Spotify was all messed up last week?
Jonathan: when you made fun of my music? it’s ringing a bell yeah
nance: Well it’s been happening all week and it keeps giving me weirder recommendations.
Jonathan: maybe u got hacked lmao
nance: Oh god I didn’t even think about that! How can I tell?
Jonathan: you can only use spotify from one place at a time but you can see what’s playing from anywhere so you could totally plan a stake out and wait to catch the suspect in the act
Jonathan: or you could just change your password and call it a day
nance: But where’s the fun in that?
Jonathan: remember when you had that internship and your shitty supervisor called you nancy drew
nance: Shut up or I’ll make sure I ask for extra pickles on your sandwich the next time I order.
Jonathan: nooooooooo pls
After Jonathan’s suggestion, Nancy started carefully monitoring her Spotify account’s activity. It remained idle during the day outside of her own listening, but in the middle of the night while she was sleeping was when somebody would use her profile to listen to all sorts of music. Whoever this mystery person was, their musical taste did not discriminate.
Monday night they listened to nothing but movie and video game scores. On Tuesday it was Spanish and French folk music. Wednesday night was a deep dive into Taylor Swift’s entire discography. It was a lot of synthesizer-heavy new wave from the 80s on Thursday night. By Friday, Nancy had decided she had enough of whoever was wrecking her algorithm.
“I’m staying up to catch the perp in the act,” she explained from where she was sitting on the beanbag chair in the corner of Jonathan’s room as he readied himself for bed.
“Good luck with that, I bet you’ll fall asleep before they get on. Are you taking bets on what you think they’ll be listening to tonight?
“I’m choosing to ignore your comment about how you have no faith in my ability to catch this absolute menace. I’m thinking maybe some Motown classics.”
Jonathan laughed at that as he climbed into bed. “You’ll have to tell me if you were right, now get out of my room so I can sleep.”
“Will do,” Nancy said as she gracelessly rolled out of the beanbag chair and stood up from the floor.
“Don’t forget to turn off the light on your way out. Love you, Nancy.”
“Love you too,” Nancy said with a smile as she turned off Jonathan’s light and shut the door behind her, and padded down the hallway to her room. She changed into her pajamas, a Hellfire Club t-shirt she stole from her brother the last time she was home and a pair of paint-stained sweatpants, and settled into bed with her laptop opened to Spotify. Nancy had started to doze off when suddenly the screen of her laptop lit up. Nancy was suddenly wide awake as she watched whoever had access to her account start listening to some 2010s indie pop.
Nancy watched the stranger listen to a few songs and had to admit to herself that the song choices weren’t half bad, she listened to a lot of this stuff when she was in high school. After three songs Nancy had a game plan. She was going to change the song that the other person was listening to and communicate with them through song titles.
Nancy put on “Hello” by Adele in hopes that the down-tempo song is enough to get the stranger’s attention. After not even a minute of playing, Nancy’s song choice was immediately changed over to a song called “Hello Hello Hello” by Remi Wolf. Since she couldn’t hear the songs playing- thanks, Spotify thief, Nancy made a note of them so she could listen later as she looked for her next song.
She chose “Who Are You” by The Who in an attempt to keep this way of communicating as straightforward as possible.
The music “No One” by Alicia Keys. Nancy had a comedian on her hands and she was not happy about it. She just wanted her damn account back.
She selected the next song, “What’s Your Name?” by Depeche Mode in hopes her conversational partner would give in and answer.
“It’s Confidential” by BRONCHO started playing shortly after and Nancy felt her eye twitch as rage settled over her body.
Nancy clicked onto “Whataya Want From Me” by Adam Lambert with low expectations for any useful response from whatever lowlife couldn’t just make their own Spotify account.
The Doobie Brothers’ “Listen to the Music” was the reply she received. She rolled her eyes so hard she thought she may have seen her brain. God, this person might be the most annoying person Nancy has ever had the displeasure of talking to.
When she told Jonathan that she was going to stake out her Spotify he laughed and told Nancy to make sure she played “Leave Me Alone” by New Order. She felt this was the appropriate time to make good on her promise.
“We’re Going to Be Friends” by the White Stripes was what she got back.
“In Your Dreams” by Stevie Nicks is what she played next. If this menace to society was going to be a smart ass, then Nancy was going to absolutely stoop to their level.
“Hateful” by Post Malone is what played after and Nancy found herself barking out a laugh that she immediately tried to stifle. She didn’t want to wake Jonathan who was most definitely asleep by now, but she also didn’t want to give this person the satisfaction of making her laugh, even if they weren’t there to hear it.
After her brief interaction with who she now declared her arch-nemesis, Nancy found herself back in the same routine as before. She had full access to her account during the day and whoever had her login information would use it at night. Other than the continued screwed-up recommendations- she owed Jonathan an apology for calling his music weird, it has nothing on this person’s- this schedule caused no problems for Nancy. One night, about two weeks after the initial and only communication she had with the hacker, she had to pull an all-nighter to finish a project for a class.
