lillah

Steve groans, dragging both hands down his face. “We were not all up on each other, Robin.”

Robin raises an eyebrow. “She was rubbing your arm!”

“She was pointing out a scar.” Steve argues, spinning slightly in his chair to face her.

Robin nods slowly. “Right.”

Steve huffs, shaking his head as he turns back to the vinyls. He plucks one out of a cart, flipping it to look at the back before putting it into the pile he was making. “I didn’t think Y/N would be there. She didn’t show up to Dustin’s birthday party or the movie nights.”

Robin leans against the counter behind him, arms crossed. “Yeah. Because she’s been avoiding you.”

He pauses, the vinyl halfway to the shelf. “I know that.”

“Yet, you bring another girl to a party. Nancy’s going away party!”

Steve slides the vinyl into place harder than necessary. “I didn’t bring her. Her younger brother is on the baseball team. She saw me and we started talking.”

Robin makes a circle with her lips, nodding as if everything was sliding into place in her brain. “…It still didn’t look good, Steve.”

Steve looks at Robin, pressing his tongue to the inside of his cheek, “What do I do?”

“Well, Romeo,” Robin starts, pointing at him. “For starters, I need you to choose a song asap before this one ends.”

He exhales sharply and turns back to the crate, fingers hovering over the vinyls before he picks one up. “There.”

Robin grabs it, reading the cover before shooting him a look. “Again?”

“What?”

She flips the cover to him.

He shrugs. “And?”

Robin sighs, slipping the record out and sets it on the turntable. She softly drops the needle, announcing the song into her mic and letting it play.

“Maybe instead of choosing songs for Y/N and hoping she’ll know you’re dedicating them to her, maybe you can actually talk to her.”

Yes. Steve Harrington had been playing specific songs, just for you, for months.

It’s been 8 months, 2 weeks, and 3 days since you and Steve had talked.

Not that he was counting…

…

Okay, fine. He was counting.

But how could he not? When you’ve been avoiding him since defeating Vecna?

He held you in his arms as you cried because of Eleven, he held you in his arms at the police station, and held you in his arms while you fell asleep.

Next morning, you were gone.

He didn’t think much of it. Tried not to think much of it. You weren’t obligated to stay. He tried not to think too much of it that day.

That night, he called you and you didn’t answer. He showed up on your door and you didn’t answer.

Okay, maybe she’s just busy? Tired? Not home?

He tried again the next day. And the next. And the next.

A week had gone by when he finally realized you were avoiding him. He ran into you by the Post Office and you got all wide-eyed, running away before he could say anything. He tried to convince himself that maybe you just needed space, space from everyone but he heard from Robin one day that they all went out to eat. Without him.

He couldn’t stand not being around you. He couldn’t stand not being in your life. He hated when one of the kids told him a story about how you gave them a ride somewhere or hung out with them.

But he told you he would wait for you and wait he did.

He barely talked to girls. Sometimes he’ll talk to the moms of the kids he was coaching for baseball or to Robin or Nancy, but he never showed interest in any of them. He tried to go on a date, but he couldn’t. He stood up the girl and went to a bar to get wasted.

He missed you. So much.

He kept tabs on you though. He asked through Robin on how you were or one of the kids. They’d always tell him the same thing “No, Steve. Y/N isn’t dating anybody. She’s doing fine.”

But he was tired of hearing from either people on how you were. He wanted to hear it from you.

Operation: Get Y/N back

“We are not calling it that, Henderson.” Steve groaned, rubbing his hands down his face.

“I chose that name.” Max snaps, glaring at Steve.

Steve rubs the bridge of his nose. “Fine… whatever. What are we doing?”

Dustin grins. “I’m glad you asked.” He claps his hands together once. “So. First of all. I think it’s very brave of you to admit you have a problem.”

“Wait? What!”

“Shhh.” Dustin brings a finger up to his lips. Steve closes his mouth, his face doing something that landed somewhere between confusion and regret.

Dustin continues. “It’s very clear that you are in love with Y/N… like head over heels in love. But, you messed up big time. How long has it been—“

“8 months.” Steve blurts.

Dustin blinks. “Okay… uhm… good for you, buddy, for keeping track. Anyways, we have steps to get your girl back.” He begins to rock back and forth on his feet, hands clasped together like he’s about to present a science project.

“Step one.” He says. “We gather info.”

Steve squints, placing his hands on the table. “Info?”

“Yes, Harrington. Information.” Dustin gestures wildly. “We need to know if Y/N is one: emotionally stable, two: single, and three: wanting to even talk to you.”

“Okay…” Steve mutters, nodding as if he understood what the hell he was saying. “Why can’t we just bring her somewhere and I talk to her?”

Mike clears his throat. “Because you can’t just throw yourself at her and hope for the best. That’s how people get restraining orders.”

Steve rolls his eyes, pushing off the table as he sits on the couch in the Wheelers basement.

Dustin continues. “Max will go into where Y/N works. She’ll just ask how she’s been, if she’s single, what color her nails are, y’know girl stuff.”

“We don’t talk like that.” Max deadpans.

He waves her off. “You know what I mean. You’ll go in, be normal, do your girl interrogation thing.”

“Okay, but, what if she thinks I sent Max in there to ask for me?” Steve quickly asks, paranoid.

