Chapter Text
“She’s so pretty, isn’t she?”
“W-what?” your head snapped up so quickly you were scared you might have pulled a muscle, prompting the boys at the table to snicker.
“I said” Gareth emphasized, a smirk hanging from his lips “that she’s so pretty, isn’t she, Eddie?”
Said boy, who had been staring off into space and just so happened to have his head turned towards the jocks and cheerleaders’ table, snapped out of his trance almost as quickly as you had a few minutes prior.
“Who?” he seemed as confused as you felt.
“Chrissy Cunningham?” Jeff asked, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Your heart, the poor bastard, clenched painfully inside your chest at the mention of the blonde’s name.
“Yeah, I mean… sure.” Eddie waved his hands dismissively.
“Come oooon!” Gareth, who had been sitting to the left of Eddie, whined and poked him in the ribs “We all know you’ve had heart eyes for her since, like, 8th grade man. No need to pretend otherwise.”
“Guys…” Dustin’s eyes darted towards you, a concerned frown on his lips.
“I don’t have a crush on Chrissy Cunningham?” Eddie answered, although it came out more of a question, his eyebrows furrowed.
“Dude, seriously? You think we haven’t noticed the way you stare at her at every chance you get? Especially when she’s wearing that cute cheerleading dress?” Grant spoke up, Gareth, Jeff and Mike snickering with him.
“Guys…” Dustin tried interrupting again, but the other boys seemed to pay him no mind.
“Yeah, man.” Mike piped up, his mean smirk making your blood boil slightly “If you stare any longer she’ll go from calling you ‘The Freak’ to calling you ‘The Creep’.”
Your fists clenched under the table, nails digging painfully on your palm. You were about to speak up but Eddie beat you to it.
“She’s not like that!” he closed his hand around the mini pretzel he was eating, crunching it in his fist from the force of his words “She’s kind and gentle and sweet.” he glanced at you from the corner of his eyes before speaking up again, softer this time “She’d never do that.”
“See?” Gareth pointed out “You’re already defending your girlfriend-”
“She’s not my girlfriend!”
“Keep telling yourself that.” Mike muttered under his breath.
“So you might as well make it official and ask her out already!” Gareth finished, throwing his arms up in exasperation.
You’ve had enough. Pushing your chair back with so much force it scraped loudly against the linoleum floor, you hastily grabbed your bookbag, stomping away from your usual lunch table and out of the cafeteria.
“Great going dipshits.” Eddie threw a hard, stern glare towards his friends and quickly followed after you.
“What was that?” Jeff asked, bemused, still staring at the doors which you’d left through.
“I dunno.” Grant shrugged “One moment we were joking around, the next-”
“Guys!” Dustin yelled, startling his friends and earning the attention from other students at the nearby tables. Shrinking his shoulders, he smiled sheepishly, embarrassed, before addressing the other boys again “That was really mean. Even downright cruel.”
“What?” Gareth exclaimed “We were just teasing him!”
“Not to him, dumbass.” Dustin hissed sharply. “To her.”
“Your sister?” Mike asked, a frown twisting his features “What does she have to do with all this?”
“Seriously?” Dustin replied incredulously “You mean to tell me you’ve never noticed?”
The boys shook their heads and Dustin sighed, shaking his head in disappointment.
“For people who claim to have it all figured out, you surely are clueless.” he exhaled long and deeply, as if preparing to give a stern scolding to a bunch of four year olds “My sister has the biggest crush on Eddie.”
“What?”
“No she doesn’t.”
“Have you guys never noticed the way she stares at him? How she’s always giddy and happy around him?”
“Yeah, ‘cause they’ve been best friends since they were little?” Grant chimed in.
“No, it’s different.” Dustin tried looking for the right words to explain himself “It’s like… she feels safe with him. Like she knows at the end of the day she’ll always have a safe place right besides him to fall back in.”
“Except Eddie likes Chrissy.” Mike mumbled, the cogs turning in his brain.
“Exactly.”
“Now that you’ve mentioned it,” Gareth stared back at Dustin, wide eyed “she also stares at Chrissy a lot. Always with this wistful, dreamy look on her face.”
“Almost as if she wants to… be Chrissy?” Dustin completed, making a lightbulb go up simultaneously in all four boy’s heads “Yeah. She’s head over heels for him, and you teasing him about his crush only serves to remind her of what she’ll never ever have!”
The guys had the decency to look ashamed at his outburst.
“Now, if you’ll excuse me,” he said, getting up from their table and collecting his, yours and Eddie’s tray “I’m going to go find my sister and lend her my shoulder for her to cry on.”
