𝐤𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐝𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 || 𝐞. 𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐧

𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞

"𝐖𝐞 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐝 𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐝 𝐜𝐥𝐨𝐮𝐝𝐬"

"Afternoon, you two!" The bells to the Family Video doors rang as Melian entered the store. She hopped behind the desk where Steve and Robin were seated.

"Hey, Mel." Steve greeted as Robin gave her friend a wave. "I thought you were working at Jamba Juice today?"

She shook her head, "Took off. Did you see that a Hawkins' student died last night?"

"Yeah, insane!" Robin exclaimed, turning to the news on the television. "Any speculations who it is?"

Steve spun around in his chair, throwing a ball up into the air. "No clue, but if I had to guess, it'd be Eddie Munson. That dude has some demonic shit going on in his brain." Robin widened her eyes, immediately looking to Melian. Mel shook her head frantically at her as Steve furrowed his eyebrows, "Am I missing something here?"

"Nothing!"

"Mel's had a crush on the guy since middle school." Robin shrugged as a shocked expression crawled onto Steve's face.

Steve stood, placing both of his hands on Mel's shoulders. "Do you need me to check you into the nearest psychiatric hospital?"

"No, Steve!" Mel grabbed his hands off of her shoulders, throwing them down. She glared daggers at Robin, "If this dickhead would just keep her mouth shut, she would stop spreading these rumors around! I do not like Eddie. In fact, I made it very clear last night that I don't want to associate with him."

"Oooo, what happened last night?" Robin grinned as she poked Melian's side.

"I-"

The bells to the store rang again as both doors opened, Dustin Henderson and Max Mayfield following suit. "Hey, Steve." "You guys see this?" Steve pointed up to the TV.

Dustin proceeded to completely ignore the man, "How many phones do you have?"

"Hi, Max, I haven't seen you in a while." Mel smiled at the ginger girl, giving her a small wave.

Max chuckled awkwardly, "Yeah, I've kind of been M.I.A."

Max hadn't just been M.I.A, she practically disappeared off the face of the earth when it came to school related activities, but Melian didn't push. She knew that Max was a different person than the year prior, obviously because of Billy's death, and didn't know how to help her.

"Someone was murdered." Steve stared back at Dustin.

"How many phones do you have?" Dustin enunciated, obvious stress in his voice. The three friends behind the desk all looked at each other. Steve answered, "Two. Why?"

"Technically three, if you count Keith's in the back." Robin added, pointing to the back of the store.

"Yeah, three works." Max nodded to Dustin, who was already removing his backpack. Steve stared once again at the boy, "What are you doing?" Within seconds, Dustin had slid his backpack across the counter and hopped over, earning several exclamations from Steve and Robin:

"Woah, what are you-!"

"My pile!"

"No, no, no, no! My tapes! Dude!"

Melian just sat back with her mouth closed and eyes wide, trying to somehow mentally communicate with Max in order to figure out what the hell was going on. Steve shouted at Dustin, who clearly was making himself at home on the computer. "What are you doing man?!"

"Setting up base of operations here."

Mel's face scrunched up, "Base of operations?"

A plethora of letters and numbers appeared on the screen as Dustin explained he was looking up Eddie's friends phone numbers. This caused Melian to rise from where she was sitting, looking over the group's shoulder. "Why might I ask?"