THE CASE OF THE MISSING LIFEGUARD
________
c h a p t e r s e v e n
Shortly after arriving at El's house, Bianca starts to spiral.
They were originally gonna stay at Max's, but El reminded them that Hopper would probably freak out about it.
"Oh my God, what did I just do?" Bianca shakes her head. "Oh my God."
"Hey, don't worry about it. Mike will come crawling back to you, begging for forgiveness in no time."
"But..."
"No buts. How about we have a sleepover tonight? It'll totally get your mind off things."
"You're right. I'm overreacting. This is Mike we're talking about. He's probably losing his mind right now," she sits on the bed, reading the magazine over El's shoulder.
"Yeah, they're probably like wallowing in self pity, all like, "Oh, I hope they take us back." What I would give to see their faces," Max mocks with a laugh, brightening up Bianca's mood.
El makes a face, as if she just thought of an idea. It intrigues both the brunette and the redhead, who ask her to divulge her thoughts.
"Well, I can see them."
"How?"
"How I found Will."
"Ohh."
"Explain," Max looks between them in confusion.
"She can do this thing where she can spy on people in her mind. We're gonna need a blindfold. And it has to be really quiet," Bianca explains.
El grabs one from her dresser, sitting down as Bianca adjusts the radio.
"Is this really gonna work?" Max questions excitedly, earning two affirmative nods. "Holy shit, this is insane."
"Max."
"Yeah, quiet, sorry."
After a moment, El speaks up. "I see them."
"What are they doing?"
"Eating."
"Figures."
"They say we are species."
"What?"
"Emotion, not logic."
"What?" both girls gasp in shock.
Eventually, she yanks the blindfold off, turning to them in what appeared to be disgust.
"What?"
"Is everything ok?"
She simply breaks out into contagious laughter, and soon enough all of them were rolling across the floor, giggling.
They stop at the sound of Hopper arriving home, returning back to their magazines and music.
He comes into the room to check on El with a slight stumble, only pausing once he sees Bianca and Max looking up in confusion.
"Dude, do you knock? Jeez."
"Yeah, jeez."
"What are you wearing?" Bianca raises her eyebrows at his very busily-patterned button up.
"Mind your business."
"It's hurting my eyes, so it is my business," she shrugs, and Max and El chuckle.
"We're having a sleepover. Is that okay?" El asks.
"My boyfriend ditched me, so I dumped him. If you say no, I'll start crying."
"Mike, right? He's annoying, anyway. Real sarcastic," he attempts to make her feel better about it.
"Yeah..." Bianca sighs, and both of her friends glare at him for making her think about it again.
"Sorry."
"Did you need something?"
"No. I'll just leave you to it," he shuffles out of the room.
"Weird," Bianca shakes her head, and they all laugh at his antics.
_____
Meanwhile, Sam was floating on her back in Steve's pool, humming to the low sound of Tears for Fears in the background.
"You ever gonna get in or am I swimming by myself?" she opens her eyes, peering over at the boy sitting on the edge.
"You're not even swimming. But yes," he climbs in, swimming over to her floatie.
She carefully rolls onto her stomach, meeting him face-to-face with a smile. "What's on your mind?"
"Nothing, what makes you ask?" he shrugs, running a hand through his hair.
"You've got your 'stuck in your own head' face on," she points at him.
"If you could do one thing you've always wanted to do, what'd it be?"
"Italy," she quickly responds. "I'd die to be in Milan. Go to Fashion Week, see the sights, eat the food... It's my dream."
"Sounds like a pretty good dream."
"Yeah," she grins. "You?"
"I don't know. Nothing big. I've got a couple of wrongs I'd like to make right, you know?"
"Like what?"
"Like paying more attention in all those Math classes, like getting into a college. I don't know, I just... I figured now I can try to be the guy I should've been before. The one I wanted to be. The one you deserved."
She slowly gets off of the floatie, guiding him to sit on the steps. "You've always been that guy. It may have been hidden deep under the idiot you were pretending to be, but I knew it was always there."
"Maybe I just needed the right thump on the head," he chuckles.
"Well then, I suppose we can thank Nancy," Sam's smile dwindles, and he frowns at the sight.
It's not that she wasn't happy that he'd changed, she couldn't be happier to see him trying to be better now. It's just that a really big part of her wanted to be the one he changed for, as selfish as that is.
He begins to backtrack, when she waves a hand. "What did Dustin need my help with?"
"Oh you're gonna love this. He stumbled on a Russian secret message while trying to, get this, call his girlfriend."
