Run Away (Steve Harrington X Reader)

c h a p t e r: 3

-Y/N-

"Wow."

Was all I could say at the entrance to Starcourt Mall.

It was huge, grand, colorful, bright, and loud.

"I did not expect to find this in the middle of Hawkins." I shook my head.

"You act like Hawkins is in the middle of a desert or something." Dustin looked at me. "But yeah, this is impressive for a comparatively small town like ours."

We walked in through the large double set of glass doors. There were hundreds of people inside, milling about, doing their own thing.

There were people shopping, people eating, some making out, others working out. So much to see, do, touch, feel, and smell. Everything was bombarding my senses.

"No way!" Dustin pointed at a store. "They have an arcade! I have to go." He started walking in that direction.

"Wait no I don't want to go to the arcade." I stopped walking.

"It'll just be a minute." Dustin pleaded.

"You can go to the arcade and I will..." I looked around. "Hmm, I'll get some ice cream." I decided, looking at the Scoops Ahoy ice cream store nearby.

"Sure I'll come there after I'm done." Dustin started walking away again. "I'll only be gone for a few minutes, I just wanna check out what they have." He promised before he disappeared among the masses of people.

I walked into the Scoops Ahoy store. I could see everyone inside laughing and enjoying their ice cream. There was nautical, peppy, music playing on the speakers. Near the counter, I could see two Scoops Ahoy employees.

One of them was a girl with shoulder length dirty blond hair. She was talking with a boy who was faced away from me. I stayed where I was, towards the back of the room, near the entrance, reading the flavors on the huge black board on the upper side of the wall behind the counter itself.

There was a girl already at the counter ordering her ice cream so I looked at her, noting her interaction with the boy who worked here.

"Purdue?" The boy said, pointing at the girl's  shirt. She nodded. "Yeah, you know, I considered it, Purdue, but then I was like, you know what?" The boy leaned on the cashier. "I really think I need some real-life experience, you know, before I hit college, see what it feels like." He started to ramble a bit. "Kinda like, uh, I don't know, see what it's like to earn a working-man's wage, you know? Uh..."

Suddenly the register started beeping frantically. The boy stopped leaning on it and looked down.

"Oh, I'm sorry." He tried to fix it.

"I think that's, like, really important. Gap year before college." The girl nodded, but her tone was sympathetic.

"Yeah, totally." The boy grinned. Then he looked down at the register again and pulled out the girl's change. "Yeah, anyway, this was, like, so fun. We should kind of like, you know, I don't know, maybe hang out this weekend or-" While he was trying to hand her the coins, they clattered on the counter. "Oh, sorry about that. Uh..." The boy apologized. "I don't know. Maybe next weekend or..."

"Yeah, I'm busy." The girl started walking away.

"Oh, that's cool. I'm...I'm working here next weekend, so...the following weekend's better for me." The boy said timidly,

"No. I'm sorry, I can't." She walked away from the counter before the boy could respond.

That was one of the most awkward social interactions I had ever seen.