CHAPTER 013. STRANGER THINGS
THIS IS REALLY BAD.
Laurie has had her eyes squeezed shut since the moment she felt the room drop. She hasn't felt this disoriented for quite some time, the last time being when she was motion-sick from going on Space Mountain with her dad when her family went to Disneyland in 1981.
Except this time is somehow worse. Maybe it's because she doesn't quite know how long they're going to be dropping for, or maybe it's because she's unsure if they're even going to survive the fall at all.
She feels sick, and if she had eaten anything of substance in the past 8 hours, she would have definitely thrown up by now. Despite her standing in place, the wobbling floor has her head spinning and her seeing stars behind her eyelids. Laurie's right hand finds the table where they had opened one of the boxes beside her, the metal edges digging further into her skin as she holds on for stability.
Her left hand seemingly had a mind of its own, grabbing onto the first thing it comes into contact with; someones sleeve. Laurie isn't sure who's sleeve it is - because, frankly, everyone's screams has her confused about their positions in the elevator - but regardless, she's holding onto the scratchy material for dear life.
"WHY WON'T THESE BUTTONS WORK?!" Dustin's high pitched shriek cause the girl to snap her eyes open, her temples beginning to thump from the joint yelling bombarding her ears. The curly haired boy is still by the control panel, hands pressing every button he can in hopes that it'll stop their descent into the unknown.
Erica shoves the boy out of her way, "Press the button!"
"WHAT DO YOU THINK I'M DOING?!" Dustin argues back, bumping his shoulder against the Sinclair girl as their frantic hands fight against the glowing buttons.
"PLEASE STOP SCREAMING!" The eldest girl pleads, her eyes starting to feel fatigued from the consistent flashing lights that peak through the cracks of the elevator ceiling.
"Come on, just press something!" Steve shouts, voice hoarse and rough from his prolonged screams. "Just press the button!"
"PUSH IT!" Erica screams at her young friend again, slamming her palm into one of the buttons when he doesn't. Then, suddenly, almost comically, the room comes to an abrupt stop, flinging all of the panicked kids and teenagers across the room.
Steve is the first to lose his footing, tripping on one of the boxes behind him and causing him to start falling backwards. Laurie finds herself tumbling, too, her hand leaving the table beside her as she's tugged backward from her tight grip on Steve's sleeve. Before she can even attempt to catch her fall, Laurie collapses onto Steve's lap, causing the boy beneath her to release a loud, pained groan.
Laurie seethes as the side of her knee collapses into the metal ground, her body aching at the strange way it's twisted during her fall. Her eyes widen once she catches a glance at Steve's face, his brows knitted together and his eyes screwed shut as he curses under his breath.
His hand somehow has ended up on her lower back, a pathetic, yet surprisingly effective manoeuvre at catching her before she plunged into the stack of boxes beside them.
"Shit," Steve let's out a guttural groan as he moves his hands to her hips, carefully - desperately - pushing her torso upward and shifting her weight off of him. "Laur, could you maybe-"
It's only then that Laurie realises what kind of position the two of them are in, and despite the pain ricocheting in her legs, she's quick to scramble off of Steve's lap and push herself to her feet. "Oh, my god. Steve, I'm so sorry-"
"No, you're fine," Steve quickly mutters under his breath, sending her a dismissive wave tiredly. Her cheeks flush with embarrassment as he groans again, bringing his knees tight together as he rolls to his side. "I'm good,"
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah," He seethes, eyes screwing shut painfully. It's a complete and utter lie, anybody can see that, but Steve has always been too prideful to admit when he's not at his best. When he moves to sit upward he groans again, running his hand through his hair as an exasperated huff escapes his lips. "Just give me a second,"
Laurie nods hesitantly, ignoring the muffled giggles and annoyed sighs coming from Dustin and Erica from behind her. Robin, who's cradling the back of her head after hitting it against the shelf behind her suddenly asks, "Is everyone okay?"
"No," Confesses Laurie, feeling uncomfortably hot and anxious. She pulls her satchel bag off of her body and tosses it onto the table beside her, pushing some of her now frizzed hair behind her ears. She shakes her head at Robin, "Not really,"
"Yeah, I'm great," Steve snaps from the floor, sarcasm dripping from his tongue like none other. Finally, he's able to push himself up and off the ground and marches to the control panel again, swinging open the metal door with a loud bang as it hits the wall. "Now that I know Russians can't design elevators!"
Again, like he's convinced it'll do something, Steve starts pressing all of the buttons. "No, Steve- Take it easy, okay?" Laurie is quick to follow the boy, prying his hand away with her own. He looks down at her, confused. "The buttons might be malfunctioning. Like.. they could be jammed, or something. I think we just need to wait and-"
"That's not going to work, Laur," Robins voice echoes, causing the pair at the panel of buttons to shoot their head towards their friend.
