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"What the hell are you doing?"
"Smoking? What? They said we can do whatever we want for seven minutes." Hopper mumbled, the joint dancing around his lips as he spoke.
"Yeah, they meant… y'know…" Joyce looked at him awkwardly, sitting cross legged across from him, jammed into the utility closet. Was she really going to have to spell it out for him?
Hopper raised his eyebrows and lit the joint, taking a puff and licking the weed flecks off his lips.
"Whatever. I. Want," he repeated, raising the joint towards her. "We get seven minutes, and I wanna smoke you out. Maybe it helps dislodge that stick out of your ass."
Joyce scoffed.
"James Hopper!"
"Hey, hey! No kicking. Here, chill." He passed it to her with a grin.
Joyce looked at him hesitantly before taking it from between his fingers.
"Think they'll know?"
"Oh they already know." He rolled his eyes to the closet door, waiting for it.
"Hey, what smells like skunks?" One of the girls on the other side called out.
Benny banged on the door.
"Dude! Don't smoke all my grass in there!"
Another one of his friends chimed in, a high pitched falsetto meant to sound like Joyce.
"Oh Hop, I love it when you stick your tongue down my throat."
They stayed silent as the peanut gallery made their comments, and Joyce passed the joint back to him, waving the smoke out of her face, choking back a cough and muffling it in the crook of her elbow. She imagined their friends, ears pressed to the door, listening for any indication of what was really going on in there.
"Oh shit, I think they're actually…"
"I knew it!" Karen exclaimed.
Joyce rolled her eyes at her best friend’s smug voice -- the sole reason she was locked in the closet with Hopper in the first place.
Joyce had been playing the wallflower at Joe Harrington's seventeenth birthday, specifically trying to avoid Hopper, upset at him for spending more time with Benny than her lately. Even though she didn’t feel like it, Joyce had still reluctantly shown up to the party with Karen. She made her rounds, choked down a warm beer and was almost about to duck out, feeling out of her element with the rowdy popular crowd, when Karen suggested they play Seven Minutes in Heaven. Of course, she had nominated Joyce and Hopper lickity-split, her long-running scheme to make them "realize their true feelings for each other".
Little did Karen know, it wasn't working.
Joyce could hear his friends high-fiving while Karen giggled like a maniac on the other side of the door.
"I told you they would," Karen announced to the rest of the party.
Joyce dropped her eyes to the floor and shook her head. Hopper just chuckled.
There were five minutes left on the clock now. He passed the joint back to his closet companion and watched as she took another baby-hit.
It wasn't her first joint, but it also wasn't something she was very used to and she was still apprehensive with the funny smelling hand-rolled fidgeting between her fingers. This time when she exhaled, the thick smoke billowed out around her head, giving her a soft halo under the yellow light of the lone, bare bulb hanging above them. Joyce coughed daintily, holding back and obviously suffering for it as her eyes watered, passing it back to him one more time, waving him off while she caught her breath.
"Do people actually swap spit for seven minutes in here?” he asked, taking a hit. “That seems like a long time to suck face."
"Oh, they do a lot more than make out." She croaked, still struggling for air.
"Like what?" He asked coolly, ashing into his empty Coors can.
She gave him a look. That look.
His eyebrows shot up and he rubbed his baby faced cheeks, deep in thought.
" In seven minutes?"
She nodded.
"I heard Frannie lost her virginity in her first seven at Betty Jones' fourteenth birthday party."
"Come on, " he laughed. "Seven minutes isn't long enough for that… "
Joyce gave a little half shrug and kicked her feet out in front of her, getting comfy.
"Depends on who you're with I guess."
"I'd need at least ten," he said with a smirk.
Joyce snorted, her nose wrinkling with laughter and it caught Hopper off guard. It was absolutely one of the most beautiful things he'd ever seen.
And then she caught him staring, eyes sparkling in the low light.
"How much time is left?" she asked.
"About two minutes, I'd say.
"Good,” she nodded. “That's enough time."
"For what?"
"Playing truth or dare. I'll go first. Truth. Why have you been avoiding me?" she asked, not even giving him a chance.
"Whaaaat are you talking about?" Hopper avoided her gaze and put the joint out on the top of the can.
"You've been avoiding me all week! Did I do something wrong? Is this because I stuck that gum on your seat in Chem? I’m really sorry, I didn’t think it would ruin your cords like that! I can buy you--"
"No!" He interrupted, shaking his head, frowning. "No… it's not that."
"Then what is it? Tell me. Truth… " she repeated, voice low, big bambi eyes burning into his soul.
“You were hanging out with Lonnie last week and I--”
“So?” Joyce scowled. “I offered to help him with his homework so he doesn’t flunk out again. I wouldn’t call it hanging out ... But I don’t even know why that would bother you. I thought you two were friends?”
“Not for a while. Look, it’s fine, Joyce. I didn’t mean to avoid you. I just thought you... “ he left the words hanging there before he shook his head and sighed. “Nevermind. We’re fine. That’s the truth. Scout’s honor--”
Someone pounded on the door, interrupting them.
“SEVEN!”
Joyce looked annoyed, frowning deeper at Hopper and his uncanny ability to dodge his feelings with her, yet again. She wasn’t going to get an answer out of him now.
They brushed their hands off on their pants and stood up, Joyce throwing him a dirty look.
“Time's up, guys! You can come out now…” Karen called out in sing-song.
Joyce reached for the door but Hopper reached out to stop her.
“Hang on,” he whispered. “We need to look more convincing.”
Hopper reached out to fluff her hair and she got the idea, unbuttoning the top of her shirt just enough to make the rest of the party wonder.
Then she reached up on her tiptoes to ruffle his perfectly combed hair and leaned in, and it was just close enough for him to catch her swiftly by the waist and pull her up and in for a real kiss. Maybe it was the marijuana kicking in or perhaps it was just the butterflies trying to escape her chest but his lips made her feel breathless and dizzy and something else she'd never felt before.
Hopper would swear up and down afterwards that he only did it to get her lipstick on him -- there was no way they could get away with it otherwise. But a long moment after he pressed his lips against hers, marking himself in her trademark peachy-keen Max Factor, she understood exactly why he’d been avoiding her.
Joyce let out a small squeak as he pulled away, almost disappointed with the abrupt end to the kiss. Instantly hit with regret that they hadn’t taken advantage of those seven long minutes. She shot Hopper a confused look, until he bashfully pointed to her color on his lips.
"Needed more lipstick," he explained.
Joyce stood there stunned and smiling as Hopper took a deep breath, threw her a wink and opened the door to cheers.