She was listening to an acoustic singer-songwriter playlist when all of a sudden some 80’s metal guitar riff came blasting over her headphones. After getting over her initial shock and regulating her heartbeat, Nancy realized what had happened. She immediately turned on “Excuse Me Mr.” by No Doubt in an effort to try to convey that she was not happy in the slightest about being interrupted.
The girl was made acutely aware of how jarring it is to be on the side of these song title-based conversations that can hear the music when “She” by Harry Styles suddenly started.
Confused at this choice, Nancy started the song “What?” by a Tribe Called Quest
“I’m a Girl” by Peace played next and Nancy smiled smugly to herself. She finally knew something about her hacker and she didn’t even ask for it. Slightly surprised at this revelation she decided to keep the mood light and maybe try to learn something else about the girl on the other side of this conversation.
Nancy started “Why Don’t You Get a Job” by The Offspring.
“Work Sucks/Fuck Shit Up” by Ass started played not even 30 seconds later and Nancy scoffed. Of course, that’s the attitude her arch-nemesis had. Nancy had little experience with this mystery girl and could tell this was probably a personal mantra for her.
In a dramatic genre switch, Nancy queued “How Old Are You?” by Spark Alaska to play next.
“22 (Taylor’s Version)” by Taylor Swift played next and Nancy respected the effort to pick out the updated version of the song even if she hated the person who chose to play it. She also realized how easily the other girl gave up her age, the same as Nancy’s, and she felt she should return the favor.
“Same Boat” by Lizzy McAlpine started.
“Oh Word?” by the Beastie Boys followed.
Nancy Wheeler could not stop thinking about the mystery girl who had royally fucked up a very controlled and cherished aspect of Nancy’s life routine. The girl knew Nancy’s name as it was plastered all over the shared account and yet Nancy didn’t know hers. This bothered Nancy so much that she set an alarm for the middle of the night so she could wake up and interrupt the other girl’s music listening. Jonathan called it pettiness, Nancy called it journalistic instinct.
“What’s Your Name” by Lynyrd Skynyrd is what she chose to start with.
“Nice Try” by Jackii Kennedy was what her mystery girl chose. Nancy always found impressed (against her will) by the other girl’s quick wit and uncanny ability to find a song for any situation in record time.
Nancy wasn’t through with her interrogation just yet and tried playing “Where Are You?” by Frank Sinatra next.
“Planet Earth” by Duran Duran. Nancy wanted to throttle the mystery girl, she hadn’t been this fed up since she still lived at home and Mike made it his life mission to annoy her at every opportunity.
“Seriously” by Katchafire.
“Sorry” by Beyonce. Nancy knew the other girl wasn’t sorry at all.
“Answer” by Tyler, the Creator.
“Indiana” by Adrianne Lenker and Buck Meek. Holy shit!
Nancy felt like the information exchange should be fair, so she offered up her location by choosing “Close to Me” by the Cure.
As time went on Nancy gave up on any algorithm-suggested music, it was beyond repair at this point.
“Nance, it wouldn’t be a problem if you just changed your password,” Jonathan tried to explain although he knew it was a lost cause. He was honestly having fun watching Nancy try to investigate who her hacker was.
“You know if I do that now I won’t ever get answers.”
“Yeah, and you’ll never meet the mysterious girl you have a total crush on.”
“I do not have a crush on her!” Nancy said as a blush spread across her entire face, spreading down her neck and disappearing under the collar of her shirt.
“Right. What do you know about her?”
“So far I know she’s a girl, she’s 22 years old like us, she’s a student in Indianapolis, she’s a huge movie nerd, she is an only child, and her favorite color is blue. Oh, and she’s the bane of my existence,” Nancy started listing off what she knew about the other girl.
“And you know all of that from song titles?” Jonathan asked.
“Yes, we’ve been over this, Jonathan. And she knows I’m a writer, that we’re the same age, she also knows I live with my best friend in the same city as her.”
“Aw, I’m your best friend?”
“Shut up,” Nancy said, rolling her eyes at Jonathan and punching his arm.
The first time Nancy and her mysterious hacker talked during the day was also the first time the other girl initiated a conversation. Nancy was on her lunch break at work when “How Are You?” by Cheap Trick started playing. A grin spread across her face and she booked it out to her car to finish her lunch in privacy.
“Fine, Great” by Modern Baseball.
“I’m Bored” by Iggy Pop. A weird sense of self-satisfaction mixed with a feeling of shyness came over Nancy when she thought about the other girl thinking of her when she was bored.
“Read a Book” by They Might Be Giants was the perfect response if Nancy did say so herself. It was partially sarcastic, which tended to be the tone of most of their conversations, but it also had a real recommendation in it.
“Too Much Work” by Cowboy Mouth. Nancy was shocked at this. Based on her listening history, Nancy knew she could speak multiple languages. She just assumed reading would be in her wheelhouse.
“Really?” by Prince Daddy and the Hyena.
“A.D.H.D.” by Kendrick Lamar. Some puzzle pieces in Nancy’s mind clicked into place after that reveal.
“Makes Sense” by House Parties.
