𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐓𝐖𝐈𝐍; steve harrington

ᵗ ʰ ⁱ ʳ ᵗ ʸ ⁻ ᵗ ʷ ᵒ

June 29th, 1985

AVEN WAS ALONE. IT WAS just past two in the afternoon when Atlanta left the shop, leaving the light-haired girl by herself behind the register, tapping away at the counter out of pure boredom. She had gone to get ice-cream from one of the neighbouring shops, and had to quite literally force Aven to stay in the record store whilst she went to visit Steve and Robin. Since there were no other staff that could man the shop if Aven were to follow her friend out, she had no choice but to stay inside.

So there the girl sat, with nothing but her thoughts to keep her company, in one of the darker shops of the Starcourt Mall.

One thing plagued her mind that she couldn't fight away, especially when there was nothing to distract herself with. It was the lights. She still couldn't get over the lights. She couldn't help but think the worst, what if the mind flayer was back? What if it never really left?

Atlanta running into the shop with a half-eaten ice-cream in hand distracted her from the endless spiral of the Upside Down related doubts she was inevitably tumbling into, shouting out incomprehensible words with a mouth full of the frozen treat.

"Dustin! Dustin's there, he's back," the girl yelled across the store frantically as she ran towards the girl, arms wide to portray her excitement. In an instant, Aven stood up so quickly her stool fell backwards and ran around the counter, pulling her bag over her shoulder in the process.

"You won't mind if I knock off early, will you? This is an urgent matter," she explained quickly whilst running towards the girl, grabbing her forearms out of pure joy. She hadn't seen the younger teen for an entire month; she'd missed him dearly - although, not as much as Steve had.

"'course not, go have fun," the taller girl uttered through her strawberry-covered lips, going in for another bite of her ice-cream as Aven ran out of the shop with a scream. "See you later, love!" She stifled a laugh after her friend sprinted out of sight, walking around the counter and pulling the chair back up to sit on. She was tempted to leave the store herself.

Meanwhile, the three teens Aven was racing to see were all crowding around the bain-marie, Dustin glancing over the uniquely named flavours with a hand on his chin. Robin was leaning against the far, ocean-painted wall with a smirk, watching as Steve chatted to the younger boy as if they were best friends - which they were, yet he wasn't prepared to admit it to his sarcastic, cynical co-worker.

The girl made a racket as she stumbled into the overwhelming store, looking up after staring down at her untied shoes with her eager-filled eyes landing on the boy himself, Dustin Henderson. At the loud noise, Steve's sight instantly locked onto Aven, at the same time Robin and Dustin's did. The boy with the cap had twirled in his spot, immediately forgetting about his indecision over the endless amounts of ice-creams as he yelled out the girl's name, Aven running towards him with her arms wide open.