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CHAPTER ONE: SEVEN MINUTES IN A BLACKOUT
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THE BACK ROOM of Scoops Ahoy was the most depressing place on the planet. It was the kind of room that could easily drive a person insane if they spent too much time in it. Danny Buckley could feel his mind slowly unraveling the more time he spent in that room. It was a small, square room with basic white walls that reminded Danny of a hospital. The only furniture was a small, square, silver table with four chairs. On one of the walls was the door to the walk-in freezer where all the ice cream and toppings were held. It let out a light buzzing sound that made Danny want to take one of the knives used to cut fruit toppings and use it to stab his ears. It annoyed him so much that he could hear it even when he was at home in his bed.
The walls were blank except for a whiteboard that Robin used to track Steve's Harrington horrible attempt at flirting with the women who came into Scoops Ahoy. Danny had witnessed some of the cringy attempts from the window that connected the front of the store with the back of the store. You could slide it open and closed, and occasionally when Danny was really bored, he would open it and people-watch. He had heard of the infamous Steve Harrington even at Hawkins Middle but he was now starting to think they were all lies with how terrible Steve was at flirting. Danny, a fourteen-year-old kid, was better at flirting than the eighteen-year-old Steve Harrington.
Occasionally, Danny would irritate Steve by flirting with the girls that came into Scoops Ahoy. He would come out of the backroom and walk up to groups of girls sitting at the tables and booths. Danny knew that he was relatively attractive. Danny didn't think he was the hottest guy alive, but he knew he was attractive, and turned heads sometimes. When he would walk up to girls with a flirtatious smile and sit down, all of them would smile back and whisper to each other, giggling amongst themselves. They would keep their eyes on Danny and flirt back, twisting their hair and biting their lips.
As Danny finished flirting with a group of girls in one of the booths, he was handed a phone number by one of the girls. The girl made sure to graze her fingers against his hand and look up at him with seductive eyes. Danny smirked at her before walking back over to the counter. He held up the piece of paper at Steve with a smug grin, "That's how it's done. Take notes."
Steve rolled his eyes and ignored Danny. Robin laughed, "How is it that my fourteen-year-old cousin is better at flirting than you are, dingus?"
Steve scoffed and gestured to Danny, "Flirting in middle school was always easier than flirting in high school!"
"Yeah, sure," Danny scoffed. "I'll be a freshman in a couple of months. What'll your excuse be then?"
Steve shot his hand up, flipping Danny off. Danny simply smirked at him and went to the back room. Danny sat down at the silver table in the center of the room and opened up his sketchbook that he had sitting on the table. He usually went back and forth between sketching and reading comic books. There wasn't much to do in Scoops Ahoy all day. Occasionally, he would explore the mall. Danny had been to every single store in that mall more than a few times. He had also tried all the restaurants in the food court. His favorite was most likely Hot Dog on a Stick. He had also tried every flavor of ice cream that Scoops Ahoy had, and had even come up with his own flavor combinations that he had attempted to persuade the manager to sell but to no avail as Danny wanted twenty percent.
