macabre | steve harrington

29. people will come and go

Once Valerie spotted Keith at the front counter, she knew it wasn't looking too good for Steve. Valerie was ninety-nine percent sure Keith had been bullied by Steve at least once in his life. But she decided not to lose faith so quickly, and separated herself from Robin and Steve, pretending to do her own thing as they walked up to the counter.

"Hi! Uh, we're here to drop off these job applications." Robin handed Keith the two sheets of paper in her hand, Keith humming in response. Keith examined the papers for a long moment, reading everything on both of the applications carefully. "It says you both used to work at 'Scoops Ahoy'. ." Keith spoke. "Uh-huh, yeah." Robin nodded. "So, I take it you both got fired." Keith assumed. "We don't accept people with bad job reputations." Keith carelessly slid the sheets back to Robin, popping a cheese ball into his mouth. "Uh.. just to be clear, we weren't fired, you know. The mall burnt down and, like.. killed a bunch of people." Robin said. "Thanks for sharing. Didn't know." Keith said sarcastically. "Three favorite movies, go." Keith pointed to Robin, catching her off-guard. "Uh. . The Apartment, Hidden Fortress, Children of Paradise." Robin hastily answered. "You, go." Keith pointed to Steve. "Favorite movies?" Steve asked. "Did I stutter?" Keith's eyebrows slightly furrowed. "Uh. . Animal House, for sure. Um. ." Steve struggled to think of more movies, trying to slickly turn his head to Valerie for help. Valerie looked around, grabbing a movie that she thought Keith may've found interesting, which was Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. Valerie held up the movie as close as she could to Steve without Keith suspecting something. "Uh.. st—Star Wars." Steve answered. "A New Hope?" Keith questioned, referring to the full title of the movie. "A new what-now?" Steve questioned. "Which Star Wars?" Keith asked. Valerie pointed to the title that was displayed beneath the words 'Star Wars', but Steve couldn't manage to read the words from how far she was, so he improvised. "The one with the teddy bears. Duh." Steve answered, mimicking the sounds from Star Wars. Valerie shook her head at Steve, placing the movie case over her face in disappointment. "No? Uh. . Oh! The one that just came out. The movie that just came out. The one with DeLorean and Alex P. Keaton, and he's trying to bang his mom." Steve dryly chuckled. "The time. ." Steve said, trying to think of the name of the movie, but he gave up once he saw the unfazed look displayed on Keith's face. "Yeah, those are my top three. Classics." Steve nodded. "You start Monday." Keith pointed to Robin. Okay, one down, one to go. "You start never." Keith pointed to Steve. Well.. shit. "Will you just, um. . Will you give us a minute?" Robin whispered to Steve. "Why?" Steve asked. "Steve." Robin gave him a stern look, Steve finally walking away and towards Valerie, who was giving him a 'why did you do that?' kind of look. "What was that?!" Valerie whispered as loud as she could. "I don't know! You're the one who's standing miles away from me. How am I supposed to read this?" Steve grabbed the movie case from Valerie's hand, pointing at the text displayed in the center. "That's readable!" Valerie argued. "Fine, then go stand over there and you have to read whatever it says on the cover, word for word, alright? No cheating." Steve said, looking for a movie that specifically had really small text sizes. "Fine." Valerie shrugged, walking towards the wall of movies labeled 'action'. Steve picked up a movie, turning the case over to reveal the cover. "That's literally Indiana Jones, idiot." Valerie scoffed. "Yeah, but what does it say under it?" Steve asked. "I thought it was just Indians Jones?" Valerie questioned. "Well, I can read it, and it isn't, so. ." Steve shrugged. Valerie knew there was no use in trying to read the text. She already had terrible eyesight to begin with, and he purposely chose the movie because of how small the title was. "Fine! I don't know what it says. Happy?" Valerie walked towards him, snatching the movie from his grip to see what it said. "Indians Jones and the Temple of Doom? Seriously?" Valerie rolled her eyes, placing the movie back in its original spot. "Yeah, seriously. So don't try and turn this around on me, when clearly it's hard to read from afar." Steve said, walking backwards in attempt to lean on something, but instead, he tripped over a life sized cut-out of a girl in a bikini, advertising the movie 'Fast Times'. Valerie pressed her lips together, trying to muffle her laughter as Robin and Keith whipped their head towards Steve. "Goddamnit, this is—" Steve picked up the cut-out, realizing that he had accidentally broken the back piece of the cut-out. Steve casually turned his head away from the cut-out, in hopes that Keith wouldn't notice how he had broken it. Steve finally managed to put the cut-out pieces back together, catching sight of the movie title. "Oh! Fast Times. Fast Times. Ever heard of it?" Steve asked, looking towards Keith.
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Both Steve and Robin ended up getting the job, (Steve can thank Robin for his weekly paychecks from there on out). After the three left Family Video, Steve drove both of them back to their houses, dropping Valerie off first since her house was the closest.