CHAPTER SIX
006. family video
9 TO 5 - DOLLY
PARTON
"DUDE, LET IT GO. The girl is hot, but the whole mean girl vibe totally throws her off." Steve dismissed, placing another video tape back on the store's shelf.
His brown hair was perfectly maintained compared to his Family Video uniform, which compiled of exactly one thing. His green fleece was undone to show his button up shirt, with a name badge hanging slightly askew beside the logo of the store in the centre of Hawkins. His shirt was rather smart, and accompanied his best friend's forest green family video blazer well. She wore her designated uniform with a button up shirt under it too - her's was more oversized and decorated with a cheap tie - and yet, it looked entirely more in her style.
There was something about the clothes that just fit with Robin, who had spent the morning making every single activity in the shop a two person job. Even a quick restock.
They came as a package deal nowadays, for obvious reasons. One, was the chaotic thoughts which plagued Robin if she was left alone for too long, that she often disposed of in front of Harrington ( who rarely had a complete thought in his head ). They were the perfect yin and yang in a lot of ways; mostly, it consisted of Robin's overactivity and Steve's lack of any activity at all that created a beautiful middle ground. Occasionally however, the two would form a miraculous switch, when Steve was the only one who seemed to see sense out of the two.
"I know. I just feel sorry for her; she lost her best friend and doesn't even know the real reason why. No wonder she's a bitch" Robin liked to wave her hands around as she spoke.
She was rather awkward in movement. While she was often found moving some limb, it wasn't ever in an elegant way. Her haircut, that sat just above her shoulders, often got caught in the crossfire of her long limbs as she tried to articulate her thoughts with movement. Steve mentioned once that she would've made a great interpretive dancer, before Robin hit him with the coordination of a baby deer.
"The others got over it. She had no right to talk to you like that, especially when you were about to confess to Vickie."
Steve didn't like to talk with his hands, but found help in his overactive facial expressions. This time his lips pulled into a gentle frown as his eyebrows fell into their usual dopey line; if Robin was a baby deer, then Steve was a puppy.
"Steve...we both know I wasn't going to do that." Robin was quick to defend Adelade, to the surprise and irritation of Steve.
"She saw us in the band stand, and came to chew me and Vickie out. And like, yeah she was a total bitch about it, but... "
Robin trailed off, finding a middle ground between a smile and grimace.
"...She's passionate about the people she loves. That's a good sign, right? Whats the difference between that and ... I don't know ... you letting Henderson walk all over you?"
The two had walked back to behind the counter as they discussed the old it girl. In that time, Robin had found her place on the counter of the till as Steve prepared the next round of videotapes for the pair to put away. Behind them, the news played softly, detailing the gruesome story that was being blasted across the entirety of Hawkins at the same time. Harrington tried his best to catch the details beyond the word murder, but found himself more captivated by Robin's remark. He froze in his spot beside his friend, with the look of a toddler who'd been denied their second toy in the store.
"What? Dustin does not walk over me."
As if being summoned to Robin's defence, the door opened with a terrible crash.
"Hey, Steve." The object of their conversation called, rushing to the counter with Max in tow.
His hair was gelled ever so slightly, just so his natural curls began to fall down the back and sides of his youthful face instead of his front. Dustin's newly exposed forehead looked strange to Steve, who'd only ever seen the kid with hair that resembled his own ( or as close as the younger boy could get it ). On his head sat a blue cap, which covered the part that was often styled to fit in with Steve's own volume-filled head of hair. Now, it looked like the boy had foregone that part of himself, perhaps for the very boy that was being talked about ever so quietly on the TV behind the group.
"Perfect. A living, breathing example." Robin dramatically pointed to Dustin, still ignoring most of the TV behind her.
In comparison, Steve's attention was perfectly split between the news and the people around him. While Robin had a hard time focusing on even one thing at a time, Steve was an expert at dynamically switching his attention, and so caught the news just as well as he understood the topic of conversation.
"How many phones do you have?"
"Someone was murdered." He informed Dustin and Max, who looked rather concerned for the answer to their question.
Max stood as urgently as her friend — a shock to the older teens, as they rarely saw the red headed girl since the events of the year before. She was often seen in the halls with tired eyes and a sluggish film across her pale skin; the girl was an observer, who separated from the group weeks after the death of her brother.
"How many phones do you have?" Dustin repeated himself very clearly, steering Steve's attention entirely in his direction.
"We-" Steve turned to check, mentally counting the appliances around the counter. The entire place was illuminated by the large family video sign behind the group, making it easy to catch the shine in the phone's plastic covers.
"-we have two. Why?"
"Technically three." Robin corrected, equally as confused as her partner. "If you count the case in the back."
Her earlier point had been proven without doubt, and yet she was too drawn in by the kid's strange question to care. It left her just as susceptible to being overpowered as Steve, which was obvious as she bent to fit into the conversation Dustin had created. Once upon a time, she had been making fun of Steve for the exact same problem, but that was back when they slung ice-cream at Starcourt Mall.
"What are you doing?"
Dustin — with a lack of coordination that rivalled Robin's own — hurriedly slid his large rucksack across the shop's counter. If it wasn't for his fast movements, Steve was entirely certain he would've had the bag in his gut.
"Woah, what are you doing?" Steve asked again horrified as Dustin slid himself over the countertop as well. "No no no - my tapes. Dude!"
A crash was heard as Dustin's legs toppled the next pile of tapes Steve had prepared, as well as some flires that sat comfortably on the edge of the display.
"What are you doing man?"
Steve was being ignored. Which was entirely too natural, considering which one of the pair were older.
"Setting up base of operations here."
"Base of operations?" Robin was baffled by Dustin's nonchalant tone. Even more so, she was baffled by Max, who'd managed to come all the way around the counter in the time it took the two older teenagers to grasp that their work station had been overrun.
