Brave Like You (Steve Harrington)

Nineteen.

-Steve-

Working at Scoops Ahoy with Candy is fun. It's Robin that makes it a nightmare. We all went through training together. And since I am the only one of us that is 18 so far, and I only just turned 18 back at the end of May, I can close the store down myself as long as I have Robin or Candy with me. Sometimes it's just Robin and I in the store, which is my worst nightmare, but on other days it's just Candy and I. I prefer to work those shifts.

The kids love to stop by and annoy us for free samples. Since we have a policy that states you can have as many free samples as you want. Lucas's sister Erica loves to take advantage of this policy ever since she found out about it.

Dustin is away at a science camp for a few weeks. He will come back soon. He left before I started work and he hasn't been to visit me and get some free ice cream. When he gets back were going to hang out and catch up for sure. He's such a good kid.

The other kids, however, could learn from him. Eleven isn't allowed out of Hopper's cabin in a space with this many people. But Mike, Will, Lucas, and Max all flock to Scoops Ahoy to sneak through the back halls of the mall to the movie theater to see R rated movies without paying.

Robin refers to them as my children, or when Candy is there too she calls us both and says that they're our children. She's come up with some nicknames that I don't find very amusing but no matter how much I tell her I don't like them she won't stop. Popeye has become a common name for her, but I believe her favorite is Dingus.

Today all three of us are working. The kids came up to the counter, and I could hear the bell ring out from the break room. Robin calls out, "Hey Dingus, Candy, your children are here."

I open the window to the back room. Candy and I peered out, looking at them. "Really? Again?"

They all stared at us, not saying anything. "Day of the Dead just came out," Candy reminded me. I shook my head. "Will has been talking about it for weeks."

I let out an annoyed sigh, "I'll go open the door."

As they piled in the back room one by one following Candy she hugged Will as he passed her. "Have fun, Sweetie." She told him. He smiled happily at her.

"Thanks," he said and their hug ended and he walked off.

I played my part as the stern one out of the two of us, "If anyone here's about this-" I called out they cut me off.

"We're dead!" They all said in unison.

"They're such little shits," I said, and then I walked off, heading back to enjoy the rest of my break.

"Yeah, but you still let them through," Candy said as she followed me. She closed the door behind us. "I told you when you did it the first time that they were going to come back."

"Yeah, but they're taking advantage now," I said, sitting down at the table in the small break room. She sat across from me, adjusting the skirt that was part of her work uniform. "Can't you talk to Will, the kid has a major crush on you. He'll listen."

"Will does not have a crush on me, Steve," she said, and she sounded pretty confident in that. I didn't believe it. "I could talk to him though, ask him to lay off for a minute. But just because he will listen to me doesn't mean that the other kids will listen to him."

After our break was over we went back out to the main parlor. "So why does Will like you so much if he didn't have a crush on you?" I ask Candy curiously.

"He confides in me, no different than you and Dustin," she explains.

I still don't buy it.

"Yeah, but Dustin doesn't have any siblings and Will has an older brother who he is very close to. Why does he need to confide in you?"