Gareth, Jeff, Mike and Grant stared at his retreating form, guilt weighing heavily on their stomachs.
Dustin found Eddie in front of his locker, shuffling through the stuff inside, looking for something.
“Hey, Eddie.” Dustin leaned against the door of the locker adjacent to his, crossing his arms over his chest.
“Hey, man.” Eddie answered, without so much as looking over at his friend. He looked annoyed, the boy dared say even slightly pissed.
“Have you seen my sister?”
The younger boy jumped about a foot in the air when the door to the locker was slammed shut, a smal, metallic black lunch box hanging tightly from Eddie’s fist.
“No, Henderson, I haven’t seen her.” he answered, a fed up expression crossing his face as he started walking away.
“Wait up, Eddie.” Dustin held him by the cuff of his jacket, preventing him from leaving “I wanna talk to you.”
The metalhead sighed and turned his attention to the boy, nodding for him to go on.
“I know you like Chrissy-”
“I don’t like-”
“Please, just let me finish.” Dustin held a hand up for him to stop interrupting, to which Eddie rolled his eyes but stayed quiet “I know you like Chrissy. I do, really. Just… don’t break her heart.”
“Chrissy’s?” Eddie seemed confused.
“No.” he said your name hurriedly, desperately trying to get his point across “I really shouldn’t be telling you this, but she really really likes you. Like -likes you.”
“She doesn’t like me.” Eddie answered unphased, his calmness making Dustin’s heartbeat pick up in anger.
“Yes, she does! How come you don’t see that?” he rubbed a palm over his face, the pull on his cheeks stretching his lower eyelids so far Eddie worried his eyes were about to pop out of the socket “I just- I… I just don’t want her to get hurt.”
Eddie’s entire demeanor deflated, a small sigh escaping through his lips. As annoying as the young boy could be sometimes, Dustin had an enormous heart, always worrying about others and putting their needs and feelings before his own, and (Eddie felt a twinge of pride anytime he thought about it) he was loyal to a fault. Those were among the first things he noticed about the boy when he started his freshman year, prompting the metalhead to quickly take him under his wing. That and his Weird Al tee.
He laid a hand over Dustin’s shoulder, squeezing gently.
“I can assure you, with the same certainty that the sky is blue and ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ is by far the best one in the trilogy, I’m not going to break her heart.” seeing a tiny residual layer of distrust fleetingly cross through Dustin’s eyes, he squeezed his shoulder tighter “I promise.”
Dustin nodded thoughtfully, shyly smiling up at his friend.
“Thank you.”
Eddie smiled back at him, giving his shoulder one last squeeze, before he was back to his usual dramatic self.
“Now, I’m going to find your sister and beg for forgiveness. I’ll even drop to my knees and grovel if I have to.”
Dustin laughed at his antics, watching Eddie practically skip down the deserted hallway away from him, clutching the metal lunch box loosely on his hand.
“If you continue to stare at the table like that it’s gonna go up in flames and probably spread all around the woods. And I really don’t want to add crimes against the environment to my ever growing list of felonies, you know?” Eddie’s face morphed into a shit-eating grin as he stared at your slumped form.
You only spared him a half-hearted glare before balling your hands tightly. You slammed your fists against the wooden picnic table in front of you, jumping out of the bench and starting to pace along the leaf covered ground.
“It’s just so annoying, you know?” you huffed angrily “They notice one little thing, one wrong thing might I add, and just believe they’ve got us all figured out!”
“Yep.” he agreed, also mildly annoyed at the situation.
Throwing your arms above your head in frustration, you kicked some of the leaves with the toe of your sneakers.
“Even if you were into Chrissy, how is that any of their business?”
“Mhmm.”
You paused for a moment, wringing your hands together, a nervous habit you couldn’t seem to shake.
“But they are right, you know?”
“How so?” Eddie’s entire face scrunched up in confusion.
“You have been staring at Chrissy a lot recently.” you spoke quietly.
His face softened at the way you seemed to withdraw into yourself, letting your insecurities get the best of you. He stood up from the other bench, the dry leaves on the ground crunching under his white Reebok’s as he closed the distance between the two of you, resting a comforting hand on your shoulder, not unlike how he had done with your brother earlier.
“I’m just looking out for her. She hasn’t been all that well recently and Carver…” he sighed at the mention of his arch-nemesis “They may be dating but the dude still scares me when it comes to her. And she hasn’t been really happy with him for a while now. I don’t want her to get on his bad side.”
