𝐰𝐡𝐲 𝐢 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 | steve harrington

chapter twenty-four

Rory paced through the mall so fast that she could feel the bones in her legs ache. She didn't want to run, to throw all her last remaining calm away and dive into panic. Yet despite her deep breathing and the way she blinked away tears before they even tried to fall from her eyes, her heart was alight and dropped to the floor like the phone that hung from the swaying cable. She'd left her mind back there with the dial tone pouring from the receiver and ever since she'd been driving in a whirlwind of catastrophic ends.

She pushed past shoulders of annoyed people who scoffed and called out noises of disbelief but Rory never ever gave them the pleasure of seeing their faces, her pathway was set and the busy swarms of Saturday afternoon only made her bitter.

It was a good thing that people stopped caring about ice cream in December because it meant as soon as she turned the corner away from the sea of holiday shoppers she could escape into a break of fresh air and a new wave of understanding to what she was going through. It took her strength not to break down right there on the shining floors as she looked up and saw Robin and Steve stood behind the counter arguing about something or other. Hats were discarded as they folded their arms and bickered over washed uniforms and scuffed shoes.

She took another deep breath as she stepped up to the counter and blinked away more tears. There was a lump in her throat which she feared would break as soon as she uttered a single word. It bobbed up and down when she swallowed and she felt it pulling at her eyes and her mind.

"Steve?" She spoke gently when she made it to the counter.

The workers had been oblivious to her presence in the store which was void of customers and weirdly eery despite the sea of people right outside the door. Steve looked up quickly in confusion, his expression immediately melting into worry.

"Rory?" Steve looked slightly nervously to Robin, "uh... what are you doing here?"

"I don't know what to do" Rory spoke, her voice shaking. "I have to leave... or take Dustin or... I don't know what to do—"

She ignored the surprised and very intrigued expression on Robin's face as Steve ducked around the counter and grabbed her shoulders. Rory melted against his chest as she started to cry, feeling his hand wind it's way into her hair as she appreciated the soft scent of his cologne that she'd grown so used to. His touch was warm on her arms as he ran his hands up and down her skin. Rory continued to cry because she didn't know what else to do anymore. She felt like she was stranded somewhere deep in the ocean, waiting in the depths of cold for something to hit her.

"Come on" Steve spoke carefully as he wrapped his arm over her shoulders and started walking to the break room, "Robin I'm taking a break"

"Yeah sure" Robin called feebly as the door swung shut and Steve guided Rory to sit on one of the uncomfortable couches she'd spent so much time napping on, trying to be completely unaware of everything going wrong around her. Steve reached and took her hands as he sat on the floor in front of her knees, stroking her knuckles gently with his thumbs as she tried to stop crying.

"I'm sorry" Rory sobbed, "I'm trying—I'm trying to stop I just—I can't"

"Hey, hey" Steve soothed gently, "just breathe alright, just concentrate on breathing"

"Okay" Rory nodded skittishly as Steve squeezed her hands. She closed her eyes gently and focused on the way her heart tried to lurch out of her chest. It was cold without a jacket but she hadn't even noticed her shivering until that point, Rory supposed it had blended with the way her hands started to shake whenever she thought of him coming home, coming back to Dustin. Rory thought of her brothers smile and started to cry harder.