𝖕𝖆𝖗𝖆𝖓𝖔𝖗𝖒𝖆𝖑 || 𝘀. 𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘁𝗼𝗻

S4E2: Vecna's Curse

Slow days will be the death of me. It's the same old same old—customers come and go. Girls look for romance movies and guys search for action.

Robin places some movies on the shelves while recalling how her night went at the basketball game. "And then Vickie laughed. And it wasn't like a cheap, fake laugh either. It was like... It was a real, genuine laugh."

"Of course she laughed, Robin," Steve says. "It's my Muppet joke. It's hilarious."

Robin follows Steve around the room, rambling. "My point is that Vickie laughed and everything was just like... It was perfect."

"But?" I ask from the counter, counting the money in the cash register.

She quits following Steve around and instead comes over to me. "But I'm having this problem where it's like, I should stop talking. I have said everything I need to say. But then I guess I get nervous, and the words keep spilling out, and it's like my... my brain is moving faster than my mouth, or rather my... my mouth is moving faster than my brain. I'm digging this hole for myself, and I want to stop digging, I'm trying to stop, but I can't. And I'm doing it right now, aren't I?" She dramatically lies across the counter, looking up at me with sad eyes.

"Yes, Robin, you are."

She sighs and leans against the wall, staring straight ahead. "I'm hopeless."

Steve and I lean against the wall on either side of her.

"You're not hopeless because I'm not friends with hopeless people," I say. "I am only friends with the coolest of the cool, which is what you are."

"But you're dating this dingus," she jabs her thumb at Steve.

"Thanks for that, Robin," he says sarcastically.

I ignore him. "Look, you have cracked a Russian code when you didn't even speak the language, you are so freaking smart and funny, you are so gorgeous, I mean come on!" I grab her by the shoulders and shake her. "Robin Buckley, you would make any girl the luckiest in the world if she even had a shot with you. So quit moping because you are incredible."

She sighs. "Thanks. It's just—I know exactly what I want, and I've found the girl of my dreams, but I can't get the courage to ask her out." Her eyes land on something at the other side of the room and she gasps, running over there. "Ooh, I think I found our morning movie." She picks up the box and holds it where we can see it. "Doctor Zhivago."

"Ugh, you know I don't do double VHS," Steve complains.

"But it's about doomed love."

"Fine," I say, grabbing a shopping cart and following her.

"Also, Julie Christie is b-b-bonkers hot in this," she gushes. "Like, seriously, the most beautiful creature I have seen in my life." She picks up the remote and turns the TV on. The news starts playing.

"We're in the Forest Hills trailer park in east Roane County," the news lady says. "We don't have a lot of details now, but we can confirm that the body of a Hawkins High student was discovered early this morning. Police have not released the name..."

"Holy shit. That's where Max lives." I lunge for the phone and press the buttons as quickly as I can, dialing the Mayfields' number.

"...although we are told they're currently
in the process of notifying the family."

No one answers.

I place the phone back on the hook slowly. Steve comes closer to me and softly rubs circles on my back. I have a bad feeling about all of this.