𝐟𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐲 ➵ stranger things

iii. tally marks

➵

"AND ANOTHER ONE BITES THE dust," The sweet voice alarmed the brunette boy that had once been trying to attach himself to the customers he'd just serve, obviously having no success by the looks of it since Steve had just a disappointed and frustration look churning onto his face, "you are oh-for-six, popeye."

Steve folded his arms as he scanned his eyes at Robin with a raise of his eyebrow, "Yeah, yeah, I can count." He sarcastically spat back, flickering his vision from one side of the workshop to another as his mind tried to run fast with his desperate feelings flying all around the room.

From behind Robin, the other brunette employee perked up from where she was once sitting and now stood beside the older girl with a large smirk plastered on her ruby lips, "You know that means you suck?" Claudia wittily remarked back, the side of her worn-out body leaning just the slightest on Robin for support as she rubbed her raw and exposed face, like if rubbing her eyes would be able to wipe away the dark bags that found a happy home right under her hazel irises.

Steve Harrington felt like mentally facepalming himself from the amount of humiliation that raided the shop even if their game of how to remind the dork that picking up girls was a failure. He nodded his head out of fake emphasising, "Yep, I can read, too!" A sigh escape his lips when he looked over at the exhausted youngster, "You go and keep drinking that water, Missy. I don't want another near-to-passing out experience, please."

Claudia went to open her mouth so she could bark back about the annoyance he brought to her when he'd take charge and boss her away. But then again...Steve was correct. Which was very frustrating for the fact that Claudia Parker was always god damn right and had the permission to be right. So instead of taking action and disobeying the older boy, she shrugged her shaky shoulders and sat back down where she would probably stay for another ten minutes.

As you couldn't tell already; Steve and Claudia were very good friends now.

Best friends, to say the least.

It's odd, considering they had no connections whatsoever when 1983 came around and Hawkins renamed itself to Hell and the two were both dealing with problems. Separate problems. But the same problem that included the Upside Down and everything that revolved around it. Then it was the year after that, and the two friends first met through their curly-headed soft boy; Dustin Henderson when Claudia finished fighting with the Hopper's all the while Dustin and Steve were on a mission to chuck raw meat on the rail tracks. Still, they were complete strangers.

And now, here they are.

Scoops Ahoy buddies, and they didn't want it any other way. Because even if the two never met each other, Claudia would be lying if she said she never heard of the name 'Steve Harrington' and vice versa.

But knowing the boy more, Claudia liked to look at him as a protective and annoying ass brother who never listened to his younger sister yet thought it was great to boss her around as much as he would like. That didn't stop the younger girl from trying to compete with the older boy about who was better and who'd be able to grab someone's attention quicker. But overall, Steve didn't give a single shit since he knew he'd pick up some girl way better and faster than Claudia would.