slay 'em dead//Steve Harrington

19

Steve got a job at Scoops Ahoy for the summer. I've been hanging around with him and his coworker Robin. Steve is sitting in the employee break room as I walk around looking through the drawers and cabinets.

"Why don't you just get a job here?" Steve asks.

"It's more fun to just drop in unannounced and annoy you," I tell him. "Plus, I don't want to wear that stupid hat."

"Tell me about it," Steve says.

I hear the bell ringing on the counter.

"Hey, dingus, your children are here," Robin shouts.

Steve opens the divider between the front counter and the break room in the back.

"Again? Seriously?" Steve asks.

He ushers Mike, Lucas, Will, and Max through the back door. It connects to a hallway that leads to all the other stores in the mall. And much to the delight of the party, the movie theater.

"Come on, come on,' Steve says. They all brush past him into the hallway. "I swear, if anybody hears about this..."

"We're dead!" they all say.

Steve sighs as he closes the door and turns back to me.

"You know we would have killed to get into movies for free at their age," I tell him.

"Yeah, you're right," Steve tells me.

"Aren't I always?" I tease.

Suddenly the power goes out.

"That's weird," Steve says.

He starts to flick the light switch on and off. It obviously doesn't do anything.

"That isn't gonna work, dingus," Robin tells him.

"Oh, really?" Steve asks as he continues to flip the switch.

After a minute the lights come back on. And the music starts to play.

"Let there be light," Steve says.

"That was strange," I say.

Steve nods. "All the electricity this mall uses there's bound to be short."

I nod my head. "Still."

Billy got a summer job as a lifeguard at the pool. It's nice. He has nights off. And he's gotten a pretty stellar tan. Everyone at the pool is always drooling over him.

I watch as Billy walks out of the locker room smoking a cigarette. He stops walking and blows his whistle.

"Hey, lard-ass!" Billy shouts. Everyone goes quiet. "No running on my watch! I gotta warn you again, and you're banned for life. You wanna be banned for life, lard-ass?" The boy shakes his head. "Didn't think so."

He blows his whistle again and everyone goes back to what they were doing. Billy walks past a row of moms, all shamelessly checking him out.

"Afternoon, ladies," Billy greets.

"Afternoon, Billy," they all say.

"Dig the new suit, Mrs. Wheeler," Billy tells her.

Mrs. Wheeler smiles. "Thank you."

Billy smiles as he sees me standing next to the lifeguard chair.

"Third morning you're here this week," Billy tells mer. He wraps his arms around me.

I smile. "I've gotta make sure these moms know you're mine," I tell him.

I pull Billy closer to me and into a kiss. If Billy wasn't the lifeguard in charge, I'm sure we would be getting in trouble for our heated display.