Chapter Text
"I think there's a ghost, or something, in my house." Steve says it, so openly in the middle of Family Video's parking lot.
"Harrington..." He watches Billy bite at his bottom lip, no smoke in his mouth to distract him.
Steve is smoking though, or more like he’s forgetting to. Standing against the BMW, Billy is right beside him, eyes looking at the ground. He knows what it sounds like, it's the second time he'd told Billy this in a month,
Steve's prepared to explain even further when he asks, but with the bags under his eyes, he’s glad Billy doesn't probe the subject much further than he needs to.
"What kind?"
"It's just something out there, I can't sleep thinking about it."
After everything, Billy just nods, understands, leans a bit closer to Steve against his car,
"I'll come over." Billy taps his fingers against his leg, then plucks the wasting cigarette from Steve’s hand to take a drag.
"After work, around six," Steve states it, Billy already knows when he finishes work, though, he says it again to make sure he doesn't forget, more for himself.
Billy exhales the smoke, their shoulder’s bumping against each other. Steve can feel the initial panic of being so close, but the lot is empty, deserted, they're fine, he tells himself. He leans a bit closer.
"See you then."
"Yeah, see you soon." Billy walks back to his own car, not the Camaro that Steve's used to. He knows it's in for repairs, but something about Billy sitting in the cheap pickup makes Steve remember Starcourt all too well.
Steve rubs the stress from his eyes, takes a breath of fresh air, and walks back into Family Video before his break ends.
-
Steve always had trouble sleeping, it was getting better, but some nights he'd still jump at the slightest sound. Even just laying down and hearing the rustling of trees made him restless. It made him feel he should be awake, alert; watching.
So, he lay awake until the starting's of dawn would show, and only then he would shut his eyes for a moment before his alarm would beep.
Steve thinks maybe he's averaging an hour per night, his body is starting to feel it. Even more so his body is starting to protest, head aching with the copious amounts of caffeine loaded with packs of sugar that he's been consuming to placate it.
Family video has a few customers loitering, quiet, and quite calm on a weekday.
He takes the styrofoam cup and situates himself against the register as Robin walks over, taking a sip of the drink Robin has distastefully dubbed the Sludge.
"You okay?" She looks at it, grimaces on instinct, and looks back up to him. There's concern on her features despite glaring at the coffee. Steve knows that he looks terrible, it’s not a secret by any means, but seeing how concerned Robin looks stirs something in his chest. Maybe it was somehow even worse than he thought, but if it was, how much more could it even be?
"Totally peachy." It's played off as sarcasm, he's sure Robin has known for days by now that he feels like shit. There’s bags under his eyes, he’d arrived at her house ten minutes late this morning, and there’s a very apparent droop to his hair.
Steve swirls the liquid to even further his point, and Robin laughs under her breath, she’s worried, but the laugh feels like it's meant to soften how much it’s actually bothering her.
Robin ducks behind the counter with him.
"Alright well, calm down on that stuff, the last thing I need is for you to crash." She sighs, maybe a layer of seriousness under the joke, but Steve is missing it as he takes another sip of his ‘coffee’.
Robin shakes her head, "I mean, Steve, maybe you should just go home, try and get some sleep?" She stands beside him, looking around the empty store; she’d be fine alone.
Steve inaudibly refuses by downing the rest of his cup in one sip, and then motions to the parking lot, "Robin, come on, with all these customers here?" Steve tries his best not to laugh, faux stressed hand in his hair, ruining it further, shaking his head. Robin is cracking a smile, she's trying to stay engrossed as well, "And on our busiest night, Monday."
Robin laughs, a hand over her mouth, Steve breaks character, laughing. Then leans against the counter again with a long exhale. "Okay, as concerned as you are, Steve, I think I'll be fine, as boring as it's going to get by myself."
Steve still bites his lip, looking to Robin and then the parking lot for any sign of life. Robin tilts her head in question and then looks outside mirroring him.
Steve only blinks, almost lost in a trance, Robin pokes him in the arm.
"Steve?"
"What?"
"Go?"
Steve shakes his head, knowing that working would at least keep him away from his house a bit longer. He thought of it, big house, nobody inside, fridge stocked full and every table clean, practically unlived in. His parents are still out of town for another week still, Steve wonders if they only came back out of obligation. If he wasn’t around, would they even come back at all?