"Stop." Steve tried his best to command Dustin. "Get off of that."
Dustin had taken the store's computer without permission; perhaps understandably, as he accessed the data only Family Video employees were supposed to see.
"No, I need it."
As a rule, Dustin won the pair's attempt to create a power dynamic.
"Need it for what?" Steve tried again to be stern, to no real success.
"Looking up Eddie's friend's phone numbers."
"Hey Eddie. Your new best friend Eddie Munson." If Steve hadn't been so concerned with Dustin's new hair style, perhaps he would've caught Eddie's inclusion on the news behind him. Instead, his only indication to who Eddie Munson was came from Dustin ( a fact that bothered him much more than he first thought it would ).
"Eddie, whose cooler than me because he plays a-"
"Eddie, yes." Dustin's interruption failed to stop Steve's rant.
"-nerdy game?"
Without a pause, Dustin defended himself.
"I never said that."
Their argument was brotherly in nature, which was entirely normal to the two girls who watched the fray. Max had been away from the dynamic for long enough to miss the split in Dustin's attention; Robin was all too aware of it.
In fact, she'd grown sick of the topic.
"Seriously guys. Maybe on a Monday you can play around in here like toddlers, but it's Saturday. It's our busiest day."
The poor girl did her best to fix the mess around the counter as the phone began to ring.
In the group's short lived anarchy, they failed to pay attention to the door. It opened with a heavy push that rattled the small bell enough to create a high ding; a sound that blended into the background of the group's attempt to both infiltrate and clean the store. The girl's matted black hair became a little less knotted with the break in the wind, but the events of the day had left her well below her best. Her nails continued to bleed — decorating her brown skin with red medallions from her stress — and her eyeliner was smudged from the onslaught of tears in her waterline.
Adelade was exhusted; ironic, as she'd spent the morning cursing her decision to fall asleep.
"Okay Robin... I totally empathise, but this cannot wait until Monday." Dustin was stubborn, and dismissive of Steve's dramatic show of distain towards the child.
A distain which overpowered the sound of Doc Martin's on the floor of the store, which came to a stop half way towards the counter. Adelade, in her agitated state, looked at the scene with a mixture of irritation and concern. She'd wanted to rent a tape as quickly as possible so she could return to Penelope's house and wait for her friends ( who still hadn't contacted her ).
"What? Because calling all of Eddie's friends is an emergency?" Robin asked sarcastically, also unaware of the extra body in her room.
"Correct."
When she heard Eddie's name, Adelade stopped herself from interrupting the chaos. She had been considering finding the man since she left Penelope's house, but had no idea where to begin. But it seemed that the children behind the counter had the same idea.
Maybe this is the universe's idea of an apology, Adelade considered as she rifled around in her denim jacket for her gum.
"Do you want me to strangle them, or do you wanna do it?" Steve asked Robin as the two found shelter from the mess at the back of the counter.
Robin took a breath as she steadied the papers that fell on the floor, entirely overestimated by the actions and noises around her. She was often found in this state, and yet, she never seemed to become comfortable in it.
"We could take turns?"
"Fill them in while I do this." Dustin called to Max, becoming agitated himself with the noise.
"Fill us in on what?"
As Robin turned to undermine the kids, she caught the eye of their onlooker, and froze. Maybe, if the events of the day before hadn't happened, she would've had the courage to speak directly to Addie, who never dared to break eye contact with a woman she hadn't wanted to see. But with the knowledge of their encounter Robin became deaf to all reason ( and the sensitive information that was causally streaming from Dustin's mouth ). So they remained, heavily watching each other as Adelade finally found the gum she'd been searching for.
"Steve...."
"Robin, what?"
Adelade took her que, speaking before Steve could even glance at the girl.
"You're looking for Eddie Munson?" She asked, face hardening around the people she barely knew.
While she was aware of who Steve Harrington was, there wasn't much she know about the boy ( other than his quick fling with Penelope earlier in the year ). Although, maybe that left her with a little more information about the boy than she'd hoped for.
"No." Dustin answered without looking away from the computer. "Sorry to inform you, but the store is closed for today. Come back tomorrow."
"Dustin, you can't do that." Steve reprimanded the boy, before turning to Adelade with a forced smile.
"What can I-"
"-Listen." Once again, Steve was interrupted.
"I don't know what the fuck kind of babysitting job this is, and I don't really care." Adelade began, eyeing Dustin and Max only briefly before turning her attention back to the other two.
"My friends got some weed from Eddie last night. I just need to make sure they're okay. Just let me check in with Munson and I'll leave you guys alone. I wont tell anyone where he is - i just want my friends."
"No. Absolutely not."
To somebody who was unaware of the dynamic, it looked like Dustin was in charge. A fact that only lowered Adelade's impression of Robin and Steve.
"Okay." Adelade clicked her tongue just like she used to do when faced with a problem. It was a sound that was well known around Hawkin's High; a sound that both Steve and Robin were aware of.
"Or.. dweeb, I can let the police know you're looking for him. I'm sure they'd have some questions for you."
The group seemed to still. Adelade could deduce from the bewildered stares that not everybody was informed of Eddie's trouble. A thousand questioned flew between their silent composure; Dustin's subtle beg for help spoke volumes, as Steve and Robin came to grips with the knowledge that the police were somehow involved with the kid's actions.
"You know what, I think we should let Max fill us in." Robin commented, finally looking away from Adelade Thompson.
If there was any chance of Addie finding her friend, it now rested in their hands. A girl she berated for disliking her sister; a man who was well known, but entirely unaware in Hawkins High; a red headed girl who barely spoke two words; a boy who seemed to have far too much authority for his age.
They were the last tether she had to her remaining reputation.