Your heart swelled with affection towards your best friend. Eddie had a heart of gold, one he hid behind leather and chains and metal and fantasylands to protect it from being hurt. Only a few selected individuals got to see this side of him, and you were extremely thankful you got to be one of them.
“I do not have a crush on Chrissy Cunningham, okay? You’ve got nothing to worry about.” he squeezed your shoulder playfully as his once soft smile grew mirthful “Besides, from how well we know each other, I’m actually offended you’d even suggest such a thing.”
You giggled at that, eased by both his actions and his words. Sensing you were back to your usual self, Eddie smiled, taking a step back, his eyes never leaving yours.
“You do know that this would all stop if you just told them the truth, right?” he asked seriously “At the very least Dustin?”
You snorted.
“Right, because that is super easy and plausible.” you mocked “What would I even say to him? ‘Hey, little bro! You know how you’re into Suzie, a girl ? Yeah, so am I.”
Eddie threw his head back, a loud and full laugh escaping from his wide smile. Tears gathered in the corner of his eyes as he clutched his stomach, almost doubling over at the hilarity of your words.
“Man, oh, man. The way you phrased that-” he hiccuped, trying to regain his breath while wiping away some tears that had escaped down his cheek.
You couldn’t help but giggle as well, his laughter contagious, and a small smile formed on his face at having helped improve your mood.
“Yeah, it sounded pretty weird, didn’t it?” you shrugged your shoulders sheepishly.
He nodded, finally being able to stop chuckling.
“Just tell him you like pussy, can’t be that hard.” he sat back down on the bench, crossing his arms over his chest.
“Edward Cornelius Munson!” you gasped and slapped his shoulder.
“What, so do I!” he threw his hands up in amusement before smirking “That, among other things.”
“I know, it’s just… I’m not about to use such a-” you hesitated as you took in his wolfish grin “foul language with my baby brother.”
“He’s a high schooler!” he almost shouted.
“No matter how old we may be, he’ll always be my baby brother.” you answered, sitting back down on the bench, your smile faltering for just a moment. It was only a moment, but Eddie noticed. He always did when it came to you.
“You should tell him, you know?”
Your face fell completely, smile disappearing as your shoulders slumped.
“You know I can’t.” you said softly, prompting a small sad smile from him “What if-” you swallowed thickly before whispering “What if he doesn’t look at me the same anymore?”
Eddie reached across the table, his hands laying palms up against the old wood. His fingers crooked in his direction, signaling for you to lay your own on top of them.
“He’s your brother.” he squeezed your hands tightly in his own “You said so yourself, he’s your baby brother. That kid worships the very ground you walk on.”
“Eddie-” you shook your head, but his hands closed even more tightly around yours.
“No, listen to me.” he said firmly, his stern voice promptly shutting you up “He’s your brother and he loves you, so very much. Nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing could ever change that.”
Your eyes prickled, brimming with unshed tears. With a sniffle you squeezed his hands in return, willing yourself not to cry.
“Thanks.”
He smiled at you one more time before dropping your hands, his smile turning mischievous.
“But seriously, Chrissy Cunningham?” he smirked, a mock disgusted look on his face “How basic can you be?”
“We’ve been over this before, Eddie.” you giggled “It’s just- she’s so-”
“So pretty and kind and nice, yeah yeah, I’ve heard it all before.” he waved his hands dismissively at you “Why don’t you talk to her?”
You snapped your head at him, eyes widening minutely.
“What?” you stuttered “Are you insane?”
“What, why? It was just a suggestion!” he raised his hands in mock surrender.
“I couldn’t possibly talk to her! She’s pretty and popular, she’s-”
“The Queen of Hawkins High?” Eddie completed.
“Yes, exactly. And I’m just-”
“A freak?”
You shook your head.
“-me.” you whispered sadly “She’s everything and I’m just… me.”
Eddie’s eyes softened, something akin to pity and concern crossing behind them.
“That’s not true.” he spoke softly, as if you were a cornered animal and any loud noise would spook you. He sighed at the way you shrugged, realizing he couldn't get past the insecurities that had lodged themselves in your brain.
“Besides, she’s with Jason.”
“Fuck that dickhead! He’s not worthy of her time.” Eddie blew a raspberry “She’s really nice. He doesn’t deserve her.”
Ever since she started buying from him, the two of them had become really good friends. Eddie was very fond of her and would do almost anything to keep her safe. Even fighting her own boyfriend if it came to it.
“Yeah, right.”