"They're buttons, Robin," Steve states, moving forwards towards the table that's stood between them. He throws his hands up. "They have to do something,"
"Yeah, if we had a key card," The freckled girl snaps, rolling her eyes in annoyance. Laurie and Steve chorus in confusion, sharing a brief glance at once another as Robin stalks towards them. Once stood beside the array of seemingly useless buttons, Robin taps her knuckles on some metallic rectangle that sits parallel to the control panel. "It's an electronic lock, the same as the loading dock door. If we don't have a keycard, it won't operate. Meaning-"
"We're stuck in here," Dustin finishes with a defeated sigh.
Robin runs her stray fingers through her knitted locks. "Precisely,"
Erica clears her throat. "Just so you nerds are aware, I'm supposed to be spending the night at Tina's, and Tina always covers for me," She states, earning unamused glances her way. "But if I'm not home for Uncle Jack's party tomorrow, and my mom finds out you nerds are responsible," She points her finger sternly at the quartet by the control panel. "She's gonna hunt you down, one by one, and slit your throats,"
Suddenly, something inside of Steve snaps. "I don't care about Tina! Or Uncle Jack's party!" He yells, slamming his hands on the box in front of him for emphasis. "Your mom's not going to be able to find us if we're dead in a Russian elevator!"
Laurie flinches, eyes wide as she and Robin share a collectively shocked expression on their faces. She's never seen Steve like this before; Truly angry, tired, panicked. He seems so unaware, too, that his courageous, leader-like façade has slipped and has left him vulnerable.
"Hey," Dustin taps Steve on the shoulder with the back of his hand. Once he successfully captures the older boys attention, he points his finger up towards the roof. "What if we climbed out?"
Laurie lets out an exasperated sigh, staring at the curly haired boy in disbelief. She shakes her head, "Please tell me you're kidding,"
But from the grin on Dustin's face, Laurie quickly came to the realisation that he is, in fact, not kidding.
FOUR HOURS LATER, THEY'RE STILL ABSOLUTELY NOWHERE.
Dustin's plan hadn't worked, and effectively caused even more panic when the group became aware of how far they've fallen. They all agreed to just table the conversation for the time being, Steve telling Dustin and Erica to get some shut eye whilst the him, Laurie and Robin try to think of a plan. Robin was quick to start dozing off the minute Steve started talking in a hushed voice, though, and the boy's brown eyes started to flutter closed when Laurie did, too.
She couldn't sleep for the life of her, and the confines of the room felt thick and suffocating from their rigorous efforts to find a way out. Laurie needed fresh air - rather, as fresh as she could get considering she's stuck underground - so once the group around her were dozing off, she snuck her way up the makeshift staircase Steve had made and sat herself by the edge of the elevator shaft.
Legs swinging in what little space there is between the elevator and the tunnel wall, Laurie is trying to keep herself distract with Dustin's Russian translation book, feeling tears prick in her eyes every so often.
She's horrified, truly, because from what she's learnt in her Americanism vs. Communism class, she's probably better off dead than getting caught.
As she mumbles the Russian she's been practising to herself, there's a sudden loud thud that has her flinching. Snapping her head around, she's met with Steve, who's eyes widen as he peers down into the elevator again, checking to see if he's woken anybody up. When he looks up at her, he raises a hand reassuringly. "Sorry. It's just me,"
Laurie let's out a sigh as she runs a hand through her hair. She can't help but to be on edge. Walking over, Steve plops himself down beside the girl, knees bumping against hers from their closeness. His gaze on her has intent, eyes scanning her tired face like he's looking for something. Finally, after a few moments of silence, he asks, "You okay?"
"I.. yeah," Laurie says eventually, suppressing the urge to start crying right then just from his question. Steve's a good friend, and it's not like Laurie enjoys telling him half-truths and blatant lies, but unloading all her problems onto him at a time like this feels wrong. "I just couldn't sleep,"
Sure, Steve has seen her at the brink of her more troubled moments, but he doesn't know all of her, not yet. He hasn't seen her cry; Hasn't seen her have to pick up the pieces of her broken family dynamic; Hasn't seen her at the brink of a breakdown because the pressures of getting a job, graduating, and getting into college start to become too much.
Laurie doesn't like to think about it, because what if when Steve Harrington really sees her, he doesn't like it?
It's all so overwhelming. What happens after this? When they eventually get out of here and summer ends and Laurie has to return back to school? She'd like to think that her friendship with Steve would remain as prevalent as it is now, but in all honesty, she doubts it.