“Harshest Critic” by Allison Ponthier. Nancy knew the other girl well enough at this point to know she wasn’t actually hurt, and she also realized maybe she knows too much about the other girl point blank. But these random conversations are the high point of Nancy’s week.
“Do You Want To Know a Secret” by the Beatles. Nancy’s interest was immediately piqued by this. Her lunch break should be wrapping up, but she can’t risk missing out on whatever the mystery girl was about to say.
In an attempt to seem nonchalant Nancy chose to play “I Don’t Care” by Fall Out Boy.
“My Name Is” by Eminem. Nancy was on the edge of her seat as she realized she was being teased and the other girl was expecting a response from her. Rolling her eyes good-naturedly, which she found herself doing often when talking with this girl, Nancy wracked her brain for an appropriate response.
“Go On” by Jack Johnson played as Nancy Wheeler sat with bated breath, smiling at her phone, alone in her car in the parking lot of her workplace.
“Rockin’ Robin” by Michael Jackson. Finally, Nancy had a name to use when referring to the whirlwind of a person who commandeered Nancy’s account on a music streaming service and threw a wrench in so many of her plans.
“Cute” by Shelley (formerly known as DRAM). And with that, Nancy jogged back inside before she overstayed her lunch any further and got caught by management.
Nancy doesn’t really know when she went from hating Robin to liking her, but when she noticed a pattern of sad songs being played repeatedly by the other girl it triggered some alarms in Nancy’s head. Before she went to sleep for the night, she made sure to catch Robin so she could check on her.
She started playing “Are You Feeling Sad?” by Little Dragon and Kali Uchis as soon as she realized Robin was active on the account.
“Maybe” by Janis Joplin. Of course, Nancy should’ve known Robin wouldn’t make this easy.
“Sad Songs (Say So Much)” by Elton John.
“Sorry” by Justin Bieber. Nancy had no clue what Robin would be apologizing for. Sure, she has a lot to be sorry for like their entire situation, but that wasn’t relevant to the current conversation. Nancy figured she needed to be direct and get straight to the point.
“What Happened” by Sublime
“Fell In Love With a Girl” by the White Stripes. Oh. Did Robin fall in love with a girl? Nancy felt two things when she read that, something that felt like a relief. Did she actually have a crush on somebody she’s never met and should really hate? But more importantly, she felt almost jealous? Was she jealous of the girl Robin fell in love with? She really has no time to unpack that now. Or ever.
Had Robin just come out to her? Should she say something to let her know Nancy is more than okay with Robin being queer? One look at Nancy’s music library should tell Robin all she needs to know about the owner. Nancy’s brain was going into full panic mode, before she could overthink her answer any further she settled on playing “Been There Done That” by Dr. Dre.
“For Real” by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.
“Yes” by LMFAO. Nancy cringed at this choice, but it was important that Robin understood that everything is cool between the two of them.
“Cool” by Dua Lipa was the last response Nancy got before falling asleep.
“Nancy, you gotta just ask her out at this point. I mean, it’s been months,” Jonathan said over Thursday night dinner one week.
“You don’t think it’s weird?”
“Don’t get me wrong,” he stated, “this whole situation is so weird. Most people would have changed the password immediately and called it a day. If anything, you two have created one of the strangest, but endearing, stories I’ve ever heard.”
“What if she doesn’t like me like that?” Nancy asked, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth.
“Then she’s an idiot. But at least you’ll have a face to the name and possibly a new friend. Based on what you’ve told me and what I’ve seen of her music she’d fit in with our group of little weirdos just fine.”
“You’re right,” Nancy said, laying her head on Jonathan’s shoulder.
“I always am.”
Slightly buzzed from the game night with Jonathan, his friend Argyle, her friend Barb, and a neighbor named Eddie, Nancy settled into bed. It was way past her normal bedtime and she wondered if Robin was awake. She opened the music app on her phone and sure enough, Robin was listening to Blondie, one of Nancy’s favorites. She smiled to herself and wondered if Robin somehow knew, or if it was just a coincidence.
Nancy was feeling particularly bold, so she played “I Want to Meet You” by Platinum Trophy. No way to misinterpret that, right?
“Say Less” by Origami Angel.
“Downtown” by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis. It sure was convenient they both lived in the same city. Nancy didn’t even wait for a response before starting “Record Store” by Butch Walker. It felt like a fitting meeting spot for the two. Almost poetic.
“Friday” by Rebecca Black started playing, interrupting Nancy’s train of thought that had drifted anxiously wondering if this was a mistake. She smiled at the song choice. It was so Robin, she should have seen it coming.
“7PM” by Lilacs.
“See You Then” by Roberta Flack. Nancy squealed into her pillow when she saw this confirmation. She was finally going to meet the girl she should hate but instead has managed to form a crush on. Nancy hoped Robin’s goofiness and wit translated to in-person, and she hoped Robin liked her in the same way Nancy liked Robin.
Nancy fell asleep that night with images of what she thought Robin might look like. What color were her eyes? What did her smile look like? Would she be taller than Nancy? All Nancy Wheeler knows is she will never change her Spotify password and Jonathan was right- they do have one hell of a story.