“You should talk to her. You have a lot more in common than you realize.” he shrugged, trying to appear nonchalant “If nothing else, I think you two would be great friends.”
You smiled at him, a genuine smile this time. You were very grateful for having Eddie in your life. He was always there for you when you needed, always willing to drop everything just to make you smile. For a smile while you were afraid of losing him, having revealed your secret when he confessed to having a crush on you for a while. You were a sophomore, he was just starting his first round as a senior and you had known each other for a long while when he dropped that on you. You were scared, terrified even, that you’d end up losing him completely, but he hadn’t been disgusted nor weirded out, like you’d expected. Quite the opposite, in fact. He had been incredibly supportive and even revealed that he himself wasn’t very conventional when it came to relationships.
“I mean, as long as they love me and treat me AND my friends right… and don’t mind me blasting Black Sabbath on my sweetheart every once in a while, who cares? Guys, girls, people who are neither? Doesn’t matter, man.”
“Thanks, Eddie.” you smiled at him, giving one of his shoulders a soft punch.
“If you want the teasing to stop, though, you’ll have to tell the boys from Hellfire.”
“And risk Mike Wheeler running his loud mouth around? Then get turned into an even bigger laughing stock for being something even worse than a ‘freak’ in their eyes? Or worse, get beat to a pulp by someone like Jason Carver? No, thank you.”
Eddie agreed. Then, for a moment, he looked up, brows furrowed, deep in thought.
“To be fair, I’m pretty sure Wheeler has a puppy dog kinda crush on me.”
“Oh, no, he does. For sure.” you nodded vehemently “He pretty much stole your style and your mannerisms, there’s no way he doesn’t have at least a small infatuation towards you.”
He chuckled.
“Doesn’t he have a girlfriend, though?”
“Yeah, El. But he also talks about Will Byers almost as much as he talks about her. It’s always ‘Will this, Will that’... you might as well incorporate Will, the Wise into our next campaign.” that made him giggle and shake his head at your antics. No matter how much you teased your brother and his friends, you loved those munchkins very much.
Him, sensing you were finally relaxing, decided to throw in a joke to alleviate the mood even further.
“Soooooo, Henderson… when are you asking her out then?” he said, smirking at your smiling face.
You threw your head back, laughing at his jokester self.
“I dunno, Munson.” you shrugged “When are you going to ask Steve Harrington out?”
“Uh, never?!” his face looked almost offended, a pink tinge dusting his cheeks, but in truth you knew how much he liked the former ‘King’.
“There’s your answer.”
He chuckled, amused.
“See, that’s why I keep myself open to the opportunities. There’s plenty of fish on this sea.” he tsked “Try being more like me, won’t ya?”
“Oh yes” your face turned mockingly serious “I’ll be exactly like you. With at least twice, if not more, as much opportunity and yet you’re still alone.”
With a hand to his chest, he gasped dramatically.
“How dare you?!” he glared at you playfully “Low blow.”
“It’s the truth.”
He chuckled, pulling a laugh out of you, and for a moment, all your worries vanished.
“I swear to you, Max, if he so much as thinks about hurting her I’ll personally break every single one of his fingers so he can never play his precious guitar ever again.” Dustin hissed as he pushed the doors open at Family Video.
“What’s going on?” Steve asked, exchanging a suspicious glance with Robin.
“Dustin here is threatening bodily harm.” the red-head explained as she walked towards the horror section, stopping briefly to stare at a copy of ‘Pretty In Pink’ in the romance section.
“To whom?” Robin asked.
Dustin sighed heavily, like the thought gave him an immense amount of pain.
“Eddie.”
Steve stared at Dustin as if he’d grown a second head. Normally Dustin wouldn’t shut up about his Dungeon Master, he basically worshiped the dude, to Steve’s mild annoyance. So for him to be mad at Eddie, something drastic must have happened.
“What did the dingus do?” Robin pinched the bridge of her nose.
“Oh, don’t ask-” Max shouted from over between the shelves.
“I’m glad you asked!” Dustin cut her off, jumping up and sitting over the counter, ignoring the protests of both Steve and Robin “Okay, it’s kind of a long story.”
“Oh, no.” Steve mumbled under his breath.
“So, you guys know my sister, right?”
“Of course we do, she’s one of our best friends. Also works here all other days of the week?” Robin questioned, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
“Yeah, her.” Dustin continued, unbothered “She’s got it bad for Eddie. Like head over heels bad.”
Steve almost choked on air. From the corner of his eye he could see Robin shooting the young boy a funny look, almost in disbelief.