He pushes the thoughts down to the ‘things to not think about’ box in the pit of his stomach.
But,
Since he'd been inviting Billy over it got easier to be inside the old house, he hadn’t counted the exact amount of times in total, but it was already twice this month. He tries not to feel too embarrassed thinking about how normal the meetups had gotten between them.
It was something about the way Steve just knew whenever he asked that Billy would be there, waiting at his door after his shift, no questions asked. Steve was making a habit of doing it now. Sometimes even Billy would offer, catching when Steve would say something just a bit distressing, ask what he meant, and not taking ‘i’m fine, don’t worry’ as an excuse.
Robin pokes him again, Steve blinks himself back to reality.
He insists he's listening but before he can respond Robin’s voice rings out again,
"Steve are you–"
"I invited Billy over tonight,” he omits the ‘again’ from the confession, and instead looks towards the stack of tapes by the rewinder.
Robin looks uncertain, mouth open, she’s thinking, Steve knows how that must have sounded, considering he hadn’t told her anything of what was happening before now.
"Well, because…" he motions to his face, drops his hand when Robin just gives him another strange look, he sighs, "Whatever's happening with me, whatever's happening in my house–"
"I'm lost, Harrington." She cuts him off, and leans an elbow on the counter as emphasis, "like, the exact minute you mentioned, Billy Hargrove,"
Steve shuts his eyes, preparing for whatever impact is to come, he shouldn’t feel upset over how she had said his name, like there was something wrong with it. He can’t blame her, he really can’t and that’s what makes him feel worse.
There’s a weird static in the air, they both don’t know what to say, and it’s weird for them, weird because Robin is his best friend.
"We uh,” Steve starts, digging himself out of the hole he was in, “We’ve been getting along." he motions in front of himself, offers Robin a weak smile.
Robin just nods at that, sharp with a little huff, he'll leave out the part mentioning it's easier to sleep at night with him around, though.
There’s an urgent tap against the counter top and Robin leans in just a bit more, “Wait, weren’t you just outside with–”
“That’s when I asked him.”
“Really?”
“Yep.”
It's quiet for a sting, and maybe Steve had tilted the world for her on its axis but she didn’t look particularly worried, just an audible ‘Oooh.’ rippling from her.
“Maybe you do still have it,” and she winks, like the supportive best friend she is.
Steve looks away so she can’t see his face betraying him, “It’s not like that.”
and he’s lying, a big fat lie.
There’s no fooling Robin, she can tell, because she looks a little too proud of herself leaning against the register with her arms crossed, smirk on her lips. Steve feels like he’s dying but for a completely different reason this time.
"All this to say…!" Steve grabs one of the VHS tapes and unclicks it from the plastic box, trying to calm his racing heart.
"Everything is fine."
“Then I guess, everything is fine, then.” She mocks Steve but there’s still the underlying worry as she gives him another once over.
Pushing herself from the counter she grabs another stack of tapes to put beside Steve, her smirk is gone, "Well, if you're really feeling up for staying," She gives a soft smile, then pats Steve on the shoulder, “All of these do need to be done.”
He nods, “Sure, thanks Robin.” Another pat on his shoulder as confirmation and she ducks under the counter to go grab something from the back.
-
The tape machine whirs, Steve hates the sound it makes, sounding closer to something being strangled and screaming out. He swallows the lump in his throat and checks his watch.
Time is moving slow today, he thinks. Though his watch just ticks away properly. It's four, but it feels like it should already be closer to five, and the seconds are taking longer like minutes. On days like these Steve stands bored and wonders if maybe something from the Upsidedown slipped through.
Something that only wants to mess with his watch, in particular.
The machine clicks, digging himself out from the train of thought he was about to go down.
He repeats the step over and over monotonously, until they're finally a half-hour until their shift ends.
Robin is beside him at the register throwing a movie down onto it to catch Steve's attention,
"I watched this last night." She says, excitedly, with a smile on her face, "So, obviously you need to see it as well, because listen, Steve…"
His name is said in more urgency now, but he hears his last tape click from behind and goes to grab it, "Okay, okay, I'm listening." He places the rewound cassette into a box to the side, thinking he might have had enough time to put them back but then once again–
"Steve, I really don't think you're listening."
He puts his hands up, in a surrender, "You're right, and I'm sorry, I was just having so much fun." Steve motions to the rewinder, Robin rolls her eyes, laced with sarcasm.