She sits up, eyes wide as she balks at his words. "Dustin Henderson has a girlfriend?"
"Right? I mean, he claims she's hotter than Phoebe Cates and there's no way. She has to be made up."
"It's so weird to see them all dating, I mean Bianca and Mike are in a more serious relationship than I've been in in a while."
"Why didn't you ever date?" he turns to her, earning a deadpan look.
"I did date! Remember Matthew Jones?" she frowns.
"Ugh, I hated that guy."
"I don't know why, he was sweet. We only broke up because he was moving to California."
"He was a total square! And he had a grudge against me."
"Because he thought you had a thing for me!"
"Whatever. I meant other than Matt. Why didn't you date after him? It's not like you were that sad about him leaving."
"Steve, you literally chased away every guy I could've dated up until last year."
"Okay, in my defense, I shared a locker room with those guys, and trust me, you did not want to go out with them," he holds up a hand.
"Oh, that's the only reason?"
"Among a few selfish ones, yes. I never said I was proud of it."
She shrugs, before preparing to change the subject. He doesn't give her a chance though, tired of letting each other pass the other by.
"I never deserved you, you know. You deserved some guy who'd sweep you off your feet and treat you like the diamond you are."
"Funny," she chuckles. "You're funny."
"Just being honest," he mumbles, leaning closer.
He gets about an inch away from her lips when her brain starts sounding alarms for how bad this could go. She chooses to ignore them when his lips meet hers, hand coming up to cup her cheek.
She kisses back on instinct, hand sliding up his chest before realizing exactly what she was doing and who she was doing it with.
"Steve," she softly says his name, a frown starting to form.
"Yes?" he raises an eyebrow.
"We shouldn't," she says seriously.
"You kissed back, that means something," he grimaces at the now awkward atmosphere, second guessing himself. "Right?"
"You only want what you can't have, Steve," she ignores his question, shaking her head.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Let's break it down. You wanted me when I was dating Matt, correct? That's why you hated him so much."
"Well, yeah, but-"
"You wanted Nancy because she was unimpressed by you. You wanted me when you had her and you wanted her when you almost had me. See a pattern? Cause I do."
"Okay, that's not fair. If I had remembered the kiss-"
"Steve, it's not about the kiss. If you really had feelings for me then, you wouldn't have been pursuing Nancy a day later. You didn't want me, not really. You just wanted someone."
"No, no, no, it wasn't like that. It's been two years, Sam. I don't know how many times I can apologize."
"I accepted your apology, but I'm not just gonna ruin our friendship because you're lonely. You're my best friend, and I care about you. But you don't know what you want, okay? And I'm not gonna be a casualty on your way to figuring it out."
"Ouch," he mumbles to himself.
She climbs out of the pool, wrapping a towel around herself. "I should head home."
"Wait, wait, wait," he climbs out in record speed, running after her. "At least let me drive you."
For a second, she narrows her eyes, sliding her clothes back on with a frown. "Okay."
"Okay," he nods, already wracking his brain for ways to convince her he was serious.
He really was this time. He wasn't thinking about Nancy or anything else besides Samantha. Just Samantha and how much of an idiot he was for letting her go the last time.
And he'd do just about anything to prove it.
_____
The girls just decided to spy on various members of the Hawkins community by way of spin the bottle. She landed on Ted first, but spun again to land on Billy.
"Eugh," Bianca snarls.
"Okay, look, I should warn you. If he's in there with a girl or doing something gross you should just get outta there right aware before you get scarred for life."
"Max."
"No, I'm just saying, he's really gross-"
"Max!" El and Bianca say through laughter.
"Okay, shutting up now," she adjusts the radio, while puts on her blindfold.
After a moment, El speaks up. "I found him."
"What's he doing?"
"Plotting to murder a few children, probably," Bianca picks at her nails with a chuckle.
"I don't know. He's... on the floor... talking to someone."
She quickly rips off the blindfold, a horrified look in her eyes.
"What happened?"
When she doesn't give a response, still gasping for breath, Bianca questions again, "El, what happened?"
"I don't know. But it was bad."
"Okay, okay, why don't we stop spying on our friends and watch a movie? I brought E.T.?" Bianca grins, searching for the tape in her bag.
"But... it was bad."
"It's too late for us to leave. We can stop by my house in the morning."
"... Okay."
__________
a/n: idk how to explain it but snow on the beach is so mike and bianca, and all of the girls you've loved before is very sam and steve