“But the thing is, Eddie has it bad for Chrissy Cunningham.”
Robin and Steve stared at one another, jaws hanging open.
“Okay, and?” Steve asked.
“And?” Dustin asked incredulously “And she’s bound to get hurt. She’s going to get hurt and-” he let out a shuddering breath “I don’t want to see that happen.”
Both Steve’s and Robin’s gaze softened at the boy’s kind words.
“If it serves as any consolation, Dustin, your sister does not have a crush on Eddie.”
“Yes, she does!” Dustin practically shouted “She’s my sister and I know her! She is in love with Eddie! It’s so obvious, why can’t none of you see it?”
“Dust-” Robin tried interrupting, but the boy cut her off, offended.
“What kind of brother would I be if I didn’t know my own sister?!”
Robin raised her hands, trying to calm the boy down.
“Okay, okay. Fine.” she sighed defeated.
Steve sensed Dustin was getting upset and tried to placate him into calming down.
“Hey, man. If, by any chance, he ends up breaking her heart, I’ll help you bash that metalhead’s skull in.”
Dustin smiled a toothy grin, reassured by his friend’s words.
“Now!” Steve clapped his hands “I assume the two of you aren’t here just to gossip now, are you?”
Dustin straightened his spine, jumping down from the counter and disappearing behind some shelves. Moments later he came back, dragging a reluctant Max by the wrist.
“Maxine here” he started (to which Max mumbled ‘Call me Maxine again and I’ll break your fucking nose’ under her breath) “has never watched Star Wars.”
Steve gasped dramatically.
“Seriously?! What a crime!”
Robin rolled her eyes.
“You haven’t watched it either, dingus.”
“Yes I have!”
“Sleeping halfway through ‘A New Hope’ doesn’t count as watching!”
“Anyway,” Dustin cleared his throat “Mike and I agreed that it’s about time she watched it and decided on a movie marathon. Lucas is also joining us. So if either of you can get me the tapes for the entire trilogy, we‘ll get out of your hair as soon as possible.”
Robin started typing in Dustin’s file while Steve went out back to retrieve the requested tapes.
“Uh, guys?” Steve came back to the front of the store holding one tape in each hand “Looks like someone already rented one of them.”
“What?!” Dustin’s voice broke as he reached for the tapes “‘Return Of The Jedi’ is missing! Who in their right minds rents only ‘Return Of The Jedi'?!”
Robin looked at Steve, a mischievous smile crossing her features. He knew she could only mean trouble.
“Let me check that out for you.”
“Uh, Rob.” Steve mumbled, concerned “That’s against company policy.”
“Come on, Stev-o, live a little! We do this all the time to find out stuff about people.”
“Oh, and checking the renting log for Star Wars 3 will tell us what exactly?”
Robin smirked. Oh, Steve didn’t like where this was going.
“If we cross reference it with the other two,” Robin started typing on the computer behind the counter “we can check out who rented all three of them together or rented all three of them separately but in the correct order.”
“And those who rented just this one?”
Robin’s smirk only grew. She looked at Steve dead in the eye and mouthed the word ‘boobies’. Steve could practically hear the moment the shoe dropped, his own face morphing into a smirk.
“Are we missing something here?” Max asked, suspicious.
Robin dismissed her and continued typing. It took about twenty minutes, but she eventually had printed out an extensive list of names after having written down a bunch of names and connecting them on her little white board.
“Okay, munchkins.” she turned to them, swiveling her chair “I have it. After pulling the records of the past six months, I managed to find out all the people who rented ‘Return Of The Jedi’ solo.”
Dustin giggled, and Max rolled her eyes, but a tiny amused smile pulled at her lips. Steve awaited eagerly, hanging from the edge of his seat.
“Let’s see, from oldest to newest.” Robin cleared her throat “Eddie Munson, clearly; me; Vicki; Eddie again; your sister.”
Steve side-eyed her, his brows furrowing in confusion, but Robin kept going without paying him any mind.
“Vicki again; your sister again; Fred Benson; Eddie; Vickie; Eddie; Jason Carver;” her face scrunched up in disgust (to which Dustin screamed a “Jason Carver likes Star Wars?! ”) before continuing “your sister; Vickie; me; Eddie aaaaaand… oh!”
Everyone froze, startled expressions paralyzing their faces.
“What do you mean ‘oh!’?” Steve asked, incredulous.
Robin’s eyes were wide as saucers, her eyebrows so far up her forehead they disappeared under her short bangs. Her mouth hung wide open and only small stutters came out. Swallowing hard, she exhaled sharply through her nose before turning to her friends, her voice low.
