FAMILIAR ↳ STEVE HARRINGTON

forty.

"Oh come on! Just come in and watch the movie with us." Lucas whined as he looked at the eldest Wheeler. She shook her head, holding up her keys and giving him a nonsense look.

"I'm just gonna sit in the car. I can't go in there..."

"She's mad at Steve."  Max finished the girls sentence, knowing how often she got mad at Steve.

"Again?" Mike asked, his mouth dropping open at how often her and Steve fought when they weren't even together.

"Shut up Mike." Christine said, pushing him by the head towards the mall.

"Come on Christine! Who's gonna throw the popcorn bucket when someone gets mad at us?" Lucas said, all of the kids laughing as Christines face got red. They were referencing a couple weeks prior when the kids were laughing a little too loud at a movie, causing an irritating woman to throw a handful of popcorn at them. Christine had turned to Steve, telling him he should probably say something, the boy telling her he would not. In a shocking turn of events Christine ripped the almost entirely full bucket of popcorn from Steve's hands, giving him a glare and throwing it at the woman and causing a great big movie theater scene.

"Alright fine." She said, hoping they would move on if she agreed. It wasn't her proudest moment, but the kids had thought it was pretty  awesome and that was enough.  They all cheered, the small group walking inside the mall and heading towards the dreaded Scoops Ahoy, the last place that Christine wanted to be at considering she figured Steve was pretty mad at her for her flipping out earlier.

They filed in, Robin being the one at the front counter, her eyes latching onto  Mike as he approached her.  Mike went straight for the bell, ringing it repeatedly as Robin spoke.

"Hey Dingus, your children are here." She announced,  the window behind her promptly opening as she said it.  Steve looked at them all in exasperation, his eyes attaching to Mike as he noticed Christine in the back of the bunch.

"Again? Seriously?" Mike rang the bell again, Steve rolling his eyes and then heading to the side door. He opened it, ushering the group through and towards the back entrance to the movies. Just as Christine started to walk by he grabbed her by the forearm, shaking his head at her.

"I swear if anyone  hears about this—"

"We're dead." All the kids replied, none of them realizing Christine was being held back. She felt her nerves pinch in her stomach, scared of having to apologize to Steve. He shook his head at the kids, putting his hand on his hip before looking over at her. He gestured with his head for her to come back to the shop, the girl begrudgingly walking past him, Steve pushing her through with a hand on the small of her back as he closed the door behind them.

She stood in the back, her arms crossed over her chest as he gave her a finger, instructing her to wait.  After about a minute later he pushed back through the door into the break room, an ice cream cone in his hand as he looked at her.

"What's that?"

"It's an 'I'm sorry' flavored ice cream for Christine, who I am sorry for not listening to." Steve said, holding the ice cream cone out to the girl. She looked at it for a second, looking between the cone and Steve's notorious apology face that she was seeing so often. Finally she cracked a smile, grabbing the ice cream from his hand and immediately licking it.

"Cookies and Cream. Your favorite." Steve said, pulling the chair out across from her and  sitting down.

"God you're such a dork." She said, shaking her head with a small smile as she held the ice cream cone out for him. He looked down at it, furrowing his eyebrows before looking back up at her. "It's your favorite too. Isn't it 'I'm sorry' flavored? I'm sorry for being such a bitch."

Steve hadn't expected her to apologize, his eyes narrowing as he looked between her and the cone again. He leaned forwards, taking a lick of the ice cream and making the corner of her lip tip up as he accepted her apology.

"It's damn good." He said, pushing his chair out and standing from it.  She watched him with furrowed eyebrows,  taking another lick of the ice cream cone and then speaking.

"What is? The ice cream?"

"No. Well yeah but also the sweet satisfaction of you admitting that you have done something wrong and then listening to you apologize for it."  She scoffed at his words, Steve giving her an almost giddy smile as he leaned on the back of the chair with his hands. Christine traced her eyes from his hands to his shoulders, Steve noticing and seeming to smile a tiny bit more.  He leaned forwards, resting his forearms on the chair and waiting for Christine to say something.

"Alright yay! You two made up...again. Now can you please get out here and help me Steve." Robin said, pulling the window open to reveal a ridiculously long line. Steve sighed,  breaking the eye contact and straightening up, looking toward the window where Robin was looking at him expectantly.  "Steve!"

"Alright alright! I'm coming. I'm- you don't leave. I'm catching a ride back with you tonight."  Steve said, backing away from her and through the door. Christine shook her head as she sat there, watching the two of them work and just looking around the break room.

Christine thought about maybe telling Steve about her mom for a second, thinking maybe it  would relieve some of the tension between the two. Steve knew something was up,  but he wasn't one to pry when it came to big stuff, and by the way her whole demeanor had changed he could tell it was  something serious. She decided on working on not letting things frustrate her as easily instead of  telling him, in fear of bringing up her dad and then dragging up the entire Colorado trip in its entirety. If there was one thing that was off limits to talk about, it was the trip to Colorado.

Christine stopped herself from thinking about it, the lights in the mall shutting off and making her furrow her eyebrows. She stood from the chair,  peeking through the window and looking at Robin who she could barely see in the dim light, people whispering in confusion as they wondered what was going on. Steve walked over to the light switch, flipping the switch over and over again, the two girls looking at him like he was an idiot.

"That isn't gonna work dingus."  Robin said, giving him a tired look as he flipped the switch again.

"Oh really?" He said, grabbing the switch and flipping it rapidly while staring the girl down. Christine chuckled the tiniest bit, this just motivating him more, making him want to keep going. It was about 30 seconds later when the light came back on, Steve giving Robin a triumphant look before stepping away from the light switch.

"Let there be light."