Chapter Text
Fall 1985
“Are you dating Steve Harrington?” y/n asked, dropping into the chair at the lunch table next to Robin with a thud. Robin turns to her perplexed.
“Why would you think that?” Robin asks.
Why would y/n think her best friend, who she knew for a fact did not like boys, was dating Steve Harrington? Maybe it was the fact that she was never home when y/n would stop by to see if she was alright post mall fire. Maybe it was the dozens of missed phone calls since July. Maybe it was that when she could get a hold of Robin she said she already had plans. Mostly it was the fact that Chrissy Cunningham (her other best friend) and Rebecca Smith had asked her if Robin was dating Steve when she was sitting with them in Econ.
“Well, you never hang out with me anymore and he drove you to school today, so.” Robin knits her brows together and stares at y/n as she babbles then cuts her off.
“I thought I told you about the crush I had last year.” Robin says and y/n rolls her eyes.
“You did. I thought maybe Steve had asked you out while you were working at scoops and you didn’t know how to tell him no.” y/n said, watching as Robin cocked her head in confusion. She could practically see the gears turned in her head. “Chrissy and Rebecca S asked me during econ if you were dating Steve. Apparently Samantha Pierce saw you two over the weekend and she told Missy, who told Chloe, who told Lizzy, who told Rebecca.”
“Okay well, that’s not what’s happening at all. Steve and I just got close working at Scoops and then we got that job at Family Video. If it was anything else I promise I would have told you.” Robin says. y/n scans her face for any signs that she might be lying. Scrunching her face as she did. To anyone else it might look like they were having a staring contest.
“Then why won’t you hang out with me?” y/n asks. Robin groans, throwing her hand up in defeat.
“I literally invited you to hang out with us y/n! You said no and when I asked you why you said you were busy watching Family Feud and needed to see who won!”
“It was a really close game!” y/n shrugs.
“It was a rerun!” Robin barks throwing her hands in the air
y/n can’t help but laugh. Robin was so funny when she was annoyed.
“Fine, I just didn’t want to hang out with you AND Steve. You guys probably have all these inside jokes that I don’t know and all this stuff to talk about that I’m not in on. It would just be awkward.” That and the fact that y/n had a massive crush on Steve their freshman year.
But Robin didn’t need to know that the crush wasn’t gone. It had just gone from massive to medium sized. It might have gone away all together over the summer if he hadn’t looked so darn cute in his sailor uniform. It might have gone away the two summers before that if he hadn’t looked so good in his red lifeguard shorts. She had dragged Robin to the pool twice a week every week from the time the pool opened until it closed those summers so she could take glances at him over her book. His tanned skin and sun bleached hair imprinted in her memory. She was very disappointed to find Billy Hargrove had replaced him when she got to the pool the day it opened this summer.
“Really? I thought it was because you were too embarrassed to see him after you ate shit and spilled your milkshake all over Scoops that time you came to visit me at work.” Robin said a shit eating grin spreading across her face as y/n's eyes widened. “I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want you to be even more embarrassed but your skirt totally flew up. It was a really good thing you were wearing cute underwear.”
y/n slammed her face down onto the lunch table. This was devastating news. It wasn’t the first time she had embarrassed herself in front of Steve. Sophomore year he had walked into the library and caught her drooling all over her text book. Chrissy was kind enough to nudge her wake, but only after y/n had let out a truly heinous snore.
“I’m fucking with you. No panites were shown.” Robin laughs out. y/n turns her head to Robin with a glare.
“Devil woman.” Robin laughed and patted y/n on the back.
“We’re going to see Teen Wolf on Saturday. It’s not just going to be me and Steve, he’s bringing some friends. You should definitely come. It’d be really nice to have another girl my age there.” Robin said as the bell rang .
“Girl your age?” y/n asks as Robin walks away leaving her to wonder what she meant.
y/n rushed quickly around her room picking up all the things she would need for the night. Cash? Check. Lip gloss? Check. Keys? Check. She looked at herself in the mirror, smoothing a stray hair and adjusting her sweater before quickly running out of the house.
