UNDERWORLD | ❝One summer can change everything...❞
Cath, Daphne and their friends are in for a 1985 they will never forget. The tides of change are rocking their lives, as the inevitability of growing up dawns on them. Childhoods packed away, t...
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MONDAY 1st JULY, 1985
STEVE is running very late, and his date is so screwed.
But you see, it wasn't his fault! He never asked for Dustin Henderson to drag him into this whole evil Russian debacle... he thought becoming an American hero would be much easier than this. Steve certainly didn't think it would consume his social life, but no, because what has he just spent the last hour and a half doing? Sitting in the pouring rain, spying on the delivery men at the back of the mall.
He shouldn't have been there. Instead, he should have arrived at the Starcourt cinema ages ago, and met Tracy to save her a seat. So close, yet so far... crouched outside in the rain as opposed to on the date he meant to go on.
At least he is back home now. Still dripping wet, Steve kicks off his shoes at the doormat — knowing his parents would hate him tracking mud into the house, despite them being at some work gala in Seattle right now. The soaked sailor pads upstairs in his tube socks, shaking his soggy hair like a wet dog (hairspray is going to have to work miracles on that). He switches on a bedside lamp in his room, spitting out some dim, warm light through the overpowering glower of the stormy weather outside; that's when Steve catches a glimpse of himself in the nearby mirror.
He can't turn up like this. There's no way. And what time it is anyway? Steve glances at the digital clock on his bedside table.
Too late. Way too late.
But it is too late to patch things up?
With a heavy sigh, Steve sluggishly runs a hand through his damp hair. He reaches across to the phone and starts dialling Tracy's number. "C'mon, pick up, pick up..." he mutters to himself, pacing slowly back and forth across the carpet, the receiver in his free hand and the telephone cord dangling down.
"Hello?"
"Tracy, hey! It's Steve."
"Oh... hey."
"Listen, I– I'm so sorry about tonight," Steve begins to apologise. "Something else came up and I completely lost track of time—"
"Yeah, I figured. It's fine."
"... What, you're not mad?"
"No," says Tracy, a slightly bored tone in her voice. Steve finds himself squirming self-consciously. Was she even excited to go on this date in the first place? "It's just a shame. Rainy days are perfect for the movies, you know? Stay in, get cosy, you don't have to think about anything..."