“She won’t. I’ll be normal.” Max says.

Dustin points at her. “See? She has it handled.” He looks back at the paper laid out on the table. “Once we get the info we need, we move onto phase 2. We invite her over for a movie. She’s been wanting to watch that Roger Rabbit movie. She comes over, sees it’s just you, then boom! You got your girl back.”

“So… let me get this straight.” Steve starts, standing up. “You want to lie and lure her over here?”

“Exactly!” Dustin grins.

Steve starts to shake his head immediately. “No. No! I’m not doing that.”

“But it’ll work!” Lucas argues. “Do you know how many times Max has dumped me? 16 times! And I’ve won her back each time.”

“Really?” Max sarcastically asks from beside him.

“Well, Sinclair. This isn’t some teen love shit. This is the real world, with real adults, and real problems.” Steve says.

“Really? Is that why you’re asking for kids help with your grown up problems?” Mike asks.

STEP 1: GATHER INFORMATION

“Why are we parking so far away?” Dustin asks, head poking out into the front seats.

Steve swats him away. “I don’t want her to see us.”

Max clicks her seatbelt off. “She’s at work. Not on lookout duty.”

“She could look out the window.” Steve argues.

“Really, dude? She doesn’t even know you have a truck! She won’t see you.” Max says, rolling her eyes as she gets out. She slams the door behind her.

“Seriously?” Steve mutters, honking at her.

“Great way to go incognito.” Dustin mutters.

Steve grimaces. “… Shut up, man.”

“You shut up!” Dustin bites back.

“Both of you. SHUT UP.” Mike hisses, slapping the back of Dustin’s head.

Inside the grocery store, Max grabs a cart she doesn’t need and starts walking through the aisles slowly. She passes diary, pretends to compare ounces of cheese blocks, then heads back to the front.

She spots you very quickly at a register. Your hair was up and your sleeves were rolled back, scanning items as you made conversation with the costumer.

Max lingers until the line shortens, quickly hopping in and making a surprised face at you.

“Omg! Y/N, I didn’t know you worked here.”

You give her a confused look, tilting your head. “You saw me last week?”

Max opens her mouth but quickly closes it. Shit.

“I mean’t I didn’t know you were working today.”

“Oh okay.” You smile, nodding. “Are you… uhm, buying anything?”

“Oh—yeah.” Max says quickly, glancing down at the very empty cart. “I am. Totally.”

You look at her cart then back at her. One eyebrow lifts.

“Okay.” You say slowly. “What are you buying?”

“Uh—“ She spins on her heel and reaches toward one of the little shelfs by the register, grabbing the first thing she sees. She tosses the small candy bar into her cart. “This.”

You blink at her once. “Right. Of course.”

She hands you the candy and you scan it, pressing some buttons into the machine in front of you. “How’ve you been?”

“Good.” Max answers a little too fast. “Dreading school starting, though.”

“I bet.” You chuckle softly. “You want a bag?”

“No, I’m okay.”

You nod, pressing one last button. “That’ll be $1.50. Will that be cash or card?”

“Cash.” Max mumbles, digging into her front pocket before handing you change. She watches you count it before blurting out the big question. “Are you seeing anybody?”

Your head snaps up to her. “What?”

STEP 2: INVITE Y/N OVER FOR A MOVIE

She clears her throat awkwardly. “Oh—because we’re having a date movie night! Me and Lucas, Dustin and his date… we wanted to invite you!”

You stare at her for a moment, the register drawer still open. “A… date movie night?”

“Yeah.”

You narrow your eyes at her. “Henderson has a date?”

Max winces. Of course that would be unbelievable. “Yup! I know right? Who knew?”

You let out a laugh, shaking your head as you finish counting and shove the coins into their slot. “Well, as much as I would love to see that, I’m not seeing anyone right now. Sorry, Max.” You hand her the receipt.

“Okay, hear me out.” She starts. “What if we invited Steve?”

Your eyebrows lift. “Steve?”

Max nods.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.” You mumble, looking away.

She presses her lips into a thin line, crumbling up the receipt.

Steve didn’t want to trap you. But how would he know?

“Okay.” Max says. “We won’t invite Steve.”

You glance back at her, surprised by how easily the usual stubborn girl gives in.

“But. You should still come.”

You frown. “Max—“

“Just—listen.” She rushes out, glaring at the customer who was impatiently waiting in line behind her. “It’s not even about the date thing anymore. We just… we miss you.”

You swallow.

“You’re like a big sister to us.”

That’s what made you give in.

Max pushes through the store doors and immediately squints at Steve’s truck which was now parked further away.

“She’s coming! She’s coming!” Dustin shouts, lowering his binoculars.

“Yeah, we don’t need binoculars to see that.” Lucas says.

She yanks the passenger door open and climbs in. Dustin, Mike, Lucas, and Will, who are all squished into the backseat, lean forward all at the exact same time.

“So?” Dustin demands.

Max slams the door behind her. “First two steps are done.”

“Wait— what? We were supposed to do step 2 at a different time—“

“Shut up!” Steve cuts in. “What happened?”

Max looks between Steve and the boys. “She’s down to talk to Steve. She’s coming on Saturday for the movie night.” She lies.

For the first time in those 8 months, Steve has hope.