Chapter Text
steve is italics
eddie is bold
robin is underlined
JULY 7, 1:04 PM
STEVE
1:04 PM: im bored
1:04 PM: so bored
1:05 PM: hello
1:06 PM: whats up
1:08 PM: bored out of my mind here
1:10 PM: help a guy out
1:13 PM: hellooooooo
1:14 PM: stranger
1:15 PM: answer me
1:20 PM: :(
1:22 PM: put me out of my misery
1:23 PM: please
1:24 PM: pleeeeeeeeease
1:25 PM: pretty please
1:25 PM: with a cherry on top
1:26 PM: or several cherries if that improves my chances
1:29 PM: i hate working
1:29 PM: robin isnt even here for me to annoy
1:31 PM: boooooo
1:35 PM: so ur annoying me instead
1:35 PM: IT WORKED
1:35 PM: I AM THE KING
1:36 PM: so ive heard
1:36 PM: king steve and all
1:37 PM: you know its unfair that you know who i am but i dont know who you are
1:38 PM: not my fault you told me your name
1:39 PM: so can you tell me yours
1:39 PM: :)
1:40 PM: :))
1:41 PM: :)))))))))))
1:41 PM: no
1:42 PM: booo
1:42 PM: worth a try
1:42 PM: still boo tho
1:44 PM: am i your boo aw
1:44 PM: thanks bae :)
1:44 PM: what
1:44 PM: no
1:45 PM: boo
1:45 PM: as in booooo
1:46 PM: like boo you suck
1:48 PM: that i do
1:48 PM: oh my god stop
1:49 PM: :)
1:49 PM: you said it
1:50 PM: whatever
1:52 PM: sooooo what are you up to
1:53 PM: not much
1:53 PM: some idiot won’t stop texting me
1:54 PM: starting to get on my nerves
1:55 PM: yeah okay
2:14 PM: did you die
2:15 PM: no?
2:15 PM: why
2:16 PM: just checking
2:17 PM: ???????
2:45 PM: now who’s dead
Steve dropped his head on the counter. Work really was miserably boring , especially without Robin. When she was there it was like they were just hanging out normally while getting paid for it, which was pretty neat. There was never really much to do in the video store where they worked, so mostly they made fun of each other, talked about girls and watched movies.
They had a thing going where they would try to watch as many movies from the store as they could before summer was over, in release order. They had made it to the mid 80’s now, though the store didn’t carry a lot of movies from before the 70's and it was already July, so it was looking dark for them. Steve enjoyed it all the same. The other day they had watched The Breakfast Club from 1985, which Robin thought was amazing, claiming that Allison definitely liked girls. Steve thought she related to her, being ‘the basket case’ and all, and that she thought she was hot, but that there was probably some truth to her claim.
Steve thought he was getting better and better at noticing that kind of stuff after spending pretty much all his time with Robin, but she claimed ‘straight people couldn’t have gaydar’. Steve was determined to prove her wrong. He thought maybe the guy he’d been texting might like guys, judging from how he had been flirting back at Steve’s flirty banter that he normally had with people, but maybe the guy was just like him in that way. Though he had made that comment about sucking earlier. Steve frowned and shook his head. He was giving this way too much thought.
Why there were still video stores in the 2020’s was beyond Steve, but working there surprisingly paid a little more than minimum wage, which was about the best he could do recently having graduated high school, so he supposed it was a decent job. Most people who came in were adults who, Steve guessed, probably watched movies on VHS when they were kids, and continuing to do so either made them nostalgic, or they were just too stubborn to get Netflix like normal people. They carried most newer movies in DVD format, which were slightly more popular. He knew a lot of people still had DVD players in their homes, which he supposed was slightly more reasonable. Dustin was a frequent renter of DVDs, but Steve suspected it was a ploy to be able to come and annoy Steve at work. He didn’t mind it all that much, though - he loved the kid.
Another frequent customer was Robin’s friend Eddie Munson, who was notoriously obsessed with all kinds of 80’s media. He was big on 80’s metal bands, especially Black Sabbath. Whenever he came in he would stay and chat with Robin for a while, and somehow always spent a decent amount of time babbling on about Ozzy Osbourne. Steve had picked up on a lot of random facts about him because of this, frankly against his will. Imagine how many other things he could use his memory for instead of that. Eddie usually left with a handful of VHS tapes, always matching whatever Steve and Robin had watched a few days before. Steve suspected she had him in on the ‘watch every movie’-thing. Eddie was a cool guy though, Steve thought. He had nice hair, which Steve could always appreciate, and wore a jean vest which Steve admittedly thought really suited him. And he was really nice to Robin. The two of them had been close friends for a few years, being two of the only openly queer people in Hawkins when Steve was in high school. Both Eddie and Robin were still in high school, Robin being a year younger than Steve and Eddie being held back for the second year in a row. Steve found this a bit strange - from what he’d gathered Eddie seemed like a really smart guy. But school just wasn’t for everyone, he supposed. The door to Family Video suddenly rang and, as if summoned by Steve’s thoughts, Eddie Munson stepped inside.