She was late to pick up Robin. Luckily Robin only lived a couple streets over or she might have made them miss the trailers, her favorite part. When she got to Robin’s she gave her horn a quick two beats and started to go through her center console to find her Tears for Fears cassette. She skipped the first song on the album so they could listen to her favorite. “Took you long enough.” Robin said as she slid into the front seat.
“Sorry, I was reading Interview with the Vampire.” She says sheepishly. y/n had a bad habit of being late. Almost always caused by her novel of choice. She couldn’t stop at just one more chapter. Robin shook her head
“Haven’t you already read that one? I remember you talking about it last year.” y/n nods and smiles. She’d ruined a handful of books for Robin because she read them before her and couldn’t stop herself from telling her best friend everything that happened.
“I did. I was talking to the guy who owns the bookstore and he mentioned that the author is coming out with another book in October so I figured I’d reread this one.”
They rode the rest of the way to the theater singing along to the music in the car and chatting about school. Robin told y/n all about her new crush, Vickie, a girl she said rivaled Molly Ringwald in beauty. y/n was always happy when Robin opened up to her about a crush. Knowing that Robin trusted her so much meant a lot. Sure she was no help in giving her relationship advice, as her only relationship had only lasted a week and some change.
“Does Steve know?” y/n asked as they pulled up to the theater.
“Yeah, I told him over the summer.” Robin replies. y/n wants to know how that conversation went but doesn’t want to pry. “I’ll tell you about it later.” Sometimes y/n thought Robin was a mind reader. “There’s Steve!”
y/n follows Robin out of the car and up to the group standing with Steve. In said group are four freshmen, Steve, and Nancy Wheeler. Last she had heard Nancy’s boyfriend had moved to California. She wondered if they had broken up and Nancy and Steve were an item again. A rush of disappointment washed over her at the thought.
“Hey y/n! I didn’t know you were coming!” Nancy said as y/n and Robin joined them.
`y/n had always thought Nancy was nice. They had been in the same study hall freshman year. But any friendship had dissolved into an acquaintanceship when Nancy had started dating Steve sophomore year. y/n couldn’t get the jealous green monster off her back long enough to be around Nancy for more than a couple of minutes.
“Yeah, Robin invited me! I didn’t know you and Steve were back together.” Nancy shakes her head no.
“We’re not. My younger brother, Mike,” she pointed to the lanky boy with dark brown hair. “asked me to tag-a-long, and since Jonathan is in California, I figured why not.” y/n looked quickly at Steve, hoping he hadn’t heard them.
She figured he hadn’t when she saw him chatting with Robin and a boy in a hat. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have assumed.”
Nancy waved it off, taking y/n's arm in hers and walking her into the theater. Where they bought tickets and waited for the other to join them. When they did, Robin came and stood next to y/n nudging her and smiling.
“Do you want to share popcorn?” y/n nods and they leave Nancy to make their way to the concession stand. They’re joined by the boy with the hat and Steve.
“Robin, are you going to introduce us to your friend?” The Boy in the hat asks.
“Oh right. y/n, this is Dustin and Steve. Guys this is y/n.” Robin says. y/n waves awkwardly and Dustin smiles.
“Nice to meet you!” y/n says politely.
“How do you and Robin know each other?” Dustin asks and y/n smiles.
“Freshman English, Mrs.Pensky paired us for Act one, scene three of Romeo and Juliet.” Robin groans and y/n laughs.
“Who did Robin do?” Steve asks.
“Robin was Romeo.” y/n replies and Steve gives the two of them a surprised look before turning to Robin with a grin.
“He had less lines.” Robin says with a shrug.
“And she forgot most of them.” y/n said, putting her hand on Robin’s shoulders as they finally got to the front of the concessions line. y/n pays for herself and Robin. Two medium orange sodas, a large popcorn to share, Peanut M&M’s for Robin and gummy bears for y/n.
“Where are the others?” y/n asks as she and Robin step to the side with their goods to wait for Dustin and Steve to make their order.
“They went to grab seats.” Steve replies, grabbing a handful of napkins. Handing half to Robin. y/n notices the amount of food Steve and Dustin are holding and figures Steve must have gotten everyone else’s orders.
“Do you guys need help carrying that?” y/n asks. Steve shakes his head no but before he can say anything Dustin is shoving the bags of popcorn he’s holding into y/ns arms.
