❁

she got there with just enough time to change into her bathing suit and get on duty. on her way out of the locker room, she passed billy, whose shift had just ended. "henderson, i think we should hang out sometime."

"no thanks." she replied, putting on her whistle and lowering her sunglasses. meadow completely blew past him, leaving billy alone in the lockers. he'd been flirting with mike's mom all summer, as well as flirting with meadow. she ignored him every time, but he still persisted. at least karen wheeler would return his interest.

after watching the pool for her whole (uneventful) shift, meadow blew her whistle twice, calling for a coworker taking her place on the chair. while headed back to the locker room to change, she ran, once again into billy. when he tried to speak, she simply flipped him off, ignoring him completely.

meadow changed out of her life guard suit into her jean shorts and a maroon top, slipping on her beaten up white converse and grabbing her bag. she hadn't had to go into the pool at all that day to save a random kid from drowning, so she handed her unused towels to the boy that ran the front desk, smiling politely to him.

"i don't know why you don't just talk to billy." heather said to her. meadow and heather had become decent friends from working together.

meadow sighed; she'd explained her disinterest for the boy many times. "i just don't like him. he's rude, cocky.. and, besides, i have a boyfriend, remember?"

heather nodded sarcastically. "right. steve, the boy who you don't let visit you at work."

meadow understood why the other girl was suspicious of the situation, and she wondered if heather thought that steve was genuinely made up.

"if he sees that billy works with me, he will beat him up." she explained, putting her sunglasses into her bag. "and he isn't particularly good at winning fights."

"whatever," heather replied, "i seriously think you're missing out."

meadow rolled her eyes, disagreeing completely, but not caring enough to argue, bidding her farewell before heading out to her car. she was going to scoops ahoy to hang out with steve, as they usually did. she gently nodded her head along to the rock music on the radio as she pulled into starcourt mall, which was as glamorous as always.

the girl had mixed feelings about the mall. while it was a great place to spend time and to spend her extra cash from her new job, it had cost a lot of hawkins peoples their own jobs. meadow, although not affected by the mall personally, couldn't imagine what it was like for the small shop owners who were now barely getting by.

the route to scoops, once in the mall, was fairly long, and meadow, who was prone to never watching where she was going, ran into a lot of people on her way there. after finally making her way down escalators and to the ice cream parlor, she walked up to the register.

"the usual?" robin buckley asked, smiling kindly. meadow nodded and was quickly handed a cone of chocolate icecream.

she smiled and thanked her, paying and going to sit down. meadow grabbed a clip from her bag, pulling her curly hair into a half-up half-down situation. before she could sit down at her usual booth, a pair of arms wrapped around her middle from behind. meadow giggled, turning in steve's arms to give him a quick kiss.

"how was work?" steve asked, letting go of her so she could sit down and have her icecream.

she nodded. "it was good. business as usual today?"

he nodded, looking around at the people in the shop. "do you want to maybe go out somewhere tonight? we mainly just hang out now, i haven't taken you anywhere in a while."

"you dont need to take me places, steve." meadow said with her mouth full, watching as steve sent her a concerned look.

"don't talk with your mouth full, that's like etiquette 101." he scolded.

she laughed, finishing her spoonful before she spoke again. "i'd love to go somewhere, but i can't tonight." she frowned. "it's movie night, and dustin will be really upset if i skip his first one back home."

the boy nodded, holding her hand from under the table. "so he's fully forgiven us? he's okay?"

steve had been very worried about dustin. he cared about the boy more than he would ever admit, and meadow knew that. steve wanted dustin to approve of their relationship, because he wanted to be able to hang out with dustin, too.

luckily, dustin had learned much at camp. and he somehow learned about relationships, too. meadow supposed that, being in a relationship now himself, her brother saw her relationship from a more understanding perspective.

"yeah, he's fine." she consoled steve, who smiled at that, turning towards robin when she called for him.

"dingus!" she yelled. "it's your shift."

steve stood up from the booth, helping meadow to her feet. "are you going to stay here for a while, or do you have to head back home?"

"dustin's with his friends for a while.. i'll hang out with robin for a while." meadow replied, earning a chuckle from steve.

he found it funny that meadow and robin were such good friends, especially considering that they bonded over their strong feelings for steve. robin hated him, meadow loved him. and it worked, because despite how much meadow loved him, her true passion was to playfully bully and tease him.

it was how their relationship worked sometimes. steve couldn't bring himself to say anything negative about meadow.. it would be a lie. he found her absolutely perfect, and it would physically pain him to say otherwise. so, naturally, it was up to meadow to tease him and call him stupid and stuff. it was all in good fun, and they both knew that.

the two girls had officially become steve's biggest pains in the ass because they would hang out when he was doing work. he'd pop his head into the window of the back room occasionally, trying desperately to be in on the conversation. "don't worry, we're just talking about you." his girlfriend would console him, making him roll his eyes.

robin then handed steve his scooper, and meadow grabbed his sailor hat, which he always took off unless necessary, placing it on his head upside down. he chuckled, taking it off and putting it on right. before she could leave, he pressed a kiss to her cheek, watching as she and robin both went into the break room.

"that's new." meadow said to robin, gesturing to the you rule / you suck whiteboard on the wall.

robin nodded, proud of it. "i add a tally everytime steve does something stupid and everytime steve does something good."

"he's only done six things stupid?" meadow asked, making robin double over with laughter.

the two talked about various topics, and steve, as usual, occasionally stuck his head through the window behind him to talk with them as well. he particularly enjoyed their discussion on which song on the current radio was most annoying on repeat; a conversation that was sparked up since the junkie radio in the icecream parlor constantly played the same handful of songs on rotation. once it was time for the shop to close, steve and meadow left together, seeing as robin had promised to clean and close up.

"thanks for staying, i know it's probably a little boring." he apologized as they walked through the now quiet and darkened space.

meadow shook her head with a smile. "no, i like spending time with you and with robin."

steve shook his head with a smile, looking down at their intertwined hands. "i assume you have your car, so i can't give you a ride?" he pouted lightly, making meadow smile.

"right. but i'll come by tomorrow; maybe dustin will be able to come."

something about the mall at night was peaceful and serene to meadow. she knew that it should've been creepy: a dark mall at night with no one inside. but, in comparison to the aggressive hustle and bustle that the space held in the day time, she greatly appreciated the calm. the still.

"tell him i'm glad he's back, he can come to the store anytime he wants." steve smiled.

meadow nodded as they reached her car. steve then put his hand on her lower back, pulling her in for a deep kiss. "i love you." she said against his lips, smiling as he said it back.

after pressing quick kisses to each others' lips, always reluctant to say goodbye, the two parted ways, and meadow headed home. she greeted twos, who was sitting on the sofa, calmly making her way into her room. when meadow dropped her bag on her desk, she finally noticed her brother sitting on her bed.

"how did talking to suzie go?" she asked, not noticing the look of shock and mild terror on his face. she turned, taking in his features. "hey, what happened?"

"i think i intercepted a russian message."