𝐄𝐌𝐎𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐋 𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐂𝐔𝐄! ✽ 𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘁𝗼𝗻

61

𝐒𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐃𝐀𝐍 𝐆𝐋𝐈𝐃𝐄𝐃 𝐀𝐂𝐑𝐎𝐒𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐀𝐌 𝐆𝐎𝐎𝐃𝐘 𝐒𝐇𝐎𝐖𝐅𝐋𝐎𝐎𝐑, sweeping to close out her early shift. her hips swayed freely to ub40's "red red wine", her favorite summer song and guiltiest guilty pleasure pick. her expression contorted as she sang aloud to the tune.

a few doors down, steve prepared himself to head over to dani's store. while the shaffer girl kindly requested that she work the last half of her shift without interruption, robin, dustin, and steve continued further in their mission. both steve and dustin had attempted to cram themselves into the air ducts but to no avail, and now, they needed to enlist sherrie—and the remaining two agreed that if anyone could talk her into it, it'd be steve.

steve walked past the lovelace lingerie shop between scoops ahoy and sam goody's, not without letting his eyes wander slightly, of course; after all, the only girl he could ever picture in something like that was sheridan. just as he zeroed in on the music store and opened his mouth to speak, his eyes fell onto the red-haired girl. it was just her working, but that was always the way steve had seen dani—the only girl in the world. his jaw stayed hinged open in awe. his eyes widened. he watched her frame rock and bob, not daring look away. even in that obnoxious yellow t-shirt, she kept him utterly enchanted.

despite the eerie feeling of being watched, sheridan continued to sweep with her back to the entrance, assuming it was customers who'd let her know whenever they needed her. "i'd have sworn, that with time," the girl belted, matching the fluidity of her movements to the beat. for the next part of the song—her favorite—she brought the tip of the broom towards her mouth, where her microphone would be if someone had the bright idea of giving her one. "thoughts of you would leave my head!" and she continued. steve stifled his quaint giggle, his cheeks rosy. quickly, he turned his laughter into a cough, snapping dani out of her funk-enduced trance. her head whipped behind her, her orange curls flipping over her shoulder. "jesus christ, you scared me," she exhaled as she clutched her chest.

"i need you," steve simply stated as he now entered sam goody's. sherrie's knees buckled. 

"huh?" was all she could formulate.

"we need you," he corrected, now standing in front of her. "for the plan. we need someone who can fit in the air ducts." sheridan rolled her eyes and turned back away. she bent down to nab the dustpan, steve watching intently, and headed to another corner of the store. steve followed, his brows low over his eyes. "what?"

"steve, that is absolutely the last thing i wanna do when i get outta here," she sighed.

"trust me, i know, but-"

dani placed her palm in his face. "save your breath, steve." he watched as she went back to sweeping around the vinyl displays, shaking her head. "i'm not doing it."

"you're the only one who can!" the harrington boy pleaded as he leaned over the records, closer to her.

"not happening," she shot down again.

steve was at a loss. he was positive she was going to agree. for a moment, though, steve stepped back into his playboy mindset. he would never dream of seriously pulling a move such as the one he was about to on sheridan; but right now, she was just another girl, and this kind of thing was pretty fool-proof. he slowly sauntered around the shelf and towards her, gripping the broom tightly above her own hand. "sherrie," he declared lowly. she gulped as their eyes met. "please."