“The last person to rent ‘Return Of The Jedi’ and who currently has the tape is Chrissy Cunningham.”
Multiple things happened at once. Steve’s jaw fell almost to the ground, Dustin let out a loud disbelieving yelp and Max’s eyes widened just a fraction.
“Seriously?” Dustin asked “Chrissy Cunningham, captain of the cheer squad, queen of Hawkins High, Jason Carver’s girlfriend, rented out a Star Wars movie?”
Steve and Robin glanced at one another. It was clear their incredulity stemmed from a totally different reason then the two kids.
“Oh, well.” the boy threw his hands up in defeat “I guess our movie marathon is fucked.”
Max looked conflicted, slightly relieved but at the same time kind of bummed. Steve was already pulling the file for ‘Return Of The Jedi’ on the computer again, desperately trying to put a smile back on that kid’s face.
“She’s due to return it tomorrow. Why don’t you come by then? It’s Friday anyway, don’t you have Hellfire today?”
“Yeah, I guess.” Dustin shrugged “We were going to head straight to Mike’s after the club and Max would meet us there.”
“Tell you what,” Steve nodded his chin conspiratorially “why don’t you take something else for today, have a sleepover, and as soon as Chrissy returns the tape tomorrow I’ll drive by the Wheeler’s and deliver it to you, okay?”
“But what if Chrissy doesn’t return it on time?” Max asked.
The sound of keys being smashed on the keyboard pulled their attention back to Robin, who had taken over the computer.
“It says here she hasn’t missed one due date, and she’s been coming here for quite a while now.” she smiled reassuringly “You guys have nothing to worry about, Steve’s got this covered for you.”
After a few more moments trying to reassure Max’s everlasting distrust and restore Dustin’s goofy mood, the two kids left with a copy of ‘Gremlins’, one of Max’s favorite movies of all times. As they were about to set foot outside the door, Robin called out to Dustin.
“Don’t worry about your sister, okay? She’ll be alright.”
Dustin nodded and they left. With a huff, Robin slumped against the counter.
“So, what was that about our dearest Henderson having a crush on Eddie?” Steve asked.
“Trust me, dude, she does not have a crush on him.”
“Dustin seemed pretty adamant that she does.”
“She doesn’t.” the girl hissed.
“How could you possibly know? She might be one of your best friends since forever, but sometimes people rather keep-”
“Because I know!” Robin practically shouted “Because she’s also into the same stuff we both are!”
“You mean…” Steve’s eyes widened, before his confusion gave way to understanding “She did rent that Star Wars a lot.”
“Yeah, exactly.” Robin leaned closer to him and lowered her voice down to a whisper, even though there was no one else in the store at the time “We dated briefly in middle school. We were both going through a self-discovery journey kind of thing and we helped each other out. It’s good talking about your feelings with someone who actually gets it, who also knows exactly what you’re going through. That, combined with the fact we’d been friends for so long, had us both thinking that dating was the natural progression of things.” she smiled a sad, fond smile before shrugging “Don’t get me wrong, she’s pretty cute, smart and all, but we quickly realized it was more like kissing a cousin than anything.”
“Ew.” Steve shrudded.
“Mhmm. So we broke things off about a month in.”
“Wow. That’s nice actually.” Steve smiled at her “It’s nice to know you didn’t have to go through all of that alone.”
Robin nodded in agreement, turning back towards her friend. She found him already staring at her eagerly. She closed her eyes with a sigh.
“Spit it out.”
“So our resident freak has a crush on the Queen of Hawkins High?”
Robin eyed him funny.
“No he doesn’t.” she scoffed “There’s only one person in this town whom Eddie fancies, and it’s certainly not Chrissy.”
“Who’s it?” he asked, like a kid who’s begging their parents to reveal the contents of their Christmas gift in advance.
Robin felt like she could facepalm. Better yet, bang her head on the counter multiple times.
“Seriously, Harrington?! Are you really that dense?”
Steve stared at her like a clueless puppy.
“What?”
She huffed and grabbed a pile of returned tapes to sort through.
“Anywaaay…” Steve sat next to her again “What do you think?”
“About what?”
“Uh, duh? The fact that Chrissy rented that movie? You said so yourself and that list was pretty self explanatory.”
Robin smirked at him, a small chuckle climbing out of her throat.
“I think, my dear friend,” she topped her act off with a wink “that there’s more to Chrissy Cunningham than meets the eye.”