One

Chapter Two: The Mall Rats

Phina finishes up her last arrangement before her lunch break, giving the flowers a small smile and a refreshing touch before she put them in the cooler to wait for the customer to pick them up.
She carefully closes the cooler door, double checking that it's completely shut so there was no repeat of the incident from the other night during the power outage.
"Hey, you going to lunch? Steve's up front," Zoe says, walking into the back room, "He's with this kid, they're very insistently asking for you."
"Kid?"
Steve should be at work, and why would he be with any of the kids? They usually just used him to get into the movie theater for free. It couldn't be Mike, he was always with Eleven, or Lucas because he was always with Max, or Will because the kid hadn't really warmed up to Steve yet. Who else-
And then it hits her. She runs past Zoe, not giving her any explanation as she barrels through the door into the front of the store. Zoe shouts something that Phina doesn't hear. She'd explain later.
She sees his mop of brown hair first, everything a blur as she runs towards him.
"Dustin!"
Her arms are wrapped around the boy before he has a chance to answer, almost knocking both of them over. She squeezes the life out of him, holding on like he might disappear.
"Hey, Phina!" Dustin laughs, hugging her back.
She pulls away, "When did you get back? Why didn't anyone tell me? What-"
"Yesterday and I wanted to surprise you!" He cuts her off and holds his hands up, doing jazz hands. "Surprise!"
She laughs, "I missed you so much you little shit!"
"I missed you too."

"No, no. No way," Steve says, "Hotter than Phoebe Cates? No."
The three of them sit in a circle booth in the ice cream shop. Dustin eating away at a banana split that he had very happily made Steve buy and make for him. Dustin has been talking away about his camp experience, and told the two teens about his new girlfriend, Suzie, very adamantly.
"Mmhmm," Dustin hums, "Brilliant, too. And she doesn't even care that my real pearls are still coming in. She says kissing is better without teeth."
Phina can only nod, trying to keep a laugh at bay. Steve glances at her, trying to get her to say anything so he doesn't have to. She just shrugs, biting her tongue as the giggle tries to escape.
"Wow!" Steve exclaims, looking back at Dustin, "Yeah, that's great. Proud of you, man. That's ro— That's kinda romantic. That's like- wow!"
Phina leans against the table, hiding her grin behind her hand. Steve glares at her a little, which does nothing but make her want to laugh harder.
"So do you really just get to eat as much of this as you want?" Dustin hums as he marvels at the banana split.
"Yeah," Steve shrugs, "I mean, sure. It's not really a good idea for me though. I gotta keep in shape for my lady."
He winks at Phina, causing her to just roll her eyes. Dustin grins at the two of them, actually a big fan of their relationship. Not that he would admit that to either them, especially not Steve, no way was he gonna let the man's ego get any bigger.
"Yeah?" Robin asks, "How's that working out for you?"
Phina snorts, smiling over at Robin who just smiles back.
"Ignore her," Steve tells Dustin.
"She seems cool," Dustin says, liking anyone who gives Steve shit.
"She is," Phina agrees, also liking how Robin and her can team up and annoy Steve.
"She's not," Steve says, "So. Where are the other knuckleheads?"
"They ditched me yesterday," Dustin explains.
Phina scowls, "Assholes. What the hell?"
"My first day back," Dustin exclaims, "Can you believe that shit?"
"Whoa, seriously?" Steve asks.
"I swear to god," Dustin says, shoveling more ice cream into his mouth.
Phina frowns, slightly angry at the party for doing that to Dustin. She would be giving her brother a long talk later that night. She gets that they were all growing up, Mike and Lucas had girlfriends now, but that doesn't give them the right to treat their friend like this. It wasn't just Dustin either, they'd been leaving Will out of stuff too, which Phina had given them an earful for as well, but had they listened, no.
"They're gonna regret it, though," Dustin says, "big time, when they don't get to share in my glory."
"Glory?" Steve asks.
"What glory?" Phina asks.
Dustin smiles, shifting in his seat so he's closer to Steve, "So, last night, we're trying to get in contact with Suzie..."
"Oh. Mmhmm," Steve grins, glancing at Phina.
She nods, smiling, both teens want to believe Dustin about his girlfriend but it was a little hard. She didn't blame him though, especially not when all of his friends seemed to be getting girlfriends, wasn't like any of them could prove Suzie didn't exist.
"Mmhmm," Dustin hums, looking around as he whispers, "and uh-"
He mumbles something under his breath. Steve looks at Phina, wondering if she had caught what he had said but she just shakes her head.
"What?" Steve asks.
He looks around again, mumbling the same thing. Steve rolls his eyes and Phina shakes her head.
"Dusty, speak up," Phina chides.
"I intercepted a secret Russian communication!" Dustin yells, drawing everyone's attention towards their table.
"Jeez, shh," Steve snaps, "Yeah, okay, that's what I thought you said. What does that mean?"
"It means, we could be heroes," Dustin explains, "True American heroes."
"Huh," Steve grins, sliding closer to Dustin, "American heroes?"
Phina leans back, smiling at them. They could be such little nerds, but they were her nerds.
"Mmhmm," Dustin hums, "Just think, you could have all the ladies you want and more."
"Excuse me?" Phina snaps halfheartedly, "I'm right here, dude."
"Uh, he could! But he- you know- why would he want to when he has you," Dustin stutters, "Right, Steve?"
"Right, Steve?" Phina asks, raising a brow at him.
Steve coughs, mentally cursing Dustin for opening his big mouth like that, "Right! Of course!"
Phina nods, leaning into Steve's side, "That's what I thought."
Steve wraps his arm around her, pulling her closer to him as he grins down at her.
"Anyway," Dustin coughs, "I need your guys' help"
"With what?" Steve asks.
Dustin turns toward his bag, unzipping it and pulling a small red book out of it. He holds it up, showing it to the two teens. A Russian to English book.
"Translation," Dustin explains.
"Well." Phina sits up, "I'd love to help but I got to get back to work."
Steve pouts, "But you're good at this type of stuff, you're the reason I passed Spanish."
"I get off early today." She pats his head. "I'll be back soon. You'll figure it out."
She kisses him on the cheek and scoots out of the booth.
"Bye, Dustin," she says.
"Bye, Phina!"
Steve stares as she walks back towards her shop. Dustin looks between the two.
"She is so out of your league," Dustin says.
"Isn't she?" Robin asks, coming to stand next to the table.
Steve looks between the two, glaring, "Oh, shut up."

-1221 words-