City & Sunglasses // A Steve Harrington Fanfic

Part II

Saturday, June 29th, 1985

The phone rang repeatedly over and over, waking me up. Sometimes I hated having a phone but I loved it at the same time. I groaned and sat up in bed. My hand fumbled to the phone and I picked it up. I pulled it to my ear and pulled the sheets over my head.

"Hello..." I groaned.

"The key's under the mat. And I'm about to leave to go pick Dustin,"

"Shit!" I slammed the phone on the receiver and then picked it up again. I felt a bit bad hanging up on Mrs. Henderson, but I needed everything to work and I didn't have time. I had forgotten to reset the clocks and I was going to be late. Shit. Shit. Shit. I dialed Mike's phone number and waited for an answer.

"Hi. This is Karen Wheeler speaking, may I ask why are you calling this morning..."

"Hi, Mrs. Wheeler. This is Avery Clarke. Can you transfer me to Mike? Basement line?" I asked, sitting up in bed. He was always in the basement.

"Oh. Sure thing. And tell him I'll be at the pool all day,"

I stood up went over to the closet and grabbed a T-shirt. I put the phone to my ear and grabbed a pair of jean shorts. Sliding them on I fumbled with the button when Mike patched through.

"Clarkie? Why are you calling so early?" Mike's groggy voice over the phone asked.

"Did you sleep in the basement again? Nevermind. It's time. Call Lucas and get Lucas to call Max, and I'll talk with Hopper into let El come,"

"Oh shit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Perfect. And we'll meet at Dustin's house?"

"And Mike?"

"What?"

"You called me Clarkie. Again,"

I heard Mike groan on the other end before hanging up. He had warmed up to me in the last year, and I knew he loved me as his babysitter. I knew he had a soft spot for me. I hung up the phone and dialed Hopper's phone. I knew he would be pissed to wake up to my phone call, but I needed El. We all did for the surprise to work.

"Who's this?"

"Clarke. Avery Clarke," I answered, searching for a jacket. There was nothing.

"Why are you calling this early in the morning?"

"I need El,"

"No."

"We have a surprise for Dustin and I was wondering if I could babysit El for a few hours,"

"No."

"Is there any way I could get you to say yes to El coming with me for a few hours because I'm just babysitting her? And I'm the most trustworthy babysitter you know and the only one, so you know that you can trust me with El,"

I waited for Hopper to answer as I found a jacket. I picked it up and inspected it. It was Steve's grey bomber jacket from last year. I put it on and waited for Hopper's answer.

"Fine," he growled on the other end of the phone.

"Thank you so much. El's in safe hands,"

I hung up and grabbed my backpack. I had a present for Dustin and I could not wait to give it to him. I ran downstairs and into the kitchen. Mariane was standing there, holding a cup of coffee, and leaning on the counter.

"Oh. Hey, Mariane. How was last night?" I asked.

"Oh. Your dad is the best. He's so sweet and kind. It was fun last night. Where are you going today that's so special?"