“Yeah, thanks!” He says as he walks past her toward their movie Robin following after him. Steve rolls his eyes,
“Dustin! Come on man.” Steve says and Dustin waves him off. “Sorry about that. He can be such an asshole.”
“I offered.” y/n shrugs as they make their way to their seats.
Steve and y/n quickly catch up with Robin and Dustin. The others had picked out seats in the back of the theater. Nancy on the seat farthest to the left followed by her brother Mike, a girl with beautiful red hair pulled back into a french braid, and a boy with a flat top haircut who was holding hands with the girl with the red hair. y/n thought they made a nice couple. When they reached their row Dustin sat next to the boy with the flat top and Robin sat next to Dustin. y/n tensed. She had hoped to sit next to Robin but it seemed like Steve was going to beat her there. Steve pauses and turns to y/n.
“Do you want to sit next to Robin?” He asks and y/n nods gratefully, shuffles into their row and plops down into the seat next to Robin who winks at her.
It’s then that y/n realizes what happened. Robin was trying to play cupid, she had intentionally taken the seat next to Dustin so that y/n and Steve would have to sit next to each other. y/n glares at her and begins to hand her bags of popcorn to pass down the row to the others which she does happily.
“Would you mind passing these down?” Steve asks when she’s done with the popcorn. She nods
“It was really nice of you to buy everyone’s stuff.” y/n compliments as she passes down a bag of red vines.
“No big deal. I would have gotten you and Robin too but you beat me to it.” Steve say’s before taking a sip of his Coke.
“Would you mind telling me who everyone else is?” y/n asks timidly.
“Yeah yeah,” Steve says, taking a sip of his coke. “So you know Nancy, then there’s Mike, Max, and Lucas.”
“Max and Lucas are dating?” y/n asks and Steve nods.
“Yeah, they’ve got this whole on and off thing going on but I think they make a pretty good couple. You excited for the movie?” Steve asks.
“Yeah! I love Micheal J. Fox.” y/n responds as she opens her gummy bears, picking through them to find the orange ones.
“Oh yeah? I loved him in Back to the future! Well what I remember of it.” Steve says. y/n looked at him confused but before she could ask the lights dimmed and the movie began. She figured he had seen it on a date.
y/n and Robin spent the movie whispering jokes about the movie to each other. If they laughed hard enough Steve would lean into y/n, so close she could smell his shampoo, and ask her to repeat the joke to him. Every once in a while he’d lean over her to steal M&M’s from Robin and she could smell his cologne. About half way through the movie y/n feels the urge to go to the bathroom. She leans over to Robin and lets her know where she’s going.
“Let me know what happens.” She whispers to Robin before standing up to try to shuffle out of their row. “Excuse me.” She whispers to Steve and he stands.
“I’ll go with you.” y/n nods and they make their way to the rest rooms. y/n pees quickly and makes her way to the sinks where she washes her hands, reapplies her lip gloss, and fixes her hair before finally walking back into the lobby. To her surprise Steve was waiting.
“You didn’t have to wait.” y/n says as she walks up to him.
“I figured it'd be easier for you to get back into your seat if we went back in together.” Steve said as he got up to walk with her back to the movie.
“That was really thoughtful, thank you.” y/n says.
“Well I’m a really thoughtful guy. You like the movie so far?” Steve asks as they get to the door.
“It’s alright. I thought it was going to be a scary movie.” She says as he leans against the entrance making it clear he’s not ready to reenter.
“You thought a movie about a werewolf that plays basketball was going to be scary?” Steve asks with a chuckle. y/n can’t think of a time Steve has ever spoken to her for this long and she doesn’t think he’s ever looked her in the eyes. She can feel her cheeks warming under his gaze.
“I forgot to look in the newspaper to see what the movie was about.” y/n shrugs.
“Just went in blind huh?” Steve says as he pushes off the wall. “Should we get back in there?” He opens the door and holds it open for her. They walk side by side up to their seats and when they get up to their row Steve gently places a hand on y/n’s lower back to guide her in. y/n doesn’t pay much attention to the movie after that. She was too busy trying to calm her heart.