He probably thinks that what they have is similar to a summer fling. Except, you know, without the romance, obviously. They'd probably remain in contact for the first two weeks, maybe even hang out once or twice in the process. But after a while they'd probably have to succumb to their conflicting schedules and it'll be like the summer hadn't even happened at all.
Steve nods. "Yeah, uh, me neither. I got maybe, like, 20 or so minutes, but.. how those dumbasses actually fell asleep is beyond me,"
Their conversation turns into awkward smalltalk after that. Meaningless discussion over how Dustin and Erica ate all of the candy Laurie had in her bag, including the stale Skittles, and how they've planned for her to show Steve the polaroid she took of Robin when she fell asleep awkwardly on Laurie's front porch. It's fun, in a sort of "bonding with the boy she likes whilst awaiting to be kidnapped by Russians" kind of way.
There's a beat of silence. It's short, slowly creeping in on the ending of their conversations as their breathy laughs and giggles turn into nothingness. "I'm sorry about-"
"I'm surprised that-"
Laurie snaps her head over to Steve. "Oh- I'm sorry. You go,"
"Shit, sorry," Steve shakes his head. "I'm- I was just gonna say something stupid. What were you gonna say?"
"I.. I was just gonna say sorry. About earlier," Laurie says, earning herself narrowed eyes and a slight head tilt in response. She coughs uncomfortably and motions downwards with her spare hand. "Y'know, with the whole.. falling on your.."
"Oh," Steves cheeks turn to a faint pink. He looks away from her at that and starts to rub up and down on the fabric on his shorts. "Oh, no, it's.. uh, I'm fine. Total accident. It could've happened to anyone,"
Laurie swallows harshly, nodding to herself as if that'll make her feel more certain that she should've even brought it up. "So, what were you gonna say?"
"Uh, just that I'm surprised you still have that," Steve motions down to the red book in her hand. It was one of the many books with Russian to English translations that Dustin had borrowed from the Hawkins Public Library. Laurie wasn't even going to put it in her bag to begin with, but something in her gut told her she should have it just in case. Unfortunately so, she was right. "So.. you brushing up on your Russian?"
"Uh, yeah.. or I'm trying to, at least," Laurie lets out an awkward laugh, expecting Steve to crack a joke at her expense or something. But he doesn't, his gaze on her remaining still like he's genuinely intrigued. "Something tells me we might need to know something other than their secret spy code if we get caught,"
Steve flashes her an approving grin. "Smart,"
"Thank you," Laurie says as she smiles back, relieved that he isn't wallowing in the awkwardness that lingered before.
"Can I..?" The boy trails off, hand motioning towards where the book is sat in her lap. She nods, handing it over to him and cursing to herself for not remembering what page she was on last. He skims through the pages, barely taking in anything noteworthy considering it's not that interesting of a read. He's still looking at the pages when he asks, "Have you found anything useful yet?"
"Uh, I think so?" With both her hands free now, Laurie wraps her fingers around the edge of the elevator shaft, leaning forward ever so slightly. "I mean, I hope I have,"
"Well, tell me something in Russian, then," Steve says, looking up at her through his messy brunet locks that have fallen from their usual spot. When Laurie purses her lips - hesitance - Steve lets out a sigh and sits upright again. "Come on. I won't laugh, or anything. I promise,"
How can she no to a face like that? "Fine," Laurie agrees, rolling her eyes playfully. She looks away again, closing her eyes briefly to try and focus her thoughts on the Russian words she had just been practising, and not on on the fact that an incredibly attractive boy is sat ridiculously close beside her despite all the space they have.
Speaking the Russian out loud with an audience proves to be much harder than she thought, because Laurie stutters a few times throughout her sentence before finally getting it right - or, what she thinks is right, anyhow. She says the phrase again, more concise than before once she fixes her pronunciation. Nodding to herself, she finally looks back over at Steve.
His gaze on her is something similar to a state of shock. Steve stares at her for a moment, his brows furrowed and his mouth slightly agape. The only sound interrupting their silence is the faint snoring coming from the group below them.
Suddenly, Steve's lips twist into a cheshire like grin and is soon followed by a breathy laugh. He shakes his head, "What the hell does that mean?"
