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She heard the horn honk again. “Oh my god! Give me a sec!” she yelled, knowing that he couldn’t hear her from outside. Pulling on a light jacket, she tossed a granola bar into her bag and grabbed her nametag from the table by the door. She nearly tripped on the doormat after spinning around to lock the door behind her in the rush to get out of the house.
Robin pulled on the door handle to the passenger seat, but found that it was locked. Pulling her bag higher onto her shoulder, she knocked on the window and saw Steve turn toward her. He exaggeratedly looked at his wrist, miming a watch that he wasn’t actually wearing, and she flipped him off.
The window was rolled down a couple of inches, and she resisted the urge to throw something at him. “I’ve been waiting here forever,” Steve shrugged, a shit-eating grin on his face. “Maybe if you had been on time, the door would be open.”
“First of all, you look like an asshole with sunglasses on. It’s cloudy right now, you dumbass.” Robin crossed her arms. “And second, you have more tardy warnings than I do, so it’s your head if we’re late to work.”
Steve held out for seven more seconds, caught under her hard gaze, before the doors were unlocked. Throwing her bag into the backseat, she swung herself into the car which started to move before she even had her seatbelt on all the way.
“Woah. Slow down, Steve. I don’t think that the Sheriff’s Department are going to let you off with another warning,” she held on to the door handle when he took a sharp turn. “We’ve just gotten lucky.”
“Fine.” Steve spared her a sideways glance and slowed down the car to just slightly over the speed limit. “But if I get fired, I’m blaming you.”
“With the school year starting up again, we’re going to lose like half of the employees who just wanted summer jobs.” She flipped down the sun visor and opened the mirror. “Plus, our manager hardly ever comes to the store on days we have reduced hours. You’ll be fine.”
At the next red light, Steve looked over at her, doing a double-take at her outfit. He let out a wolf whistle. “What’s got you all dolled up?”
“Uh,” Robin rolled her eyes. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Steve raised his eyebrows, visible above the large lenses of his sunglasses. “Robin. I’ve seen enough girls to know when they’re trying to impress someone.”
She punched him in the shoulder. “You mean, back when you were an asshole?”
“Not untrue, but kind of a low blow. I thought we were over that.” Steve glanced over at her again, flashing her a genuine smile. “You look good, though.”
She flushed. “It’s a new shirt, and I tried this new product for my hair. It’s supposed to make it look more voluminous.”
“So…” he trailed off, knowing that he had caught her. “You sure, your appearance has nothing to do with the fact that Ashley is supposed to return that copy of Sixteen Candles today?” he asked with a teasing smirk.
“Fuck off,” she checked the mirror to see if her nametag was straight. “And it was Footloose.”
“I mean, she was cute enough.” He pulled into the video rental store parking lot, finding a spot in the employee parking section in the back corner. They were the only ones there, in charge of opening the store for the day. Robin and Steve were also the only employees scheduled for the entire rest of the day.
Robin felt her cheeks heat up, and she was sure that she was blushing. “You really think?”
“Yeah, if you’re into the preppy looking brunette types,” he slammed the door, calling behind his shoulder. “Hurry up, you have the keys.”
She feigned an annoyed look, hiding her smile from his view. Stepping out of the car, she grabbed her bag from the backseat and ran ahead to unlock the front door. Steve locked the car, and caught up to her right as she swung the door open, swinging an arm around her shoulders and pulling them both inside.
The day passed slowly. It was predicted to be one of the last nice days of the summer, and everyone in town was outside enjoying it. They were trying to squeeze the last dregs of joy out of the month before the arrival of fall forced them all back into the real world.
The two of them started sorting recent returns and reshelving them, along with cleaning a few of the displays that had gotten dusty. Eventually, though, they ran out of things to do.
“Are you actually doing homework?” Steve asked from across the front counter. “School doesn’t start for another week.”
“It’s called summer reading,” Robin replied, rolling her eyes.
“Gross,” he faked a gag. “What sick teacher gave you homework during the summer?”
She threw an eraser at him. “It’s for my advanced English class.”
Steve walked around the counter, leaning over her shoulder. “Ny-et-zhee?”
“It’s pronounced Nietzsche,” she corrected softly, always careful to make sure that it didn’t sound like she was making fun of him. Robin leaned back, tilting her head to look at him. “It’s nonfiction. We’re reading passages from several philosophers. I think they want us to be prepared to analyze various novels through their viewpoints.”
Steve readjusted so he had his hands loosely wrapped around her waist and his head resting on her shoulder. She hummed in acknowledgement, but went back to underlining the reading without saying anything.
“Why do you work so hard on this stuff?” Steve asked, breaking the silence. “Like, it’s just school.”
“Steve.” Robin turned around, hopping up onto the counter to stare at him. “I don’t want to work in some video store in Hawkins forever, and,” she took a deep breathe, afraid of overstepping, “I don’t think that you do either.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I think you’ve had more conversations with Jonathan now that he’s left Hawkins, than you ever had while you were both here.”
“So?” He crossed his arms in front of him, body tense. “I just want to check up on El and Will.”
“You’re also always talking about wanting to go on a road trip.” Robin gave a small smile. “And, I’ll be off to college next year, and I don’t really want to leave you here alone.”
“And I’m proud that you’re doing that. You and Nancy and, even, Jonathan.” He shrugged, flushing in embarrassment. “But you know that I can’t do that. I barely passed high school.”
“So what?” She hopped off the counter, poking him in the chest. “There’s a ton of other options. You could do apprenticeships, a community college, or just get a job in a big city and make your way from there.”
“That’s a nice dream,” Steve placed his chin on top of her hair. “But someone’s got to stay here.”