September and October flew by in a blur. y/n spent her weekdays waiting for the weekend so she could spend them with Robin and Steve having been pulled into their bubble after that night at the movies. Fridays were often Steve’s date night. So y/n and Robin would spend those nights driving around town looking for something to do before inevitably finding themselves back at y/n's house where they would watch a movie. They would take over the basement, pulling all their favorite snacks out of the cupboard. y/n would try to encourage Robin to talk to Vickie and Robin would try to convince y/n to ask Steve out. Sometimes Steve would join them for their second movie if his date was a dud, which they usually were. “She’s nice, she’s just not the one.” He would say slumping on to the couch. y/n wondered what criteria a girl had to fill to be the one. She had asked once but had gotten a vague “Smart, funny, nice, pretty.”
Saturdays were spent waiting for Robin and Steve to get off work. y/n would hangout around town. Bouncing from the Library to the coffee shop to the Bookstore. At four y/n would head to Family Video to meet up with the dynamic duo and talk about their plans for the evening. Every once in a while Steve would insist they go to a party. He and y/n would take turns being DD, the one who wasn’t, was responsible for making sure Robin didn’t puke in the backseat. y/n was surprised by how much she liked parties. Chrissy was always inviting her, but she had never been interested. That is until she started hanging out with Steve. If Steve wanted to be there, she wanted to be there.
If Steve’s parents were out of town they would smoke in his backyard, something y/n had never imagined herself doing. Steve would call one of them that Friday and have them track down Eddie Munson so they could get the weed. y/n was usually the one to do it since Robin had to go to work. She’d meet Eddie in the woods, make polite conversation, buy a dime bag and head to Family Video where she would give the weed to Steve to hold onto. Which is exactly what she was doing today.
y/n parked her car in an empty spot outside of Family Video and made her way inside. At the counter stood Robin flipping through a magazine clearly bored as she waited for the Friday evening rush. “Hey!” y/n said as she skipped up to the counter
“Hey!” Robin said, brightening at the sight of her friend.”Did you get it?”
y/n nodded and stuck her hand in her pocket to pull out the small bag Eddie had given her. Robin quickly shook her head and gestured to a small room behind the counter. That must be where Steve was. When the store was slow or he needed a break he'd go into the back to rewind videos. y/n made her way to the room giving the door a gentle knock before entering. Steve was seated in front of the tv watching a movie in reverse. They had a tool that rewinded the VHS tapes faster but Steve preferred to do it with the VHS player. He said it took longer.
“Anything good?” y/n asked as she sat in the chair next to Steve. He shook his head and turned to her.
“Just some kids' movie.” He says as y/n hands him the weed. He pockets it and then leans down to pull a bag of gummy bears off the table. He hands them to y/n with a smile. “Got you these.”
“Thanks!” She says as she pockets the candy. They sit and chat about their days for a bit, Steve tells y/n about the weird guy who’s rented Wizard of Oz for the tenth time and y/n tells Steve about the latest news she had about her school friends. This week it was about Chrissy.
Chrissy and y/n had been friends since pre-school, their bond tighter than the friendship bracelets tied around their wrist. It was one of those instant friendships where you see the other person and just know they're meant to be in your life.
y/n had caught Chrissy in the bathroom after lunch making herself throw up. This wasn’t the first time, so she wasn’t buying the stomach bug excuse any more. She knew Chrissy well enough to know when she was lying to her.
“He’s just so judgmental sometimes, I think she’s too scared to talk to him about it.” answered when Steve had asked if Chrissy’s boyfriend knew anything. “I tried to get her to go see the guidance counselor but she said she’s fine.”
“Maybe she really is fine. Maybe she has food poisoning.” Steve says as he reaches out to place his arm around y/n’s shoulders. She shrugs and turns her head back to the movie. She hoped Steve was right. She loved Chrissy and she didn’t want to see anything bad happen to her.
As the movie finished rewinding they heard a loud commotion from the front of Family Video. The younger teens had arrived. y/n got up and made her way out to the front to greet the kids. She noticed Max was gone right away but figured she was busy with something else.
“Hey guys!” she said, stepping around the counter.
