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c h a p t e r t w o
"Bianca!" Max hugs her, and Lucas and Will join in.
Bianca tried every tactic in the book to convince Hopper to let El come see the movie with them. Her dad would be very proud of her persuasion techniques, if only they'd worked. Personally, she felt like locking El away wasn't doing her any favors, but Hopper's best skill was ignoring everyone else's opinion.
"You guys are late."
"Barely," Bianca tilts her head, while Mike locks up her bike for her.
"We're gonna miss the opening."
"Yeah, if you guys keep whining about it," Mike rolls his eyes.
"Where are your braces?" Lucas points at her face, inspecting it closely.
Slapping his finger away, she grins at his question. "In the trash. I'm a new woman."
"Hell yeah!" Max high-fives her, and Will just smiles, nodding in agreement.
"You look great, Bianca," he adds, and her smile grows.
"Thanks, Will."
"Oh is that why you took so long? Huh, Mike? Testing out metal-free kissing?"
Lucas starts mocking him, and Mike walks over, leading the way with a groan. "Just please stop talking, dude."
He continues making smooching noises in both of their ears, only moving away from Bianca because of the deadly glares she gave.
"Shut up, Lucas."
"Yeah, real mature."
"Oh, Bianca, I wish we could make out forever, and never hang out with any of our friends."
"Lucas, stop."
"Will thinks it's funny."
"Because it is," he admits through laughs.
"Yeah, it's so funny that I want to spend romantic time with my girlfriend," he rolls his eyes, grabbing her hand.
"I'm spending romantic time with my girlfriend," Lucas defends himself, wrapping an arm around Max.
"Don't worry, guys. I won't let Mike steal me away all summer," she jokes.
"Why are we putting this all on me?"
"Cause it's easy," Max shrugs.
The kids then check the time, trying to maneuver their way through the Hawkins crowd as they realize they were slowly running out of time.
As they bump into various patrons, Mike notices a bunch of guys their age looking over at Bianca, who was completely oblivious. They seemed to be talking about her, judging by the grins on their faces.
He narrows his eyes, clutching her hand tighter as they run down the escalator.
He then bumps into a girl, who yells, "Hey, watch it!"
"Yeah, watch it, nerd!" Erica, Lucas's sister, mocks them, earning five unamused looks.
"Isn't it past your bedtime?"
"Isn't it time you died?"
"Damn she got you, Lucas," Bianca laughs.
"Psycho!"
"Butthead!"
"Mall rat!"
"Fart face!"
He then resorts to simply blowing a raspberry at her, and Max pulls him away. "Oh, now that was mature."
Sam had just started chatting with Robin at the counter, asking her about how things have been.
"Robin, right? We had Mrs. Click's class together sophomore year," she leans against the counter with a smile.
Robin always liked Sam. She'd noticed she was the closest to a human in Steve's circle, since she actually made an effort to talk to her in their time knowing each other. Still, there were a few assumptions she had about her that made it clear she was a bit wary of the cheerleader. For one, she was absolutely shocked she remembered sharing a class with a complete nobody.
Carol's words, not hers.
"You remember that?"
"Why wouldn't I? You were like a super genius, it reminded me of my sister. Plus, you're in band, which happens to play right next to the cheerleaders at every pep rally. How have you been?"
"As good as a Hawkins townie can be. Is it bad that I hate this town?"
"God, no. It sucks with a capital S. Surprisingly enough, one of the only things making it worthwhile happens to be your coworker."
"I can't imagine Harrington being a positive in anyone's Hawkins experience, but to each their own."
"I take that as you saying you guys have yet to become the bestest friends ever."
"That will quite literally never happen."
"Once you get past the whole douche-y, self-obsessed, player persona, he's an amazing guy."
"Remind me why you never dated?"
"Were you keeping tabs on my love life, Buckley?"
"Being smart gets boring-" she shrugs, as Mike walks up to the counter, ringing the bell repeatedly.
