୨⎯ "𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑" ⎯୧ | STRANGER THINGS

❝ 𝐄𝐏 𝟐; 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐌𝐀𝐋𝐋 𝐑𝐀𝐓𝐒 ❞

- Your POV

Last night I got home very late. I avoided my parents because I knew they would say something about it in the morning. Steve was heading to work so I went with him, Dustin said he'd be there so we could decode what we had found last night.

I waited in the back of Scoops Ahoy with my brother. Then I heard him. Dustin's voice to be specific, both Steve and I rose from our seats but he beat me to the door. I walked out the door and saw them doing their stupid handshake. They got close after that incident last year, I'm pretty sure Steve was closer to him than I was.

Steve made him a free banana split ice cream and we went to a table to recap what happened to him during summer camp. I tuned it out until the conversation was relevant to me. "She says kissing is better without my real teeth!" I overheard. Steve gave me a look of disgust, I laughed awkwardly and took a bite of ice cream. "Wow, yeah, that's great... proud of you, man. That's.... that's kinda romantic... Like wow!" Steve awkwardly compliments.

"Do you really get to eat as much of this as you want?" Dustin refers to the ice cream. "Yeah, I mean sure, Y/n can! It's not really a good idea for me, though... I gotta keep in shape for the ladies." Steve explains. I glared at him, Robin interrupted and said "Yeah, and how's that working out for you?"

I laughed. "Ignore her, " Steve says to us. "She seems cool," Dustin spoke. "She's not." Steve disagreed. "She is!" I argued. "So uh, where are the other knuckleheads?" Steve changes the subject. "They ditched us yesterday!" Dustin tells him. "No." He says in shock. "My first day back and Y/n was the only one on my side! Can you believe that shit?"

"Whoa seriously?!" Steve exclaimed. "I swear to God.." Dustin confirmed. Steve looked over at me in shock and I just nodded in confirmation. "They're gonna regret it though, big time. When they don't get to share Y/n and I's glory," Dustin declared. "Glory? What glory?" Steve questions us.

"So last night... we're trying to get in contact with Suzie... and uh.." Dustin began. He whispered what we found but neither of us could hear him. "What?" Steve said. Dustin repeated himself but even quieter. "Just say it, Dustin!" I told him. "I INTERCEPTED A SECRET RUSSIAN COMMUNICATION." He shouts. That's not what I meant.

Steve hushed him while everyone stared at us. "Yeah, that's what I thought you said. So uhm, what does that mean?" Steve asked. "It means, Steve, we could be heroes. True American heroes!" He says. "American heroes.." Steve repeated. "Just think, you could have all the ladies you want and more."

"More?" "More." "I like more." They sighed. "So what's the catch?" My brother asked us. "There is no catch, we just need your help," I told him. "With what?" Dustin opens his backpack and takes out a book, "translation," he said. We headed to the back of Scoops Ahoy and started to decode.

After about an hour we didn't get anywhere. "Sounded familiar," Steve said. "What did?" I asked. "The music. The music at the end there," he pointed out. "Why are you listening to the music, Steve? Listen to the Russian! We're translating Russian!" Dustin shouts in frustration. "I'm trying to listen to Russian,  but there's music playing-" Robin barged in, "All right babysitting time is over! You need to get in there," She looks over at the whiteboard where she kept her scores. "Hey, my board! That was important data, shitbirds," she sighed.

"I guarantee you, what we're doing is way more important than your data," Dustin said. "Yeah? And how do you know these Russians are up to no good anyways?" Robin questions him. Dustin looked shocked that she knew as if they weren't being obnoxiously loud about this whole thing.

She points out that they were very loud when speaking. She explained basically what we were doing pretty well. Robin suggests helping out with translating, Dustin and Steve were against it but they were convinced when she started speaking another language.

The language was pig Latin.

Which they believed, and I laughed at them. Steve finally comes around and takes the ice cream scooper from her hand. I followed him to the front since I was hungry. "You seriously didn't say anything to him?" My brother said out of nowhere. "What do you mean?" I asked. "About your feelings, obviously," he said. I stayed quiet, taking bites of the cup of ice cream I had. "I was supposed to keep this a secret but.. that dummy in the back really really liked you," Steve confessed. My eyes widened, and I looked over at my brother.

"I'm not trying to make you feel bad or anything, I just... wanted to make sure that you're okay," Steve looked at me. Honestly, it's been pretty common for Steve to get all gushy like this lately. "I'm heading over to the food court," I told him. It's not that I didn't appreciate his attempts at making me feel better.

I just dislike it, when it's too late. I took my Walkman out of my pocket and listened to 'All I Have to Do Is Dream' by the Everly brothers. I walked around the mall until I finished thinking. I'm going to keep my thoughts to myself because I wouldn't want to ruin an already degrading friendship. I was snapped out of my thoughts when I bumped into somebody.

"Sorry-" I started. "Y/n!" the familiar voice said. I looked at their face and it was Aaron... and his friends. "Oh, hi Aaron," I said. "Didn't know you'd be here today," he said. "Well, my brother's working so why not..." I sighed. "You seem pretty down. What's wrong?" He asked, leaning closer to my face as well. I awkwardly looked around. He grabbed my wrist, "Here, I'll treat you to whatever you want to buy, my treat," he began taking me to drag me to a store. "Winning over the Harrington is smart, Aaron!" one of his friends shouted. "Ignore them."

From there, we went to almost all the stores in the mall even the boring furniture stores. I didn't make him buy anything since I felt bad, but I did get some pretzels. It was about time I headed back to Steve and everyone else. Aaron and his friends had already left to go practice for an out-of-state basketball game. Anyway, I made my way to scoops ahoy after maybe two hours. Steve was still at the front, "Where the hell were you?" he asked. I sat down on the chair that was behind the counter and looked at my brother.

"Having fun," I said while chewing on a pretzel.

They ended up decoding the Russian after many hours. It read 'The week is long. The silver cat feeds. When blue meets yellow in the West.' I actually helped decode the word cat. Anyways it sounded like a lot of nothing to me. It was about time we left the store after today. "I mean, it's just... it just can't be right," Steve said while closing the store. "It's right," Robin sighed. "Honestly, I think it's great news," Dustin said.

"How is this great news? I mean, so much for being American heroes, it's total nonsense," Steve sighed. "It's not nonsense, it's too specific. It's obviously a code," Dustin explained. I tuned out their bickering, I was too tired to listen. I noticed Steve had stopped walking next to me, I looked behind me. "What are you doing?" I asked. "Do you guys have a quarter?" He asked. "Sure you're tall enough for that ride?" Robin chuckled, she and Dustin ran towards us.

"Quarter!" Steve shouted in frustration. I toss him one and he puts it into the machine. The ride starts up and the music begins to play. "Need help getting on?" Robin laughed. Steve hushed them both up. The song that the ride was playing was very familiar. "Sounds like the song from the recording," I point out, Dustin gave me that look again, the one that made me feel smart. "Holy shit! the music," Dustin hurriedly grabbed his tape recorder and played the Russian again.

"I don't understand," Robin said. "It's the exact same song on the recording," Dustin explained. "Maybe they have horses like this in Russia," Robin sighed. " 'Indiana Flyer'? I don't think so," Steve smartly said. "Yeah. That message might have come.. from here. Not Russia" I said.

We all gave each other a panicked look, though we weren't even sure if this was a bad thing.

⎯⎯ ୨ Authors Corner ୧ ⎯⎯
Hey gaissss, sorry this took so long. I'm prepping for tests and stuff. Hope you enjoyed though! :3

↳ *Word count:  1496 * ༉‧₊˚✧