𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐠𝐢𝐫𝐥

021. Family Video.

      

     THREE MONTHS later and here they were, parking outside the Family Video store beside the arcade. "You put your mom down as a reference?" Robin asked as they got out of the car. "Yeah. Why not? She's, like, super well-respected." Steve says, looking over at her and Valerie rolls her eyes, chuckling.

"You're such a dingus." Robin says as Steve opens the door for the two. The three of them were all applying to work here at the movie rental store. Together. Because Val felt like it wouldn't be too bad to have a part-time job during her last year of high school. "Uh, just to be clear, we weren't fired, you know. The mall butned down and, like, killed a bunch of people." Robin says and he puts down the papers, a blank stare on his face.

"Thanks for sharing. Didn't know." He says and then snaps his fingers. "Three favourite movies. Go." He says and Robin looks around. "Uh... The Apartment, Hidden Fortress, Children of Paradise." She smiled at him.

He looks at Valerie, "You." He says and she raised her brows. "Oh, I'm more into books... But if I had to choose? The Outsiders, Friday the 13th, Halloween... I like horror." She smiles and then he looks at Steve next.

"You, go." He says and Steve looks at him. "Favourite movies?" He says. "Did I stutter?" The worker says sassily. "Uh... Animal House, for sure." He says and Valerie grimaced as Robin scoffs, looking away. "Um..." He looks the other way. "Eyes on me, Harrington." He says, pointing at his eyes with his fingers.

"Yeah, uh... Star Wars."

"A New Hope?"

"A new what-now?" Steve is confused and looking to Valerie for help who just sighed. "Which Star Wars?" Keith asked. "The one with the teddy bears, duh." He mimicks the squeals of an Ewok and Valerie sighed.

"No? uh... Oh, the one that just came out. The movie that just came out. The one with the DeLorean and Alex P. Keaton, and he's trying to bang his mom." He chuckled and Valerie nudged him because Keith looked disturbed. "Yeah, those are my top three. Classics."

"You start Monday." He points at Robin, "you start Monday," he points at Valerie then Steve, "you start never." He emphasized and Valerie looks at her best friend. "Can we have a minute with Keith?" She says, looking at Steve who just glanced at her. "Why?" He says.

"Just do it." She says, sighing and he walks off so Valerie now puts his attention over to Keith with a smile on her face as Robin smiles at Keith as well. "Keith, Keith, Keith... If you hire me and Robin, you also hire Steve. We're... a combo trio at a fast food restaurant, you want one, you get the other two, you want two, you get the other one... All of us or none of us. So..." She says and Robin just nodded her head.

"And his tastes are a bit... pedestrian but the dingus has other qualities." She says and Valerie nods in agreement as well. "He's a douchebag of the highest order. I mean, you were popular too but at least you weren't a bitch." Keith says to Valerie who tilted her head. "I wanna say thanks?" She says, confused.

"He was a bit of a prick to us in high school, I'll grant you that. But he remains... a total chick magnet." Robin rolls her eyes and Valerie glanced at her confused but Robin gives her a look as if to say go with it. "Yeah, okay, and this is relevant to me how?" Keith says. "Uh, maybe because the ladies will come in just to see him?" Valerie says, glancing at Steve.

"They'll come in droves." Robin added on. "Droves, Keith. We sold so much ice cream, they had to get a second shipment in from Michigan." She continued and Val nods. "Goddamn Michigan, Keith." She emphasizes. "And these ladies..." Robin inhales sharply, glancing at Valerie. "These ladies are hot." Valerie says, leaning closer and nodding.

"They're so very hot." Robin added. "And there are too many of them for little Steve. He needs assistance." Valerie says, smiling. "He needs your assistance, Keith." Robin now tells him. The other now thinks, munching on a chip. "What's in it for you two? Do either of you have a thing for him or something?" He asks.

"What? No... We're friends with him." Valerie says, just then Steve knocks over a cardboard cut out which he then fixes as Valerie and Robin watch, chuckling together. "Yeah... he's our friend." Robin nodded, looking back at Keith who sighed, glancing at Steve.

"Oh! Fast Times. Fast Times, ever heard of it? Top three for me, Keith." Steve says as Robin laughs and Valerie rolls her eyes, smiling softly as she then glanced to the door opening, it was Riley walking in, all alone. "Hey..." She walked up to Robin and Valerie.

"Hi..." Val says, a bit confused. "Can we talk?" Riley says and Valerie glanced at Robin. "I'll be right back..." She says and Riley leads her away to a private area where Valerie crossed her arms, pursing her lips together. "I heard what happened at the mall... You weren't there, right?" She says and Val shakes her head. "No... I was hanging with Steve and Robin. Why?" She says and Riley just glanced down.

"Was just... worried, since you hang out there a lot with Harrington and his co-worker." She says and Valerie furrows her brows. "Well, if I was there, I wouldn't be standing here in front of you, alive, right?" She says and Riley chuckled, looking around. Valerie sighs.

"What do you want anyway, Riley?"

Riley glanced up, staring at her for a moment. "I-I miss us. I miss you. Why did we drift apart?" She says, playing with her bracelet and Valerie scoffs. "Because you were using me..." She whispered and Riley furrows her brows. "What?" She says and Valerie glanced around to see Steve and Robin were just looking at movies at the front so she stepped closer.

"Mandy told me you didn't even liked hanging out with me... and as someone who was... with you like that, it made me feel shitty, okay?" She whispered and Riley sighed. "Fucking Mandy... she's such a bitch." She rolled her eyes, turning away. "I guess... us drifting apart was also my fault because I realized I was falling for you." She said it so suddenly and Val looked at her, slightly taken back by her words.

"I-I have to go. I'll see you around, Riley..." She said and walked off hurriedly. "Can we go?" She says immediately to Steve and Robin. "Yeah! Hey, we start on Monday." Robin smiled widely at her making her smile softly. "Cool..." They left, getting into Steve's car.

AUTHORS NOTE

so surprise, riley is not only an "old friend" of val's when she was popular, she is actually her first "lover" i guess i could say. i don't know but i think i'll go into further detail when season 4 comes out and i write part 2. :)

antonia gentry (who plays valerie) IS SHORT LMAO 😭😭 i did a height comparison thing to see her like next to steve & robin

anyways writing this was so fun!! now i'm just gonna wait... "patiently" for season 4 🥲

+ double update again for today!! i wanna finish this up as fast as i can to focus on my other fics 😭 but i'll miss val & rob <3