Jailbird || Stranger Things

sixty-two ➵ inhibitions (or lack of)

Back To The Future was released to the public on the fourth of July, 1985. On that same evening, the party of kids, teens, and parents who had been involved in the inter-dimensional happenings of Hawkins Indiana were scattered around town, fighting their own monsters.

The youngest were quite literally fighting a beast of human skin, flesh, and bone, on the run in the Wheeler family car.

The parents were travelling towards the Indiana-Illinois border, with a Russian fugitive and a conspiracy skeptic in the back of a stolen car with the plates of TODFTHR.

The mixed bag of their friends and siblings, however, were locked in Starcourt Mall, truth serum swimming through three of their veins.

Having avoided the Russian guards once they made it out of the elevator, Dustin and Erica were tugging the older teens through the service corridors of the mall, still pursued by the two men. Teresa's hand had been taken by Steve, who would intermittently squeeze it when he wanted her attention.

"Where are we going?" Robin asked as they crashed round another corner in their hurry to get away.

"Just trust me," Dustin called back, tugging on Robin's hand while Erica guided Steve who was still giggling at moments.

Dustin suddenly came to a stop, pushing the door they often used to get round the ushers in the theatre to get into a screen. "All clear."

The moment they entered the biggest screen, even Teresa's eyes opened widely in wonderment.

    "What did I tell you?! Eighty-eight miles per hour!"

"Come on," Dustin tugged on her t-shirt, encouraging her along as she pulled Steve behind her down the row of seats. Spotting three at the front, Dustin directed the teens into them as the movie continued to play.

"Sit!" he pointed angrily as if they were misbehaving dogs.

"No, no, no! These seats are too close!"

"Dude, these seats blow," Steve joined Robin in their argument.

"Then don't watch the movie," Dustin replied.

"We wanna watch it."

"Then watch it!" Dustin snapped, making one of the other audience members get up to shush him.

"Sorry," Dustin waved a hand, but as Reese turned and showed her slightly bruised face, the man immediately sat back down in mild intimidation. "Whatever you do, don't go anywhere," Dustin told the three of them.

"Fine, Dad," Steve replied with a tone he'd never actually dare to take with his father. With a snicker from Robin, he comfortably slipped down in his seat, glancing to his side to see Teresa gently shake her head as Dustin and Erica rushed away to the other two empty seats on the other side. "Did you hear what I said?" he asked Reese, who turned her head, noticing he was munching on some popcorn he undoubtedly picked out from the garbage.

"Yes, Steve, I heard," she whispered more discreetly than he had, getting a smile from him as he offered the crumpled box of popcorn. "I'm okay," she chuckled softly, not noticing the way his eyes scanned her face with some adoration.

Without a moment to think, he settled the box in his lap, lifted his arm, and put it around her shoulders, pulling her into him as if they were in his living room on one of the many nights his parents were out of town. "We should totally do this more often."

Jesus Christ.

Screw this relaxed inhibition thing. He was making it difficult for her to keep her own feelings locked up, and definitely was not helping him. She was trying to ignore everything he'd been keeping locked up, seeing as he had limited control of revealing it all under the influence.