Stare. [Steve Harrington x Reader]

Chapter Three: Cracked the Code

Monday, July 1, 1985

I was listening to the Russian recording through headphones and as I flicked through the Russian-to-English translation book. Robin didn't have a shift today, so I had to deal with the customers while Steve and Dustin were...scouting the mall, I guess.

Erica, Lucas' little sister, was ringing the bell, trying to get my attention. I looked up at her and her friends standing there at the register and sighed. As I took my headphones off, I leaned against the counter behind me.

"I'd like to try the peanut butter chocolate swirl, please." She said sweetly.

"No. No more samples today, Robin told me all about what you were doing yesterday." I said, smiling at her.

"Why not?" She questioned angrily.

"Because you're abusing our company policy." I explained with a chuckle.

"Where's the sailor man?" She asked me.

I smiled. "Sorry, he can't help you. He's busy."

"Busy with what?" She asked.

"Spycraft." I raised my eyebrows at her.

Steve's POV

I looked around at the people in Starcourt with the binoculars Dustin had brought with him.

"See anything?" Dustin asked from beside me.

"Uh, I guess I don't totally know what I'm looking for." I said, my eyebrows furrowed against the binoculars.

"Evil Russians."

"Yeah, exactly. I don't know what an evil Russian looks like." I argued and looked slowly around the mall through the small round holes.

"Tall, blond, not smiling." Dustin answered me.

"Mm-hmm?" I hummed back in response.

"Also, look for earpieces, camo, duffel bags, that sort of things." He added.

"Right, okay, duffel bags." I looked up to the second level of the mall to see Anna Jacobi talking to Mark Lewinsky. A groan left my lips before I could even stop it. "Oh, you've gotta be kidding me." I said.

"What?"

"Anna Jacobi's talking with that meathead Mark Lewinsky." My face turned into a scowl against the binoculars.

"Dude, if you're not gonna focus, just gimme the binoculars." Dustin said.

I wasn't listening to Dustin next to me as I watched the two, this was more important anyway. "Aw, Jesus Christ, whatever happened to standards? I mean, Lewinsky never even came off the bench." I grumbled.

"Dude, you are the worst spy in history, you know that?" Dustin said, grabbing the binoculars from me.

"Stop, hey." I said, my eyes still stuck on the couple.

"Give me those. Besides, I don't get why you're looking at girls. You have the perfect one right in front of you." Dustin said.

I shut my eyes. "Seriously, if you say Y/n again-" I began to say annoyingly, shaking my head.

"Y/n."

"No, don't. No"

"Y/n, Y/n Y/n. Y/n. Y/n."

"Stop, no, no."

"Y/n." Dustin looked over at me as my eyebrows furrowed.

"No! No, man, she's- she's not my type." The memory of me kissing her after the Halloween party flashed in my mind, and I sighed. "She's my best friend, she's not even in the ballpark of what my type is, all right?"