𝐅𝐋𝐎𝐖𝐄𝐑𝐒 • Steve Harrington

Chapter 12

It was 6:30pm and Steve was pulling up outside of Dustin's house the very same way they agreed on. The second the engine quietened to a softer stationary rumble, Dustin slipped out the front door in same clothes from earlier: his usual baseball cap, an indigo sweatshirt with a dinosaur on it and some khaki pants that ruffled just above his sneakers.

Steve was the same, wearing the same striped shirt and jeans from earlier, only his charcoal gilet replaced the apron. He drummed his fingers against the steering wheel as he waited for the curly-haired boy to get in the car.

But Steve became puzzled when the kid opened the backseat door instead of the passenger one, slipping inside.

"What are you doing?"

Dustin froze. "Sitting in the car."

"You're sitting in the backseat like I'm your chauffeur."

"Because flower shop Julie's coming." Dustin shut the door.

"Whatever." Steve pulled out onto the road. "Now I'm telling you upfront that she lives further away from the theatre, but I picked you up first to establish some ground rules one on one."

Dustin's eyebrows knit. "Ground rules?"

"Yep."

"Ground rules surrounding flower shop Julie?"

"Precisely, and ground rule number one: no calling her flower shop Julie," Steve looked at him through the rearview mirror as he drove. "It makes it seem like I talk about her or something."

"But it makes perfect sense, I met her in a flower shop. And even if it did seem like you talk about her, it wouldn't matter because it's the truth."

"A truth she doesn't need to be let in on. Which leads me to ground rule number two: what I say to you about flower shop Julie stays between us."

"You just called her flower shop Julie, therefore breaking your own ground rule in record time."

"I know I just broke my own ground rule, thank you." He didn't sound thankful.

"This is ridiculous, Steve. Just admit it."

Steve's face contorts. "Admit what?"

"You like her. You feel the electricity."

"Don't be an idiot, Henderson," Steve postured himself a little. "I don't like Julie. I couldn't."

"Why not?"

"Because she's Julie."

Dustin was sure Steve was just grasping at straws. "And Julie's hot and she's kind—"

"Kind?" Steve exclaims. "She's basically the meanest person I know."

"She agreed to go to the movies with a person she doesn't even know because you wouldn't."

"Yeah. To spite me."

"Or because she's a decent human being capable of doing nice things for other people."

"And you're saying I'm not?"

"No, that's not what I'm saying at all," Dustin shuts down the offence Steve took. "You do nice things for me all the time. You saved my life by being a badass, but she cared about me without even knowing me. For no reason at all."

Steve glimpsed at Dustin in the rearview mirror. The small kid was sitting normally, but he spoke sternly and earnestly.

"You need a person like that."

The more Steve thought about what he was saying, he knew there was no fighting that there was a lot of truth to it all. In spite of Julie's teasing and her sadism, she had a good heart. She wanted the best for him most of the time, she just had a unique way of showing it.