Steve's day was going on as normal and as boring as all his others do. He was working his normal shift with his best friend and they took turns swaping tasks to make things more interesting. Pitiful, right?

Except he was fine with it, it was soothing for the most part having no kids, no monsters bothering him for 8 hours. "Steve!" Except of course, why would he get all of those eight hours to himself? The bell on the door rang as Dustin entered the humbling establishment of Family Video. "What's up Henderson? You know it's my quiet time, even Robin's being quiet for once." He tried whispering the last part, but got a vhs box throw at him in return.

"Well, the thing is. Would you mind driving me to D&D tonight? I haven't asked you in weeks and I really need to be there tonight! We're almost at the end of our campaign!" Steve visibly cringed at the mention of that club, he could never get into that stuff, no matter how hard Dustin or any of the other boys tried. "You do know that I don't like any of them, right?" Steve raised his brow while saying this, as it should be an obvious statement.

"No, I know you don't like Eddie. You couldn't give a devil's balls about any of the other ones. Please, just this once for me! You won't even have to see anyone! You're just dropping me off and hopefully, picking me up!" Steve's stomach did a flip at the name and he gave himself an internal lash for it. "I don't know dude. Are you sure spending all this time with them is good for you? I mean, you have two weeks of spring break! Shouldn't you be, I don't know, talking to Suzie or, god I don't know." Steve was bewildered at how little he could give to Dustin for ideas, but at the end of the day, Henderson liked what Henderson liked.

"Good for m-. Steve come on! It's one time! You know what? I'll prove it to you!" Dustin turned on his heel and marched out of the building with ferocity. Did he miss something? What the hell was he getting proved to him?

"Why do you hate the guy so much anyways? It's not like he's ever done anything bad to you." Steve jumped at the sound of his best friend's voice, forgetting for a moment that she was there. She was leaned up against the counter, arms crossed and a singular eyebrow raised. Steve sighed, continuing his task of stocking the candy displays back up. "It's not that I hate him Rob, I just know him better than you guys think I do. Okay?" A memory flashed through his head and a chill ran down his back, his hand gripping the bag of candy in his hand and his eyes squeezing shut.

"Oh yeah, I'm sure you guys spent plenty of time together through high school! You must've been best buddies!" He could here the fake smile and sarcasm dripping through her words. He rolled his eyes, "Maybe we did, it doesn't matter Rob." He had stopped what he was doing, it was hard to focus with the image of a smiling, young curly haired boy he once knew. "What did you guys like, do drugs together or something." She was serious now, actually interested in the thought of the two boys even being near each other. "What? No Robin, just drop it." A small chuckle came out at the suggestion, trying to shake away how uncomfortable the conversation was actually making him.

"What? Did you do like, worse stuff?" His best friend looked around the bare room and whispered the last part, quiet enough to where only he could here, but stupid enough because there was no one in the damn place. Steve turned around to make cold eye contact with his best friend, "Robin, I'm serious, drop it. Now." She tensed up, a look of worry crossing her face. "Okay, okay jesus. I'm sorry." She turned back to the stack of vhs, "if it's that bad you can't even tell me then I won't press you."

Steve knew he hurt her feelings, but he had never told anyone about what happened, and it would be kind of hard to start now. "Hey you know you're my best friend, right? If it was important, I'd tell you. All that's important is that I don't ever have to talk to, or see Eddie again." She turned to him and gave him a small smile, one of understanding, but a hint of disappointment.

Steve took a long breath and rubbed his hands over his face.

The bell on the door rang, but Steve ignored it. He was already stressed out enough as it was. "Steve!" He could hear two pairs of footsteps walking up the counter, one being the short curly haired boy he'd seen maybe an hour ago. "Hey Henders-" Steve lost all track of thought in a matter of seconds, his breath was stuck in his throat along with any words he could've possibly thought might help in the situation. His face burned red and his hands started to shake. There was a familiar , now taller, curly haired boy standing behind Dustin. A way to familiar, curly haired boy.

"Hey, Steve."

Fireworks.

Butterflies.

Or maybe Steve just really needed to throw up.