Laurie smiles. "Uh, it's supposed to mean 'Hi my name is Laurie and I'm Russian.'," She tells Steve, moving her hand to push the stray hairs out of her face and behind her ears. "But I wouldn't be surprised if I said something entirely different,"
The boy nods with raised brows. He bumps his shoulder against hers encouragingly. "I mean, I don't speak Russian, but that sounded pretty good to me,"
Laurie hums. "Well, hopefully the Russians share the same sentiment,"
"Well, I'm sure if you flash that cute smile of yours, they won't even notice that you're speaking gibberish," He grins at her for a second before moving his gaze back down to the book in his hands. Laurie doesn't even get the chance to be flustered at his words because he points at something on a random page he's flicked to. "All right, here. Tell me if this sounds good,"
Although Steve says it with confidence, and despite her having no background in Russian at all, Laurie can tell he's butchered it in its entirety. Even with the strange attempt of a Russian accent concealing some of his mistakes, it's blatant that he has no idea of what he just said.
When Steve looks over at her for her approval, Laurie tries with all her might to hold in the giggles that are attempting to escape her restraints. He smiles, "Why are you laughing?"
"I just.." Laurie shakes her head. With no real malice behind it, she continues, "That was horrible, Steve,"
"Horrible? Are you kidding me? That sounded.. good," Steve disputes with wide eyes, unable to play the part of an offended boy because God, he loves hearing her laugh. "No, actually, I sounded great,"
"You asked for my opinion," Laurie reminds him with a shrug, feeling her cheeks heat when her hand brushes against Steve's as she takes back the book.
"Well, your opinion is wrong," He points a stern finger in her direction. "You know what I think? I think you're just jealous and it's clouding your judgement,"
"Clouding my judgement?" Repeats Laurie, baffled.
"Yeah," Steve says in a matter-of-fact tone. He puts a hand to his chest, "I'm clearly far better at speaking Russian than you are, and you're just jealous that I'm naturally talented,"
Laurie quirks a brow. "Naturally talented?"
"Obviously," Says Steve, rolling his eyes dramatically. "I can speak Russian, I can fight like a badass, I'm so charming it's ridiculous. Oh- and I'm incredibly attractive,"
Shaking her head as she giggles, Laurie's gaze follows Steve as moves his eyes from hers and down to his lap, watching his fingers fumble against one another nervously. His hair falls against his forehead like dominos; a perfectly imperfect balance that he's fine leaving disheveled even in spite of the fact that he's in the presence of a girl.
Absentmindedly, like her mouth is moving faster than her brain, Laurie stifles another laugh before she says, "You're cute when you're cocky,"
It's almost like a pin drop. At first, Laurie doesn't even realize what she's just said, let alone that it could be seen as anything more than a friend complimenting a friend. But when Steve suddenly looked up at her again, eyes slightly wide with pink dusting across his cheeks, it finally hits her that Steve Harrington just heard her call him cute.
It's not a big deal, right? Well, it shouldn't be. Why should it? Steve has called her cute more times than she can count, and he's never meant it like- oh, god. Did he mean it like that? Does he still mean it like that?
Laurie's heart begins to race faster than she thought possible, hammering so hard against her ribcage that she's certain the boy can hear it. If Steve took her calling him cute as more than an act of benevolence, that would mean he meant it in more than a friend way too, right?
She's not quite sure what to say, if she's even supposed to at all, so Laurie decides to do what she does best; frantically apologize. "I'm sor-"
Laurie doesn't quite get to finish her sentence because the boy beside her grins, sending her thoughts off their coherent axis. "Thank you,"
How is he so relaxed, all things considered? Not even just over the fact that she's just accidentally flirted with him, but all of it. Being stuck in a secret elevator under the mall, finding out Russians are in fact invading Hawkins, finding out that said Russians have been smuggling some poison-like substance right under their noses.
"How are you so calm?" Laurie finally asks him, silently feeling pride within herself that she was able to change the topic, hopefully resulting in Steve being too distracted to care about her calling him cute. "I feel like my head is about to explode,"
Steve must notice how desperately she's trying to move on from her mistake - if you can even call it that - because he doesn't poke fun at her flusteredness like he usually would. He lets out a sigh, brushing his messy hair out of his face. "I'm not, trust me. I think I'm just having a prolonged heart attack or something. But I've dealt with stranger things, so.. I guess that helps,"
Laurie's brows crinkle. "Being locked in a secret Russian elevator and seeing ghost plasma in a jar isn't the strangest thing you've seen?"
"Oddly enough, no," Steve says, and Laurie half expects him to laugh. Except, something about the way his smile falters just a tad has her stomach tie into nervous knots.
He's hiding something, Laurie knows that much, and yet from the sudden change in his demeanour, she's too afraid to ask.
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authors note!
WE'RE OFFICIALLY HALF WAY THROUGH ACT ONE!! YIPPEE!!
staurie nation RISE, our ship is SAILING!
(me thinking i'm funny asf for getting steve to say the title of the show in this: 🤭🤭🤭)
WHEN HE SEES ME © austrxlians, 2022.