“And, what? When the rest of us leave you’ll just be friends with a bunch of 14 year-olds?”
He placed his arms around her, “You never know with this town.” She felt him swallow. “And now with Hopper—” his voice cracked. “—well, I think Hawkins could always use another protector.”
“You know,” she bit her lip, shaking her head “It’s silly, but I kind of always imagined that you’d be there with me when I went to college. We’d get an apartment together far away from Hawkins. I guess that was stupid of me.”
“Really?” Steve pulling back to look at her and raising his eyebrows. “You’d want to live with Steve ‘The Hair’ Harrington?”
“You know what?” she snorted. “Yeah, I think I would. You’ve somehow wormed your way into my life, Harrington.”
He tightened his arms around her. “I don’t think that’s stupid at all.”
“Besides,” she tried to shrug nonchalantly, “You’re too good to be stuck in a town like this.”
“Fine. I’ll think about it.” He let go and stuck his hands in his pockets, suddenly intensely interested in the scratches on the counter. “That’s all I can promise, but I don’t think Hawkins is as bad as you think it is.”
“That’s enough for me.”
There was nothing special about this day. The two of them were just nobodies working in a an off brand video rental store in the not-even-on-the-map town of Hawkins. It couldn’t have been further from her big city dreams.
She was pulled from her thoughts by a large crash. Mind-racing with the worst outcomes possible (Did the Russians find them again?), she sat up with adrenaline pumping through her body. The door to the store was still closed, and she scanned for intruders. “What the fuck!”
Steve stood in the staff picks section surrounded by strewn VHS tapes on the floor. His hands awkwardly held a shelve that had come loose and fell forward, dumping everything on the ground. “Ah, hey Rob.” He flushed with embarrassment. “Do you think that you could lend me a hand?”
“What did you do, dumbass?” She was already on her way around the counter and toward the disaster site.
“Nothing, I swear.” He decided that it wasn’t worth trying to keep the shelf up. The last few VHS tapes fall off of it has he tilted it and propped it up against the bookcase. “I was just switching out my staff favorite for that one that we watched with the kids last weekend.”
“You obviously did something,” she replied, taking stock of the scene. “The entire staff favorites section is on the floor.”
“I just touched it,” Steve pouted. “This was not my fault.”
“Things don’t just move themselves,” Robin shook her head. “It’s not like you’re El.”
Steve just shot her a smirk, staying silent.
“Wait.” Robin did a double take. “You’re not like El, right? Like you don’t also have crazy telekinetic powers or something?”
“Who knows?” Steve responded, avoiding the question.
“Have you told anyone?” she leaned toward him, voice lowering. “Are they the same as El’s?” Her heart was pounding, either from nerves or excitement. She needed to know that Steve was going to be safe.
“Wow. You’re really freaked out about this.”
“Of course I am. Do I need to remind you how our tenure at Scoops Ahoy ended?” Robin placed her hands around herself, looking away from him. “Plus, I care about you, doofus.”
Steve smirked. “It’s a good thing I was kidding about the powers thing then. You should have seen—”
Robin tackled him to the floor, shaking his shoulders. He responded by using his hands to shield himself from her attack. “Okay, okay. I promise, I’m just little ole Steve Harrington. 100% human.”
Robin got off of him, sliding several feet back across the floor. “You jerk,” she lightly tossed a VHS at him, which he caught. “You seriously had me freaked out.”
“I’m sorry.” Steve sat up, leaning back against his hands. “I didn’t realize you’d have such a reaction. I guess it hit a little bit too close to home.”
“Yeah,” she crossed her legs in front of her, heart finally slowing down. “I guess the stuff from this summer shook me up more than I thought it did.”
“Let me tell you,” he sighed, staring at the ceiling. “It doesn’t get any easier.” Steve shook his head, turning to smirk at her, “But seriously, how hard was it to admit you cared about me?”
Robin through another VHS at him, but this time she missed and it hit the shelf behind him. In what felt like slow motion, the VHS set off a domino chain reaction. Another two dozen tapes came crashing down, and Steve burst out laughing.
She glared at him, crossing her arms.
“I told you it wasn’t me. It’s the shelves. They have a mind of their own.” Steve was still laughing at her, and something about it must have been contagious because the next thing she knew gasping for air, unable to stop the uncontrollable laughter.
The two of them sat laughing on the ground. If a customer walked in they would have thought that they were insane. Just two employees surrounded by VHS tapes, laughing hysterically at a broken shelf. It was a good thing that it was a slow day.
After several minutes they managed to pull themselves together, and start cleaning up the mess on the floor. Both were quiet as they seamless worked with each other to stack the VHS tapes, and reinstall the shelf.
“You know I’d tell you something like that,” Steve offered, voice oddly soft in the silence.
Robin was busy alphabetizing a few of the many VHS tapes that had crashed down in the chaos. “Mhmm… what are you talking about?”
“You’re my best friend, Rob.” Steve shrugged. “I’d tell you if I had mind powers like El.”
There was something so matter of fact about that statement that it made her feel warm inside. She hoped that she wasn’t blushing or else she’d never hear the end of it from Steve.
“You too, doofus,” Robin responded, throwing up a couple of finger guns in his direction. Steve snorted, clearly swallowing down a laugh, but didn’t say anything. They both worked in companionable silence until closing.
Somehow, she couldn’t have imagined a better way to spend the day than with Steve “The Hair” Harrington working a shitty job at a video rental store in a place she always dreamed of escaping. If you had told her that a year ago, she would have thought the end of the world was coming. But now, maybe it meant that Hawkins wasn’t the dead end she always thought it was. This place carried its own kind of love, after all.