ᴍᴜᴛᴀᴛɪᴏɴ- sᴛᴇᴅᴅɪᴇ

13- ᴡʜᴀᴛ ɪɴ ᴛʜᴇ ᴡᴏʀʟᴅ ʜᴀᴘᴘᴇɴᴇᴅ ᴛᴏ ʏᴏᴜ?

Buzz...

Buzz...

Buzz...

The wall mounted telephone shrieked in it's cradle, buzzing the alarm of a caller and making an awful racket. The noise travelled through the living space and over to the couch, causing the occupant to stir in his sleeping state.
Steve opened his eyes gently, fighting the sun streaming through the gaps in the curtains. He was completely disoriented, turning over and sitting himself up, unaware exactly of where he was. The caller was still trying to reach contact- and it seemed like they wouldn't stop until they did- so Harrington pulled himself from the couch, and stumbled his way over to the wall.

The door at the end of the corridor was shut, signifying that the other wasn't awake just yet, and within the next second, the phone was off it's cradle.

"Eddie?" A female voice spoke. The pitch was distorted through the line, and Steve pressed his hand into his forehead, pressuring the extreme headache that he had woken up with.

"No."

The opposite speaker paused for a moment, probably shocked at the change in person.

"...Steve?"

Harrington grunted, leaning his head against his arm as he spoke.
"...I think? Who's this?"

Even though it was hours after the initial event, his mind was still slightly boggled.

"It's Robin, you dingus. Why the hell are you at Eddie's, Steve?"

He pondered for a moment, not exactly remembering why he had stayed. Oh yeah, that's right- they got high.

"I think that I may still be slightly high."

Robin paused again, breathing out a held breath.
"What the fu- Okay, I erm, won't question... but you do still have work."

"Shit." He cursed, swiftly stepping back a few to check the clock. Unfortunately though, his vision was still too blurry to check from such a distance. "What time is it?"

"Ten."

Ten AM, roughly two hours past the opening time of Family Video. The panic set in, and it was in this moment that it struck him where he actually was: Forest Hill trailer park, slap bang in the middle of Eddie Munson's kitchen, with Eddie himself just a door away.
He needed to get out of there, and fast.

"Right, I'll see you in a few."

Without letting another word in, Steve slammed the phone back onto the wall, turned to the couch, grabbed his jacket, and wished to hell that it was safe for him to drive.

-

After a bumpy ride, Steve Harrington made it to his place of work. He could vaguely see Robin behind the counter as he exited his vehicle, squinting in the morning sun and trudging his way into the storefront.
Upon entry, Buckley had the strangest look on her face, full of painful concern. However, it was soon demolished when she started snickering.

"Okay, uh, right- completely dismissing the fact that you ditched me this morning, and I had to bike myself to work, open up shop on my own, and have been sitting here extremely bored for the last two hours- what in the world happened to you?"

Steve stopped in the middle of the room, holding his arms slightly ajar and peering down at where Robin was assumedly looking. Surely one night of sleeping on a couch in the same clothes as the day before wouldn't of messed them up that badly, right?
"Something wrong with my clothes?"

Robin quite simply snorted. "Steve, have you been beaten up or something? -you look like a panda."

A panda... a panda... shit. He hadn't washed the eyeliner away from the night before, and with a mixture of his still-bloodshot eyes and the furious rubbing of them in the car, he could only imagine that he'd managed to smear it all over his face. A brilliant thing to be seen like in public.

"God damnit-" He spoke, bringing his fingers up to his eyes. He apparently didn't notice the black smear on his hand before then, either.
Just as expected, Steve wiped his waterline and pulled away with a residue of dark smudge.

Slightly in a panic, Harrington looked to Robin once again.

"Where'd you get the eyeliner, anyway?" She asked, leaning her forearms on the counter. "I bet it looked quite good before you ruined it."

"Uh, Eddie- but I'd rather not talk about it, it just comes off with water right- nothing special?"
The panic had set in.

Robin nodded her head, and in a flash, Steve tossed his jacket behind the register and darted into the bathroom, ready to start scrubbing.

When he returned a fair few minutes later, his face was puffy and sore from the desperate attempt of removal. Robin kept her comments to herself though, as it looked like Steve didn't need the extra hassle. In all fairness, he looked to be quite on-edge about something, but Buckley couldn't figure out what.

As he slumped over to his position behind the register, the surrounding area still spinning slightly from time to time, Steve quite simply gave up in trying to pretend that he was okay.
He was exhausted, just like he was after Starcourt. Perhaps the whole marijuana lifestyle wasn't for him after all.
Robin took notice of his sickly self.

"Are you okay, Harrington?"

He unburied his head from the nook of his arm.
"Yeah."

"Genuinely?"

"...maybe."

She sighed, taking a step towards her best friend and resting her hand on his shoulder. "Wanna sit down?"

And just like that, knowing that there wouldn't be any customers, the two of them slid down the wall and slumped themselves onto the floor.