love me - stranger things²

[014] the game.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

the game.

JENNIFER GROANED, WAKING UP TO SUNLIGHT SHINING THROUGH HER BEDROOM BLINDS AND RIGHT INTO HER EYES ALONG WITH HER ALARM CLOCK GOING OFF. She rolled over, digging her face into Steve's chest who lied beside her - the boy having woken up a few minutes before her -, trying to drown out the deafening alarm. "Come on, we gotta go pick up Robin." Steve spoke with a gravelly morning voice, Jennifer begrudgingly getting up, slowly but surely.

Soon enough, the two sat in the car on their way to Robin's house, Jennifer sitting in the front, still half-asleep. "I told you we should have gone to bed earlier." Steve noted, Jennifer waving him off as she was too tired to argue. "Hey- so... you think Vickie is perfect for Robin, too, right?" Steve asked, his hand resting on Jennifer's knee.

Jennifer sighed softly, her head falling back. "Steve, come on." Robin had brought up Vickie a few months ago, and ever since, Steve wouldn't stop bringing her up, claiming that she was 'perfect' for her.

"I'm just saying! I mean, you don't think that there's even a slight possibility that they're perfect for eachother. I told you about the Fast Times thing, right?"

The girl was quiet for a moment. "Well... yes..." She admitted, Steve's hand slightly lifting from the steering wheel to make a 'see' gesture. "But don't pester her about it! It's hard for her, okay?"

"Alright, alright." Steve responded, dropping it for the time being.

Once they reached Robin's house, Jennifer jumped into the back seat, Robin getting into the front seat. After countless fights over who got the front seat, the two best friends finally came to the agreement of taking it in turns. Steve had said that Jennifer should sit in the front, though, Robin argued that he only thought that because he had a bias since she was his girlfriend.

As they drove to school, Steve started going on about some crappy customer he'd dealt with at Family Video - where he now worked with Robin. Though, to be honest, neither Robin nor Jennifer were really listening to him. Whilst Robin sat in the front seat finishing her makeup for school, Jennifer lied across the backseats, an arm covering her eyes to block out the bright sunlight shining through leaves and into the car. "Are you guys even listening?" Steve scoffed.

Whilst Robin tried to say she was, Jennifer was nothing but honest. "Nope." She murmured loud enough for the two in the front to hear.

"Well- cut me some slack, please! Your story-telling skills are subpar at best, and it is seven in the morning, we have to go to this stupid pep rally, and I woke up looking like a total corpse." Robin listed, pulling at her face whilst looking into the small mirror in the sun visor.

Steve was quick to retaliate. "You're worried about a pep rally? You expect me to believe that?"

"Yeah? So?" Robin muttered, Jennifer lightly scoffing.

"So we all know what this is about, okay. I'm not buying that bullshit. This is about Vickie."

With things starting to get more interesting, Jennifer finally sat up, leaning forward towards the front seats to join the conversation. "Absolutely not." Robin denied.

"Yes, it is. You know what else I think?" Steve started. Though Robin tried to stop him from going on about the topic any further, Steve simply ignored her. "I think you gotta stop pretending to be someone else when you're around her, okay. You just gotta be yourself." The boy finished, his eyes staying on the road in front of him.