“What were you doing back there?” Mike asked in an accusatory tone, his face scrunched up in disgust. y/n hated when he did that.
“I had to give Steve something, Micheal.” y/n said, folding her arms over her chest.
“Is that code for making out?” Dustin says, wagging his eyebrows at her. y/n shot him a glare.
“No, it’s not. It’s code for mind your business.” Steve said, stepping out from the back room.
“Whatever you say.” Dustin said with a smirk.
“What do you guys want?” Steve asks as he leans against the counter. Eyeing the group of kids clearly doing a headcount. “Where’s Max?”
“Max went home, said she wasn’t feeling good. We needed a ride and saw y/n’s car in the parking lot.” Lucas says. y/n’s face falls flat.
“Are you serious? You didn’t ride your bikes?” y/n whined as they shook their heads no. y/n hated giving the boys rides. They always left her car smelling like fritos and cheap after shave. “Can’t you guys just wait at the arcade for Steve to get off or call Nancy?”
“Nancy dropped us off on her way to go do something for the newspaper. We want to go to the comic book store and it closes before Steve gets off.” Dustin says matter of factly.
“Walk or wait for the bus.” Steve says the boys start to protest but Steve cuts them off before they can. “Just because I cart you shitheads around it doesn’t mean y/n has to. You didn’t even ask her, you just assumed she’d do it. Walk.”
“y/n, please.” Dustin says trying his best to give her puppy dog eyes. y/n wanted to tell them no. Tell them to listen to Steve and start walking but she can’t. She really wants the boys to like her. Especially Mike, she was having a particularly hard time getting him to warm to her.
“Alright, fine. Shoes stay on! I mean it Lucas it took me three days to get rid of the smell last time I gave you a ride.” She says as the boys make their way out to the car.
y/n said goodbye to Steve and Robin and joined the boys in the car. Dustin in the front seat, Mike and Lucas in the back, just like when they rode with Steve. “So when are you going to tell Steve you’re in love with him?” Dustin asks as he begins to fuss with the radio. y/n's head whips around to look at him eye’s wide.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She says as she begins to back out of the Family Video parking lot.
“Oh please, it’s written all over your face.” Dustin says. y/n considers pulling over and making him walk the rest of the way to the comic shop. “You should just ask him out.”
“I’m not in love with Steve, Dustin.” y/n lied. She’d never tell Dustin the truth. He had the biggest mouth. She’d told him that she’d gotten Steve and Robin tickets so they could all go see Stevie Nicks together in May in Indianapolis. Steve called her an hour later to tell her how excited he was. y/n knew then that Dustin could not be trusted. “We’re Just friends.”
“You can say that all you want but I’m not buying it.” Dustin says.
“Well, it’s the truth.” y/ns says as she turns up the radio. Letting Madonna fill the car so Dustin would know she was done with this conversation. The boys talked amongst themselves as they rode the rest of the way to the comic shop.
When they pulled into the parking space in front of the comic shop y/n noticed a very familiar van. “Aren’t you guys friends with Eddie?” y/n asked.
“Yeah.” Lucas replied.
“And did you know he was going to be here?” y/n asked
“He may have mentioned it.” Dustin said.
“Why didn’t you ask him for a ride?” y/n asked.
“Your car smells better.” Dustin said matter of factly.
“Get out.” y/n said sternly and they did. Quickly.
y/n drove home enjoying the silence in her car now that the boys were no longer in it. When she got home she immediately made her way down the stairs to her basement where she laid down on her couch and fell asleep.
y/n woke up two hours later to her phone ringing. She sat up quickly and answered.
“y/n, where are you? We waited for you at the family video for like an hour.” Robin says quickly into the phone. y/n can’t help but feel bad. Robin is a big time worry wart. Freshman year y/n was sick for a week with the flu, Robin showed up that wednesday and cried because she was so relieved y/n wasn’t in the hospital.
“Sorry Robin. I fell asleep. You guys should have just gone to Steve’s. Then you could have called me sooner.” y/n replied.
“I wanted to but Steve insisted that we wait.” Robin said in an annoyed tone. y/n was surprised Steve was the one that wanted to wait for her but figured he was just worried about the boys getting to the comic shop okay.
