Steve Harrington hated to say this but he missed her. He missed the way she chuckled at the stupid things he'd do to get her attention. He missed the way she would mock her brother and his friends but if anyone else were to do it, they would be dead...
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"It's not time to make a change Just sit down, take it slowly You're still young, that's your fault There's so much you have to go through"
Father and Son By Cat Stevens (1970)
Valerie trailed behind Dustin and Steve, tossing meat on the ground whilst Dustin explained why exactly he kept the freaky slug and named it Dart. Her eyes were trained on the ground, adjusting her grip on the bucket as it dug into her palm. There was no doubt that it would leave a mark in her hand for a while. "All right, so let me get this straight. You kept something you knew was probably dangerous in order to impress a girl who-who you just met?" Valerie smiled as she listened to their conversation, pretending to be interested in throwing meat on the ground.
"All right, that's grossly oversimplifying things." Dustin attempted to defend his actions which didn't convince either of them. "I mean, why would a girl like some nasty slug anyway?" Valerie nodded along with Steve, his side of the argument more valid. Valerie was confused by Steve. He somehow understood women but then didn't have a clue about them. "Slugs aren't really the way to a woman's heart," Valerie commented causing Steve to chuckle and Dustin to glare at the two. "An interdimensional slug? Because it's awesome." And that is when she remembered that boys in middle school only like gross things.
"Well, even if she thought it was cool, which she didn't, I--I just I don't know. I just feel like you're trying too hard." Deciding not to butt in, Valerie instead was going to listen to the advice on how to get girls, Steve's way. "Well, not everyone can have your perfect hair, all right?" Valerie almost wanted to laugh at the sentence as she watched Steve's hair, it basically being its own person. "It's not about the hair, man. The key with girls is just-just acting like you don't care." Just as Valerie opened her mouth to correct his advice, Steve shook his head at her causing her to shut her mouth and grit her teeth. "Even if you do?"
"Yeah, exactly. It drives them nuts." Steve winked back at Valerie causing her cheeks to warm and redden. "Steve, that is such bad dating advice. Just tell her how you feel. That is what girls really like." Steve rolled his eyes before looking back at Dustin who looked at Steve as if it was the only advice he had heard. "Then what?" Dustin ignored Valerie causing her to sigh out. "You just wait until, uh - until you feel it." Steve and Dustin started to walk side by side on the narrow tracks with Valerie contemplating throwing meat into Steve's hair. "Feel what?" Valerie could not believe that her brother was taking Steve's bad dating advice. Well, it obviously had worked on Nancy.
"It's like before it's gonna storm, you know? You can't see it, but you can feel it, like this, uh electricity, you know?" Valerie looked at how Steve described it, never really thinking of it that way. "Oh, like in the electromagnetic field when the clouds in the atmosphere--" Dustin displayed his nerd take on it causing Steve to interrupt him. "No, no, no, no, no. Like a-- Like a sexual electricity." Valerie hated to admit it but at this point, she too was listening to the advice to learn something. She needed to find herself someone that she could that could console her on her bad days and deal with her every day. Someone that really cared about her. So far, she had found no one like that. "You feel that and then you make your move."