"Okay, so, listen," she taps the case, plastic making a dull thud, "it's just really good, but I can't say much without like, giving everything away."
There's a motorcycle on the cover, headlight shining bright, a man's face on one side and a woman’s face on the other, the title white stark in the middle.
"Rumble Fish? I think I had to read that in class." Steve looks over the cover, and shrugs, Robin pushes it at him, suddenly serious,
"Tell me one time you've picked up a book, really."
He goes to open his mouth, Robin interjects,
"and not a magazine,"
Then again,
"Or a comic book."
Steve crosses his arms, "Alright, fine, you got me, I'll watch your weird movie."
She lets out a triumphant,
"Yes!"
And then crouches down to resume restocking copious bags of RedVines. Steve huffs, dragging his box of rewound tapes to be put on their proper shelves.
They only had twenty minutes but he manages to get half the movies back in place, and Robin manages to take a pack of candy for them both, before shoving the industrial-sized box back into storage.
-
They're only a couple of minutes until they switch shifts when Robin clears her throat, both standing idly by the door, waiting for the other worker to show up to swap for the night.
Steve has Robin's movie recommendation in one hand, his keys in the other,
"Steve," and her voice is softer and she looks sincere when she says it,
"I really need you to care of yourself, alright?" And she gives him a smile, then as quick as she was genuine taps the movie in his hand, "And, get some rest first, the movie can wait."
Steve nods, watching the manager's car pull into the lot, he doesn’t want to say he will, knows it's a toss-up if he’ll actually listen. He also doesn’t want to lie to her face again.
-
"Okay, I promised myself I wouldn't ask, but I need to,"
And then he wishes he went home early. "But look, Steve, you need to explain to me what's happening with Billy–"
He should have went home early as he sighs, "I told you, we're getting along, he comes over sometimes."
"You said you invited him."
Steve groans and slows to a stop at a red light, "Robin, how many weird movies for you to drop this?"
She smirks, "won't be that easy, Stevie." She taps her fingers against the dash, "Look, you know my secrets, we're friends Steve, I'm just worried. I keep saying it but sometimes I think you're just choosing not to listen."
The light turns green, Steve thinks for a moment and then bites his lip when he really thinks about it. Robin was worried, he could tell, not tired enough to ignore when people care about him. So, with a huff, he just nods and tells her.
"I haven't been sleeping well, since even before Starcourt." He scratches the back of his neck, "Billy said the same thing at a party one night, it caught me off guard, but the thing is… I understood him. Everyone else just said they were sorry and dropped it, but they didn't get it."
Steve turns down a road and then he's stopped in front of Robin’s house, car idling as he looks over to her, "I was drinking and exhausted, so I told him I wasn't either. Half expected him to laugh it off, but he looked at me like he knew as well, that it was more than not being able to sleep."
Robin doesn't take her eyes off of him, the low hum of the BMW around them, filling the story's gaps with white noise.
"We ended up in his car, just talking about everything, life, all that shit." Steve sighs, thinking back to the memory, he's leaving things out, purposely. Robin’s his best friend, but some things she doesn’t need to think about.
Like, how he'd made out with him seconds later because pouring their hearts out mixed with cheap vodka was always bound to make it happen. Cheap cologne and the taste of nicotine. The familiar feeling of Billy’s curls slipping between his fingers.
When Steve pulled away, panicked and breathless, mumbling some apology, "Fuck… I didn't mean–"
But was met with an even fiercer kiss from Billy that left him dizzy.
He swallows down the memories, Robin looking at him with a placated smile,
"Does that make sense…?" Steve breaths out, a hand pushing back his hair, chest feeling just a bit lighter.
"It did, and, I'm happy you…" she pauses, judging Steve's expression, "I'm glad someone else understands, whatever you needed to be understood that night." There's a small laugh as she pushes open the car door.
Steve returns the laugh, trying to push down how ridiculous he felt for saying it all out loud, "Yeah, more or less."
There's a quick silence that Steve appreciates, Robin with a nod of her head taps her fingers against the roof of the car, "Thanks for the ride, and don't worry Steve, your secret's safe with me."
She goes to leave and then stops, shuffling in her purse and tossing a pack of red vines through the window to the seat. "A peace offering, say hi for me."
Steve chuckles picking up the candy, and nods, they wave their goodbyes and Steve makes sure she gets into her house safely before driving away.