Summary: Steve Harrington was the coolest guy at school and now he’s working with you at the rental store. Very complicated story about complicated feelings.
Pairing: Steve Harrington x Reader
Warning: language, very slow burn
A/N: I’m pretty sure I’ll write smut later.
On the second month of summer you decided you need a job. You really wanted to buy a car and your parents said you’re old enough to earn money by yourself. By the way, most of your friends had already worked somewhere. Fortunately, your uncle had some connections with the film rental store manager so you got a job without any troubles. Also, you were glad you didn’t have an interview.
You were standing in front of an old building with the sign ‘Family video’, waiting for a miracle. There were a couple of cars in the parking lot with a fat red cat lying on the top of the black one and an old lady smoking near the entrance. It didn’t look like a place for your dream job but you had no choice. You walked into the shop and came to the girl in a uniform standing near a movie stand.
“Hey. Umm.. I’m Y/N. It’s my first day and your boss told me you can show me everything here” It was awkward. The blue-eyed girl looked at you for a second and then shook your hand.
“Right, I’m Robin. Come with me I’ll give you your form. It’s just a blue t-shirt, actually”
She led you to a small storage room. There were a tiny yellow table, two chairs, shelves with shirts and old tapes and four lockers. Robin stood up on a chair, took a t-shirt and threw it to you.
“You can change here. We usually have lunch in this room while having a break. You’ll have two or three breaks during the day. Depends on how many hours you work. This is the key from your locker” Robin handed you a key from the small box on a shelf. “It’s number 3, leave your clothes in it. I need to get back to work. Find me when you’re done here”
You took your shirt off putting on the blue one but turned out it was too small for you. You looked at the size and yeah it was ‘S’. Fuck. Okay, you just took it off and stood up on the chair looking for the right size on a shelf.
“L, XL, L, XXL...” You murmured while looking through the stacks of t-shirts.
“Nice view” There was a male voice behind you, you shivered. You turned around quickly then you understood you were standing without shirt just in your bra and turned again screaming.
“GET OUT” You closed your eyes because of shame. Your cheeks were burning red and you screamed again. “OUT!”
“Jeeesus. Okay, okay, fine. I closed my eyes. Let me just put my bag over here and I’ll leave”
You turned your head and saw Steve Harrington trying to put his bag on the table with closed eyes. No, Lord, why him? Out of all the people in the town...why Harrington? It’s not like you hated him. You just knew he’s an asshole. He annoyed you since the beginning of your high school days. He bullied Jonathan and sometimes other “weirdos”. Every girl had a crush on him except you of course. Mr. Perfect, Mr. Cool, the King...Just a douchebag.
When you woke up from your thoughts he was already gone. And you were out of time so you decided to wear ‘L’ size and get back to Robin. You actually liked wearing oversize shirts. You felt more...confident? Steve smiled at you from the counter as you walked passed him. He does work here. You found blu-eyed girl near the thriller movie stand and she told you about you work hours and shifts.
“Today you are working with me and the dingus” she told you while placing a pack of new films on a shelf.
“Dingus? You mean Steve?”
“Yeah, but i call him ‘dingus’” she smiled with a corner of her mouth and glanced at him. “I know he might look cool and mean and all that but he’s not”
“I know he’s not cool” it came out a bit harsh and you just looked away from Robin. You felt tensed today.
“He’s not that bad” she said after a minute. You looked at Steve flirting with a girl while brushing his hair with a hand. The girl smiled... and she definitely gave him her number. “Your task for today is just to sort all the movies from the boxes. If you have any questions you can ask me”
You picked up a big box full of horrors, romcoms, thrillers and... God it’s heavy. Right, so you were taking some films from the box and putting them on the right shelves. It was...well, boring but you noted some films you wanted to watch. ‘Jawls’, ‘Sixteen candles’ maybe. Robin and Steve were talking and laughing, they seemed like good friends. You were a little bit jealous. You wished you had some real friends. The one you could watch films with. You picked the last tape from the first box and tried to put it on the top shelf but you weren’t tall enough. You couldn’t reach it.
“Hey, need some help?” Steve’s voice behind you. Again. He was leaning on the wall with crossed hands and the smile you couldn’t stand.
“No” you didn’t even look at him, just kept trying and jumping as high as you can. A minute later he just grabbed the movie from your hand and placed it by himself. “I don’t need your help, Harrington”
“No, Steve, you don’t get it. I don’t need your help. I don’t wanna talk to you or interact with you in any possible way. I don’t like you. I know you enough and I don’t want to get to know you better. So, please, let’s pretend we don’t exist in each other’s universes. There’s no Steve Harrington in mine and no Y/N Y/L/N in yours, okay?” You breathed out as you looked at his concerned face and a sudden compassion hit you with a wave.
“Um.. okay. In case of emergency call Robin. I’ll be... you know.. in my universe” He rubbed his back awkwardly and walked away.
You`d finished the last three boxes walking down the hall with a chair in your hand. Robin said you can take a break after you`ve done with the assignment. You were tired and hungry and felt like shit. It`s probably because of Steve. Even though you have your reasons to push him away he wouldn`t known them. He obviously didn`t remember you from the high school. Why would he? Because you`d been standing close to her when they broke up? Because when she`d slapped him and left you were the one who stayed to pick her bag from the ground? And you`d seen him smiling as his gaze was fixed on her moving silhouette. You were mad at him because of the girl in the past. She was a bitch too though. Those memories surfaced in your mind and you felt goose bumps. Past is in the past you reminded yourself. He should just stay away from you.
You carried the chair back to the storage room, grabbed a can of coke and a sandwich from your bag and sat at the table. Robin came in and looked at you with a face your mom gives you when you leave too many mugs in your room. Yeah, and now you have to have this conversation. You put your food away and prepared yourself.
“We need to talk” Of course we do. “It`s about Steve” What a surprise.
“There`s nothing wrong him. I know you don`t like him. I`m sure he did something bad to you but he changed. And he is my best friend so.. I care about him” Your eyes went down when she sat in front of you. “Listen, I like you here. For a whole month it was just me, dingus and Kieth. And I`ve started having suicidal thoughts. I want you to stay but you have to keep it cool. You either talk to him about what happened or you just forget about it”
“Okay. I…uh..I won`t hurt his feelings again?” She chuckled. “It`s just-
“ROBIN! There`s a mad customer and I need you” Steve flew into the room with a check in his hand. “Remember that old lady from yesterday who said she really enjoyed the turtles documentary? She`s actually watched a porn”
“Yeah, and now there`s a guy screaming about turtles out there”
“What the fuck?! Okay, come on, dingus. We need to fix it” she handed you a piece of paper. “This is your shift schedule with my number. I think you can go home now. AND we haven`t finished yet. So-
“CAll me tonight and we will talk about it. SEE YA!”
They ran away slamming the door. You packed your stuff, changed your clothes and walked out. It was fresh outside. Summer wind in your hair and you shivered. Maybe you should talk to someone about that accident.
