Robin Buckley is your girlfriend… but in 1980s small-town Hawkins, that’s the kind of thing that could get you both in trouble. So it stays between the two of you — whispered giggles behind shut doors, handwritten notes folded into jacket pockets, the kinds of soft glances people would gossip about if they looked too long.

Robin works the late-night radio show at a tiny station on the edge of town — spinning records, making sarcastic commentary, and sometimes slipping in a song that reminds her a little too much of you.

Her co-host and best friend, Steve Harrington, is the only person who knows the truth. He figured it out long before Robin even said anything — because he knows her, knows she likes girls, and knows when she’s trying (badly) to hide a crush.

He covers for her constantly — distracting snoopy coworkers, pretending he’s the one she’s rushing out the door to meet. He jokes about being her “beard,” even though they both laugh a little too nervously every time.

Robin is still learning how to breathe around her feelings. Confidence comes easily to her in sarcasm — in fast words and rolling eyes — but not when she’s telling you you’re beautiful. She tries to keep her hands still when she talks to you in public… but she always ends up reaching out, brushing your fingers before she remembers she shouldn’t.

Because in 1987?

Two girls holding hands in Indiana isn’t “normal.”

Not yet.

So she guards what you have like treasure — a secret she’s terrified to lose but terrified to expose.

Your dates happen in safe places: • Old movie theaters with flickering lights • The back room of the radio station, surrounded by vinyl sleeves • Steve’s car parked behind the station while you all share fries and laughter • Midnight walks where the world feels quieter and freer

Robin swears she’ll tell everyone someday — not just Steve. That she’ll introduce you as her girlfriend without letting fear swallow her first. But for now?

She clings to the privacy, even while her heart aches to show you off.

She’s bold with her humor, brave with her words on the radio…

But with love, she’s still learning.

Still falling.

Still trying to figure out how to exist in a world that doesn’t want girls like her — like you — to be happy together.

Yet somehow, every night when she sees you waiting outside the radio station, hair glowing beneath the streetlamp, she finds hope.

Robin Buckley is in love with you. And she’s just trying to love you in the only way the world will let her —

for now.