Love And Hellfire

Chapter 8: Eye Of The Storm

Steve swerved the shopping cart for the 3rd time, narrowly catching the endless groceries Avila and Robin were throwing in. They were supposedly here shopping for Eddie, but Steve suspected they'd forgotten that aspect of the trip.
"Oh my god I love these!" Avila smiled, taking a box of marshmallow flavoured cereals from the top shelf. Admiring the box for a second, she popped them into the cart.
"That's all well and good..." Steve interrupted. "But does Eddie? You remember Eddie right? The fugitive were ACTUALLY shopping for?"
"Keep your voice down, dingus." Robin scorned him, placing a bumper bag of treats into the cart. Steve rolled his eyes, completely ignored by both girls.
"How about these?" Avila suggested some tinned ingredients to them both. Steve moved her to one side, rolling up both sleeves before impressively moving tray after tray of canned foods into the trolley.
"Are you expecting applause Harrington?" Avila joked. "You know me or Robin could have done that right?"
Laying the final try of canned goods into the cart, Steve pulled a face at her in disbelief.
"That's what I'm here for Avila." He said smugly. "A real man, protects the women in his life, he..."
"From canned beans?" Robin teased. "Well thank Christ you were here Steve! Those beans would have had their way with us if you weren't!"
The two girls giggled as they continued to make their way around Bradley's Big Buys . Avila had never seen a food shop so large, and busy! She was impressed, they had EVERYTHING!
She assumed the announcement at the town Hall last night caused people to... panic.
A lot of Hawkins residents were doing exactly as they were, stocking up on food. Just not for a fugitive of the law, unfortunately.
Spinning around into the alcohol Isle, Steve manoeuvred the trolley to one side suddenly.
"Robin." He signalled to a higher shelf of bottled beers, to which Robin grabbed a few items.
"For Eddie?" Avila asked. "Seriously?"
"He asks for them every time." Robin huffed. "We don't dare turn up without them."
"Harrington!?" A strange voice suddenly chimed in to their conversation. "Steve Harrington!"
Turning around, Avila saw a tall boy, similar look and style to Steve apart from he was wearing the uniform of this food store.
"Tommy?" Steve recognised him immediately, leaving the shopping cart to greet him with a fist bump and some weird handshake.
Avila instantly looked to Robin for a similar response, but no such thing happened. Instead she just seemed to roll her eyes, visibly unamused to see this 'Tommy'.
"How's things?" Tommy asked Steve, looking to the girls now. Smiling strangely at Avila, he added "Is this your latest... Conquest."
Steve barely had time to acknowledge his crude words, before Avila scoffed, chuckling in disbelief at his pure cockiness.
"Conquest?" She said with such a patronising manner. "I had no idea i was just an object, not an actual person with a name and soul?"
Robin took a step back, hand covering her mouth to prevent the inevitable giggles that were trying their hardest to be set free.
"Avila Buckley." Avila smiled overly widely at Tommy. Instead of addressing her comments, he gave her a funny look and continued to speak to Steve.
"I'm actually glad I've bumped into you." He explained, rummaging around in his trouser pockets suddenly before revealing a folded piece of paper. Handing it to Steve, he unfolded it to reveal a series of words and numbers, names and dates.
"We're closing this place on Wednesday, before the evacuation." Tommy added. "The boss will be long gone out of Hawkins by dusk, so me and some of the others thought... why not have a little party to see the town out in its full glory!?"
"A party?" Steve questioned in utter disbelief. "Before the town is basically abandoned.."
"What better time!" Tommy's energy concerned Avila. He was so mellow and chilled about this whole situation, and he'd lived in Hawkins a lot longer than her.
Taking hold of the shopping cart once more, Steve moved it ever so slightly in the direction of the cash registers.
"I'll think about it." He gave Tommy a friendly pat on the arm.
"I wanna see you there Harrington!" Tommy demanded playfully, wagging his finger as he wandered off.
Examining the 'invitation' closely, Steve, Avila and Robin made their way over to pay for there goods.
"What a prick." Avila blurted out, causing Robin to giggle once again.
"Yeah, there's a reason we're not friends anymore." Steve defended himself, folding the invite and placing it into his pocket. "A party isn't such a bad idea though? Especially on one of our last nights in Hawkins supposedly..."
"Oh absolutely." Robin said sarcastically, rolling her eyes. "The world is ending, and typically what are the young people of Hawkins going to do?"
Waiting with much anticipation, both Avila and Steve shrugged their shoulders.
Beginning to place the groceries onto the conveyor, Robin simply added
"Lose their shit."