unlikely coworkers to friends
for @corrodedcoffinfest day 6 prompt 'family video'
rated t | 923 words | no cw | tags: platonic stobin, jeff is the third wheel to their platonic marriage
Jeff hates this job so much. He really hates that he’s the youngest person working here and Keith seems to think that means he can do all the heavy lifting.
He owed Jeff’s dad a favor after he approved a business loan at the bank for him when he probably shouldn’t have. So, Jeff has a minimum wage job while all his friends are enjoying summer vacation. He’s thrilled.
Though he’s pretty glad the job at Scoops Ahoy didn’t work out. He wouldn’t have wanted to be at the mall when that fire happened.
“Need you to train the newbies tomorrow,” Keith says as he locks up for the night. “The girl will be fine, the guy is like her lost puppy. Don’t know why she bothers with him. He’s an idiot.”
Right, the new people start tomorrow.
“Anyone I might know?” Jeff asks as he looks around for his mom’s car. She’s late again, but he doesn’t mind too much. He could use some fresh air while he waits for her to get here.
“Steve Harrington and Robin something or other. She’s your age, so I guess you’re probably in classes together,” Keith hands him the key. “You’re opening and I forgot the spare. Feel free to fire Harrington if he’s too stupid to figure out how to press rewind.”
Jeff’s pretty sure even Steve can figure that out, but he doesn’t care to argue with Keith. Not when he can see the headlights of his mom’s car turning into the parking lot.
“And that’s really it. Any questions?”
Robin shakes her head. Steve shakes his head. Jeff thinks it’s a bit weird that Steve even needs a job, but maybe he just needs to kill some time now that he’s graduated.
There’s been rumors that his parents cut him off when he finished school and didn’t have plans to go to college, but Jeff doesn’t think it’s true. Or at least not completely.
A part of him wonders if Gareth started it just to see if it would get anywhere. He likes to do stupid shit out of boredom.
“I’m going on my lunch. Let me know if you need me.”
He hides in the office and hopes they don’t need him. Tuesdays are pretty slow, so he’d be surprised if they had more than one or two customers.
He calls Eddie to make sure they’re still on for band practice tomorrow in his garage. He calls his mom to remind her he’s off at six tonight and needs a ride. And then he manages to eat the sandwich he brought from home before there’s a knock on the door.
Robin steps in with an awkward wave and smile.
“Everything okay?” Jeff asks around a mouthful of food.
“I may have accidentally checked out some movies.”
“Oh. No big deal. I’ll show you how to fix it in a few minutes,” Jeff smiles at her reassuringly. “It’s easy.”
“Uh. Well.” Robin bounces on her feet. “I may have accidentally…checked out all of the movies.”
“Like all of the ones that were on the cart? That’s okay. Accidents happen.”
“She checked out all of the movies in the store,” Steve says as he steps in, hands settling on his hips. “I don’t know how.”
“I…didn’t know that was possible,” Jeff admits as he sets the last few bites of his sandwich back in the baggie and stands up. “Are you sure that’s what happened?”
“Yep. I tried to start checking them back in, but there’s an error,” Steve explains. He nudges Robin’s arm, letting it rest there for a moment. Jeff notices but doesn’t say anything. “I’ll fix it if you can show me how.”
Jeff shakes his head. “I don’t think this has ever happened. We might have to call—“
“No!” They both yell. Jeff raises a brow. “Please. I’m sure we can figure it out together,” Robin continues. Steve nods along next to her.
He sighs and gestures for them to go back to the counter.
The fix is actually pretty simple once he gets eyes on it. He’s kind of a computer nerd. Keith probably keeps him around for that more than the favor he owed his dad at this point. But it will take a few hours because they have to go by genre and count inventory on the shelves to make sure they don’t accidentally check something in that’s still with a customer. He leaves them to it while he handles actual customers coming in.
By the end of his shift, they’re done and everything is back to normal. Keith arrives to close and they silently agree not to speak of it at all.
The truth is, even with the problem, and expecting the worst, he had the most fun he’s ever had while working alongside Steve and Robin. They’re funny, even when they don’t mean to be. They’re nice, even though Jeff always thought Steve had a massive attitude in high school. That seems to have cleared itself up. They’re also very entertaining as a pair. He accidentally called them a couple earlier and got the dirtiest look from Robin and a very stern ‘no way, dude’ from Steve.
So he hopes they stick around at Family Video for a while. He probably won’t get to work with them every day since they really only need two people on at a time, but he hopes he will sometimes. They definitely made today go by faster, and that’s all he can hope for all summer.