“Well, I’ll be there soon. See you in ten.” y/n said, placing the phone back on the receiver and making her way up the stairs.
“Steve! Robin!” y/n called as she walked into the Harrington house. No response. y/n made her way through the house quickly, figuring they had already gone out to Steve’s backyard. When y/n got to the sliding door she was surprised to see another girl outside with Steve and Robin. Last time they smoked, Steve had canceled his date. “He must really like this one.” y/n mutters to herself as she opens the door to join them.
“y/n!” Robin said as she got up and walked over to y/n wrapping her in a big hug.
“Hey Robin..” y/n said, confused. Robin’s never been a hugger so y/n was confused as to what was going on.
“Thank god you’re here. This is painfully awkward.” Robin whispered into y/n’s ear before releasing her and leading her to the lounge chairs next to the pool, where Steve and his date were seated. y/n noticed the space between them and thought that it was strange. Steve always sat pretty close to whoever he was sitting next to or at least that’s what y/n always assumed. Anytime they sat next to each other he was practically in her lap and he was the same way with Robin so she just thought he was like that with everyone.
“We got started without you sorry.” Steve said, stretching his arm out to hand y/n the blunt. y/n shook her head and Steve furrowed his brow.
“It’s alright. I’ve got a headache.” y/n said. Robin took the blunt from Steve and took a hit. Steve’s eyes stayed on y/n for longer than she was used to. She could feel her cheeks heating up as she tried to avoid looking at him. Giving his reflection in the pool her attention instead.
“Aren’t you going to introduce me, Steve?” The girl asks. y/n whips her head around to look at her. She had forgotten she was there; it had been so quiet. y/n recognized her from school. She had graduated with Steve. Steve clears his throat.
“Uh, yeah. y/n, this is Celia.” Steve says as he gestures to her. She flips her auburn hair over her shoulder and reaches a hand out to y/n, who shakes it firmly.
“Nice to meet you, I'm y/n.” y/n said. An awkward silence falls over them as they finish off the blunt.
y/n wasn’t sure how to remedy this night. She could tell that Celia wanted her and Robin to get lost but she couldn’t tell what Steve wanted. Anytime she tried to bring up leaving Steve would change the subject. Leading them all into another quickly fading conversation.
“I’m getting cold, I think I’m gonna..” y/n started.
“Let’s go inside and watch a movie.” Steve cut her off. Ushering the three girls inside. They piled into his living room, Celia and Steve on the couch and Robin and y/n on the floor going through Steve’s vhs collection. Robin picked a Monty Python movie.
About 30 minutes into the movie y/n got up to go make popcorn and saw Steve lean away from Celia when she tried to make a move on him. “I’m gonna make popcorn. Do you guys want anything while I’m up?” y/n asked. After getting everyone's request y/n made her way into the kitchen.
“Are you feeling okay?” Steve asked and y/n jumped. She hadn’t heard him come into the kitchen. y/n gave him a confused look and shook her head yes. “It’s just, you said you had a headache earlier and your face was really red. I was worried you might be sick.”
“I’m fine Steve.” y/n turned from him to grab the popcorn out of the microwave. “I’m pretty sure the headache was from the boys yelling.” That was true.
“Why was your face red?” Steve asked.
“ It was cold outside.” y/n lied as she poured the popcorn into the bowl she had pulled out of the cupboard. Steve leaned against the counter next to her.
“ I didn’t invite Celia. She just kind of showed up.” He said. y/n turned to him confused. He was being weird tonight. She decided to blame the weed.
“It’s okay if you did invite her, Steve. It’s your house.” y/n says as she stepped away from Steve to grab sodas from the fridge.
“Well, I didn’t.” Steve assured, stepping closer to y/n.
“Okay” y/n could feel her heart in her throat as Steve slowly moved into her space, trapping her between himself and the door of the refrigerator. His hand reached up to brush some hair out of her face.
“What’s taking you guys so long? I’m dying of thirst out here.” Robin shouts from the living room making y/n jump as far away from Steve as she could.
“We should get back out there. Don’t want to miss the guy getting his arms cut off.” y/n said, pushing the bowl of popcorn into Steve’s arms and walking out to join the other girls eyes wide.