With a shake of her head, Valerie said, "I can't do this."

With a sigh and a shake of his own head, Matthew asked her, "What the hell are you talking about?"

Valerie replied, "What the hell do you think I'm talking about?"

With a groan, he said to her, "I swear to God, Val, if this is about who I think it's about—"

After grabbing his arms and repeatedly shaking him around from where he stood in front of her, Valerie told him, "I can't fucking do this, Matt. I-I mean, what if I say the wrong thing? What if y-you know, I end up chasing this person away? What if I embarrass myself in front of this person?" When he had only raised an eyebrow at her, she said, "I-I can't do this. I need you to do it for me."

With a sigh, he said to her, "Jesus Christ, Val. Just grow some balls and go up there and talk to 'em."

With her eyebrows furrowed, Valerie asked him with a shake of her head, "But-But how could I grow some balls if I don't even have any balls to grow?"

With a roll of his eyes, he told her, "It's a figure of speech, Val."

In response to his words, Valerie simply sighed to herself before she went to say something more to him, only to stop when Matthew had grabbed her hands and lightly removed them from his shoulders and then forcefully turned her around to have her back facing him.

While Matthew led her through the crowds of people without much of a care about whose shoulders he hit, Valerie did what she could to try and break free of the grip that he had on her.

And while she did that, Matthew told her, "We're gonna be juniors soon as summer's over, and I think now is the perfect time to get over this fear of yours and go up to this person and actually talk to 'em instead of just simply staring at 'em and looking like you're gonna have a fucking stroke."

In turn, she asked him, "What about you? I've seen what you're like with the person you like. What's stopping you from going up to the person you have a crush on?"

With a shake of his head, he replied, "We're not talking about me. We're talking about you and the fact that you can't fucking talk to this person without tripping over your words and looking like your eyes are gonna fall out of your head because of just how wide they get once you see 'em."

It wasn't until they were standing inside of one of the stores inside of the Starcourt Mall and Valerie could finally see the person that had caught her interest after what happened with El and the Demo-dogs and the Upside Down that she said, "I can't do this, Matt. Don't make me do this."

It was then that Matthew quietly said to her, "Hey, you can do this, okay?" While she simply shook her head at his words, he quietly told her, "You are Valerie Mayfield, and you are honestly the strongest person I have ever met. So, believe me when I tell you that you've got this."

Just when Valerie was about to respond, she suddenly stopped when Matthew had shoved her towards the front counter in the store and found herself standing in front of her crush and the person that she was sure she was already in love with, despite never actually talking to this person.

Instead of doing what Matthew would have wanted her to do, the only thing Valerie could do was stare up at this person with her eyes wide as ever and doing what she could to gulp to herself quietly, only for it to be quite audible and heard by the person standing on the other side of the counter.

With a sigh, Matthew quickly made his way over towards Valerie and threw an arm around her before he looked at the person standing behind the counter and said, "Hey, Buckley."

In turn, Robin said to him, "Wheeler." Then she glanced over at Valerie before she looked back over at Matthew and asked her, "Is she okay?"

With a nod of his head, he replied, "Yep." As he patted one of her shoulders, he said, "Poor thing just isn't really good at talking to people face-to-face, I'm afraid."

It was then that Valerie slapped away Matthew's hand away as she said to him, "You fucking asshole. You know that I'm just fine at talking to people face-to-face."

With a tilt of his head, Matthew asked her, "If you're so good at it, then why don't you just do us both a favor and order us some ice cream, huh?"

In response to Matthew's words, Valerie looked back over at Robin, who was silently looking between the two soon-to-be juniors with furrowed eyebrows.

Just when Valerie was about to do what Matthew had told her to do earlier and grow some balls to actually say something to Robin, she suddenly stopped when she heard a voice ask them, "Seriously? Just how many times are you two gonna come here in the span of a single week?"

With a plastered grin on his face and a raise of his head, Matthew replied, "And a hello to you, too, Harrington." While Robin made a point of glancing at her coworker, Matthew said to him, "I'm doing great today. Thanks for asking, buddy."

In response to Matthew's words, Steve simply stared at the sixteen-year-old boy with a blank look on his face, which got Robin to slowly look between the recent high-school graduate and the soon-to-be junior with furrowed eyebrows before she looked over at Valerie, who only shrugged to herself with a sigh.