"Hey, dingus! Your children are here!" Robin calls Steve in a way that made Sam suspect that this happened way too often.
He exasperatedly opens the window, not seeing Sam yet. "Again? Seriously?"
Mike just rings the bell one more time in response, a smirk on his face.
"Show some mercy, Harrington," Sam leans against the counter, finally directing his eyes to her. "The infamous Bumblebee is finally back from camp."
"Y-You're back," his jaw drops, and he stutters out his words before running around the counter.
He wraps his arms around her, lifting her up into a hug, while she laughs in surprise.
"Miss me?" she raises her eyebrows as he puts her down.
"Hate to interrupt, but can you do this later? We're late!" Mike rings the bell again, making Bianca drag his hand away from it.
"Right, come on. Hurry," he ushers the kids in front of him, through the back door. "I swear if anyone hears about this..."
"We're dead!" they shout in unison, very familiar with his trademark threat.
Upon arriving at the theater's back entrance, Dawn opens the door for them, quickly pointing them in the direction of the theater.
"Thanks, Dawn," Bianca whispers.
"Don't get me fired!" she smiles.
"See? We made it," Bianca sits down between Mike and Will, sharing an excited grin with them both.
"We missed the previews."
"We still made it. Fart face."
Will opens his bag, passing around various snacks and drinks as they settle in, waiting for the film to start.
To their luck, only about 30 seconds play before the power goes out through the mall, causing the five to let out groans at their luck.
Over at Scoops Ahoy, Steve had paused his conversation with Sam to scoop a customer a cone just before the lights went out.
"That's weird," he places the scooper down, walking over to the light switch.
"Something tells me that's not gonna work, Steve," Sam leans on the wall, amused at his decision.
"Yeah it's not, dingus," Robin sighs.
"Oh really?" he repeatedly flicks the light on and off, until miraculously, all the lights turn on again. "Let there be light."
Eventually, he finishes helping all of the customers, walking Sam to the back room.
"So how was camp?"
"Eh, the usual. Loud kids, gross bugs, beautiful lake," she shrugs, walking around the room.
"Yeah same here. Well not exactly the same cause there's no lake or bugs... but-"
"I get it. So, any new girls?" she feigns disinterest at her next question.
Their aforementioned friendship-relationship limbo was mostly fueled by Sam's fear of him changing his mind like always does, and Steve's unrelenting attempts to get her to finally go out with him.
He'd really changed, and he'd been trying to get her to see that.
"Nope. The uniform is really cramping my style."
"I kinda like it," she looks him over. "The sailor thing really works for you."
"Good thing I wear it every day then," Some of his confidence comes back once she flirts back, and he steps closer to her.
"When do you start at The Gap?"
"Tomorrow actually. Just picked up my name tag," she holds it up. "Guess you'll be seeing a lot of me."
"Sounds like a dream," he grins, their moment interrupted by Robin opening the window.
"Can you stop flirting for a bit and do your job?"
"Yeah, Robin, I'm coming," he sighs, rolling his eyes.
"I'll see you tomorrow, Steve," she chuckles, giving him a hug.
"Glad you're back," he hugs back, letting out a breath.
Moments like these made him wonder how different she'd be as his girlfriend. Would she say goodbye with a kiss? Would her hugs last longer? Sometimes his own mind seemed to work against him, craving the one girl he'd probably never have.
"Dingus!" Robin shouts, disrupting his reverie.
"Jesus Christ, I'm coming!"
"I better go," Sam points to the door with an amused smile, a laugh brewing at the surface.
The funny thing was, Sam's mind was just the same. Constantly reminding her of what his lips felt like on hers, how his hands felt when he pulled her to dance with him at parties, that look on his face when he's completely content.
Basically anything that made purposely being oblivious to his obvious feelings for her much harder. Maybe one day she'll learn that fighting what your heart wants only ever does more harm than good.
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a/n: jenna ortega is this generation's scream queen, that's all