vegas | robin buckley

3. new job

***

"There's no way, Dustin."

"I'm swear to you, Jackie!"

"I would've believed you too!"

"It's true, I'm telling you!"

"There's absolutely no way your so-called girlfriend is hotter than Phoebe Cates," Jackie finalizes, as the siblings walk into Scoops Ahoy side by side.

It's the day after Dustin came home from his stupid nerd camp (that Jackie had been a counselor at a few weeks prior), and he just had to see Steve at his new job, and Jackie was on her way over anyway, so the two took the opportunity to catch each other up on everything that had happened-

-In Dustin's case: blatantly lie about his love life.

"Cross my heart and hope to die," Dustin swears, but Jackie just shakes her head at his antics.

"I'd end up with the actual Phoebe Cates before you meet a girl that hot and that smart."

"Hi," Robin smiles at Jackie as her and Dustin walk up to the counter. "Hi," she lowers her gaze to look Dustin up and down.

"Hi," Dustin grins back as Jackie smiles on acknowledgment. "I'm Dustin."

"I'm. . . Robin," her and Jackie stare amused.

"Is, uh, is he here?"

"Is. . . who here?"

Jackie's about to intervene to provide some context before the back door slams open, Steve's head peeking excitedly out.

"Henderson!"

The two laugh and point weirdly at each other as they run up to greet each other, and Jackie slips behind the counter, next to Robin, as to not interrupt their moment.

"They like this often?" Robin mumbles to Jackie as the girls now watch them do some handshake out of nowhere.

"Yeah, you'll get used to it," Jackie reminisces on the times she spent in the backseat of Steve's car last year while Dustin rode shotgun for some reason.

They finish their handshake with more dramatics before Robin speaks up again.

"How many children are you friends with?"

Jackie would laugh if the insult didn't apply to her in a way too and Steve just glares.

"Get out from behind the counter," he pulls Jackie by the arm around before grabbing a piece of paper from atop the tabletop. "Working class only," he shoves the job application form into her hands.

"Y'know, this would look great on your college apps," Dustin takes the paper from Jackie, about to lead her to a booth before turning back again. "And one banana split, if you don't mind," he smiles at Steve who looks flabbergasted before taking the request and moving to make Dustin's sundae.

Dustin and Jackie sit at the booth Jackie has basically claimed as her own by this point, and reads over the paper in his hands.

Dustin's been trying to get Jackie to work somewhere in the mall ever since the opening of the shopping center was announced on the news.

He's as supportive as the next person when comes to Jackie's extravagant dreams that involve leaving Hawkins and never looking back, but Jackie knows his desire to get her a job comes mostly from the fact that he thinks if she forms enough connections in Hawkins, she won't hate it as much as she does currently.

It's not like Jackie wants to leave her family and the few friends she does have as soon as possible, she just can't stand the thought of a whole other world being out there that she won't even be able to cover half of in her lifetime.