With a feigned pout, Matthew said to him, "Aw, Stevie, that's no way to look at your ex-girlfriend's little brother, is it?"

After taking a step closer to the counter, Steve started to say to him, "Now, you little here, you little shit—"

After feigning a gasp, Matthew pressed a hand against his own chest as he said, "Oh, Steve, that's no way to talk to a customer." While Steve simply stared at Matthew with his eyebrows furrowed and his mouth slightly open, Matthew told him, "I have half a mind to go and find your boss and tell him that you were using some colorful language with a customer."

After several seconds of just staring at the not-yet seventeen-year-old boy with his eyes narrowed, Steve turned his back on Matthew with a shake of his head and walked back into the backroom of the store, which got Matthew to let his hand fall from his chest and stare after the recent high-school graduate with a grin on his face and his head tilted to the side just a bit.

It wasn't until Steve was no longer anywhere to be seen and had already slid the window shut to the backroom that Robin turned to Matthew and asked him, "Do you really come here for the ice cream, Wheeler, or is it just to annoy Steve to the best of your abilities?"

With a nod of his head, Matthew replied, "Both."

With a tilt of her head and a shrug of her shoulders, Robin said, "That's good enough for me. Anyway, what kind of ice cream do you guys want?"

It was then that Matthew told her what kind of ice cream he and Valerie wanted.

And while Robin went to grab ice cream cones to give Matthew some chocolate ice cream to go with it and Valerie some vanilla ice cream, Valerie simply gulped to herself as she watched the soon-to-be senior she'd had a thing for for about six months now grab the scoops of ice cream and put them onto the cones before eventually giving them to the two soon-to-be juniors once Matthew had given her a couple of dollar bills to pay for the ice creams.

With a sigh, Matthew folded one of his arms behind his head and removed his cigarette from his mouth as he said, "I'm serious, Val. You really need to grow some balls and actually talk to her, if you're this serious about her."

With her back pressed up against Matthew's headboard to his bed, Valerie asked him with a scoff, "And what about you, huh?" When he only waved his hand around, she asked him, "When's the last time you actually talked to Munson without tripping over your words or insulting him somehow?"

After letting out a scoff of his own, he said to her, "Shut up. This isn't about me, Val. This is about you and that schoolgirl crush you've got on Buckley, okay?"

With a sigh, she replied, "Yeah, but, Matt, you've had a thing for him for, like, two years now and you still can't really talk to him and any time you do, you end up yelling at him or something." When he only sighed to himself and brought his cigarette back up to his mouth, she said with a tilt of his head, "I'll give you this, though. You actually do treat him a hell of a lot nicer than you treat everyone else at school."

In turn, he said to her, "Hmm."

It was then that Valerie said to him, "Hey, Matt?" When Matthew only turned his head to look over at her, she asked him, "Do you think he actually managed to pass his senior year, or do you think he failed it and has to do it all over again?"

When he only shrugged his shoulders, she said to him, "Hey, if he did end up failing his senior year for, like, the second time, then it gives you the chance to try and talk to him without tripping over your words."

After taking the cigarette back out of his mouth and letting out a sigh, he scoffed to himself before he replied, "Yeah, fucking right. The day I don't trip over my words is the day that you actually grow the balls to fucking talk to Buckley and not just stare at her like your eyes are gonna fall out of your fucking head."

With a scoff, she said to him, "Shut up."

In response to her words, Matthew slowly leaned his face in towards her as he said, "You first, Mayfield."

It was then that she fully turned her entire body to face him and clapped her hands together before she asked him, "How about we come up with a, uh, deal of sorts, okay?" When Matthew only raised an eyebrow at her, she asked him, "How about, so long as you don't bring up Robin to me and try to force me into talking to her, I won't do the same to you when it comes to Munson?"

For a couple of seconds, Matthew silently eyed her before he glanced down at her hand that she was holding out to him.

Then, without thinking twice about it, he quickly grabbed her hand and shook it before he said to her, "You've got yourself a deal, Val."

In response to his words, Valerie only grinned to herself before she grabbed one of Matthew's unlit cigarettes from his opened pack of them and brought it up to her mouth and let Matthew light it for her with his lighter.

It was then that she laid down onto his bed with a sigh and stared up at the ceiling to his room with her hair sprawled around her head and her arms folded behind her own head with a bit of a smile on her face, despite the fact that she still had that lit cigarette hanging out of her mouth.