“Eddie”, Steve said, straightening his posture.
“Harrington”, Eddie replied, looking around the empty store.
“Robin isn’t in today”.
“So I noticed. Came to return these”. He held up four movies - VHS, of course - in his left hand. Steve was momentarily impressed that he managed to hold them all in the same hand. He must have really long fingers - perfect for playing guitar, Steve recalled helpfully. Eddie put the movies on the counter and Steve studied them, scanning the titles. Terminator , The NeverEnding Story , A Nightmare at Elm Street and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom , all from 1984. Steve pulled up Eddie’s account on the computer, picked up the movies one by one and marked them as returned. When he looked up again Eddie had pulled out his phone.
“You know where I can find any of these?” he said, placing the phone down on the counter and turned it around for Steve to read the title of four new movies - Ghostbusters , Sixteen Candles , The Karate Kid and Footloose , also all from 1984. Sixteen Candles especially didn’t quite strike Steve as an Eddie-movie , so he found his theory being more or less confirmed.
“Yeah, let me go find them for you”, Steve offered, thinking he might as well do his job the few chances he got to actually do something .
JULY 7, 3:02 PM
EDDIE
Eddie turned to watch Steve wander off into one of aisles of Family Video to get the movies he’d asked for. Robin had this thing where she was trying to watch every movie in the store, which he had somehow let her talk him into doing with her. They never actually watched them together - she watched them during boring work shifts and he watched them pretty much whenever he had the time, which was always, because he was never really doing much of anything. He had known Robin wouldn’t be working today - she had a date with a girl named Vickie that she’d met through band. Eddie had only spoken to her briefly a few times, but she seemed nice enough. He only worried she wouldn’t be weird enough to be able to keep up with Robin, bless her heart.
But Steve was working - he had told him so. Unbeknownst to Steve himself, of course. So Eddie figured he’d take the chance to watch the boy for a little bit. Yeah, that had sounded creepy. He wasn’t creeping through, he promised. He was simply… admiring. Eddie hadn’t actually seen Steve since Steve had accidentally texted him, so when he’d walked into the store he hadn’t expected the jolt that went through him at the sight of Steve. He’d gotten butterflies around the other boy for years, but it had never felt like this before. Eddie was mildly uncomfortable by the increase in… emotion .
As he studied Steve while he searched the aisles, he thought back to the few, short conversations they’re shared over the past couple of days. He couldn’t stop thinking about how Steve had been flirting-not-flirting with him over text, and how Eddie had flirted back. That brought on a new swarm of butterflies. Of course Steve didn’t know that it had been Eddie , he told himself while trying to calm down. Steve was making his way back towards Eddie, two VHS tapes in each hand and signature charming smile on his lips. Eddie reminded himself of how embarrassing it was that he liked Steve Harrington , of all people. Everyone had liked Steve at some point. God, he was just everybody else, wasn’t he?
“Got your movies”, Steve said, raising his eyebrows. He put the tapes down on the counter and stepped around it to scan them and add them to Eddie’s current loans. “Alright, that’ll be 15 dollars. God, why do you rent them? Not to talk shit about my own place of work but you know it’d be a lot cheaper if you just watched them on like, Netflix, right?”
Eddie gave a half shrug. “Gotta get the authentic experience, I guess”.
Steve rolled his eyes but smiled. Eddie had to remind himself not to stare at the dimple that formed on one side of Steve’s chin when he smiled like that. He looked away, swiped his card, and couldn’t help but look back at Steve again as he grabbed the tapes.
“Thank you for shopping at Family Video”, Steve said in his best customer service voice, raising his eyebrows again. God damn eyebrows , Eddie thought.
“See you around, Harrington”, he said as he turned around and headed towards the exit.
“See you, Munson”.
Once Eddie had made it back to his van and hopped in, he had to take a few breaths to collect himself before being able to drive off. Steve Harrington , he thought. You’ll be the death of me.